Coffee is prized for its taste and mental boost. A new study shows that caffeine may also fine‑tune the internal clock that makes cells grow old.



Researchers observed that yeast aged more slowly when caffeine altered the same energy pathways that help human cells <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/organ-aging-can-predict-diseases-decades-in-advance/">survive</a> under stress.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-caffeine-slows-aging-in-yeast-cells">Caffeine slows aging in yeast cells</h2>



Dr. Charalampos (Babis) Rallis of <a href="https://www.qmul.ac.uk/">Queen Mary University of London</a> focused on the yeast species Schizosaccharomyces pombe because its DNA repair and growth controls echo our own. 



The team logged changes in <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9139625/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">chronological lifespan</a>, the length of time that non‑dividing cells stay viable, then mapped the molecular traffic that caffeine set in motion.



“This is our most exciting find to date,” said Dr. Rallis. The results point to a fuel‑sensing <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/healthy-aging-how-some-people-live-past-100-years/">pathway</a> that kicks in when nutrients dip, mirroring how people burn stored energy between meals.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-yeast-helps-us-understand-aging">Yeast helps us understand aging</h2>



Fission yeast may seem worlds apart from humans, but it shares many core <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4772020/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">regulatory pathways</a> found in our cells. Systems like <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2779044/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AMPK</a> and <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3241408/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">TOR</a> have been conserved over hundreds of millions of years because they work so well.



This makes yeast an ideal testing ground for decoding how compounds like caffeine affect <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-are-experimenting-with-new-approach-to-fight-and-stop-human-aging-necrosis/">lifespan</a> and stress response. What happens in a petri dish often sparks questions that ripple out to animal models and eventually to people.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-caffeine-may-slow-aging">How caffeine may slow aging</h2>



The key player is AMPK, an enzyme that "notices" when the cell’s ATP (energy) balance tilts toward empty and then shifts metabolism to survival mode. 



“Caffeine helps flip that switch,” said <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=913OCBIAAAAJ&amp;hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dr. John‑Patrick Alao</a>, the postdoctoral scientist who ran the experiments.



Earlier <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23551936/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">work</a> suggested caffeine blocked <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23551936/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">TOR</a>, a growth promoter, but new data reveal the compound reaches TOR indirectly by first waking up AMPK. 



Cells then slow growth, patch damaged DNA, and boost antioxidant defenses, the very responses that lengthen life in many lab organisms.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-caffeine-and-metformin-use-same-pathway">Caffeine and metformin use same pathway</h2>



<a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6779524/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Metformin</a>, the common diabetes drug, also charges AMPK and is being tested as a geroprotector in humans. The overlap hints that coffee’s benefits may parallel those seen in metformin cohorts, though dosage and metabolism differ widely.



Both agents dial back inflammation, clear out faulty proteins through autophagy, and keep insulin signaling from running too hot. 



If future trials confirm safety, researchers may combine low‑dose caffeine with metformin analogs to see whether their effects stack without side effects.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-caffeine-helps-manage-cell-stress">Caffeine helps manage cell stress</h2>



The AMPK pathway doesn’t just manage fuel, it also guides how cells respond to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/medgen/222489" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">genotoxic stress</a>, such as radiation or chemicals that harm DNA. 



The yeast data showed caffeine increased sensitivity to DNA damage in some mutants, revealing AMPK's role in damage response.



This dual role, energy control and DNA repair, suggests that caffeine tunes both survival and quality control systems. 



It’s part of a wider stress adaptation strategy that has been conserved across <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-discover-a-protein-that-reverses-cellular-aging/">evolution</a>, and is now offering new angles for anti-aging research.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-people-who-drink-coffee-may-live-longer">People who drink coffee may live longer</h2>



Observational work involving hundreds of thousands of adults links two to four cups of coffee daily with <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31055709/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lower all‑cause mortality</a>. 



Separate <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34468722/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">analyses</a> in Asian populations find similar protection against heart disease and several cancers.



Because these studies track behavior, not biology, confounding factors like diet, exercise, and income can cloud cause and effect. 



The yeast data now give those population numbers a plausible mechanism anchored in cell chemistry, without the noise of other factors.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-future-research-on-caffeine-and-aging">Future research on caffeine and aging</h2>



Yeast tolerate caffeine levels far above a latte, so dose matters when translating findings to people. 



Human AMPK is embedded in tissues that react differently, so benefits in muscle may come at a cost elsewhere if DNA repair stalls during caffeine peaks.



High caffeine can raise blood pressure, trigger anxiety, and interfere with sleep - processes that can speed cell aging if left unchecked. 



Clinical trials that track AMPK activation, cardiovascular markers, and cognitive scores together will be needed before doctors advise specific amounts.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-role-of-diet-and-exercise">The role of diet and exercise </h2>



Exercise is one of the most well-known ways to activate AMPK in humans. When muscles burn through energy during physical activity, this pathway turns on to help cells adapt and recover.



Certain foods, including those high in polyphenols like berries and green tea, may also give AMPK a nudge. 



Understanding how diet and lifestyle naturally influence this system could lead to everyday habits that support healthy aging.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-healthy-lifestyle-matters">A healthy lifestyle matters</h2>



For now, moderate coffee remains a safe pleasure that lines up with epidemiology and basic science. Sleepless nights and energy drinks loaded with sugar still pose risks that no enzyme tweak can erase.



Nutrient‑sensing pathways such as AMPK give researchers a roadmap for therapies, yet lifestyle, steady sleep, balanced diet, and movement, keep the road free of potholes. 



The next wave of studies may explore caffeine analogs that lock onto AMPK with precision, separating the perks from the jitters.



The study is published in <a href="https://microbialcell.com/researcharticles/2025a-alao-microbial-cell/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Microbial Cell</a>.



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Scientists learn that caffeine could slow cellular aging under the right conditions

Coffee is prized for its taste and mental boost. A new study shows that caffeine may also fine‑tune the internal clock that makes cells grow old. Researchers observed that yeast aged more slowly when caffeine altered the same energy pathways that help human cells survive under stress. Caffeine slows aging in yeast cells Dr. Charalampos (Babis) Rallis of Queen Mary University of London focused on the yeast species Schizosaccharomyces pombe because its DNA repair and growth controls echo our own. The team logged changes in chronological lifespan,...

Over 115 people die every day from an opioid overdose, according to the <a href="https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-overdose-crisis">National Institute on Drug Abuse</a>.  

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/opioid-crisis-kids-adolescents/">Opioid addiction</a> has become a major national crisis and policymakers as well as health experts are working to combat opioid misuse and addiction. 

Not long ago, the United States was dealing with an entirely different health crisis. Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s, nearly 675,000 people in the US have died from the autoimmune condition, according to the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/docs/factsheets/todaysepidemic-508.pdf">Centers for Disease Control</a>. 

Now, researchers from the <a href="https://www.mailman.columbia.edu/">University Mailman School of Public Health</a> suggest that there is much to be gained from looking at how the AIDS epidemic was handled, including treatments, political response, and media attention, that could inform more effective strategies in battling opioids.

“Despite the effectiveness of medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorders, the mortality rate for opioids has surpassed that of the AIDS epidemic during its peak in the early 1990s--a time when there was no effective treatment for HIV/AIDS,” said Silvia Martins, an author of the study. 

The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and the researchers say that advances in medical treatment options won’t be enough to reduce opioid addiction in the US. 

To say that the government, media, and the medical community failed in their response to the AIDS Epidemic is an understatement. 

The stigma that surrounded HIV/AIDS and the gay community during the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s only helped spur prejudice and spread misinformation about the disease, including how it was contracted. 

Doctors debated about the moral obligation of treating people with HIV/AIDS and the Reagan Administration was infamously silent on the issue until President Reagan finally publicly addressed the epidemic in 1987 after 23,000 people had died, according to the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2015/12/01/a-disturbing-new-glimpse-at-the-reagan-administrations-indifference-to-aids/?utm_term=.318bdd2f032f">Washington Post</a>. 


In their New England Journal of Medicine study, the researchers say that these failings can be looked on an as important learning opportunity for how to address the opioid crisis on all fronts both medically and socially. 

“Even as efforts are under way to scale up access to medication-assisted treatment for opioid use, it is vital not to assume a position of  ‘if we build it, they will come,’” said Caroline Parker, the first author of the study. “The benefits of scientific progress have been unequally distributed, with growing ethnic and sexuality-related disparities. This failure of equity should draw our attention to the importance of social factors in shaping who benefits from effective biomedical therapies.” 

The researchers suggest a five-point action plan to help combat the opioid crisis. 

Step one of the plan involves identifying the cultural, social, economic and structural barriers that prevent people from receiving treatment. So far, 80 percent of people with an opioid addiction don’t get the care they need. 

“As the HIV/AIDS epidemic has taught us, the existence of effective medical treatment does not mean that people who need treatment can and will obtain it,” said Parker. 

Step two says that policymakers and the medical community need to stop addressing the crisis on a case-by-case basis. 

For step three, the researchers emphasize the importance of addressing the stigma of opioid misuse. 

“It is critical to directly engage affected families and communities in policymaking and changing legislation to stop the criminalization of substance use disorders,” said Parker. 

Step four calls on family and community members to take action and create a supportive network for people with opioid misuse problems. This will help with healthcare engagement and encourage more people to seek treatment. 

Step five follows step four in that community engagement and action is critical to the success of any opioid crisis plan. 

“As millions of dollars are appropriated at the state and federal levels for the opioid crisis, we face a choice,” said Martins. “Committing those resources exclusively to biomedical solutions is likely to reproduce the sharp disparities that we have seen with HIV, but learning from the failures and successes of our response to HIV can help us leverage support to ensure that the opioid response benefits all sectors of society.” 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Lessons from the AIDS epidemic can help battle the opioid crisis

Over 115 people die every day from an opioid overdose,...

Retailers must be more transparent about their palm oil sources. The production of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/palm-oil-deforestation-emissions/">palm oil</a>, a commonly used ingredient in cosmetics, food, cleaning products, and biofuel, causes massive deforestation, loss of biodiversity, and greenhouse gas emissions when not harvested sustainably — which massive quantities aren’t. However, many consumers are not aware when and if sustainably sourced palm oil is in their daily products. 

A new study from the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a>, published in <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aaf0e4/meta">Environmental Research Letters</a>, proves that companies must be more upfront about their usage of palm oil due to the fact that, generally, consumers are not informed about palm oil labelling on products. Retailers must be more transparent about their palm oil sources

“The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has made efforts to improve the sustainability of palm oil production by creating an environmental certification system for palm oil. But currently only 19 percent of palm oil is RSPO-certified,” said the study’s leader, Dr. Rosemary Ostfeld. “This means the majority that finds its way into products people buy daily is still produced using conventional practices.”

Dr. Ostfeld and her team surveyed 1,695 British consumers and found that 77% of them were aware of what palm oil is. Furthermore, 44% considered palm oil “environmentally unfriendly.” But almost none of those surveyed knew that the RSPO label represented a product made with sustainably-sourced palm oil.

"In terms of label recognition versus action, 82 percent of people recognised the Fairtrade label, but only 29 percent actively buy Fairtrade products,” Dr. Ostfeld said. “Only five percent recognised the RSPO label - the same as a fictional label we put into the survey as a control. Of that small number, only one percent said they actively include products with the label in their shopping.”

Dr. Ostfeld believes that the lack of consumer recognition of this label could be blamed on the fact that major companies and retailers don’t use it. “This may be due in part to reluctance to draw attention to their use of palm oil, or it may be because they fall short of the 95 percent physical certified palm oil content that used to be needed to use the label,” Dr. Ostfeld hypothesized.

No matter the reason, the research team found that labelling alone will not necessarily encourage a consumer to choose to sustainable palm oil product over a non-sustainable one. Government policy is needed to make sure the palm oil industry is not overstepping its bounds.

“We recommend governments require consumer goods companies and retailers to buy identity-preserved certified palm oil, which can be traced back to the individual plantation,” Dr. Ostfeld said. “If national targets must be met with identity-preserved certified palm oil, demand for it will increase. It will also enable unsustainable practices to be uncovered more easily.”

Dr. Ostfeld also recommends that companies become transparent about their palm oil suppliers, which will lead the public to make more informed choices and encourage companies to stick with ethical suppliers.

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Retailers must be more transparent about their palm oil sources

Retailers must be more transparent about their palm oil sources....

While extensive research has shown the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/air-pollution-asthma-attacks/">negative impacts of pollution</a> on public health and wellbeing, few studies have examined how air pollution affects worker productivity. 

But now, a new study published in the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics is the first of its kind to comprehensively show how long-term exposure to pollution in a factory setting has a dramatic impact on both health and productivity for employees. 

Researchers from the <a href="http://nus.edu.sg/">National University of Singapore</a> conducted the research and spent over a year interviewing factory managers in China, gathering productivity information from textile mills, and analyzing data. 

“Our aim with this research was to broaden the understanding of air pollution in ways that have not been explored,” said Alberto Salvo, an author of the study. “We typically think that firms benefit from lax pollution regulations, by saving on emission control equipment and the like; here we document an adverse effect on the productivity of their work force.” 

The researchers reviewed the daily records of two textile factories where the workers were paid per piece of fabric made and compared the records to daily pollution levels using measurements of fine particles. 

Having such detailed records of productivity allowed the researchers to find out how a factory’s pollution impacted its employees both on a day to basis and over a longer period. 

On most days, the factories had pollution levels that were above levels deemed safe by the<a href="https://www.epa.gov/"> US Environmental Protection Agency</a>. 

The researchers found on a day to day basis, pollution exposure had little influence on worker productivity, but exposure over a period of 30 days adversely affected the employees. 

“We found that an increase in PM2.5, by 10 micrograms per cubic meter sustained over 25 days, reduces daily output by 1 per cent, harming firms and workers,” said Haoming Liu, a co-author of the study. “The effects are subtle but highly significant.”

One explanation for why productivity is impacted by pollution exposure could be that the highly polluted factory environments reduce well-being. 

“Besides entering via the lungs and into the bloodstream, there could also be a psychological element,” said Liu, “Working in a highly polluted setting for long periods of time could affect your mood or disposition to work.”

Previous research found that in California, fruit packers exposed to a certain level of air pollution were immediately six percent less productive, but this study found that effects are more subtle for workers in China.  

“Laborers in China can be working under far worse daily conditions while maintaining levels of productivity that look comparable to clean air days,” said Liu. “Therefore, our finding that pollution has a subtle influence on productivity seems realistic.” 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earthcom">Earth.com</a>

Air pollution found to impact worker productivity

While extensive research has shown the negative impacts of pollution...

The mysterious collapse of the Akkadian Empire may finally have been solved thanks to paleoclimatologists from Oxford who examined stalagmites in the Gole-e-Zard Cave in Northern Iran. 

4,300 years ago, Sargon of Akkad formed the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia. It was the first empire in the world spanning across what is now Southern Iraq, Syria, and Turkey along the Euphrates River. 

But the empire ultimately collapsed and Akkadian people migrated out of the area leaving behind few clues as to why. 

In a new piece in <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-climate-change-caused-the-worlds-first-ever-empire-to-collapse-109060">The Conversation</a>, Vasile Ersek discussed how he and a team of <a href="http://www.ox.ac.uk/">Oxford</a> researchers found evidence that widespread drought and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-ancient-societies/">climate change</a> were to blame. 

Ersek and colleagues are not the first researchers to point to drought as the cause of Akkad’s downfall, but what makes this study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, different from past research is the evidence found in cave stalagmites. 

Akkad was dependent on agriculture in the northern regions, but about a century after the Empire’s formation, the area was fraught with food and water shortages.

Previous research conducted by <a href="https://www.yale.edu/">Yale</a> archeologists found evidence of drought that reduced agricultural productivity in the northern regions and this led to people fleeing. The once fertile areas of Akkad were replaced by sand and dust, and sediment cores from the Red Sea confirm this fact. 

However, drought as the cause remained highly contested by researchers saying that there was not enough evidence to prove that widespread climate change drove people out of Akkad and ruined the once great empire. 

Ersek, along with a team of researchers led by Stacy Carolin, dated stalagmites in the Gol-e-Zard Cave to see if the mineral composition of the stalagmites could provide more insight into the climate conditions at the time of Akkad’s collapse. 

Stalagmites, like sediment cores, serve as accurate records of climate conditions in years past. 

The researchers found thousands of years of dust activity in the stalagmites, and the stalagmites with high concentrations of magnesium pointed to periods of high dust activity indicative of desert drought. 

“Combining these methods, our new study provides a detailed history of dustiness in the area, and identifies two major drought periods which started 4,510 and 4,260 years ago, and lasted 110 and 290 years respectively,” Ersek wrote in the Conversation. “The latter event occurs precisely at the time of the Akkadian Empire’s collapse and provides a strong argument that climate change was at least in part responsible.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Drought and climate change brought down the Akkad Empire

The mysterious collapse of the Akkadian Empire may finally have...

A new study from the environmental analysis group <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/">Carbon Brief</a> has revealed that product energy efficiency has been even more effective in cutting CO2 emissions across the UK than <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/california-renewable-2045/">renewable energy</a>, even though the potential of energy efficiency is largely overlooked. 

The analysis comes at a time when power generation in the UK is the lowest it has been in 25 years.

A review of the findings, written by Carbon Brief’s deputy editor Dr. Simon Evans, explains that “low-energy light bulbs can cut electricity use by up to 90 percent while newer ‘white goods’ such as fridges, freezers, and washing machines can use up to 75 percent less electricity each year than the oldest models.” 

According to the <a href="https://www.theccc.org.uk/">Committee on Climate Change</a> (CCC), there is a great amount of potential for cutting energy use by simply replacing old appliances with the latest models. 

“Although the picture is complex it’s clear that energy efficiency has played a huge role in help the UK to decarbonize - and I don’t think it’s got the recognition it should have,” Dr. Evans told <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news">BBC News</a>: 

“Say you change from a B or C-rated fridge to an A++ rated fridge. That can halve your energy use from the appliance, so it’s pretty significant.”

The Carbon Brief reports that use of renewable energy has cut back on fossil fuel energy by the equivalent of 95 terawatt hours (TWh) since 2005. Meanwhile, energy efficiency cut energy demand across the UK by 103 TWh. 


Dr. Joanne Wade is the CEO of the <a href="https://www.ukace.org/">Association for Conservation of Energy</a> (ACE). She told BBC News, “I haven’t seen these figures before but I’m not surprised.”

“The huge improvement in energy efficiency tends to be completely ignored. People haven’t noticed it because if efficiency improves, they are still able to have the energy services that they want. I suppose I should reluctantly agree that the fact that no-one notices it is part of its appeal.”

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Energy efficient products substantially lowered UK energy demand

A new study from the environmental analysis group Carbon Brief...

A new study has found that 19 percent of adults in the United States think they have a food allergy, but not all of them actually do. The researchers found that just over 10 percent of the population, or 26 million Americans, have symptoms that are consistent with a true <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/eat-restaurants-food-allergy/">food allergy</a>, which can be life-threatening. 

Study lead author Dr. Ruchi Gupta is from the <a href="https://www.luriechildrens.org/">Ann &amp; Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago</a> and is also a professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University.

“While we found that one in 10 adults have food allergy, nearly twice as many adults think that they are allergic to foods, while their symptoms may suggest food intolerance or other food related conditions,” said Dr. Gupta. 

“It is important to see a physician for appropriate testing and diagnosis before completely eliminating foods from the diet. If food allergy is confirmed, understanding the management is also critical, including recognizing symptoms of anaphylaxis and how and when to use epinephrine.”


The investigation was based on a nationally representative survey of over 40,000 adults. The researchers found that only half of the adults that likely had a true food allergy had been diagnosed by a physician, and less than 25 percent had a current prescription for epinephrine.

The study also revealed that nearly half of the adults with convincing food allergies had developed at least one of them as an adult.

“We were surprised to find that adult-onset food allergies were so common,” said Dr. Gupta. “More research is needed to understand why this is occurring and how we might prevent it.”

The study results suggest that the most prevalent food allergen among U.S. adults is shellfish, followed by milk, peanuts, tree nuts, fin fish, eggs, wheat, soy, and sesame.

“Our data show that shellfish is the top food allergen in adults, that shellfish allergy commonly begins in adulthood, and that this allergy is remarkably common across the lifespan,” said Dr. Gupta. “We need more studies to clarify why shellfish allergy appears to be so common and persistent among U.S. adults.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen">JAMA Network Open</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

1 in 10 adults have a food allergy, but twice as many think they do

A new study has found that 19 percent of adults...

It could be argued that overall, Chinese law is rather ambivalent to environmental destruction, making compromises between conservation when convenient and destruction when profitable, not unlike US law.  So it makes sense that along with China’s less than stellar record when it comes to the trade in endangered species, the large nation would also have a national park system. 

<a href="https://www.biographic.com/posts/sto/green-glove-iron-fist?mpweb=1018-7418-1251639">Biographic</a> has reported on the opening of new parks in China.  With more of China’s tigers in captivity than in the wild and less than 2,000 pandas left in the wild, the stakes of conservation efforts in China are extremely high.  

Forest cover has been slowly increasing in China since commercial logging was banned in state owned forests two years ago.  Air pollution in China’s cities has been decreasing, largely due to efforts by the federal government. However, cattle grazing even in protected areas threaten pandas.  <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/decline-giant-salamander/">Giant salamander</a> numbers are in fast decline in China, where the amphibian is endangered, perhaps partially by misguided government policies meant to protect them.  

What happens in China’s environment is important to the rest of the world simply because of scale.  China is the world’s second largest nation in terms of land mass after Russia, taking up 6.303% of the world’s land mass.  China is also the world’s most populated country with a population of 1.42 billion people, according to <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/07/11/world-population-day/">Pew Research</a>.  This means that China alone holds approximately <a href="http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/china-population/">18.54%</a> of the world’s entire human population.  The land size and number of people means that China is in a special position to promote its own global agenda, especially when it comes to the environment.  

Much of Asia and Africa has been depleted of specific wildlife species to meet a largely Chinese demand for animal parts for superstitious ‘remedies’.  China is also pushing to become a world leader in clean technology and climate change mitigation, especially since the US has pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement.  China is also home to an authoritarian government which at its whim can mean good or bad things for the environment. When changes come in Chinese political decisions, they can be acted upon immediately.  This is all to say that when China announces the start of a national park system, it’s potentially big news.

<a href="https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/10152-China-overhauls-its-national-parks-">Chinadialogue</a> reports that the Chinese government has <a href="https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1807032">issued plans</a> for a trial of 10 national parks which will be officially kicked off in 2020.  So far, China has roughly <a href="https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/9436-China-s-pilot-national-park-a-land-of-golden-opportunity-">10,000 protected areas</a>, but they’re all managed by different government agencies.  The new move by the Chinese government will not only draw new boundaries and create new parks but take a step towards centralizing management of parks under a specific national park system.  The plans lack many concrete details, but it’s clear that they call for many big changes and seems to be modelled on the US system of national parks. The plans call the national parks part of China’s ‘ecological civilization’.  Several of the new national parks announced are well situated to protect a few of China’s most iconic wildlife species.

<a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/05/chinas-first-national-park-an-experiment-in-living-with-snow-leopards/">Mongabay</a> reports that one of the new national parks, Sanjiangyuan National Park, is situated on the Tibetan Plateau, in Qinghai province.  The area was once part of an independent Tibet, now controlled by China, and it’s also home to the snow leopard (Panthera uncia).  The snow leopard is an extremely rare and endangered cat that still manages to often come into conflict with humans by preying on livestock.  The new national park is planned to protect the water and wildlife of the region, including the iconic snow leopard. 

The amount of water originating within what will be the boundaries of the park is impressive, as 15% of the Mekong’s water discharge, 25% of the Yangtze’s, and 49% of the Yellow River’s start there.  

But <a href="https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/9436-China-s-pilot-national-park-a-land-of-golden-opportunity-">Chinadialogue</a> raises doubts about the national park plans.  The Chinese news source points out that the newly formed national park service exists only on paper and that the officials running still maintain their old posts in the government.  Other protected areas in China have failed to live up to their promise, capitalizing on tourism rather than protecting ecology. Tibetan Buddhist traditions in the area have long promoted harmony between humans and the natural world but those traditions are eroding as the Chinese government promotes tourism development.  Cultural taboos that have protected wildlife and water sources are less often recognized. Nomadic herders are also leaving their rural homelands and moving into urban areas where it’s easier to make a living. 

A Tibetan monk was quoted in the Chinadialogue article:

“I do not know what our national park will be like in the future. One thing is certain as far as I am concerned: if there is no monastery and monks any more in the region, and once the herders are also moved out, the valley will be dead, despite the increasing number of brown bears and snow leopards…”

Another park in Sichuan province is set to be twice the size of Yosemite and provide vital habitat for panda bears, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/08/chinese-bank-giant-panda-conservation-park">The Guardian</a>.  <a href="https://www.biographic.com/posts/sto/green-glove-iron-fist?mpweb=1018-7418-1251639">Biographic</a> reports the area where this park is planned to occupy has long been recovering, due to local and NGO efforts.  Poaching, logging and overfishing have been in decline, partly due to the local economy turning to honey instead of these more destructive means.  Locals supported by an NGO also patrol the forest for poachers. 

Despite these improvements, the Panda National Park is set to evict 170,000 people from the area.  This follows the pattern of US parks that evicted natives from within their boundaries, probably the darkest part of the National Park legacy.  Undoubtedly however the specific plans end up, tourism will cash in on the last of the pandas left in the wild. 

<a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/china-national-park-amur-leopard-tiger_us_58bfca5fe4b0ed7182682c7b">Huffington Post</a> reports that another park China plans to create will protect Siberian Tigers and the Amur Leopard.  This park is set to be one of the largest sanctuaries for large cats in the world. Considering China’s overall ambivalence over tigers during international <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/nepals-tigers-double-population/">summits</a>, this is more than ironic.  The main question is can we trust the Chinese government to do the right thing or is the new national park system just a piece of propaganda to prop up a totalitarian government and for tourism profit at the cost of rural farmers?                                  

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer             

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

China plans new national parks amid skepticism

It could be argued that overall, Chinese law is rather...

A little healthy competition is good for you, isn’t it?  While <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/men-winners-testosterone-confidence/">competition</a> may help people get ahead and drive some to succeed, a new study has found that our need to outdo our peers makes us less logical. 

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.eva.mpg.de/">Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology</a> and <a href="https://www.yale.edu/">Yale University </a>recently conducted a study comparing how chimpanzees and young children apply logic and reasoning to different tasks. 

The results of the study show that older children and adults are less logical than chimps and children and it all has to do with competition and social comparison. 

“Human evolutionary success is often argued to be rooted in specialized social skills and motivations that result in more prosocial, rational and cooperative decisions,” the researchers wrote in their <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2018.2228">study</a>. “One manifestation of human ultra-sociality is the tendency to engage in social comparison.” 

The research was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

For the study, 96 children between the ages of five and ten were given the same task as 15 chimpanzees. 

Two children were asked to sit opposite each other at a small table and on the table were two trays of treats. One tray had three and the other nine snacks, but the trays were sorted so that each child had a certain number of treats directly in front of them. 

The children had to choose then which tray they wanted to get the treats. If one of the children chose the tray with three, they would get two snacks and their partner only one. 

If the other tray were chosen, one child would get three and the other six. 

Both chimpanzees and the children under the age of six chose the latter option because it resulted in more treats for everyone involved. Three is better than two, even if the opposite child gets six. 

Older children, however, chose the first option because it gave them an advantage over their peer. In other words, children in the older group saw the task as a competition. 

“While even children as young as 9 and 10 years of age showed a willingness to reduce their own and their partner’s payoff simply in order to come out on top, chimpanzees' decisions—in terms of their outcome—maximized both their own and their partner's payoffs, dispelling the notion that more sociality is always associated with more prosociality,” the researchers wrote in their study. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Does competition make us irrational? A new study says yes

A little healthy competition is good for you, isn’t it?...

When you hear about bubonic plague, your mind probably automatically takes you back to medieval Europe, where one-third the population died of the disease between 1347 and 1350.

You might also think that it was rats that spread the “Black Death,” but recent research has come to light proving that it wasn’t rats, but fleas and ticks spread by humans that caused such widespread fatalities. 


A new study conducted by researchers from <a href="https://www.uio.no/english/">Oslo University</a> has found that flea and ticks feeding on humans were behind the 35 cases of bubonic plague in Glasgow, Scotland in 1900, of which 40 percent died. 

An <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fleas-rats-black-death/">earlier study</a> by the same team had reached a similar conclusion, but this recent research focused specifically on the 20th-century outbreak.

By studying rare cases of bubonic plague in more recent times, like that of the 20th-century pandemic, researchers can get a better understanding of how the plague spreads because the its impacts were recorded in detail.

The researchers analyzed each of the 35 cases in Glasgow and tried to reconstruct the path that the infection took to spread from one person to another.

It started with two cases in tenement living quarters in Glasgow, a grandmother and her granddaughter who became sick on August 3rd and both died six days later. 

People who had visited the two women also got sick, and so authorities took measures to quarantine people to prevent the disease from spreading. 

Because rat infestations were common in slum neighborhoods during the early 20th century, public health officials also trapped and tested rats to see if any were carrying the Yersinia pestis bacteria, which is the bacteria behind the bubonic plague. 

Surprisingly none of the rodents had the bacteria, which meant that it wasn’t rats that caused the spread of the disease. 

“Despite their efforts, they found no evidence of plague in the rat population at any time during the outbreak, leading them to conclude that plague may have spread directly between humans through clothing among other means, and possibly by ‘the suctorial parasites of mankind,’” the researchers wrote in <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/06/08/340547">their study</a>.

The team used this information to prove that it wasn’t rats but fleas and ticks spreading from person to person in tightly packed family quarters that led to the spread of the disease in the early 20th century. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Growing evidence shows that rats didn’t spread the plague in Europe

When you hear about bubonic plague, your mind probably automatically...

<a href="https://ciliopathyalliance.org/cilia">Cilia</a> are hairlike structures that sprout from the surface of different cells in the body, and can be found throughout the body in the brain, kidneys, and lungs.

In cavities in the brain, cilia play a crucial role in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/brain-directs-body-developing/">brain development</a> and health, but it had not been well understood just how cilia impact brain activity. 

Cilia dysfunction and defective cilia have been linked to scoliosis and hydrocephalus which is when water builds up in the cavities of the brain. 

In the hopes of understanding cilia and their function in the brain’s cavities, researchers from the <a href="https://www.ntnu.edu/kavli">Yaksi group at Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)</a> examined cilia and cerebrospinal fluid movement in zebrafish larvae. 

A study detailing the research was published in the journal Current Biology, and the results show how cilia function in the brain. 

Zebrafish were used for the study because they are an excellent model for humans. The fish are vertebrates and transparent in their larval stage which allowed the researchers a rare inside look at brain activity and development in the growing fish. 

“We could even investigate each individual cell and cilia,” said Christa Ringers, a co-author of the study. 
The human brain has cavities called ventricles that are filled with cerebrospinal fluid which is always moving and the researchers found that cilia are particularly important to the flow of fluid in the ventricles. 

“Several theories exist, but for many years this circulation of fluid has been recognized as supplying nutrients to the brain, while also removing waste products,” said Nathalie Jurisch-Yaksi, the senior researcher for the study. 

Cilia are grouped into different zones in the ventricles, and these groupings help with direction and flow of ventricle fluid. 

The ventricles in the brain are all connected, and cilia in each ventricle seem to be interconnected to the other ventricles, and a steady flow of fluid is important to keeping the ducts between the ventricles open. 

“If we stop the cilia's motion, the ducts close,” said Jurisch-Yaksi.

Activity and heartbeat also influence this movement, according to the study. 

“We found surprisingly little exchange of fluid between the ventricles as long as the fish were at rest, even though the heartbeat pulsations caused some flow between them,” said Emilie Willoch Olstad, the first author of the study. 

The researchers noted that cilia in the ventricles are different from cilia in the lungs and other moving cilia in the body. Overall, the team found that cilia are crucial for directing the flow of cerebrospinal fluid and this, in turn, drive healthy neural development.  

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience, Yaksi Group

Forget body hair, the most important hairs are inside your brain

Cilia are hairlike structures that sprout from the surface of...

According to a new study from <a href="https://www.duke.edu/">Duke University</a>, young people who harm themselves are three times more likely to be “dual harmers,” which means they also commit violent crimes. In addition, the researchers found that dual harmers are more likely to have a major of a history of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/childhood-trauma-psychotic-experiences/">childhood maltreatment</a> and lower self-control than those who only self-harm.

The findings suggest that programs designed to address childhood maltreatment or self-control among self-harmers could help to prevent violent crime.


Adolescents are particularly prone to deliberately harming themselves, often by cutting or burning. The rates of self-harm have greatly increased in recent years among youths in both the United States and the United Kingdom. Each year in the U.S., around one in four teenage girls try to harm themselves, along with one in 10 teenage boys. Across the UK, self-injury among teenage girls has risen by nearly 70 percent in three years.

“We know that some individuals who self-harm also inflict harm on others,” said study lead author Leah Richmond-Rakerd. “What has not been clear is whether there are early-life characteristics or experiences that increase the risk of violent offending among individuals who self-harm. Identifying these risk factors could guide interventions that prevent and reduce interpersonal violence.”

The Duke team collaborated with experts at <a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/">King's College London</a> to compare young people who self-harm to those who engage in “dual-harm” behavior.

The investigation was focused on 2,232 twins born in 1994 and 1995 who were part of the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, which followed the twins over 20 years. Self-harm in adolescence was assessed through interviews at age 18, while violent offenses were assessed through a computer questionnaire at age 18 and police records through age 22.

“By comparing twins who grew up in the same family, we were able to test whether self-harm and violent crime go together merely because they come from the same genetic or family risk factors,” said Terrie E. Moffitt of Duke University, who is the founder of the E-Risk Study. “They did not. This means that young people who self-harm may see violence as a way of solving problems and begin to use it against others as well as themselves.”

The results also showed that dual harmers were more likely to have experienced victimization in adolescence, experience psychotic symptoms, or to abuse drugs and alcohol. 

“Our study suggests that dual-harming adolescents have experienced self-control difficulties and been victims of violence from a young age,” said Richmond-Rakerd. “A treatment-oriented rather than punishment-oriented approach is indicated to meet these individuals' needs.”

The study is published in <a href="https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/">The American Journal of Psychiatry</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

&nbsp;

Teens who self-harm are 3 times more likely to commit violent crimes

According to a new study from Duke University, young people...

Non-sugar sweeteners may seem like a healthier alternative to regular sugar, but a new comprehensive analysis shows that there are few health benefits to using them.

Many people use <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/artificial-sweeteners-insecticide/">sweeteners</a> like xylitol, stevia, and sucralose to help with weight loss, blood sugar, and sugar cravings. 

While there are several high-intensity sweeteners (non-sugar sweeteners) approved by the <a href="https://www.fda.gov/food/ingredientspackaginglabeling/foodadditivesingredients/ucm397716.htm">US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)</a>, little is understood about the benefits or negative side-effects that come with daily consumption of these food additives. 

Non-sugar sweeteners are appealing because of their low caloric value and the fact that they won’t raise blood sugar, according to the FDA. 

A team of European researchers from institutions in Germany, Francy, and Hungary conducted a comprehensive analysis of 56 studies to better understand the health benefits of high-intensity sweeteners. 

The studies compared low intake to high intake of non-sugar sweeteners in healthy adults and children. Weight, blood sugar levels, oral health, cardiovascular disease, and mood were all used as measurements of health in the studies. 

After analyzing the 56 studies, the researchers found little evidence showing that non-sugar sweeteners were a healthier alternative to free sugars. 

Most of the outcomes of the studies had no statistic or relevant differences between participants who consumed non-sugar sweeteners and those who didn't. 

Only a few of the studies showed associations between reduced BMI (body mass index score) and improvements in blood glucose (blood sugar) levels and non-sugar sweeteners. A slight increase in BMI correlated with non-sugar sweeteners compared to free sugars in children. 

Very little evidence indicated that non-sugar sweeteners helped with weight loss for overweight and obese adults. 

This new study and analysis, which was published in the journal BMJ, emphasizes the information gap between our understanding of non-sugar sweeteners and their widespread use a sugar substitute. 

The researchers say that more in-depth studies are needed to assess the long-term benefits of non-sugar sweeteners as a sugar substitute and food additive. 

“Policies and recommendations will need updating regularly, as more evidence emerges to ensure that the best available data is used to inform the important public health debate on sugar and its alternatives,” said Vasanti Malik from the <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/">Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health</a> in an editorial about the new research.

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Non-sugar sweeteners have few health benefits, research finds

Non-sugar sweeteners may seem like a healthier alternative to regular...

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA



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



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

The history of Mars is much more complex than we thought

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research



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



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

Cavefish are healthy despite their sedentary lifestyle

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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites capture the world's biggest and fastest waves

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