For decades, researchers have questioned whether boys and girls are born with the same natural ability in math. In 2005, cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Spelke took a firm stand, stating that there are no differences in overall intrinsic aptitude for science and mathematics among women and men.



Now, the evidence is even stronger. In a new study, researchers from <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Harvard University</a> and several institutions across France examined math performance in more than 2.5 million French schoolchildren. 



The team found that at the very beginning of first grade, boys and girls start off nearly equal in math. But just four months into formal math instruction, a small gap appears - and it keeps growing.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-nationwide-study-tracks-the-math-gap">Nationwide study tracks the math gap</h2>



The research draws on a French government testing program that was launched in 2018. This nationwide effort tracked <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/reminiscing-can-boost-language-development-in-preschoolers/">language</a> and math skills of young students from first through sixth grade. 



Over five years and across four student cohorts, the program gave researchers an unmatched view of early math development.



At school entry, French girls scored slightly better than boys in language. Math scores, though, were essentially the same. 



"The headline conclusion is that the gender gap emerges when systematic instruction in mathematics begins," Spelke explained.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-looking-for-gender-differences">Looking for gender differences </h2>



Spelke had already spent decades studying how young children understand numbers and shapes. Back in 2005, she wrote a major review for American Psychologist. The piece challenged the notion that boys are biologically wired for better math performance than girls.



"My argument was, 'OK, if there really were biological differences, maybe we would see them in the infancy period,'" said Spelke. 



She and her team always tracked <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/young-children-learn-gender-stereotypes-from-storybooks/">gender</a> in their studies, but they never found infant boys outperforming girls in math, or vice versa. Still, Spelke admitted that something could be happening later in development.



"The fact that there are no differences in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/conscious-awareness-when-does-our-sense-of-purpose-emerge/">infants</a> could be because the abilities that show gender effects actually emerge during preschool," she proposed.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-math-instruction-for-boys-and-girls">Math instruction for boys and girls</h2>



In recent years, Spelke has turned her attention to how <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-discover-a-better-way-for-kids-to-learn-math/">children learn counting</a> and numbers in real classrooms. 



Spelke partnered with Nobel Prize-winning MIT economist Esther Duflo to advise the Delhi office of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). The team is helping four Indian states create and test math lessons for children in preschool through first grade.



In France, she works alongside her longtime collaborator, neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene. Together, they serve on the French Ministry of Education's Scientific Council, which helped develop the EvalAide testing program. 



The idea was simple: measure where every child stands in math and language and use that data to guide better teaching.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-gender-gap-emerges-in-math">Gender gap emerges in math</h2>



For this study, the team analyzed data from four full cohorts of first-graders entering school between 2018 and 2021. 



What they found was consistent: no math gap at the time of school entry, a small but significant gap favoring boys after four months, and a steadily widening gap by second, fourth, and even sixth grade.



"It was even bigger in fourth grade," Spelke said. "And in sixth grade it was bigger still."



Interestingly, the gender gap in language shrank slightly after the first few months of school and stayed relatively stable in later years.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ruling-out-old-explanations">Ruling out old explanations</h2>



So why does the math gap grow with time in school? The researchers ruled out several familiar theories.



"If there was really a pervasive social bias, and the parents were susceptible to it, we would expect boys to be more oriented toward spatial and numerical tasks when they first got to school," said Spelke.



But that didn’t happen. At school entry, there was no math gap. This points away from both biological and early social bias explanations.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-an-experiment-during-the-pandemic">An experiment during the pandemic </h2>



The EvalAide dataset offered other insights. French first-graders can be nearly a year apart in age, depending on when their birthday falls. 



The team wondered if the older students were skewing results. They weren’t. The widening gender gap aligned more closely with time spent in school than with age.



Then came an unusual variable: COVID-19. The 2019 cohort missed the final 2.5 months of first grade due to lockdowns. That gap year created a natural experiment.



"With less time in school, the amount of the gender gap grew by less than it did in the other years where there wasn't a long school closure," said Spelke.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-confirming-the-math-gender-gap">Confirming the math gender gap</h2>



The cohort also began school just after a national education crisis. In early 2019, French students had scored <a href="https://www.polytechnique-insights.com/en/braincamps/society/how-to-improve-the-relationship-between-education-and-employment/maths-an-essential-subject-whose-level-is-falling-in-a-majority-of-countries/#:~:text=In%202003%2C%2015%25%20of%20French,European%20average%20of%20527%20points.">lowest</a> among 23 European countries in math, according to international rankings. 



In response, the French Education Ministry - guided by its Scientific Council - called for more math teaching in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/covid-19-pandemic-setbacks-reduced-kindergarten-readiness/">kindergarten</a>.



Sure enough, a tiny math gender gap appeared in fall 2019 among new first-graders. That gap hadn’t shown up in 2018 but was still present in 2020 and 2021.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-problems-in-early-math-instruction">Problems in early math instruction </h2>



The study doesn't pinpoint a single cause, but its message is clear: differences in math achievement between boys and girls seem to grow as a result of what happens in early <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/schools-are-in-a-battle-with-cell-phones-to-keep-students-engaged/">school</a> instruction.



"We still don't know what that is exactly," Spelke said. "But now we have a chance to find out by randomized evaluations of changes to the curriculum."



The findings put pressure on education systems to ask hard questions about how math is taught in the early years - and what needs to change to make it fair for everyone.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09126-4">Nature</a>.



-----



Like what you read? <a href="https://www.earth.com/subscribe/">Subscribe to our newsletter</a> for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.&nbsp;



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



-----

Early math instruction may unintentionally favor boys

For decades, researchers have questioned whether boys and girls are born with the same natural ability in math. In 2005, cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Spelke took a firm stand, stating that there are no differences in overall intrinsic aptitude for science and mathematics among women and men. Now, the evidence is even stronger. In a new study, researchers from Harvard University and several institutions across France examined math performance in more than 2.5 million French schoolchildren. The team found that at the very beginning of first grade, boys...

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.uq.edu.au/">University of Queensland</a> and the <a href="https://www.cmu.edu/">Carnegie Mellon University</a> has found that sharing real-time air quality readings in developing countries could help reduce air <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/study-reveals-link-between-air-pollution-and-obesity/">pollution</a> and lead to lower mortality rates.



This research was prompted by live air quality updates being posted on Twitter by US diplomatic sites around the world. “In 2008, the US Embassy in Beijing began tweeting hourly air quality information from a new pollution monitor, which dramatically increased attention to air pollution in China,” said study co-author Andrea La Nauze, an environmental economist at the University of Queensland.



“US embassies now tweet live air quality readings in 38 non-OECD countries worldwide. We looked at 36&nbsp;of those countries and found the sharing of real-time data increased local public interest in air quality and led to reduced air pollution levels.”



The scientists used air pollution measurements taken from satellite data in order to evaluate pollution levels both before and after the US embassy in a city started posting on Twitter air quality readings, and compared them with measurements from non-OECD cities without such live monitoring. The analysis revealed that sharing real-time air quality information led to an average reduction in fine particulate matter concentration levels of two to four micrograms per cubic meter each year.&nbsp;



“Poor air quality is a leading cause of premature death worldwide, responsible for one out of every nine deaths,” said study lead author Akshaya Jha, an assistant professor of Economics and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon. “Sharing credible air quality information can highlight this issue and have huge health and economic benefits that far outweigh the costs of the monitoring technology.”



Unfortunately, according to the researchers, the state of air quality monitoring is currently “inadequate” in many less developed countries. “Around 30 per cent of countries had at least some form of monitoring by 2018, but that includes monitoring that is intermittent, only covers a small part of the country or isn’t available publicly,” Dr. La Nauze explained.



“Even Australia – where state governments monitor air quality and provide access to real-time data – could benefit substantially from a denser monitoring network. Policymakers, diplomats and community organizations worldwide should push for the rapid deployment of credible, real-time air quality monitoring and reporting,” she concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2201092119">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.



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.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Real-time air quality monitoring can save lives

A new study led by the University of Queensland and...

As people live for longer, the prevalence of dementia increases. This trend is apparent in all countries in the world where medical and health interventions are able to extend <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/life-expectancy-continues-to-decline-due-to-covid/">lifespan</a>. Currently, around 55 million people suffer from dementia and there are some 10 million new cases diagnosed each year. This number is expected to rise to 78 million sufferers in 2030 and more than 100 million by 2050.&nbsp;



Dementia is the seventh leading cause of death among all diseases and one of the major causes of disability and dependency among older people worldwide. It is characterized by cognitive difficulties that begin in adulthood and affect a person’s ability to function independently and perform everyday activities.&nbsp;Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), on the other hand, is thought to indicate a transitioning phase between normal aging and dementia, although not everyone who has MCI will go on to develop dementia.



Since these conditions have significant physical, psychological, social and economic impacts, not only for sufferers themselves, but also for their carers, families and society at large, it is critical that authorities have an up-to-date understanding of their prevalence in populations, in order to formulate appropriate support policies.&nbsp;



In the first nationally representative study of cognitive impairment prevalence in more than 20 years, <a href="https://www.columbia.edu/">Columbia University</a> researchers, along with colleagues from several other U.S. universities, have analyzed data from individuals enrolled in the&nbsp;nationally representative Health and Retirement Study.&nbsp;This is an ongoing study that started in 1992 and the current researchers randomly selected a subsample of 3,500 participants who were 65 years or older in 2016.&nbsp;



Known as the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP), the current study was developed to update national estimates of the prevalence of MCI and dementia in the U.S. and to examine differences by age, race, ethnicity, and gender. Participants completed a comprehensive set of neuropsychological tests and in-depth interviews, and dementia and MCI were classified using an algorithm based on standard diagnostic criteria and comparing test performance to a robust normative sample.



“Such data are critical for understanding the causes, costs, and consequences of dementia and mild cognitive impairment in the United States, and for informing policies aimed at reducing their impact on patients, families, and public programs,” says&nbsp;<a href="https://www.neurology.columbia.edu/profile/jennifer-j-manly-phd">Jennifer J. Manly, PhD</a>,&nbsp;the study’s lead author and professor of neuropsychology in neurology at the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center and the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University.



Although dementia and MCI are known to be common in the U.S., accurate, up-to-date measures of their national prevalence have been infrequent. In addition, previous estimates of dementia and MCI have tended to focus on populations that are college-educated and White, and have not been nationally representative. Participants in the new study are representative of older adults and this allows researchers to examine differences in the national prevalence of dementia and MCI by age, race and ethnicity, gender, and education level.&nbsp;



The results of the analysis, published in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2022.3543">JAMA Neurology</a>, show that the incidence of dementia and MCI rises sharply with age: 3 percent of people between 65 and 69 had dementia, while the prevalence was 35 percent among people who were aged 90 and over.&nbsp;&nbsp;Overall, the study found that almost 10 percent of U.S. adults aged 65 and older have dementia, while another 22 percent have mild cognitive impairment.&nbsp;



In addition to the association with age, the data show a disproportionate burden of dementia among older adults who self-identified as Black or African American, of mild cognitive impairment among older adults who identify as Hispanic, and of both categories of cognitive impairment among people who had fewer opportunities to obtain higher education.



The economic impact of dementia, including unpaid family caregiving, is estimated to be $257 billion per year in the United States and $800 billion worldwide. And this is set to increase in future as populations age and people experience greater longevity.



“With increasing longevity and the aging of the Baby Boom generation, cognitive impairment is projected to increase significantly over the next few decades, affecting individuals, families, and programs that provide care and services for people with dementia,” Manly says.



“Dementia research in general has largely focused on college-educated people who are racialized as white,” she explains. “This study is representative of the population of older adults and includes groups that have been historically excluded from dementia research but are at higher risk of developing cognitive impairment because of structural racism and income inequality. If we’re interested in increasing brain health equity in later life, we need to know where we stand now and where to direct our resources.”



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.



---



By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

One-third of older Americans have dementia

As people live for longer, the prevalence of dementia increases....

A team of neuroscientists from <a href="https://www.northwestern.edu/">Northwestern University</a> and clinicians from the <a href="https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/landing-pages/epilepsy">University of Chicago Epilepsy Center</a> has recently explored the role of sleep in consolidating memories. By recording electrophysiological responses to a series of sounds connected to daytime learning activities that were repeatedly presented to five participants during sleep, the experts found that the participants significantly improved their performance in a recall test the next morning, suggesting that sleep plays a crucial role in consolidating <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/having-a-sense-of-purpose-improves-memory/">memory</a> processing and storage.



The scientists enrolled a group of five epilepsy patients who had electrode probes implanted into the brain for the purpose of investigating potential treatments to their seizure disorders. During sleep, the participants were repeatedly exposed to 10-20 sounds, half of which were associated with objects and their precise spatial locations that patients learned before sleep.



The analysis revealed systematic improvements in spatial recall, with the object sounds presented during sleep eliciting increased oscillatory activity, including rises in theta, sigma, and gamma EEG bands, as well as significant activity in the hippocampus – a part of the brain that helps structuring and consolidating spatial and temporal patterns – and the adjacent temporal area of the cerebral cortex, reflecting the reactivation and strengthening of corresponding spatial memories.



“We are investigating how people manage to remember the things they’ve learned, rather than forgetting them,” said&nbsp;study senior author Ken Paller, the director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Program at Northwestern. “Our view is that sleep contributes to that ability.”



“The orthodox assumption used to be that such sounds would be blocked out when people are sleeping. Instead, these sounds allowed us to demonstrate that brain structures such as the hippocampus are responsive when memories are reactivated, helping us to retain the knowledge we gain when we’re awake.”



“At times, remembering and forgetting seems random. We can remember irrelevant details while forgetting what we most want to remember. The new answer to this long-standing mystery, highlighted by this research,&nbsp;is that memories are revisited when we sleep, even though we wake up not knowing it happened,” he concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2123430119">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.



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.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Sleep helps the brain consolidate memories

A team of neuroscientists from Northwestern University and clinicians from...

According to a recent study led by the <a href="https://www.demogr.mpg.de/en">Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research</a> and the <a href="https://www.ox.ac.uk/">University of Oxford</a>, global life expectancy did not recover in 2021 after the mortality shock caused by the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/covid-related-deaths-are-much-higher-than-the-official-count/">Covid</a> pandemic. However, comparing this findings to historical events such as the Spanish flu pandemic from 1918, offers hope for rapid improvements in life expectancy over the next years.



By examining changes in life expectancy in 29 countries, the experts found that most countries in the study – including the United States, Chile, and 27 European countries – experienced period life expectancy (a measurement of the risk of death to which a population is exposed to within a year) decline for a second year in a row.&nbsp;



“The United States is a particularly tragic example; in 2021 the country managed to normalize mortality among those over 80 to pre-pandemic levels, but mortality among those under 80 increased,” said study lead author Jonas Schöley, an expert in Population Health at Max Planck. Thus, period life expectancy in the U.S. declined for two years in a row - by 25.5 months in 2020 and by another 2.7 months in 2021.



Life expectancy returned to pre-pandemic levels in just a few Western European countries, such as Belgium, France, Switzerland, and Sweden. In much of Eastern Europe, for example, the mortality crisis worsened from 2020 to 2021. “This is particularly evident in Bulgaria. In 2021, period life expectancy was 3.6 years below pre-pandemic levels,” said Schöley. Although Bulgaria had the lowest vaccination rate by the fall of 2021 among all the countries studied, this factor alone cannot fully explain the recent disparities in life expectancy between Eastern and Western Europe. According to Schöley and his colleagues, differences in healthcare systems and general living conditions may have also played a critical role.



A worrisome finding regards the change in age patterns related to Covid-induced mortality. “A notable shift between 2020 and 2021 was that the age patterns of excess mortality shifted in 2021 towards younger age groups, as vaccines began to protect the old,” said study co-author Ridhi Kashyap, a professor of Demography and Computational Social Science at Oxford.



Fortunately, historical comparisons show that, although previous pandemics such as the Spanish flu in 1918 also caused period life expectancy to plummet, the recovery was quite rapid. “Covid-19 has triggered one of the most severe mortality crises worldwide in the past 100 years. Past crises, however, only temporarily interrupted the trend of increasing life expectancy,” Schöley concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01450-3">Nature Human Behavior</a>.



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.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Life expectancy continues to decline due to Covid

According to a recent study led by the Max Planck...

For so long, the world has been focused on the impacts of carbon dioxide (CO2) <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/unchecked-emissions-could-kill-90-percent-of-marine-species/">emissions</a> on global warming and subsequent changes in climate. But CO2 is not the sole product released as a result of industrial processes or the combustion of fossil fuels. There is an array of other airborne pollutants that enter the atmosphere along with CO2 that behave very differently from the greenhouse gases. A new study finds that the impacts of these other pollutants on human health, economies, and agriculture differ drastically depending on where the pollutants are emitted.



Led by scientists from the <a href="https://www.utexas.edu/">University of Texas at Austin</a> and the University of California San Diego, the study is the first to simulate how aerosol pollution affects both climate and air quality for locations around the globe. Although the atmosphere is made up largely of gases, there are also tiny solid particles and droplets of liquid that are present, suspended in the air. These small suspended droplets and particles are known as aerosols. They originate from natural sources, such as ocean spray and mineral dust from deserts, and also from human activities, including the combustion of fossil fuels.&nbsp;



Unlike CO2, which is a long-lived gas that spreads out through the atmosphere globally, aerosols are short-lived and tend to have more local and regional effects. Aerosols can absorb incident sunlight and scatter it back into the atmosphere, meaning that they actually have a cooling effect that is opposite to the effect of greenhouse gases. However, if they occur at high densities, the aerosols can also prevent light from reaching the leaves of crops where photosynthesis takes place. They are also involved in the formation of smog. In these ways, aerosols can impact human health and agricultural and economic productivity.



Although CO2&nbsp;and aerosols are often emitted at the same time during the combustion of fuels, the two substances behave differently in Earth’s atmosphere, said co-lead author Geeta Persad, an assistant professor at the UT Austin Jackson School of Geosciences. “Carbon dioxide has the same impact on climate no matter who emits it,” said Persad. “But for these aerosol pollutants, they tend to stay concentrated near where they're emitted, so the effect that they have on the climate system is very patchy and very dependent on where they’re coming from.”



The researchers investigated the influence of aerosols in worsening the social costs of carbon (a measure of the economic costs of greenhouse gases on society) in eight key regions of the world: Brazil, China, East Africa, Western Europe, India, Indonesia, United States and South Africa. They considered these costs both for the region producing the aerosols and for neighboring countries.&nbsp;



In order to do this, the researchers created a set of climate simulations using the Community Earth System Model version 1 developed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research. They then ran simulations in which each of the eight regions produced identical aerosol emissions and mapped how temperature, precipitation, and surface air quality were affected in these regions and across the globe.



The experts connected this data with known relationships between climate and air quality and infant mortality, crop productivity, and gross domestic product across the eight regions. In a final step, they compared the total societal costs of these aerosol-driven impacts against the societal costs of co-emitted CO2&nbsp;in each of the eight regions, and produced global maps of the combined effects of aerosols and CO2 emissions. The researchers said the study is a big step forward from previous work, which either only estimated the air quality impacts of aerosols or didn’t consider their diverse global climate effects.



The findings showed that, depending on the geographic location of the emissions, aerosols can increase the social costs of carbon emissions by as much as 66 percent. Aerosols can directly affect human health and the climate independently of CO2. They are associated with negative health impacts when inhaled, and can affect the climate by influencing temperature, precipitation patterns and how much sunlight reaches the Earth’s surface.



“This research highlights how the harmful effects of our emissions are generally underestimated,” said Jennifer Burney, co-lead author and the Marshall Saunders Chancellor’s Endowed Chair in Global Climate Policy and Research at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy. “CO2&nbsp;is making the planet warmer, but it also gets emitted with a bunch of other compounds that impact people and plants directly and cause climate changes in their own right.”



The outcome paints a fairly complicated picture. Emissions from some regions produce climate and air quality effects that are between two and 10 times more severe as those seen in other regions. In addition, the social costs of this pollution can sometimes affect neighboring regions more than the region that produced the aerosol emissions. For example, in Europe local emissions result in four times as many infant deaths outside Europe as within its borders. Despite the complex relationships that emerge from the modelling exercise, the researchers note that aerosol emissions are always bad for both the emitter and the planet overall.



“While we might think about aerosols, which cool the climate, as having the silver lining of counteracting CO2-driven warming, when we look at all these effects in combination, we find that no region experiences overall local benefits or generates overall global benefits by emitting aerosols,” said Persad.



For example, the study found that adding aerosol costs to CO2&nbsp;costs could double China’s incentive to mitigate emissions. And it switches the impact of local emissions in Europe from a net local benefit to a net cost. The study also shows that some emerging economies, like in East African nations and India, might be motivated to collaborate on emission cuts since they are strongly impacted by each other’s emissions.&nbsp;



Overall, the findings indicate that individual countries would often benefit from working together with their neighbors to cut emissions since regional emissions affect everyone, not just the country doing the emitting. Researchers also said the findings create potentially new motivations for countries to cut emissions – and to care about other countries cutting their own emissions.



The framework developed in this study can also be applied to maximize societal benefits from current mitigation strategies being considered by policy makers. For example, the researchers applied it to the “fair-share” approach laid out in the Paris Climate Agreement in which all countries target the same per-capita CO2&nbsp;emissions. They found the approach, while beneficial for climate stability, does not improve the mortality and crop impacts from combined aerosol and CO2&nbsp;emissions because it focuses mitigation in regions that already have fairly low aerosol impacts, like the U.S. and Europe.



“By expanding societal cost calculations to include the geographically-resolved societal impacts of co-emitted aerosols, we’re showing that the incentive for individual countries to mitigate and collaborate on mitigation is much higher than if we only think about greenhouse gases,” Burney said.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.science.org/journal/sciadv">Science Advances</a>.



---



By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Airborne pollutants amplify the effects of climate change

For so long, the world has been focused on the...

Many studies have reported associations between video gaming and increases in depression, violence, and aggressive behavior. However, a recent study of nearly 2,000 children has now found that those playing <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/playing-action-video-games-can-improve-reading-skills/">video games</a> for three hours per day or more performed better on cognitive skills related to impulse control and working memory compared to children who never played video games.&nbsp;



“This study adds to our growing understanding of the associations between playing video games and brain development,” said study co-author Nora Volkow, the director of the <a href="https://nida.nih.gov/">National Institute of Drug Abuse</a> (NIDA). “Numerous studies have linked video gaming to behavior and mental health problems. This study suggests that there may also be cognitive benefits associated with this popular pastime, which are worthy of further investigation.”



The researchers analyzed survey, cognitive, and brain imaging data from about 2,000 participants in the ongoing&nbsp;<a href="https://abcdstudy.org/">Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development&nbsp;(ABCD) Study</a>, which aims to understand the factors that influence brain, cognitive, and social-emotional development, in order to help devising interventions to enhance young people’s life trajectories. They separated the participants into two groups – those reporting playing no video games versus those playing such games for three or more hours daily, and evaluated their performance on two cognitive tasks that reflected their capacity to control impulsive behavior and to memorize information, as well as their brain activity while performing these tasks.



The analysis revealed that the children playing video games were faster and more accurate on both tasks and showed higher activity in areas of the brain associated with attention and memory, as well as in the frontal lobes, which play a fundamental role in the performance of cognitively demanding tasks. Although some of the children playing video games reported higher mental health and behavioral issues compared to those who played no video games, this association did not appear to be statistically significant.



“While we cannot say whether playing video games regularly caused superior neurocognitive performance, it is an encouraging finding, and one that we must continue to investigate in these children as they transition into adolescence and young adulthood,” said study lead author Bader Chaarani, an assistant professor of Psychiatry at the <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/">University of Vermont</a>. “Many parents today are concerned about the effects of video games on their children’s health and development, and as these games continue to proliferate among young people, it is crucial that we better understand both the positive and negative impact that such games may have.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.35721">JAMA Network Open</a>.



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.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Video gaming may increase cognitive performance

Many studies have reported associations between video gaming and increases...

Scientists have long investigated the connection between <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/meal-timing-decrease-appetite/">meal timing</a>, sleep, and obesity, arguing that overnutrition could disrupt circadian rhythms and change fat tissues. However, the mechanism behind why eating late at night is linked to weight gain and health issues such as diabetes is still poorly understood. 



Now, a team of scientists from the <a href="https://www.northwestern.edu/">Northwestern University</a> has found that energy release may be the molecular mechanism through which our internal clocks control energy balance – an aspect which suggests that, for humans, daytime is the ideal time in the light environment of the Earth’s rotation when it is optimal to dissipate energy as heat. These finding could have a range of implications, from dieting and sleep loss to how clinicians feed patients who require long-term nutritional assistance.



“It is well known, albeit poorly understood, that insults to the body clock are going to be insults to metabolism,” said study corresponding author Joseph T. Bass, a professor of Medicine at Northwestern. “When animals consume Western style cafeteria diets — high fat, high carb — the clock gets scrambled. The clock is sensitive to the time people eat, especially in fat tissue, and that sensitivity is thrown off by high-fat diets. We still don’t understand why that is, but what we do know is that as animals become obese, they start to eat more when they should be asleep. This research shows why that matters.”



In this recent study, the scientists focused on mice, which are nocturnal animals. By feeding them a high-fat diet either exclusively during their inactive or active period – while setting the lab temperature to 30 degrees, at which mice expand less energy, to mitigate the effects of temperature on their findings - the researchers discovered that those fed during light hours gained more weight compared to those fed in the dark.



“We thought maybe there’s a component of energy balance where mice are expending more energy eating at specific times,” said study first author Chelsea Hepler, a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Bass’ lab. “That’s why they can eat the same amount of food at different times of the day and be healthier when they eat during active periods versus when they should be sleeping.”&nbsp;



These findings could inform chronic care, particularly in cases where patients have gastric feeding tubes. Such patients are commonly fed at night while they sleep and they are releasing the least amount of energy. Since many of them tend to develop obesity and diabetes, medical professional should re-think their strategy to improve their patients’ health and well-being.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abl8007">Science</a>.



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.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Why does eating late lead to obesity and diabetes?

Scientists have long investigated the connection between meal timing, sleep,...

Panama disease is one of the most destructive plant <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-heightens-risk-of-most-infectious-diseases/">diseases</a> of modern times. It is caused by a fungal pathogen called Fusarium oxysporum cubense, and is also known as Fusarium wilt. It infects banana plants, causing the leaves to turn yellow and wilt, the corm to rot and the vessels to become blocked. Infected plants will invariably die. The fungus is easily spread in the form of hardy spores residing in the soil and also by the transplantation of young banana suckers that appear uninfected but do, in fact, already carry the fungus.&nbsp;



Bananas are one of the most important crops in the world. Over 100 million metric tons are produced in total each year, in more than 150 countries. Not only are they exported and consumed world-wide, but also they provide staple local food for almost half a billion people. They are thus an essential calorie crop and a revenue-generating trade commodity.&nbsp;



In the 1950s, a race of the same fungus (Fusarium oxysporum cubense&nbsp;Race 1) was responsible for an outbreak of Panama disease that almost wiped out commercial banana production around the world. At that time the ‘Gros Michel’ cultivar was the dominant variety of banana and was relied upon for almost all exports. In order to overcome the disaster, a new variety known as ‘Cavendish’ was introduced. This cultivar was not susceptible to the disease and soon replaced the Gros Michel bananas in terms of exports.&nbsp;



Unfortunately, by 1967, a new race of the fungus, known as Tropical Race 4 (TR4), was detected in Taiwan and proved infectious even to the Cavendish variety of banana plants. Since then TR4 has spread rapidly to continents across the world; it reached Africa by 2015 and, by August 2019, had arrived in Colombia in Latin America, a region famed for being the world’s biggest exporters of bananas. This aggressive fungus once again places banana production in jeopardy, threatening to inflict enormous costs on farmers and local people who depend on the fruit for income as well as nutritional value.&nbsp;



The new Panama disease threat is of particular significance as Cavendish bananas currently account for about 40 percent of world production and more than 90 percent of all exports. Normally the best method of controlling fungi on crops is to use fungicides but, so far, none of the usual chemical measures has shown much efficacy against TR4. In a systematic new study, reported in the journal&nbsp;<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1010860">PLOS Pathogens</a>, University of Exeter scientists have now tested 21 fungicides of seven different types, in the hope of identifying a chemical agent that can control Panama disease.&nbsp;



Funded by the BBSRC Global Food Systems initiative (GFS), the team of researchers, led by Professor Steinberg and Professor Sarah Gurr, used a multi-disciplinary approach to improve their understanding of why the trusted fungicides did not appear to work on Panama disease. They tested the fungicides against TR4 spores and hyphae in laboratory cultures, as well as in infected banana corms and roots in the field. By combining expertise in cell and molecular biology, bioinformatics and plant pathology, the team revealed that all major classes of single-site fungicides do not work against this troublesome pathogen.&nbsp;



Their results did, however, provide insight about the molecular reason behind the “tolerance” of these fungicides exhibited by Fusarium TR4. Guided by this understanding, the research team tested seven different multi-site fungicides and discovered that some of this specialized class of anti-fungal chemistries, not previously used on bananas, are toxic to TR4 spores. Further tests using different concentrations of these potentially effective fungicides, and monitoring for possible negative outcomes on plant leaves and corms, revealed two types of fungicides that do protected bananas against TR4-induced Panama disease. They identify these substances as captan and three types of mono-alkyl lipophilic cations (MALCS).



This discovery opens new avenues to develop efficient control strategies and provides a significant step forwards in the fight to protect this valuable crop. Professor Steinberg, who led the molecular and cellular aspects of the work, said: “Bananas are Britain's favorite fruit and Panama disease may ‘wipe’ them off the supermarket shelves. On top, millions of people in producer countries live on bananas. Providing an important step towards safeguarding bananas from Panama disease gives me great pride.”



"Our success is due to an enormous amount of dedicated work over several years with co-workers with hugely disparate skills," said Professor Sarah Gurr, the plant pathology expert who led all work on banana infection and pathogen cultivation. "We are highly delighted and excited by the outcome of our work and by the glimmer of hope that the beloved banana may remain as part of our daily diet.”



Professor Dan Bebber, who was not involved in the study but heads the Exeter Global Food Security program, said: “This work has rather excitingly opened the door to development of safe and effective ways of protecting the UK’s favorite fruit by demonstrating good levels of disease control with lesser known antifungals. It also confirms that basic research has the potential to provide answers to pressing challenges in global food security.”



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.



---



By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New research will help keep bananas on supermarket shelves

Panama disease is one of the most destructive plant diseases...

The Covid-19 pandemic affected people all over the world in different ways, and the high uncertainties that accompanied this unprecedented situation caused fear and anxiety for many. During the pandemic, social media platforms such as Twitter was a major information source for many people, due to the quick and easily digestible news that it constantly provided. Sadly, such platforms also contributed to the spread of various <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/conspiracy-theory-believers-small-crimes/">conspiracy theories</a>, rumors, and outright lies, which had an adverse impact on people’s compliance with public health measures.



Now, a team of researchers from the <a href="https://iiasa.ac.at/">International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis</a> (IIASA) has analyzed the Twitter discussions of eight different widespread conspiracy theories. Instead of measuring the number of conspiracy-related tweets relative to the total number of tweets – as previous studies did – the researchers analyzed the discussions around conspiracy tweets themselves in order to find out more about what specific theories were discussed, to what extent, and how the frequency of these discussions changed over time.



The scientists collected a data set of nearly 1.3 million tweets associated to conspiracy theories between January 2020 and November 2021. These data included tweets related to eight different conspiracy theories: the 5G, Big Pharma, Bill Gates, biological weapon, exaggeration, Film Your Hospital, Genetically Modified Organism (GMO), and vaccine conspiracies.&nbsp;



“Analyzing the distribution of tweets citing different conspiracy theories over time allowed us to instantly determine when the discussion of which theory prevailed and how the distribution changed over the time period we investigated,” said study lead author Dmitry Erokhin, a scientist in the Cooperation and Transformative Governance Research Group at IIASA.



The analyses revealed that conspiracy theories differed in terms of their development. For instance, some peaked at the beginning of the pandemic (the 5G and Film Your Hospital theories), some grew during the pandemic (the vaccine-related theories), others remained persistent during the pandemic (the Bill Gates and exaggeration theories), and some had two peaks (the GMO and the biological weapon theories). The number of active Covid-19 cases appeared to be a significant predictor for the frequency of conspiracy tweets a week later for seven of the theories.



According to the researchers, risk perceptions play a large role in the emergence and proliferation of conspiracy theories, which usually aim to describe difficult and unexpected events with a high personal risk. Fear and distrust drive people to search for seemingly logical explanations of the pandemic and bring together like-minded individuals, forming so-called “echo-chambers” consisting of, for example, pro- versus anti-vaccine groups.



“Conspiracy theories are an important part of the Covid-19 discussion, and they influence people’s behavior. In this regard, it is important to be careful and critical in evaluating the information we receive, especially from social media. This makes our findings important for policymakers, as it can help them identify theories that remain persistent despite two years of pandemic development and anti-conspiracy news campaigns, and to develop measures aimed specifically at combating the remaining conspiracies,” concluded co-author Nadejda Komendantova, the leader of the Cooperation and Transformative Governance Research Group at IIASA.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/20563051221126051">Social Media and Society</a>.



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.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Why do Covid conspiracy theories persist on social media?

The Covid-19 pandemic affected people all over the world in...

Scientists have long debated when the majestic Yosemite Valley in California formed. While some argue that it all started 50 million years ago, when the granite through which the valley cuts was first exposed to the elements, others believe that canyons in the southern Sierra Nevada began to form only about 30 million years ago. Still others claim that the valley only began to form after the Sierra tilted toward the west some five million years ago, or when <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/melting-glaciers-could-unleash-dangerous-viruses/">glaciers</a> formed in a cooling climate two to three million years ago.



Now, a team of geologists from the University of California, Berkeley employed a novel technique of rock analysis to get a more precise answer. Their analysis revealed that much of Yosemite Valley’s impressive depth was carved since ten million years ago, or most likely even more recently, about five million years ago, with rivers performing the initial carving in a preexistent shallow valley.&nbsp;



“Yosemite Valley is one of the most famous topographic features on the planet,” said study lead author&nbsp;Kurt Cuffey, a professor of Geography and of Earth and Planetary Science at UC Berkeley. “And of course, if you go to Yosemite Park and read the signage, they will give you numbers for when it became a deep canyon. But up until this project, every single claim about how old this valley is, when it formed a deep canyon, was just based on assumptions and speculation.”



“We know that the Sierra was a high mountain range 100 million years ago, when the granite was forming at depth. It was a chain of volcanoes that might have looked a bit like the Andes Mountains in South America,” added study co-author Greg Stock, a Yosemite National Park geologist. “The question really is whether the elevation has just been coming down through erosion since that time or whether it came down some and then was uplifted again more recently. At this point, based on studies I’ve done for most of my career and supported by this study, I see a lot of evidence for recent uplift happening sometime in the last five million years.”



According to the researchers, this uplift – which occurred around the same time that earthquake faulting in the eastern Sierra Nevada gave rise to an escarpment several kilometers high – steepened the western slopes and rivers, causing them to incise valleys more quickly.



Although there was some kind of valley in place for tens of millions of years — a river-carved canyon associated with the ancient Sierra Nevada - only in the last five million years renewed uplift of the range through westward tilting caused rivers to steepen and deepen the canyons that they passed through, carving out more of Yosemite Valley and forming the Tenaya Canyon. 



Afterward, during the last two to three million years, as the climate cooled and glaciers descended through the Tenaya Canyon and into Yosemite Valley, they further sculpted the rock, deepening and widening the valley. “So, there’s some component of an old Yosemite Valley. But I think this recent work shows that much more of that topography is younger, rather than older,” Stock concluded.



The study is published in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/B36497.1">Geological Society of America Bulletin</a>.&nbsp;



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.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

How old is the Yosemite Valley?

Scientists have long debated when the majestic Yosemite Valley in...

Although scientists have already noticed that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/chimpanzees-use-distinctive-drumming-styles-to-communicate/">chimpanzees</a> can coordinate their actions when working towards a goal – such as pulling a string to release food – much less was known about their propensity to coordinate spontaneously. Now, a team of experts from the <a href="https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/">University of St Andrews</a> and the <a href="https://www.ceu.edu/">Central European University</a> in Vienna has found that chimps share a well-known human tendency to unintentionally synchronize their steps when walking alongside one another.



By recording the walking behavior of chimpanzees at the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage Trust (a sanctuary in Zambia) both when walking alone and when walking next to others, the scientists observed that chimps exhibit unintentional synchronization in their steps when walking next to one another. These findings suggest that humans’ strong tendency to coordinate simple actions is shared with one of our closest primate relatives, and it might thus be an ancestral trait.



“Humans deliberately plan and coordinate actions with others during sport games, group dances, musical ensembles, or military actions. But it is also part of our daily life – like carrying items together or getting a child dressed. Indeed, joint actions have been suggested to be crucial for our success as a species because much more can be achieved together than alone. In fact, we can’t help it and coordinate actions even when it is not necessary to do so, such as falling into the same rhythm with someone walking next to us,” explained study lead author Manon Schweinfurth, a lecturer in Psychology and Neuroscience at St Andrews.



“In contrast, one of our closest living relatives, the chimpanzee, does not appear to show the same preference for rather complex joint actions. But little is known about simpler forms of joint action, such as a tendency to fall into inter-individual synchrony. Chimpanzees are particularly interesting here, as they are a good model for our last common ancestor with other African great apes.”



The new study, which involved both male and female chimpanzees of different ages, has provided clear evidence that, when they walked together, a step by one walker was followed by the same respective foot of the other walker in 79 percent of the cases within less than half a second.



“This study provides evidence that chimpanzees temporally synchronize their body movements to the movements of their conspecifics. This interpersonal coordination of movements is often called entrainment and relies on perception-action links that become coupled. Understanding which mechanisms humans share with other species can help us understand the evolutionary origins of more sophisticated forms of joint action,” Dr. Schweinfurth concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.09.059">Current Biology</a>.



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.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Chimpanzees synchronize their steps when walking together

Although scientists have already noticed that chimpanzees can coordinate their...

The equatorial Pacific is a key oceanographic region in the Earth’s <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-is-testing-the-resilience-of-wheat-yields/">climate</a> system. According to a new study led by <a href="https://www.rutgers.edu/">Rutgers University</a>, warming of the upper ocean layers and stronger winds have been linked to increased rainfall in eastern China



Ocean heat content is a term that represents the amount of energy absorbed by seawater. Recent increases in ocean heat content have been implicated in the intensification of tropical storms - which draw their energy from the surface of the ocean.&nbsp;



The link between ocean heating and rainfall on land is unclear. The Rutgers study, which is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/">Nature</a>, provides new insight into this link.



“Our study suggests variations in ocean thermal structure affect the delivery of moisture, latent heat, and what happens when they arrive on land,” said Yair Rosenthal, professor at the Rutgers’ School of Art and Sciences and School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.



The latitudinal temperature gradient is the difference in sea-surface temperature between low and high latitudes. Temperature changes control how energy is absorbed by the equatorial upper ocean but also how wind carries moisture onto land.



The researchers found that over the past 360,000 years, there has been a correlation between monsoon rainfall in eastern China and the heat content of the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool. In this region, sea surface temperatures remain above 82°F year-round due to transport of moisture and latent heat absorbed in the water vapor from the ocean to the continent.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The study revealed that changes in upper ocean heat respond to shifts in the Earth’s orbit that occur about every 23,000 years. This alters the distribution of solar radiation at each latitude.



By using two marine species - a surface dweller and an organism found 200 meters below the surface - the scientists reconstructed how the upper ocean thermal structure gets its heat and energy. The results were compared with climate model simulations and reconstructions of the monsoonal precipitation in eastern China.



The results have shown that the coupling of ocean heat content and monsoon variations is critical for regulating the global hydroclimate.



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.



---



By <a href="mailto:katherinebucko@gmail.com">Katherine Bucko</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Extreme rainfall in eastern China linked to ocean warming

The equatorial Pacific is a key oceanographic region in the...

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

<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/XYgiPzmNBTU?si=eFYY7gPHU1JznLvU
</div></figure>



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>.



-----



Like what you read? <a href="https://www.earth.com/subscribe/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Subscribe to our newsletter</a> for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.



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



-----

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.



<figure class="wp-block-embed aligncenter 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/Ug657J67iEo?si=w96YjGMsg939LD_3
</div></figure>



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="0ynNMYkMKa-2340414-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

[sendtonews key="0ynNMYkMKa-2340414-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="G9bUoxcjr4-2511624-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="3upvlAaHgO-2256633-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

[sendtonews key="3upvlAaHgO-2256633-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="LvS8v8bp9z-2564889-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="X0f6OHYoI4-2310561-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="JRaP49ISmm-2357509-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="e4ZG0Jawp3-2374785-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="uV9Lh2fQbV-1760058-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="qjvhBOBnY8-2426650-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="oL4FnPTGCV-2384527-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="0879czfG3k-1785905-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="6HyfrAJTBI-1831843-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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

Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="JbW4VsY53O-1632195-12187" type="single"]</div>



Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes Earth’s interconnected systems, and how this network is affected by rising temperatures.&nbsp;



During 2020, average global temperatures matched the hottest year on record. The hurricane season was also record-breaking, with many of the storms intensifying at extraordinary speeds. Hot water in the ocean is fuel for hurricanes. The satellite data shows that it's all one interconnected system showing how Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected.



According to NASA, dust swept up from Northern Africa plays a major role in the formation of hurricanes, and is also a key source of fertilization in the Amazon rainforest. As a result of<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seagrass-wasting-disease-is-fueled-by-climate-change/"> climate</a> change, dust plumes are expected to decline, which will have an effect on vegetation far away.&nbsp;



Images from Earth-observing satellites show how the world’s plant life is affected by natural disasters, fires, and deforestation. Satellites also reveal how widespread changes in vegetation impact waterways,&nbsp; the climate, air quality. Satellites communicate by using radio waves to send signals to the antennas on the Earth. "Earth From Space" is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. 



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



---



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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

[sendtonews key="JbW4VsY53O-1632195-12187" type="single"] Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected...

Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://welcome.miami.edu/">University of Miami</a> Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science explores how changes in water temperatures have affected tiger shark habitats and movements in the North Atlantic Ocean. The study reveals that rising temperatures have caused the sharks to shift toward the poles over the past 40 years.



“Tiger shark annual migrations have expanded poleward, paralleling rising water temperatures,” explained study lead author Neil Hammerschlag. “These results have consequences for tiger shark conservation, since shifts in their movements outside of marine protected areas may leave them more vulnerable to commercial fishing.”



The researchers analyzed nine years of tracking data from satellite-tagged tiger sharks, combined with four decades of conventional tag and recapture data provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Shark Tagging Program.



The experts found that during the last decade of record heat, for every one-degree Celsius increase in water temperatures, tiger sharks migrated further poleward by over 400 kilometers. They also migrated two weeks earlier than usual to waters off the northeastern coast of the United States.



“Given their role as apex predators, these changes to tiger shark movements may alter predator-prey interactions, leading to ecological imbalances, and more frequent encounters with humans,” concluded Professor Hammerschlag.



Video Credit: University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science



---



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



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

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

Today’s Video of the Day from the University of Miami...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="qARzJPSabQ-2270617-12187" type="single"]</div>



Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> is focused on the melt ponds that emerge during the spring and summer on the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is the largest ice mass in the northern hemisphere.



"Melt ponds are vast pools of open water that form on both sea ice and ice sheets and are visible as turquoise-blue pools of water in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image," says ESA.



"When snow and ice melts atop glaciers, water flows in channels and streams and collects in depressions on the surface. These melt ponds can speed up the melting of the surrounding ice since they greatly reduce the ice’s ability to reflect sunlight."



"This can create a positive feedback where an increasing number of melt ponds absorb more heat which causes ice cover to melt even faster."



According to ESA, Greenland has been hit with a late-season heatwave that began in early September. This caused the type of melt event that usually occurs in the middle of summer.



"In a recent paper published in Nature Climate Change, scientists found that major sea-level rise from the melting of the Greenland ice cap is now ‘inevitable’ even if the burning of fossil fuels were to halt overnight," says ESA. "Using satellite observations of Greenland ice loss and ice cap from 2000 to 2019, the team found the losses will lead to a minimum rise of 27 cm regardless of climate change."



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



---



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.

Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

[sendtonews key="qARzJPSabQ-2270617-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="qas3EhyI0Y-2220951-12187" type="single"]</div>



Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes a new map of Mars that is providing insight into the planet’s watery past. The map also reveals where future missions could safely land on Mars.&nbsp;



The map has been created over the last decade using observations of water-rich rocks and mineral deposits. The images were captured by ESA’s Mars Express and NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.



"A big surprise is the prevalence of these minerals, with the map revealing hundreds of thousands of water-affected locations in the oldest parts of the planet," says ESA. "The new data will help answer exciting questions about Mars’ climate history, whether water was globally persistent or confined to short, intense episodes, and whether the conditions were ever suitable for life."



"Specifically, the map shows the locations and abundances of aqueous minerals. These are from rocks that have been chemically altered by the action of water in the past, and have typically been transformed into clays and salts."



According to John Carter of the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS), our collective understanding of Mars has been oversimplified. He explained that planetary scientists have tended to think that only a few types of clay minerals on Mars were created during its wet period, then as the water gradually dried up, salts were produced across the planet.



The new map shows that the composition of Mars is much more complicated than what we thought. For example, while many salts formed after Martian clays, there are some salts that are presumed to be older than some of the clays.&nbsp;



“The evolution from lots of water to no water is not as clear cut as we thought, the water didn’t just stop overnight. We see a huge diversity of geological contexts, so that no one process or simple timeline can explain the evolution of the mineralogy of Mars. That’s the first result of our study. The second is that if you exclude life processes on Earth, Mars exhibits a diversity of mineralogy in geological settings just as Earth does,” said Carter.



Video Credit: ESA



---



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 history of Mars is much more complex than we thought

[sendtonews key="qas3EhyI0Y-2220951-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="vpljfR2VBX-2560867-12187" type="single"]</div>



Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.stowers.org/">Stowers Institute for Medical Research</a> describes how cavefish adapted to a sedentary lifestyle over tens of thousands of years. 



The experts found that the muscle metabolism of cavefish has been genetically reprogrammed over time. As a result, the animals have experienced major changes in their morphology and behavior. Despite these changes, however, the cavefish remain healthy and fit.



The research may provide new clues about the evolutionary consequences of prolonged physical inactivity in humans.&nbsp;



“It’s no surprise that people are moving less and less as technology has advanced,” said Rohner. “With cavefish, we have a unique system where we can study what might happen if people remained couch potatoes over very, very long periods of time.”



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research



---



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.

Cavefish are healthy despite their sedentary lifestyle

[sendtonews key="vpljfR2VBX-2560867-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

News coming your way