Many people love their horses like family. New research shows that horses can serve as meaningful attachment figures for humans in ways that look a lot like our bonds with pets and even close partners. 



The study also introduces a survey that can reliably measure how attached someone is to their horse.



Researchers from the <a href="https://www.utu.fi/en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Turku</a> and the <a href="https://www.helsinki.fi/en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Helsinki</a> set out to test, not just assume, the depth of human-horse bonds. They adapted a well-known <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/pets-increase-life-satisfaction-as-much-as-marriage-or-close-friendships/">pet</a> attachment tool to fit equine life and validated it with a large, international sample.



The goal was simple: turn heartfelt stories into data that can be compared, tracked and used.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-questionnaire-built-for-the-barn">A questionnaire built for the barn</h2>



The team developed the Horse Attachment Questionnaire (HAQ). It draws on attachment theory, which describes how we form and keep emotional bonds. In this framework, relationships are often described along two dimensions.&nbsp;



Attachment-related <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/stress-rewires-your-brain-circuits-to-fuel-anxiety-and-depression/">anxiety</a> captures worries about being unloved or abandoned. Attachment-related avoidance reflects discomfort with closeness and a tendency to keep distance. 



The Horse Attachment Questionnaire reframed existing pet items so they spoke directly to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/all-domestic-horses-have-ancestors-in-russia/">horses</a>, riding, care, and time spent together.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-psychology-behind-humans-and-horses">Psychology behind humans and horses</h2>



The researchers gathered answers from 2,287 horse owners across 21 countries. The largest groups came from France and Finland. Participants completed a version of the Pet Attachment Questionnaire rewritten to reference horses rather than pets in general.&nbsp;



This breadth matters. Culture, riding styles, and management routines vary widely. A tool that works across contexts is much more useful than one that fits only a single country or discipline.



The statistical tests were clear. Most statements worked well to describe the human-horse relationship, and the same two-dimensional pattern appeared. Anxiety and avoidance explained how owners differed, just as in studies of human relationships and human-pet bonds.&nbsp;



In other words, the psychology that helps us understand parents and children - or people and dogs - also helps us understand people and horses.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-who-tends-to-feel-what">Who tends to feel what</h2>



The data also point to the kinds of owners who report anxious or avoidant bonds. Younger owners, and people higher in neuroticism, were more likely to score high on anxious attachment. 



These individuals worry about losing closeness with their horse or seek extra reassurance that their horse likes or needs them.&nbsp;



Male owners, by contrast, scored higher on avoidant attachment. They were more likely to keep emotional distance from their horses. These are averages, not judgments. They help explain patterns that trainers, vets, and therapists often sense but cannot quantify.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-culture-and-time-in-the-saddle">Culture and time in the saddle</h2>



Differences between countries emerged too. The model fit slightly better for French owners than for Finnish owners. One possible reason is riding practice.&nbsp;



In this sample, French owners were more often the sole riders of their horses. They may spend more exclusive time with their animals. Finnish owners were more likely to share their horses with others. Those realities might shape how attachment is expressed and recognized.



“Our findings demonstrate that horses can act as meaningful attachment figures for people, much like pets and other humans," said study lead author Aada Ståhl, a PhD student at the University of Helsinki.



"By validating this questionnaire, we now have a reliable way to measure those bonds and explore how they are shaped by factors such as personality and culture." 



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



A validated tool does more than label emotions. It opens doors. “It provides a robust foundation for studying how attachment influences not only the well-being of horse owners but also the care and training of horses,” said study co-author Océane Liehrmann, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Turku.&nbsp;



“Previous work has shown that insecure attachment styles in pet owners can impact the way animals are treated and even their behaviour. Applying these insights to horses could improve understanding of how human psychology shapes <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/recognizing-emotions-in-horses-can-improve-their-health/">equine welfare</a>.”&nbsp;



If attachment shapes handling choices, stable routines or training pressure, then measuring it could help prevent problems before they start.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-from-therapy-to-training-arenas">From therapy to training arenas</h2>



The Horse Attachment Questionnaire could prove useful in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/therapy-horses-are-helping-children-heal-from-trauma/">equine-assisted therapy</a>, where horses partner with clinicians to support human health. 



Knowing an owner’s or client’s attachment style could help tailor sessions and set boundaries that keep both humans and horses safe. Trainers may also benefit.



Understanding whether a rider tends to worry about closeness or to pull back from it can guide communication, goal setting, and feedback. 



The same insight could inform how barns match riders with mounts, or how professionals coach parents of young riders.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-human-bonds-with-horses">Human bonds with horses</h2>



Horses occupy a special place in human life. They are neither purely working animals nor purely companions. This study treats that uniqueness as a feature, not a flaw.&nbsp;



By adapting established psychology to the realities of equine care, the authors show that our bonds with horses can be mapped with the same clarity we bring to other relationships. 



The message is practical and humane. If we understand the patterns that shape our feelings, we can make better choices for the animals who depend on us - and for ourselves.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08927936.2025.2544420" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Anthrozoös</a>.



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Horses aren't just companions - they're part of the family

Many people love their horses like family. New research shows that horses can serve as meaningful attachment figures for humans in ways that look a lot like our bonds with pets and even close partners. The study also introduces a survey that can reliably measure how attached someone is to their horse. Researchers from the University of Turku and the University of Helsinki set out to test, not just assume, the depth of human-horse bonds. They adapted a well-known pet attachment tool to fit equine life and...

A new study from the <a href="https://www.ku.dk/english/">University of Copenhagen</a> shows that, in the region that is now northeast Jordan, people began to live alongside <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/dogs-diagnose-malaria/">dogs</a> as far back as 11,500 years ago. The evidence also suggests that dogs were used for hunting, which would explain the drastic increase of hares and other small prey found at the archaeological dig site at this time.

Although dogs were domesticated by humans as early as 14,000 years ago in the Near East, it has remained unclear whether this happened intentionally. The research indicates that humans valued the tracking and hunting abilities of dogs much earlier than previously realized.

“The study of the large assemblage of animal bones from Shubayqa 6 revealed a large proportion of bones with unmistakable signs of having passed through the digestive tract of another animal; these bones are so large that they cannot have been swallowed by humans, but must have been digested by dogs,” explained study lead author and zooarchaeologist Lisa Yeomans.

The year-round accumulation of bones at the site showed that the dogs were living together with the humans rather than simply visiting the area when it was uninhabited.

“The dogs were not kept at the fringes of the settlement, but must have been closely integrated into all aspects of day-to-day life and allowed to freely roam around the settlement, feeding on discarded bones and defecating in and around the site,” explained Yeomans.

The team noticed a major increase in the number of hares at the same time that dogs appeared at Shubayqa 6.

“The use of dogs for hunting smaller, fast prey such as hares and foxes, perhaps driving them into enclosures, could provide an explanation that is in line with the evidence we have gathered,” said Yeomans. “The long history of dog use, to hunt both small as well as larger prey, in the region is well known, and it would be strange not to consider hunting aided by dogs as a likely explanation for the sudden abundance of smaller prey in the archaeological record."

“The shift may also be associated with a change in hunting technique from a method, such as netting, that saw an unselective portion of the hare population captured, to a selective method of hunting in which individual animals were targeted. This could have been achieved by dogs.”

The study is published in the <a href="https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-anthropological-archaeology">Journal of Anthropological Archaeology</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Dogs and humans may have hunted together more than 11,000 years ago

A new study from the University of Copenhagen shows that,...

According to a new study, the romantic relationships we have in our teens have little impact on our ability to communicate and successfully build <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/relationship-decide-stay-breakup/">romantic relationships</a> as adults. Instead, the friendships we form as teens have a much greater impact on romantic success and satisfaction later on.

Researchers from the <a href="http://www.virginia.edu/">University of Virginia</a> and <a href="https://www.jmu.edu/">James Madison University</a> conducted a long-term study to better understand what factors best predict romantic success as adults.

It’s been previously established that someone’s physical and mental health as a teen has a strong influence on romantic partnerships later on. However, for this study the researchers wondered whether romantic relationships or friendships had a greater impact on future romantic success.

The research was published in the journal Child Development.

“In spite of the emphasis teens put on adolescent romantic relationships, they turn out not to be the most important predictor of future romantic success,” said Joseph P. Allen, the leader of the study. “Instead, it's the skills learned in friendships with peers of the same gender--skills such as stability, assertiveness, intimacy, and social competence--that correspond most closely to the skills needed for success in adult romantic relationships.”

For the study, 165 adolescents ages 13 to 30 participated in the research and the participants were racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse.

The researchers interviewed each participant and conducted interviews each year over the course of three years as participants who were in their teens at the start of the study reached their late 20s.

Participants discussed their social lives, friendship, and romantic partners as well as dating history. When the participants were in their late 20s, the researchers also asked about satisfaction with their current romantic life.

The team identified several key trends and found that friendships were a much stronger predictor of romantic success at ages 27 to 30.

Teens at 13 who were able to openly establish relationship expectations with their friends had greater romantic success later on.

At 15 and 16, the researchers found that the ability to form close friendships and maintain a diverse social circle was another strong predictor.

As the participants progressed into adulthood, the ability to maintain close and stable friendships was a key indicator of romantic success later on. Friendships had the biggest influence on romantic success later on compared to any other factors including adolescent romantic relationships.

“Romantic relationships in adolescence are much more likely to be fleeting, and as such, they don't appear to be the main way teens learn skills needed for the future,” said Rachel K. Narr,  a co-author of the study.

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Teen friendships can influence romantic success in adulthood

According to a new study, the romantic relationships we have...

Natural disasters can have a long term impact on student performance. When a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/global-risk-natural-disasters-doubled/">natural disaster</a> strikes a community, it can be difficult to pick up the pieces, rebuild, and try to fall back into normal patterns of work, school, and home life.

For children, natural disasters can disrupt schooling and classes may even be put on hold temporarily. Researchers from several universities in Australia set out to investigate the long-term effects that a natural disaster can have on academic performance. 

The study, published in the journal Child Development, reviewed several years’ worth of school records from children in Australia that had been impacted by bushfires. 

“Our study is the first in Australia to track the academic performance of elementary-school children affected by a natural disaster over a four-year period,” said Lisa Gibbs, the leader of the study. “The findings highlight the extended nature of academic impact and identify important opportunities for intervention in the education system so children can achieve their full potential.”

24,642 students who had attended primary school in Australia and who had been affected by a severe series of bushfires that spread across Victoria on February 7th, 2009 were included in the study. 

The date is known as Back Saturday because the fires were some of the worst fires in Australia’s history. 

The researchers reviewed each student’s standardized test scores on reading, writing, numeracy, and grammar two and four years after the fires. 

Some of the students had been more impacted by the fires than others, and the researchers took into account property lost, family members affected, lives lost, as well as other demographic and external factors such as home environment and parent’s education. 

Of all the subjects, reading and numeracy had the lowest scores for the children who had been affected by the fires. 

The team also found that schools impacted by the fires saw fewer expected gains in these subjects but subjects like writing and grammar were not affected. 

“Given the apparent delayed impact of the fires, it will be important for future studies on the impacts of disasters on children to extend beyond three years, and to consider academic and cognitive impacts alongside factors related to health and social and emotional well-being,” said Jane Nursey, a co-author of the study. 

The study shows a strong link between poor academic performance and natural disasters. The researchers say the results call for interventions to ensure that students impacted by a natural disaster receive as much emotional and academic support as possible.

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By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Natural disasters can have a long term impact on student performance

Natural disasters can have a long term impact on student...

Scientists at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Chemical_Society_(EuChemS)">European Chemical Society</a> (EuChemS) have created a new periodic table that highlights which elements are now considered endangered. Elements such as allium, arsenic, yttrium, and silver have become shockingly scarce and could vanish in less than 100 years at the current rate. 

The experts added a mobile phone symbol to the 31 elements that are used to make phones, hoping to send a powerful message about how much we depend upon these elements in our daily lives. The modified periodic table also distinguishes conflict minerals, which fuel violence and wars in the regions where they are extracted.

David Cole-Hamilton, a professor of Chemistry at the <a href="https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/">University of St. Andrews</a>, pointed out that all of the conflict minerals are used in <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/smartphones-sleep-deprivation-kids/">cell phones</a>. 

“We have to question whether it’s really necessary to change over mobile phones every year or so. 10 million phones a month are changed in Europe alone. Most of them are sent to the developing world - either for reuse or for recycling - but the recycling is not efficient.”

[caption id="attachment_1865899" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/elements.png"><img class="wp-image-1865899" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/elements.png" alt="" width="700" height="456" /></a> Image Credit: European Chemical Society[/caption]

Professor Cole-Hamilton also explained why we should be far more conservative with helium. He said that while it is widely used for magnetic resonance imaging and deep sea diving, the helium for both of these applications is recycled. 

“But if you have a helium balloon at a birthday party, it will either deflate or burst, and either way the helium is released into the atmosphere,” said Professor Cole-Hamilton. “Helium is so light that once it’s in the atmosphere it can actually escape from the Earth completely and go into outer space where it’s lost to us forever.”

The team hopes to make their periodic table accessible to everyone, and has already made “great progress in getting it into schools across Europe.” The Royal Society of Chemistry will be sending a copy to every one of its 50,000 members.

“It’s amazing to think that everything that we see around us in the natural world is made up from just 90 building blocks - the 90 naturally occurring elements,” said Professor Cole-Hamilton. “Furthermore, these 90 elements, in different combinations, make up all of the wonders of nature, and all the technology and gadgets we use every day. We need to have a better way of dealing with these resources, or we won’t have them anymore.”

The EuChemS version of the periodic table was launched this week at the European Parliament.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Elements used to make smartphones and devices are becoming scarce

Scientists at the European Chemical Society (EuChemS) have created a...

Researchers at <a href="https://international.au.dk/">Aarhus University</a> in Denmark have found that, even under the worst global warming conditions, power generated by wind farms and solar panels will still be functioning in Europe by the end of the century. For their investigation, the experts developed a simplified model of Europe’s electricity system and combined it with existing climate models.

“Most other energy system studies assume a number of technologies and seek to combine them in a cost-optimal way to cover the demand,” said first author Smail Kozarcanin. 

“In this study, we seek to understand, for example, how climate change affects the system independent of which technologies are used to cover the demand that remains unmet by wind and solar. To the best of our knowledge, this technology-independent focus in combination with high-resolution data on climate change projections is unique to our study.”

Even under the worst case scenario projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), wind and solar power generation will only drop slightly. 

<a href="http://www.earth.com/news/humans-driving-climate-change/">Climate change</a> will increase the amount of cloud cover above northern Europe As a result, solar panels will generate less power. There will also be an increase in the frequency of storms, interfering with the energy produced by wind turbines, which automatically shut down during storms.

According to the researchers, more energy is used for heating than cooling in Europe. This means that energy demand will decrease as temperatures rise and will balance out the drop in wind and solar power generation.

Jim Watson is a professor of Energy Policy at University College London who was not involved in the study. Professor Watson told <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/">New Scientist</a> that the research “provides some confidence about the resilience of a low carbon electricity system.”

“Extreme weather might require changes to the renewable generators and other parts of the system,” said Kozarcanin. “For example, future wind turbines may require new types of storm protection and solar panels could need protection against super hailstorms. But our study shows that large-scale infrastructure choices, such as back-up power plant capacity, are relatively unaffected by the level of climate change.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/joule/home">Joule</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Renewable energy systems will still work in a changing climate

Researchers at Aarhus University in Denmark have found that, even...

New research has revealed just how much <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/smoking-leads-poor-diet/">smoking</a> can drastically speed up the aging process in adults.

According to scientists, people actually have two ages, their chronological age and their biological age. Chronological, as the name suggests, is your age according to when you were born, but biological age refers to the age of a person’s body based on different biological markers and lifestyle factors.

Two people may be chronologically the same age, but have very different biological ages based on lifestyle, diet, and age-related disease risks. 

Researchers from <a href="http://insilico.com/">Insilico Medicine</a>, an artificial intelligence solutions company, conducted a study to examine the impact smoking has on biological age. 

The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports and results show that smoking can increase a person’s biological age as much as 20 years. 

The researchers reviewed and analyzed a large dataset meant to represent the entire population of Alberta, Canada including both rural and urban populations. The dataset was comprised on 149,000 individual records and of those 49,000 were smokers. 

Blood biochemistry and cell count information on non-smokers and smokers was then fed into a deep neural network, an advanced algorithm and modeling system, which had been trained to predict the chronological age of an individual based on the blood data.

The researchers first predicted that the biological age of smokers under 30 would be anywhere between 31 to 50. 

After the deep neural network analyzed the data, biological age for smokers 31 to 40 years of age was predicted to be 41 to 50. 

“Compared with nonsmokers, smokers showed an accelerated rate of aging through to age 55 years regardless of sex,” the researchers <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-35704-w">said</a>. 

Older smokers did not have as drastic differences in their ages. 

Analysis of blood tests could soon replace traditional self-reporting methods that medical professionals use to measure the health impacts of different lifestyle choices, according to the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6603459/Smoking-AGES-Scientists-discover-40s-biologically-TWICE-age.html">Daily Mail</a> which reported on the study. 

“We applied artificial intelligence to prove that smoking significantly increases your biological age,” said Polina Mamoshina, the lead author of the study. “I am pleased to be part of the research study, which provides fascinating scientific evidence that smoking is likely to accelerate ageing.” 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com </a>Staff Writer

Smoking can age you by 20 years

New research has revealed just how much smoking can drastically...

Researchers at <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/">NASA</a> have confirmed that the frequency of severe storms will substantially increase as a result of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/humans-driving-climate-change/">climate change</a>. By the end of the century, more extreme rainfall events will coincide with rising temperatures across tropical oceans. 

The study, which was led by Hartmut Aumann of the <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/">Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a>, was focused on 15 years of data collected by NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument. The researchers used the data to examine the relationship between average sea surface temperature and the onset of severe storms.

The team found that extreme storms, which were defined as those producing at least 0.12 inches of rain per hour over a 16-mile area, usually developed when the sea surface temperature was higher than 82 degrees Fahrenheit. The study also revealed that 21 percent more storms develop for every 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit that the surface temperatures rise.

“It is somewhat common sense that severe storms will increase in a warmer environment. Thunderstorms typically occur in the warmest season of the year,” said Aumann. “But our data provide the first quantitative estimate of how much they are likely to increase, at least for the tropical oceans.”

Based on current climate models, if carbon dioxide emissions continue to rise steadily, the surface temperatures in tropical waters could increase by as much as 4.8 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century. This scenario would boost the frequency of extreme storms by 60 percent, according to the study authors.

“Our results quantify and give a more visual meaning to the consequences of the predicted warming of the oceans,” said Aumann. “More storms mean more flooding, more structure damage, more crop damage and so on, unless mitigating measures are implemented.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/19448007">Geophysical Research Letters</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Warming waters will drastically increase frequency of extreme storms

Researchers at NASA have confirmed that the frequency of severe...

According to startling new research, more women are now having <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/heart-attack-stroke-unemployment/">heart attacks</a> at a younger age. The researchers found that almost one-third of all heart attacks among women since 1995 involved young females between the ages of 35 and 54.

Study co-author Melissa Caughey is a cardiovascular epidemiologist and instructor at the <a href="https://www.med.unc.edu/">University of North Carolina School of Medicine</a>. 

“Women now, compared to younger women generations before them, are less healthy,” Caughey told <a href="http://time.com/">Time Magazine</a>. “It’s probably reflective of poorer health in general.”

The investigation was focused on the medical records of nearly 30,000 people between the ages of 35 and 74, who were hospitalized for a heart attack between 1995 and 2014. From 1995 until the end of the study period, the number of patients who were considered young increased by 27 percent, and the researchers noted that this increase was mostly driven by female patients. 

The study also revealed that younger women who had heart attacks were more likely to have a history of high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney disease, and stroke compared to men of the same age.

According to Time, Caughey explained that poorer health among young women may be attributed to high rates of obesity and stress and low rates of physical activity. She noted that obesity is more prevalent among younger women than younger men, and this is particularly true for black women.

The research confirmed the results of previous studies which found that women do not receive the same care for heart attacks as men. Caughey told Time that one explanation for this discrepancy is that the symptoms of heart attacks in women are more complicated and not as easy to recognize as the warning signs among men. 

Even though heart attacks remain the leading cause of death for both sexes, the study authors pointed out that it is still largely considered to be “a man’s disease.” Caughey said she hopes to bring more awareness to the growing issue of heart disease and heart attacks among women. 

The study is published in a special women’s health edition of the journal <a href="https://www.ahajournals.org/journal/circ">Circulation</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Heart attacks have become more common among young women

According to startling new research, more women are now having...

There just aren’t enough hours in the day, especially in today’s always on, always on-the-go, and always plugged-in society. Between work and home, trying to carve out any time for yourself to <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/exercise-improve-thinking-skills/">exercise </a>can seem an impossible task, especially with the commonly held belief that working out in the evening is bad for sleep. 

But now, a new study may be able to put the idea that high-intensity evening exercise disrupts sleep to rest. 

Researchers from <a href="https://www.csu.edu.au/">Charles Sturt University</a> in Australia found that evening exercise does not negatively impact sleep quality and could even help suppress appetite. 

The research was published in the journal <a href="https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/EP087455">Experimental Physiology</a>. 

Eleven middle-aged men were recruited for the study which involved experimental trials of high-intensity exercise in the morning, afternoon, and evening to see if working out had any impact on sleep or feelings of hunger. 

Participants completed cycling exercises with six one-minute bursts of high intensity broken up by four minutes of rest. Blood samples were drawn both before and after the exercise sessions, and the participants had their sleep monitored. 

Evening exercise did not negatively impact sleep quality for the participants, and after analyzing the blood samples, the researchers found that evening exercise correlated with a bigger decrease in hunger-stimulating hormone levels. 

The researchers found that time of day did impact how intensely the participants exercised. 

“Interestingly, power output during the sprint efforts was higher for the afternoon and evening trials compared to the morning trial, indicating that participants were able to perform better during latter parts of the day,” said Penelope Larsen, the lead author of the study. “Therefore, time-of-day may also need to be considered when planning training schedules.”

The study only involved a small group of middle-aged men, so there are limitations to the study’s findings, and the results may not apply across different age-groups or sexes. 

“In the future, we hope to conduct similar studies recruiting women, to determine whether sleep and appetite responses may be different depending on sex,” said Larsen. “Also, this study only considered a single bout of exercise; therefore, it would be beneficial to investigate long-term sleep, and appetite adaptations to high-intensity exercise training performed either in the morning, afternoon or evening.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Working out in the evening won’t keep you up at night

There just aren’t enough hours in the day, especially in...

What gives dark chocolate its captivating scent? Dark chocolate is comprised of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/smell-mixtures-scents/">multiple flavors and scents</a> that work together to create a rich sensory experience. 

Bitter chocolate mixed with cocoa butter and sugar with hints of vanilla, fruit, or spices makes dark chocolate a treat that’s hard to say no to and one of the most widely consumed luxury foods worldwide. 

Dark chocolate has a strong fragrance that easily tingles the taste buds, but when it comes to pinpointing the subtle notes, intense flavors, and the lingering aftertastes that go into dark chocolate to recreate the scent, food scientists have been unable to crack the code... until now.What gives dark chocolate its captivating scent? 

In a new study, researchers from the <a href="https://www.tum.de/en/">Technical University of Munich</a> replicated the complex mixture of scents that make dark chocolate by starting from scratch. 

Over the last century, 600 compounds have been identified in chocolate, but just a few of these compounds activate our olfactory receptors and create the smell of chocolate. Past research has identified the compounds that create milk and dark chocolate, but less is known about how much of each is needed to actually build the scent. 

In this study, the researchers purchased two dark chocolate bars each with a unique aroma from a local grocery store. 

Aroma extract dilution analysis identified which volatile compounds are responsible for each bar’s signature scent. The researchers then used isotope dilution analysis to measure the amounts of each compound in the bars. 

The analysis yielded surprising results including the identification of compounds like the violet-scented β-ionone that were quantified for the first time. 

Once the researchers had the measurements, the aromas were then reconstructed from the ground up by mixing the right ratios of compounds together. 

The result? Two fragrances that closely matched the original bars bought at the grocery store which were tested by a sensory panel of trained participants. 

The researchers published their findings in the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society’s</a> Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 

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By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

What gives dark chocolate its captivating scent?

What gives dark chocolate its captivating scent? Dark chocolate is...

A number of countries consider the costs of cutting greenhouse gas emissions to be a high price tag, which prevents any meaningful climate action to combat global warming. 

Although <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/un-climate-chief-global-emissions-cutting-pledges-not-enough-2/">cutting emissions</a> to meet the goals outlined by the Paris Agreement may seem expensive, once you factor in the toll increased pollution will have on human health, the costs get much higher.  

In a new study, researchers from the <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/">University of Vermont</a> found that the benefits that reducing pollutants and aerosols will have on global health will far outset the costs of cutting emissions.

Air pollution kills an estimated seven million people worldwide each year, according to the <a href="https://www.who.int/airpollution/en/">World Health Organization</a>, and as emissions increase, so will the risks of disease and early death attributed to pollution. 

For this study, published in the journal Nature, the researchers found that immediate and significant reductions in CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions make economic sense once health benefits are factored in. 

“Reducing greenhouse gas emissions will also reduce deaths from air pollution in communities near the emissions reductions,” said Mark Budolfson, the co-lead author. “These health ‘co-benefits’ of climate change policy are widely believed to be important, but until now have not been fully incorporated in global economic analyses of how much the world should invest in climate action.”

The researchers expanded on a climate model called the RICE model and factored in aerosol pollution. 

Aerosols have been excluded from certain climate model studies in the past. But because of the complex benefits and risks aerosols pose to both human health and the environment, factoring in aerosol pollution allows researchers to more accurately assess the environmental and economic costs of current and future climate action. 

After factoring aerosols, the researchers found that the benefits to global human health more than justify the high costs of projected emissions reductions. 

China and India would benefit the most through immediate climate action, the researchers found. 

“Some developing regions have been understandably reluctant to invest their limited resources in reducing emissions,” said Noah Scovronick, a co-lead author from <a href="http://www.emory.edu/home/index.html">Emory University</a>. “This and other studies demonstrate that many of these same regions are likely to gain most of the health co-benefits, which may add incentive for them to adopt stronger climate policies.”

The study shows the importance of including air pollution and the costs to global health pollution into climate models. The results could also help convince hesitant policymakers and world leaders to prioritize climate change mitigation. 

“We show the climate conversation doesn’t need to be about the current generation investing in the further future,” said Budolfson. “By making smart investments in climate action, we can save lives now through improved air quality and health.”

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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>

The costs of cutting emissions are offset by the benefits to global health

A number of countries consider the costs of cutting greenhouse...

According to preliminary research from the <a href="https://www.heart.org/">American Heart Association</a>, it is never too late to reduce your risk of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/sleeping-heart-disease-risk/">heart disease</a> by adding fruits and vegetables to your diet. The experts also report that high-quality plant-based foods can increase longevity.

Study lead author Dr. Megu Y. Baden is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Nutrition at the <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/">Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health</a> in Boston.

“Not all plant-based diets are equal, but boosting the intake of high-quality plant-based foods over time lowers the risk of death even among people who started off with poor-quality diets,” said Dr. Baden.

While previous studies have shown that a healthy, plant-based diet can reduce the risk of diabetes and heart disease, this study is the first to look at how changes in diet may influence the risk of mortality - no matter when the changes were made. 

Healthy plant-based foods include whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and nuts. Lower-quality plant-based foods are items such as fruit juices, refined grains, potatoes, and sweets. The researchers developed three diet scales to represent the overall consumption of these types of plant-based foods.

The study was focused on 47,983 women with an average age of 64, who were participating in the Nurses' Health Study. The investigation also involved data from 25,737 men with an average age of 64 participating in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. 

When they started the programs, the participants had no history of heart disease or cancer. The individuals self-reported any changes in their diet for 12 years prior to a 12-year follow-up period from 1998-2014.

Compared to individuals who had fairly stable diets, the researchers found that deaths from all causes were eight percent lower in those with the biggest increase in an overall plant-based diet and ten percent lower in those with the biggest increase in a healthy plant-based diet. 

On the other hand, for individuals with the biggest increase in an unhealthy plant-based diet, death from all causes was 11 percent higher.

The study also revealed that gaining an extra 10 points on the healthy plant-based diet scale was associated with a 10 percent lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease. A 10-point increase in score can be achieved, for example, by replacing one serving of refined grains with a serving of whole grains each day. 

Dr. Baden explained, “Over a period of time, consuming more whole grains, fruits, vegetables, while decreasing your intake of refined grains, sweets and desserts, and animal foods such as animal fat meat, and miscellaneous animal-based foods, may lower your risk of death from heart disease and other causes.”

The research was presented at the American Heart Association's Epidemiology and Prevention | Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions 2019.

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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

Healthy plant-based foods lower the risk of death from heart disease

According to preliminary research from the American Heart Association, it...

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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Worms dominated seas before dinosaurs

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



The full study was published in the journal Current Biology.



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Earth's oldest forest found in the United States

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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The environmental problem we actually solved

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

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

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







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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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What to plant in your garden in mid-July

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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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Wildlife tunnels save millions of amphibians

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



---



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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

Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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

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