When humans burst into laughter together, moods lift almost automatically. New research shows that a similar boost happens in our closest cousins.



An international team led by <a href="https://bloomington.iu.edu/">Indiana University</a> scientists has discovered that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bonobos-group-cohesion-common-enemy-effect-do-not-kill-inside-their-species/">bonobos</a> become more upbeat after hearing the giggles of their companions. This finding pushes the evolutionary history of positive emotions back millions of years.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-laughter-changed-ape-choices">Laughter changed ape choices</h2>



To explore laughter’s influence, the researchers designed a cognitive-bias test often used in animal psychology to gauge optimism or pessimism.



First, they trained bonobos at the <a href="https://www.apeinitiative.org/">Ape Initiative</a> in Des Moines, Iowa, to recognize two kinds of boxes: black ones that always contained a delicious snack and white ones that were always empty.



Once the apes consistently chose black and ignored white, the experimenters introduced a third, ambiguous gray box. They then played one of two sounds: recorded bonobo laughter or a neutral control noise.



“We know that other apes, like chimpanzees, have contagious laughter during play," said lead author Sasha Winkler, a primatologist at <a href="https://duke.edu/">Duke University</a>. "We were wondering if that behavior could be explained by positive emotions produced from the sound itself.” 



If the bonobos felt a surge of good feeling after hearing laughter, the team expected them to treat the uncertain gray box as if it were the rewarding black one.



That is exactly what happened. “Think of it like the rose-colored glasses effect,” Winkler said. “The bonobos were much more likely to approach the gray boxes after hearing laughter, treating them like the rewarded boxes, and indicating a more optimistic expectation of finding a treat.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tracing-optimism-to-our-ancestors">Tracing optimism to our ancestors</h2>



This study is the first experimental proof that great-ape laughter can shift mood and cognition the way human laughter does.



“The tendency to behave more optimistically after hearing laughter suggests that the sound alone induced a positive emotional state in bonobos,” said senior author Erica Cartmill, the director of Indiana University’s Cognitive Science Program.



“This is the first study of which we're aware to measure a positive affect shift in nonhuman primates from a brief experimental intervention.”



Great apes -&nbsp; bonobos, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/what-wild-chimpanzees-can-teach-us-about-parenting/">chimpanzees</a>, gorillas, orangutans - all emit play calls that acoustically resemble human chuckles. Earlier work tied those sounds to a common evolutionary origin. The new findings add a cognitive twist.



“Our results suggest that laughter in other apes shares not only phylogenetic and behavioral similarities with human laughter but also perhaps some of the same cognitive-emotional underpinnings,” Winkler noted.



“This emotional contagion appears to have been present in the primate lineage long before the evolution of language.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-laughter-empathy-and-apes">Laughter, empathy, and apes</h2>



Emotional contagion is often described as a foundational element of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/little-benjamina-the-oldest-evidence-of-social-empathy-in-humans/">empathy</a> - the capacity to share another’s feelings. As Winkler put it, “studies like ours can help to untangle the evolutionary building blocks of empathy, communication, and cooperation in humans.”



By revealing that a simple vocal cue can brighten outlooks in bonobos, the research suggests that the mechanisms linking social sound to positive mood were already in place in a common ancestor millions of years ago.



Cartmill added that the work answers a long-standing bias in emotion research. “Our emotions influence many aspects of cognition, including memory, attention, and decision-making, but research has historically focused on negative emotions with clear behavioral correlates, like <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/brain-pathway-discovered-that-suppresses-fear/">fear</a> and aggression.”



“We wanted to better understand the relationship between positive affect and cognition in our closest living relatives.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-kanzi-and-the-future-of-empathy">Kanzi and the future of empathy</h2>



The experiments involved four bonobos, including the celebrated language-using ape Kanzi, who recently passed away.



“I feel incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Kanzi while he was still alive,” Winkler said. 



“We hope this brings greater public awareness of the remarkable similarities between us and bonobos, who are an endangered species. We have so much to learn from these incredible animals.”



Future studies will test whether laughter exerts similar cognitive effects in chimpanzees and other primates. They will also explore how social context - for example, hearing laughs from friends versus strangers - modulates optimism.



For now, the discovery that bonobo giggles brighten expectations highlights a shared emotional heritage and hints that a simple laugh has been boosting group spirits since long before humans walked the Earth.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-02594-8">Nature Scientific Reports</a>.



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Laughter lifts bonobo moods, offering clues to human emotion

When humans burst into laughter together, moods lift almost automatically. New research shows that a similar boost happens in our closest cousins. An international team led by Indiana University scientists has discovered that bonobos become more upbeat after hearing the giggles of their companions. This finding pushes the evolutionary history of positive emotions back millions of years. Laughter changed ape choices To explore laughter’s influence, the researchers designed a cognitive-bias test often used in animal psychology to gauge optimism or pessimism. First, they trained bonobos at the...

Most people who watch cycling on television do so for the love of the sport. The scenic views of nature as the competitors climb up hills and speed through valleys is just one of the perks of watching a race. But researchers from <a href="https://www.ugent.be/en">Ghent University</a> took much more interest to those natural views than most cycling fans, as they used almost four decades of archive footage from the Tour of Flanders in Belgium to determine the impact of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-hinder-agriculture/">climate change</a> on trees.

Their findings are published in the journal <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/2041210X">Methods of Ecology and Evolution</a>, where they detail the process of dissecting footage from this annual cycling race in Belgium. The research team assessed video footage from 1981 to 2016, focusing on trees and shrubs growing around recognizable landmarks of the race’s route. They used the footage to visually estimate how many leaves and flowers were present on the day of the course – which is usually in early April – and compared their findings to known climate data.

The results showed that these trees along the race route had advanced the timing of leafing and flowering in response to recent temperature changes. Prior to 1990, very few leaves could be seen on trees during this spring race. But after that year, the researchers found that increasingly more trees were visible in the television while clearly in full leaf – particularly magnolia, hawthorn, hornbeam, and birch trees. These changes can be linked to the warmer average temperatures in the area, which are known to have increased by 1.5°C since 1980.

“Early-leafing trees can be good news for some species as they grow faster and produce more wood,” says Pieter De Frenne, a professor at Ghent University and lead author of the study. “However, their leaves also cast shadows. When trees flush earlier in the year, they shadow for a longer period of time, affecting other animals and plants, and even whole ecosystems.”

For their study, the researchers used previously unexploited records of twelve tree species in the Flanders region to build long-term datasets of phenological responses. Phenology is the study of natural phenomena that recur periodically – like the flowering and leafing of trees. 

“Our method could also be used to collect data on other aspects important for ecological or evolutionary research, such as tree health, water levels in rivers and lakes, and the spread of invasive species,” says De Frenne. “Only by compiling data from the past will we be able to predict the future effects of climate change on species and ecosystems.”

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer
Image Credit: Flanders Classics

TV footage of cycling races reveal effects of climate change

Most people who watch cycling on television do so for...

Researchers have developed technology that uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of resting brain activity to test human intelligence. The new system could ultimately replace traditional IQ testing as a stronger indicator of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/crossword-puzzles-improve-brain-function/">brainpower</a>.

Study co-author Ralph Adolphs is the Bren Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the <a href="http://www.caltech.edu/">California Institute of Technology</a> (Caltech).

“We found if we just have people lie in the scanner and do nothing while we measure the pattern of activity in their brain, we can use the data to predict their intelligence,” said Adolphs.

The study was focused on data collected by the Human Connectome Project (HCP), which aims to gain insight into the many neural networks contained in the human brain. The team transferred the brain scans and intelligence scores from almost 900 individuals who participated in the HCP into their system.


Julien Dubois, a researcher at <a href="https://www.cedars-sinai.org/">Cedars-Sinai Medical Center</a>, said that the new algorithm was able to predict intelligence at statistically significant levels across the HCP participants. Dubois also explained that the technology has room for improvement, and that a lot of critical information from the brain scans is not being utilized by the system.

“The information that we derive from the brain measurements can be used to account for about 20 percent of the variance in intelligence we observed in our subjects,” said Dubois. "We are doing very well, but we are still quite far from being able to match the results of hour-long intelligence tests, like the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale.”


Because the algorithm was trained using predetermined intelligence scores, the researchers developed a method of measuring intelligence across 10 different cognitive tasks performed by the study participants to improve upon the accuracy of the IQ test scores.

Study co-author Paola Galdi was formerly a PhD student at the <a href="https://web.unisa.it/en/home">University of Salerno</a> and is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh.


“If trained properly, these algorithms can answer questions as complex as the one we are trying to answer here. They are very powerful, but if you actually ask, ‘How do they learn? How do they do these things?’ These are difficult questions to answer,” said Galdi.


The analysis was developed as part of ongoing research with a goal of building a diagnostic tool that can interpret valuable information about a person's mind using brain scans. The team hopes to eventually use MRIs to identify conditions such as autism, schizophrenia, and anxiety - just as they are currently used for recognizing aneurysms or tumors.

“Functional MRI has not yet delivered on its promise as a diagnostic tool. We, and many others, are actively working to change this,” said Dubois. “The availability of large data sets that can be mined by scientists around the world is making this possible.”


The research is available online through <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/">bioRxiv</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Intelligence can be measured using resting brain activity

Researchers have developed technology that uses functional magnetic resonance imaging...

“We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.”
-Walden, Henry David Thoreau
Often misquoted, Thoreau said, “In Wildness is the preservation of the world”.  Take note, wildness not wilderness.  What are both wildness and wilderness though?  I think it’s easier to conceptualize wilderness.  Wilderness is to most a place where humans play little to no role in the environment.  A desolate place of wild animals, that’s wilderness for most. According to Fredrick Nash, in his classic book, Wilderness and the American Mind, the view of wilderness as a desolate place first entered into American thought through the Bible.  

Through this Biblical usage the concept of a treeless wasteland became so closely associated with wilderness that Samuel Johnson defined it in 1755 in his Dictionary of the English Language as, “a desert; a tract of solitude and savageness.”

Today dictionaries define wilderness as uncultivated and otherwise undeveloped land.  The absence of men and the presence of wild animals is assumed. Any place in which a person feels stripped of guidance, lost and perplexed may be called a wilderness.

The whole idea of wilderness in this sense seems to emphasize separation between humans and wilderness and indeed wildness.  Others have put forward a much more flattering view of wilderness. Edward Abbey often refers to wild places as an Eden, using the biblical metaphor to its fullest extent.  In this treatment, wilderness becomes a place that humans in their ‘fallen’ state no longer deserve. Wilderness is a place we can only pollute or defile.

These views of wilderness are of a place humans have no part in, at best we can be visitors passing lightly over a wild place, not tarrying long.  This view is at odds with Thoreau. In my opinion, these views are also at odds with the nature of wilderness. 

In his book, The Abstract Wild, Jack Turner defines wilderness as a self-willed land.  Going further, Turner says that wilderness is about a relationship with the land, a relationship humans can be a part of.  The key in Jack Turner’s view seems to be to relinquish control, even submitting and becoming a part of a greater autonomy.  In The Abstract Wild he writes,  

“The important point is that whatever kind of autonomy is in question – human freedom, self-willed land, self-ordering systems, self-organizing, autopoiesis- all are incompatible with external control.  To take wildness seriously is to take the issue of control seriously…” 

In his novel, Ishmael, Daniel Quinn echoes the same idea, using gods instead of natural forces, cycles or orders, the concept is exactly the same.  Quinn highlights the illusory quality of our control and the dangerous hubris of it, looking broader than what we call wilderness to view the whole of our civilizations.  This passage is a good representation of his view, 

“…When will you finally be safe?”  “When we’ve taken the whole world out of the hands of the gods.”…All the power will be in our hands and we’ll be free at last.”   

This view makes sense if one is to take a cursory look at the places we call wild.  The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mining-deforestation-amazon-rainforest/">Amazon Rainforest</a>, The Kalahari Desert, and the Tibetan Plateau all have long histories of human habitation.  North America was full of different indigenous groups of people with unique cultures and civilizations when Europeans arrive.  If we persist on viewing wilderness as a place without humans or human influence, we are left only with remote islands and perhaps (before research stations were built) Antarctica.  

If on the other hand, we can accept the view of wilderness as a place of self-willed land and that humans may be included in that land, as a part but not an external control, wilderness is a different place.  We are left with the view that perhaps a ruin like Mesa Verde was more of a wilderness when it was a small thriving village than now as it is managed by the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/">National Park Service</a>.  It is the exertion of control in the form of wildlife management, carefully constructed trails and fences that is slowly choking the wild out of our ‘wilderness’.

The Wilderness Act of 1964 is ambitious, and in an excerpt cited by the US Forest Service’s website it states the purpose of the act as: 

“In order to assure that an increasing population, accompanied by expanding settlement and growing mechanization, does not occupy and modify all areas within the United States and its possessions, leaving no lands designated for preservation and protection in their natural condition, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the Congress to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness.”  

The last bit calling wilderness a resource is telling.  A resource is not something you can be a participant in, it’s inert, dead, a utility, something to be used.  According to <a href="https://www.wilderness.net/">Wilderness.net</a>, about 5% of the total US is protected as wilderness under the Wilderness Act, which amounts to 109,982,783 acres.  Alaska contains a little more than half of this ‘wilderness’ and the contiguous US contains only 2.7%, an area Wilderness.net reminds us is about the size of Minnesota.  

The problem isn’t whether we’re trying to protect wilderness.  The problem is that for it to truly be wild and that be of ‘value’ to us, we must strive for our own wildness.  How wild is a Bison reintroduced from a breeding program in the Bronx to an extremely large, fenced in ‘wild’ area in South Dakota and fed supplemental hay?  How wild is a hiker in the Bitter Roots with a smart phone connected to a satellite to post pictures on Facebook immediately? How wild is a wilderness area with fire, recreation, wildlife, trails and fences all carefully managed?  

I love wilderness areas.  I’ve been to many of different types from caves to prairie to mountains and deserts.  It’s impossible to manage wild into a place though. It’s easy to pass laws, it’s harder sometimes to pull your hands away and let the control fall to the hands of the gods.  Wildlife and conservation biology are all about control and in this way we fight fire with fire. We try to control our world by building cities and luxury and then try to maintain pockets of wilderness by exerting more control.  What does it benefit in the end if we create enormous museum like amusement parks and lose ourselves to our own illusion? Governments and nonprofits can’t save the smallest wildness in you or wilderness in the world. That task falls to you.                  

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By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Government and the difference between wildness and wilderness

“We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that...

A new study published in the journal <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine">JAMA Internal Medicine</a> suggests that coffee drinkers live longer lives. The effect was found among individuals who drink ground, instant, and even decaffeinated coffee. 

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/coffee-order-liberal-conservative/">Coffee</a> is loaded with antioxidants and other nutrients that can improve your health.

Previous research has shown that coffee has some remarkable health benefits, including a lower risk of Parkinson's disease, type 2 diabetes and liver disease such as cirrhosis and liver cancer. Coffee has also been linked to a lower risk of depression and improved cognitive function.

Furthermore, caffeine itself has been proven to boost the metabolic rate. In particular, caffeine increases the rate of fat burning due to its stimulation of the central nervous system. In addition, caffeine is known to improve physical performance.

For the current study, the researchers set out to determine if the association between coffee consumption and a lower risk of chronic disease and death applies to heavy coffee drinkers and to people who have genetic variations that alter the way they metabolize caffeine.

The investigation was focused on nearly a half million people in the United Kingdom. The experts found that drinking coffee led to a lower risk of death even among heavy coffee drinkers who have eight or more cups per day. The effect was also found across every type of coffee, and in both slow and fast metabolizers of caffeine. 

The study authors advise that the findings of the study are based only on observational data, and that more research will be needed to demonstrate that coffee is directly responsible for the positive health outcomes that were observed.

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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

Coffee drinkers may have a lower risk of death from disease

A new study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine...

It may be difficult to wrap your head around the fact that the same manufacturer of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange">Agent Orange</a> – a highly toxic herbicide used during the Vietnam era to clear forest and starve opponent soldiers – is also a huge controller of our cotton, corn and soy crops, and seems to be taking over the world. 

Founded by a pharmaceutical company agent John F. Queeny, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto">Monsanto</a> has not only created one of the most used herbicides in the world Roundup, but it also formed a manmade seed that learned to survive against its toxic counterpart and overtake the farming industry as we know it. So, one begs the question:  How does a sugar-replacement company turned chemical company become world’s most antipathic corporation?

Monsanto’s parasitic infestation has been something of a slow burn since it’s 1901 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccharin">saccharin</a> introduction, an artificial sweetener that was quickly met with resistance from the <a href="https://www.usda.gov/topics/food-and-nutrition">USDA</a>. In 1907, they found that replacing sugar with saccharin violates the Pure Food and Drug Act, a consumer protection law. <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/national-parks-trump-ghost-teddy-roosevelt/">Theodore Roosevelt</a> (who enjoyed saccharin) fought against this investigation, which, in turn, set the wheels in motion for Monsanto’s origins. 

However, in 1911, the USDA determined that saccharin violated it’s pure food protection; once again, it worked to ban the alternative sweetener. When World War I began in 1914, it brought sugar shortages; so, saccharin was reintroduced to the market. With the expansion of their line to include caffeine and vanillin, Monsanto rose to be a million dollar company and garnered Coca-Cola as their top customer.

In time, the company became the nation’s top producer of aspirin, and the torch was passed to John F.’s son, Edgar M. Queeny, who took over and decided to enlarge the company mission. They renamed their brand:  Monsanto Chemical Company in 1933 and again proved to be a huge resource during wartime, now in World War II, for their production of <a href="https://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/text_version/chemicals.php?id=87">styrene</a>. During this period, Japan had taken over most rubber plantations in Asia and used this to their advantage by restricting exports to the United States. Monsanto Chemical Company created styrene, which would soon aid in the country’s own synthetic rubber production. Of course, keeping to their theme, styrene has been observed to cause major health risks – but was ignored due to a high market demand.

Once more, the business rebranded to Monsanto Company in an attempt to showcase their variety of offerings and announce one of the most since-publicized herbicides, Agent Orange, for yet another war, this time in Vietnam. 20 years later, war veterans aggregated to settle a lawsuit with Monsanto for the horrible effects of Agent Orange exposure, costing the company a cool $180 million. Regardless of the payout – and a record of 4.8 million people exposed to the herbicide, which caused 400,000 deaths and disfigurements, and birth defects in 500,000 babies – Monsanto refused to accept responsibility. This marked a significant theme in Monsanto’s subversive character.

They say that “All roads lead to Rome,” and this was certainly the case with Monsanto’s corporate infrastructure. In 2003, their subsidiary company <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solutia">Solutia</a>’s corporate plant, located in Anniston, AL., was found by a jury to have polluted the land and water of the southern community with <a href="https://www.epa.gov/pcbs/learn-about-polychlorinated-biphenyls-pcbs">Polychlorinated biphenyls</a> (PCBs). The state found PCBs to be linked to cancer, immune system problems and other severe health issues. Monsanto and Solutia agreed to pay $700 million to settle claims for the 20,000 Anniston residents of PCB contamination; Solutia personally filed for bankruptcy thereafter. Unfortunately, the damage didn’t stop in Anniston, as PCB pollution was subsequently found in San Diego and San Jose, CA., Westport, MA., and Spokane, WA. In the Spokane River, in particular, there are still <a href="https://www.doh.wa.gov/CommunityandEnvironment/Food/Fish/Advisories">13 active fish consumption advisories</a> related to PCBs, and more than 600 suspected or confirmed contamination sites across the state of Washington from Seattle’s Puget Sound to the Wenatchee River.

Monsanto Company then began to shift gears and started focusing on agricultural endeavors. After undergoing years of regulatory review, they commenced commercial production on a hormone known as <a href="https://www.fda.gov/animalveterinary/safetyhealth/productsafetyinformation/ucm055435.htm">BST</a>, which was to be injected into dairy cows to boost milk production. This was also around the time that <a href="https://monsanto.com/products/seeds/">Roundup Ready Seeds</a> came into play, genetically engineered to survive against the company’s best-selling Roundup herbicide. To save face, the corporation provided a new image, citing that they were helping people “lead longer, healthier lives, at costs that they and their nations can afford and without continued environmental degradation.” Irrespective of their marketing ploys, scientists later discovered that they were doing the exact opposite with their genetically modified maize and herbicide – both found to be have caused tumors and organ damage.

As a rule, there’s a huge power struggle between Monsanto and small farmers whose crops have been overtaken by the company’s seeds through cross-pollination. No matter how much the farmers fight against this contamination, the genetically modified seeds are stronger than any heirloom seeds on the market. To make matters worse, Monsanto has taken advantage of this by embarking on a nationwide scurge on these mom and pop farmers, who are unintentionally growing their GMO seeds, suing them for infringement on their patent. Sadly, such small agriculturists don’t have the wherewithal to defend themselves and ultimately lose to this relentless corporate machine.

On the upside, there have been many isolated uprisings in more recent years. In 2014, the <a href="https://act.nrdc.org/donate/af-public-lands-180302/?source=MRSENRDC0018_AdWords&amp;utm_source=AdWords&amp;utm_medium=Search&amp;utm_campaign=Fundraising">Natural Resources Defense Council</a> (NRDC) began a petition for the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/">EPA</a> to review its rules for glyphosate use, the active herbicide in Roundup, and the connection it has with plummeting numbers of monarch butterflies and honeybees, which have now both become endangered species. Yet, like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, Monsanto continues to dive deeper into its “environmental sustainability” façade – claiming that they are restoring the monarch’s habitats.

Fast forward to this year, implementation for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/05/04/mandatory-gmo-labels-are-coming-for-your-food/?noredirect=on&amp;utm_term=.909e214748f2">GMO Labeling</a> is set to start in July, companies like <a href="https://www.nongmoproject.org/">Non-GMO project </a>have grown exponentially to give clairvoyance within food production, and hundreds of lawsuits have been sought against Monsanto for the cancer-causing effects of Roundup. Likewise, many documentaries have come to light, giving us a clearer picture of the proverbial beast on our back named Monsanto. Collectively, all of these are steps in the right direction of making smarter food choices and supporting local, organic farmers instead of mass marketed corporate byproducts.

Lo and behold, Monsanto was recently acquired by <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/section/reuters/bayer-to-buy-monsanto-creating-a-massive-seeds-and-pesticides-company/">Bayer</a>, another behemoth corporation whose products have been in question for years on end. And, though it probably goes without saying here, two wrongs definitely don’t make a right. It’s paramount to not be fooled by Monsanto’s pretty propaganda and false messages of sustainability – this is a company that will be remembered throughout history for taking a part in destroying our environment, creating major health dilemmas and having keen knack for pulling the wool over our eyes about it. To quote the great author and activist Michael Pollan, “If it came from a plant, eat it. If was made in a plant, don’t.”

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By <a href="mailto:drkcopy@gmail.com">Derek Kaplan</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

GMOs and biochemical warfare: Monsanto’s reign of illness

It may be difficult to wrap your head around the...

Residents of Nevada are facing a major public health crisis when it comes to air pollution, as a new report found that in 2016, 450,000 people in Reno breathed in 103 days of degraded air quality. 

Exposure to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/air-pollution-diabetes/">air pollution</a> increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, premature death, and asthma attack, and millions of people live with air quality that is lower than what is deemed safe. 

This recent report on Nevada was conducted by the <a href="https://environmentnevadacenter.org/">Environment Nevada Research and Policy Center</a> and comes at a time when potential policy changes in the United States could increase greenhouse emissions and pollution levels. 

The report was titled “Trouble in the Air: Millions of Americans Breathe Polluted Air.” 

“All Nevada residents should be able to breathe clean air. Even one day with polluted air is too many,” said Elizabeth Leape, Campaign Coordinator with Environment Nevada Research &amp; Policy Center. “To make dirty air days a thing of the past, we need to strengthen existing air quality protections and reduce future air pollution threats from global warming.”

Researchers reviewed data from <a href="https://www.epa.gov/">Environmental Protection Agency</a> (EPA) records of air pollution levels in the United States, focusing on smog and particulate pollution from coal, diesel, gasoline and natural gas. 

“There's no safe level of exposure to smog and particulate pollution,” said Elizabeth Ridlington, Policy Analyst with Frontier Group, a co-author of the report. “Even low levels of smog and particulate pollution are bad for health and can increase deaths.”

Even though the health risks associated with high levels of pollution are well documented, major regulations to reduce pollution have yet to be implemented on a large scale and some policy leaders and governments are seemingly doing as much as they can to increase pollution and speed up climate change. 

Meanwhile, President Trump is looking to weaken federal clean car standards program which would increase emissions and reduce fuel efficiency, and EPA head Scott Pruitt plans to review the federal ozone standard. 

The report urges that Trump’s administration should do just the opposite and instead strengthen the federal clean car standards program. 

Stronger vehicle emissions standards would go a long way in reducing pollution and fighting climate change in the United States. 

“To protect our health, we must keep cutting smog, particulate pollution, and global warming emissions,” said Leape. “We must accelerate our progress, not hit the brakes on effective programs like the federal clean car standards.”

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By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com </a>Staff Writer

Harmful levels of air pollution felt in Reno almost half the year

Residents of Nevada are facing a major public health crisis...

Waiting at the bus stop can be frustrating, especially if your bus is late. You wait, and wait – and often, when your bus finally arrives, there’s another close behind. It’s not just coincidence. Turns out, a phenomenon known as bus bunching is to blame.

It’s a problem that transit systems all over the world have been trying to solve for years. Now, a pair of mathematicians may have a potential answer.

“Bunching is annoying for riders, since it increases both the average time spent waiting for the bus and the variability in this waiting time,” Drs. Vikash V. Gayah and S. Ilgin Guler, both professors of civil engineering at <a href="https://www.psu.edu/">Pennsylvania State University</a>, wrote for <a href="https://theconversation.com/math-explains-why-your-bus-route-seems-so-unreliable-95485">The Conversation</a>.

The problem comes when a bus gets off schedule for any reason. A late bus is likely to get later and later as it travels its route, waiting for passengers to climb off or board. At the same time, an early bus gets earlier with each stop. 

That’s because the later a bus is, the more time passengers have to gather at the stop, and the more time it takes them to board. Early buses see fewer passengers and shorter boarding times.

“Bus bunching occurs because bus routes are inherently unstable,” Gayah and Guler wrote.

In the end, it can lead riders to lose faith in the transit system and turn to less sustainable forms of transportation, like personal vehicles.

Gayah and Guler suggested some possible solutions to prevent bus bunching. One would be to instruct bus drivers to skip stops if they’re running late and no one needs to get off, but this would leave riders who need to board the bus stranded, the pair admitted.

Another strategy builds “slack” – extra time – into the bus schedule to prevent late buses. Early buses simply wait at each stop until the scheduled departure time. But if a bus does run late, it’s still difficult for the driver to make up time, the mathematicians said.

New technology that allows bus dispatchers to watch buses in real time and offer up feedback may help ease bus bunching, the pair wrote.

“These novel strategies treat consecutive buses as if they were all connected by springs. Buses that are too close together along the route are given instructions to help ‘push’ them apart, while buses that are too far apart are given information to help ‘pull’ them back together,” Gayah and Guler said.

The researchers are now using modeling and algorithms to test how the latter strategy could be used in the field, so for now, bus riders may have to continue dealing with bunching. But at least now you know there’s a mathematical explanation.

—

By Kyla Cathey, <a href="http://www.earth.com">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Image credit: lena1790, <a href="https://pixabay.com/en/users/lena1790-5529783/">Pixabay</a>

Bus bunching has a mathematical explanation

Waiting at the bus stop can be frustrating, especially if...

A new study has found that an extra year of school can increase your IQ by 5 points, adding further proof that education raises intelligence.

The results could give countries incentive to raise their limits on how much education children are required to have. 

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/">University of Edinburgh</a> and <a href="https://www.utexas.edu/">the University of Texas</a> conducted the study which was published in the journal Psychological Science.

The researchers discovered that staying in school raised intelligence and improved mental ability all across the board.

The researchers reviewed 42 datasets from 28 previous studies and included data on 615,812 people.

The team found that after one extra year in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/behavior-high-school-success/">school</a>, individual IQ increased by an average of 3.4 points. The results also appeared to be long-lasting and IQ stayed the same over time rather than deteriorating. 

“The most surprising finding was how long-lasting the effects seemed to be,” said Stuart Ritchie, a member of the study. “Something about that educational boost seemed to be beneficial right across the lifespan.”

The researchers examined data that covered students for a long period of time as well as research done after major education policy changes.

The study provides evidence for why compulsory education is important and shows how much staying in school does impact IQ. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

An extra year of school can increase your intelligence for life

A new study has found that an extra year of...

The monogamous relationship has been the standard model for romantic <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/couples-sexting-insecure-relationship/">relationships</a> since the story of Adam and Eve. Particularly in Western culture, we see the sanctity of marriage and ideation of the “nuclear family” as sacrosanct. This is why non-monogamous relationships – such as open relationships – are often attached to stigma within the general population. However, a new study from the <a href="https://www.uoguelph.ca/">University of Guelph</a> has found that people in open relationships are just as happy as those in monogamous relationships.

The study, published in the <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/home/spr">Journal of Social and Personal Relationships</a>, involved a survey of over 140 people with non-monogamous relationships and more than 200 people in monogamous relationships. Participants were asked about their satisfaction with their current relationships, and included questions about whether they had considered separating from their partner or partners, if they confided in their partners, and what their overall level of happiness was within the relationship. 

Their results showed that people in non-monogamous relationships were just as satisfied with the relationship they had with their main partner as people in monogamous relationships. “We found people in consensual, non-monogamous relationships experience the same levels of relationship satisfaction, psychological well-being and sexual satisfaction as those in monogamous relationships,” says Jessica Wood, a PhD student in applied social psychology at the University of Guelph and lead author of the study. “This debunks societal views of monogamy as being the ideal relationship structure.”

Wood also determined that an important predictor of relationship satisfaction was not the structure of the relationship, but rather sexual motivation. “In both monogamous and non-monogamous relationships, people who engage in sex to be close to a partner and to fulfill their sexual needs have a more satisfying relationship than those who have sex for less intrinsic reasons, such as to avoid conflict,” she explains.

And non-monogamous relationships may not be as uncommon as you think. Between three and seven percent of people in North America are currently part of a consensual, non-monogamous relationship. “It’s more common than most people think,” says Wood. “We are at a point in social history where we are expecting a lot from our partners. We want to have sexual fulfillment and excitement but also emotional and financial support. Trying to fulfill all these needs can put pressure on relationships. To deal with this pressure, we are seeing some people look to consensually non-monogamous relationships.”

Given the findings of this study, it seems like you’re likely to have just as good a chance at being happy in a non-monogamous relationship as you are a monogamous one. The study shows that if the relationship provides fulfillment of both psychological and sexual needs, the relationship structure itself is not as important.

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Study: Open relationships are as satisfying as monogamous ones

The monogamous relationship has been the standard model for romantic...

The consequences of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-hinder-agriculture/">climate change</a> are not only isolated to environmental pressures on animals – us humans will be faced with backlash from our environments as well. Natural disasters such as floods and hurricanes seem to be occurring more frequently and with more damage inflicted than ever before. These disasters often result in sudden population movements, as people attempt to find safe areas or follow government evacuation instructions. Using cell phone records and geo-located tweets, Spanish researchers have now developed a system that tracks human displacement caused by climate change.

This model was tested during a severe drought in La Guajira, Colombia in 2014, and determined that – during the six months of study – 10 percent of the population migrated due to the drought. This system used aggregated and encrypted cell phone metadata in order to predict the migration and “to identify population flows in the municipalities of the area affected by the drought,” explains Enrique Frías-Martínez, a researcher at <a href="http://www.tid.es/">Telefónica Research</a> in Madrid. 

This information “was then used to monitor migrations using radiation models, which take into account not only the characteristics of the population and the distance between origin and destination, but also the economic opportunities of the place where they end up.”

In the study, the researchers have applied the smartphone migration tracking system to climate change for the first time ever. They added a variation to the old model based on considering the climate of the destination area as an addition to the concept of economic opportunity, helping predict the migrations caused by climate change. 

According to Frías-Martínez, their results “indicate that the percentage of the population displaced during the drought in the Colombian region was 10% during the six months of the study.”

Their findings also show that the climate of the destination area plays a role in that decision. Patterns indicated that populations generally moved from rural areas to urban environments, which is likely due to urban areas having better economic prospects and proximity to food and water. 

“We have verified that, with cell phone traces, these migrations can be characterized with a success rate of over 60%, both in terms of the total number of people who migrate and the place where they move to,” says Frías-Martínez.

Because these populations displacements are likely to increase as climate change continues, the ability to track population migration could be very useful. As the technology improves over time, it may help us better prepare for mass migrations during natural disasters.

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: David Taggart

Smartphones can track human displacement due to climate change

The consequences of climate change are not only isolated to...

Experts at <a href="https://medicine.wustl.edu/">Washington University School of Medicine</a> are reporting that outdoor air pollution is directly related to an increased risk of diabetes. This correlation was found to be strong even in regions where <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/air-pollution-delhi/">pollution</a> levels are considered to be safe.

Diabetes affects more than 420 million people worldwide including 30 million Americans, and is growing at one of the fastest rates of any disease. An unhealthy diet, obesity, and a sedentary lifestyle are all major diabetes risks. The new study identifies outdoor air pollution as yet another factor contributing to the onset of diabetes.

Pollution is believed to reduce insulin production and trigger inflammation. This prevents the body from converting blood glucose into energy that the body needs.

“Our research shows a significant link between air pollution and diabetes globally,” said senior author Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly. “We found an increased risk, even at low levels of air pollution currently considered safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO). This is important because many industry lobbying groups argue that current levels are too stringent and should be relaxed. Evidence shows that current levels are still not sufficiently safe and need to be tightened.”

This study is the first to attempt to quantify the connection between air pollution and diabetes. 

“Over the past two decades, there have been bits of research about diabetes and pollution,” said Dr. Al-Aly. “We wanted to thread together the pieces for a broader, more solid understanding.”

The team collaborated with scientists at the <a href="https://www.stlouis.va.gov/services/Clinical_Epidemiology_Center.asp">Veterans Affairs' Clinical Epidemiology Center</a> to analyze the connection between particulate matter and the risk of diabetes. They examined data from 1.7 million U.S. veterans who did not have any history of diabetes and tracked them for an average of 8.5 years. 

The researchers compared medical information on the patients to data from the EPA's land-based air monitoring systems as well as satellite data from NASA.

The experts also reviewed all studies linking diabetes and outdoor air pollution, and developed a model that can be used to measure diabetes risks across various pollution levels.

Furthermore, by analyzing data from the Global Burden of Disease study, the researchers were able to estimate annual cases of diabetes and healthy years of life lost due to pollution.

According to the analysis, pollution contributed to 3.2 million new diabetes cases in 2016, which is around 14 percent of all new diabetes cases documented worldwide. That year, a total of 8.2 million years of healthy life were lost due to pollution-linked diabetes.

In the United States, 150,000 new cases of diabetes were attributed to air pollution annually, and 350,000 years of healthy life were found to be lost per year.

The findings of the study indicate that lower levels of pollution can lead to a significant drop in the number of diabetes cases around the world, including countries with the highest levels of pollution such as India and those with less pollution such as the United States.

The research is published in the journal <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(17)30013-X/fulltext">Lancet Planetary Health</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Air pollution linked to 3.2 million cases of diabetes in one year

Experts at Washington University School of Medicine are reporting that...

As we’ve <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/air-pollution-high-blood-pressure/">reported recently</a>, air pollution can cause serious cardiovascular and respiratory problems.

Numerous studies have shown the danger of particulate and air pollution, and the <a href="http://www.who.int/news-room/detail/02-05-2018-9-out-of-10-people-worldwide-breathe-polluted-air-but-more-countries-are-taking-action">World Health Organization </a>(WHO) found that as many as nine out of ten people worldwide breath air with high levels of pollution. 

The WHO also reported that more than seven million deaths every year can be attributed to air pollution with low and middle-income countries carrying the burden of those deaths. 

Now, a new study found that in sub-Saharan Africa, moderate decreases in air pollution could save the lives of tens of thousands of infants every year. 

Researchers from <a href="https://www.stanford.edu/">Stanford University</a> and <a href="https://ucsd.edu/">the University of California, San Diego</a> conducted a study that examined the link between air pollution and premature deaths in 30 countries in Africa. 

According to the study, published in the journal Nature, there is a “robust relationship” between the two.

<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/air-pollution-killing-thousands-of-infants-in-africa-study-says-2018-06-27/">CBS news</a> reported the new findings where the researchers combined air pollution particulate satellite data with household surveys about infant births and deaths between 2001 and 2005 in parts of Africa.

Dust, wood smoke from cooking fires, and vehicle exhaust all contribute to these air pollution levels. 

The researchers found that for every ten-microgram-per-cubic-meter increase in the particulate concentrations, there is a nine percent increase in infant mortality. 

If policies and regulations that reduced air pollution five micrograms per cubic meter were put in place, it could save thousands. The researchers say that a decrease that size could have prevented 40,000 infant deaths in 2015. 

“The principal sources of particulate matter differ across sub-Saharan Africa. As such, policies and approaches to reducing pollution may be most appropriately undertaken at the local and regional scale,” Sam Heft-Neal, one of the study's authors, told The Associated Press. “In booming urban areas, many of the relevant technologies and policies are the same ones that have been applied in more developed economies: moving away from coal to cleaner feedstocks for electric power production, putting particulate filters on buses and trucks, and reducing traffic congestion.”

Pollution regulations can be difficult to implement, especially in countries where the economic and financial potential of developing local industries outweighs health and safety concerns. 

However, according to CBS, Uganda has a draft law that proposed the ban importation of vehicles older than eight years because of the exhaust fumes they emit. 

Hopefully, as studies like this continue to find staggering statistics about preventable death and cardiovascular disease, more and more countries will work toward reducing pollution levels. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Air pollution kills thousands of infants in Africa every year

As we’ve reported recently, air pollution can cause serious cardiovascular...

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

[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?

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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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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 



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

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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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