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...

A four week voyage across the North Atlantic has uncovered a pollutant so small that standard nets could never snag it. Researchers found that plastic particles under one micrometer, known as nanoplastics, saturate ocean water from the Azores to Europe.



When the team scaled their measurements up, they calculated roughly <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09218-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">twenty seven million tons</a> of these specks floating in the top 650 feet of the North Atlantic, rivaling every estimate of larger debris for the entire world <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-plastic-crisis-goes-way-deeper-than-we-thought/">ocean</a>.



This estimate comes from geochemist Helge Niemann of the <a href="https://www.nioz.nl/en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research</a> and <a href="https://www.uu.nl/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Utrecht University</a>, who worked with graduate student Sophie ten Hietbrink aboard the research vessel RV Pelagia.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-detecting-invisible-plastic-particles">Detecting invisible plastic particles</h2>



Ten Hietbrink drew two‑liter samples at twelve stations, collecting <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/world-environment-day-2025-plastic-pollution-is-choking-our-planet/">water</a> from the surface, 3,300 feet, and near the seabed. She passed each sample through filters finer than a red blood cell.



Back in the Utrecht lab, the residue was baked inside a proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer, a device that fingerprints polymers by the gases they release. “By drying and heating the remaining material, we were able to measure the characteristic molecules of different types of plastics,” noted Ten Hietbrink.



The approach allowed the crew to log <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/polyethylene-terephthalate" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">polyethylene terephthalate</a>, polystyrene, and polyvinyl chloride even at 15,000‑foot depths. Every vial, no matter its origin, contained plastic.



Because the mass spectrometer ignores <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ai-algorithms-can-increase-ocean-plastic-cleanup-efficiency/">pieces</a> above one micrometer, the expedition focused exclusively on bits far smaller than conventional <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/microplastics.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">microplastic</a>, the fragments between one micrometer and five millimeters often photographed on beaches.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-shocking-amount-of-ocean-plastic">Shocking amount of ocean plastic</h2>



When the numbers from each station were extended across latitudes eight to fifty-five degrees north, the tally reached masses never before assigned to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/coca-cola-may-dump-1-3b-pounds-plastic-into-oceans-by-2030/">plastic</a> pollution. The final figure equals the combined cargo of almost 2,000 container ships.



Niemann described the result as a shocking amount and explained that it finally answers the puzzle of missing plastic that production statistics could not account for.



“There is more plastic in the form of nanoparticles floating in this part of the ocean than there is in larger particles floating in the Atlantic or even all the world's oceans,” said Niemann.



The data also reshape the popular image of ocean garbage patches. Nets that trap bottle caps and food wrappers sample only a thin veneer; the bulk of the load is invisible and dispersed.



Within the <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/gyre.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">North Atlantic subtropical gyre</a>, currents corral microplastics at the surface, yet the researchers found the highest nanoplastic concentrations closer to the European shelf, hinting at strong land-based sources.



The nanoplastic concentration dropped by roughly one half at 3,300 feet, and fell to about a third of surface levels near the seabed - yet plastic still appeared at every depth.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-nanoplastics-harm-animals-and-humans">Nanoplastics harm animals and humans</h2>



Laboratory and clinical <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412022001258" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">studies</a> show that particles smaller than a micrometer can slip past the intestinal lining and enter the bloodstream, where they appear in human blood samples.



Once circulating, they can also cross the <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35302003/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blood‑brain barrier</a>, ferrying other contaminants into nervous tissue - as demonstrated in mice.



Marine life confronts the same risk. Bacteria may mistake nanoplastics for food, zooplankton ingest them, and the particles ascend the food web to fish and seabirds.



A recent <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30861380/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">meta‑analysis</a> concludes that smaller pieces accumulate more readily than larger debris and may trigger oxidative stress in cells.



Field experiments in the Mediterranean have linked nanoplastic exposure to reduced filtration rates in farmed <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37379876/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">filter feeder mussels</a>, a sector worth more than $4 billion to coastal economies.



Economic losses could rise if shellfish accumulate particles that lower growth or market appeal, adding a financial dimension to what was once viewed solely as an environmental issue.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-where-the-fragments-come-from">Where the fragments come from</h2>



Sunlight bleaches and cracks larger items at the surface, eventually grinding them into nanoscale dust. River mouths add steady plumes of city trash each day.



The air itself delivers particles. Atmosphere monitors detect plastic aerosols over both continents and oceans, which settle by rainfall or dry deposition.



Once in seawater, nanoplastics no longer obey buoyancy rules. Their motion is governed by <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11905425/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Brownian motion</a>, letting them drift vertically and reach depths where light never penetrates.



Sediment cores from the deep <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10919090/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">North Pacific</a> and equatorial trenches already hold threads of polyester and shards of polyvinyl chloride, proving that tiny plastics sink or hitchhike on marine snow to the seabed.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-types-of-ocean-plastic-still-unclear">Types of ocean plastic still unclear</h2>



Curiously, the expedition detected no nanoparticles of polyethylene or polypropylene, the two polymers that dominate surface trash. Niemann suspects chemical weathering may hide their fingerprints, or the fragments may degrade faster than they form.



Future cruises will test other oceans and refine techniques to reveal modified polymers, because the Atlantic is unlikely to be unique.



Researchers also need time‑series records to track whether nanoplastic levels continue climbing or have reached a plateau.



Equally urgent is understanding how mixtures of plastic and natural organic matter interact, potentially altering toxicity.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-choosing-prevention-over-cleanup">Choosing prevention over cleanup</h2>



Niemann stresses that the particles already adrift are beyond recovery; their size makes skimming devices useless. The logical path is to curb new emissions.



Several countries now restrict the use of microbeads in cosmetics and plan to phase out certain single‑use items, yet production of virgin plastic keeps rising faster than recycling capacity.



Standardized monitoring that includes nanoscale particles would give policymakers a clearer target and let them judge whether interventions are working.



Citizen science beach cleanups, while unable to net nanoparticles, still remove items that would otherwise weather into new fragments, providing a frontline defense against future invisible pollution.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09218-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature</a>.



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Nanoplastic particles have infiltrated the ocean's food web at the most important levels

A four week voyage across the North Atlantic has uncovered...

Long before the first mammals walked the Earth, the oceans were home to strange, powerful fish. Some of these ancient fish eventually crawled onto land and kicked off a new chapter in evolution. 



Now, thanks to new fossil research, we’re learning even more about how these early animals lived - and ate.



In a new study led by scientists from <a href="https://www.flinders.edu.au/">Flinders University</a>, researchers examined jawbones from 380-million-year-old lungfish found in Western Australia's remote Gogo fossil field. 



The findings shed light on the evolution of feeding strategies in fish that are closely related to all land-dwelling <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/over-half-of-the-worlds-vertebrates-reside-in-the-tropics/">vertebrates</a>, including us.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-biting-power-of-ancient-fish">Biting power of ancient fish</h2>



The researchers used 3D finite element modeling (FEM) - a tool more commonly seen in engineering. They digitally tested how different fossilized jaws handled biting stress. 



By running simulations on fish jawbones from multiple species, the team revealed surprising variation in shape, strength, and eating behavior.



“Lungfish are ‘sister taxa’ to the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/we-know-far-less-about-four-footed-animals-than-expected/">tetrapods</a> - or all four-limbed animals with a backbone, including humans - which means they are our closest ‘fishy’ relatives,” noted Dr. Alice Clement.



“They have an extensive fossil history stretching back over 400 million years and still with living representatives today and their phylogenetic proximity to tetrapods giving insight into our long-distant ancestors who first made the move from water to land.”



That close relationship makes lungfish fossils especially valuable. The Gogo Formation in northern Western Australia is a goldmine of such specimens. With 11 known species, it holds the most diverse group of lungfish ever discovered from one place or time.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fish-bite-force-and-eating-style">Fish bite force and eating style</h2>



Until now, scientists knew these fish had different jaw shapes. What they didn’t know was how those jaws worked. The new models changed that.



“We’re slowly teasing apart the details of how the bodies and lifestyles of these animals changed, as they moved from being fish that lived in water, to becoming tetrapods that moved about on land,” said Dr. Clement.



By scanning seven fossil species and applying FEM to five of them, the team was able to measure how the jawbones responded to stress during simulated bites.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fossil-bites-defy-expectations">Fossil bites defy expectations</h2>



The dataset is the most detailed look yet at biting performance in any <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fossilized-fish-lived-15-million-years-ago-still-has-preserved-food-in-stomach-ferruaspis-brocksi/">fossil fish</a>. It provides biomechanical evidence for diverse feeding adaptations and niche partitioning within Gogo lungfishes, noted Dr. Olga Panagiotopoulou, a functional anatomist at Touro University California.



Some of the findings contradicted assumptions. Jaws that looked sturdy on the outside didn’t always perform well in bite-force simulations. And some that looked more delicate turned out to be much stronger than expected.



“The results were somewhat surprising, with some ‘robust’-looking lower jaws appearing to not be all that well suited to biting stress, and some of the more gracile or slender jaws appeared to be able to withstand stress and strain very well,” said Professor John Long of Flinders University.



“This diversity of biomechanical function seen in the Gogo lungfishes suggest that there was niche partitioning and trophic differentiation among lungfishes, possibly accounting for their incredibly high species diversity at this site.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-when-fish-reinvented-eating">When fish reinvented eating</h2>



The Devonian period, often called the “<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/early-jawless-fish-rhinopteraspis-dunensis-filter-feeders/">Age of Fishes</a>,” was ruled by placoderms and other ancient species for about 60 million years. Many of their fossils were found decades ago, but new tools like FEM are finally revealing how these animals actually lived.



Joshua Bland, a researcher at the Flinders Palaeontology Lab, is the study's lead author. He noted that the Gogo lungfish of the Late Devonian reefs were truly unique, with species possessing a host of different behaviors and abilities.



“To capture parts of that story, hidden in the bone, was extremely rewarding. It felt like we lifted the veil on some real functions behind the form. It was impressive to see the more complex morphology perform better in our tests," said Bland. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-future-science-from-old-bones">Future science from old bones</h2>



All 3D models from the study are now available on Morphosource, allowing other researchers to explore and expand on this work.



By combining old fossils with new technology, the team has brought us one step closer to understanding the creatures that helped shape life on land. 



The researchers have also shown that even after 380 million years, ancient bones can still have something new to say.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(25)01231-3?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS2589004225012313%3Fshowall%3Dtrue">iScience</a>.



Image Credit: John Long, Flinders University



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Ancient fish bones reveal clues about the evolution of eating

Long before the first mammals walked the Earth, the oceans...

Phrases like “feeling blue” or “seeing red” show up in everyday speech - and most people instantly know they mean feeling sad or angry. But how do we pick up those meanings? Do we learn them through seeing color in the world, or just by hearing how people use them?



A new study from the <a href="https://www.usc.edu/">University of Southern California</a> and <a href="https://deepmind.google/">Google DeepMind</a> put that question to the test - comparing color-seeing adults, colorblind adults, professional painters, and ChatGPT to see what really shapes our understanding of colorful language: vision or vocabulary.



Lisa Aziz‑Zadeh, a cognitive neuroscientist at <a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/bci/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">USC’s Dornsife Brain and Creativity Institute</a>, headed the project with help from colleagues at Stanford, UC San Diego, Université de Montréal, and other centers. 



“<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ai-is-disrupting-jobs-but-countries-are-learning-to-adapt/">ChatGPT</a> uses an enormous amount of linguistic data to calculate probabilities and generate very human‑like responses,” said Aziz‑Zadeh. She wanted to know whether that statistical talent could ever replace the firsthand way people learn color through sight and touch.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-we-read-color-metaphors">How we read color metaphors</h2>



For the study, volunteers answered online surveys that asked them to match abstract nouns such as physics or friendship with a hue from a digital palette. 



They also judged familiar metaphors like being "on red alert" and unfamiliar ones that called a celebration a very pink party.



Color‑seeing and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/hormone-see-color/">colorblind</a> adults gave almost identical answers, hinting that lifetime language exposure can stand in for missing retinal data. Painters, however, nailed the trickier metaphors more often, suggesting that daily, hands‑on work with pigments sharpens conceptual color maps.



ChatGPT produced steady associations too, but it stumbled on curveballs such as describing a burgundy meeting or reversing green to its opposite. When pressed to explain choices, the model leaned on culture.



“Pink is often associated with happiness, love, and kindness, which suggest that the party was filled with positive emotions and good vibes,” said ChatGPT.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-painters-did-better">Painters did better</h2>



Artists likely won because practice binds linguistic and sensorimotor knowledge; long hours mixing alizarin and ultramarine create a rich mental index of hue, lightness, and mood. 



Earlier <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2041669520902484" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">work</a> shows that emotional links to colors track both universal patterns and cultural twists.



In the new data, painters spotted fresh metaphors 14 percent more often than non‑painters, a gap the authors tie to the depth of tactile memory. 



That finding echoes classroom studies where drawing or sculpting helps students retain technical terms better than reading alone.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-experience-beat-ai">Experience beat AI </h2>



Barsalou’s <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17705682/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">grounded‑cognition model</a> argues that every concept the mind stores reactivates sensory traces of how it was acquired. The USC results fit that idea: direct pigment play trumped pure sentence statistics when novelty appeared.



Large language models rely on pattern frequency, not felt experience; their success on common idioms shows how much culture leaves in text. Their failure on burgundy and inverted green hints at what culture omits, especially edges of meaning that seldom enter print.



The gap matters for safety because an AI assistant that misreads a color‑coded warning label could steer users toward hazards. 



Adding camera input or haptic feedback - as multimodal systems like <a href="https://milvus.io/ai-quick-reference/what-are-the-alternatives-to-clip-for-multimodal-embeddings">CLIP</a> already attempt - might help close that gap.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-color-without-sight-possible">Color without sight possible</h2>



One surprise was that adults born without red‑green vision still matched seething anger with red because language, not sight, planted the idea. 



The outcome backs earlier surveys showing nearly universal links between red and dominance, or blue and calm, regardless of pigment perception.



Still, colorblind comprehension is not proof that vision is irrelevant. Participants reported noticing social cues such as traffic lights and lipstick shades through brightness and context, offering partial visual grounding even when hue channels were muted.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-grounding-ai-in-senses">Grounding AI in senses</h2>



Researchers already experiment with models that link pixels to words, allowing systems to point at a crimson apple or sketch a turquoise <a href="https://www.earth.com/image/young-stars-illuminate-a-reflection-nebula-in-taurus/">nebula.</a> Such pairing trains networks to ground vocabulary in wavelengths and textures, inching closer to the way toddlers learn.



Yet there is a cost. Multimodal models demand larger datasets and raise privacy concerns once cameras move from lab benches into public spaces.



Software designers will need governance frameworks that spell out who owns the visual streams, how long they persist, and what biases lurk in the collected scenes. 



Without such guardrails, better color sense could come at the price of social trust.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ai-might-improve-with-color-metaphors">AI might improve with color metaphors</h2>



“There’s still a difference between mimicking semantic patterns and the spectrum of human capacity for drawing upon embodied, hands‑on experiences in our reasoning,” said Aziz‑Zadeh. She believes fusing text with images, audio, or even olfactory streams will be key.&nbsp;



Technically, that means new training pipelines where robots taste paint or wear camera‑equipped gloves. 



Ethically, it means designing machines that know when they do not know, especially in domains like medicine, food safety, and aviation, where color signals life or death.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-color-metaphors-for-daily-learning">Color metaphors for daily learning</h2>



For readers, the study offers a nudge to engage more senses when <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/variable-learning-the-key-to-more-effective-study-habits/">learning</a>. Writing with colored pens, mapping notes with sticky dots, or simply paying attention to sky hues can enrich both vocabulary and recall.



Meanwhile, if an AI chatbot claims your angry text is tinged chartreuse, treat the judgment lightly. Until models gain something like retinas, their color sense will remain an eloquent but secondhand story.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cogs.70083" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cognitive Science</a>.



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AI struggles with color metaphors that humans easily understand

Phrases like “feeling blue” or “seeing red” show up in...

Snowpack once reliably fed water into the Colorado River, yet winter precipitation across the Four Corners has dropped by roughly 23 percent since 1980. Reservoirs and ranchers feel the strain each spring.



Researchers have linked the ongoing shortage of rain directly to a warming Pacific and to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-025-01728-x">anthropogenic aerosols</a> - tiny pollution particles that alter atmospheric circulation. 



The evidence shows that drought conditions in the American Southwest are now effectively locked in as the climate continues to warm.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-megadrought-becomes-the-new-normal">Megadrought becomes the new normal</h2>



“What we find is that precipitation is more directly influenced by climate change than we previously thought, and precipitation is pretty sensitive to these external influences that are caused by humans,” said Flavio Lehner, assistant professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at <a href="https://cornellbigred.com/">Cornell University</a>.



Professor Lehner’s team combed through decades of climate‑model runs to untangle overlapping drivers.



Tree‑ring reconstructions show that the current Southwest megadrought is the driest 22‑year span since at least 800 CE. The finding puts today’s water crisis in a millennium‑scale context.



Lower precipitation, not just higher temperatures, sets this megadrought apart because it saps <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-soil-moisture-can-predict-severe-storms/">soil moisture</a> before summer even starts. That early‑season deficit undercuts the snowpack that supplies two‑thirds of regional river flow.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-pollution-alters-storm-paths">Pollution alters storm paths</h2>



“In our models, if we see a warming trend in the tropical <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/pacific-sea-levels-are-rising-faster-than-anywhere-in-the-world/">Pacific</a>, we would expect more precipitation in the Southwestern United States - but that’s not the case here,” said Yan‑Ning Kuo, doctoral student at Cornell University.



Her point underscores the role that pollution‑driven circulation changes play in overriding ocean patterns.



Particles from coal burning, industrial smokestacks, and vehicle exhaust in East Asia rise into the atmosphere and scatter sunlight, cooling the surface and nudging the jet stream northward. 



That shift encourages a persistent high‑pressure ridge over the North Pacific that deflects winter storms away from Arizona, New Mexico, and Southern California.



China’s air‑quality campaign cut average <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590332221001081">PM2.5 levels</a> by about one‑third between 2013 and 2019. Still, the Cornell team warns that rising greenhouse gases will overpower those short‑term gains.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-pacific-can-t-deliver-rain">Pacific can’t deliver rain</h2>



In a typical <a href="https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/elnino/what-is-la-nina">La Niña</a>, cooler Pacific waters push the jet stream north, leaving the Southwest dry. Conversely, <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-el-nino-and-what-are-its-effects">El Niño</a> usually drapes moisture over the region, yet models show that warming and aerosols erase that benefit.



A <a href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/enso/enso-and-southwest-united-states-megadrought">teleconnection</a> is a long‑distance link between climate features, and the new analysis finds that the Pacific‑to‑Southwest link has weakened. That subtle change allows a stubborn North Pacific high‑pressure system to settle in more often.



Between 1980 and 2014, soil moisture in the Southwest declined faster than at any other time in the past century, dropping by about 0.15 inches per decade. Less moisture in the ground means more summer heat spikes, as dry soils can’t cool the air through evaporation.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-water-stress-is-locked-in">Water stress is locked in</h2>



Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir, has hovered at just 35 percent of capacity for three straight years. Mandatory cutbacks on <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/colorado-river-basin-has-lost-enough-water-to-fill-lake-mead/">Colorado River</a> allocations kicked in after the lake dropped below 1,075 feet.



<a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/chapter/chapter-8/">IPCC models</a> project that every 1.8°F of global warming could trim cool‑season precipitation in the Southwest by another four percent. That figure mounts because a warmer atmosphere pulls extra water from soils and plants, intensifying drought even if rain totals held steady.



Cities from Phoenix to Albuquerque already rely on indoor conservation and reclaimed water to stretch supplies. But climate‑induced precipitation losses eat into the margin of safety those programs provide.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-slowing-the-southwest-megadrought">Slowing the Southwest megadrought</h2>



Sulfur‑cutting fuel rules and clean‑energy mandates have begun shrinking <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/reducing-aerosol-pollution-ironically-causes-more-wildfires/">aerosol emissions</a> from ships and factories. Cleaner air could, in theory, ease the North Pacific high and let more storms through.



The Cornell study warns that warming trends across the tropics may soon override any aerosol relief. Warmer seas pump extra heat into the atmosphere, reinforcing the pattern that steers wet winter systems elsewhere.



Scientists suggest ramping up soil‑moisture monitoring and forest‑thinning projects so managers can react quickly to dry spells. Improved early‑warning tools could buy precious time for farmers and power grid operators. 



For now, the Southwest must plan for decades of megadrought, not just dry years. Water managers, residents, and policymakers face a future where every raindrop matters.



The study is published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-025-01728-x">Nature Geoscience</a>.



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Why the Southwest megadrought is here to stay

Snowpack once reliably fed water into the Colorado River, yet...

Hershey,Pennsylvania,,October,15,,2021:,Jolly,Rancher,Candy,On,Display

Without much warning last month, the United Kingdom’s Food Standards Agency ordered an <a href="https://www.food.gov.uk/news-alerts/alert/fsa-fafa-02-2025" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">immediate recall</a> of four "Jolly Ranchers" products, made by the Hershey Company in the U.S., because they contained mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons (<a href="https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/topics/topic/mineral-oil-hydrocarbons" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MOAH</a>) and mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons (<a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5497826/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MOSH</a>).



Across the Atlantic, these same Hershey's hard candies remain on U.S. shelves, highlighting how two regulators can read the same toxicological literature yet reach opposite conclusions.



The split decision has reignited a long‑running debate over the U.S. practice of letting companies self‑certify many food additives as safe while European agencies treat similar <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/future-of-food-safety-ai-can-detect-contamination-early/">chemicals</a> with greater caution. 



That debate has moved from think‑tank white papers into a political fight now drawing attention from presidential hopefuls and state lawmakers.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-mineral-oil-is-used-in-candy">Why mineral oil is used in candy</h2>



“Consuming mineral oil regularly and over time could pose a risk to your health,” warned <a href="https://www.food.gov.uk/news-alerts/news/precautionary-advice-issued-to-pet-owners-on-dog-chews-linked-to-illness" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tina Potter</a>, head of incidents at the <a href="https://www.food.gov.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Food Standards Agency</a>. Potter leads the incident‑response team that enforces the nation’s additive limits.



Hershey spokesman Todd Scott counters that the oils act only as a processing aid to keep candy from sticking, calling them indispensable for the smooth, glassy finish consumers expect.



“The key takeaway from all of this is mineral oil is allowed and deemed safe for use in food in the US,” Scott said, noting that it never appears on the ingredient list because federal rules exempt aids used in tiny amounts.



The lubricants fall into two broad camps, MOSH molecules with fully saturated carbon chains and MOAH molecules laced with ring‑shaped aromatics that can include three or more fused <a href="https://ionscience.com/en/news/benzene-ring-explained/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">benzene rings</a>. Manufacturers like the compounds because they stay stable under high heat and do not change a candy’s <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/frozen-food-new-thawing-methods-will-improve-safety-and-quality/">taste</a> or smell.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-moah-and-mosh">MOAH and MOSH</h2>



A 2023 review by the <a href="https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/8215" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">European Food Safety Authority</a> linked MOAH molecules with three or more aromatic rings to DNA damage and stated that no exposure level could be considered risk‑free. 



The same document reported that young consumers had the highest <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/electronic-tongue-could-revolutionize-food-safety/">exposure</a> to MOSH but found less evidence of human harm, a nuance often lost in headlines.



Laboratory studies in rats show MOSH accumulating in the liver and lymph nodes, sometimes forming granulomas that hint at chronic inflammation. 



Because humans absorb and clear hydrocarbons differently than this strain of rat, regulators disagree on how seriously to weigh those findings.



European law therefore takes a precautionary stance, banning deliberate use of the oils in confectionery, whereas the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (<a href="https://www.fda.gov" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">FDA</a>) accepts tiny residues that migrate from processing equipment. This regulatory asymmetry sets the stage for the broader fight over the <a href="https://www.skadden.com/insights/publications/2025/03/closing-the-gras-loophole-secretary-kennedys-plan-to-enhance-fda-food-safety-regulations" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">GRAS loophole</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mineral-oil-avoids-full-safety-checks">Mineral oil avoids full safety checks</h2>



Under the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK216664/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">1958 Food Additives Amendment</a>, companies can declare a substance “generally recognized as safe” without asking the FDA to review their data, provided a panel of experts, internal or external, endorses the conclusion. 



Between 2015 and 2020, one <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10481496/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">analysis</a> of 403 filings found that nearly 30 percent relied on the opinion of an employee of the manufacturer itself.



“A company can add a new ingredient and not even list its chemical compound on the packet,”  says public‑health lawyer <a href="https://publichealth.nyu.edu/faculty/jennifer-pomeranz" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jennifer Pomeranz</a>. 



She points out that the law never required such notices to reach the agency at all. Advocates fear that self‑policing fosters blind spots when cumulative exposures involve dozens of lightly studied chemicals.



“If a company can’t sell something in California or New York, they may as well reformulate their product for the whole country,” argues regulatory counsel Jensen Jose at the nonprofit <a href="https://www.cspi.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Center for Science in the Public Interest</a>. 



The train of thought is that state legislation can move faster than Washington and that strategy is now reshaping ingredient lists nationwide.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-states-fight-mineral-oil-in-food">How states fight mineral oil in food</h2>



California’s 2023 <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/AB-418-Signing.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AB 418</a> banned FD&amp;C Red 3, brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, and propylparaben in foods sold after 2027, making it the first U.S. state to bar these additives. 



Within months, the FDA proposed its own nationwide phase‑out of <a href="https://www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/brominated-vegetable-oil-bvo" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">brominated vegetable oil</a> and accepted a citizens’ petition to reconsider <a href="https://www.fda.gov/food/hfp-constituent-updates/fda-revoke-authorization-use-red-no-3-food-and-ingested-drugs" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Red 3</a>, illustrating the ripple effect of state action.



Similar bills are pending in New York, Illinois, and Washington, and campaigners have signaled that MOAH will be on their next target list. 



<a href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/leadership/robert-kennedy.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Robert F. Kennedy Jr.</a> has already promised to close the GRAS loophole if elected, giving the issue fresh political visibility.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-avoid-risky-additives-while-shopping">Avoid risky additives while shopping</h2>



Dietitian <a href="https://www.lindsaymalonerd.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lindsay Malone</a> recommends focusing on whole foods and limiting ultra‑processed snacks that stack multiple controversial additives, including butylated hydroxyanisole, or BHA, which experimental <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4462476/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">studies</a> link to hormone disruption. 



She suggests choosing plain nuts over flavored mixes and fruit over brightly colored gummies to shrink exposure without feeling punitive.



Consumers who still want an occasional hard candy can look for European‑made <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/common-food-nutrition-labels-may-be-based-on-50-year-old-data/">brands</a> that meet MOAH‑free standards or check confectioners’ websites for updated formulations. 



In the meantime, U.S. shoppers may see fresh warning labels as lawsuits and state bills push companies to reformulate.



For researchers, the Jolly Rancher episode underscores the need for publicly funded studies that track low‑dose, long‑term exposure across diverse populations. 



Until such data arrive, regulators will keep balancing uncertain risks against the sweet pull of consumer demand.



The study is published in <a href="https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/8215" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">EFSA Journal</a>.



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Very popular candy, Jolly Ranchers, were just banned in the UK but not in the US

Without much warning last month, the United Kingdom’s Food Standards...

Ever wonder what kind of videos would keep monkeys glued to a screen? Turns out, their preferences aren’t all that different from ours.



A recent study found that long-tailed macaques are especially drawn to watching aggressive behavior and familiar faces - just like us. The findings offer new insight into the social instincts we share with other primates.



The study was led by researchers at <a href="https://www.uu.nl/en">Utrecht University</a> in the Netherlands, in collaboration with The Ohio State University.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-inside-the-monkey-theater">Inside the monkey theater</h2>



The team showed two-minute videos to 28 <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/japanese-macaques-have-social-bonds-that-persist-beyond-death/">macaques</a> living at the Biomedical Primate Research Centre in Rijswijk, the Netherlands. 



Each video featured monkeys from the same group or complete strangers, engaged in one of four activities: fighting, grooming, running, or just sitting around.



The macaques were free to enter a testing corridor where laptops played the videos. These testing areas were already familiar to the animals, so the environment wasn’t new or stressful. While watching, researchers tracked how long the monkeys looked at the screen.



The results were clear: the macaques paid the most attention to videos showing fights between monkeys. Running came in second. Grooming and sitting barely registered.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-conflict-grabs-attention">Conflict grabs attention</h2>



Brad Bushman is co-author of the study and professor of communication at The Ohio State University.



“<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/social-bonds-drive-learning-in-monkeys-and-humans-alike/">Humans</a> and macaques are both social animals who have a fundamental need to belong,” he said. “It’s not surprising that they both would be most interested in the video content that may help them navigate relationships in their groups.”



“We have plenty of research showing the popularity of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/early-exposure-to-violent-media-increases-aggression-in-teens/">violent media</a> with humans. Now we have some evidence that other primates might also be attracted to conflict and aggression in videos."



“From an evolutionary perspective, this makes sense. Both humans and other animals may be hardwired to pay attention to aggression because that is an adaptive response that increases survival,” Bushman added.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-groupmates-get-more-views">Groupmates get more views</h2>



The macaques didn’t just favor <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/visually-striking-primate-features-ease-tension-and-reduce-conflict/">conflict</a> - they also preferred to watch monkeys they knew. Videos of their own group members got more attention than clips featuring strangers.



“This indicates that gathering social information on group members is more important than getting information about strangers,” said Elisabeth H.M. Sterck, professor of animal behavior and cognition at Utrecht University.



“When we as humans watch movies, we like to see actors we know – we like to see the stars playing in big movies more than we do actors who are not familiar to us,” Bushman said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-monkey-social-status">Monkey social status </h2>



Not all monkeys watched with equal interest. Lower-ranking and less aggressive macaques were more attentive to the videos than their dominant peers.



“More dominant individuals can be more confident that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/alcohol-increases-pain-tolerance-and-fuels-aggression/">aggression</a> will not affect them – they don’t have to pay attention to others as much,” Sterck said.



“Lower-ranking individuals can become an aggression victim and that may be why they pay more attention to what others are doing in the videos.”



Interestingly, monkeys that were more anxious or easily stressed were less focused on group members.



“We found that the gathering of social information from the videos differed with dominance rank and behavioral tendencies, which may reflect personality,” Sterck said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-shared-curiosity-across-species">A shared curiosity across species</h2>



These monkeys, known for their visual acuity, watched the videos on their own terms - walking into the test space voluntarily. Each session was brief, but the pull of conflict on screen was undeniable.



“The macaques are very visual animals. Their eyesight is similar to that of humans, and they are very interested in watching videos,” Sterck said.



And while the videos were short, their effect was real. Bushman noted that even this brief exposure to aggressive media captured the attention of macaques in the study.



“When you see this in some of our closest primate relatives, it is easy to see why humans are so interested in violent media," said Bushman. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-primate-preference-for-drama">A primate preference for drama</h2>



What we see on screen says a lot about who we are - and apparently, that’s true for monkeys too.



In this study, our primate cousins showed they’re drawn to social drama and familiar faces, just like humans sitting down with popcorn for a movie night. 



Whether it’s about survival, curiosity, or just plain interest, the content that grabs attention may be more universal than we thought.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-025-01970-1">Animal Cognition</a>.



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Monkeys love watching videos of fights and friends - just like humans

Ever wonder what kind of videos would keep monkeys glued...

The International Space Station (ISS) is not just a place to live in space - it’s an experimental laboratory. With astronauts onboard and Earth positioned below, the ISS offers a unique opportunity: long-duration research in microgravity. 



The space station also provides low Earth orbit views of our planet, along with a human crew who support experiments, swap samples, and troubleshoot in real time.



Since its launch, researchers have used the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station/">space station</a> to conduct hundreds of studies. These range from characterizing fluid behavior in zero gravity to tracking changes in the human body. Their work advances science by answering questions that can’t be studied on Earth.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-science-without-gravity">Science without gravity</h2>



Without Earth's <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/matter-spacetime-gravitational-waves-fabric-of-the-universe/">gravity</a> pulling things down, scientists can run experiments that simply aren’t possible on the ground. For example, hot air doesn't rise. Flames take on a spherical shape. Fluids stop behaving the way they do in a glass of water.



This gives researchers a rare opportunity to examine physical, chemical, and biological processes in new ways. 



By eliminating variables like surface tension or capillary movement, they can get a much clearer picture of how things actually work.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-orbiting-lab-sees-it-all">Orbiting lab sees it all</h2>



The space station orbits Earth in about 90 minutes, traveling at 17,500 miles per hour from about 250 miles above the surface. 



This low vantage point means the ISS is able to make observations of the planet both in daylight and darkness, and from various angles and lighting conditions.



By being outside&nbsp;<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-is-shrinking-earths-atmosphere-and-thats-bad-for-satellites/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Earth's atmosphere</a>&nbsp;and magnetic field, the ISS carries instruments that could not be used on Earth. 



That makes it possible to study space radiation, neutron stars, and other phenomena - along with how materials and living organisms behave in space.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-iss-crew-makes-science-possible">ISS crew makes science possible</h2>



Other <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/space-debris-issue-growing-exponentially-worse-now-threatens-working-satellites/">satellites</a> can carry instruments, but only the ISS has a living, breathing crew to run the science. Human operators are key. They adjust setups, monitor changes, fix problems, and pack samples for return to Earth.



This flexibility is critical for complex research on the ISS. It also means scientists can get a second chance if something doesn’t go as planned. 



Since experiments can stay on the station for months or even years, there's plenty of time to refine ideas and gather more data.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-body-changes-in-space">Body changes in space</h2>



Because the space station has been operating for over two decades, scientists have been able to track long-term changes - including how space affects the human body. One example: vision changes that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/astronauts-can-survive-mars-space-journey-but-their-kidneys-will-be-permanently-damaged/">astronauts</a> began noticing after spending months in orbit.



Scientists launched the Fluid Shifts investigation in 2015 to understand what was happening. They suspected that in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/microgravity-causes-big-problems-with-human-gene-expression/">microgravity</a>, fluids move from the lower to the upper body, increasing pressure in the head and possibly changing eye shape.



The study asked whether increased fluid pressure was the cause of these vision changes.



It ran through 2020 and tracked multiple astronauts over time. It marked a major step toward understanding the effects of spaceflight on human health.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-research-on-the-space-station">Research on the space station</h2>



Research on the space station takes time. First, scientists have to identify a question and come up with a possible answer. Then, they design an experiment to test it, decide what data to collect, and figure out how.



Getting that experiment into space is its own process. NASA reviews proposals based on scientific value and relevance. 



Once approved, studies are scheduled for future missions - often many months away. Training, hardware development, flight procedures, and data collection plans all need to be worked out.



Once the experiment is on board, astronauts begin collecting data. After that, the real work begins: analyzing results and writing them up. That alone can take a year or more.



Before a study is published, it goes through peer review. One analysis found that peer review alone takes an average of 100 days. Editors may also ask for revisions or more analysis before giving the green light.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-small-crew-big-science">Small crew, big science</h2>



One challenge with human research on the International Space Station is the limited number of subjects. With only about six people on board at any given time, gathering enough data takes longer.



Consider the Lighting Effects study, which tested whether adjusting the station’s lighting could improve <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sleep-prepares-the-brain-for-the-future-while-protecting-memories-of-the-past/">sleep</a>, mood, and performance by syncing with astronauts’ circadian rhythms.



Because researchers needed data from several astronauts, the study ran from 2016 to 2020. Other long-term human studies have looked at heart muscle loss and nutrition, including how to grow fresh food in space.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-space-station-research-takes-time">Space station research takes time</h2>



Research in physical science can often move more quickly. Scientists can send up batches of materials and collect results faster. But even then, one round of experiments often leads to more questions.



<a href="https://www1.grc.nasa.gov/space/iss-research/msg/bass/">The Burning and Suppression of Solids </a>(BASS) series ran from 2011 to 2017, studying how different fuels behave in space. That work led to the Saffire series, which began in 2016 and ended in 2024.



These fire safety demonstrations helped answer critical questions about how to prevent and put out fires in space.



Scientific breakthroughs don’t happen overnight, especially not in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/shifts-in-earths-orbit-triggered-ancient-megadroughts/">orbit</a>. But the space station gives researchers something priceless: time, access, and the ability to keep going.



The payoff? New insights into how our bodies work, how materials behave, and how we can prepare for longer missions. That’s not just useful for life in space - it helps improve life back on Earth, too.



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What 20 years of space station research means for life on Earth

The International Space Station (ISS) is not just a place...

Female,Having,Heart,,Asthma,Or,Panic,Attack.,Difficulties,With,Breathe,

When we think of a heart attack, the image that often comes to mind is straight out of a movie: someone suddenly clutches their chest in pain and collapses as shocked bystanders look on. It's a scene etched into our collective memory by decades of TV and film.



However, the real experience of a heart attack rarely fits that narrative. In fact, believing in that dramatic version can delay life-saving treatment.



Hollywood’s version has shaped public perception in ways that may be doing more harm than good. The truth is far more complex and subtle. 



For Ann Eckhardt, a nursing professor and researcher at <a href="https://www.uta.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The University of Texas at Arlington</a>, this public misunderstanding is not just a matter of health education. It is a deeply personal mission rooted in years of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/heart-disease-kills-differently-now-than-five-decades-ago/">research</a> and a family experience that first sparked her passion for the subject.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-missing-the-signs-of-a-heart-attack">Missing the signs of a heart attack </h2>



Movies from the 1980s and 1990s cemented an unrealistic idea of heart attacks. The result? Many people don’t recognize the signs when it happens to them.



“We did ourselves a disservice in the 1980s and 1990s with what’s known as ‘The Hollywood Heart Attack,’” Dr. Eckhardt said. “That’s unfortunately not real life. It’s not always intense." 



"Sometimes it’s just discomfort that doesn’t feel quite right, so people tend to wait to see a doctor. The longer you wait, the more likely you are to have negative consequences after your <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/heart-disease-remains-the-leading-cause-of-death-worldwide/">heart</a> attack.”



This tendency to wait, to dismiss symptoms that don’t seem dramatic enough, can cost precious time. And in cardiology, time is muscle. 



The longer blood flow to the heart is restricted, the greater the damage. But if people are looking for cinematic signals, they might miss the real ones.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-heart-attack-symptoms-can-be-subtle">Heart attack symptoms can be subtle </h2>



One of the biggest myths is that heart attacks always present with severe, sudden <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/artificial-sweeteners-erythritol-directly-linked-to-heart-attacks-and-strokes/">pain</a>. In reality, many symptoms are subtle. 



People may experience vague discomfort, pressure, or a strange feeling they can’t quite describe. These symptoms are easier to ignore, especially when life is busy or stressful.



Eckhardt and her team wanted to understand these misconceptions in detail. They explored how people interpret chest pain and whether that interpretation affects how and when they seek care. 



The team has identified a dangerous gap between public belief and medical reality.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-rethinking-the-warning-signs">Rethinking the warning signs </h2>



Many people also believe that heart attacks look drastically different in men and women. While that belief was once supported in the medical community, experts are now rethinking the language they use.



“We used to say men have typical symptoms and women have atypical symptoms,” Eckhardt said. “We’re trying very hard to move away from that language now."



"The most common symptom for men and women is chest-related. We created confusion by saying women are somehow completely different.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-false-expectations-about-heart-attacks">False expectations about heart attacks</h2>



Labeling symptoms as typical or atypical can confuse patients. If someone doesn’t feel the expected kind of pain, they may assume it isn’t serious. Worse, they might believe it can’t possibly be a heart attack. That false assurance can delay treatment.



Eckhardt’s team wanted to dig deeper into how people form these ideas. To do that, they created the <a href="https://www.heartandlung.org/article/S0147-9563(23)00121-8/abstract" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chest Pain Conception Questionnaire</a>. 



The tool is designed to measure what people think heart attack symptoms look like, and where those ideas come from.



Three years into the project, the team made a striking discovery: nearly 75% of respondents had gotten their information about heart attacks from media sources like TV and film. That suggests medical messaging is losing the battle for public attention.



“We often tell people chest pain is a symptom of a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/drinking-this-amount-of-coffee-helps-prevent-heart-disease-and-diabetes/">heart</a> attack, but what we don’t tell them is what they might actually feel,” Eckhardt said. 



“For a lot of people, it’s not pain in the traditional sense. It’s more discomfort, pressure, tightness. They just don’t feel quite right, but they can’t really put their finger on it.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-vague-signs-delay-treatment">Vague signs delay treatment</h2>



Many heart attack sufferers report a general unease or tightness instead of sharp pain. But because it’s vague, they hesitate to call a doctor or go to the hospital. This indecision can lead to devastating outcomes.



Eckhardt wants medical professionals to change how they talk to patients. Instead of simply asking about chest pain, they should expand the question to include more accurate descriptions.



“The longer you wait, the more likely it is you’ll have irreversible damage to the heart,” Eckhardt said. 



“So, if we can determine what people think a heart attack will be like, perhaps we can help the medical community better triage and ask questions. It’s not just ‘Are you having chest pain?’; it’s also ‘Do you have any discomfort, pressure, tightness, squeezing?’”



This approach could help doctors identify patients at risk more effectively. It also makes space for individuals to describe their symptoms without second-guessing themselves.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-lifelong-mission">A lifelong mission </h2>



For Eckhardt, this work is not just about data or education. It is deeply personal. Her commitment to the subject began when she was young, shaped by a frightening family event.



“That experience sparked my interest early on,” Eckhardt said. When she was in middle school, her grandfather was rushed to the hospital after a heart attack. 



Thankfully, he survived the ordeal thanks to timely bypass surgery and lived for another two decades. That moment planted the seeds of a lifelong commitment to health education and research.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-changing-the-public-perception">Changing the public perception </h2>



Eckhardt and her colleagues know it won’t be easy to re-educate the public. Hollywood images are hard to shake. 



However, the team's research continues, driven by a clear goal: help people recognize real heart attack symptoms, seek help early, and improve outcomes.



Every person who rethinks their idea of what a heart attack feels like could be one life saved. It is not always about pain. Sometimes, it is a quiet, persistent signal that something is wrong. 



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.heartandlung.org/article/S0147-9563(25)00104-9/abstract" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Heart &amp; Lung</a>.



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What a heart attack really feels like - it's much different from what you see on TV

When we think of a heart attack, the image that...

Many expect warmer winters to reduce cold snaps, but that isn't how it works. A new study reveals that the polar vortex, happening high in the stratosphere, still controls much of what happens at ground level.



In this study, scientists looked at how changes in that polar vortex - especially in the stratosphere (a layer of the atmosphere way above us) - affect winter weather in the U.S. 



They discovered that the shape and strength of the vortex at two different heights can look totally different, and this matters a lot.



The study was conducted by researchers from the <a href="https://www.uml.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Massachusetts Lowell</a>, <a href="https://en.huji.ac.il/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hebrew University</a> of Jerusalem,&nbsp;and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (<a href="https://www.mit.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MIT</a>).



“The public often hears about the ‘polar vortex’ when winter turns severe, but we wanted to dig deeper and understand how variations within this vortex affect where and when extreme cold hits,” the research team explained.



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



Imagine the atmosphere above the North Pole as a swirling dome of icy air - that’s the polar vortex, officially called the stratospheric polar vortex (<a href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/understanding-arctic-polar-vortex" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SPV</a>). 



When it’s strong and stable, winter in the U.S. tends to stay fairly calm. But when this vortex gets stretched, twisted, or broken apart, cold air can spill southward, triggering severe winter weather across the country.



This study dug into how different shapes and behaviors of the polar vortex - not just at one level of the atmosphere but at two - affect winter storms in the U.S. 



Over the last decade, the worst <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/astonishing-global-heat-in-january-2025-defied-climate-expectations/">cold snaps</a> have been hitting farther west than before. That shift seems to line up with more frequent La Niña events - times when the Pacific Ocean is cooler than usual. 



La Niña tends to favor the version of the vortex that affects the western U.S., while El Niño, its warmer sibling, leans more toward the version that affects the east.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-different-types-of-polar-vortexes">Different types of polar vortexes</h2>



The researchers used a technique called <a href="https://stanford.edu/~cpiech/cs221/handouts/kmeans.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">K-means clustering</a> (basically, pattern detection in big datasets) to spot five different types of stratospheric behavior. 



Two of these polar vortex classes stood out because they often came with extreme cold and snow.



One pattern (called P2) leads to severe weather in the Northwest U.S.. The other (P3) hits the Central and Eastern regions of the U.S.



P2 features a strong vortex centered over the pole with a stretched lower vortex. It often brings snow and cold to the Northwestern U.S. 



P3 shows a weaker, displaced vortex toward the North Atlantic, steering cold into the Central and Eastern U.S. These variations do not just depend on vortex position but also on how atmospheric waves behave.



Planetary waves can either be absorbed or reflected in the stratosphere. When reflected, they can send cold air barreling southward. 



P3 events consistently show this reflection during the cold wave itself. P2 events often have wave reflection before the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-equation-predicts-a-rapid-rise-in-extreme-heatwaves/">cold</a> snap hits.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-where-the-cold-hits-and-why">Where the cold hits and why</h2>



The researchers used the <a href="https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024EGUGA..26.2134C/abstract" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">rAWSSI index</a>, which considers temperature, snow depth, and snowfall.



The analysis revealed that P3 patterns produce the most extreme winter conditions in the Central and Eastern U.S., while P2 patterns primarily affect the Northwestern region with intense cold and snowfall. 



The findings help explain recent cold events, including the severe <a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/great-texas-freeze-february-2021" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Texas freeze of 2021</a>.



The Northwest has seen more P2 days recently. This increase matches a northwestward shift in cold air <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/global-warming-is-accelerating-beyond-control-as-co2-levels-rise/">outbreaks</a>. The central and eastern parts still get hit, but less often now.



Wave activity flux (WAF) offers clues. Before P2 events, reflection happens over Siberia and Alaska. During P3 events, strong reflection occurs over Asia and the Pacific. In P3, this reflection continues as the cold air descends.



Cold air starts in the east, spreads across the Midwest, and settles in the Northwest. These transitions help forecast where the next cold wave might land.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-global-cycles-and-the-polar-vortex">Global cycles and the polar vortex</h2>



P2 is more frequent during La Niña conditions. P3 prefers El Niño phases. This suggests tropical ocean <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earth-is-on-pace-to-surpass-1-5c-global-temperature-increase-for-second-year-in-a-row/">temperatures</a> influence how the polar vortex behaves.



Other climate patterns play a role as well. The westerly phase of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/quasi-biennial-oscillation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">QBO</a>) often coincides with P2 days.



On the other hand, the Arctic Oscillation (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_oscillation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AO</a>) tends to be more negative during P3 events, a state that supports increased cold outbreaks in the Central and Eastern United States.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-winter-cold-is-shifting">Winter cold is shifting</h2>



What makes this research unique is that it doesn’t just focus on surface temperatures like most studies. It includes snow cover and snowfall, too, giving a fuller picture of how the stratosphere connects to what we experience on the ground. 



Despite a warming climate, these findings suggest extreme cold will continue to return each year, even though its location may shift. In the past decade, the coldest anomalies moved westward, which is a change from decades of more common Eastern U.S. cold.



This deeper understanding could help forecasters predict harsh winter conditions weeks in advance by watching patterns in the stratosphere and tropical oceans.



In the end, this study shows that what happens high above the Earth - and even far across the ocean - can shape the winter weather we feel in a big way. And by getting better at reading those signals from way up in the sky, we might get better at preparing for the coming storms.



-----



The research was funded by the&nbsp;National Science Foundation (<a href="https://www.nsf.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NSF</a>)&nbsp;, the&nbsp;U.S.–Israel Binational Science Foundation (<a href="https://www.bsf.org.il/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BSF</a>)&nbsp;, the&nbsp;U.S. Department of Energy (<a href="https://www.doe.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DOE</a>)&nbsp;, and the&nbsp;National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (<a href="https://www.noaa.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NOAA</a>).



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adq9557" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Science Advances</a>.



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Why global warming hasn't ended extreme winter cold, and why you shouldn't expect it to

Many expect warmer winters to reduce cold snaps, but that...

Soybean,Grain,In,A,Hands,Of,Successful,Farmer,,In,A

Many countries already add lanthanides, a group of rare earth metals, to fertilizers to support crop growth. Yet despite their widespread agricultural use, researchers still didn’t fully understand how plants absorb these elements or how they influence essential processes like photosynthesis.



But recent research offers new insight into how these elements operate inside plants - and how they might be used more efficiently.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-rare-earth-metals-in-farming">Rare earth metals in farming</h2>



Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (<a href="https://www.mit.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MIT</a>) have found that a single nanoscale dose of lanthanides applied to seeds can help some of the world’s most widely grown crops resist damage from ultraviolet (UV) light.



Their work shows that these rare earth metals can interact with <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/photosynthetic-cells-14025371/">chlorophyll</a> - the pigment that powers photosynthesis - by replacing the magnesium at its center. This replacement strengthens the pigment and improves the plant’s response to UV stress.



“This is a first step to better understand how these elements work in plants, and to provide an example of how they could be better delivered to plants, compared to simply applying them in the soil,” said Associate Professor Benedetto Marelli, who conducted the study with postdoc Giorgio Rizzo. 



“This is the first example of a thorough study showing the effects of lanthanides on chlorophyll, and their beneficial effects to protect plants from UV stress.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-metals-do-more-than-grow-food">Metals do more than grow food</h2>



Lanthanides aren’t just for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/farmers-adopt-regenerative-agriculture-better-soil-health/">agriculture</a>. They’re also used in a variety of industrial and medical applications, from contrast agents in <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16729149/">MRI scans</a> to components in solar cells, lasers, and LED lights.



The rare earth metals now play a much larger role in crop production. In <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12109484/">China</a> especially, farmers apply lanthanide-enriched <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fertilizer-reduces-plant-damage-caused-by-droughts/">fertilizers</a> to nearly 4 million hectares of farmland each year.



“Lanthanides have been considered for a long time to be biologically irrelevant, but that’s changed in agriculture, especially in China,” confirmed Rizzo. 



“But we largely don’t know how lanthanides work to benefit plants - nor do we understand their uptake mechanisms from plant tissues.”



Some recent studies suggest that these elements can promote growth, root development, hormone synthesis, and stress tolerance. However, too much lanthanide can be harmful.



The trick is finding the right balance - and that means understanding how they move through plant tissues and interact with the cells.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-re-greening-crops-with-lanthanides">Re-greening crops with lanthanides</h2>



To explore this, the MIT team used a seed coating and treatment method they had previously developed. This allowed them to study the interaction between chlorophyll and lanthanides both inside and outside the plant.



Chlorophyll is vital to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plants-cleverly-adapt-their-photosynthesis-to-changes-in-light/">photosynthesis</a>. But when the pigment loses the magnesium ion at its core, it can no longer absorb light efficiently.



The researchers discovered that certain lanthanides can take the place of magnesium. This substitution helps chlorophyll regain some of its functional ability - a process called “re-greening.”



“We found that lanthanides can boost several parameters of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-sensor-remotely-tracks-plant-health-in-real-time/">plant health</a>,” Marelli said. “They mostly accumulate in the roots, but a small amount also makes its way to the leaves, and some of the new chlorophyll molecules made in leaves have lanthanides incorporated in their structure.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-metal-offers-sun-defense-for-crops">Metal offers sun defense for crops</h2>



The team also discovered something surprising: lanthanides increased the plants’ ability to withstand UV stress - something no one had anticipated.



“Chlorophylls are very sensitive pigments,” Rizzo explained. “They can convert light to energy in plants, but when they are isolated from the cell structure, they rapidly hydrolyze and degrade."



"However, in the form with lanthanides at their center, they are pretty stable, even after extracting them from plant cells.”



Using advanced spectroscopic tools, the researchers tested their findings on several staple crops - including chickpea, barley, corn, and soybeans. The benefits held across all of them.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-lanthanides-could-protect-food-security">Lanthanides could protect food security</h2>



With extreme heat and more frequent climate events threatening global food systems, solutions like this could become increasingly important.



“As we move into an environment where extreme heat and extreme climate events are more common, and particularly where we can have prolonged periods of sun in the field, we want to provide new ways to protect our plants,” Marelli said. 



“There are existing agrochemicals that can be applied to leaves for protecting plants from stressors such as UV, but they can be toxic, increase microplastics, and require multiple applications. This could be a complementary way to protect plants from UV stress,” he said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cheap-lanthanides-shows-big-potential">Cheap lanthanides shows big potential</h2>



Among the lanthanides studied, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/materials-science/lanthanum" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lanthanum</a> - a relatively large and low-cost element - stood out for its effectiveness in strengthening chlorophyll.



Mining operations typically view lanthanum as a low-value byproduct of extracting rare earth elements. But this new use could turn that status around.



“This study shows what we could do with these lower-value metals,” Marelli said. “We know lanthanides are extremely useful in electronics, magnets, and energy."



"In the U.S., there’s a big push to recycle them. That’s why for the plant studies, we focused on lanthanum, being the most abundant, cheapest lanthanide ion.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-next-stop-greenhouses-and-beyond">Next stop: greenhouses and beyond</h2>



The team isn’t stopping with plants. They also plan to look into how lanthanides interact with other biological molecules, including proteins in the human body.



On the agricultural side, their next step is to test their findings in greenhouses and experimental farm settings, scaling up their work and exploring how different crops respond to metal-based<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/uv-radiation-played-a-role-in-earths-largest-mass-extinction/"> UV</a> protection.



“Lanthanides are already widely used in agriculture,” Rizzo said. “We hope this study provides evidence that allows more conscious use of them and also a new way to apply them through seed treatments.”



The full study was published in the <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.5c07071" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Journal of the American Chemical Society</a>.



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This cheap metal could be the key to growing stronger and healthier crops

Many countries already add lanthanides, a group of rare earth...

Exercise is known to help mental health - but movement alone isn’t always enough. New research shows it’s how, where, and why you move that really matters.



In a recent study, scientists found that the mental health benefits of exercise aren’t just tied to intensity or duration. They’re closely connected to the context surrounding the activity - like whether it’s done alone or with others, indoors or outside, for fun or out of obligation.



Study co-author Patrick O’Connor is a professor in the Mary Frances Early College of Education’s Department of Kinesiology at the <a href="https://www.uga.edu/">University of Georgia</a>.



“Historically, physical activity research has focused on how long someone exercises for or how many calories were burned,” said Professor O’Connor. 



“The ‘dose’ of exercise has been the dominant way researchers have tried to understand how <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fitness-focused-medicine-physical-activity-reduces-chronic-disease-risk/">physical activity</a> might influence mental health, while often ignoring whether those minutes were spent exercising with a friend or as part of a game.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-exercise-with-purpose-feels-different">Exercise with purpose feels different</h2>



Not all movement is equal. <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dog-walking-improves-mobility-and-prevents-falls-in-older-adults/">Walking your dog</a>, riding a bike with friends, or joining a dance class tends to feel good. But scrubbing floors or jogging to make it to work might not. Even if the physical effort is the same, the experience - and its emotional impact - can be very different.



To explore this, the researchers reviewed three kinds of studies: large population surveys, randomized controlled trials (RCTs), and a smaller group of studies focused specifically on context. 



The large-scale data showed clear patterns: people who engage in regular leisure-time physical activity - things they choose to do for enjoyment - tend to report less <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/people-with-chronic-pain-have-high-rates-of-depression-and-anxiety/">depression and anxiety</a>.



“For example, if a soccer player runs down the field and kicks the game-winning ball, their mental health is fantastic,” said Professor O’Connor. “In contrast, if you do the exact same exercise but miss the goal and people are blaming you, you likely feel very differently."



"Anecdotes such as these show how context matters even when people are performing a similar exercise dose.”



In other words, the same movement can either lift you up or drag you down depending on the situation.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-limits-of-traditional-studies">The limits of traditional studies</h2>



While RCTs confirmed that regular exercise can improve <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mental-illness-is-caused-by-the-whole-body-not-just-the-brain/">mental health</a> - especially for people already dealing with anxiety or depression - most of these studies were short-term and used small, similar groups of people. That limits how much we can apply the findings to the wider public.



“The average effects on mental health are small across all the randomized controlled studies of exercise, and that’s partly because most of the studies focused on people who were not depressed or anxious - you do get bigger effects in those studies,” noted Professor O’Connor. 



“We’re communicating to scientists that larger- and longer-term controlled studies are needed to make a compelling case whether exercise does, or does not, truly impact mental health.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-exercise-why-context-matters">Exercise: Why context matters</h2>



What’s still missing - and possibly the most important piece - is a better understanding of the setting and experience. Who were you with? Was it social or solitary? Structured or spontaneous? Did it feel rewarding?



“If you’re outside and it’s hot, and you’re having to walk to work, that’s part of the context,” said O’Connor. “Or if you go and take a group exercise class - some instructors you really like, and some you don’t. So, that’s also part of the context."



“If we’re trying to help people’s mental health with exercise, then not only do we need to think about the dose and the mode, we also need to ask: What is the context?” 



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



The conclusion is simple, but often overlooked. <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/small-bursts-of-intense-exercise-can-slow-brain-aging/">Physical activity</a> can be powerful, but the impact depends on many factors. 



Professor O’Connor emphasized that it's not just the physical movement that matters, but also the meaning, context, and overall experience that come with it.



"Greater progress will be made in this area when research designs are expanded to include consideration of the potential influence of contextual factors on relationships between physical activity and mental health," concluded the researchers.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/fulltext/2025/05000/up_for_debate__does_regular_physical_activity.17.aspx">Medicine &amp; Science in Sports &amp; Exercise</a>.



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How to maximize the mental health benefits of exercise

Exercise is known to help mental health - but movement...

Abuse or neglect in the preschool years appears to push a child’s internal clock forward while also steering their eyes away from the very cues that build trust. 



Two separate biological and social signals - faster cellular aging and reduced eye contact - foreshadow later struggles with emotions and behavior.



The evidence comes from the <a href="https://www.ugscd-osaka-u.ne.jp/en/">United Graduate School of Child Development</a>, a consortium of several leading Japanese universities specializing in child development research.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-quiet-footprint-of-maltreatment">The quiet footprint of maltreatment</h2>



Long-term studies already link childhood maltreatment to heart disease, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seven-healthy-lifestyle-habits-that-prevent-depression/">depression</a>, and premature death, yet pinpointing the earliest biological shifts has been tricky. 



Many investigations lean on teenagers’ memories or on broad stress hormones that rise for many reasons.



The Japanese team aimed lower in age and deeper in detail, asking what happens inside the body and in live social behavior before a child enters grade school.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-clocking-childhood-stress-in-cells">Clocking childhood stress in cells</h2>



Ninety-six four- and five-year-olds visited the university lab with a caregiver they trusted. Thirty-six of them suffered confirmed severe childhood maltreatment; the remaining sixty formed a comparison group.



Technicians took a painless cheek swab and measured DNA methylation patterns with the Pediatric-Buccal-Epigenetic clock - a method this group refined in earlier work. 



The algorithm converts chemical tags on genes into an “epigenetic age.” If that number outruns the child’s actual age, researchers infer that wear and tear has set in early.



The abused children’s cells looked markedly older, even after the analysts adjusted for sex, birth weight, and household income. 



Accelerated <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/epigenetic-dna-clocks-predict-biological-age-more-accurately/">epigenetic clocks</a> in adults often foreshadow <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-type-of-diabetes-type-5-is-now-officially-recognized-linked-to-nutritional-deficiencies/">diabetes</a>, stroke, and early mortality. Spotting the same pattern in four-year-olds suggests damage is already under way while most of the brain is still wiring itself.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-abused-children-miss-social-cues">Abused children miss social cues</h2>



Next came a social test. High-resolution eye-tracking cameras recorded exactly where and how long each child looked while short videos played.



When faces appeared on screen, youngsters with a history of abuse spent far less time examining the eye region than their peers.



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dog-and-human-brains-sync-up-during-eye-contact/">Eye contact</a> feeds children information about emotions, intentions, and safety. Avoiding it deprives them of a fast, intuitive map of other people’s feelings just when they are learning to navigate friendships.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-abuse-disrupts-on-two-fronts">Abuse disrupts on two fronts</h2>



Statistical models showed that cellular aging and gaze avoidance each predicted higher scores on caregiver checklists of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/gut-microbes-have-an-unexpected-link-to-anxiety/">anxiety</a>, aggression, and attention problems.



Yet the two did not sit in a single chain. Faster clocks did not explain why eyes wandered, and wandering eyes did not explain the faster clocks. Trauma, it seems, injures children along at least two independent tracks.



“Our research sends a powerful message: child maltreatment can leave invisible but measurable marks on a child’s biology and social development. By identifying these early warning signs, we can step in earlier and provide targeted support,” said lead author Keiko Ochiai.



“Tools such as eye-tracking assessments and stress-related biological testing could help teachers, doctors, and caregivers expedite the identification of children at risk,” she added.



“Support programs can then be tailored to improve social skills, reduce emotional stress, and promote healthier development - potentially preventing more serious problems later in life.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-catching-childhood-maltreatment-early">Catching childhood maltreatment early</h2>



Because the study captured a single snapshot in time, it cannot prove that abuse causes every change.



Poverty, prenatal stress, or inherited risks may also accelerate epigenetic clocks or nudge eyes away from faces. Even so, the data place the first measurable cracks astonishingly early, suggesting that age four is not too soon - perhaps not even soon enough - to intervene.



Crucially, both assessments are simple to bring into clinics and preschools. Cheek swabs require no needles, and modern processors can read methylation signatures in hours. Portable eye trackers now fit on a laptop.



Embedding these tools into routine checkups could flag vulnerable youngsters before <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/stress-hijacks-the-brain-disrupting-sleep-and-memory/">stress</a> cements into chronic disease or social isolation.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-helping-young-people-reset-the-clock">Helping young people reset the clock</h2>



The researchers have already begun a follow-up that will revisit the same children in middle school to see whether early cellular age predicts adolescent depression, metabolic illness, or continued social withdrawal.



They also hope to test whether nurturing foster care, trauma-focused therapy, or parent-training programs can slow the epigenetic clock and coax eyes back to faces.



Childhood is meant to stretch time, not compress it. Yet when abuse or neglect crowds those years with fear, the body and mind appear to leap forward, aging faster and dodging the very gaze that could bring comfort.



Detecting those hidden signals of childhood maltreatment offers a rare chance to reset the clock and guide young people toward a future where curiosity, connection, and health unfold at the pace nature intended.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0321952">PLOS One</a>.



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Childhood maltreatment speeds up aging and alters behavior

Abuse or neglect in the preschool years appears to push...

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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Worms dominated seas before dinosaurs

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



The full study was published in the journal Current Biology.



-----



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Earth's oldest forest found in the United States

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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The environmental problem we actually solved

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

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

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







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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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What to plant in your garden in mid-July

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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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Wildlife tunnels save millions of amphibians

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

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

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Nushagak Bay, a large estuary in southwest Alaska. Nushagak runs mainly north to south and exits in Bristol Bay, a large body of water in the Bering Sea.



"The bay is primarily fed by the Nushagak River, which begins in the Alaska Range and flows southwest approximately 450 km. The bay is also fed by several additional rivers including the Wood, Igushik, Snake and Weary rivers," says ESA.



"The dark colors of the Nushagak River are most likely due to tannins or lignins (chemical substances found in plants). Tannins and lignins from roots, leaves, seeds, bark and soil can leach into the water and give it a brown or even black colour. The sediments then flow southwards where it is mixed with the bluer waters of the bay."



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> (ACS) reveals that proteins on flu viruses are actually flexible, tilting and waving in a “breath-like” motion. According to the experts, these proteins could be used to better defend against the flu.



"The main antigenic targets of influenza virus are two surface glycoproteins, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). Whereas the structural and dynamical properties of both glycoproteins have been studied previously, the understanding of their plasticity in the whole-virion context is fragmented," wrote the researchers.



To investigate, the team conducted detailed simulations of the influenza A H1N1 virion, or the swine flu. The experts concluded that the visualizations show many new vulnerable states of flu viruses, which could improve future vaccines and antiviral drugs.



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

[sendtonews key="G9bUoxcjr4-2511624-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Lake Trasimeno, which is located west of Perugia in central Italy. It is the fourth largest lake in the country. While Trasimeno’s water level varies, it has a maximum depth of approximately six meters.&nbsp;



"In this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image, captured on 6 August 2022, the lake’s emerald green colour is likely due to the presence of phytoplankton. Streaks in the water, particularly visible in the west, indicate the presence of soil and sediments which have been stirred up by winds. Dark colored waters in the southern part of the lake indicate a presence of submerged and floating macrophytes (aquatic plants) as well as algae," says ESA.



"Surrounded by hills on three sides, Trasimeno is subject to heavy storms created by winds, especially from the north and west. There are three islets in the lake: Maggiore, Minore and Polvese (the largest). The lake’s shores are sparsely inhabited with only two popular villages: Castiglione del Lago and Passignano sul Trasimeno."



"Italy is experiencing its worst drought in 70 years which has affected drinking water supplies, hydroelectric power and agricultural production. High temperatures, hot winds and lack of rainfall are the main causes of drought in the Umbrian region which saw Lake Trasimeno’s drop 1.3 m, reaching the limit of the hydrometric zero in July 2022."



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> describes a new self-powered nanosensor that can instantly detect mercury contamination with the tap of a finger.&nbsp;



The oxidized form of mercury can be harmful when it is ingested through contaminated water or food. This makes it necessary for experts to develop sensors that can quickly and accurately detect the presence of mercury.&nbsp;



Zong-Hong Lin and colleagues have now created a triboelectric nanosensor (TENS) that can detect mercury by simply by touching a sample. According to the researchers, their TENS could serve as the basis for similar devices to safely and remotely monitor other pollutants.



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

[sendtonews key="LvS8v8bp9z-2564889-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

[sendtonews key="X0f6OHYoI4-2310561-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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

Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes two exoplanets that are orbiting a star 218 light-years away. A team of researchers led by the University of Montreal has found evidence that these planets are "water worlds."



The experts used data from NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. They discovered that exoplanets Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 could be composed largely of water.



"We previously thought that planets that were a bit larger than Earth were big balls of metal and rock, like scaled-up versions of Earth, and that's why we called them super-Earths," explained study co-author Björn Benneke.&nbsp;



"However, we have now shown that these two planets, Kepler-138 c and d, are quite different in nature and that a big fraction of their entire volume is likely composed of water. It is the best evidence yet for water worlds, a type of planet that was theorized by astronomers to exist for a long time."



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and Leah Hustak (STScI)



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

[sendtonews key="QIoVYJqRBi-2434608-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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