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>.



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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 study from the <a href="https://www.umass.edu/">University of Massachusetts Amherst</a> has revealed that non-biting flies are underestimated in their ability to transmit diseases to humans. Biting flies are known to spread <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-heightens-risk-of-most-infectious-diseases/">diseases</a> by transferring infected blood from host to host. The new research suggests that the vomit of non-biting flies poses an even greater risk to human health.



“I’ve been working on synanthropic flies since I was a graduate student in the 1960s,” said John Stoffolano, a professor of entomology at UMass Amherst’s Stockbridge School of Agriculture. “And synanthropic flies have largely been ignored. Blood-feeding flies have taken the limelight, but we should pay attention to the ones that live among us because they get their nutrients from people and animals that shed pathogens in their tears, feces and wounds.”



For example, the common house fly may eat foods such as roadkill, animal dung, or rotting garbage before entering a home. Each time the fly feeds, it fills its crop.



“The crop is like a gas tank, a place to store food before it makes its way into the digestive tract where it will get turned into energy for the fly," explained Stoffolano.



The crop is used for storage - not for digestion.&nbsp; According to the researchers, there are very few digestive enzymes or antimicrobial peptides present to neutralize most pathogens. This means that the crop essentially becomes a place to store disease-producing pathogens.



The experts explained that, as the fly then takes off,&nbsp; it gets rid of excess water in its crop by regurgitating the water. If the fly has landed on a sandwich, it will empty its crop onto the bread.&nbsp;



Stoffolano noted that we still don’t know many of the basics about these flies. “It’s the little things that cause the problems. Our health depends on paying closer attention to these flies that live with us.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects13090776">Insects</a>.



---



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

Non-biting flies pose a bigger threat to public health

A study from the University of Massachusetts Amherst has revealed...

Depression&nbsp;is one of the most common mental health disorders in the United States and its prevalence is on the rise. Whereas statistics showed that 6.6 percent of US individuals older than 12 suffered from depression in 2005, this had increased to 7.3 percent by 2015. Now, researchers from <a href="https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.publichealth.columbia.edu%2F&amp;data=05%7C01%7Csb2247%40cumc.columbia.edu%7C89c310c90e8d4d48d2da08da95bd7d7c%7Cb0002a9b0017404d97dc3d3bab09be81%7C1%7C0%7C637986938352096526%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=6H8qC6SV%2BFCXEqrjGGFaKfX3Sbtt4%2FCYFCbhSNLOqP4%3D&amp;reserved=0">Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health</a>&nbsp;and City University of New York have updated these statistics using data from the 2015−2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, and found a further increase. They report their findings in the <a href="https://www.ajpmonline.org/">American Journal of Preventive Medicine</a>.&nbsp;



“Our study updates the depression prevalence estimates for the U.S. population through the year 2020 and confirms escalating increases in depression from 2015 through 2019, reflecting a public health crisis that was intensifying in the U.S. even before the onset of the pandemic,” said study lead author Dr &nbsp;<a href="https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.publichealth.columbia.edu%2Fpeople%2Four-faculty%2Frdg66&amp;data=05%7C01%7Csb2247%40cumc.columbia.edu%7C89c310c90e8d4d48d2da08da95bd7d7c%7Cb0002a9b0017404d97dc3d3bab09be81%7C1%7C0%7C637986938352096526%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=It4WPnF5qFpphY7XjHnSE2rqN09AKCvhsgTNZktV3Fs%3D&amp;reserved=0">Renee D. Goodwin</a>. “The net effect of these trends suggests an accelerating public health crisis and that parity and public-service announcement efforts have not achieved equity in depression treatment.”



In 2020, nine percent of Americans aged 12 or older had experienced a major depressive episode during the previous year. Depression was more common among young adults aged 18 to 25 years (just more than 17 percent), and adolescents aged 12 to 17 years (16.9 percent). Depression had increased most rapidly among adolescents and young adults and had increased among nearly all gender, racial/ethnic, income, and education groups. However, depression prevalence did not change among adults aged 35 and over.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The prevalence of depression among non-Hispanic white individuals exceeded that of all other race/ethnic groups. Depression was also consistently higher among women than men, and among adults who were not currently or previously married. While there was an increase in depression from 2015 to 2019 among those in each income group, the highest prevalence of depression was evident among those with the lowest household income.&nbsp;



For some individuals, major depression can result in severe impairments to functionality and the ability to carry out everyday life’s activities. In addition, it is the strongest risk factor in suicidal behavior. Despite these potential consequences, the recent study showed that the prevalence of help-seeking remained consistently low.&nbsp;



“Our results showed most adolescents with depression neither told or talked with a healthcare professional about depression symptoms nor received pharmacologic treatment from 2015 through 2020,” noted Goodwin.



“The elevated level and concentration of untreated depression among adolescents and young adults are especially problematic because&nbsp;untreated depression early in life is predictive of an increased risk of subsequent additional mental health problems."



“The short- and long-term consequences of the pandemic on depression are not yet clear, but these estimates are a requisite starting point for quantifying the mental health impact of the pandemic. Expanding evidence-based, community-based, public-facing campaigns that promote help-seeking, early intervention, prevention, and education about depression are urgently needed."



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

Nearly ten percent in the U.S. report having depression

Depression&nbsp;is one of the most common mental health disorders in...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/white-tailed-deer-behavior/">White-tailed deer</a> are heavily overpopulated along United States’ East Coast, and play a major role as vectors in the transmission of tick-borne diseases, such as Lyme or anaplasmosis. Until recently, efforts to control deer populations have been based on the assumption that deer live mostly in wooded parklands, and pass only occasionally through neighborhoods to graze on gardens and landscaped yards.&nbsp;



However, according to a new longitudinal study led by the <a href="https://www.umd.edu/">University of Maryland</a> (UMD), deer spend much more time in suburban environments than previously thought, often passing their nights within 50 meters of residential properties.&nbsp;



“We knew deer were in and around neighborhoods, but we didn’t realize just how much they were living in the neighborhoods,” said study senior author Jennifer Mullinax, an assistant professor of Wildlife Ecology at UMD.



“A big takeaway from this study is that neighborhoods&nbsp;are&nbsp;the home range of suburban white-tailed deer. Agencies monitoring and estimating suburban deer populations may be missing a huge part of the population if they focus their monitoring efforts only on deer in wooded parks and undeveloped areas, because a lot of the deer are actually living in the neighborhoods, especially at night and in winter.”



The scientists captured and collared 51 deer from five parks from the metropolitan area of Howard County, Maryland – a highly suburban area including residential neighborhoods, schools, businesses, and patches of undeveloped land. The collars contained high-resolution GPS trackers which recorded deer locations each hour for 62 to 116 weeks.



While deer tended to a avoid residential areas during the day, they often moved into them at night, particularly during winter, sleeping near the edges of lawns and yards surrounding houses and apartment buildings. “We used to think people mostly got Lyme disease when they walked in the woods,” Mullinax said. “But recent studies have shown they’re getting Lyme disease in their own backyards, and now that we know the deer are living right there too, it makes more sense.”



These findings offer important guidance for suburban communities seeking to reduce the risk of tick-borne diseases. Removing deer – which serve as tick reservoirs – or treating suburban areas where deer spend time could help limit the spread of tick-borne diseases and lower the rates of human exposure to this parasite.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11252-022-01270-3">Urban Ecosystems</a>.&nbsp;



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

Tick-carrying deer are living in the suburbs

White-tailed deer are heavily overpopulated along United States’ East Coast,...

Many scientists have already investigated how flooding caused by rising sea levels and storms may damage the coastal built environment. Now, a team of civil engineers from <a href="https://www.colostate.edu/">Colorado State University</a> has shed new light on a largely ignored aspect from previous studies: the hidden costs to building foundations due to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sea-levels-are-rising-at-an-alarming-rate/">sea level rise</a>. According to the experts – who also proposed a method for inspection and repair to lower the costs associated with deterioration from saltwater corrosion – it is highly important to look and plan ahead, especially considering the fact that there are over 16 million buildings along the United States’ Atlantic and Gulf coasts.



The researchers looked at nearly 137,000 residential buildings in the lower regions of Mobile County, Alabama, in order to estimate possible foundation damages caused by saltwater corrosion. Their analysis revealed that, under the most extreme sea level rise projections, the annual repair cost for building foundations in Mobile could rise up to $90 million by the end of this century.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“The significance here is that this value that we found for one of the saltwater intrusion scenarios is just for 137,000 buildings in Mobile,” said study senior author Hussan Mahmoud, a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado State University. “If you calculated the cost for the entire East Coast – or from the East to the West Coast – it would be staggering.”



By taking into account building locations and the probability of saltwater corrosion, the scientists developed a formula to help building owners determine when to inspect and repair their buildings. In addition, they proposed the use of low-cost sensors to monitor the water table level near a building’s foundation and thus avoid - as much as possible - uncertainty.&nbsp;



In a future study, they aim to examine structural performance beyond the foundation – such as how much wind and water surges during a hurricane a structure can withstand before alternative shelters should be sought. “This work will allow us to be proactive about finding solutions quickly to help those in need, instead of waiting until it’s bad,” Professor Mahmoud concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-18467-3">Nature Scientific Reports</a>.



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

How does sea level rise impact building foundations?

Many scientists have already investigated how flooding caused by rising...

With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, and the contentious presidential election from the fall, 2020 was a uniquely stressful year for Americans. According to a team of researchers led by the <a href="https://www.uni-mainz.de/">Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz</a> (JGU) in Germany, these crises may have significantly impeded the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fathers-age-social-development/">social development</a> of young adults at a critical time in their lives.



“If everything goes well, young adults select into social networks, initiate friendships and romantic relationships, and find their occupational niche,” said study lead author Janina Bühler, an expert in personality development at JGU. “Our findings, however, show that external stressors and environmental variations may set young adults on a less fortunate path.”



The scientists compared the social development of 415 young adults in 2020 with that of 465 ones in 2019. The participants – aged between 18 and 35 – were asked to share updates on various factors affecting their development over the course of eight months. The 2020 cohort reported decreased levels of intimacy and relationship satisfaction, while the group surveyed a year earlier reported slightly higher levels of social support and inclusion over time. Although the changes were not dramatic, even small effects can have long-lasting consequences.



“Environmental conditions and contexts are critical for development, because they provide the opportunities that people need to grow in a healthy way,” Dr. Bühler explained. “In the case of 2020, the average young person may have had fewer of these opportunities, causing fear and anxiety while potentially hindering their development.”



Surprisingly, one aspect of social functioning which did not appear to be affected by 2020’s multiple stressors was loneliness. “Irrespective of whether young adults were exposed to collective stressors or not, the degree and development of their loneliness was similar,” Dr. Bühler said.



Future studies are needed to assess the variation in the effect of such stressors on individual participants and to compare the stressors’ impact on different demographics and nationalities. Moreover, examining the coping mechanisms of those less affected could potentially lead to more effective resources and support for young adults.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/19485506221119018">Social Psychological and Personality Science</a>.



---



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

The stress of 2020 affected the development of young adults

With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the murder of...

The rings of Saturn provide evidence that the planet is spinning at a tilt. Astronomers have long suspected that this tilt comes from gravitational interactions with Neptune, as Saturn’s tilt spins at nearly the same rate as the orbit of Neptune.



But now, a team of researchers at <a href="https://www.mit.edu/">MIT</a> has found that Saturn has escaped Neptune’s pull. The experts propose that Saturn, which currently has 83 <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/can-soil-from-the-moon-be-used-to-construct-buildings/">moons</a>, once had at least one more named Chrysalis. The research suggests that Chrysalis orbited Saturn for several billion years, pulling and tugging on the planet in a way that kept its tilt in resonance with Neptune.&nbsp;



However, the team estimates that around 160 million years ago, Chrysalis became unstable and pulled the satellite apart. The loss of the moon was enough to remove Saturn from Neptune’s grasp and leave it with the present-day tilt.



While Chrysalis’ shattered body may have impacted Saturn, a fraction could have suspended in orbit, eventually breaking into small icy chunks to form the planet’s signature rings.



The missing satellite could explain two long standing mysteries: Saturn’s present-day tilt and the age of its rings, which were previously estimated to be 100 million years old - are much younger than the planet itself.



“Just like a butterfly’s chrysalis, this satellite was long dormant and suddenly became active, and the rings emerged,” said study lead author Jack Wisdom.



The research team looked to pin down Saturn’s moment of inertia using some of the last observations taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017. Surprisingly, they found that Saturn was close to, but just outside the resonance with Neptune. The planets may have once been in sync, but are no longer.



Sometime between 200 and 100 million years ago, Chrysalis entered a chaotic orbital zone, experienced a number of close encounters with other moons, and eventually ripped the satellite to bits, leaving a small fraction to circle the planet as a debris-strewn ring.



The researchers believe the loss of Chrysalis explains Saturn’s present-day tilt, as well as the late formation of its rings. “It’s a pretty good story, but like any other result, it will have to be examined by others,” said Wisdom.&nbsp;



This research was supported, in part, by NASA and the National Science Foundation. The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abn1234">Science</a>.



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

Saturn’s rings may have formed from a shattered moon

The rings of Saturn provide evidence that the planet is...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/red-tides-and-dead-zones-threaten-floridas-west-coast/">Hypoxia</a>, low levels of oxygen in bodies of water, can be a major stressor on the health of marine life. To understand how hypoxia affects the Arabian Gulf, a team of researchers studied how dissolved oxygen has evolved over three decades.&nbsp;



Experts in the Arabian Center for Climate and Environmental Sciences (ACCESS) at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) used an ocean model to simulate hypoxia near the seafloor. The results indicated an expansion and intensification of hypoxia in the central Arabian Gulf, followed by a lengthening of the hypoxic season.



“Oxygen is an essential molecule, vital for the survival of the marine organisms and fish populations in the area.” said lead author Zouhair Lachkar.&nbsp;



“Our team found that the seasonal hypoxic zone in the Arabian Gulf has grown by over 50 percent since the 1980s, and it is now persisting for several more months each year compared with several decades ago,”&nbsp;



Changes in the local climate are changing the Gulf’s environment, and this could implicate the region's ecosystems and fisheries.&nbsp;



The expansion of hypoxia could lead to fish mortality and a loss of biodiversity, as well as the movement of fish to avoid hypoxic stress. This can alter the community structure of reef ecosystems and increase the vulnerability of coral reefs to ongoing warming.



“The expansion and intensification of these low-oxygen waters in the central Gulf represents a growing threat to regional fisheries, with this hypoxic zone growing steadily towards the UAE’s offshore fishing grounds," said study co-author John Burt.&nbsp;



"We will continue to study the evolution of this phenomenon and will work with the relevant government agencies to assess this risk going forward as climate change continues to put pressure on our marine systems.”



The research is published in the journal <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science">Frontiers in Marine Science</a>.



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

Low-oxygen zone is expanding in the Arabian gulf

Hypoxia, low levels of oxygen in bodies of water, can...

Sea anemones start off life as slightly ovoid, free-swimming larvae and metamorphose into elongated, tubular adults that are stuck to the rock and have tentacles around their mouths. This involves drastic changes in behavior and life form, along with extensive changes to tissues. Although embryonic development has received research attention in the past, and behavior of early embryos has been studied, it is not clear to what extent the physical activity of an <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/neon-gobies-decide-when-to-hatch-their-embryos/">embryo</a> influences its own change in body shape.



In the past, scientists wishing to map the connections between dynamic behavior and the body changes that take place during metamorphosis have been hampered by the lack of live imaging strategies that capture the dynamics of this life-history transition. Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) have now overcome this obstacle using their expertise in live imaging, computational methodology, biophysics, and genetics. They have managed to turn&nbsp;2D and 3D live imaging into quantitative features to track the changes in the bodies of developing starlet sea anemones (Nematostella). The.results have been published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/home">Current Biology</a>.



The experts established a method of high-throughput live imaging using a specially adapted microscope and observed the changes that occur during the transition from larva to polyp in 707 anemones. This took place over about seven days and the researchers recorded the changes at 5-minute intervals. They found that larval circularity decreased dramatically during the transition, due mostly to a 3–4-fold increase in the length of the polyp body as it became more tubular and developed oral tentacles.&nbsp;



During this time, the sea anemones behaved like hydraulic pumps, taking in water and regulating body pressure through muscle activity. The researchers performed specific patterns of gymnastic movements that put pressure on certain tissues, thereby sculpting the shape of the body as it grew more elongated. Too much or too little muscle activity or a drastic change in the organization of their muscles could deviate the sea anemone from its normal shape.



“Humans use a skeleton made of muscles and bones to exercise. In contrast, sea anemones use a hydroskeleton made of muscles and a cavity filled with water,” said Aissam Ikmi, EMBL group leader. The same hydraulic muscles that help the developing sea anemones move also seem to impact how they develop. Using an image analysis pipeline to measure body column length, diameter, estimated volume, and motility in large data sets, the scientists found that&nbsp;Nematostella&nbsp;larvae naturally divide themselves into two groups: slow- and fast-developing larvae. To the team’s surprise, the more active the larvae, the longer they take to develop.&nbsp;



“Our work shows how developing sea anemones essentially ‘exercise’ to build their morphology, but it seems that they cannot use their hydroskeleton to move and develop simultaneously,” Ikmi said.



The developing anemones use this hydraulic system to remodel their tissues during this time. Through the use of peristaltic waves, squeezing and longitudinal contractions, they stimulate tissue proliferation in some places and cell death in others, thereby changing the layout of their body tissues.&nbsp;



“There were many challenges to doing this research,” explained first author and former EMBL predoc Anniek Stokkermans, now a postdoc at the Hubrecht Institute in the Netherlands. “This animal is very active. Most microscopes cannot record fast enough to keep up with the animal’s movements, resulting in blurry images, especially when you want to look at it in 3D. Additionally, the animal is quite dense, so most microscopes cannot even see halfway through the animal.”



To look both deeper and faster, Ling Wang, an application engineer in the Prevedel group at EMBL, built a microscope to capture living, developing sea anemone larvae in 3D during their natural behavior.



“For this project, Ling has specifically adapted one of our core technologies, Optical Coherence Microscopy or OCM. The key advantage of OCM is that it allows the animals to move freely under the microscope while still providing a clear, detailed look inside, and in 3D.” said Robert Prevedel, EMBL group leader. “It has been an exciting project that shows the many different interfaces between EMBL groups and disciplines.”



With this specialized tool, the researchers were able to quantify volumetric changes in tissue and body cavity. “To increase their size, sea anemones inflate like a balloon by taking up water from the environment,” Stokkermans explained. “Then, by contracting different types of muscles, they can regulate their short-term shape, much like squeezing an inflated balloon on one side, and watching it expand on the other side. We think this pressure-driven local expansion helps stretch tissue, so the animal slowly becomes more elongated. In this way, contractions can have both short-term and a long-term effects.”



To better understand the hydraulics and their function, researchers collaborated with experts across disciplines. Prachiti Moghe, an EMBL predoc in the Hiiragi group, measured pressure changes driving body deformations. Additionally, mathematician L. Mahadevan and engineer Aditi Chakrabarti from Harvard University introduced a mathematical model to quantify the role of hydraulic pressures in driving system-level changes in shape. They also engineered reinforced balloons with bands and tapes that mimic the range of shapes and sizes seen in both normal and muscle-defective animals.



“Given the ubiquity of hydrostatic skeletons in the animal kingdom, especially in marine invertebrates, our study suggests that active muscular hydraulics play a broad role in the design principle of soft-bodied animals,” Ikmi said. “In many engineered systems, hydraulics is defined by the ability to harness pressure and flow into mechanical work, with long-range effects in space-time. As animal multicellularity evolved in an aquatic environment, we propose that early animals likely exploited the same physics, with hydraulics driving both developmental and behavioral decisions.”



“We still have many questions from these new findings," said Stokkermans. "Why are there different activity levels? How do cells exactly sense and translate pressure into a developmental outcome? Furthermore, since tube-like structures form the basis of many of our organs, studying the mechanisms that apply to&nbsp;Nematostella&nbsp;will also help gain further understanding in how hydraulics play a role in organ development and function.”



---



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

Sea anemones "exercise" to build their bodies

Sea anemones start off life as slightly ovoid, free-swimming larvae...

Leaving home to explore the world can be a difficult decision. Tiny coral reef fish called neon gobies help their <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/older-parents-may-be-beneficial-to-offspring/">offspring</a> by pushing them out the door when the time is right, according to a new study from <a href="https://www.utexas.edu/">UT Austin</a>. This research provides the first documented case of a coral reef fish regulating when its offspring hatch.&nbsp;



Coral reef fish are incredibly vulnerable when hatching, which means that choosing the right time to hatch is a crucial decision. Male neon gobies hatch their embryos by removing eggs from the nest with their mouth. They transport the eggs to the opening of the sponge where the fish live - and then spit them out of the sponge entrance.



“We often think that eggs are like tiny kitchen timers: they develop for a set period of time, then - ding! - they hatch. But, in many species, embryos have to actively decide when to hatch," explained study co-author John Majoris.



The researchers found that when neon goby embryos develop without parents, they hatch up to 50 percent earlier than embryos cared for by their parents.



All of the male parents in the study hatched their offspring at sunrise on the seventh day of development, suggesting that all of the goby parents know the best time for their embryos to hatch.



“Goby embryos are ready and waiting,” said Majoris. “When parents are around, they wait patiently for their dads to make the call that it’s time to hatch.”



Offspring hatched by their parents are more developed and likely benefit from their larger size when catching food, escaping predators and navigating the ocean. This is the first time scientists have discovered a coral reef fish that tells its offspring when to hatch, which could be more common than we think.&nbsp;



Cryptobenthic coral reef fishes - a group of tiny bottom dwellers - often lay their eggs deep in reef crevices, where it is difficult for embryos to judge hatching conditions. In this case, parents can help out by hatching their eggs at just the right time.&nbsp;



“This is a remarkably complex parenting behavior for a tiny fish,” Majoris said. “It goes to show that we still have so much to learn about life in our oceans.”



The surprising complexities of fish parenting behavior provides evidence that&nbsp; fish parents can make decisions based on the local conditions that influence the survival, resilience and success of their offspring.



The paper is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.1466">Proceedings of the Royal Society B</a>. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, and a Dana Wright Summer Research Fellowship.



---



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

Neon gobies decide when to hatch their embryos

Leaving home to explore the world can be a difficult...

A team of researchers led by the <a href="https://www.ucsb.edu/">University of California, Santa Barbara</a> has discovered a process far more dynamic than volcanologists had assumed to be possible in the two centuries they have been studying <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/major-volcanic-events-linked-to-the-slowing-of-tectonic-plates/">volcanic events</a>. The experts made this discovery while sampling magma from the Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland, which erupted in March 2021.



By trying to clarify how deep in the mantle the magma originated, how far beneath the surface it was stored prior to the eruption, and what was happening in the reservoir before and during the eruption, the researchers got “a big surprise” – as study co-author Matthew Jackson put it.



“The assumption was that a magma chamber fills up slowly over time, and the magma becomes well mixed. And then it drains over the course of the eruption.”&nbsp;



According to Jackson (and most other volcanologists), as a result of this well-defined two step process, there are usually no significant changes in the chemical composition of the magma as it flows out of the earth.&nbsp;



“This is what we see at Mount Kīlauea, in Hawaii,” said Jackson. “You’ll have eruptions that go on for years, and there will be minor changes over time.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“But in Iceland, there was more than a factor of 1,000 higher rates of change for key chemical indicators. In a month, the Fagradalsfjall eruption showed more compositional variability than the Kīlauea eruptions showed in decades. The total range of chemical compositions that were sampled at this eruption over the course of the first month span the entire range that has ever erupted in southwest Iceland in the last 10,000 years.”



The experts said this extreme variability is most likely a result of subsequent batches of magma flowing into the chamber from the deeper layers of the mantle. “Picture a lava lamp in your mind. You have a hot lightbulb at the bottom, it heats up a blob and the blob rises, cools and then sinks. We can think of the Earth’s mantle - from the top of the core to under the tectonic plates - operating much like a lava lamp,” explained Jackson.



As the heat causes some regions of the mantle to rise and plumes form and move upwards towards the surface, molten rock accumulates in chambers and crystallizes, gases escape through the crust, and pressure builds allowing the magma to eventually erupt. In the case of the Fagradalsfjall volcano, although what first erupted was the expected “depleted” magma type accumulating in the reservoir, in about a month, the chamber was recharged by deeper, “enriched” type melts with a different composition (higher magnesium and carbon dioxide levels). In yet another month, the magma which dominated the flow was the deeper, enriched type.&nbsp;



Although such rapid, extreme changes&nbsp;in magma composition have never been observed before – most likely due to the fact that opportunities to sample eruptions at such an early stage are not common - they may not be so rare. Further research is needed to assess the frequency of such phenomena in other volcanic eruptions, and clarify the mysterious ways in which volcanoes work.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04981-x">Nature</a>.



---



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

Mysterious aspect of volcanic eruptions observed for the first time

A team of researchers led by the University of California,...

By using both field observations and a machine-learning algorithm applied to the audio clips recorded in the field, a research team led by the <a href="https://www.unl.edu/">University of Nebraska-Lincoln</a> (UNL) has investigated the “whoops” of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/spotted-hyenas-change-their-foraging-behavior-to-adapt/">spotted hyenas</a> in the Maasai Mara grasslands of southwestern Kenya. The analysis revealed that hyena whoops feature signatures unique to individuals – a form of “caller ID” distinct enough that hyenas can distinguish one from another – and that repetition of such whoops often improves identification.&nbsp;



Since spotted hyena clans are built on hierarchies depending upon social rank, but consist of multiple families that regularly come together and disperse across the savannah, a capacity for identifying specific individuals is particularly important.&nbsp;



“Hyenas don’t treat every individual in the clan the same, so if they’re deciding whether to show up and help someone, they want to know who they’re showing up to help,” said study lead author Kenna Lehmann, a postdoctoral fellow in Biology at UNL.



By recording the sounds of hundreds of hyenas in the African savannah and employing a machine-learning algorithm trained to pair specific hyenas with the whoops they emitted, Dr. Lehmann and her colleagues identified three major traits of the whoops that helped hyenas recognize the individual that emitted them: the duration of the call, the highest frequency of the call, and the average frequency during the portion of the call which was most consistent in pitch. According to their analysis, the greater the disparity in these traits, the more likely the hyenas would be to distinguish among the sources of the whoops.



However, since many acoustic nuances can get lost during transmission – when the calls come from far away, or are masked by environmental noises from wind, precipitation, or other animal calls – repetition of the whoops becomes essential. “There’s an understanding that one of the ways to get your message across is to repeat it, especially if you’re in a noisy environment or if you’re communicating over long distances,” Dr. Lehmann explained. “It’s like getting a little bit more information (each time). The first time you hear it, you might notice: Oh, that was definitely a male or a female voice. Then, the next whoop, you might be able to narrow it down further.”



Although the calls of some animal species also contain signatures that differentiate the groups to which they belong from other same-species groups – somewhat similar to human accents or dialects – the researchers were surprised to find that this was not the case for hyenas. Apparently, the amazing ability to memorize so many individual signatures may have rendered a clan signature either useless or not useful enough to bother developing.



“If you know who the individual is, you know what group they’re in,” Dr. Lehmann said. “Animals are pretty good at associating that information. So if they need individual signatures for other reasons, then there just may have never been a need to also develop a group signature, which is what this finding suggests. They should be able to keep track of all the individual voices and be able to distinguish: If this is Individual X, they’re in my group. I can choose to help them based on them being a group member, but maybe there are more decisions to be made about whether they’re a group mate that I actually want to help,” she concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2022.0548">Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences</a>.



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

Spotted hyenas recognize each other from their distinctive whoops

By using both field observations and a machine-learning algorithm applied...

Burmese pythons are not only huge <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/snakes-depend-on-their-sex-chromosomes-for-survival/">snakes</a> – reaching over 18 feet in length and 200 pounds in weight – but also voracious eaters, often feeding on prey as large as a deer. Now, a team of biologists from the <a href="https://www.uc.edu/">University of Cincinnati</a> (UC) has found that it’s not only the size of the head and the body that make pythons able to consume such large animals; they also evolved highly stretchy skin between their lower jaws which allows them to feed on prey up to six times larger than similar-sized snakes.



Since most snakes swallow they prey whole, they must have extremely wide mouths to accommodate such meals. Unlike humans’ lower jawbones, those of snakes are not connected, allowing them to open wide.&nbsp;



“The stretchy skin between left and right lower jaws is radically different in pythons. Just over 40 percent of their total gape area on average is from stretchy skin,” said study lead author Bruce Jayne, a professor of Biology at UC. “Even after you correct for their large heads, their gape is enormous.”



Pythons are constrictors, meaning that they bite their prey and wrap their powerful coils around it, cutting off its vital blood flow before consuming it whole – and the larger the prey, the more energy snakes derive from a single meal. Due to this, pythons do not need to hunt that often, which can carry high risks in a world replete with other dangerous predators and busy roads.



Since small snakes derive greater benefits in relative mass prey from just a modest increase in gape size, python babies have an early advantage from being able to consume a broader range of prey compared to other snakes of similar size.&nbsp;



Moreover, being big also helps snakes avoid being eaten themselves by predators ranging from wading birds, minks, and raccoons to alligators and other snakes. “Once those pythons get to a reasonable size, it’s pretty much just alligators that can eat them,” Professor Jayne said. “And pythons eat alligators.”&nbsp;



Currently, Burmese pythons are wreaking havoc on the ecology of Everglades National Park where they were introduced due to the release of captive animals from the exotic pet trade in the 1980s.&nbsp;



“The Everglades ecosystem is changing in real time based on one species, the Burmese python,” said study co-author Ian Bartoszek, an environmental science project manager for the <a href="https://conservancy.org/">Conservancy of Southwest Florida</a>.&nbsp;



Fortunately, they rarely attack people. According to Bartoszek, the only defensive encounters he has had with wild pythons were with females guarding their nests. “It’s way more dangerous to drive there than to work with the snakes,” he concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/iob/obac033">Integrative Organismal Biology</a>.



---



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

How can pythons eat prey as large as a deer?

Burmese pythons are not only huge snakes – reaching over...

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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What to plant in your garden in mid-July

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

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

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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>.



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Wildlife tunnels save millions of amphibians

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

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



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



<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...

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

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

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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;



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



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

Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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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



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



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

The history of Mars is much more complex than we thought

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