What if the secret to eating less wasn’t portion control or calorie counting, but chili peppers? For centuries, spice has added excitement to meals. Now, it may also offer a simple way to manage how much you eat. 



New research from <a href="https://www.psu.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Penn State</a> shows that a small boost in spiciness can lead to reduced calorie intake without affecting how much you enjoy your food.



Eating behaviors are influenced by many things - taste, texture, aroma, and even how fast you chew. Most strategies aimed at reducing food intake focus on controlling portions or changing food composition. But this study highlights a different path: tweaking oral burn. 



That warm, tingly sensation from capsaicin - the compound in chili peppers - might be doing more than just making your tongue tingle.



Researchers conducted three controlled experiments to understand if chili heat could reduce energy intake. Their findings were clear: a little heat slows you down and helps you <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/common-plastic-food-packaging-contains-9936-harmful-chemicals/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">eat</a> less.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-spicy-food-slows-eating">Spicy food slows eating</h2>



Paige Cunningham, a postdoctoral researcher at Penn State who led the study, said that her team suspected that making a meal spicier might slow people down.



"We thought, let's test, under controlled experimental conditions in the lab, if adding a small amount of spice, but not so much that the meal is inedible, will make people eat slower and therefore eat less,” explained Cunningham.



The research team designed three experiments using two familiar meals: beef chili and chicken tikka masala. Each participant consumed both a mild and a spicy version of the meal across different visits. 



The key manipulation involved adjusting the ratio of hot to sweet paprika while keeping everything else - flavor, texture, macronutrients - constant. Every session was recorded to track bite size, eating rate, meal duration, and more.



They found that adding spice didn’t make the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/world-food-day-fighting-global-hunger/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">meal</a> unpleasant. Instead, it changed how people ate. The spicy meals were consumed more slowly. Eating rate dropped, and participants took fewer bites per minute. Interestingly, participants still liked the spicy meals just as much.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-spicy-beef-and-tikka-led-to-eating-less-food">Spicy beef and tikka led to eating less food</h2>



In Experiment 1, participants consumed about 46 grams less of the spicy beef chili compared to the mild version. That’s a 13% reduction in intake, which also meant 53 fewer kilocalories. 



The eating rate was 11% slower during the spicy <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/vaccinating-plants-could-boost-global-food-security/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">meal</a>, and the bite rate dropped as well. However, total meal duration and bite size didn’t change significantly. Participants simply took more time between bites, eating more thoughtfully.



“This points to added chilies as a potential strategy for reducing the risk of energy overconsumption,” said John Hayes, professor of food science and co-author on the study. “Next time you're looking to eat a little less, try adding a blast of chilies, as it may slow you down and help you eat less.”



Experiment 2a used chicken tikka masala instead of chili. Here, the manipulation failed - the spicy version was not perceived as much spicier than the mild one. As a result, there was no significant difference in intake or eating behavior. 



This outcome stressed an important point: the effect depends on the perceptible level of heat. Mild differences won’t move the needle.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-stronger-spice-yields-stronger-results">A stronger spice yields stronger results</h2>



To address the failed manipulation in Experiment 2a, the researchers revised their approach in Experiment 2b. They increased the paprika content in the chicken tikka and ensured the spicy version delivered a noticeable burn. 



This time, the result mirrored the chili experiment. Participants ate 64 grams less spicy tikka, a reduction of 18%. Eating rate dropped by 17%, and bite frequency also decreased.



The spice didn’t make the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fungi-fusion-turning-food-waste-into-culinary-delights/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">food</a> less enjoyable. In both chili and tikka trials, liking scores remained stable. Appetite ratings before and after meals also stayed roughly the same. What changed was how people interacted with the food. The spicy versions encouraged slower, more mindful eating.



Notably, water consumption didn’t vary between mild and spicy versions. This ruled out a common assumption: that drinking more water fills people up. “This is why we need to do empirical studies of behavior, because what you might intuitively expect is often not the case,” Hayes remarked.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mechanisms-and-possible-thresholds">Mechanisms and possible thresholds</h2>



So, what’s actually happening here? The likely mechanism is increased oro-sensory exposure. Spicy foods stay in the mouth longer, allowing time for fullness signals to reach the brain. This has been linked with reduced energy intake in earlier studies involving texture changes. 



But here, the change was chemical, not physical. That makes it a novel method for influencing eating behavior.



Interestingly, the data suggests a potential threshold effect. The spicy version in Experiment 2a didn’t yield any change because it wasn’t spicy enough. In contrast, Experiment 2b used a 4% hot paprika blend, producing a spiciness rating around 68 out of 101. 



That version led to real behavior changes. The spicy beef chili in Experiment 1, rated at 54, also caused a measurable reduction. Meals that reached a certain burn intensity consistently led to slower eating and lower intake.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-individual-differences-and-tolerance">Individual differences and tolerance</h2>



The study also explored how personal traits affect response to spice. Participants with higher levels of neuroticism and openness were less responsive to spice changes. 



However, traits like age, BMI, and frequency of eating spicy food didn’t seem to affect outcomes. That said, the researchers did recruit only moderate spice consumers. This reduced variability and helped maintain experimental control.



No participants reported discomfort, and the spice levels used fell well below extreme intensity. 



This suggests there’s a “sweet spot” for oral burn - strong enough to affect eating, but not so strong that it reduces meal enjoyment or causes distress. <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/global-drought-has-caused-crisis-levels-of-food-and-water-scarcity/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Meals</a> rated around 50–70 on the spice scale seem to hit that balance.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-adding-spice-can-change-eating-habits">Adding spice can change eating habits</h2>



The broader implications of this research are promising. Spicy food is widely used around the world, and the ingredients - like chili pepper and paprika - are affordable and accessible. 



As capsaicin gains attention for its potential health benefits, including improved metabolism and satiety, these findings add another layer: it can reshape how we eat.



In daily life, eating occurs in varied environments. While this study happened in a lab, it still shows a robust effect across different dishes. The results also challenge the idea that we must alter what we eat to eat less. Instead, we may just need to adjust how we experience it.



“This reduction in intake occurred without negatively impacting how much participants liked the food,” said Hayes. That’s a significant point. No one wants to sacrifice enjoyment for control. Here, you don’t have to.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-adding-chili-to-your-plate">Adding chili to your plate</h2>



From chili con carne to tikka masala, a little extra heat might be a gentle nudge toward eating less. The key lies in slowing down the eating process. That pause between bites, triggered by oral burn, gives your body time to say, “I’m full.”



These findings invite more exploration. Can this strategy help long-term? Will it work in more diverse populations or in social eating situations? And what is the best spice level to use at home? 



While those questions remain, one thing is clear - adding a little chili might do more than wake up your taste buds. It might just help you regain control over your plate.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950329325001417?via%3Dihub" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Food Quality and Preference</a>.



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Spicy foods can slow down eating and cut calorie intake

What if the secret to eating less wasn’t portion control or calorie counting, but chili peppers? For centuries, spice has added excitement to meals. Now, it may also offer a simple way to manage how much you eat. New research from Penn State shows that a small boost in spiciness can lead to reduced calorie intake without affecting how much you enjoy your food. Eating behaviors are influenced by many things - taste, texture, aroma, and even how fast you chew. Most strategies aimed at reducing food...

Living near protected areas may make people more environmentally conscious. People who live near protected environmental areas (Pas) are more likely to adopt pro-environmental behaviors, support conservation and management, and vote for party candidates who run on pro-environment platforms. 

This is the major takeaway from a new study conducted by the<a href="http://www.cnrs.fr/en/cnrs"> French National Center for Scientific Research</a> and published in the journal Biological Conservation. 

To examine the impact that PAs have on nearby residents, scientists reviewed three key indicators for environmental consciousness. 

The researchers wanted to see what, if any, influence living near a protected area has on a person’s attitudes toward environmentalism and conservation. 

Indicators of environmental consciousness included how much support there was for green candidates in different town elections in France, how much people contributed to ecological conservation funds like the <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/">World Wildlife Fund</a> and the <a href="https://www.lpo.fr/">Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux</a>, a bird conservation, and lastly how many people participated in a garden birdwatch citizen science initiative coordinated by the <a href="https://www.mnhn.fr/en">Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle</a>. 

These indicators are reliable measures of environmentalism in people, according to the researchers. 

Overall, the researchers found that people were more pro-environment when they lived near PAs. Green candidates performed 31 percent higher near PAs and membership to the bird conservation group was twice as high in towns closer to a PA. Living near protected areas may make people more environmentally conscious 

The researchers also found that the number of retirees in a town was a factor in a population’s environmentalism as retirees showed more interest in the bird watching citizen science program. 

There are several possible reasons for why proximity to PAs correlates with environmental consciousness. 

Living near a wild area may cause people to be more involved in protecting those areas and spur an interest in nature compared to people who live in urban areas. 

PAs directly promote pro-environmentalism through park staff efforts, campaigns, and education outreach opportunities. 

The lack of priority given to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/trump-mining-boundary-waters/">conservation and environmental protection</a> in some countries could have adverse ripple effects as this study shows, further instilling a dismissive attitude toward conservation.

However, if parks and protected areas keep their protected status, it could raise awareness and promote a sense of environmental stewardship. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Living near protected areas may make people more environmentally conscious

Living near protected areas may make people more environmentally conscious....

You’ll gain more weight if you eat comfort food while also stressed. A team of researchers led by Professor Herbert Herzog, Head of the Eating Disorders laboratory at the <a href="https://www.garvan.org.au/">Garvan Institute of Medical Research</a>, have found that eating a high-calorie diet during a period of stress can result in a person gaining more weight than if they ate that high-calorie diet in a stress-free environment.

"This study [published in <a href="https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/home">Cell Metabolism</a>] indicates that we have to be much more conscious about what we're eating when we're stressed, to avoid a faster development of obesity," Professor Herzog said.

Many people seek comfort in calorie-dense foods when in a <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/nature-significantly-reduce-stress-levels/">stressful</a> situation, and the researchers wanted to gain a better understanding of why this happens. To do so, they first studied the emotion-driven part of the brain — the amygdala — within mice. They were then able to target an eating-stimulant molecule called NPY, which the brain produces in response to stress. NPY is also present in human brains.

"Our study showed that when stressed over an extended period and high calorie food was available, mice became obese more quickly than those that consumed the same high fat food in a stress-free environment," said lead author Dr. Kenny Chi Kin Ip. “We discovered that when we switched off the production of NPY in the amygdala, weight gain was reduced. Without NPY, the weight gain on a high-fat diet with stress was the same as weight gain in the stress-free environment.”

“This shows a clear link between stress, obesity and NPY,” Dr. Ip concluded.

To better grasp why NPY is produced under stress, the team looked at the nerve cells in the amygdala that produce the molecule. Each cell has receptors (or, “docking stations”) for insulin, a hormone that controls our food intake.

Normally, insulin is produced after a meal to help cells absorb glucose from the blood and tell hypothalamus in the brain to stop eating. However, under chronic stress, the researchers found that blood insulin levels rise, and when a high-calorie diet is introduced, insulin levels could jump 10 times higher than when the mice were operating in a stress-free environment eating a normal diet.

Prolonged periods of high insulin cause the cell docking stations to become desensitized to insulin, therefore they stop detecting the hormone. The cells then boost their NPY levels, which promotes eating.

"Our findings revealed a vicious cycle, where chronic, high insulin levels driven by stress and a high-calorie diet promoted more and more eating," Professor Herzog explained. "This really reinforced the idea that while it's bad to eat junk food, eating high-calorie foods under stress is a double whammy that drives obesity."

He continued, “We were surprised that insulin had such a significant impact on the amygdala," says Professor Herzog. "It's becoming more and more clear that insulin doesn't only impact peripheral regions of the body, but that it regulates functions in the brain. We're hoping to explore these effects further in future."

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

You’ll gain more weight if you eat comfort food

You’ll gain more weight if you eat comfort food while...

One in five say they’ve been harmed by the drinking habits . When enjoyed in moderation and under the appropriate circumstances, alcohol can be a welcome addition to any celebration or moment of relaxation. But it’s no secret that <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/alcohol-consumption-gene-marriage/">alcohol</a> can also be an instigator of more than just a few problems.

A recent study published in the online journal <a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/">BMJ Open</a> has found that one in five people in England have been harmed by others’ drinking at some point in the past year. The study surveyed 5,000 adults in England, assessing the extent, type, and frequency of the harms associated with other people’s drinking, who is most likely to be affected, and who or what might be causing it.

The potential harms associated with others’ drinking included actual or threatened physical violence, emotional hurt or neglect, being forced or pressured into sex, having to care for someone whose drinking resulted in illness or disability, and being kept awake at night because of associated noise or disruption. Just over 20% of people said they experienced at least one of these harms. 

Men were more likely to experience violence and aggression that women, while women were about twice as likely to have experienced emotional harm or neglect. Results of the survey showed that the factors associated with experiencing harm were being of younger age (16-24), white British ethnicity, having a disability, and being a hazardous drinker, among others. Hazardous drinkers were more than twice as likely to report harm due to others’ drinking compared to those who didn’t drink as much.

“It is clear that [alcohol-related harm to others] is relatively prevalent and that some individuals experience harm frequently. The most prevalent harms could be considered insignificant, but even apparently minor harms such as sleep disruption can have an impact on health and quality of life, particularly if experienced persistently,” the study’s authors explain. “Policies that focus on alcohol must take into consideration the impact of drinking on those other than the drinker.”

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

One in five say they’ve been harmed by the drinking habits

One in five say they’ve been harmed by the drinking...

Researchers from <a href="https://www.rpi.edu/">Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute</a> used a new computer model to show how increased rainfall caused by <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-fertility/">climate change</a> could cause global massive disruptions to roadways. 

Combining data on road networks with topography, the researchers were able to see “tipping points” at which even small localized increases in rainfall could affect roadways. 

"To prepare for climate change, we have to know where flooding leads to the biggest disruptions in transportation routes,” said lead author and network scientist Jianxi Gao, an assistant professor of computer science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. “Network science typically points to the biggest interactions, or the most heavily traveled routes. That's not what we see here. A little bit of flood-induced damage can cause abrupt widespread failures."

Gao and his team paired traditional network science models, used to predict how specific disruptions will impact road networks, with environmental science models, used to predict how topography influences flooding in an area, thus creating a more accurate method to predict how potential rainfall and flooding could knockout roadways.

For example, Gao found that an increase of 5 mm of rainfall in Florida knocked out 50% of the road network, and that same amount of rainfall increase in the Hunan province of China knocked out 42% of the local network. To check the accuracy of their model, Gao and his team compared their predictions for road outages in southeast Texas and Houston during Hurricane Harvey to the actual outage report.

"We cracked the data,” Gao said. “Hurricane Harvey caused some of the most extensive road outages in U.S. history, and our model predicted that damage. Adding 3D information causes more unusual failure patterns than we expected, but now we have developed the mathematical equations to predict those patterns."

Their findings are published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/ncomms/">Nature Communications</a>.

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Image Credit: Shutterstock

More rainfall due to climate change may cause widespread road outages

Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute used a new computer model...

Dry, fruity, bold, or sweet, are just a few of the different descriptors that wine lovers pair with their libation of choice. If you were given a fruity Pinot and a dry Cabernet Sauvignon, you could probably easily differentiate between the two because a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/red-wine-lung-cancer-prevention/">dry red wine</a> has such a distinct mouthfeel. 

In a new study, researchers from the <a href="https://www.ucdavis.edu/">University of California, Davis</a> have identified the characteristics of the chemical compounds that make some wines taste dry, and it all comes down to the tannins. 

While past researchers and wine experts have long attributed dryness to the tannins in a wine, the molecular makeup of tannins and how they interact with proteins in the saliva has not been well understood. 

Dryness or astringency is the rough, puckering sensation you experience when you drink certain wines. The tannins interact proteins in the saliva which makes the mouth drier. 

For this study, the researchers extracted tannins from a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Pinot Noir.  

After analyzing the chemical compounds, the researchers found that the drier Cabernet had larger tannins and when these tannins interacted with saliva, it grouped together more salivary proteins. 

The researchers attempted to make the Pinot drier by adding Cabernet tannins to the fruity wine, but it didn’t impact the dryness sensation when trained panelists tasted the Pinot. 

When the Cabernet tannins were added to model wine consisting of just ethanol and tartaric acid, the panelists did report more dryness, which suggests the aromas and flavors of the Pinot may have overpowered the new tannins. 

The researchers say that the results could help winemakers produce better wines and manage dryness. 

The full results of the study were published in the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society’s</a> Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Why certain red wines taste ‘dry’

Dry, fruity, bold, or sweet, are just a few of...

A team of neuroscientists has identified the region of the human brain that is dedicated to perceiving the barriers which define the traversable space around us, such as walls or ceilings, so that we can navigate safely through our environment. 

This <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/brain-region-value-decisions/">brain</a> region processes our spatial constraints at incredibly fast speeds and likely contributes to our instant sense of new surroundings. The research is shedding new light on the complex computations performed by our brains to help us get around. 

Study senior author Dr. Nikolaus Kriegeskorte is a principal investigator at Columbia University's <a href="https://zuckermaninstitute.columbia.edu/">Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute</a>.

“Vision gives us an almost instant sense where we are in space, and in particular of the geometry of the surfaces - the ground, the walls - which constrain our movement. It feels effortless, but it requires the coordinated activity of multiple brain regions,” said Dr. Kriegeskorte. “How neurons work together to give us this sense of our surroundings has remained mysterious. With this study, we are a step closer to solving that puzzle.”

Using two cutting-edge brain-imaging technologies, the researchers examined the mental responses of volunteers as they were shown images of various three-dimensional scenes. The image may depict a typical room with three walls, a ceiling, and a floor, but then was abruptly changed by the removal of a wall or a ceiling. 

“By doing this repeatedly for each participant as we methodically altered the images, we could piece together how their brains encoded each scene,” said study first author Dr. Linda Henriksson.

The occipital place area (OPA), an intermediate-level stage of cortical processing, stood out in the brain scans of the participants.

“Previous studies had shown that OPA neurons encode scenes, rather than isolated objects,” said Dr. Kriegeskorte. “But we did not yet understand what aspect of the scenes this region's millions of neurons encoded.”

After analyzing the brain scans, the team discovered that the OPA activity represented the geometry of the scenes. The OPA activity patterns reflected the presence or absence of each component, such as a ceiling or a wall, and projected a detailed picture of the overall configuration.

The brain region seemed to ignore the surface appearance of the various components in order to focus solely on the geometric patterns. The OPA managed to get a sense of a room's layout in just 100 milliseconds.

“The speed with which our brains sense the basic geometry of our surroundings is an indication of the importance of having this information quickly,” said Dr. Henriksson. “It is key to knowing whether you're inside or outside, or what might be your options for navigation.”

In the future, the research team plans to incorporate virtual reality technology to create more realistic 3D environments for participants to experience. 

“We would like to put these things together and build computer vision systems that are more like our own brains, systems that have specialized machinery like what we observe here in the human brain for rapidly sensing the geometry of the environment,” said Dr. Kriegeskorte.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/neuron/home">Neuron</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Our brains can map the physical barriers of a room in just 100 milliseconds

A team of neuroscientists has identified the region of the...

Snakebites are a major health crisis and a long neglected one. According to the <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/snakebite-envenoming">World Health Organization</a>, around 5.4 million people are bitten by snakes each year worldwide, resulting in 81,000 to 138,000 deaths and three times as many amputations. 

While treatable, antivenoms rely on archaic 19th-century methods to create treatments that are not always effective or even accessible to tropical and subtropical communities where the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/risk-death-snake-bites/">burden of snakebite injury and death is highest</a>. 

A new initiative will hopefully create some much-needed progress in snakebite treatment research as well as funding. 

Britain's <a href="https://wellcome.ac.uk/">Wellcome Trust</a>, a global health charity, has announced plans to donate $102 million to snakebite treatments in the hopes of improving antivenoms, making treatments widely and easily accessible, and creating more effective snakebite drugs. 

Snakebites have been declared a “hidden health crisis” prompting the Wellcome Trust to action. 

Rural communities in Africa, Asia and South America are most at risk of amputation or death due to snakebites, but very little progress has been made in treating these very treatable injuries. 

To create an antivenom, horses are injected with a small dose of snake venom. The horse is unaffected by the toxin but blood taken from the horse is used to create antivenoms for humans, a hardly scientific process with few safety standards. 

“Snakebite treatment is essentially reliant on a 100-year-old process,” David Lalloo, a professor and director of Britain’s Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, told <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-snakes/hidden-health-crisis-of-snakebites-gets-100-million-funding-injection-idUSKCN1SL2Y9">Reuters</a>. 

While there will always be poisonous snakes that pose a risk to people worldwide, the lack of safe and accessible treatment highlights a lack of progress in antivenoms. 

“Snakebite is – or should be – a treatable condition. With access to the right antivenom there is a high chance of survival,” said Professor Mike Turner, director of science at Wellcome. “It’s an incredibly challenging issue – there has been almost no investment in snakebite research over the last decade – but it’s also one that is solvable with support from WHO, national governments, industry and other funders.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Snakebites declared a ‘hidden health crisis’ around the globe

Snakebites are a major health crisis and a long neglected...

One of the biggest concerns associated with climate change is that land loss will impact our ability to feed a growing global population and threaten <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/farming-changes-greenhouse-gases/">food security</a>.

In the first assessment of its kind, an international team of researchers from the <a href="http://www.iiasa.ac.at/">International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis</a> (IIASA), <a href="https://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/">Kyoto University</a>, <a href="http://en.ritsumei.ac.jp/">Ritsumeikan University</a>, and the <a href="http://www.nies.go.jp/index-e.html">National Institute for Environmental Studies</a> in Japan set out to shed light on the relationship between food security and climate change mitigation. 

The study, published in the journal Nature Sustainability, examines how much strict climate change mitigation policies will cost food security, and how these costs can be avoided in order to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of achieving zero hunger by 2030. 

It is possible to combat climate change and still address food security issues at a modest cost, the researchers found. 

“We would like to emphasize that land and food related climate change mitigation policies should be carefully designed,” said Shinichiro Fujimori, the lead author of the study. “Policymakers should be aware that potential issues could arise as a result of the uniqueness of the food system compared to, for example, the energy system.”

There are many potential climate change mitigation strategies that could be implemented to reduce warming and atmospheric greenhouse gasses, but at what cost to food security? 

For example, there has been a great deal of attention given to the idea of planting more trees and transforming barren land into forests. However, this will reduce potential cropland. 

Unless climate change mitigation policies address food security concerns, there is a high risk of increasing food demand and decreasing food security. 

In other words, stringent mitigation policies could result in more people going hungry. The researchers found that depending on the climate change mitigation scenario, 130 to 280 million people could suffer from hunger in 2050. 

The researchers then examined how “smart and inclusive climate policies” would impact food security and found that additional costs to GDP to meet food demand were modest in comparison to the costs of climate mitigation. 

“The findings of the paper are central to understanding that we can reach very low climate targets together with sustainable land-use and agricultural development,” said Keywan Riahi, IIASA Energy Program Director. “Climate policies need to go beyond carbon pricing, take into account distributional effects, and shield the poor. If properly managed, the costs of such policies will be relatively small.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com </a>Staff Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

How climate change mitigation policies complicate global food security

One of the biggest concerns associated with climate change is...

There has been a surge of recent research proving the harmful impacts of air pollution on health and well-being. Air pollution has been <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/more-deaths-air-pollution/">linked to millions of deaths each year</a>, along with increases in heart disease risk, cancer risk, and even dementia. 

Researchers are now increasingly convinced that air pollution causes dementia, which is especially worrying given that air quality in many parts of the world is worsening due to emissions and pollution from transportation and industrial operations. 

In a feature for both <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/air-pollution-dementia/">Wired</a> and <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/">Mother Jones</a>, reporter Aaron Rueben reviews the strong evidence linking pollution to dementia and cites several recent studies that seem to prove this correlation. 

One of the <a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/8/9/e022404">studies</a> involved 130,000 older adults from London. Researchers from several UK universities and institutes reviewed pollution data and compared this to health records of over 100,000 older adults aged 50 to 79 with no history of dementia from 2005 through 2013. 

The researchers identified a positive link between Alzheimer’s and air pollution. The participants who experienced higher exposure to pollutants had a higher risk (1.5 times) of developing dementia. 

In <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2816%2932399-6/fulltext#%20">another study,</a> researchers followed around 6.5 million adults who lived in Ontario for a decade to examine how living near high-traffic roads impacts cognition. 

In this study, the researchers again found that exposure to pollution increased the risk of developing Alzheimer’s and the individuals who lived near busy streets were more likely to develop dementia. 

According to Rueben, both studies estimate that six to seven of all dementia cases reported in the research are due to pollution exposure. 

A <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w24970">large-scale US assessment</a> linked air quality data from the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/">Environmental Protection Agency </a>to 15 years of Medicare records for 6.9 million Americans over 65. The results showed that counties that saw improvements in air quality also had fewer cases of dementia compared to counties with poor air quality. 

As these studies prove, there is a definitive correlation between air pollution and dementia and exposure to high levels of pollutants significantly increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s for older adults worldwide.

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Only half of U.S. adolescents have ideal cholesterol levels

Despite the overall improvement of cholesterol levels in U.S. teens...

Homemade sunscreens are often not the safe alternatives they claim to be. A new study led by the <a href="https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/">Nationwide Children's Hospital</a> has demonstrated that the way people find and share health information has been transformed by social media and other online resources, and this is not always a good thing. Consumer interest in natural and ethically-made personal care products has created a demand for homemade recipes for various products such as <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/sunscreen-ingredient-human-skin/">sunscreen</a>. 

The research, which also involved experts at the <a href="https://www.unf.edu/">University of North Florida</a>, was focused on how homemade sunscreens are perceived on Pinterest. The researchers found that while nearly all the pins for sunscreen recipes were portrayed positively, 68 percent of the concoctions offered insufficient UV radiation protection.

The average number of saves for a homemade sunscreen pin was 808, with one pin being saved more than 21,700 times. However, the Sun Protection Factor (SPF) claims are largely unsubstantiated, and most of the sunscreens are not safe alternatives for commercial products. 

“The internet is a great place for families to go to for recipe inspiration and arts and crafts projects, but not necessarily for making their own safety-related things,” said study co-author Dr. Lara McKenzie. “Homemade sunscreen products are risky because they are not regulated or tested for efficacy like commercial sunscreens. When you make it yourself, you don't know if it's safe or effective.” 

Skin cancer rates are on the rise, and  effective broadband sunscreen is critical for protecting the skin from UV radiation.

According to the study authors, the best sunscreen is FDA-approved and water-resistant with an SPF of 30 or higher.  The researchers also pointed out that children whose parents regularly apply sunscreen at an early age are more likely to continue using sunscreen as teenagers and adults.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_Communication_(journal)">Health Communication</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Homemade sunscreens are often not the safe alternatives they claim to be

Homemade sunscreens are often not the safe alternatives they claim...

First inhabitants of Australia arrived in large groups 50,000 years ago. The Aboriginal people in <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/remote-australian-beaches-plastic/">Australia</a> have inhabited the continent for over 50,000 years, which is quite a lot when you remember that the United States has only been an independent nation for 238 years (less than 0.5% of the time Aborigines have been in Australia). 

Now, a new study in Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution and Scientific Reports has found the likely routes these people took to get to the island nation. 

Using complex models to determine the island-hopping routes the original migrants could’ve taken to get to Australia, the research team assessed the possibilities. 

“A northern route connecting the islands of Mangoli, Buru, and Seram into West Papua New Guinea would probably have been easiest to navigate and survive,” says ecologist Corey Bradshaw of the <a href="https://epicaustralia.org.au/">Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage</a> (CABAH) and <a href="https://www.flinders.edu.au/">Flinders University</a> in Adelaide. “This route was easiest when compared to the southern route from Timor that leads to the now-drowned Sahul Shelf in the modern-day Kimberley region.” 

During this time, low sea levels would have allowed Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania to be a mega-continent, which experts have named Sahul. 

The researchers also calculated the minimum number of people that would have needed to migrate to Australia in order for these ancient people to survive for so many years. Considering factors such as fertility, longevity, climate conditions, and other ecological principles, they determined that at least 1,300 people would have been needed to form the founding population. 

It’s possible this group arrived in a single migration event, or as successive waves that would need to average at least 130 people every 70 years over the course of about 700 years. 

“This suggests planned and well-organized maritime migration, rather than accidental arrival,” says Bradshaw.

Their findings confirm that the ancestors of the aborigines and Torres Strait islanders must have been sophisticated enough to build watercraft, as well as plan, navigate, and successfully complete open-ocean voyages with large numbers of people. 

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Shutterstock/capitanoproductions

First inhabitants of Australia arrived in large groups 50,000 years ago

First inhabitants of Australia arrived in large groups 50,000 years...

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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

Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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

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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

[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



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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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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



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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.

Cavefish are healthy despite their sedentary lifestyle

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

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> some of the most incredible waves in the world, as seen by Landsat satellites.



"With more than 370,000 miles of coastline on Earth, there are plenty of places where epic waves build up, curl over, and hurtle toward the shore.- much to the thrill of surfers," says NASA. "There are some places where these waves are so magnificent that they can be seen from space."



"With the broad perspective of satellites, we can see how these iconic waves develop into the world’s tallest, longest, fastest, and heaviest."



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&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 capture the world's biggest and fastest waves

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