Falling asleep and waking up refreshed is something most of us crave. Yet some people appear to thrive on fewer hours, leaving everyone else wondering how they manage it. A new study involving a healthy older adult suggests that a rare gene mutation might be a key to needing fewer hours of sleep.



The research was led by Dr. Hao Chen from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), whose team investigated a "natural short sleeper" <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/one-night-of-lost-sleep-can-trigger-hidden-health-issues/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">trait</a> linked to a genetic variant in the SIK3 gene.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-genetics-influence-sleep-duration">How genetics influence sleep duration</h2>



Scientists who explore patterns of rest have long recognized that people’s genetic makeup can influence how much <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sleep-prepares-the-brain-for-the-future-while-protecting-memories-of-the-past/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sleep</a> they need. This latest finding highlights how even a slight genetic tweak might reduce the time required for the brain and body to recover.



Those who qualify as short sleepers function at a normal or high level despite clocking fewer hours in bed. Researchers classify them separately from individuals suffering from insomnia, because these short sleepers typically wake up rested and show no health problems tied to exhaustion.



One older participant reported sleeping around 6.3 hours per night yet displayed sharp cognition and good health. Her genetic profile pointed to a single mutation as the possible reason for her efficient slumber.



These individuals, referred to as natural short sleepers, seem wired to operate on less rest. Specialists are intrigued by how they sail through daily life with no visible drawbacks.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-gene-mutation-and-sleep-patterns">Gene mutation and sleep patterns</h2>



The <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/protein-kinases" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">kinase protein</a> produced by the SIK3 gene relays signals that influence various cellular processes. Scientists suspect that changes in kinase function might play a role in controlling how much time the body devotes to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sleep-can-boost-memory-in-a-surprising-way/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sleep</a>.



When Dr. Chen’s team transferred this mutation to lab mice, the animals spent slightly less time resting each day. This observation hinted at a biological mechanism that could be significant across different species.



“Studying human sleep genes not only expands our knowledge regarding the sleep regulatory network, but also may bring the basic research from mouse models to clinical relevance,” noted the researchers.



Brain scans in the test mice revealed that their <a href="https://www.thermofisher.com/us/en/home/life-science/protein-biology/protein-biology-learning-center/protein-biology-resource-library/pierce-protein-methods/phosphorylation.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">phosphorylation</a> patterns changed, especially around the areas that oversee rest and wake cycles. This shift aligns with the idea that sleep is coordinated by a web of signals in the brain that might be influenced by tiny chemical tweaks.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-genetic-mutations-in-short-sleepers">Genetic mutations in short sleepers</h2>



Scientists have now identified at least five distinct genetic mutations linked to the natural short sleep trait. Each one affects different proteins involved in the brain’s signaling and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sleep-quality-could-be-the-key-to-better-metabolic-health/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sleep</a>-wake rhythms, hinting at multiple pathways that might influence rest duration.



The SIK3 variant joins others such as <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1801693115" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DEC2</a>, <a href="https://www.ajmc.com/view/a-rare-gene-mutation-is-associated-with-requiring-less-sleep-researchers-say" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ADRB1</a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/387129" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NPSR1</a>, and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/14816" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">GRM1</a>, each contributing a piece to the sleep efficiency puzzle. Researchers believe that mapping these variants could eventually lead to a full blueprint of how the body regulates its need for sleep.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-treatments-for-sleep-disorders">Treatments for sleep disorders</h2>



Researchers think there could be important applications for people who struggle with sleep disorders. Adjusting the pathways linked to this genetic variant might shorten the time needed to feel rested, although practical therapies will likely take time to refine.



Still, scientists caution that these insights do not give an excuse to slash nightly rest. They emphasize that ordinary individuals without the mutation may not reap any benefits from copying a short sleeper’s schedule.



Experts see promise in pursuing treatments that enhance the body’s own efficiency. They hope new knowledge of genetic influences will guide strategies to help those who find it difficult to get restorative rest.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-future-research-on-short-sleep-genes">Future research on short-sleep genes </h2>



Short-sleep genes have captured the imagination of specialists for years. There is strong interest in mapping out exactly how the human brain resets itself, and why some people get the same benefits in a compressed timeframe.



“These [NSS] people, all these functions our bodies are doing while we are sleeping, they can just perform at a higher level than we can,” said neuroscientist and geneticist Ying-Hui Fu, from the University of California, San Francisco (<a href="https://www.ucsf.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">UCSF</a>). 



Scientists aim to <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37398097/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">uncover</a> the precise factors that grant this group their resilience. Many research teams intend to investigate how broader networks of genes might interact to influence rest. 



The SIK3 discovery raises big questions about what else might affect daily energy levels and long-term health.



Fascination with short sleepers is unlikely to fade soon. Unlocking the secrets of their genetics could reshape how we view rest, opening a path to solutions for chronic sleep troubles.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2500356122" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">PNAS</a>.



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Rare gene explains why some people can thrive on less sleep

Falling asleep and waking up refreshed is something most of us crave. Yet some people appear to thrive on fewer hours, leaving everyone else wondering how they manage it. A new study involving a healthy older adult suggests that a rare gene mutation might be a key to needing fewer hours of sleep. The research was led by Dr. Hao Chen from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), whose team investigated a "natural short sleeper" trait linked to a genetic variant in the SIK3 gene. How genetics...

2018’s Winter Solstice had both a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/full-moon-meteor-shower/">full moon and a meteor shower</a>, closing out the year with some spectacular astronomical activity. 

But not to be outdone, 2019 will start with year with both a supermoon and a lunar eclipse, one of four eclipses expected to occur throughout the year. 

On January 21st, lucky stargazers will be privy to a “Super Blood Wolf Moon Eclipse” which will cast the moon in a coppery, red color, which is where the name “blood moon” comes from. 

The first full moon of the new year is referred to as a wolf moon, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/27/world/five-eclipses-in-2019-and-super-blood-wolf-moon-trnd/index.html">CNN</a>, which is why January’s hodgepodge supermoon eclipse event is being called a Super Blood Wolf Moon. 

A total lunar eclipse is only possible when the moon is full, according to <a href="https://earthsky.org/?p=295245">Earthsky</a>, and a supermoon describes the point when the moon is closest to Earth. 

When the moon passes through the Earth’s shadow, which is called the Umbra, <a href="http://time.com/3479189/blood-moon/">the moon begins to get darker</a>, and when the Earth’s shadow surrounds the moon, it appears red. 

Because of the alignment of the sun, moon, and Earth, the sunlight that bounces off the Earth’s atmosphere refracts and reaches the moon’s surface, and the longer wavelengths of red and orange encase the moon in a pale reddish tinge. The whole eclipse from start to finish will last around three and a half hours. 


January, February, and March will all have supermoons, and February’s supermoon will the biggest and fullest of them all. 

Other major 2019 astronomy events will include a total solar eclipse which will be visible in South America and parts of South Asia and the rare sighting of Mercury as it passes between the <a href="https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/transit/catalog/MercuryCatalog.html">Earth and Sun</a>.

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

A Super Blood Wolf Moon Eclipse will kick off the new year

2018’s Winter Solstice had both a full moon and a...

According to a new study from a research team based at <a href="https://oregonstate.edu/">Oregon State University</a>, reducing drinking can help a person quit smoking. Researchers found that as heavy drinkers limited their <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/alcohol-consumption-colder-environments/">alcohol intake</a>, their nicotine metabolite ratio — a biomarker that shows how fast a person's body metabolizes nicotine — was reduced.

The study’s findings, published in <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ntr">Nicotine &amp; Tobacco Research</a>, show when a smoker cuts back on their drinking, their nicotine metabolism rate slows, thus helping them shake their dependence on cigarettes.

“It takes a lot of determination to quit smoking, often several attempts," said the study’s lead author, Sarah Dermody, an assistant professor in the <a href="https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/school-psychological-science/psychology">School of Psychological Science</a> at OSU’s College of Liberal Arts. "This research suggests that drinking is changing the nicotine metabolism as indexed by the nicotine metabolite ratio, and that daily smoking and heavy drinking may best be treated together."

Currently, about 1 in 5 adults use both alcohol and cigarettes, with cigarette use being prevalent amongst heavy drinkers. The two habits directly coincide, as previous studies have shown. To better understand the connection between smoking and drinking, Dermody and colleagues from Toronto’s <a href="https://www.camh.ca/">Centre for Addiction and Mental Health</a> studied individual nicotine metabolite ratios within a group of 22 smokers who were seeking treatment for their alcohol dependency.

"What's really interesting is that the nicotine metabolite ratio is clinically useful," Dermody continued. "People with a higher ratio have a harder time quitting smoking cold turkey. They have are also less likely to successfully quit using nicotine replacement therapy products."

As the men in the group reduced their drinking from 29 drinks per week to 7 drinks per week, their nicotine metabolite rate dropped significantly. However, the women involved in the study did not see a drop in their nicotine metabolite rate, and this is most likely because they collectively did not significantly reduce their drinking within the study period.

"The nicotine metabolite ratio was thought to be a stable index, but it may not be as stable as we thought," said Dermody regarding the results seen from the men in the group. "From a clinical standpoint, that's a positive thing, because if someone wants to stop smoking, we may want to encourage them to reduce their drinking to encourage their smoking cessation plan."

Dermody is now working on another study involving heavy drinkers and smokers who are willing to participate in an intervention to reduce their alcohol intake. She hopes this study will be even more telling regarding the connection between drinking and smoking, thus proving that addressing both habits is necessary to help those who want to quit either or.

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Reducing alcohol intake can help you quit smoking

According to a new study from a research team based...

A new study compared 60 years of data on American male <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/moon-dust-toxic-health/">astronauts</a> to pro athletes, who have a similar level of fitness and health care. The researchers found that, despite exposure to forms of radiation that are linked to cancers and heart problems, working in space was not associated with a shorter life expectancy. 

Between the astronauts and athletes,  neither group had higher rates of early death. In fact, these individuals were found to outlive members of the general public. 

Some previous studies have linked space work to a lower risk of premature death, which is not surprising because astronauts tend to be very well-educated and physically fit.

Robert Reynolds of Mortality Research &amp; Consulting, Inc. is one of the study's co-authors.

“The challenge has always been to understand if astronauts are as healthy as they would be had they been otherwise comparably employed but had never gone to space at all,” Reynolds told <a href="https://www.reuters.com/news/health">Reuters Health</a>. “To do this, we needed to find a group that is comparable on several important factors, but has never been to space.”

The study was focused on mortality rates for American male astronauts and professional athletes from Major League Baseball (MLB) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1960 to mid-2018.

The study revealed that both athletes and astronauts had a lower risk of premature death compared to the general population. In addition, no significant mortality difference was found between NBA and MLB players.

The researchers also determined that astronauts were more likely to die of accidents or other external causes, and less likely to die from heart disease and all other natural causes.

“We cannot be sure from the data we have, but we speculate that cardiovascular fitness in particular is the most important factor in astronaut longevity,” said Reynolds.

The findings indicate that radiation exposure in space may not lead to heart problems or certain cancers among athletes. On the contrary, astronauts had a lower rate of death from heart disease than the athletes, and similar mortality rates from cancers.

Francis Cucinotta, a researcher at the <a href="https://www.unr.edu/">University of Nevada</a> who was not involved in the study, pointed out that radiation exposure may have been much lower during early space missions and may not represent the conditions today. He explained, “The missions in the past were low dose, while in the future the dose would be 50 to 100 times higher for a Mars mission.”


The study is published in the journal <a href="https://oem.bmj.com/">Occupational &amp; Environmental Medicine</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Exposure to radiation in space does not shorten astronaut lives

A new study compared 60 years of data on American...

A new study from the <a href="https://medicine.wustl.edu/">Washington University School of Medicine</a> has revealed that patients over the age of 65 who were recently diagnosed with <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/walking-reduce-heart-failure-risk/">heart failure</a> can drink alcohol in moderation without making their condition worse. In fact, the researchers found a survival benefit among moderate drinkers compared to individuals who did not consume alcohol. 

On average, survival for moderate drinkers was just over a year longer than abstainers. The study authors emphasized, however, that the findings do not suggest that non-drinkers should start knocking back drinks after a heart failure diagnosis.

“My patients who are newly diagnosed with heart failure often ask me if they should stop having that glass of wine every night,” said study senior author and cardiologist Dr. David L. Brown. “And until now, I didn't have a good answer for them. We have long known that the toxic effects of excessive drinking can contribute to heart failure.”

“In contrast, we have data showing that healthy people who drink moderately seem to have some protection from heart failure over the long term, compared with people who don't drink at all. But there was very little, if any, data to help us advise people who drink moderately and have just been diagnosed with heart failure.”

The investigation was focused on data from a past study called the Cardiovascular Health Study, which was conducted from 1989 to 1993 and involved nearly 6,000 adults. Among these individuals, 393 patients developed heart failure during the nine-year follow-up period.

The patients, who had an average age of 79, were divided into four categories for the analysis: people who never drank, people who drank in the past and stopped, people who had seven or fewer drinks per week, and people who had eight or more drinks per week.

After controlling for age, smoking, blood pressure, and other variables, the investigators found an association between consuming seven or fewer drinks per week and an extended survival of 383 days. The extended survival, which ranged from 17 to 748 days, seemed to peak among those who drank 10 drinks per week. 

The study does not establish cause and effect, so the researchers cannot conclude that moderate drinking is actively protective. There may be some factors that are common among moderate drinkers which promoted survival. 

“People who develop heart failure at an older age and never drank shouldn't start drinking,” said Brown. “But our study suggests people who have had a daily drink or two before their diagnosis of heart failure can continue to do so without concern that it's causing harm. Even so, that decision should always be made in consultation with their doctors.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen">JAMA Network Open</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Could moderate alcohol consumption benefit heart failure survivors?

A new study from the Washington University School of Medicine...

In their <a href="https://firstorion.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/FirstOrion_Scam_Trends_Report_FINAL.pdf">2018 Scam Call Trends and Projections Report</a>, the company First Orion emphasized the need for new technologies to combat the rapidly growing incidence of scam calls. Unless drastic measures are taken, First Orion warns that around 45 percent of all mobile calls made in the year 2019 will come from scammers.

First Orion provides phone call transparency solutions for tens of millions of mobile subscribers across the United States. The team analyzed billions of phone calls received by their clients over the last 18 months and found a shocking jump in the number of calls that were placed by telephone scammers.

The investigation revealed that in 2017, 3.7 percent of the calls analyzed for the study were robocalls. By 2018, this figure jumped to 29.2 percent, and is expected to reach 44.6 percent by early 2019.

There are a number of strategies that are used by scammers to get people to pick up the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/smartphones-sleep-deprivation-kids/">phone</a>, and the most popular technique is known as “neighborhood spoofing.” This happens when a spammer disguises their phone number to make it appear as a local number on the recipient's caller ID. Matching the area code and 3-digit prefix of the person being called can substantially increase the chances of the robocall getting answered.

According to First Orion, third-party call blocking apps are not effective when legitimate numbers are hijacked because they only block known numbers that belong to scams.

Charles D. Morgan is the CEO and Head Data Scientist of First Orion. He said, “Year after year, the scam call epidemic bombards consumers at record-breaking levels, surpassing the previous year and scammers increasingly invade our privacy at new extremes.”

“Recently, the FCC joined forces with several technology companies, including First Orion, to find a way to combat these calls, but we still see rampant increases.”

“After working closely with several carriers, we've found that in-network solutions that leverage sophisticated data analysis and machine learning are by far the most accurate way to pinpoint the origin of a call and identify it before it reaches your phone.”

More information can be found on First Orion's <a href="https://firstorion.com/nearly-50-of-u-s-mobile-traffic-will-be-scam-calls-by-2019/">website</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Nearly half of all mobile calls in 2019 will be from scammers

In their 2018 Scam Call Trends and Projections Report, the...

From Tucson, Arizona, the border crossing into Nogales, Mexico is only a little over an hour drive.  As anyone paying attention to the news recently, that imaginary line often reinforced with fences and armed personnel has recently become a point of growing contention.  Especially near California in Tijuana, a recent wave of migrants from Central America has reawakened the controversy over border security and the treatment of migrants.

The <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/border-wall-endangered-species/">border</a> was bound to become controversial when the U.S. elected a president leading chants like, ‘<a href="http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/why-trump-suggested-his-supporters-stop-chanting-build-wall">build that wall</a>’.  Long before the recent use of tear gas on a wave of immigrants seeking entrance in the U.S., the conversation about immigration got ugly.  Often lost in the dialogue is the common tragedy of those crossing the border. 

Americans often complain about a loss of jobs or incomes, yet we’re doing far better north of the border and it’s easy to see for anyone who’s spent time in both nations.  According to <a href="https://www.indexmundi.com/factbook/compare/mexico.united-states/economy">Index Mundi</a>, the gross domestic product in the US for 2017 was $19.36 trillion, compared to $2.406 trillion in Mexico.  Per person the gross domestic product breaks down to $19,500 in Mexico and $59,500 in the US. Central America is even poorer and riddled with problems beyond just the monetary.  

According to an article in <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/10/latin-america-economic-crisis-middle-class/409675/">The Atlantic</a>, Latin America as a whole region experiences more variability in inflation and monetary policy than anywhere else in the world.  The region experiences reversals on what seems like progress regularly. The <a href="https://www.nrc.no/10-things-you-should-know-about-the-violence-in-central-america/">Norwegian Refugee Council</a> reports that Honduras was dubbed the ‘murder capital of the world’ with homicide rates as high as 86.5 per 100,000 people in 2011.  The violence and economic insecurity fosters organized crime which often recruits young boys and extorts others into cooperation, creating more of the same problems.  

A 2009 coup in Honduras, a country with which the US has a long history of involvement, only exasperated problems in the region.  The group of migrants now at the US border are mainly from Honduras but also includes people from Guatemala and El Salvador, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-45951782">BBC</a> reports.  The desperation of many immigrants coming from Mexico or further south is apparent not only from what they’re fleeing from.  What migrants are willing to face for a shot at the lives many of us take for granted speaks volumes.

Recently a group of asylum seekers protested the slow processing of their applications to be let into the US.  In response, border patrol agents fired tear gas at the unarmed group, which included children, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/11/27/670807343/fact-check-whats-happening-on-the-u-s-mexico-border">NPR</a> reports.  The group is part of 5,000 asylum seekers coming from Central America now stopped at the San Ysidro border crossing at Tijuana, Baja California.  The border is still open but the process of seeking asylum is a long one, requiring a months long wait to be heard often. The problem of crossing the border into the US isn’t a new one though, and the hardships aren’t limited to tear gas.

The desert in many parts of the border regions is imposing, stretches of desolate land with little water, little shade and daytime temperatures reaching into the hundreds through the summer.  The land is a rough one too with all the easiest places to hide being occupied by mountains and canyons. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/06/us-mexico-border-migrant-deaths-rose-2017">The Guardian</a> reports that last year, 412 migrant deaths were reported along the border up from 398 the year before.  With dangerous crossings already the norm for those fleeing violence and instability, it’s no wonder that new innovative ways of crossing the border are now flourishing.  

<a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/us-mexican-border-as-trumps-border-wall-grows-smuggling-tunnels-proliferate">High Country News</a> reported earlier this month on the spread of subterranean border crossings.  Since the early 1990’s, 65 tunnels have been found in the Otay Mesa area, near San Diego California.  San Diego is just across the border from Tijuana where the recent confrontations have occurred between protestors and border patrol agents.  

Pre-existing storm drain tunnels are also used to cross the border.  Mainly these tunnels are used to traffic drugs into the US but also sometimes people.  In September, Mexican officials uncovered another tunnel that crossed the border but still lacked an exit into the US.  High Country News reports that as security along the border tightened in the 1990s, more tunnels started to appear on the border at an average of two new tunnels discovered every year.  Almost 200 tunnels have been found across the US-Mexico border, mainly in California and Arizona. The soil near southern California is especially good for digging tunnels, making it a popular place.  Some of the tunnels are tiny and some are enormous, costing up to a million dollars to build. 

<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/10/solar-powered-drug-tunnel-discovered-on-mexican-border-with-california">The Guardian</a> reported in October on the discovery of a solar powered drug smuggling tunnel on the border with California.  The tunnel had rail tracks as well as a solar powered ventilation system. The whole tunnel, although incomplete measured 627 feet long.  The tunnel was even equipped with drain pumps and lights. 

The whole process of tunnel building seems to be a tit for tat, often tunnels are shut down by border patrol agents on the US side and left open on the Mexican side.  At least once, this allowed smugglers to simply dig around the closure and continue business as usual. The strategy of digging smuggling tunnels was pioneered by the infamous crime boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who even escaped a maximum security prison by escaping down a mile long tunnel on a motorcycle on rails.           

It seems that tightening security creates a situation where those with the worse intentions of smuggling illegal goods into the US still find a way while asylum seekers are met at the border with violence.  It seems if people are willing to protest long lines at the border, they’ve come for the right reason, while smugglers simply dig under the fence on the border and continue. 

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer  

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

The development of tunnels along the US-Mexico border

From Tucson, Arizona, the border crossing into Nogales, Mexico is...

In 1990, the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/">United Nations (UN)</a> introduced a new measurement of human development per country that included a wide range of factors such as health data, quality of life, average life expectancy and quality of education.

Previously, it was assumed that the greatest measure of a country’s progress was its economic growth, but the UN realized that economic growth alone told only a fraction of the whole story regarding a nation’s development. 

In response to this problem, the UN created the <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-development-index-hdi">Human Development Index (HDI)</a> to assess living standards. But the HDI is not a perfect measurement for human development, and there is much room for error in its many components. 

To resolve this, researchers from <a href="https://www.unibocconi.eu/">Bocconi University</a> in Italy recently developed a simpler Human Life Indicator (HLI) that looks at just one set of indicators for measuring development. 

The two indicators considered in the new HLI are life expectancy at birth and life expectancy comparisons with other age groups and<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/life-expectancy-gap-widening-uk/"> income classes (life expectancy parity)</a>. 

For example, a country that has a lower life expectancy among low-income families compared to high-income families has a lower standard of living compared to countries where life expectancy is equal. 

The researchers discussed their findings in a study published in the journal Population and Development Review.

While life expectancy at birth and life expectancy parity are related, the HLI examines efforts to reduce inequality in human development across different countries. 

“Replacing a set of indicators with a single one makes sense because the components of the HDI are correlated and picking one doesn't imply a major loss of information,” said Simone Ghislandi, a co-author of the study.

According to the researchers, life expectancy is the most reliable component in the HDI, and the HDI is based on the assumption life has different values depending on the country. 

“As the same HDI score can be reached with different combinations of life expectancy and GDP per capita, tinkering with data you can observe different economic values for one year of life in different countries,” said Ghislandi.

The HLI top ten list of countries is much different from the UN’s <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/2018-update">HDI 2018 revision</a>. The United States ranked 13th on the HDI, but dropped down to 32nd with the HLI. Germany dropped from 5th to 25th on the HLI. Italy, on the other hand, jumped from 28th to 6th on the HLI. 

The HDI’s top highest ranking countries are Norway, Switzerland, and Australia but the HLI ranks those countries 9th, 7th, and 10th respectively. 

The HLI’s top three countries in terms of human development are now Hong Kong, Japan, and Iceland. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Hong Kong, Japan, Iceland named best for human development

In 1990, the United Nations (UN) introduced a new measurement...

According to the President of the United States, the U.S. is in the midst of an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/11/28/the-illegal-immigration-crisis-is-trump-made/?utm_term=.88267b5f1bd9">illegal immigration crisis</a>. But if you look hard at the numbers this simply isn’t the case, and illegal border crossings have declined significantly over the years, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/25/us-illegal-border-crossings-analysis-trump-migrants">the Guardian</a>. 

Despite this, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-trump-effect-immigration/fewer-family-visas-approved-as-trump-toughens-vetting-of-immigrants-reuters-review-idUSKBN1ET15I">the anti-immigration sentiments</a> propagated through the news and by many leading government figures have stirred up a wealth of controversy and shone a spotlight on the (sometimes unconscious) bias that many people have <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/immigrants-border-endure-trauma/">against immigrants</a>. 

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.utoronto.ca/">University of Toronto</a> found that people migrating to the United States experience less bias if they change their name to a more Anglican name rather than their given name. 

An example of Anglicizing a name might be changing a given first name from Juan to John or Daan to Dan. 

The study, published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, shows that the pressure some people feel to change their name in hopes of assimilating or fitting in may decrease bias but also negatively impacts one’s sense of self. 

The researchers are adamant that the results in no way encourage more immigrants to change their name to decrease the risk of bias. Instead, they emphasize that their study shows a larger systemic problem that needs to be addressed by society as a whole to reduce biases and prejudice. 

“We do not suggest immigrants to Anglicize their ethnic names in order to avoid discrimination,” said Xian Zhao, the lead author on the study. “This certainly puts the onus on immigrants to promote equity and our previous studies also suggest that Anglicizing names may have negative implications for one's self-concept.”

To better understand bias against non-Anglicized names, the researchers asked participants what they would do in a trio of hypothetical transportation accident scenarios. 

The scenarios were all different versions of a moral dilemma where participants had the option to save a person or group of people depending on the risk involved. 

To specifically assess bias, the researchers gave the participants the option to save or sacrifice a white man with an Anglicized name, an immigrant with Anglicized name, or an immigrant with a name like “Jiang,” or “Ahmed.” 

In one scenario called the trolley problem, participants had to choose to save a group or one person from a runaway trolley and most participants sacrificed one to save many. 

While this is the common response to the trolley problem, the white participants were much more likely to sacrifice an immigrant with their given name rather than someone with an Anglican name. 

The second scenario asked participants to choose between leaving behind someone with a broken leg after a plane crash or working to save them. Again, white male participants tended to decide to leave behind a person with a foreign sounding name rather than an Anglican one. 

With the final scenario, participants were asked to imagine they were in a lifeboat and had to decide to throw a life preserver to a man named Muhammad, possibly saving the man but also risking the lives of everyone on the boat. The results of this scenario were similar to the other two. 

The results of the scenarios show a problematic trend and deep-seated bias that people automatically have towards people with non-Anglicized names. 

According to the researchers, it’s a problem that must be addressed by society as a whole to decrease prejudice and promote inclusion.

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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>

Study shows bias against immigrants who don’t change their names

According to the President of the United States, the U.S....

A team of researchers has identified ways that human interactions with nonhuman primates may be putting people at risk of infection with new diseases. Zoonotic diseases, which originate in other animal species before infecting humans, are a major threat to human health.  

Zoonotic diseases account for more than 60 percent of emerging infectious diseases, and 70 percent of them are believed to come from wild animals. The similarity between humans and <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/small-babies-laugh-primates/">nonhuman primates</a> makes monkeys and apes ideal carriers for pathogens that threaten human populations.

A team led by Tamara Giles-Vernick of the <a href="https://www.pasteur.fr/en">Institut Pasteur</a> and Victor Narat of the <a href="http://www.cnrs.fr/index.html">French Center for National Scientific Research</a> used surveys, real-time data collection, and oral history interviews to investigate the physical exposure of people in southeastern Cameroon to nonhuman primate species. The researchers collected data in 2016 and 2017 that involved multiple villages and hundreds of people.

The investigation revealed that Cameroonian adults have frequent physical contact with primates, particularly with monkeys. This contact is most often through hunting, butchering, preparing, and consuming meat, but also includes injuries sustained from gorillas. 

Of the survey respondents, 85 percent had eaten primate meat in their lifetimes. Overall, the risk of exposure to disease in any given village was found to be directly linked to the relative density of nonhuman primates and their proximity to human settlements.

“National and international authorities should support improved surveillance of humans and abundant monkey species, as well as popular messages to promote safe meat handling practices,” wrote the researchers. “Multidisciplinary social science and ecological approaches should be used to improve surveillance and communications with forest populations about neglected tropical diseases.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/">PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases</a>.

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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 

Image Credit: S. Rupp, 2018 (CC BY 4.0)

Human contact with primates is promoting the spread of disease

A team of researchers has identified ways that human interactions...

Dr. Christine N. Smith and Dr. Larry R. Squire, both with the <a href="https://www.sandiego.va.gov/">Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System</a> and the <a href="https://ucsd.edu/">University of California San Diego</a>, have discovered how specific memory is linked to the hippocampus, and their findings provide new insight on how <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/stress-affecting-memory/">memory</a> works as a whole.

Smith and Squire found that declarative memory, the ability to recall facts and events, relies on conscious knowledge of what has previously been learned, thus involving the hippocampus. When a patient’s hippocampus is damaged, conscious knowledge is compromised.

“Our study shows that awareness is a key feature of declarative memory,” Smith stated within their study, published November 20th in <a href="https://www.pnas.org/">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.

Smith and Squire built their study off of previously discovered evidence that showed that damage to the medial temporal lobe (MTL), the region of the brain that contains the hippocampus, can cause problems with declarative memory. However, nondeclarative memory, the ability to remember performance and skills, does not seem to be affected by MTL damage. With this being said, scientists are still not certain how the hippocampus works during memory acquisition.

"A central issue for understanding memory and memory disorders is the matter of classification,” Squire said. “What kinds of memory are there, what are the characteristics of each kind, and what brain systems are important for each kind?"

Smith and Squire tested two theories — one that says declarative memory is connected to conscious knowledge, or awareness of what has been learned, and another that states that memory is dependent on how the brain processes information, rather than on conscious knowledge. They tested said theories on five patients, averagely aged 63, each with MTL damage and amnesia. 

Brain scans showed that each patient had smaller-than-normal hippocampus volume compared to six healthy control patients. So, using a method called the manipulation effect, Smith and Squire asked the MTL-damaged patients to point out alterations and changes in familiar pictures. Those with MTL damage were “markedly impaired” in pointing out changes to the pictures. Not only were these patients less confident in their ability to point out change, but they were only able to correctly identify and describe an alteration for 10.8% of the changed pictures. Controls did so for 60.4% of the images.

Furthermore, both controls and MTL-damaged patients focused their attention on parts of the image that were changed, even if they didn’t realize the alteration right away. This shows that the manipulation effect is a function of conscious memory, Smith and Squire state.

"When memory-impaired patients occasionally succeed at remembering a past event (measured in their eye movements), they also consciously remember the event,” Smith said. “When the patients failed to remember (and eye movements showed no recognition), they were unaware of the past event. Our findings suggest that awareness of the past is a crucial and consistent feature of the kind of memory that depends on the hippocampus.”

“Scientists often say that we want to fix the car but it will help to know how the car works. As we learn more about memory, we move closer to being able to detect, prevent, and treat diseases and disorders that affect memory," Squire concluded.

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By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New information sheds light on how memory works

Dr. Christine N. Smith and Dr. Larry R. Squire, both...

How physical activity reduces belly fat. A study published by <a href="https://www.cell.com/about">Cell Press</a> has revealed new details about how exercise burns belly fat in humans. According to the researchers, a signaling molecule called interleukin-6 plays a critical role in the fat burning process.

The study was focused on a 12-week bicycle exercise intervention, which successfully reduced abdominal fat in obese adults. Surprisingly, however, this positive effect was nonexistent among participants who were treated with tocilizumab, a drug that blocks interleukin-6 signaling. 

In addition, the tocilizumab was found to increase cholesterol levels regardless of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/physical-activity-boosts-mood-bipolar/">physical activity</a>. 

“The take home for the general audience is ‘do exercise,’” said study first author Anne-Sophie Wedell-Neergaard of the <a href="https://www.ku.dk/english/">University of Copenhagen</a>. “We all know that exercise promotes better health, and now we also know that regular exercise training reduces abdominal fat mass and thereby potentially also the risk of developing cardio-metabolic diseases.”

Abdominal fat is associated with an increased risk of cardio-metabolic disease,  cancer, dementia, and all-cause mortality. Physical activity reduces the visceral fat tissue that surrounds internal organs in the abdominal cavity, but the underlying mechanisms which facilitate this effect have remained unclear. 

To investigate whether interleukin-6 may play an important role in fat burning, the researchers conducted a trial in which abdominally obese participants were subjected to one of four conditions: intravenous infusions of either tocilizumab or saline every four weeks combined with no exercise or a bicycle routine. 

Using magnetic resonance imaging, the researchers managed to measure visceral fat tissue mass at the beginning and the end of the study. 

Among the individuals in the placebo groups, exercise reduced visceral fat tissue mass by an average of 225 grams, or 8 percent, compared with no exercise. On the other hand,  the tocilizumab treatment eliminated this effect. 

“To our knowledge, this is the first study to show that interleukin-6 has a physiological role in regulating visceral fat mass in humans,” said Wedell-Neergaard. “The signaling pathways in immune cells versus muscle cells differ substantially, resulting in pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory actions, so interleukin-6 may act differently in healthy and diseased people.”

The researchers plan to investigate in future research whether large amounts of interleukin-6, potentially administered as an injection, has the ability to reduce visceral fat mass by itself. 

“We need a more in-depth understanding of this role of interleukin-6 in order to discuss its implications,” said Wedell-Neergaard.

“It is important to stress that when you start exercising, you may increase body weight due to increased muscle mass. So, in addition to measuring your overall body weight, it would be useful, and maybe more important, to measure waist circumference to keep track of the loss of visceral fat mass and to stay motivated.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/home">Cell Metabolism</a>.

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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

How physical activity reduces belly fat

How physical activity reduces belly fat. A study published by...

Cancer associated with excess body weight varies greatly by state. Researchers from the <a href="https://www.cancer.org/">American Cancer Society</a> have discovered that the proportion of cancers related to excess body weight varies greatly from state to state. For example, 8.3% of cancer cases in the District of Columbia can be attributed to excess body weight compared to 5.9% excess weight-related cancer cases in Hawaii. This new information is telling of obesity rates among the 50 states and District of Columbia.

Farhad Islami, M.D., Ph.D., Scientific Director, Surveillance Research, and the research team calculated the population attributable fraction (PAF) of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/traffic-fumes-breast-cancer/">cancer cases</a> related to excess body weight among 30-year-old adults in all 50 states, including the District of Columbia, between 2011 and 2015.

Their findings, published in <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaoncology/fullarticle/10.1001/jamaoncol.2018.5639">JAMA Oncology,</a> show a 1.5-fold difference in both men and women between states with the highest and lowest number of excess weight-caused cancers.

Excess weight is currently believed to be the cause of 13 different types of cancer. Although obesity rates of the U.S. are well known, the stats of obesity-related cancers have yet to be properly investigated until now. Knowing said information could help set forth effective cancer initiatives.

Islami and colleagues discovered that the population attributable fraction (PAF) for men in the U.S. spanned from 3.9% in Montana to 6.0% in Texas. And for women, the PAF was almost double that of men with 7.1% in Hawaii to 11.4% in the District of Columbia. And of course, this number shifted in severity depending on the weight-related cancer. Endometrial cancer, for example, showed a PAF that ranged from 36.5% in Hawaii to 54.9% in Mississippi. Furthermore, endometrial cancer had a PAF of 50.0% or more in 19 states.  

"The proportion of cancers attributable to [excess body weight] varies among states, but [excess body weight] accounts for at least 1 in 17 of all incident cancers in each state,” Islami and the study’s authors write. "Broad implementation of known community- and individual-level interventions is needed to reduce access to and marketing of unhealthy foods (eg, through a tax on sugary drinks) and to promote and increase access to healthy foods and physical activity, as well as preventive care."

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By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Cancer associated with excess body weight varies greatly by state

Cancer associated with excess body weight varies greatly by state....

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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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?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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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

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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



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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

Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA



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



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

The history of Mars is much more complex than we thought

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research



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



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

Cavefish are healthy despite their sedentary lifestyle

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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites capture the world's biggest and fastest waves

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