Being cool can feel elusive and almost mythic - something we “know when we see it,” yet struggle to define.



A sweeping new investigation led by marketing scholars Todd Pezzuti of <a href="https://www.uai.cl/">Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez</a> and Caleb Warren of the <a href="https://www.arizona.edu/">University of Arizona</a> argues that the concept is far less mysterious than it seems.



Across twelve nations, nearly 6,000 participants independently picked out the same constellation of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/personality-type-can-accurately-predict-your-relationship-status/">personality</a> traits when describing a cool person. 



The findings reveal not only what separates “cool” from “good” but also why cool people tend to become catalysts of social change.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mapping-cool-across-12-nations">Mapping cool across 12 nations</h2>



Between 2018 and 2022, the research team collected online responses from adults in the United States, Australia, Chile, mainland China, Hong Kong, Germany, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Spain, South Africa, South Korea, and Turkey.



Participants first confirmed that they understood the slang meaning of the word “cool,” then spent a few minutes imagining someone who embodied one of four labels: cool, uncool, good, or not good.



Afterward, volunteers evaluated that imagined person on a battery of personality dimensions drawn from psychology’s “Big Five” model and Schwartz’s theory of universal values.



Because all responses came from internet users in relatively urban settings, the sample leans toward technologically connected citizens. 



Still, it is one of the most culturally diverse datasets ever assembled to study reputational judgments. The result is a uniquely global snapshot of how people assign social prestige.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-where-cool-and-good-part-ways"><a></a>Where cool and good part ways</h2>



When the investigators compared ratings, they found considerable overlap: both cool and good people scored high on <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/people-with-many-facial-expressions-seem-more-social-and-likeable/">likability</a>. Yet important divergences emerged.



In all the places they studied, people consistently perceived cool individuals as more extraverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open, and autonomous. 



Good people, by contrast, ranked as conforming, traditional, secure, warm, agreeable, universalistic, conscientious, and calm.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cool-people-aren-t-always-good">Cool people aren't always "good"</h2>



In Pezzuti’s view, the cool profile evokes a kind of charismatic boundary-pusher: energetic, novelty seeking, and unapologetically self-directed.



That explains why cool individuals can inspire fashion trends or launch creative movements - roles that sometimes require bending social rules rather than following them.



“To be seen as cool, someone usually needs to be somewhat likable or admirable, which makes them similar to good people," said Warren. "However, cool people often have other traits that aren’t necessarily considered ‘good’ in a moral sense, like being hedonistic and powerful.”



The cool persona therefore straddles acceptance and transgression: admired enough to influence peers, rebellious enough to feel fresh.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cool-traits-go-global">Cool traits go global</h2>



In the mid-20th century, “cool” circulated in small countercultures - from Black jazz clubs to Beatnik cafés. Over the decades, fashion labels, record companies and Hollywood studios harnessed the aura of cool, broadcasting certain looks and attitudes to a worldwide audience.



The new study suggests that process may have standardized the meaning of the term. Even participants who live 10,000 miles apart now recognize the same signature <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/personality-traits-linked-to-willingness-to-volunteer-or-donate/">traits</a>. As the authors note, the meaning of cool has crystallized on a similar set of traits and values around the world.



Pezzuti does not see commercialization as a death knell. “Coolness has definitely evolved over time, but I don’t think it has lost its edge. It’s just become more functional,” he said.



“The concept of coolness started in small, rebellious sub-cultures, including Black jazz musicians in the 1940s and the beatniks in the 1950s. As society moves faster and puts more value on creativity and change, cool people are more essential than ever.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-coolness-matters">Why coolness matters</h2>



Because cool people display power and autonomy while earning admiration, the researchers argue that coolness helps establish informal hierarchies. Instead of relying solely on wealth or institutional authority, communities also elevate figures who embody daring and originality.



These individuals, in turn, shape cultural norms by modeling alternative ways to dress, speak, or live. As Pezzuti puts it, “everyone wants to be cool, or at least avoid the stigma of being uncool, and society needs cool people because they challenge norms, inspire change, and advance culture.”



That dual role - both aspirational and disruptive - makes the cool persona uniquely influential. Marketers know this instinctively when they cast charismatic musicians in sneaker ads. Activists harness it when they infuse protest art with edgy style.



The study provides empirical backing for those intuitions: people from Lagos to Los Angeles consistently associate coolness with adventurous independence.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-coolness-in-the-digital-age">Coolness in the digital age</h2>



The team notes their study excludes rural and offline groups, whose ideas of cool may differ significantly. They also restricted the study to cultures already familiar with the English slang term, potentially narrowing linguistic nuance.



Future projects could test whether the six-trait profile - extraverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open, and autonomous - holds in additional societies or emerges in other languages.



Researchers are likewise curious about how <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/social-media-pressure-is-straining-teen-friendships/">social media</a> platforms, which accelerate the spread of trends, might further synchronize or fragment global standards of cool. Does TikTok broaden identity through niche subcultures or reinforce the six-trait mold by favoring charismatic risk-takers?



For now, the evidence is striking: when people across five continents imagine someone undeniably cool, they picture remarkably similar qualities. 



Coolness, it turns out, may be one of the few cross-cultural constants - an unwritten code that transcends borders even as it keeps pushing boundaries.



The study is published in the <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fxge0001799">Journal of Experimental Psychology: General</a>.



-----



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What makes people cool? Scientists tracked down the traits

Being cool can feel elusive and almost mythic - something we “know when we see it,” yet struggle to define. A sweeping new investigation led by marketing scholars Todd Pezzuti of Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez and Caleb Warren of the University of Arizona argues that the concept is far less mysterious than it seems. Across twelve nations, nearly 6,000 participants independently picked out the same constellation of personality traits when describing a cool person. The findings reveal not only what separates “cool” from “good” but also why cool...

Today, New England is bracing for its third major winter storm in less than two weeks, battering the area with snow, dangerous winds, and power outages. This winter has been especially brutal for the northeast, which has seen bomb cyclones and record snowfall in parts of the region. 

The cause of the extreme winter weather in the northeast region has now been linked to warming in the Arctic, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Communications. 

Researchers from <a href="https://newbrunswick.rutgers.edu/">Rutgers University-New Brunswick </a>and <a href="https://www.aer.com/">Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER)</a> were able to illustrate how Arctic warming contributes to major winter weather in the United States. 

The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/record-high-temperatures-arctic/">Arctic</a> is also undergoing extremes with record high temperatures and reports of melting sea ice. If Arctic warming extends into the stratosphere, it disrupts the polar vortex which in turn, causes severe winter weather in the northeast United States. 

“Warm temperatures in the Arctic cause the jet stream to take these wild swings, and when it swings farther south, that causes cold air to reach farther south,” said Jennifer Francis, the study’s co-author. “These swings tend to hang around for awhile, so the weather we have in the eastern United States, whether it's cold or warm, tends to stay with us longer.”

The researchers analyzed weather patterns and temperatures in the Arctic over the past several years. 

The findings show that severe winter weather is two to four times more likely in the eastern United States, northern Europe, and Asia when the Arctic is displaying unusually warm temperatures. 

Conversely, the researchers also discovered that extreme winter weather in the western United States is caused by colder than normal temperatures in the Arctic. 

The study is yet another that shows the wildly disruptive and varied nature of climate change.

“Five of the past six winters have brought persistent cold to the eastern U.S. and warm, dry conditions to the West, while the Arctic has been off-the-charts warm,” said Francis. “Our study suggests that this is no coincidence. Exactly how much the Arctic contributed to the severity or persistence of the pattern is still hard to pin down, but it's becoming very difficult to believe they are unrelated.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

A warmer Arctic leads to more brutal winters in the northeast

Today, New England is bracing for its third major winter...

Researchers at <a href="http://www.cnrs.fr/index.php">The National Center for Scientific Research</a> (CNRS) have investigated why it is hotter in some cities after the sun goes down compared to others. They found that more organized cities with straight and perpendicular streets trap more heat than those with less structure and organization.

When the air temperature is higher in the city than its surrounding rural areas, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-green-facades-cool-urban-heat-islands/">urban heat islands</a> (UHIs) are created. 

Around 80 percent of the urban population in the United States is affected by heat islands, which have a detrimental effect on health, worsen air pollution, intensify energy consumption, and generally lower the quality of life. The environmental and economic costs of UHIs are barely being offset by any current strategies. 

The research team examined the major factors that drive warmer urban temperatures, such as the thermal mass of buildings. The experts wanted to gain insight into how much of the heat being absorbed during the day is being released or retained at night and why.

The researchers documented the footprints of buildings and the temperatures recorded in urban and rural areas over the course of several years. By studying more than 50 major cities, the research team was able to investigate the link between urban geometry and the effects of UHIs at night.

The study revealed that buildings release heat depending on their level of spatial organization. The experts demonstrated that a high level of urban organization, which is found in most North American cities, corresponds with more pronounced UHI effects and greater heat retention. The opposite is true for less organized cities, which release more heat at night.

The findings of the research could be used to explore new urban planning methods that could help to achieve optimal energy management.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.aps.org/prl/">Physical Review Letters</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Some cities stay hotter at night due to their layout

Researchers at The National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) have...

The Great Recession, which began in 2007 and lasted until 2010, will be remembered as a period of great economic turmoil for the United States. It was the longest-running recession since World War II, with many losing their jobs, homes, savings.

Now, a decade after the Recession first began, researchers are examining its effects beyond the financial sector and how it impacted the health and well-being of the American people.

While economists can show the full extent of how the stock market was affected by the mortgage crisis that peaked during the Great Recession, less is known about the physical and mental toll that the Recession took on Americans.

Researchers from the <a href="http://www.ucla.edu/health-system/">University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) Health Sciences </a>wanted to thoroughly investigate the impacts the Recession had on <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/football-players-cardiovascular-problems/">cardiovascular health</a> and stress. 

The results, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that the Recession adversely affected heart health and increased blood pressure and glucose levels among older homeowners and younger people in the workforce.

According to the researchers, previous studies that measured the impacts the Recession had on health were inconsistent in their results, and did not use well-known health biomarkers to measure health over a period spanning before and after the Recession. 

For their research, the UCLA team collected data from 4,600 participants of the <a href="https://mesa-nhlbi.org/">Multi-Ethnic Study of  Atherosclerosis</a> (MESA) from 2000 to 2012.

The researchers measured blood pressure and glucose levels at different periods before, during, and after the Recession. 

In order to fairly compare any changes in cardiovascular health, the researchers first projected normal changes in blood pressure and glucose levels without the added strain of the Recession in the age range of the participants from 45 to 84. 

After analyzing and comparing the data to the projected non-Recession outcomes, the results showed that both blood pressure and glucose levels rose during the Recession. 

People in the workforce and retired homeowners were particularly susceptible to an increased risk of cardiovascular issues. 

The researchers suspect that the stress of possibly losing jobs or houses would have greatly affected both physical and mental health for the participants. 

This new study shows that economic crises like the Great Recession can have an impact on physical and mental health.

The researchers hope the results will urge policymakers and healthcare providers to better prepare for periods of economic downturn in the future. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The Great Recession impacted public health and wellbeing

The Great Recession, which began in 2007 and lasted until...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rise-obesity-mortality-rates/">Obesity</a> is a major health issue in many developed countries around the world, and is a condition that often begins at an early age. It’s linked to increased risk of heart disease and diabetes, among numerous other medical conditions. Much of the research around obesity involves determining the factors that may predispose an individual to being obese, and the potential ways in which this can be prevented and treated.

But new research published in <a href="http://www.jneurosci.org/">JNeurosci</a> has found that reduced ability to maintain body temperature in cold environments may contribute to the development of obesity in adulthood. Researchers from the <a href="http://www.usc.es/en/index.html">University of Santiago de Compostela</a> and <a href="http://www.umh.es/?lang=EN">Institute of Neuroscience/University Miguel Hernandez of Alicante</a> (Spain) studied mice lacking the cold-sensing ion channel TRPM8. They found that these mice, when placed in a mildly cold environment, ate more food during the daytime – when mice are usually asleep. 

The increased daytime eating began at an early age, and led to obesity and high blood sugar in adulthood, which could have been a result of reduced fat utilization. When compared to control mice, the TRPM8-deficient mice lost more heat in the cold, particularly during periods of fasting, as their body temperature dropped below 86 degrees Fahrenheit. 

This is important, as energy from food is used to maintain constant body temperature through generating and conserving heat. In fact, almost half of the human energy budget that is spent during a sedentary life is used to maintain our body temperature. 

These results show evidence for a never before seen link between thermal sensing systems, thermoregulation, and food intake. The researchers believe this discovery could lead to new ways of preventing and treating obesity.

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Reduced ability to maintain body temperature linked to obesity

Obesity is a major health issue in many developed countries...

After the eruption of the super volcano Mount Toba in Indonesia around 74,000 years ago, plants and trees were struggling to survive under the drastic conditions of rapid climate change. Scientists have found evidence that early modern humans on the coast of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cape-town-day-zero/">South Africa</a> were not only surviving, but thriving, after this catastrophic event.

In 1816, there was a year without summer. Experts believe that a volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia was to blame, as crops failed across North America and Eurasia and mass migrations occurred. The impact of volcanic activity at nearby Mount Toba, however, was around 100 times more intense.

The Toba eruption devastated some ecosystems more than others, and likely created areas called refugia, in which some human populations were more successful than others throughout the event. The blast at Mount Toba violently shot out fire, smoke, and microscopic pieces of glass that spread across the planet’s atmosphere like wildfire.

In the 1990s, scientists began arguing that this eruption of Mount Toba, the most powerful in the last two million years, caused a long-lived volcanic winter that may have caused humans to nearly become extinct.

Panagiotis Karkanas is the director of the <a href="http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/index.php/Wiener-Laboratory/">Malcolm H. Wiener Laboratory for Archaeological Science</a> at the American School of Classical Studies in Greece. He examined a single shard of glass from this explosion that was encased in resin and dated back 74,000 years. The shard had been recovered on the coast of South Africa.

“It was one shard particle out of millions of other mineral particles that I was investigating. But it was there, and it couldn't be anything else,” said Karkanas.

The scientists found a distinct chemical signature that could be used to learn more about the massive eruption.


“Many previous studies have tried to test the hypothesis that Toba devastated human populations,” explained study co-author Curtis Marean. “But they have failed because they have been unable to present definitive evidence linking a human occupation to the exact moment of the event.”


While previous  studies have confirmed that extreme climate change was caused by the explosion at Mount Toba, this study is the first to provide evidence of how people were impacted. Along the food-rich coastline of southern Africa, people not only survived but actually thrived through this historic eruption. 

Photorealistic 3D models were developed based on samples and fossils removed from the dig site of ancient humans on the South African coast. Erich Fisher is an associate research scientist with the <a href="https://iho.asu.edu/">Institute of Human Origins</a> who constructed the digital models.


“These models tell us a lot about how people lived at the site and how their activities changed through time,” said Fisher. “What we found was that during and after the time of the Toba eruption people lived at the site continuously, and there was no evidence that it impacted their daily lives.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/">Nature</a>.

--

By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

South Africans survived super volcano that could’ve ended humans

After the eruption of the super volcano Mount Toba in...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/younger-siblings-develop-empathy/">Empathy</a> is what we use to relate to other people around us and respond to their feelings and emotions in the correct manner. It helps us to build and sustain relationships and share our emotional sides with each other. But now, a new study published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/tp/">Translational Psychiatry</a> suggests that an individual’s ability to empathize is not only due to our upbringing and experience, but is also a result of our genes.

There are two parts to empathy: the ability to recognize another person’s thoughts and feelings (known as “cognitive empathy”) and the ability to respond with an appropriate emotion to someone else’s thoughts and feelings (known as “affective empathy”). Over a decade ago, researchers at the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a> developed the Empathy Quotient (EQ), which is a self-report measure of empathy that measures both parts. 

Past studies have found that on average, women are slightly more empathetic than men, and that autistic people score lower on the EQ. Now, this Cambridge research group has teamed up with the genetics company 23andMe, along with a team of international scientists, to report the results of the largest genetic study of empathy ever. This study used information from over 46,000 23andMe customers, who all completed the EQ online and provided a saliva sample for genetic analysis. 

Ultimately, the study had three major results. The first of these is that how empathetic we are is partly due to genetics. In fact, about 10% of this variation is a result of genetic factors. Secondly, the study confirmed that women are more empathetic than men, on average. Interestingly, this difference is not due to our DNA, as there were no differences in the genes that contribute to empathy in men and women. This result indicates that sex difference in empathy is a result of other biological factors, such as prenatal hormone influences, or non-biological factors such as socialization. Lastly, the study determined that genetic variants linked to lower empathy are also associated with a higher risk for autism.

“This is an important step towards understanding the small but important role that genetics plays in empathy,” says Varun Warrier, a Cambridge PhD student and lead author of the study. “But keep in mind that only a tenth of individual differences in empathy in the population are due to genetics. It will be equally important to understand the non-genetic factors that explain the other 90%.”

Furthermore, while the study has shown that genes play a role in empathy, it didn’t determine the specific genes that are involved. The researchers plan to address this moving forward with additional studies, and use future findings to help us better understand the factors behind autism and other disabilities.

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Your ability to empathize is partially determined by your genes

Empathy is what we use to relate to other people...

Most of us can recall very few of our life experiences that occurred before the age of four or five, and researchers are now explaining why some of our earliest childhood <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/certain-smells-memories/">memories</a> become inaccessible.

“Childhood amnesia,” as Sigmund Freud called it, was previously thought to be an inability to remember anything before age seven. This theory did not hold up, however, as studies began to show that children as young as infants have memories that persist, even if they are short-lived.

In 2005, it was determined that five-year-olds can remember 80 percent of things that happened when they were three, yet only around half of this memory bank is retained by age 7.5.

Scientists have found that, in childhood, our brains can absorb a lot of information in a very short amount of time. The region of the brain that stores memories in the hippocampus, however, is still developing up until our early teens.

Most early childhood memories are lost during the adult brain development process as neurons are being continuously modified. Ultimately, our brain circuitry is lined with fatty tissues and memories become more long-term. 

Patricia Bauer of <a href="http://www.emory.edu/home/index.html">Emory University</a> is a leading expert on memory development. She explained that the long-term memories we set aside during childhood are the least stable recollections that we will store over the course of our lives. 

Studies have shown that childhood memories are not completely wiped out, but events are often recollected inaccurately due to early restructuring within the brain.

“This is a phenomenon of long standing focus,” Bauer reported to <a href="http://nautil.us/">Nautilus</a>. “It demands our attention because it’s a paradox: Very young children show evidence of memory for events in their lives, yet as adults we have relatively few of these memories.”

--

By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Childhood memories are lost as the brain restructures itself

Most of us can recall very few of our life...

Women typically regret having casual sex or one-night stands, and researchers at the<a href="https://www.ntnu.edu/"> Norwegian University of Science and Technology</a> have identified factors that affect how much remorse they experience. 

According to the study, when a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/women-happier-anxious/">woman</a> initiates a fling, she feels much less regret afterward. Men do not have guilt after casual sex as often as women do, and initiative is not a factor that causes men to feel regret.

“Regret is a highly unpleasant emotion and our findings suggest that having control over their decision to engage in sex buffered women from experiencing regret,” said co-author Joy P. Wyckoff. “These results are another reminder of the importance of women's ability to make autonomous decisions regarding their sexual behaviors.”

“Women who initiate sex are likely to have at least two distinguishing qualities,” said study co-author David Buss. “First, they are likely to have a healthy sexual psychology, being maximally comfortable with their own sexuality. Second, women who initiate have maximum choice of precisely who they want to have sex with. Consequently, they have less reason to feel regret, since they've made their own choice.”

The study also revealed that women experience less regret if their partner was skilled and the sex was satisfying. 

“Women have less regret if the sex was good. For men, this also plays a less important role. The underlying causes are biological,” said Mons Bendixen.

Disgust is another factor that drives how much regret women feel after short-term sexual encounters. The researchers found that the impact of disgust was strong among men as well.

“The feeling of disgust or revulsion is the single factor that best explained why women and men regretted the last time they had casual sex when we controlled for all other factors,” said Bendixen.

Disgust is often felt when people have feelings of moral regret, or when the act was not hygienic or the sex itself was perceived as being repulsive. 

“Sexual disgust is an important adaptive emotion,” said Buss. “It functions to help people avoid, now or in the future, potential sex partners who are either low in mate value or who carry some risk of sexually transmitted infections.”

The study is published in <a href="https://www.journals.elsevier.com/personality-and-individual-differences/">Personality and Individual Differences</a>.

--

By<a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com"> Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

&nbsp;

Women have less regret after casual sex when they initiate it

Women typically regret having casual sex or one-night stands, and...

Midterms are right around the corner, and then the grind toward finals, summer classes, internships and more begins. Needless to say, it’s stress season for college students. Time to bust out the secret weapon against stress: therapy dogs.

A new study, led by Emma Ward-Griffin, a research assistant at the <a href="https://www.ubc.ca/">University of British Columbia</a>, looked at how spending some facetime with a therapy dog affected students’ stress levels. 

"Therapy dog sessions are becoming more popular on university campuses, but there has been surprisingly little research on how much attending a single drop-in therapy dog session actually helps students," she said in a press release.

The team of psychology researchers surveyed more than 240 students who took advantage of drop-in sessions with therapy dogs. The students filled out questionnaires before, immediate after, and 10 hours after their sessions.

The study participants reported feeling happier and much less stressed after spending time with the therapy dogs, and reported higher levels of energy and happiness than a control group that didn’t visit with the dogs.

"Our findings suggest that therapy dog sessions have a measurable, positive effect on the wellbeing of university students, particularly on stress reduction and feelings of negativity,” Ward-Griffin said. 

The benefits didn’t appear to favor one gender or other group of students. Instead, the positive effects of pup therapy were pretty evenly spread among the participants, the researchers said.

Some effects of the sessions lasted, such as feeling less stress and more supported, but the happiness and life satisfaction faded after several hours.

"These sessions clearly provide benefits for students in the short-term, so we think universities should try to schedule them during particularly stressful times, such as around exam periods," senior author Dr. Frances Chen said. "Even having therapy dogs around while students are working on their out-of-class assignments could be helpful."

The study has been published in the journal <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1532-2998">Stress and Health</a>. Funding was provided by the <a href="http://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/home-accueil-eng.aspx">Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada</a>.

—

By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://www.earth.com">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Study: therapy dogs help college students relieve stress

Midterms are right around the corner, and then the grind...

The benefits of a university education go beyond academic knowledge, a new study shows it may also improve “non-cognitive” skills like extraversion, conscientiousness and agreeability. 

The impact of a university education is especially noticeable among students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, the researchers said. 

Researchers who measured the character development of university students believe that the new skills come from being exposed to new peer groups, as well as being encouraged to try new extracurricular activities in sports, the arts and politics.

"We see quite clearly that students' personalities change when they go to university,” lead researcher Dr. Sonja Kassenboehmer said in a press release. "Universities provide an intensive new learning and social environment for adolescents, so it is not surprising that this experience could impact on students' personality.”

The team of researchers led by Kassenboehmer, a senior research fellow at <a href="https://www.monash.edu/">Monash University</a>, used five different personality traits to measure students’ character skills and how they developed: open-minded to new experiences, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. These are traits frequently used by psychologists to describe differences in character skills, and they have been linked to altruism, personal health and well-being, and desirability as a job candidate.

The team followed 575 different Australian young people over a period of eight years, using the <a href="http://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/hilda">Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia</a> survey.

Their analysis found that each year in university brought growth in extraversion and other character traits, particularly for young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds. 

“It is good news that universities not only seem to teach subject-specific skills, but also seem to succeed in shaping skills valued by employers and society,” Kassenboehmer said.

The study is the first real look at how a university education can affect the growth and development of important character skills.

The study has been published in the journal <a href="https://academic.oup.com/oep">Oxford Economic Papers</a>. Funding was provided by the <a href="http://www.arc.gov.au/discovery-program">Australian Research Council’s Early Career Discovery Program</a> and <a href="http://www.lifecoursecentre.org.au/">Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course</a>.

—

By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://www.earth.com">Earth.com</a> staff writer

University education has benefits beyond the degree

The benefits of a university education go beyond academic knowledge,...

Researchers have found that owning a dog can make you appear happier, more attractive, and more approachable to others. <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/lonely-dogs-anxious-owners-can-help/">Dog owners</a> are also perceived as being more caring and empathetic, according to experts.

In particular, men are viewed by women as being more compassionate when they have a pet. Women take it as a positive sign of how a man would be as a partner when he has made the long-term commitment of caring for a dog.

Dr. Helen Fisher is a senior researcher at the <a href="https://www.kinseyinstitute.org/">Kinsey Institute</a> and a chief adviser to Match.com. She said that men who own dogs come across as more capable of nurturing others.

Dr. Fisher told the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/">New York Times</a>:

“Having a dog really says something about you. It says you can care for a creature, that you can follow a schedule and get home to feed it, that you can walk it and love it and spend time with it.”

“That's the bottom line message that women get when they see a man with a dog: He's capable of nurturing, of giving without receiving a lot, of caring for another. He's made a commitment to this animal.”

Previous studies have revealed that the presence of a dog helps to promote social interactions. In one study, men were shown to be much more successful in getting the attention of women on the street when they had a dog.


Dr. Fisher also told the Times: “One thing women have needed for years and years is a partner who could share the load, be responsible, care for them if they're sick and show up on time.”

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By <a href="http://csexton@gmail.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Dog owners perceived as more caring and attractive, study finds

Researchers have found that owning a dog can make you...

Researchers at <a href="https://www.chicagobooth.edu/">The University of Chicago Booth School of Business</a> have found that when people watch video tutorials on <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/social-media-heal-painful/">social media</a>, they often become overly confident in their own level of skill.

“The more that people watched others, the more they felt they could perform the same skill, too--even when their abilities hadn't actually changed for the better,” says study co-author Michael Kardas. “Our findings suggest that merely watching others could cause people to attempt skills that they might not be ready or able to perform themselves.”

Social media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook have made it easy to share and access instructional videos. The researchers conducted a series of experiments to investigate whether watching videos can actually improve an individual's ability at a certain skill without any practice.

In one experiment, over 1,000 participants were instructed to either watch a video, read step-by-step instructions, or simply imagine performing the “tablecloth trick.” To pull off this trick, individuals must yank a tablecloth out from under items on a table without disturbing them.

The study participants who watched the video 20 times were much more confident that they could accomplish this trick compared to those who only saw video one time. On the other hand, individuals who simply read or thought about the trick did not have any improved confidence in their ability to perform the trick.

The results of this initial investigation suggested that repetitively viewing the material led participants to have an inflated sense of competence.

In a second experiment with darts, participants who viewed an instructional video 20 times predicted that they would score more points then those who watched the video once. The high-exposure group also estimated that they would hit more bull's-eyes because they believed their technique had improved from watching the video.

The study revealed that participants who had watched the video many more times scored no higher than those who had only viewed it once.


The researchers tested out other skills such as playing video games and juggling. They consistently found that, the more participants watched others perform these skills, the more they overestimated their own abilities.

“We see this as a potentially widespread phenomenon given that people have daily access to outlets for watching others perform,” said Kardas. 

“Anyone who goes online to look up tips before attempting a skill - from cooking techniques to DIY home repairs to X Games tricks - would benefit from knowing that they might be overconfident in their own abilities after watching, and should exercise caution before attempting similar skills themselves.”


The study is published in the journal <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/home/pss">Psychological Science</a>.

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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Video tutorials make people overconfident in their abilities

Researchers at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business...

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



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Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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

Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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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

[sendtonews key="JbW4VsY53O-1632195-12187" type="single"] Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected...

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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