A massive new analysis suggests Americans don’t just differ in what they earn or how long they live - they also differ in how they experience wellness. 



Drawing on more than 325,000 survey responses collected over eight years, researchers found clear regional differences in wellness.



People in the Northeastern and Midwestern regions tend to score higher on “traditional” wellness, which includes <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fitness-focused-medicine-physical-activity-reduces-chronic-disease-risk/">physical health,</a> finances, and social support.



Many Southern regions, by contrast, rank higher on “existential” wellness, such as purpose, meaning, and a strong sense of community identity. The pattern lines up with centuries-old settlement histories that still shape local norms today.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-measuring-wellness-two-ways">Measuring wellness two ways</h2>



The team worked with data from the <a href="https://news.gallup.com/topic/well-being-index.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index</a> spanning 2009–2016 and grouped responses into two broader composites.



“Traditional” wellness bundles tangible aspects of life - physical and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mental-health-crisis-half-of-the-worlds-population-will-be-affected-by-age-75/">mental health</a>, financial security, and day-to-day social support. 



“Existential” wellness captures the less tangible side - purpose, personal growth, community belonging, and living in line with one’s values.



Separating the two helps explain why some places thrive on paper (jobs, hospitals, income) yet still report a thinner sense of meaning - or the reverse.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-an-old-map-explains-modern-feelings"><a></a>An old map explains modern feelings</h2>



To test whether regional culture matters in wellness, the researchers turned to the American Nations Model. 



This framework divides the U.S. into historical “nations” based on who settled there first. Think Yankeedom, the Deep South, Greater Appalachia, El Norte, and others.



Each region inherited durable folkways about trust, autonomy, community, and authority. Even after accounting for education and income, these cultural footprints predicted distinctive wellness profiles where people live.



The headline split was clear. Northeastern and Midwestern regions, including Yankeedom, leaned higher on traditional wellness. 



Several Southern and frontier-legacy regions - such as the Deep South, Greater Appalachia, El Norte, and parts of the Far West - leaned higher on existential wellness.



In other words, the balance of “health and money” versus “purpose and belonging” shifts in systematic ways across the cultural map.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-wellness-differences-stand-out">Wellness differences stand out</h2>



Statistically, the contrasts weren’t subtle. In within-region comparisons, traditional wellness significantly exceeded existential wellness in Yankeedom.



Existential wellness was higher in the Deep South and especially Greater Appalachia - the largest reversal in the set.



Several other regions showed smaller or no gaps, demonstrating that not every place fits a single mold.



These effects held in mixed-effects models that controlled for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/why-education-matters-for-healthy-aging-and-longevity/">education</a> and income and accounted for clustering within metropolitan areas.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/existential-wellness_american-nations-settlements_PLOS-One_1m.jpg"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/existential-wellness_american-nations-settlements_PLOS-One_1s.webp" alt="Wellbeing across the American Nations: First Settler Effects influence traditional and existential wellness. Credit: David R. Samson, Nathan Oesch, Colin Woodard" class="wp-image-1985865"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Wellbeing across the American Nations: First Settler Effects influence traditional and existential wellness. Click image to enlarge. Credit: David R. Samson, Nathan Oesch, Colin Woodard</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-culture-race-and-wellness">Culture, race, and wellness</h2>



The study also looked at Black and Hispanic residents across regions. Patterns generally echoed the broader map. 



Black and Hispanic respondents tended to show higher traditional wellness in Northeastern and Midwestern regions. They also reported higher existential wellness in Southern regions.



Notably, Black respondents showed consistently lower traditional wellness than white respondents across regions. In the Northeast and Midwest, they also fared worse on existential wellness. 



Together, these patterns suggest that material constraints and structural disparities remain powerful drivers.



At the same time, the relatively stronger existential scores in many Southern contexts may reflect the buffering role of community networks and cultural identity.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cultural-roots-of-wellness">Cultural roots of wellness</h2>



Culture shapes where institutions flourish (hospitals, schools, civic groups), how people relate to one another (trust, norms of reciprocity), and what counts as a good life (autonomy vs. solidarity, achievement vs. belonging).



Those long-running preferences influence migration, policy choices, and investments that, over time, help set the table for different “flavors” of well-being.



The authors found the pattern persisted even after adjusting for education and income, and they reported model checks to reduce issues like multicollinearity among predictors.



That suggests the American Nations framework isn’t just a clever historical story - it adds real explanatory power to why wellness feels different in different parts of the country.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-wellness-policy-must-fit-culture">Wellness policy must fit culture</h2>



If you want to boost <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/simply-looking-at-art-can-improve-your-well-being/">well-being</a>, focusing only on income or clinics may miss what makes people feel whole in a given place.



In regions that already score high on traditional metrics, investing in community identity, public spaces, and opportunities for contribution might move the needle on meaning and purpose.



In places rich in existential wellness but poorer on traditional metrics, policies that improve access to preventive care, stable work, and safety nets could pay outsized dividends.



Put simply, the study argues that wellness strategies work best when they respect the cultural ecologies where people live - strengthening what’s already strong while shoring up what’s thin.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-limits-and-a-next-step"><a></a>Limits - and a next step</h2>



This is an observational study using self-reported survey data; it can’t prove cause and effect. The American Nations borders blur in real life, people move, and city-level differences within regions can be large.



Still, with more than 325,000 respondents across 110 metro areas and eight years of data, the signal is hard to ignore. 



The authors call for digging into mechanisms: Which specific institutions or community practices best translate cultural inheritance into day-to-day well-being? 



And which levers - health infrastructure, schooling, neighborhood design, civic organizations - offer the highest return in each region?



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-place-and-culture-shape-wellness">Place and culture shape wellness</h2>



Where you live doesn’t just shape your paycheck and your hospital bill. It also shapes how you experience a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/creativity-improves-life-satisfaction-and-overall-well-being/">good life</a> - whether that’s feeling financially secure and physically well, or feeling rooted in purpose and community.



The United States’ oldest settlement patterns still echo in those experiences today. 



They remind policymakers that the most effective pathways to human flourishing may look different from Boston to Birmingham to El Paso.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0327972" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">PLOS One</a>.



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Wellness in America depends on culture and where you live

A massive new analysis suggests Americans don’t just differ in what they earn or how long they live - they also differ in how they experience wellness. Drawing on more than 325,000 survey responses collected over eight years, researchers found clear regional differences in wellness. People in the Northeastern and Midwestern regions tend to score higher on “traditional” wellness, which includes physical health, finances, and social support. Many Southern regions, by contrast, rank higher on “existential” wellness, such as purpose, meaning, and a strong sense of community...

On Saturday, April 20th, every <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/air-pollution-national-parks/">national park</a> including monuments and preserves will be free to the public. The date marks the start of 2019’s<a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/npscelebrates/national-park-week.htm"> National Park Week</a> which will run from April 20th to April 28th. 

What better way to celebrate some of our country’s most breathtaking landscapes and feats of conservation and management than by taking a trip to your local national park or monument? 

National Park Week is a collaborative effort between the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/index.htm">National Park Service (NPS)</a> and the <a href="https://www.nationalparks.org/">National Park Foundation</a>, the official charity of America’s parks. 

The week is packed with theme days where the public is encouraged to spread their love of the parks on social media with special hashtags. There will be a variety of programs and events to celebrate National Park Week according to the National Park Service. 

Besides free admittance to the park, Saturday, April 20th is National Junior Ranger Day where kids can explore and learn about the parks while earning a Junior Ranger badge. 

On April 21st, the parks will recognize and honor those who have served in the US military as well as their families. 

For Earth Day on April 22nd, park programs will show the public how the NPS protects and conserves the parks. Park visitors will also be able to learn about the scientific research conducted in the parks and even volunteer to be a citizen scientist. 

On Tuesday, April 23rd, park visitors will be able to learn about transportation and how innovations like the transcontinental railroad shaped our country’s landscapes as well as how the NPS keeps the parks safe and open to millions of traveling visitors each year. 

Wednesday, April 24th is Wild Wednesday and the day will be dedicated to everything “wild,” from the diverse species and wildlife that thrive in the parks to unleashing your “<a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/wildwednesday.htm">inner wild child</a>.” 

Thursday, April 25th follows a popular social media trend, Throwback Thursday, and park visitors will have the chance to step back in time and learn about park history and heritage. 

Friendship Friday on April 26th is dedicated to the extensive partnerships that keep the parks going and the organizations and projects dedicated to conservation, rehabilitation, maintenance, and recreation. 

Saturday, April 27th is Bark Ranger Day, and your four-legged friend can even become a B.A.R.K Ranger. 

Park Rx Day on April 28th is dedicated to the community health benefits that parks provide. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>,<a href="https://www.earth.com/"> Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

All National Parks will be free on April 20th to kick off National Park Week

On Saturday, April 20th, every national park including monuments and...

To make beer, you need water.  According to Carey Matthews, general manager of <a href="http://www.manyriversbrewing.com/">Many Rivers Brewing</a>, it takes 3 to 7 barrels of water to make just one barrel of beer.  

The number in some breweries can be as high as 10 barrels of water to create 1 barrel of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/beer-ancient-peruvian-empire/">beer</a>.  Kim Marotta of MillerCoors told <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/id/39381417">CNBC</a> of the importance of water in brewing, noting “It's the main ingredient in our beer. It helps clean our brew kettles. It helps water our crops…Without that water, I don't want to even think about what would happen.”        

It seems counter intuitive that drinking beer could possibly help responsible water use and river conservation, especially in the arid western United States.  What is obvious though, is that if we are going to continue to drink beer or any other beverage, we must have a reliable water source to produce that beer. It’s also obvious that industries using water stand in a unique position to improve water conservation and when it comes to much of the west, improve river health.

Water is a problem, globally, in the US and especially in the arid western portion of the country.  <a href="https://growlermag.com/the-thirsty-business-of-beer-how-breweries-are-confronting-the-industrys-water-problem/">The Growler</a> pointed to a 2012 National Security Assessment by the Pentagon that says that water shortages caused by climate change are the greatest threat to global security.  A war for water is a war for survival, something all people would fight for. If we don’t want a dark dystopian future like the one presented in T.C. Boyle’s A Friend of the Earth, where sake is the only alcoholic beverage available, we must practice solid water conservation.

The realities of water usage in the western US and a desire to help is the impetus behind Many Rivers Brewing, a Colorado Public Benefit Corporation (PBC), which Carey Mathews explained to me in email as: 

“For profit corporation or domestic cooperative that is intended to produce one or more public benefits and to operate in a responsible and sustainable manner.  Basically, this means that one of our core tenets is to provide a service for the greater good and not just make our shareholders money. So in our case, we donate 100% of our profits towards river conservation purposes.”

Many Rivers is part of a trend of craft breweries and environmental non-profits coming together to protect western water sources, most notably the Colorado River.       

Over 70% of the water used in beer comes from agriculture, according to Kim Marotta.  So it makes sense that water conservation related to brewing might start with farmers.  In farming towns like the one I grew up in on the Western Slope of Colorado, irrigation canals form a framework for the organization of the whole community.  All the irrigation water comes from rivers and one of the greatest suppliers of water to western agriculture is the embattled Colorado River and its tributaries.  

We’ve seen the rumblings of what could easily turn into future water wars in places like California where almond growers are pitted against others living in the state.  What has happened in California is little more than a cautionary tale, and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-thirst-for-almonds/">Bloomberg</a> reports that the drought ended in 2016 and the almonds have rebounded.  Still, with increased global climate change and human populations doing nothing but rising, it’s become clear that agricultural norms, especially in arid places need to change.  Beer is part of the mix in California along with the almonds too. <a href="https://growlermag.com/the-thirsty-business-of-beer-how-breweries-are-confronting-the-industrys-water-problem/">The Growler</a> reports that California had in 2016, 600 craft breweries which account for 24.5 million gallons of water used to make beer.  Even more breweries are in the future of California and the US as well. 

The Nature Conservancy is part of a cooperative effort between craft brewers and environmental groups intent on being able to drink beer and leave water for the wild as well.  Both the cause of good beer and a vibrant natural environment resonate strongly with me on a personal level. <a href="https://www.sinaguamalt.com/our-story.html">Singuamalt</a> starts the story of beer and conservation cooperation with malt barley agriculture.

Malted grain is a grain that has been soaked in water so that it starts to germinate.  After germination, the process is stopped before the grains can grow into full blown plants by being dried in hot air.  The process of malting is dedicated to the creation of sugars and enzymes that can form yeasts. The process is also essential for the creation of beer as well as other alcoholic beverages and some candy.  

In 2015, The Nature Conservancy got into the business of creating malt, specifically malt for beer.  Chip Norton, Verde Conservation District Supervisor, and Kim Schonek, Verde River Water Transactions Manager for The Nature Conservancy, started working with farmers to develop crops that used less water in Arizona.  Together, Chip and Kim started a pilot project of Harrington 2-row malt barley harvested by farmer Zach Hauser in February 2016. The project showed good results and today Sinagua Malt is an Arizona Benefit Corporation that processes barely grown by local farmers into malt.  The end result is good for the Colorado River’s continued flow. Barley is a winter crop, grown when the Colorado River has less pulls on it from traditional summer agriculture, so there’s more water to go around during the growing season for barley in Arizona. Carey Matthews told me that the end result is 50% less water used by the malt barley growers. 

The Audubon Society is involved in the action as well. 

“Audubon Arizona began our partnerships with craft breweries through our monthly Birds n’ Beer speaker series – a free community event during which folks enjoy craft beer over a wildlife/conservation themed presentation,” said Steve Prager of Audubon Arizona. “This program was devised to bring an audience different from our usual older, whiter, wealthier, birding population through our doors.  We are very aware that if conservation efforts are to be successful, we need EVERYONE engaged.”

Out of the collaboration between the Arizona Audubon Society and breweries arose the <a href="http://az.audubon.org/conservation/western-rivers-brewers-council">Western Rivers Brewers Council (WRBC)</a>, a collective organization Many Rivers Brewers is also a part of.  Carey Matthews told me they became involved with WRBC because of the common ground between the two organizations.

“We got involved with the Western Rivers Brewers Association because it aligns with our mission and brings together brewers with likeminded goals,” said Matthews.  “They are based out of Arizona and two of our founders/board members are in Arizona… It’s important to think about water conservation from start to finish in the beer making process, so even at the agricultural level of the raw materials!”

Steve Prager also told me that different member breweries bring different strengths to the organization and highlighted their collective power to further community engagement.  Prager also noted what’s at stake, something any westerner with a keen eye to the environment already knows.

“In Arizona, nearly two thirds of our threatened and endangered species depend on riverside habitats at some point within their lifecycle – and they’re not alone,” said Prager. “ In the arid west, communities, economies, and just about everything else relies on secure, reliable, and sustainable water supplies… The public, especially those living in the Colorado River Basin, should know that changes in climate are resulting in not just drought, but long-term aridification.  This means that lower flows in the river are the new normal, and that we must find ways to reduce our usage. If we lose our Colorado River water allotment, water users are likely to seek new sources of water, and water resources like groundwater, along with existing regulations that promote sustainable water planning, would have a greater potential of coming under increased scrutiny and pressure. In the struggle to secure reliable water supplies during such dire conditions, it is very likely that rivers and birds would not come out on top.”

For me, the strength of the collaboration between breweries and river conservation rests on it’s advocacy.  Of course, many people enjoy beer. If you feel your beer is threatened, it may hit closer to home than if you feel some endangered species you’ve never heard of is threatened.  Maybe it could start you on the path to considering everything else at stake, things you’ve never thought of. It’s telling that the story of Many Rivers Brewers started with its founder Tim Carlson pondering not how to make good beer but how to push money into river conservation.  Tim had already spent 40 years as an environmental engineer working on river restoration before founding Many Rivers. The importance of rivers in Colorado can’t be over emphasized either.

“In terms of river conservation, there is an unending list of things we need to focus on to keep our rivers clean, safe and vibrant,” Carey Matthews said. “One of the most tangible concerns right now is general river health in the midst of droughts throughout the West.  When our rivers dry up, it affects everyone. The Colorado River alone provides drinking water for 30 million Americans and helps grow 90% of the nation’s winter vegetables.”

That means that wherever you are in the US, the Colorado River probably plays a role in your life.  It’s good to know some of the breweries out there are actually fighting to stay alive and also keep rivers in the west healthy.                 

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Birds and Brews: How breweries are trying to conserve western river habitats

To make beer, you need water.  According to Carey Matthews,...

Social media has been having fun with trend of ‘Florida Man…’ stories, which are less about any one person and are more of a narrative element.  “Florida man…” typically refers to a true news story about a man in Florida that seems to embody the same bizarre elements. It’s somewhat of a harsh Florida stereotype, but there certainly are plenty of real life examples.

A perfect example of a Florida Man story is the case of Joshua James who was charged with assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill in 2016 after he threw a live alligator through the drive up window of a Wendy’s, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/10/man-charged-with-using-alligator-as-dangerous-weapon-at-wendys-drive-thru">The Guardian</a>.  Many of the Florida Man stories involve alligators, actually.  It seems that one of America’s largest and most dangerous reptiles imprinted a unique history in Florida.

Human interactions with the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/alligators-spatial-hearing-mammals/">American Alligator</a> (Alligator mississippiensis) of course date back before Europeans ever arrived in the Americas.  According to <a href="http://www.native-languages.org/legends-alligator.htm">Native-languages.org</a>, for many Native American groups, the alligator figured into mythology as something of an inept villain, easily outsmarted.  Other times, the alligator is viewed in a more favorable light. 

In a <a href="https://www.choctaw.org/culture/pdf/Alligator%20and%20the%20Hunter%202fold.pdf">Choctaw myth</a>, a man is very unlucky in hunting.  In desperation, the man goes into the swamp, determined to not leave until he’s killed a deer or died himself.  After days without success, the man finds an alligator lying in a dry patch of sand that is a pool in the rainy season.  The man and alligator make an agreement that if the man carries the alligator to water, the alligator will tell him how to become a great hunter.  The alligator and man are both true to their word and the alligator in essence tells the man to limit his hunting, passing by younger deer and fawns and only hunting the older males and he will become the greatest hunter.  Such myths give a small insight into the pre-Columbian relationship of humans and alligators. But much of the recent history dealing with alligators is affected by European Americans. 

The history of alligator wrestling is entwined with the history of oppression of Native Americans in the Deep South.  The Seminole tribe of Florida refer to themselves as the ‘unconquered people’ because they are descendants of Native Americans that eluded capture by the US army.  The marshy, treacherous land of the Everglades gave the Creeks from Georgia and Alabama refuge from military forces. Eventually the Creek were joined by other tribes including the Yuchis, Yamasses, a few remnant people native to the Everglades, and runaway slaves.  From this melting pot of people came a new tribe called the Seminole. A series of conflicts with the US left the remaining Seminole hiding deeper in the Florida swamps with no contact with the US until trading posts opened up. 

The Seminole traded skins, including those of alligators, as well as crafts and other trade good with US settlers.  By 1880, as many as 50,000 alligator hides were shipped from Florida yearly. Some believe that catching alligators for their skins and for food is the origin of alligator wrestling.  According to the <a href="https://dos.myflorida.com/florida-facts/florida-history/seminole-history/">Florida Department of State</a>, the Seminole have long worked hard to maintain independence, including financial independence.  Today, citrus farming and livestock have replaced trade in skins and crafts as the main revenue for the Seminole but tourism also plays a role, including alligator wrestling.

In her book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Enduring-Seminoles-Alligator-Wrestling-Ecotourism/dp/0813016339/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?crid=1XF29PLE7FRX5&amp;keywords=the+enduring+seminoles&amp;qid=1555263690&amp;s=gateway&amp;sprefix=The+enduring+semin%2Caps%2C185&amp;sr=8-1-fkmrnull">The Enduring Seminoles</a>, Patsy West writes that alligator wrestling started as a paying tourist attraction around 1919 with Henry Coppinger Jr, a white man who was the first known alligator wrestler.  Seminoles at Misa Isle wrestling alligators were filmed and the sport popularized by being shown in news reels at movie theaters across the country. Soon, Seminoles became synonymous with alligator wrestling and carnivals, road side shows, and other tourist attractions started hiring Seminole alligator wrestlers.  Before the arrival of Disney World, roadside attractions in Florida were plentiful. 

<a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vvkznb/disney-may-rule-but-gator-wrestling-and-roadside-attractions-remain-in-florida-v24n3">Vice</a> reports that as far back as 1890, tourists to Florida were willing to pay a few cents to see captive alligators.  Hosts of roadside attractions were once the reality, tiny semi-professional shows sometimes featuring captive wildlife were common.  Disney World, Sea World, and Epcot Center worked together to push the small attractions out of the way. Fortunes changed in the Seminole Tribe as well.  

The <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-sep-12-mn-19709-story.html">L.A. Times</a> reported in September of 2000 on the changes coming to alligator wrestling.  It was in 2000 that for the first time, the Seminole Tribe relied on newspaper ads to fill an alligator wrestling position.  Most of the applicants weren’t Seminoles. The work is risky. Kenny Cypress, then in his late 20s, was performing at the Miccosukee Tribe's cultural center when an alligator bit down on his head.  Cypress survived with the help of men that pulled the alligator off him, but he was injured. Seminole Chief James Billie lost a ring finger while wrestling an alligator. People have been known to lose limbs, despite experienced wrestlers claiming it can be done safely.  Fewer Seminoles are interested in such dangerous work, which starts at $8 per hour. 

Through Casinos, Bingo halls, The Hard Rock Café and other enterprises, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/">Forbes</a> estimates that the tribes net worth was $12 Billion in 2016.  That means that every member of the small Seminole tribe receives about $128,000 a year, an amount that only accumulates in a trust for those under 18 years old.  With numbers like these, it’s easy to see why outsiders are being increasingly hired for the low paying and dangerous job of alligator wrestling. 

Values have changed among the Seminole as well.  Education is promoted and more Seminole and young people from other southern tribes are interested in getting college degrees than in wrestling alligators.  The <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-3387108/Florida-Indian-tribes-alligator-wrestler-bows-out.html">Daily Mail</a> reported in 2016 that Rocky Jim Jr. of the Miccosukee Tribe was retiring as the last Miccosukee alligator wrestler.  Pressure has been put on alligator wrestling by animal rights groups with concerns over the treatment of the animals as well.  Soon, alligator wrestling may disappear all together. 

If people stop wrestling alligators, the animals remain, roaming the swamps and dwelling in history and myth.

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Image Credit: Peter Etchells/Shutterstock

Alligator wrestling in Florida may soon become a thing of the past

Social media has been having fun with trend of ‘Florida...

A new study published by the <a href="http://www.apa.org/">American Psychological Association</a> has revealed that <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/children-develop-asthma-air-pollution/">children</a> make snap judgements of others based on facial features by age five, just like adults have been known to do. Facial features such as the tilt of the mouth or the distance between the eyes have an effect on how children respond to others.

“For centuries, philosophers, scientists and people in general have recognized that facial features fundamentally shape how we judge and behave toward others, yet most of that has been based on intuitions of how adults behave and perceive,” said study lead author Tessa E.S. Charlesworth of <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/">Harvard University</a>. “What is surprising is that children, from such a young age, are also swayed by relatively arbitrary facial features in their consequential judgments and behaviors.”

According to Charlesworth, previous research has found that children as young as age three make decisions about a person's character traits, such as trustworthiness and competence, based on their facial features. 

Charlesworth explained that while judgments based on a person's appearance may not be accurate or fair, they can have real-world consequences in elections, hiring, and the harshness of criminal sentencings. Prior to this study, however, it was not known whether such consequences also appeared in the behavior of children.

“Our study showed that children from age 5, but not younger, appear to consistently use facial features in deciding how they should behave toward a person as well as their expectations of the other person's behavior,” said Charlesworth. “In other words, children's judgments from faces do appear to have consequences for behavior.”

The study was focused on separate experiments involving nearly 350 children between the ages of 3 and 13. The participants were asked questions based on pairs of computer-generated faces that were designed to be perceived as trustworthy or untrustworthy, dominant or submissive, and competent or incompetent.

Overall, children 3 years and older made the stereotypically expected character judgments of the faces 88 percent of the time. The older the child was, the more likely he or she was to stereotype based on appearance.

“This shows that children from as early as kindergarten use facial appearance to determine meaningful judgments and expectations of others' behavior,” said Charlesworth.

“We have a misguided notion that children are empty vessels into which culture slowly pours itself as they mature,” added study co-author Mahzarin R. Banaji. “This research shows that perceptions of people, however inaccurate those judgments may be, emerge early in humans. What this study uniquely shows is that these inaccuracies don't just sit around in a child's head, they manifest in the child's behavior toward others who are viewed as good or bad based on features of the face that are irrelevant to decisions about character and personality.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/developmental-psychology.html">Developmental Psychology</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Kids make snap judgments based on facial features just like adults

A new study published by the American Psychological Association has...

The first genetic study of ancient Crusaders shows that European soldiers in the Crusades were fierce warriors that also mixed with locals and raised families. 

However, even though Crusade soldiers had children and families, they left no significant genetic legacy, and their influence over the region was short lived.

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.sanger.ac.uk/">Wellcome Sanger Institute</a> analyzed DNA extracted from nine skeletons believed to belong to<a href="https://www.earth.com/video/skeleton-reveals-hints-leprosy-spread-medieval-europe/"> Crusaders dating back to the 13th century</a> that were recently unearthed by archeologists.

The study was published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

“The Crusaders travelled to the near East and had relationships with the local people, with their sons later joining to fight their cause,” said Marc Haber, the lead author of the study. “However, after the fighting had finished, the mixed generation married into the local population and the genetic traces of the Crusaders were quickly lost.”

During the Crusades, which were fought between 1095 and 1291, hundreds of thousands of Christian Europeans invaded the near East in an attempt to claim the region. 

Written documents of nobility that were recruited to the Crusades provide some record of who was involved in the wars, but no written documents exist for the soldiers who lived and died in the near East at the time.

The remains were found in a burial pit in Sidon, Lebanon where the bodies had been burned and buried, and markings on the bones showed signs of significant blunt force injuries which indicate a violent death.

In the pit with the bones, researchers discovered a coin and European shoe buckles which led archeologists to think that the pit was a burial site for Crusade soldiers.

Carbon dating and DNA analysis helped confirm this theory, and researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute tackled the incredibly challenging task of extracting DNA from the ancient bones.

The researchers worked with archeologists to transfer nine skeletons from Lebanon to Cambridge where small amounts of surviving DNA 800 years old were meticulously extracted in an ultra-sterile lab. Such DNA extraction was only made possible in recent years thanks to advancements in DNA sequencing technology.

After sequencing the DNA, the researchers found that three of the skeletons belonged to Europeans of diverse origins and four were near Easterners who had fought side by side with the European soldiers.

Two of the individuals had mixed European and near East genetic ancestry.

“Historical documents tell us the names of the nobility who led the Crusades, but the identities of the soldiers remained a mystery,” said Chris Tyler-Smith, a co-author of the study. “Genomics gives an unprecedented view of the past and shows the Crusaders originated from western Europe and recruited local people of the near East to join them in battle. The Crusaders and near Easterners lived, fought and died side by side.”

Despite the fact that descendants of crusaders and locals fought in the Crusades, DNA sequencing of local Lebanese people who lived 2,000 years ago shows that the Crusaders didn’t leave much of a lasting genetic legacy, a fact further emphasized by the sparse traces of European DNA in Lebanese population’s today.

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Crusaders paired up with near Easterners but left no lasting genetic legacy

The first genetic study of ancient Crusaders shows that European...

During its peak in Peru a thousand years ago, the Wari empire would have spanned the distance from New York City all the way to Jacksonville. When experts at the <a href="https://www.fieldmuseum.org/">Field Museum</a> investigated how the empire managed to remain intact for 500 years, they discovered that a steady supply of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/beer-iron-age/">beer</a> may have been the secret to success. 

“This study helps us understand how beer fed the creation of complex political organizations,” said study lead author Ryan Williams. “We were able to apply new technologies to capture information about how ancient beer was produced and what it meant to societies in the past.”

Nearly twenty years ago, Williams was part of a team that discovered an ancient Wari brewery in Cerro Baúl in the mountains of southern Peru. “It was like a microbrewery in some respects. It was a production house, but the brew houses and taverns would have been right next door,” explained Williams. 

The beer they brewed was a light beverage called chicha, which was only good for about a week after it was made. People gathered at festivals in Cerro Baúl to drink it, and the gatherings were an important part of the society. The political elites would attend, drinking chicha from three-foot-tall ceramic vessels that were decorated to look like Wari gods and leaders.

“People would have come into this site, in these festive moments, in order to recreate and reaffirm their affiliation with these Wari lords and maybe bring tribute and pledge loyalty to the Wari state,” said Williams.


The team analyzed the traces of beer left in the vessels and also examined the chemical makeup of the clay vessels themselves. The analysis revealed that the vessels were made of clay that came from nearby and that the beer was made from pepper berries, which can grow even in drought conditions. Both of these factors would have contributed to a steady supply of beer.

According to the study authors, an uninterrupted beer supply helped maintain the stability of Wari society, which included diverse groups from all over Peru. “We think these institutions of brewing and then serving the beer really formed a unity among these populations, it kept people together,” said Williams.

The study provides insight into how shared identity and cultural practices help to stabilize societies, which is becoming increasingly relevant today. 

“This research is important because it helps us understand how institutions create the binds that tie together people from very diverse constituencies and very different backgrounds,” said Williams. “Without them, large political entities begin to fragment and break up into much smaller things. Brexit is an example of this fragmentation in the European Union today. We need to understand the social constructs that underpin these unifying features if we want to be able to maintain political unity in society.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://sustainability.com/">Sustainability</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Donna Nash

A steady supply of beer helped an ancient Peruvian empire remain united

During its peak in Peru a thousand years ago, the...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/naturally-occurring-hormone-memory-loss/">Memory decline</a> is an unfortunate but natural part of the aging process and not always indicative of a more serious condition like Alzheimer's or dementia. 

Still, memory decline can still certainly make day to day life difficult. But researchers from the <a href="https://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/">Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine</a> may have found a potential treatment for reversing age-related memory decline in a new study published in the journal Neurology.

The team found that stimulating the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory decline, of older adults improved memory to such a degree that older adults scored the same as younger groups in memory tests. 

“Older people's memory got better up to the level that we could no longer tell them apart from younger people,” said Joel Voss, a lead investigator of the study. “They got substantially better.”

16 participants, aged 64 to 80, took part in the study and the researchers used Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to target the hippocampus.

The hippocampus is where connections are made and form a memory, according to the researchers.

“It's the part of the brain that links two unrelated things together into a memory, like the place you left your keys or your new neighbor's name,” said Voss. “Older adults often complain about having trouble with this.”

In older adults, the hippocampus is smaller, and the researchers applied the magnetic stimulation to a spot above the left ear by the parietal lobe which communicates directly with the hippocampus.

“We stimulated where brain activity is synchronized to the hippocampus, suggesting that these regions talk to each other,” said Aneesha Nilakantan, the first author of the study.

Before going through the TMS therapy, participants both young and old were asked to complete memory tasks to assess memory ability. The participants had to learn relationships between paired items and later recall these pairings.

Older adults remembered less than 40 percent of the correct pairings.

Next, the older adults had repetitive high-frequency stimulation applied to the same spot for 20 minutes a day, five days in a row.

After the five days of treatment, the participants were tasked with a new memory test, and scores were the same regardless of age.

Next, the researchers want to test how TMS impacts the memory of participants in the early stages of Alzheimer’s.

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Brain stimulation could help improve memory for older adults, study finds

Memory decline is an unfortunate but natural part of the...

There has been a recent surge in research examining the impacts of screen time on children and adolescents amid rising concerns that too much time in front of smartphones and constant access to social media is disrupting development and increases the risk of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/unlimited-screen-time-depression/">behavior, mental, and mood disorders</a>. 

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/screen-time-teen-well-being/">Conflicting results</a> make it difficult to come to a consensus of whether screen time is linked to behavioral and developmental problems in children and teens. But now, a new study has found that for preschoolers, two more hours of screen time is connected to attention problems. 

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.ualberta.ca/medicine/">University of Alberta’s Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry</a> reviewed data from Canada’s national CHILD Cohort Study which included information on health, lifestyle, environment and genetic risk factors for 3,500 children and their families. 

The CHILD study followed the children from birth to adolescence, and parents also answered questions on daily screen time and completed behavior screenings to assess anxiety, depression, inattention, and sleep disturbances. 

Overall, three-year-olds spent 1.5 hours a day watching TV or movies, playing games on a tablet or phone, or spending time on a computer. When the children were five, 1.4 hours a day were spent in front of screens. 

Children who had more than two hours of screen time each day were five times more likely to exhibit major behavioral problems and were seven times more likely to show signs of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. 

“The two big takeaways from this study are that children exposed to more screen time, at either age three or five years, showed significantly greater behavioural and attention problems at age five, and that this association was greater than any other risk factor we assessed, including sleep, parenting stress, and socioeconomic factors,” said  Sukhpreet Tamana, the first author of the study. 

The researchers found that participating in organized sports or having an outlet involving structured activity and getting enough sleep helped buffer against the negative impacts of too much screen time. 

“A lot of the things that you do through organized activities are really important for young kids early on,” said Tamana. “It sets the stage for development amongst children. I think in lieu of screen time, it would be beneficial for parents to increase opportunities for other structured activities instead.”

The researchers detailed their findings in the journal PLOS ONE. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Screen time linked to behavioral problems in preschoolers

There has been a recent surge in research examining the...

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.earth.columbia.edu/">Earth Institute at Columbia University</a> have turned to ancient urine to work out the details of the transition from hunting to herding during the Neolithic Revolution, which occurred around 10,000 BC. The urine salts, the scientists claim, can help them map out the pace of change when humans first began domesticating animals in ancient Turkey.

“This is the first time, to our knowledge, that people have picked up on salts in archaeological materials, and used them in a way to look at the development of animal management," said lead author Jordan Abell, a graduate student at the <a href="https://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/">University of Columbia Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory</a>.

Prior to using urine salts, researchers relied on bone fragments and fossilized dung to estimate population size in ancient settlements, however, this process can be difficult. 

"We thought, well, humans and animals pee, and when they pee, they release a bunch of salt," Abell said. "At a dry place like this, we didn't think salts would be washed away and redistributed."

Using the salts, scientists were able to calculate the density of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/bacteria-humans-swapping-genes/">humans</a> and animals at the Turkey settlement at any specific time. Around 10,000 years ago, they found a jump in the number of animals and people at the settlement — from about zero to approximately one person per one animal for every 10 square meters. This finding suggests that domestication may have happened quicker than previously thought, perhaps within just 1,000 years.

The team looked at over 113 samples from the site in question, calculating sodium, nitrate, and chlorine salt levels along the way. They watched as the amount of urine salts increased over time, with the largest spike occurring between 10,000 and 9,700 years ago. Abell says that these findings support the theory that the ancient humans began as hunters of sheep and goats, then they corralled a few and then corralled a larger number, finally keeping domesticated goats and sheep on the periphery of the settlement.

The findings appear in <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/">Science Advances</a>.

The researchers hope to eventually be able to discern human urine from livestock urine. However, even without being able to do so, using urine salts as a method for tracking population have been proven useful in arid areas where dung and bone fragments may be lacking.

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Güne Duru

Transition from hunting to herding discovered in ancient urine

Researchers from the Earth Institute at Columbia University have turned...

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, over 800 million tons of dairy products are made from cow’s milk every year. For the very first time, a study published by the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> has produced a comprehensive database of all the known compounds in bovine milk.

For more than 10,000 years, dairy milk has driven both economic and agricultural developments worldwide. Although previous studies have identified thousands of components in <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/humans-milk-dairy-products-9000-years/">milk</a>, the data are not organized. Furthermore, the composition of milk varies by breed of cow, type of feed, and other factors.

There have been targeted chemical analyses that provided scientists with large amounts of data on milk compounds in the past. However, none of these studies have fully identified and quantified the makeup of bovine milk. To investigate, a research team at the <a href="https://www.ualberta.ca/">University of Alberta</a> led by David Wishart conducted research that has produced the most clear information to date.


The researchers used an approach that combined both experimental technologies and literature text-mining. The team examined commercially purchased skim, one percent, two percent, and whole milk with four different types of spectrometry. During this phase of the study, the experts identified and measured substances in milk such as metal ions, vitamins, organic acids, and amino acids. 

For the computer analysis phase, the researchers used a series of digital tools to find published information on dairy compounds. Ultimately, the team created the <a href="http://www.mcdb.ca/downloads">Milk Composition Database</a>, which has more than 2,300 metabolite entries. Notably, over 160 of these substances were reported for the first time in cow's milk. 

The study is published in the <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/journal/jafcau">Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

What exactly is in cow’s milk?

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, over...

Are smartphones, constant access to the internet, and social media really shortening attention spans? There has been growing concern that the onslaught of information that we are bombarded with on a day to day basis is impacting our <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/social-media-addiction-drugs/">focus and attention spans</a>.

A new study conducted by researchers from the <a href="https://www.tu-berlin.de/">Technische Universität Berlin</a>, <a href="https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/en">Max Planck Institute for Human Development</a>, <a href="https://www.ucc.ie/">University College Cork</a>, and the <a href="https://www.dtu.dk/english">Technical University of Denmark</a> sought to empirically answer these questions. 

The study was published in the journal Nature Communications, and the results show that our collective attention is changing. 

People are not necessarily losing their attention spans, but as a collective whole, we are jumping from headline to headline and hashtag to hashtag at a rapidly increasing pace. 

“It seems that the allocated attention in our collective minds has a certain size, but that the cultural items competing for that attention have become more densely packed,” said Sune Lehman, a co-author of the study. “This would support the claim that it has indeed become more difficult to keep up to date on the news cycle, for example.” 

The researchers reviewed and analyzed Twitter data from 2013 to 2016, books from Google Books dating back as far as 100 years, 40 years worth movie ticket sales, and 25 years of cited scientific studies. Data from Google Trends, Reddit, and Wikipedia was also analyzed for the study. 

The analysis showed that over time people spent less time focused on a movie, book, or headline. In other words, the amount of time a cultural item spends in the limelight these days is getting shorter and shorter. 

Take Twitter hashtags, for example. Hashtags can be a great way to discover new and trending topics and stay up to date with the latest news. In 2013, a top trending hashtag stayed in the top 50 for around 17.5 hours, but this dropped 11.9 hours in 2016. 

The researchers found similar patterns when it came to top box office movies and the number of Reddit comments on an individual submission. 

“We wanted to understand which mechanisms could drive this behavior,” said Phillip Hovel, a fellow co-author of the study. “Picturing topics as species that feed on human attention, we designed a mathematical model with three basic ingredients: ‘hotness,’ aging and the thirst for something new.” 

The model showed that as more and more content is produced and published in quicker and quicker time frames, people spend less and less time on one specific piece or item. 

The race for content is a kind of competition for who can capture the collective attention next and for how long. 

As a whole, the research shows we are quick to lose interest in something but how the information age is impacting individual attention spans remains to be seen. 

“Our data only supports the claim that our collective attention span is narrowing,” said Lehman. “Therefore, as a next step, it would be interesting to look into how this affects individuals, since the observed developments may have negative implications for an individual's ability to evaluate the information they consume.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Information overflow is shortening our attention spans, research shows

Are smartphones, constant access to the internet, and social media...

Researchers at <a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/">McGill University</a> have found that the legalization of gay marriage across the United States has significantly impacted the evolving attitudes of Americans toward <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/india-decriminalized-homosexuality/">homosexuality</a>. The study revealed that the state legislation has reduced anti-gay bias in many parts of the country.

Study senior author Eric Hehman is a professor in the Department of Psychology. He explained that the findings provide evidence that public policy can shape social norms and alter attitudes.

Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage in 2004, followed by 34 other states and Washington, D.C. Ultimately, in 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that gay couples could marry nationwide. Since this ruling, poll results have shown that support for same-sex marriage has steadily increased.

Professor Hehman is an expert in how individuals perceive one another and how stereotypes and biases influence our behavior. He set out to investigate whether state legislation had an impact on anti-gay bias.

“The idea that norms shape attitudes has been around in social psychology for many years,” said Professor Hehman. “We wanted to measure if laws and policies can also act as norms and potentially change deeply rooted biases.”

The team was able to map trends in anti-gay bias over the course of the 11 years that different states were adopting same-sex marriage. The researchers examined changing regional anti-gay biases of about one million respondents on a website known as Project Implicit. Next, they compared the trends from before and after gay marriage was legalized in each state. 

Bias against the gay community was found to be slightly decreasing prior to same-sex marriage legalization. After same-sex marriage was accepted, however, the rate of anti-gay bias was found to decline at roughly double the previous rate.


Professor Hehman also discovered a “backlash effect” in the 15 states that did not pass same-sex marriage legalization locally. Across these states, anti-gay bias increased immediately after the Supreme Court ruling.

The outcome of the research suggests that attitudes and legislation may be mutually reinforcing, and evolving attitudes toward same-sex marriage may have provided the momentum for both state and federal legalization.

“In other words, representative governments can contribute to and/or intensify change in the attitude of citizens by passing legislation,” said Professor Hehman. “We have some evidence that the laws caused this change in bias, but it is possible the effect goes in both directions.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.pnas.org/">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</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>

Legalization of same-sex marriage linked to reduced anti-gay bias

Researchers at McGill University have found that the legalization of...

<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.

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://youtu.be/XYgiPzmNBTU?si=eFYY7gPHU1JznLvU
</div></figure>



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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Wildlife tunnels save millions of amphibians

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

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



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



<figure class="wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://youtu.be/Ug657J67iEo?si=w96YjGMsg939LD_3
</div></figure>



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

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

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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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...

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



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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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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...

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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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...

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

[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

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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