Even before babies can smile, they already show signs of recognizing kindness. A recent study reveals that five-day-old newborn can distinguish between helpful and harmful social behavior. They show a preference for the helpful.



“These babies have almost no experience with the social world, and yet they’re already picking up on friendly versus unfriendly interactions, on helping versus hindering," said Dr. Kiley Hamlin of the <a href="https://www.ubc.ca" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of British Columbia</a>. "That could be telling us something really important about human nature.” 



The study, co-led by Dr. Alessandra Geraci from the <a href="https://www.unict.it/en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Catania</a>, examined how newborns responded to basic social actions like approaching or helping. Their co-authors were Luca Surian and Lucia Gabriella Tina.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-watching-animated-balls-with-meaning">Watching animated balls with meaning</h2>



Researchers showed the newborns looping animations. In one, a ball (Agent A) tried climbing a hill. In one version, a second ball (Agent B) helped push it up and in another, it shoved Agent A down. Infants looked longer at the helping scene.



Another video set showed one ball moving toward another (approach) versus away (avoidance). Again, babies spent more time watching the friendly interaction.



These videos used faceless gray balls. The movements were smooth, repeated, and high contrast. This design suited newborn vision. Control videos had similar motions but lacked <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/gut-bacteria-influence-our-social-behavior-and-sense-of-fairness/">social meaning</a>. Babies didn’t show a preference there.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-babies-chose-kindness">Babies chose kindness</h2>



What makes this finding powerful is the age of the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/singing-to-babies-significantly-improves-their-mood-and-overall-well-being-study-confirms/">infants</a>. Just five days old, they have minimal life experience. The research team ruled out learned behavior by designing scenarios with novel agents and controlled movements. Babies preferred prosocial acts only when the scenes implied social intent.



In&nbsp;Experiment 1, infants watched approach versus avoidance. They preferred approach, but only when both agents appeared socially animated. In the non-social version, where one agent was inert, babies showed no preference.



In&nbsp;Experiment 2, the team tested helping versus hindering on a hill. Babies again looked longer at the helping scene, but only under the social condition.



In&nbsp;Experiment 3, the results replicated. Seventy-eight percent of newborns looked longer at helping interactions. The researchers concluded that newborns show a spontaneous preference for simple forms of prosocial behavior.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-newborns-responded-to-intent">Newborns responded to intent</h2>



Newborns have already shown a preference for faces, eye contact, and crying sounds, but this study goes further. 



The research suggests that newborns can process types of social interaction by recognizing when one agent acts supportively toward another.



The study rules out simple motion as the cause. Babies didn’t respond similarly to random or one-sided movements. They responded to interaction. They noticed when one character acted for or against another.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-noticing-basic-social-cues">Noticing basic social cues</h2>



The researchers caution that this may not mean newborns have a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/online-avatars-sway-our-morals-through-social-influence/">moral sense</a>. Their preferences might reflect social alignment rather than moral judgment. 



For instance, a baby might like characters that move toward others, not because they're “good,” but because they seem socially engaged.



Still, this spontaneous attention to friendly interactions supports the idea that key elements of our moral sense begin early. Not learned, nor taught. It's present from the start.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-babies-spots-kindness-early">Babies spots kindness early</h2>



How do newborns, so inexperienced, process social cues? The answer may lie in the visual brain. Recent neuroscience suggests that parts of the visual system are tuned to social interaction. 



Regions like the extrastriate body area (EBA) and the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) respond to actions like helping or chasing.



These brain systems might allow infants to quickly pick up on social meaning from movement alone. They don’t need language. They don’t even need faces.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-humans-may-be-born-kind">Humans may be born kind</h2>



“These findings go significantly beyond past work in lending support to claims that humans are in possession of unlearned mechanisms for detecting and evaluating key features of the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/are-babies-born-with-morals-scientists-think-they-found-out/">sociomoral</a> world,” the authors write.



While it’s still unclear whether these early social preferences are truly moral, the results provide a strong starting point. Even in the first days of life, babies aren’t passive. They’re watching. And they’re rooting for the good guys.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-61517-3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Communications</a>.



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Babies can recognize kindness just days after birth

Even before babies can smile, they already show signs of recognizing kindness. A recent study reveals that five-day-old newborn can distinguish between helpful and harmful social behavior. They show a preference for the helpful. “These babies have almost no experience with the social world, and yet they’re already picking up on friendly versus unfriendly interactions, on helping versus hindering," said Dr. Kiley Hamlin of the University of British Columbia. "That could be telling us something really important about human nature.” The study, co-led by Dr. Alessandra Geraci...

Researchers at the <a href="https://www.bath.ac.uk/">University of Bath</a> have developed a simple technique for creating <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/plants-can-help-lower-the-cost-of-biofuel-production/">biofuel</a> and fertilizer from seaweed. 

Beyond producing sustainable fuels and chemicals, the new strategy could clean up beaches in the Caribbean and Central America.

Every year, millions of tons of rotting seaweed washes up on beaches throughout Mexico and surrounding regions.

The foul-smelling Sargassum seaweed that clogs up white sand beaches is partially fueled by fertilizer runoff. The annual invasion is devastating to ocean ecosystems and to the tourism and fisheries industries. 

In the current study, the researchers developed an inexpensive way to pre-process seaweed before converting it into bulk chemicals and biofuels.

Study co-author Mike Allen is a professor at the University of Exeter.

"Ultimately, for this to work it has to make financial sense," said Professor Allen. "Processing marine biomass like seaweed usually requires removing it from the salt water, washing it in fresh water and drying it."

"The costs of these processes can be prohibitively high. We needed to find a process that would pay for and sustain itself - something both economically and environmentally viable."

"This work provides a crucial missing step towards a true salt-based Marine Biorefinery by establishing the initial fractionation step."

The new process releases sugars that can be used to produce a palm oil substitute and prepares the leftover seaweed for hydrothermal liquefaction. This is a type of depolymerization process that converts wet biomass into bio-oil, which can be further processed to make fuel and fertilizer. 

Study first author Ed Jones is a PhD student at the Center for Sustainable Circular Technologies at the University of Bath.

"In contrast with existing pre-treatment strategies, we show that an entirely salt-based biochemical conversion route can work," said Jones.

"For the first time this study demonstrates that, rather than a hindrance, the presence of saltwater can be helpful."

Professor Christopher Chuck,  Director of the Center for Integrated Bioprocessing Research at the University of Bath, said the variety of products created by this process is a major strength. 

"The oil industry creates a variety of products including liquid fuel, plastics and fertilisers - and we can benefit from a similar flexibility," said Professor Chuck. 

"We can simply alter the process conditions to produce larger or smaller amounts of specific by-products, allowing us to meet variable demand."

Another major advantage of the strategy is the elimination of invasive seaweed. 

"Many countries in the Caribbean and Central America rely heavily on tourism, so the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing Sargassum problem have put them on their knees," said Professor Allen. "Last month more than 4 million tonnes of problematic seaweed washed up on their shores."

The study is published in the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10974660">Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff

Groundbreaking technique turns rotting seaweed into biofuels 

Researchers at the University of Bath have developed a simple...

Identifying the distinguishing traits among male and female <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/dinosaurs-dna-blueprint-success/">dinosaurs</a> has been a persistent challenge for scientists. Despite previous assertions, a new study led by <a href="https://www.qmul.ac.uk/">Queen Mary University of London</a> suggests that it is too difficult to positively recognize the sex of a dinosaur based on a skeleton alone.

The researchers analyzed the skulls of modern-day gharials, large crocodiles with narrow snouts that widen at the nostrils, to gauge whether their sex can be determined using only fossil records.

Male gharials are larger than females and have a fleshy growth on the end of their snout, known as a ghara. Although the ghara is comprised of soft tissue, it is supported by a bony hollow near the nostrils that is visible in the skull.

The study was focused on 106 gharial specimens stored in museums all over the world. The experts found that aside from the presence of the bony hollow, the narial fossa, the males and females were strikingly similar.

"Like dinosaurs, gharials are large, slow growing reptiles that lay eggs, which makes them a good model for studying extinct dinosaur species," explained study co-author Dr. David Hone. 

"Our research shows that even with prior knowledge of the sex of the specimen, it can still be difficult to tell male and female gharials apart. With most dinosaurs we don't have anywhere near that size of the dataset used for this study, and we don't know the sex of the animals, so we'd expect this task to be much harder."

Across many species, males and females have extremely different appearances, which is known as sexual dimorphism. For example, with the exception of reindeer, antlers are only found in male deer. 

Sexual dimorphism is very common throughout the animal kingdom and is likely present in dinosaurs, but the gender differences may be too difficult to spot on skeletal remains. 

"Some animals show extraordinarily high levels of sexual dimorphism, for example huge size differences between males and females," said Dr. Hone.

"Gharials sit somewhere in the middle as they do possess these large narial fossa that can help with identification. Our study suggests that unless the differences between the dinosaurs are really striking, or there is a clear feature like the fossa, we will struggle to tell a male and female dinosaur apart using our existing dinosaur skeletons."

The findings challenge previous studies that have proposed specific gender differences in popular dinosaur species, such as the Tyrannosaurus rex.

"Many years ago, a scientific paper suggested that female T. rex are bigger than males. However, this was based on records from 25 broken specimens and our results show this level of data just isn't good enough to be able to make this conclusion," said Dr. Hone.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://peerj.com/">PeerJ</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

&nbsp;

Dinosaur gender remains a mystery

Identifying the distinguishing traits among male and female dinosaurs has...

A new study published by <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/">Frontiers</a> has revealed that the first signs of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/studies-urgently-needed-on-the-impacts-of-covid-19-in-animals/">COVID-19</a> in children are not always respiratory symptoms. The researchers are reporting that gastrointestinal symptoms are often early indications of COVID-19 infection among younger people.

The gastrointestinal symptoms observed in some children suggest that they are infected through the digestive tract. The same type of cell receptors that SARS-CoV-2 targets in the lungs can also be found in the intestines.

Study lead author Dr. Wenbin Li is an expert in the Department of Pediatrics at Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, China.

"Most children are only mildly affected by COVID-19 and the few severe cases often have underlying health issues," said Dr. Li. "It is easy to miss its diagnosis in the early stage, when a child has non-respiratory symptoms or suffers from another illness." 

"Based on our experience of dealing with COVID-19, in regions where this virus is epidemic, children suffering from digestive tract symptoms, especially with fever and/or a history of exposure to this disease, should be suspected of being infected with this virus."

Dr. Li and his team are describing the clinical features of children that were admitted to the hospital with non-respiratory symptoms, but were subsequently diagnosed with pneumonia and COVID-19.

"These children were seeking medical advice in the emergency department for unrelated problems. For example, one had a kidney stone, another a head trauma. All had pneumonia confirmed by chest CT scan before or soon after admission and then confirmed to have COVID-19," said Dr. Li.

"While their initial symptoms may have been unrelated, or their COVID-19 symptoms were initially mild or relatively hidden before their admission to hospital, importantly, 4 of the 5 cases had digestive tract symptoms as the first manifestation of this disease."

Dr. Li hopes that doctors will use this information to quickly diagnose and isolate patients with similar symptoms, which will facilitate early treatment and reduce transmission.

Gastrointestinal symptoms have also been documented in adult COVID-19 patients. The researchers propose that this signifies another potential route of infection.

"The gastrointestinal symptoms experienced by these children may be related to the distribution of receptors and the transmission pathway associated with COVID-19 infection in humans," said Dr. Li.

"The virus infects people via the ACE2 receptor, which can be found in certain cells in the lungs as well as the intestines. This suggests that COVID-19 might infect patients not only through the respiratory tract in the form of air droplets, but also through the digestive tract by contact or fecal-oral transmission."

Dr. Li cautions that more research is needed to confirm the findings.

"We report five cases of COVID-19 in children showing non-respiratory symptoms as the first manifestation after admission to hospital. The incidence and clinical features of similar cases needs further study in more patients."

The research is published in the journal <a href="http://journal.frontiersin.org/journal/pediatrics#archive">Frontiers in Pediatrics</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

&nbsp;

Children with COVID-19 may have gastrointestinal symptoms

A new study published by Frontiers has revealed that the...

Since prehistoric times, medicinal plants have been important resources for fighting disease and infection. One of the greatest challenges of natural drug development is finding new <a href="http://www.earth.com/earthpedia-articles/15-healing-herbs-you-can-grow-at-home/">herbs</a> with protective health effects.

In a study led by the <a href="https://www.idiv.de/en/index.html">German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research</a>, scientists have developed an entirely new approach that will simplify the search for bioactive natural compounds.

Using data analyses on the phylogenetic relationships, spatial distribution, and secondary metabolites of plants, the experts can now predict which groups of plants are likely to have a large number of species with medicinal compounds. This method will also help to narrow the search by pinpointing where these plant groups are located. 

Humans are particularly dependent on drugs from natural sources because pathogens are constantly evolving and producing new strains. 

More than 70 percent of antibiotics used today were originally sourced from natural compounds found in plants, fungi, bacteria, and marine organisms, and there are still an enormous number of infection-fighting substances yet to be discovered in nature. 

For example, only about ten percent of all vascular plants have been screened for medicinal compounds. 

Furthermore, the plants that have been identified as sources of active compounds have not been documented consistently. Both the plants and their metabolites are given names that vary from region to region.

In the current study, the experts have taken an important first step in collecting and standardizing the existing knowledge of medicinal plants. 

The researchers collected information on the known secondary metabolites, phylogenetic relationships, and the distribution of plants on the Indonesian island of Java. They recorded around 7,500 seed plant species, which contained more than 16,500 metabolites listed in substance databases. 

Based on the recorded data, almost 2,900 of these metabolites were identified as infection-fighting substances.

The 2,900 active compounds were found to be produced by 1,600 of the 7,500 plant species examined for the study. This means that not all plant species produce active compounds in the same way. 

"Rather, there tends to be a concentration of species that produce active compounds in individual plant families, with those species being usually closely related," said study co-author Professor Alexandra Muellner-Riehl. 

To pinpoint which groups of plants were rich in active compounds, the scientists combined the genetic data and the metabolite information. They were able to identify the types of plants that are known to produce the most or the least anti-infective substances.

"This information allows us to identify specific plant groups that very likely possess anti-infective substances but have not yet been examined for them," said study co-author Dr. Jan Schnitzler.

In Java, the most promising region for bioactive compounds was in the mountains, where there is the highest diversity of plant species. 

According to the study authors, their new approach for finding medicinal compounds could easily be transferred to other geographical areas.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.pnas.org/">PNAS</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

&nbsp;

Narrowing the search for new medicinal plants

Since prehistoric times, medicinal plants have been important resources for...

Plant scientists at <a href="https://www.nyu.edu/">NYU</a> have discovered how plants perceive nitrogen availability and adjust their growth accordingly. The breakthrough may ultimately lead to ways to enhance <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/plants-use-a-molecular-alarm-system-to-respond-to-insect-pests/">plant</a> growth while reducing the need for harmful and costly fertilizers.

Crop yield can be increased with fertilizer, but the molecular link between a higher dose of nitrogen and greater plant biomass has been a mystery. 

A team of experts at the NYU Center for Genomics &amp; Systems Biology examined plants to investigate how increasing doses of nitrogen may trigger changes in genetic expression over time. Next, the researchers used mathematical models to analyze the rate of change in messenger RNA (mRNA) for thousands of genes.

The study revealed that the dynamics of mRNA responses to nitrogen dose were regulated by enzyme kinetics, or enzyme reaction rates, principles that were first described by Michaelis-Menten in 1913.

The researchers discovered that the Michaelis-Menten kinetics model could accurately represent the rate of changes in gene expression among 30 percent of nitrogen-dose responsive genes.

"According to the classic Michaelis-Menten kinetic model, changing enzyme abundance will impact the maximum rate of reaction possible. Because transcription factors establish the rates at which gene transcription from DNA into RNA takes place, they can be directly compared to the catalytic enzymes in the Michaelis-Menten model," explained study senior author Professor Gloria Coruzzi.

"This means that increasing the abundance of key transcription factors should be able to boost the rate of nitrogen-dose dependent gene expression and, as a consequence, the rate of plant growth."

Experiments showed that increasing the level of the transcription factor TGA1 accelerated the rates of nitrogen-dose responsive gene expression and the rate of plant growth. In response to nitrogen, the plants that overexpressed TGA1 achieved a plant biomass three times greater than wild plants.

"By modeling the transcriptome kinetics underlying nitrogen-dose sensing using a classic principle of Michaelis-Menten kinetics, we discovered a regulatory gene whose increased expression may boost crop growth within low-nitrogen soils," said Professor Coruzzi. 

"Because TGA1 is conserved in plants, including crops such as rice, tomatoes, and wheat, our findings have implications for improving nitrogen use efficiency in crops, which can benefit agriculture and sustainability."

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.pnas.org/">PNAS</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

&nbsp;

Scientists identify molecular link between nitrogen and plant growth

Plant scientists at NYU have discovered how plants perceive nitrogen...

Rows of plants known as flowering strips are designed to be pollinator-friendly, but a new study suggests they have some drawbacks. 

Researchers at <a href="https://www.ncsu.edu/">NC State University</a> have found that while flowering strips can help boost bumble bee reproduction, they also facilitate higher rates of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/deadly-honey-bee-disease-is-accelerating-across-the-uk/">disease</a>. 

The team demonstrated that flowering strip plants supported bee colony reproduction by adding floral resources for common eastern bumble bees. 

On the other hand, bumble bees exposed to certain plants showed higher rates of infection by a bee pathogen, Crithidia bombi, which is associated with reduced foraging abilities and can be fatal.

The study revealed that certain "high-infection" plants doubled C. bombi infection when compared with "low-infection" plant species. A control group of bees that only had access to canola was found to have infection rates that fell somewhere in between.

Regardless of their level of infection, bee colonies that foraged on flowering strips were more reproductively successful than bees in the control group.

"We wanted to know the effects of flowering strip plant species on the health and reproduction of bumble bees," said study co-author Professor Rebecca E. Irwin. "Flowering strips are becoming more common as people look for ways to mitigate pollinator declines."

The low-infection plants used for the study included sunflower and thyme, and the high-infection plants included swamp milkweed and purple loosestrife.

"In a prior study, we evaluated 15 plant species by putting the same amount of C. bombi on each, letting a bee forage, and then seeing whether and how bad of an infection it developed," said study co-author Professor Lynn S. Adler of UMass Amherst. "We used that to designate plant species as 'high/low infection' for this study."

"The bees were all infected with the same amount of pathogen and then allowed to forage, so the plants could increase or decrease infection."

Professor Adler explained that the tradeoff of higher pathogen infection in exchange for better reproductive rates may be acceptable.

"It depends on how critical food versus the pathogen is for pollinators. Crithidia is somewhat benign, but if these patterns hold for other pathogens like Nosema, a common honey bee disease, it may be more of a concern. Right now I would not recommend stopping our investment in flowering strips."

The study is published in <a href="https://www.pnas.org/">PNAS</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

&nbsp;

Conservation strategy found to increase disease in bumble bees

Rows of plants known as flowering strips are designed to...

In a new study from the <a href="https://www.exeter.ac.uk/">University of Exeter</a>, researchers have identified a <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/human-monkey-hybrid-china/">hybrid</a> lobster species with both American and European genes. 

According to study co-author Dr. Charlie Ellis, the discovery has potentially concerning implications for the lobster industry and conservation efforts, and further research is needed to assess the extent of the threat.

Lobsters imported from North America have been washing up on European shores in recent years. Experts have feared that the American lobsters may establish themselves as a native species or spread disease. 

There have also been concerns about the negative effects of hybridization, but lab studies suggested that the European and American lobsters were not likely to mate.

Now, the offspring of a female American lobster found in a fjord in Sweden have been genetically identified as being "clearly distinct” from both European and American lobsters.

“We had just developed a genetic test for seafood traceability that could separate any American lobsters mislabeled as more expensive European equivalents once they’ve been cooked and shell coloration is no longer a useful indicator of the species,” said Dr. Ellis.

“What we found when we tested these offspring is that they came out exactly in the middle of this separation – half American and half European – so these lobsters were hybrids.”

“Until recently, it was thought that American and European lobsters would avoid crossbreeding, but this introduced American female has mated with a native European male, probably because she was unable to find an American male."

“We now need to check whether any mature adult hybrids are fertile, because if they are then they have the ability to spread these unwanted American genes far and wide across our native lobster stocks.”

According to the researchers, the study highlights the vital use of genetics to distinguish hybrid lobsters which might look almost identical to a pure strain.

“It is particularly concerning that we seem to have found American lobster genes in one of our lobster reserves,” said study co-author Linda Svanberg.

“The better news is we now have this genetic tool to test lobsters or their eggs for hybridisation, so we can use it to track the spread of these ‘alien’ genes to assess how big a threat this presents to our native lobster species," said study lead author Dr. Jamie Stevens.

For a range of conservation reasons, including potential contact with American lobsters, the researchers advise that the general public should never release a marketed lobster back into the wild.

"Although we appreciate that all animal-lovers have concern for the fate of individual animals, in this case the rescue of one animal might endanger the health of the entire wild population, so once a lobster has entered the seafood supply chain that’s where it should stay," said Dr. Tom Jenkins. 

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/srep/">Scientific Reports</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

&nbsp;

Hybrid lobster species discovered with new genetic test

In a new study from the University of Exeter, researchers...

A new study from <a href="https://www.nyu.edu/">NYU</a> has found that the earliest modern <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/two-migrations-north-america/">artifacts</a> recovered in Europe were created by Homo sapiens who immigrated from Africa. The innovative tools and animal tooth pendants were initially believed to be the work of Neanderthals.

The experts analyzed bones and other artifacts unearthed in the Bacho Kiro cave in Bulgaria.

The research is shedding new light on the arrival of Homo sapiens in Europe and their interactions with the indigenous and declining Neanderthal population.

"Our findings link the expansion of what were then advanced technologies, such as blade tools and pendants made from teeth and bone, with the spread of Homo sapiens more than 45,000 years ago," explained study co-author Professor Shara Bailey. 

"This confirms that Homo sapiens were mostly responsible for these 'modern' creations and that similarities between these and other sites in which Neanderthals made similar things are due to interaction between the populations."

According to Professor Bailey, if Neanderthals had created these tools and jewelry, it would have indicated they had more advanced cognitive abilities than previously realized. 

"Nonetheless, there are some similarities in manufacturing techniques used by Homo sapiens at Bacho Kiro and Neanderthals elsewhere, which makes clear that there was cultural transmission going on between the two groups."

An international team of researchers, led by experts at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, focused on the transition from the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic period between 50,000 and 30,000 years ago. 

At this time across Europe, local Neanderthals were being gradually replaced by Homo sapiens populations from Africa. The population shifts likely varied across regions, and many details of the transition are still a mystery.

To investigate part of this transition, the team focused on Bacho Kiro, where Europe's earliest modern technologies had been discovered. The researchers used several techniques to determine which human species occupied the region where the fossils were found. 

Professor Bailey is an expert in tooth analysis, and her team examined teeth and bones from Bacho Kiro. Using collagen peptide mass fingerprinting, the experts identified human bone fragments that were at least 45,000 years old, which coincides with the arrival of Homo sapiens in Europe. 

Further DNA analysis showed that the bone fragments belonged to Homo sapiens. There was no evidence of Neanderthals present among the Bacho Kiro fossils.

"ZooMS allows us to identify previously unidentifiable bone fragments as some form of human," said Professor Bailey. "From there, we can apply more sophisticated techniques to identify the species and more accurately date human bones."

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/">Nature</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

&nbsp;

Earliest modern artifacts in Europe created by Homo sapiens

A new study from NYU has found that the earliest...

The loss of water in northern peatlands will intensify global warming and wildfires, according to new research.

An international team of 59 scientists led by <a href="https://www.mcmaster.ca/">McMaster University</a> investigated how various ecosystems lose water to the atmosphere. 

The researchers found that in response to a warming climate, forests and peatlands regulate water loss in dramatically different ways.

Experts in McMaster's School of Geography and Earth Sciences, Manuel Helbig and Mike Waddington, analyzed observational data from countries across the boreal biome. 

Most current global climate models assume the biome is all forest, an omission that could seriously compromise their projections, explained Helbig.

"We need to account for the specific behavior of peatlands if we want to understand the boreal climate, precipitation, water availability and the whole carbon cycle. Peatlands are so important for storing carbon, and they are so vulnerable."

Helbig said that until now, it had not been possible to capture such a comprehensive view of these water-cycle dynamics. With the support of the Global Water Futures Initiative and research partners across the globe, new insights are emerging.

As the climate warms, the drier air can absorb more water, yet forest ecosystems respond to the dry air by retaining more water.  

Trees, shrubs, and grasses are vascular plants that absorb carbon dioxide and release water and oxygen through pores in their leaves. These pores close in warmer and drier weather to conserve water.

Beyond the forest, the rest of the boreal landscape is comprised of peatlands and lakes.

Peatlands are made up of organic matter from decaying plant material, and store massive amounts of water and carbon. As long as they remain saturated, peatlands serve as natural firebreaks between sections of forest. 

Peatland mosses are not vascular plants, which means they do not conserve water in a warming climate and are more prone to drying out. When peat becomes dehydrated, it is transformed from a firebreak into fuel.

Helbig explained that drier peatlands mean bigger, more intense fires that can release vast amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, accelerating global warming.

"It's crucial to consider the accelerated water loss of peatlands in a warming climate as we project what will happen to the boreal landscape in the next 100 to 200 years," said Helbig.

The study is published in the journal <a href="http://www.nature.com/nclimate/">Nature Climate Change</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

&nbsp;

Peatlands become fuel for wildfires in a warming climate

The loss of water in northern peatlands will intensify global...

Higher educational status linked to healthier diet. Researchers at the <a href="https://www.leeds.ac.uk/">University of Leeds</a> have found that higher education has a positive influence on <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/dietary-supplements-can-help-you-fight-off-covid-19/">diet</a>. The correlation between educational status and healthier food choices was found to be particularly pronounced in low income countries.

The study was focused on nutritional data from 27,334 individuals in 12 European countries. In collaboration with the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (WHO Europe), the researchers analyzed the interactions between socioeconomic status, education,  and diet.

The research is the first of its kind to show that higher educational status seems to help mitigate the extent of poorer diets in low income European countries. 

Nutritional food consumption was found to increase alongside the level of education, and this was especially the case for iron and total folate intake.

According to the researchers, the findings highlight the need for strong policies supporting good nutrition, prioritizing lower education groups.

Poor diet and malnutrition are linked to major health problems across Europe, including diseases like obesity, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. In 2018, 59 percent of adults in the WHO European Region were overweight or obese.

The current research provides the largest representative diet survey dataset across WHO Europe, providing an important reference for policy makers.

Study lead author Dr. Holly Rippin began the research while she was a postgraduate researcher in the School of Food Science and Nutrition at Leeds, and she is now a WHO consultant. 

"Our study shows that national income and diet quality appear to be linked, and education could protect against some of the long-term negative effects of poor nutrition on population health," said Dr. Rippin.

"Strategies supporting education in lower education groups and lower income countries could be effective in improving nutrition, particularly in disadvantaged groups."

Study co-author Janet Cade is a professor of Nutritional Epidemiology and Public Health.

"This was a great collaborative effort between 12 European countries - we hope that policymakers across Europe will use this information to inform their nutrition policies in the future and prioritize these vulnerable groups," said Professor Cade.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/">PLOS ONE</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

&nbsp;

Higher educational status linked to healthier diet

Higher educational status linked to healthier diet. Researchers at the...

A new study has revealed that the prolific comb jelly, an invasive marine species from North America, uses cannibalism to survive long winters. The <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/jellyfish-kill-toxin-genes/">jellies</a> feed on blooms of their own offspring to persist in the nutrient-deprived waters. 

As non-native species are increasingly disrupting ecosystems in a changing climate, it is important to understand the strategies and traits that allow them to survive. 

Comb jellies have been very successful in expanding their ranges from the east coast of North and South America to the coast of Eurasia. 

It has been challenging for scientists to understand how the invasive jellies manage to colonize local habitats, where they cause a lot of economic and environmental damage.  

Instead of storing resources for the winter, the jellies invest seemingly unnecessary energy in massive "blooms" of offspring that do not survive long winters in nutrient-deprived waters.

Scientists assumed that comb jellies were able to persist thanks to a lack of predators, but the new study links their success to cannibalism.

The research was focused on comb jellies at their northernmost range in the Baltic Sea off of northern Germany.

"We combined a study of the population dynamics of this species with experimental feeding and geochemical tracers to show, for the first time, that adult jellies were actually consuming the blooms of their own offspring," explained study lead author Professor Jamileh Javidpour.

The discovery sheds new light on why the jellies invest so much energy in the blooms of offspring before wintering. The blooms serve as floating nutrient reservoirs that persist beyond the collapse of normal prey populations. 

The consumption of offspring was found to provide adults with an additional two to three weeks of growth, which is essentially the difference between life and death. 

"In some ways, the whole jelly population is acting as a single organism, with the younger groups supporting the adults through times of nutrient stress," said study co-author Thomas Larsen.

"Overall, it enables jellies to persist through extreme events and low food periods, colonizing further than climate systems and other conditions would usually allow."

&nbsp;

The findings may ultimately help to combat the spread of comb jellies,  which can negatively impact native species as well as local fisheries. In their non-native ranges, the comb jellies have been particularly successful in places with rapidly warming seawater, overfishing, and excessive nutrient loads.

The study also indicates that cannibalism may be much more widespread in the animal kingdom than what was previously realized. 

While cannibalism is known to occur in times of extreme shortage or disaster across many species, the new research shows that it can occur under regular conditions.

"Because comb jellies trace their ancestry back to the beginning of most animal life as we know it during the Cambrian Period, 525 Million Years Ago, it remains possible that it is a basic, unifying feature across the animal kingdom," said Professor Javidpour.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/commsbio">Communications Biology</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

&nbsp;

Comb jellies use cannibalism to survive long winters

A new study has revealed that the prolific comb jelly,...

The effect that water vapor has on the weather is complex and not entirely understood. In a new study from the <a href="https://www.arizona.edu/">University of Arizona</a>, researchers have found that atmospheric water vapor plays a central role in the interactions between soil moisture and afternoon <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/heavy-rainfall-intensifies-soil-respiration-and-global-warming/">rainfall</a>. 

"The prevailing wisdom on the relationship between soil moisture and rainfall is that if you have wetter soil in the morning, you'll have a greater occurrence of rainfall in afternoon, but it's more complicated than that," said study lead author Josh Welty. "On a global scale, we see evidence that you can have greater chances of afternoon rainfall over both wet and dry soil conditions, depending on atmospheric moisture."

In a collaboration with experts at the Desert Research Institute in Nevada and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the researchers analyzed satellite-based observations of soil moisture and afternoon rainfall in the northern hemisphere. 

The NASA satellite data examined for the study was obtained over the last five years for the Global Precipitation Measurement mission.

The study revealed that on days when the wind blows in little atmospheric moisture, afternoon rainfall is more likely to occur over wetter soils or higher relative humidity. 

By contrast, on days when wind carries in an abundance of atmospheric moisture, afternoon rainfall is more likely over drier soils or lower relative humidity. 

The researchers also determined that for both conditions, rainfall is more likely to occur in the afternoon on days with warmer air or soil temperatures in the morning.

The research builds on a previous study that identified the link between soil moisture and afternoon rainfall in the Southern Great Plains of Oklahoma. 

The new findings show that the relationship between soil moisture, afternoon rainfall, and atmospheric moisture in Oklahoma does not apply to the entire northern hemisphere.

"Over the Southern Great Plains, we found that when the wind brings less moisture, dry soils are associated with increases in rainfall amount; and when the wind brings greater moisture, wet soils are associated with increases in rainfall amount. In the current study, we find that, actually, in many regions, the opposite is true for the likelihood of afternoon rainfall," said Welty.

Study co-author Xubin Zeng said that understanding the role of water vapor in weather is important because its effects are felt everywhere.

"For example, for the Southern Great Plains there are many tornado activities because there is water vapor moving in from the Gulf of Mexico. Also, on the California coast you talk about severe flooding from atmospheric rivers, which are corridors of concentrated water vapor that can quickly precipitate once hitting a mountain range, causing mass flooding," said Zeng.

"Water vapor brought in by the winds is an important source to understand. In the past, people didn't pay enough attention to it in studying how land conditions affect rainfall, potentially making their results misleading. Once we consider the wind's movement of water vapor, the results become more robust."

Recognizing the interactions between water vapor, soil moisture, and afternoon rainfall has become even more important now as global warming will shift their patterns. Such changes will not only have effects on weather and natural disasters, but also on agriculture, explained Zeng.

"The results really show the complexity of the land's influence on weather and climate," said study co-author and NASA scientist Joe Santanello. "When you add in the human factor of irrigation or land use that changes the dryness or wetness of the soils, which we currently don't represent well in the models, we potentially have additional downstream effects on weather and climate that we haven't foreseen."

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/19448007">Geophysical Research Letters</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

&nbsp;

Water vapor and soil moisture can predict afternoon rainfall

The effect that water vapor has on the weather is...

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

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Kainji Lake, a reservoir on the Niger River.



In 1968, Kainji Lake was created by the construction of the Kainji Dam. The Niger River, the third longest in Africa, enters the lake in the north.&nbsp;



According to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rivers-in-the-american-west-are-a-lifesaving-resource-for-birds/">ESA</a>, the creation of the lake submerged Foge Island and the town of Bussa and permanently flooded other riverine settlements, leaving around 50,000 people displaced.&nbsp;



Large parts of Foge Island are temporarily exposed during low water tides, and the land is often used by migrating fishermen. Kainji Dam is a dam across the Niger River in Niger State of Central Nigeria. 



Wild mammals occur at relatively low densities due to illegal hunting. Lake Kainji has suffered a dramatic decline as a fishery due to the high numbers of artisanal and subsistence fisherfolk using the lake. It has been suggested that a period of closure, together with controlled fishing rights may help improve fish stocks.



Kainji Lake National Park is the oldest of its kind in Nigeria. The park contains three distinct areas: a part of the Kainji Lake, the Borgu Game Reserve to the west of the lake, and the Zugurma Game Reserve to the southeast. The park is home to around 65 mammal species, 350 bird species, and 30 species of reptiles and amphibians. 



Video/ Image Credit: European Space Agency&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.

Kainji Lake in north central Nigeria

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.igb.illinois.edu/">Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology</a> reveals how scientists can modify common crops like soybean, rice, and wheat to protect them from heat stress.



“We need to double crop production by 2050 to feed a growing global population, and not only are we not on track to do that, but climate change is further complicating things,” said Amanda Cavanagh, a lecturer at the University of Essex. 



The study is part of Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE), an international research project that aims to develop food crops that turn the sun’s energy into food more efficiently.



“Using an engineering approach we designed multiple alternative metabolic pathways to photorespiration. Testing them in the field showed increases in productivity which led Amanda to significantly move the project forward by showing our engineered plants can withstand pretty extreme temperature stress,” said study co-author and RIPE researcher Paul South.&nbsp;



“As the climate changes and temperature stresses increase the pressure on our global food supply, farmers will need every tool available including engineering approaches like the synthetic biology used here to maintain safe and productive harvests.”



The experts tested plants modified to have more efficient photorespiration to see if they were better adapted to warmer temperatures.&nbsp;



The team found that the engineered plants produced 26 percent more biomass than the wild-type plants exposed to the same temperatures, and had 15 percent less yield loss under the higher temperatures.



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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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.

Designing crops that can beat the heat

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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

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes the first comprehensive estimate of carbon density in the Saharan, Sahel, and Sudanian zones of Africa. In an effort to measure the amount of carbon stored across these drylands, a team of scientists used high-resolution satellite images and artificial intelligence to map nearly 10 billion individual trees. 



"The high spatial resolution (50 cm) combined with AI and field measurements used in this study is key to improving tree inventories in drylands," said Pierre Hiernaux, a French researcher working for NASA. "The ever-increasing availability of very high-resolution satellite imagery will make it possible to assess carbon pools and their dynamics at the individual tree level on a global scale."



"This study is exceptional because it is pioneering a type of approach that will revolutionize the monitoring of trees and forests on a global scale: in the short term, it will be possible to map the world's trees from the centre of the Amazon to our schoolyards," said <a href="https://www.inrae.fr/en">INRAE</a> researcher Jean-Pierre Wigneron.



"Many fields of application will become much more efficient and accurate, such as tracking carbon stocks, biodiversity, monitoring logging and protection against illegal forest degradation, in near real time.”



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



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Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

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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



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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



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The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

[sendtonews key="oL4FnPTGCV-2384527-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> features a visual dataset of.methane emissions from wetlands across the globe. Atmospheric methane levels have reached record highs in recent years, and wetlands are a major source of these emissions.&nbsp;



"Methane is an important greenhouse gas that contributes substantially to global warming. On a molecule by molecule basis, methane is much more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the main driver of warming," says NASA.



"Though human activities, including agriculture, oil and natural gas production and use, and waste disposal, collectively contribute the majority of methane to the atmosphere, about a third of total methane emissions comes from wetlands."&nbsp;



According to NASA, understanding methane emissions from wetlands and other natural sources is critically important for scientists and policymakers who are working to combat climate change by reducing emissions from human activities.



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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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.

Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

[sendtonews key="0879czfG3k-1785905-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from NASA...

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.stowers.org/">Stowers Institute for Medical Research</a> describes why experts are studying zebrafish to gain a better understanding of how the immune system responds to injury. Zebrafish have the ability to repair and regenerate organs.



“Organ regeneration offers an exciting opportunity for studying the immune system and to inquire why some species can regenerate organs like the heart or missing limbs while others like humans cannot,” explained Dr. Tatjana Piotrowski.



Zebrafish sensory organ hair cells are an ideal system to investigate the pathways and cell types involved in regeneration since they are easily destroyed with antibiotics and begin regenerating within five hours. This enabled the researchers to identify the exact timing and genetic programs for each anti-inflammatory macrophage activation state.&nbsp;



“Our hypothesis is that human macrophages do not receive the proper chemical activation 'cocktail' to instruct pro-regenerative processes,” said Dr. Nicolas Denans. “Identifying the molecular recipe of macrophage activation in zebrafish may one day enable us to design regenerative immunotherapies in humans.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“The new evidence is a valuable resource for comparative studies on the genetic programs involved in macrophage-mediated repair and regeneration. In other words, different types of injuries may induce different kinds of inflammatory responses. We want to decipher whether this 'language' is universal or if there are a variety of dialects."



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research&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.

How the immune system responds to injury

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes how record-breaking heat expressed itself around the world in 2022.



Scientists have determined that 2022 was the 5th warmest year since 1880. Furthermore, the last nine consecutive years have been the warmest on record.



From devastating floods and wildfires to natural disasters like Hurricane Ian, 2022 showed us yet again how a warming climate affects people across the globe.&nbsp;



"As we look back at 20:22 and years past, we see that each year we better understand the challenges we face and how important it is to meet them," says NASA.



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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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.

2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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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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