Food allergies have become increasingly common, affecting roughly one in 13 children, as reported by Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE). With such a rise, scientists continue to explore how maternal diets might influence allergy risk in infants. 



Recent research in Finland sheds light on a surprising connection between avocado consumption during pregnancy and reduced food allergy risk in infants.



A study involving 2,272 mother-child pairs, conducted over nearly a decade, uncovered a striking finding. Infants whose mothers consumed avocados during pregnancy had a 43.6% lower chance of developing food allergies by 12 months. 



The study accounted for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/why-omega-3-deficiency-is-rising-worldwide/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">variables</a> such as maternal age, smoking status, and education - yet the link remained consistent.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-avocados-lower-allergy-risk">Avocados lower allergy risk</h2>



For years, researchers have explored how specific dietary patterns during pregnancy might influence infant allergy risk. However, individual foods like avocados have not received the same level of scrutiny. 



The Finnish study aimed to fill that gap. The team utilized an online food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to assess maternal avocado intake during the first and third trimesters. 



Participants who reported any avocado <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/food-production-more-difficult-climate-change-plant-pollinators/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">consumption</a> were classified as consumers, while those who did not became non-consumers.



The analysis revealed a significant contrast. Among non-consumers, 4.2% of infants developed food allergies. In comparison, only 2.4% of infants whose mothers consumed avocados experienced the same outcome.



The reduction in allergy risk remained significant even after adjusting for various maternal health factors .



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-avocado-research-offers-hope">Avocado research offers hope</h2>



“As a caregiver, the growing prevalence of food allergy feels very scary and out of my control,” said Sari Hantunen, senior lecturer at the <a href="https://www.uef.fi/en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Eastern Finland</a>.



“There is no cure for food allergy, but promising prevention and therapeutic strategies are in development as well as emerging research such as this."



”Based on these findings, it’s encouraging to know that eating avocados may provide even more value to maternal and children’s health, beyond the benefits that have already been established through scientific research.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tracking-avocado-and-allergy">Tracking avocado and allergy</h2>



The Kuopio Birth Cohort (KuBiCo) provided a rich dataset for analysis. Researchers recruited pregnant women during routine first-trimester appointments at <a href="https://pshyvinvointialue.fi/web/en/kuopio-university-hospital" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kuopio University Hospital</a>. Data collection continued until November 2022, capturing dietary intake throughout the first and third trimesters.



Mothers completed FFQs that detailed food consumption over the past three months. The FFQ specifically assessed avocado intake, classifying participants as consumers or non-consumers.



After birth, researchers tracked infants to assess allergic outcomes, including <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-therapy-may-help-reduce-peanut-allergies-in-children/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">food</a> allergies, eczema, rhinitis, and wheezing. Even after adjusting for variables like maternal age, smoking, and breastfeeding duration, the data maintained its significance. 



Infants of non-consumers showed a 4.2% allergy rate, while those of avocado consumers showed a 2.4% rate .



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-who-choose-avocados">Who choose avocados?</h2>



Avocado consumers shared common traits that distinguished them from non-consumers. They tended to be older and more educated. They also reported longer breastfeeding durations and higher diet quality scores.



These women generally had lower BMI levels in the first trimester and were less likely to undergo caesarean deliveries. Researchers noted that these trends might reflect broader health-conscious behaviors rather than avocado <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ai-is-transforming-pollen-science-and-health-planning/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">consumption</a> alone .



Avocados pack essential nutrients that may benefit both maternal and infant health. Each serving provides 9.25 grams of dietary fiber, supporting gut health and potentially influencing immune responses.



Additionally, avocados contain 2.6 mg of vitamin E, an antioxidant linked to immune function, and 0.93 mg of zinc, which plays a role in immune development. Lutein, a carotenoid crucial for eye health, also features prominently in avocados.



The nutrient profile aligns well with dietary patterns like the Mediterranean diet, previously associated with lower allergy risks in offspring. While the study focused solely on avocados, researchers suggest that other nutrient-dense foods may offer similar protective effects .



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-consuming-avocados-for-allergy-prevention">Consuming avocados for allergy prevention</h2>



The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that pregnant women consume 2 ½ to 3 ½ cups of vegetables daily. Avocados, with their nutrient density, count as a full cup per serving.



For toddlers aged 12-23 months, the guidelines suggest 2/3 to 1 cup of vegetables each day. With its rich nutrient profile, a single avocado serves as a practical choice to meet these recommendations without the need for supplements.



Despite the promising findings, the study did not identify any significant links between avocado consumption and other allergic conditions like rhinitis, eczema, or wheezing. 



The focus on food allergies yielded notable results, but the other conditions showed no significant differences between consumers and non-consumers.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-expanding-the-research">Expanding the research</h2>



The researchers caution against overgeneralizing the findings. While avocados may contribute to reduced food allergy risk, the mechanisms remain unclear. 



Further studies could clarify whether specific nutrients within avocados influence immune development and whether similar effects extend to other foods .



The study opens doors for future research that could extend beyond infancy. Tracking infants beyond the first year of life may provide insights into how early dietary exposures shape allergy risk throughout childhood.



Additionally, examining other nutrient-dense foods with similar profiles, such as nuts, seeds, or leafy greens, could help determine whether the observed effects result from specific nutrients or broader dietary patterns. 



Understanding these connections could refine dietary recommendations for pregnant women, offering clearer guidance on foods that may reduce allergy risk in infants.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-nutritional-choice-with-potential">A nutritional choice with potential</h2>



As food allergies continue to rise, identifying preventive strategies during pregnancy remains a critical focus. This Finnish study suggests that avocados, with their nutrient-rich profile, may play a role in reducing food allergy risk in infants.



While the study does not establish causality, it highlights the potential impact of nutrient-dense foods during pregnancy - a time when maternal diet can leave lasting imprints on infant health. 



Further research will clarify whether these findings hold across diverse populations and whether other foods offer similar benefits.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41390-025-03968-4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pediatric Research</a>.



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Eating avocados during pregnancy reduces baby's allergy risk

Food allergies have become increasingly common, affecting roughly one in 13 children, as reported by Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE). With such a rise, scientists continue to explore how maternal diets might influence allergy risk in infants. Recent research in Finland sheds light on a surprising connection between avocado consumption during pregnancy and reduced food allergy risk in infants. A study involving 2,272 mother-child pairs, conducted over nearly a decade, uncovered a striking finding. Infants whose mothers consumed avocados during pregnancy had a 43.6% lower chance...

Friends Happiness Enjoying Dinning Eating Concept

The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mediterranean-diet-healthier-aging/">Mediterranean diet</a> consists of a high volume of fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, olive oils, fish, and poultry over red meat and processed foods. This diet happens to be very high in antioxidants, which are molecules that disarm oxidized and highly reactive molecules – or free radicals – which are known to cause damage to cells and tissue. Researchers from the <a href="https://med.nyu.edu/">New York University School of Medicine</a> have published a study examining how the antioxidants in this diet can mitigate the health effects of air pollution.

“Previous studies have shown that dietary changes, particularly the addition of antioxidants, can blunt the adverse effects of exposure to high levels of air pollution over short time periods,” says Chris C. Lim, a doctoral student at the NYU School of Medicine. “What we did not know was whether diet can influence the association between long-term air pollution exposure and health effects.”

The study looks at data from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Diet and Health study. This study followed over half a million people – average age of 62 – over 17 years. The study subjects were from 6 states; California, Florida, North Carolina, Louisiana, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania – along with two cities (Atlanta and Detroit). Over the course of 17 years, 126,835 members of the study group died.

The research team sectioned the participants into five groups based on their level of adherence to the Mediterranean diet, and estimated their long-term exposure of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrous oxide (NO2), and ozone (O3) based on census tract information.

A comparison between the least and most adherent to the Mediterranean diet found some compelling results. For those least adherent to the diet, deaths from all causes increased by 5 percent for every 10 parts per billion (ppb) increase in long-term average NO2 exposure. For those most adherent, it only increased by 2 percent. Deaths from cardiovascular disease increased by 17 percent for every 10 micrograms per cubic meter increase in long-term average PM2.5 exposure for those least adherent to the diet, compared to 5 percent among those most adherent. For every 10 ppb increase in NO2 exposure in the least adherent, these deaths increased by 10 percent – compared to 2 percent for the most adherent. Additionally, heart attack deaths increased by 12 percent for every single ppb increase in NO2 exposure in those least adherent, whereas for those most adherent, the increase was only 4 percent. 

Interestingly, it does not appear that the Mediterranean diet protected against the harmful effects of long term ozone exposure.

“Given the benefits we found of a diet high in anti-oxidants, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that particle air pollution caused by fossil fuel combustion adversely affects health by inducing oxidative stress and inflammation,” says George Thurston, director of the Program in Exposure Assessment and Human Health Effects at the Department of Environmental Medicine, <a href="https://med.nyu.edu/"> NYU School of Medicine</a> and senior author of the study. “On the other hand, the ozone effect was not significantly blunted by a Mediterranean diet, so ozone apparently affects cardiac health through a different mechanism.”

Because roughly a quarter of the American population lives in an area where air pollution levels are 10 micrograms per cubic meter or more above the lowest exposure, the results of this study show that it would be wise for many Americans to take up the Mediterranean diet.

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: ATS

Mediterranean diet helps battle health effects of air pollution

The Mediterranean diet consists of a high volume of fruits,...

Researchers at the <a href="https://www.ntnu.edu/">Norwegian University of Science and Technology</a> (NTNU) have found that individuals who use mobile dating apps like <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/tinder-save-endangered-rhinos/">Tinder</a> do not have more short-term sex partners compared to non-users who are also open to casual sex.

“Apps have become the new public arena for dating. But to a large extent, the people using them are the same ones you find dating other ways,” explained study co-author Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair.

“Sociosexual orientation” is a measure of an individual's willingness to engage in sexual activity outside of a committed relationship. Those who are the most sociosexually unrestricted tend to use picture-based mobile dating apps often.

“But dating app users don't have more casual sexual partners than others with the same short-term preference,” said co-author Professor Mons Bendixen.

According to the researchers, the dating apps simply provide a new way to meet up. People who use the apps likely meet new people in person as well, and the end result is essentially the same.

Trond Viggo Grøntvedt is a researcher in NTNU's Department of Public Health and Nursing. He explained that “nothing suggests that people use dating apps more because they are more or less attractive as a sexual partner than most people.”

The researchers found that men and women use the dating apps somewhat differently. Women spend more time browsing, which may be because they take more time to consider each candidate.

Men were found to be more efficient while using mobile dating apps. The experts noted that men pursue more candidates in less time, and make much faster selections about which users they would like to pursue. Men are also more likely to initiate contact compared to women.

“Men more often start conversations and contact matches, and they're more willing to meet partners through dating apps in private settings,” said Professor Bendixen.

Tinder provides pictures and information about potential partners, and the user simply swipes right if interested in more contact, or swipes left if not interested.

“Women are more discerning. Men are more eager,” said Professor Kennair. “This has clear evolutionary reasons. Women have more to lose by engaging with low-quality sexual partners than men do. That's why men swipe right more often than women do.”

The research team also investigated why people use Tinder and similar picture-based dating apps.

For both women and men, the most common reason for using Tinder was purely as a diversion when they were bored or had nothing else to do. Beyond this, however, men and women had different reasons for using mobile dating platforms.

“Men tend to report a desire for casual sex and short-term relationships as a reason for using dating apps,” said study first Ernst Olav Botnen. “But it should be noted that the myth that men on dating apps are only looking for casual sex isn't accurate. Men who use these apps also seek long-term partners, but to a lesser extent than short-term partners.”

Women who use Tinder are often looking for validation that they are attractive. “Women use dating apps to feel better about themselves more than men do,” said Professor Bendixen. 

The researchers said that their findings do not suggest that Tinder is often used as a tool for infidelity, and that a very small minority of study participants were in a relationship while using dating apps.

The study authors said that the apps are primarily used for casual sex, and that the technology is not necessary leading to changes in how people behave sexually.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.journals.elsevier.com/personality-and-individual-differences/">Personality and Individual Differences</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Study: Tinder and dating apps don’t result in more sex partners

Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)...

In 1947, the first Qantas Airlines “Kangaroo route” from Perth, Australia to London took four days and nine stops.  This year Qantas started a non-stop service from Perth to London that takes only 17 hours. Take a step back, the Clipper Route is the standard for sailing from London to Australia (and could be carried onward around the globe).  A good speed for sailing from Plymouth, England to Sydney, Australia is 100 days, covering about 13,750 miles in that time. 

How strangely our perception of the size of the Earth changes with technology.  100 days at sea seems a lifetime compared to 17 hours in a climate controlled airplane cabin.  In his book Arctic Dreams, Barry Lopez elaborates on this phenomena:

“To a modern traveler the arctic landscape can seem numbingly monotonous, but this impression is gained largely, I think, from staring at empty maps of the region and from traveling around it by airplane.  The airplane, like the map, creates a false sense of space; it achieves simplicity and compression, however, not with an enforced perspective but by altering the relationship between space and time.”

Lopez examines the controlled environment of the airplane and how the constant radio static, artificial lights, etc. dull the experience of the landscape right outside the window.  Dr. Zoe Thompson, in her book, Urban Constellations: Spaces of Cultural Regeneration in Post-Industrial Britain, elaborates more on the effect of windows in particular in the distortion of the landscape:

“The optimum viewing point is still a question of the correct distance.  New media technologies and material technologies such as glass serve to obliterate distance, to erase it.  But this distortion that glass enables is a distortion of our relationship to ‘first nature’. Thus, the technologized second-nature surface of plexiglass reveals something of the origin of this deformed presentation of the natural world at the same time as it spectacularizes it.”

We don’t even realize very often how something as simple as glass distorts our view of the natural world.  Watching the world through the window of an airplane, a bus, or a car is more like watching the world on a television screen in many ways than the world you see walking around.

I remember reading years ago of a man who was driving across Utah in the summer and broke down.  The man didn’t carry any water with him and he died relatively quickly before anyone stopped to help him.  It’s easy to understand how someone setting out in a journey across the desert in a self-contained, air conditioned vehicle could think himself impervious to the elements.  It’s much harder to imagine someone setting out on foot across Utah in summer and not bringing adequate water. Utah is much larger than it appears from the driver’s seat and I have even been guilty of being underprepared and running out of gas outside a town that I was sure I would make before I needed to fill up.  Luckily for me, a cop drove me to the gas station and I got back on the road relatively quickly.

According to <a href="http://www.californiatrailcenter.org">California Trail Center</a> it took between three and six months to complete the California Trail.  The California Trail covered the same route as the Oregon Trail until Idaho where the two diverged.  Depending on where the pioneers got on the trail, the mileage could vary but the trail was usually around 2000 miles.  A mere distance of 10 to 20 miles a day was covered by the average wagon train, a difference that can be covered on foot a day by a strong back packer.  The difference in time to cross the vast space of land we call North America today in a car is vast. Google Maps boldly asserts that the driving time from Virginia Beach, Virginia to Culver City, California, a distance of 2,766 miles, is 40 hours via I-40 west.  How much smaller must the United States seem from the driver’s seat of a car than from the bench of a covered wagon? 

The distortion of the landscapes we pass through is ever increasing with the advancement of technology.  The British company Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) and a different company IXION released designs for windowless planes in 2013 and 2014.  The designs, which are purported to save on fuel, replace traditional windows with internal video screens connected to outside cameras. Beyond a camera’s view of the outside, there could be information displays on things the plane is passing over, entertainment, and even the possibility of video of a different flight that you’d rather see.  If just simple glass can distort your view of the world, how much so will high tech video displays change the view of the Earth below? It’s estimated that windowless planes could come to reality by 2024.

Driving for a solid day to cross the desert of Utah isn’t the same as walking under a brilliant sun across miles of scrabbly desert floor, spending the nights scented by the fragrance of a juniper campfire.  Driving isn’t the same either as riding a horse or guiding a covered wagon. Driving yourself across miles of scorching asphalt is different also from riding casually in a driverless car.

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/self-driving-cars-back-roads/">Driverless cars</a> are still in their infancy, many being tested rather secretively in places like Phoenix, Arizona.  In some ways though, driverless cars have already crept into our lives when no one was looking. There has been news recently about accidents where driverless cars have killed a pedestrian or rammed into a fire truck parked on the highway.  I have little doubt that technology can increase to make driverless cars safer. Cars can’t get drunk or be distracted by the radio or an errant text message. What we gain in safety though, we may lose in perception of the world around us. A man in a Tesla died in a wreck while his car was in autopilot, was watching Harry Potter while his car plowed into the trailer of a truck in front of him.  

It’s a standard view of road trips that they’re often boring.  However, it’s worth remembering that everything passing by the passenger windows is the big, beautiful and only planet we live on.  Whether you’re a passenger or a driver, you miss the world around you if you’re always watching a video screen.

Virtual reality headsets showing what may be the future of driverless cars show touch screens instead of windows and restaurant suggestions displayed by the car itself.  There is no getting lost, there is no stopping at whatever place you come to first to eat whatever is available. There is no messy, vibrant interaction with the world around us, there is only the clean, electronic interaction with human and machine.  Increasingly technology has taken the role of intermediary between us and the planet we live on, further distorting how we see the planet we are born a part of. Will the future hold a road trip where we enter a car, watch nothing but video screens, chat online for a number of hours and exit the car on the other end with no concept of the scenery passing us by?  Will travel seem like magic in that we enter a sealed container and exit it in a different place with different people and different climate without exerting ourselves in even the minor effort of driving? How different will the Earth seem in an age of driverless road trips and video screen airplanes? If an automated car breaks down halfway to a destination, will the passengers even know where they are and how to get where they’re going?  

There are five levels to automation on cars, level zero is no automation and level five is full automation.  At the moment many cars have level two automation, cars that can park themselves or monitor highway lines but still require drivers.  We’re already feeling the birthing pains of the next level of technology in the accidents caused by drivers who don’t understand how the technology in their cars works.  There is a lot of talk about safety and a lot of discussion on how to make driverless cars viable for everyone. It’s hard to argue that a car driving itself isn’t safer than a drunk driver or an elderly person who can’t see well.  The loss of real perception of the world around us is something more insidious and almost no one is talking about that. How will we know we’ve lost the forest we’re driving through or that the world is too crowded with people when all we’re watching is video screens?  Like the man who underestimated the danger of driving across Utah without water, the stakes are extremely high. We could lose the planet if we ignore it. Jack Turner summed up the all too common view of nature these days in an interview with the <a href="https://www.thesunmagazine.org/">Sun Magazine</a> in 2014:

“Nature is a movie that goes by outside the car window. There’s absolutely no intimacy with it. Intimacy always has to do with the body. It has to do with what you see, what you hear, what you smell, what you touch, what you taste. It’s like sex: you can’t have it abstractly.”                        

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Modern transportation distorts how we see the world around us

In 1947, the first Qantas Airlines “Kangaroo route” from Perth,...

A new survey from the <a href="https://umich.edu/">University of Michigan</a> has found that one in 10 parents has a child who has gotten sick from food poisoning, but the minority of parents are taking simple precautions to protect their children from spoiled or contaminated food.

Restaurants were reported as the most common source of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/grocery-bags-food-poisoning/">food poisoning</a> in children, but only 25 percent of parents said that they regularly check health inspection scores before dining out.

“In most cases children recover quickly from food poisoning, but in certain cases it can be debilitating,” said study co-author Dr. Gary L. Freed.

“It's impossible to completely protect children from food-borne illness. However, there are strategies to try to reduce the risk of getting sick from eating spoiled or contaminated food. We found that while parents paid closer attention to food safety in their own home, they were not always as cautious about outside sources.”


Parents reported being particularly concerned about food safety at home, and the majority said that they wash their hands before preparing a meal, wash fruits and vegetables before serving, and check the expiration dates on refrigerated food. Among parents of children who had gotten food poisoning, one-third said that their child became ill from food contamination at home.

When parents learned that foods in their home had been recalled, 58 percent reporting throwing it away, 40 percent returned it for a refund or replacement, and nearly all of the parents said they would not feed the recalled food product to their children.


According to the parents, children were also commonly exposed to food contamination at school, a friend's house, or at a potluck.

Dr. Freed said that an increasingly common virus caused by unwashed hands is Hepatitis A. An immunization for Hepatitis A is recommended for all children at the age of one, and the vaccine can prevent almost all cases of illness.

Food poisoning symptoms emerge within an hour to three days after exposure. Dr. Freed explained that the most important initial treatment for food poisoning is plenty of fluids to prevent dehydration. 


“Contaminated food can make both kids and adults very sick very quickly. For very young children, whose immune systems are not fully developed, this kind of illness can present a greater risk of serious complications,” said Dr. Freed.

“Simple precautions, like checking restaurant inspections and following food safety rules when cooking and storing food, can help keep your family safe.”

The study was based on data from the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

How to avoid food poisoning in kids with simple precautions

A new survey from the University of Michigan has found...

According to new research published by <a href="http://www.physoc.org/">The Physiological Society</a>, exercising four to five times a week can make a big difference in cardiovascular health by slowing down the stiffening of large central arteries.

As we age, our arteries become narrowed and hardened. While this is common among older adults, there are many factors that can speed up the process such as an unhealthy diet, lack of physical activity, high blood pressure, obesity, and smoking.

The hardening of the arteries, or atherosclerosis, is the most common cause of cardiovascular disease. The World Heart Association reports that, of the 17.3 million deaths from <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/breakfast-prevent-cardiovascular-disease/">cardiovascular disease</a> each year, 80 percent of these fatalities are preventable.


Previous studies have demonstrated that any form of exercise reduces the risk of heart disease, but the current research is the first to show that different sizes of arteries are affected differently by varying amounts of exercise.


The investigation was focused on 102 adults over the age of 60 who had a lifelong history of consistently logged exercise. The researchers analyzed the level of arterial stiffness among the individuals.

Participants were classified into four groups including sedentary, casual exercisers, committed exercisers, and athletes. These categories ranged from less than two 30-minute exercise sessions per week to six or seven sessions per week.

The researchers found that a lifelong history of casual exercise, or two to three sessions per week, led to more youthful middle-sized arteries, which are those that supply oxygenated blood to the head and neck.


Furthermore, participants who exercised four to five times per week also had more youthful large central arteries, which provide blood to the chest and abdomen.


The results of the study will help in the development of long-term exercise programs to help slow the aging of the heart and arteries.

“This work is really exciting because it enables us to develop exercise programs to keep the heart youthful and even turn back time on older hearts and blood vessels,” said study co-author Benjamin Levine. 

“Previous work by our group has shown that waiting until 70 is too late to reverse a heart's aging, as it is difficult to change cardiovascular structure even with a year of training.”

“Our current work is focusing on two years of training in middle-aged men and women, with and without risk factors for heart diseases, to see if we can reverse the aging of a heart and blood vessels by using the right amount of exercise at the right time.”

The study is published in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14697793">The Journal of Physiology</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Regular exercise shown to slow down aging of the heart

According to new research published by The Physiological Society, exercising...

Since 1989, the wealth gap between American senior citizens and families with children has grown dramatically, according to a new study. 

While the wealth inequality between rich and poor seniors has remained stable, the gap between rich and poor families with children has also seen a spike, the research also showed.

In fact, while the wealthiest 1 percent of young families saw their net worth grow by about $3 million between 1989 and 2013, the poorest third have seen their bank accounts drop into the negatives. And that has major consequences for the earning potential of their children, researchers said.

"If your net worth is in the red for $233, you are pretty stuck as a parent. You probably can't provide much for your child, much less think about sending her to college," said Dr. Christina Gibson-Davis of <a href="https://www.duke.edu/">Duke University</a>, who co-authored the paper.

To reach their conclusions, Gibson-Davis and <a href="https://www.northwestern.edu/">Northwestern University’s</a> Dr. Christine Percheski looked at 41,500 households that participated in the <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/scfindex.htm">Survey of Consumer Finances</a> from 1989 to 2013.

They found that, on average, senior households were 3.8 times wealthier in 1989 than households with at least one child under 18. After adjusting for inflation, in 2013 seniors’ net worth was an average of 12.5 times greater than families’.

"We knew that the elderly had more wealth than younger families. What we didn't know was elderly households have seen increases in their wealth, while families with children have lost wealth," Gibson-Davis said in a press release.

Part of the difference is because Social Security is indexed, meaning that senior income better keeps up with inflation. Seniors also tend to have lower levels of debt, and many purchased and paid off homes before the housing crisis of the mid-2000s, the researchers found.

Meanwhile, changes in the labor market mean that after adjusting for inflation, low-income families are earning less than they did in 1989, adding to the growing wealth gap.

"The good news in our study is that wealth has increased for poor and working-class elderly couples," Gibson-Davis said. "The bad news is that wealth has not increased for poor and working-class families with kids. Many households with children simply don't have the resources to successfully raise the next generation."

The study was published online by the journal <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs13524-018-0676-5">Demography</a>.

—

By Kyla Cathey,<a href="http://www.earth.com"> Earth.com</a> staff writer

Wealth gap widens between seniors, families with children

Since 1989, the wealth gap between American senior citizens and...

A Canadian study has uncovered another link between air pollution and lung disease. Ozone exposure at birth can raise the risk of childhood asthma by as much as 82 percent, researchers discovered during the long-term project.

"Our findings show that the hazard ratios for ozone measured at birth as a single pollutant showed statistically significant higher risks for development of asthma, allergic rhinitis and eczema," lead author Dr. Teresa To said in a press release. 

The study began in 2006 with the Toronto Child Health Evaluation Questionnaire; the new findings were based on a 10-year follow-up to the initial survey.

Researchers followed 1,881 children from birth to about 17 years old. They found that 31 percent developed asthma, while 46 percent developed seasonal allergies or hay fever. A whopping 76 percent developed eczema. 

The scientists used fixed monitoring stations across Ontario to measure the amounts of various pollutants in the air during the 10-year span, then matched up the children based on the postal zone where they were born. Health conditions were verified using medical records.

Early ozone exposure appeared to raise the risk of asthma by more than 80 percent, and the risk grew with each 10 parts per billion increase. That risk was not seen with nitrogen dioxide or PM2.5.

"The results of our study are important because the study examines the effect of pollution on health outcomes in early childhood, and has the longest longitudinal follow-up of a cohort of school-aged children in Canada,” said To, who is a senior scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

Children tend to be at higher risk of pollution-related illnesses because their lungs and other organs are smaller and less advanced, and they often spend more time outdoors than adults do, researchers said.

The new study was presented at the <a href="http://conference.thoracic.org/">2018 American Thoracic Society International Conference</a>.

—

By Kyla Cathey,<a href="http://www.earth.com"> Earth.com</a> staff writer

Early ozone exposure raises the risk of asthma

A Canadian study has uncovered another link between air pollution...

Global communication systems, from 3G and 4G networks to to WiFi and wires, emit electromagnetic radiation. As those networks grow, so does the amount of radiation they produce – and it could be threatening wildlife, a new report suggests.

The verdict comes from <a href="http://www.eklipse-mechanism.eu/">EKLIPSE</a>, a European Commission-funded project that seeks to support scientific research and create links between science and social policy, after the UK nonprofit <a href="https://www.buglife.org.uk/">Buglife</a> requested a review of current information.

After looking at existing research, EKLIPSE identified some major knowledge gaps on how EMR affects invertebrates, vertebrates and plants. Those gaps could be causing researchers to underestimate the effects of EMR on plant and animal life.

“... the existing community of experts in this field is still very limited, and research tends to be focused on only a few specific species or taxa, and certain types of radiations,” EKLIPSE wrote in a web conference report. “The technical set up and conditions in which the studies are undertaken are often questionable, and there are no common standards or methodologies that can be used to compare and/or reproduce the experiments.”

Prior to the web conference, EKLIPSE reviewed 97 peer-reviewed articles to get an idea of what research already existed on EMR. The idea was to get an idea of how much research on EMR exists, and how reliable that research is. Only studies conducted after 2000 were considered.

The review found that communications systems may be threatening wildlife and plants more than previously believed. Powerlines, WiFi, cellphone data networks, TV and radio broadcasts, and radar could all have negative effects on wildlife, reviewers found.

The electromagnetic radiation these networks produce could affect how insects and birds navigate, and negatively affect plant growth, the scientists said.

More worrying are the massive gaps in knowledge. 

During the web conference, researchers pointed out that there are few studies into the positive effects of EMR – should they exist – in addition to the lack of research on negative effects. Studies are also needed into how new frequencies affect living organisms, and whether they are more or less harmful than traditional EMR sources.

When it comes to animals, more lab-based research, studies of animal populations near major EMR sources, cellular studies and a review of older papers are among the studies needed to determine if EMR is threatening wildlife.

The experts who participated in the web conference suggested that researchers create a cross-disciplinary platform to promote better EMR research, organize citizen science projects, improve methods and standardize measurements, and work with government organizations to acquire funding for more research, among other steps.

In the meantime, they said, developers should avoid putting EMR sources in wild areas and provide better education covering the knowledge that does exist about EMR, especially in poorer countries.

“We apply limits to all types of pollution to protect the habitability of our environment, but as yet, even in Europe, the safe limits of electromagnetic radiation have not been determined, let alone applied,” Buglife CEO Matt Shardlow told the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/">Daily Mail</a>. “This is a classic case of ‘out of sight, out of mind.’”

—

By Kyla Cathey,<a href="http://www.earth.com"> Earth.com</a> staff writer

Is electromagnetic radiation from WiFi threatening wildlife?

Global communication systems, from 3G and 4G networks to to...

The UK, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Romania will soon face the European Court of Justice over illegally high levels of air pollution. 

<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/feb/15/european-commission-issues-final-warning-to-uk-over-air-pollution-breaches">The Guardian</a> has reported extensively on the European Commission's’ <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/feb/15/european-commission-issues-final-warning-to-uk-over-air-pollution-breaches">final warnings</a> to the UK and other nations to control emissions and reduce air pollution. 

The UK’s latest plan to control emissions, especially fumes from <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dieselgate-scandal-lead-lawsuits-uk/">diesel cars</a> which have been recorded at illegal levels since 2010, was ruled “inadequate”. 

In Europe, 40,000 early deaths have been attributed to air pollution. Now, the United Kingdom has until the end of 2018 to implement tighter restrictions. 

But air pollution is also a global concern and can increase the risk of cardiovascular and respiratory disease. The <a href="http://www.who.int/airpollution/en/">World Health Organization</a> (WHO) recently estimated that 7 million people die from exposure to pollutants in the air every year. 

“While air pollution knows no borders and puts everyone at risk, those most vulnerable – pregnant women, children, the elderly, those already ill or poor– are particularly affected,” Dr. Maria Neira, The World Health Organisation’s director of public health, told The Guardian. 

The preventable number of deaths is just one of driving factors behind the EU’s demands. High emissions also continue to increase temperatures and worsen the impacts of climate change. 

The European Commission released a statement saying that the UK, along with the five other countries facing similar consequences from lax pollution policies, hasn’t delivered any “credible, effective and timely measures to reduce pollution as soon as possible, as required under EU law.” 

In 2017, a special rapporteur appointed by the United Nations found that the UK was openly defying its duty to protect the health of its citizens by keeping air pollutions levels so dangerously high. 

If the UK doesn’t comply with the European Commission and the European Court of Justice and implement stricter emission controls soon, the country could face substantial fines. 

--

By<a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com"> Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

UK could face heavy fines for illegal levels of air pollution

The UK, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Romania will soon...

Officials in Lee County, Florida, will soon be testing out drone technology to battle mosquitoes. The county is one of only ten sites in the country that has been approved by the federal government to test drones for various applications.

Authorities in Lee County will now be permitted to fly drones in ways that are not permitted under the current law. They can test drones at low altitudes, directly over people, and will also be allowed to test drones at night.

The <a href="https://www.faa.gov/">Federal Aviation Administration</a>'s Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration Pilot Program was created to provide the government with information on how to effectively and safely integrate UAS into the National Airspace System. The project also aims to identify the range of applications available using drone technology.

Eric Jackson is a public information officer at the Lee County Mosquito Control District in southwestern Florida. He told <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/">CNBC</a> that the district relies heavily on aerial operations. The county already uses small aircraft and helicopters to address pest problems, which may explain why the site was chosen to participate in the federal program.

“We've been doing this for 60 years with aircraft dealing with mosquito issues, so I'm thinking that might have played a part,” Mr Jackson told CNBC.

The county has plans to use a 1,500-pound drone as part of its operation to combat <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mosquitoes-thrive-less-greenery/">mosquitoes</a>. Lee County is the only site selected for the program that will use the drone technology for pest control management.

In Oklahoma, drones have been approved to monitor livestock and crops. In Nevada, the city of Reno will use drones for the time-sensitive delivery of life-saving medical equipment. 

The full list of sites selected for the pilot program, as well as the groundbreaking applications that will be tested using drone technology, is available on the Federal Aviation Administration’s <a href="https://www.faa.gov/uas/programs_partnerships/uas_integration_pilot_program/awardees/">website</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Florida looking to use drone technology to combat mosquitoes

Officials in Lee County, Florida, will soon be testing out...

New research from <a href="https://home.dartmouth.edu/">Dartmouth College</a> has found that the human brain is obsessed with the social details of our lives. The researchers found evidence that the brain is busy combing through social information even when we are not interacting with others. 

The study demonstrates, for the first time, how two regions of the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/learning-instruments-languages-brain/">brain</a> become increasingly connected while the brain is resting after encoding new social information.

The medial prefrontal cortex and temporoparietal junction are regions of the brain that regulate our perception of other people, including their mental states, personalities, and intentions. Since previous research established that these two particular regions tend to experience a spike in connectivity during rest, they are considered to be part of the brain's default network.

The Dartmouth team set out to determine whether these default regions are consolidating social information during rest.

Study lead author Meghan L. Meyer is an assistant professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences and the director of the Dartmouth Social Neuroscience Lab.

“We've known for a while that brain regions associated with social thinking engage rest but we really never understood why,” said Professor Meyer. “This study suggests an important function to this pattern: engaging these regions during rest may help us learn about our social environment.”

Study participants completed social encoding and non-social encoding tasks while researchers scanned their brain activity. 

For the social encoding task, participants were asked to rate their impressions of a person based on the individual's photograph, job title, and two character traits. For the non-social encoding task, the participants rated photographs based on a location instead of a person.

Overall, the study participants encoded 60 social trials and 60-non-social trials. Some performed social encoding first, while others performed non-social encoding first. 

Next, participants were presented with an unexpected associative memory test to examine their ability to identify the same photographs of people, places, and their respective traits.


The researchers found a spike in activity between the medial prefrontal cortex and temporoparietal junction regions during rest periods after social encoding. Greater connectivity between these two default network regions was associated with better performance on the social memory tests.

Furthermore, participants who encoded the social information first maintained higher levels of connectivity between these two brain regions during the entire trial, which was not found to be the case for those who were presented with the non-social tasks first. This indicates that the brain consolidates social information as soon as it has the opportunity to rest. 

“When our mind has a break, we might be prioritizing what we learn about our social environment,” said Professor Meyer.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://academic.oup.com/cercor">Cerebral Cortex</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New research reveals our brains are fixated on our social lives

New research from Dartmouth College has found that the human...

Marijuana has become the preferred choice over alcohol and tobacco among young people, according to a recent study. This pattern was found to be particularly widespread across young men of specific racial and ethnic groups in the United States.

Study co-author Brian Fairman of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development explained that young people who start off with <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/parents-using-marijuana/">marijuana</a> before alcohol or tobacco are more likely to become heavy users and have problems related to the substance later in life.

The investigation was focused on data from the US National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which included information from more than 275,500 individuals between the ages 12 and 21. Participants were asked about their use of marijuana, cigarettes, alcohol, and other forms of tobacco or illegal drugs.

In 2014, eight percent of participants reported that marijuana was the first drug they ever used, which had nearly doubled from 4.8 percent in 2004. Fairman said this increase may be driven by the concurrent decline in young people who smoked cigarettes first, which dropped from 21 percent to 9 percent during the same decade.

“We also observed a significant increase in youth abstaining from substance use altogether, which rose from 36 percent to 46 percent, and therefore, it is unclear the degree to which increases in those initiating marijuana first could be due to youth abstaining or delaying cigarettes,” said Fairman.

The researchers determined that those using marijuana first were more likely to be Black, American Indian/Alaskan Native, multiracial, or Hispanic males.

“Our findings suggest important targets for public health intervention and prevention of marijuana use, especially among American Indian/Alaska Native and Black youth, who are less likely to have access to treatment or successful treatment outcomes,” said Fairman. 

He believes that drug prevention strategies could be improved by targeting groups based on which drug they are most likely to try first.

“To the degree these trends continue and greater numbers of youth start with marijuana as their first drug, there may be an increasing need for public interventions and treatment services for marijuana-related problems,” said Fairman.

The study is published by Springer in the journal <a href="https://link.springer.com/journal/11121">Prevention Science</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

More young people pick marijuana over alcohol or cigarettes

Marijuana has become the preferred choice over alcohol and tobacco...

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;



---



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



---



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

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

Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA



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



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

The history of Mars is much more complex than we thought

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research



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



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

Cavefish are healthy despite their sedentary lifestyle

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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites capture the world's biggest and fastest waves

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