Female,Having,Heart,,Asthma,Or,Panic,Attack.,Difficulties,With,Breathe,

When we think of a heart attack, the image that often comes to mind is straight out of a movie: someone suddenly clutches their chest in pain and collapses as shocked bystanders look on. It's a scene etched into our collective memory by decades of TV and film.



However, the real experience of a heart attack rarely fits that narrative. In fact, believing in that dramatic version can delay life-saving treatment.



Hollywood’s version has shaped public perception in ways that may be doing more harm than good. The truth is far more complex and subtle. 



For Ann Eckhardt, a nursing professor and researcher at <a href="https://www.uta.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The University of Texas at Arlington</a>, this public misunderstanding is not just a matter of health education. It is a deeply personal mission rooted in years of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/heart-disease-kills-differently-now-than-five-decades-ago/">research</a> and a family experience that first sparked her passion for the subject.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-missing-the-signs-of-a-heart-attack">Missing the signs of a heart attack </h2>



Movies from the 1980s and 1990s cemented an unrealistic idea of heart attacks. The result? Many people don’t recognize the signs when it happens to them.



“We did ourselves a disservice in the 1980s and 1990s with what’s known as ‘The Hollywood Heart Attack,’” Dr. Eckhardt said. “That’s unfortunately not real life. It’s not always intense." 



"Sometimes it’s just discomfort that doesn’t feel quite right, so people tend to wait to see a doctor. The longer you wait, the more likely you are to have negative consequences after your <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/heart-disease-remains-the-leading-cause-of-death-worldwide/">heart</a> attack.”



This tendency to wait, to dismiss symptoms that don’t seem dramatic enough, can cost precious time. And in cardiology, time is muscle. 



The longer blood flow to the heart is restricted, the greater the damage. But if people are looking for cinematic signals, they might miss the real ones.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-heart-attack-symptoms-can-be-subtle">Heart attack symptoms can be subtle </h2>



One of the biggest myths is that heart attacks always present with severe, sudden <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/artificial-sweeteners-erythritol-directly-linked-to-heart-attacks-and-strokes/">pain</a>. In reality, many symptoms are subtle. 



People may experience vague discomfort, pressure, or a strange feeling they can’t quite describe. These symptoms are easier to ignore, especially when life is busy or stressful.



Eckhardt and her team wanted to understand these misconceptions in detail. They explored how people interpret chest pain and whether that interpretation affects how and when they seek care. 



The team has identified a dangerous gap between public belief and medical reality.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-rethinking-the-warning-signs">Rethinking the warning signs </h2>



Many people also believe that heart attacks look drastically different in men and women. While that belief was once supported in the medical community, experts are now rethinking the language they use.



“We used to say men have typical symptoms and women have atypical symptoms,” Eckhardt said. “We’re trying very hard to move away from that language now."



"The most common symptom for men and women is chest-related. We created confusion by saying women are somehow completely different.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-false-expectations-about-heart-attacks">False expectations about heart attacks</h2>



Labeling symptoms as typical or atypical can confuse patients. If someone doesn’t feel the expected kind of pain, they may assume it isn’t serious. Worse, they might believe it can’t possibly be a heart attack. That false assurance can delay treatment.



Eckhardt’s team wanted to dig deeper into how people form these ideas. To do that, they created the <a href="https://www.heartandlung.org/article/S0147-9563(23)00121-8/abstract?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chest Pain Conception Questionnaire</a>. The tool is designed to measure what people think heart attack symptoms look like, and where those ideas come from.



Three years into the project, the team made a striking discovery: nearly 75% of respondents had gotten their information about heart attacks from media sources like TV and film. That suggests medical messaging is losing the battle for public attention.



“We often tell people chest pain is a symptom of a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/drinking-this-amount-of-coffee-helps-prevent-heart-disease-and-diabetes/">heart</a> attack, but what we don’t tell them is what they might actually feel,” Eckhardt said. 



“For a lot of people, it’s not pain in the traditional sense. It’s more discomfort, pressure, tightness. They just don’t feel quite right, but they can’t really put their finger on it.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-vague-signs-delay-treatment">Vague signs delay treatment</h2>



Many heart attack sufferers report a general unease or tightness instead of sharp pain. But because it’s vague, they hesitate to call a doctor or go to the hospital. This indecision can lead to devastating outcomes.



Eckhardt wants medical professionals to change how they talk to patients. Instead of simply asking about chest pain, they should expand the question to include more accurate descriptions.



“The longer you wait, the more likely it is you’ll have irreversible damage to the heart,” Eckhardt said. 



“So, if we can determine what people think a heart attack will be like, perhaps we can help the medical community better triage and ask questions. It’s not just ‘Are you having chest pain?’; it’s also ‘Do you have any discomfort, pressure, tightness, squeezing?’”



This approach could help doctors identify patients at risk more effectively. It also makes space for individuals to describe their symptoms without second-guessing themselves.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-lifelong-mission">A lifelong mission </h2>



For Eckhardt, this work is not just about data or education. It is deeply personal. Her commitment to the subject began when she was young, shaped by a frightening family event.



“That experience sparked my interest early on,” Eckhardt said. When she was in middle school, her grandfather was rushed to the hospital after a heart attack. 



Thankfully, he survived the ordeal thanks to timely bypass surgery and lived for another two decades. That moment planted the seeds of a lifelong commitment to health education and research.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-changing-the-public-perception">Changing the public perception </h2>



Eckhardt and her colleagues know it won’t be easy to re-educate the public. Hollywood images are hard to shake. 



However, the team's research continues, driven by a clear goal: help people recognize real heart attack symptoms, seek help early, and improve outcomes.



Every person who rethinks their idea of what a heart attack feels like could be one life saved. It is not always about pain. Sometimes, it is a quiet, persistent signal that something is wrong. 



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.heartandlung.org/article/S0147-9563(25)00104-9/abstract" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Heart &amp; Lung</a>.



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What a heart attack really feels like - it's much different from what you see on TV

When we think of a heart attack, the image that often comes to mind is straight out of a movie: someone suddenly clutches their chest in pain and collapses as shocked bystanders look on. It's a scene etched into our collective memory by decades of TV and film. However, the real experience of a heart attack rarely fits that narrative. In fact, believing in that dramatic version can delay life-saving treatment. Hollywood’s version has shaped public perception in ways that may be doing more harm than good....

50 million years ago, the Arctic was very different from the Arctic we know today. Geological records show that during the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/co2-emissions-56-million-years/">Eocene</a>, the North Pole was inhabited by crocodiles and resembled a palm tree covered landscape similar to Florida. 

Researchers have long wondered what could have caused such a drastic spike in global warming. But now, a new study conducted by researchers from the <a href="http://www.caltech.edu/">California Institute of Technology</a> may have solved a piece of the riddle. 

The new modeling study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, emphasizes an overlooked consequence of atmospheric carbon dioxide and shows that if CO2 concentrations reach a certain point, marine stratus clouds could disappear. 

Without marine stratus clouds, the Earth would experience a spike in warming as those clouds help cool the Earth and reflect sunlight. 

The researchers found that if CO2 concentrations rise above 1,200 parts per million, marine stratus clouds will become unstable, disappear, and global temperatures could increase by 14 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Currently, atmospheric CO2 levels measure around 410 parts per million, but CO2 levels could reach the 1,200 parts per million threshold (a rough estimate) in the next century if emissions continue to rise. 

“I think and hope that technological changes will slow carbon emissions so that we do not actually reach such high CO2 concentrations. But our results show that there are dangerous climate change thresholds that we had been unaware of,” Tapio Schneider, the lead author of the study. 

Marine stratus clouds cover 20 percent of the subtropical oceans and help keep coastal areas cool. 

While marine stratus clouds are a key part of regulating surface temperature, the air currents that sustain the clouds are impossible to model on a global scale because of their small size. 

The researchers found a way to bridge this hurdle in climate modeling by developing a small-scale model to mimic the atmosphere above a subtropical ocean. 

The model simulates clouds and turbulent air motion using supercomputers and the researchers found that when CO2 levels reached a certain point (exceeding 1,200 parts per million), the cloud decks covering the ocean became unstable and disappeared. 

Furthermore, the model projected that the stratus clouds would not reappear until CO2 levels were lower than what they had been before the clouds destabilized. 

Disappearing marine stratus clouds could explain what caused the Eocene’s spike in temperature, as previous models showed that CO2 concentrations would have had to more than double to create such a warm climate. 

This study now adds an important element to consider future climate projections and makes modeling stratus cloud instability possible. 

“This research points to a blind spot in climate modeling,” said Schneider. 

Schneider is currently working to build a new climate model that incorporates cloud cover and small-scale features to future climate projections. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

High CO2 levels could cause stratus clouds to break up and disappear

50 million years ago, the Arctic was very different from...

Artificial intelligence can diagnose diseases with impressive accuracy. A team of researchers has investigated the potential for <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/artificial-intelligence-earth-data/">artificial intelligence</a> (AI) to detect diseases in medical images as well as humans can. After conducting the first systematic review of published studies related to this topic, the experts found that humans and machines have similar levels of accuracy.

The researchers explained that medical imaging is one of the most valuable sources of diagnostic information, but the need for diagnostic images is outpacing the capacity of available specialists, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries.Artificial intelligence can diagnose diseases with impressive accuracy

"Deep learning offers considerable promise for medical diagnostics," wrote the study authors. "We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of deep learning algorithms versus health-care professionals in classifying diseases using medical imaging."

Out of more than 20,000 studies of applications using AI for medical imaging, the team found that only 14 produced good quality data. Collectively, these 14 studies suggest that deep learning systems correctly detect a disease 87 percent of the time, while healthcare professionals are accurate 86 percent of the time.

Study co-author Professor Alastair Denniston is an eye specialist at the <a href="https://www.uhb.nhs.uk/home.htm">University Hospitals Birmingham</a>. He explained that while the results are encouraging, the study is a reality check for some of the hype about AI.

“There are a lot of headlines about AI outperforming humans, but our message is that it can at best be equivalent,” said study lead author Dr Xiaoxuan Liu.

The experts noted that there were few high-quality studies that involved a direct comparison or evaluated the performance of AI in a real clinic setting, which could significantly change the results of the meta-analysis. Because of these limitations, the researchers said the true diagnostic power of AI “remains uncertain.”

Professor Paul Leeson is a professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Oxford, who was not involved with the study. 

"This paper summarizes the current state of research testing how well artificial intelligence identifies disease in a medical image compared to a clinician. The review has been performed very carefully but real challenges were encountered trying to get a useful result," said Professor Leeson. 

"The authors had to lump together findings from completely different medical problems and types of imaging, including research performed at a very early stage in the development." 

"Importantly the work highlights a new phase of research is needed, using more detailed trials, to work out the best ways to use artificial intelligence in healthcare."

The study is published in the <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/digital-health">Lancet Digital Health</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Shutterstock/sdecoret

Artificial intelligence can diagnose diseases with impressive accuracy

Artificial intelligence can diagnose diseases with impressive accuracy. A team...

For some time, biologists have known that some migratory animals, from birds to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/migrating-turtles-magnetic-field/">sea turtles</a>, are able to sense Earth’s magnetic fields. Now, a new study has found that humans can also sense changes in those fields.

A team of geoscientists and neurobiologists from the <a href="https://www.caltech.edu/">California Institute of Technology</a> and the <a href="https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/index.html">University of Tokyo</a> set out to determine whether humans have a sense known as magnetoreception.

“Magnetoreception, the perception of the geomagnetic field, is a sensory modality well-established across all major groups of vertebrates and some invertebrates, but its presence in humans has been tested rarely, yielding inconclusive results,” the researchers wrote. 

Led by geoscientist Dr. Joseph Kirschvink and neuroscientist Dr. Shin Shimojo, the team used electroencephalography, or EEG, to record participants’ brain wave patterns as they manipulated magnetic fields.

The controlled experiments recorded a decrease in alpha-band activity in some of the study’s participants. Such a decrease is a common response to sensory input, the scientists said.

“We report here a strong, specific human brain response to ecologically-relevant rotations of Earth-strength magnetic fields,” the researchers wrote.

The study was especially tuned for the Northern Hemisphere, where the research was conducted. The researchers hope to keep studying how different human populations react to changes in Earth’s magnetic fields to gain more information about this extra “sense.”

“Given the known presence of highly-evolved geomagnetic navigation systems in species across the animal kingdom, it is perhaps not surprising that we might retain at least some functioning neural components, especially given the nomadic hunter/gatherer lifestyle of our not-too-distant ancestors,” the team wrote in their study. “The full extent of this inheritance remains to be discovered.”

The study has been published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0483-18.2019">eNeuro</a>. Funding for the research was provided by the <a href="http://www.hfsp.org/">Human Frontiers Science Program</a>, <a href="https://www.darpa.mil/">Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency</a> and <a href="https://www.jsps.go.jp/english/">Japan Society for the Promotion of Science</a>.

—

By <a href="mailto:kyla.cathey@gmail.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Humans are tuned in to Earth's magnetic fields

For some time, biologists have known that some migratory animals,...

Research reveals vast differences in what Americans know about science. A new study from the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/">Pew Research Center</a> has found that, when it comes to what Americans know and understand about science, there are vast differences. A survey of 4,464 adults revealed that just about 39 percent of American adults have a high level of science knowledge, while 29 percent have little knowledge of scientific facts. 

“In an era of easy access to a wide array of information, along with sometimes-intense debate over what information is true and false, this survey takes stock of the degree to which the public shares a common understanding of science facts and processes,” said Cary Funk, who is the director of science and society research at the Pew Research Center.


Of the 11 multiple-choice questions included in the survey, participants with a postgraduate degree answered an average of four more questions correctly compared to participants with a high school degree or less. Overall, 71 percent of those with a higher education were classified as having the most science knowledge, while only 19 percent of those with a high school degree were able to perform as well. 

There were also some gender differences found in the scores, but these discrepancies were not consistent across questions. For example, men and women were about equally likely to identify that <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/antibiotic-resistance-wastewater/">antibiotic resistance</a> is a major concern related to overuse of these drugs. However, about 20 percent more men were aware that inserting a gene into a plant is an example of genetic engineering.

Republicans and Democrats were found to have similar levels of science knowledge. Study participants who leaned toward the Republican Party averaged seven correct answers, while those who leaned toward the Democratic Party got an average of 6.6 survey questions correct.

The findings are based on a nationally representative survey conducted in January of 2019, involving adults 18 years of age or older across the United States. 
--
By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Research reveals vast differences in what Americans know about science

Research reveals vast differences in what Americans know about science....

Artificial intelligence can be used to detect risk of premature death. Preventative healthcare is a growing field, bolstered by the drive for physicians to help stamp out health issues before they arise. 

“Preventative healthcare is a growing priority in the fight against serious diseases,” says Dr. Stephen Wang, an assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Data Science at the <a href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/">University of Nottingham</a>. He is also the lead researcher on a new study published in <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/">PLOS ONE</a> detailing the development and testing of a system of computer-based ‘machine learning’ algorithms, which could be used to predict risk of early death due to chronic disease in a large middle-aged population.

“We have been working for a number of years to improve the accuracy of computerized health risk assessment in the general population,” explains Dr. Wang. In this study, the research team used health data from over half a million people aged between 40 and 69 who were recruited to the UK Biobank between 2006 and 2010, and followed up in 2016. 

The AI machine learning models used in the study are known as “random forest” and “deep learning.” They were tested against the traditionally used “Cox regression” prediction model based on age and gender and a multivariate Cox model – both of which are known to have issues with accuracy in predicting <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/human-mortality-slow-down/">mortality</a>.

The computer models tested in the study take into account a range of demographic, biometric, clinical, and lifestyle factors for every individual they assess. 

“We mapped the resulting predictions to mortality data from the cohort, using Office of National Statistics death records, the UK cancer registry and ‘hospital episodes’ statistics,” explains Wang. “We found machine learned algorithms were significantly more accurate in predicting death than the standard prediction models developed by a human expert.”

Interest in the potential of AI or machine-learning in healthcare has risen over the years as new developments have been made. “These techniques can be new to many in health research, and difficult to follow,” says Professor Joe Kai, one of the clinical academics working on the study. “We believe that by clearly reporting these methods in a transparent way, this could help with scientific verification and future development of this exciting field for health care.”

The researchers believe that AI will be a pivotal tool in the development of future technologies that can deliver personalized medicine to individual patients. While further research is needed to validate these new systems, it’s quite possible that machine learning and AI may one day be central to our health.

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Artificial intelligence can be used to detect risk of premature death

Artificial intelligence can be used to detect risk of premature...

Have you ever wondered what is going on in your brain when you listen to your favorite song? 

A new study has found that the different cognitive processes involved in listening to a song and remembering a familiar tune overlap in the brain but travel in opposite directions. 

Music has a profound impact on our moods and cognition, with new research showing that listening to music may be as<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/music-medications-calm-nerves/"> effective as medication </a>meant to ease anxiety administered before surgery and that music students score higher in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/music-students-score-better/">math and science tests</a>. 

Past research has identified the areas on the right side of the brain activated by music, but the specific processes of listening to and remembering music remained somewhat of a mystery.

In other words, it was not well understood how the brain regions activated by music responded during music listening and music recall.

Researchers from <a href="https://www.tsinghua.edu.cn/publish/thu2018en/index.html">Tsinghua University </a>in Beijing, General Hospital of People’s Liberty Army in Beijing, and <a href="https://www.jhu.edu/">Johns Hopkins University</a> in Maryland examined neural activity in the regions of the brain activated by music to better understand these processes. 

Ten epilepsy patients, both men and women, were recruited for the study. 

The researchers used electrocorticography to record neural activity in the brain as the participants listened to popular songs like Beethoven’s “Für Elise” or Wagner’s “Wedding March.” 

As the participants listened to the songs, the researchers found that the songs correlated with cortical activity in the temporal lobe followed by the precentral gyrus. With music recall, however, electrical activity started in the inferior frontal gyrus and spread to the temporal lobe. 

Music listening in the frontal lobe lagged behind the neural pathways in the temporal lobe, but in music recall, researchers found activity in the frontal lobe preceded activity in the temporal lobe. 

Once we hear a familiar tune, the regions of the brain that remember the song overlap but music information between listening and recall flow in the opposite directions.

The researchers published their findings in the <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1468-18.2019">Journal of Neuroscience</a>. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Africa Studio

How music flows through the brain

Have you ever wondered what is going on in your...

Exposure to air pollution may cause lower sperm production in mice, a new study has found.

And if air pollution is affecting sperm in mice, it may be affecting other species as well, according to scientists who worked on the study.

"Infertility rates are increasing around the world, and air pollution may be one of the main factors," lead researcher Dr. Elaine Maria Frade Costa of <a href="https://www5.usp.br/">Sao Paulo University</a> said in a press release.

About 15 percent of the world’s population – men and women alike – struggle with infertility, according to the <a href="https://www.who.int/">World Health Organization</a>. That rate is higher in developing countries.

“One in every four couples in developing countries had been found to be affected by infertility, when an evaluation of responses from women in Demographic and Health Surveys from 1990 was completed in collaboration with WHO in 2004,” the organization states on its website.

Costa and her team suspected pollution played a role, specifically by lowering sperm production. 

So they studied four groups of mice. One was exposed to air pollution containing high levels of particulate matter – soot, smoke, dust, pollen and more – both before and after birth, all the way to adulthood. The second group was exposed to pollution during gestation, but not after birth; the third was exposed after birth to adulthood, and the fourth was only exposed to filtered air.

Then, the researchers examined the animals’ testes, including DNA analysis of the sperm.

The sperm production of all three groups exposed to pollution showed damage, compared to the control group that only breathed filtered air. 

The damage was found to be epigenetic – that is, not caused by the animals’ DNA, but by environmental factors.

The study is concerning, especially in areas with high levels of air pollution.

"These findings provide more evidence that governments need to implement public policies to control air pollution in big cities," she said.

The study will be presented Monday in New Orleans at <a href="https://www.endocrine.org/endo2019">ENDO 2019</a>, the annual meeting of the <a href="https://www.endocrine.org/">Endocrine Society</a>.

—
By <a href="mailto:kyla.cathey@gmail.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Air pollution linked to lower sperm production

Exposure to air pollution may cause lower sperm production in...

Edible insects set to become an $8 billion industry in the next few years. A growing collection of research has shown that <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/edible-insects-grasshoppers-antioxidants/">insects</a> have enormous potential to provide protein and other important nutrients as a sustainable food source. Identifying alternative protein sources is more important now than ever before, as the global food supply faces the challenge of feeding a booming human population while also being severely threatened by climate change. 

Researchers and industry leaders are exploring the use of insects for both human consumption and as feed for livestock. Some regions of the world have embraced the idea of edible insects for a long time, while other regions are coming around more slowly. 

The latest studies on insect agriculture have been published in a new issue of the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/aesa">Annals of the Entomological Society of America</a>. Dr. Jeffery Tomberlin is a professor of Entomology at Texas A&amp;M University who specializes in the study of black soldier flies. He also served as co-lead editor for the journal's special research collection, which highlights the diversity of the entomophagy movement. 

"I am thrilled to see the development of this new sector in agriculture," said Dr. Tomberlin says. "While the industry is less than 20 years old as related to mass production, its value is expected to exceed $8 billion within the next few years. In fact, I would not be surprised to see the industry increase in value beyond $50-100 billion by 2050. I truly believe this industry will not only bolster the global ag sector but also protect the environment while creating jobs and saving lives."

In one of the featured studies, "The Cultural Importance of Edible Insects in Oaxaca, Mexico," a team of experts from San Diego State University traveled to rural and urban areas of Oaxaca to investigate various edible insect practices. 

"In rural communities where access to other animal-based foods has been limited, insects provided important nutritional value that today also translates into important economic value," wrote the researchers.

"Community members know the habits of the insects and are skilled at collecting them using sophisticated techniques."

The study authors found that the importance of edible insects in Oaxacan cuisine "cannot be overestimated."

"Chapulines, chicatanas, and maguey worms are key ingredients in many spice mixes, salsas, and mole sauces. Cochineal is used as a food colorant. These insects are also found in a variety of foods, both sweet and savory, including omelets, tamales, quesadillas, chocolate truffles, and sorbets. As evidenced by the culinary uses of insects in Oaxaca, there is substantial potential for edible insects to become a delicacy in Western cultures."

The special collection published in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America is called "Insects as Food and Feed."

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Joseph Berger, Bugwood.org

Edible insects set to become an $8 billion industry in the next few years

Edible insects set to become an $8 billion industry in...

New research from the <a href="https://international.univ-rennes1.fr/welcome-universite-de-rennes-1">The University of Rennes</a> shows that dogs can sniff out impending epileptic seizures. Evidence shows that <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/dogs-adopt-same-personality-owners/">dogs</a> are able to detect a scent given off by epileptic human breath pre- and mid-seizure.

When exposed to odors collected during an epileptic episode, trained dogs were able to detect the scents from patients up to 100% of the time.

In order to test the theory that a specific scent is emitted by epileptic patients just before and during a seizure, scientists collected breath samples from five epileptic participants. 

One sample was collected mid-seizure, and another was collected while the participant was engaged in a calm activity. Participant sweat was also collected during both activities.

Then, these odors were “canned” and exposed to trained dogs that have the ability to sniff out cancer and diabetes. In the test, one out of every seven cans contained said odor, and out of nine tests, the dogs identified the correct can between 67% and 100% of the time. 

Although more research is needed to figure out the exact chemical that’s released via breath during a seizure, researchers hope that this current discovery will help epilepsy patients seek safe spaces — either with the help of trained dogs or “e-noses.”

“We know dogs can predict seizures, which is why Support Dogs train them,” said a spokesperson for <a href="https://www.epilepsy.org.uk/">Epilepsy Action</a>, published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/srep/">Scientific Advances</a>. “We still don't know whether they do that by smell or some other sense. So this research is interesting and could be a next step in understanding how dogs can further support people living with uncontrolled epilepsy.”

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Dogs can detect impending epileptic seizures

New research from the The University of Rennes shows that...

There has been a growing interest in the use of psychedelics like psilocybin or LSD to help treat mental disorders, but these hallucinogens often get a bad rap for their trippy side-effects. 

Despite the push to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/magic-mushrooms-vote-medicinal-benefits/#.XJuqlChKhPY">legalize magic mushrooms</a> and the research exploring the potential mental health benefits of psychedelics, scientists know very little about how hallucinations work as far as the underlying brain activity that disrupts normal processing and cognition. 

But researchers from the <a href="https://ion.uoregon.edu/">Institute of Neuroscience at the University of Oregon</a> are now one step closer to revealing the mysteries of hallucinations after conducting a study with mice. 

The team examined the impacts of a hallucinogenic drug on neurons in the brains of mice and the study, published in the journal Cell Reports, could help shed light on disorders like schizophrenia. 

By inducing hallucinations in the mice, the researchers were able to gain a better understanding of how disrupted visual signals in the brain are linked to hallucinations. 

“We're interested in understanding how we create representations of the world using vision,” said Cris Niell, a senior author of the study. “In many areas of biology, one of the best ways to study a process is to observe what happens when it's perturbed.”

Interestingly, the researchers found that hallucinations are caused by reduced signaling in the visual cortex. 

“You might expect visual hallucinations would result from neurons in the brain firing like crazy, or by mismatched signals,” said Niell. “We were surprised to find that a hallucinogenic drug instead led to a reduction of activity in the visual cortex.” 

For the study, the researchers gave mice a drug called DOI (4-iodo-2,5- dimethoxyphenyl isopropylamine). It’s a drug that is easier to access and work with compared to other psychedelics like LSD because it isn’t regulated as a Schedule 1 drug by the <a href="https://www.dea.gov/">Drug Enforcement Agency</a> (DEA). 

The mice were then shown a series of images on a screen, and the researchers monitored neural responses in the mice with calcium imaging and single-unit electrophysiology. 

As signaling in the visual cortex declined, the neurons alternated their timing when firing. 

The signals that were being sent in the brain were similar to the signals in the brain of mice that were not given the drug, and only the timing and strength of the messages were different. 

“Understanding what's happening in the world is a balance of taking in information and your interpretation of that information,” said Niell “If you're putting less weight on what's going on around you but then overinterpreting it, that could lead to hallucinations.”

The researchers have uncovered an important piece of the puzzle, but it’s still just one part, and more studies are needed to see if the responses observed in the mice are comparable to the signaling that occurs in the human brain during hallucinations. 

“I don't feel like we've necessarily found the smoking gun for the entire underlying cause of hallucinations, but this is likely to be a piece of it,” said Neill. “The data we've collected will provide a foundation for additional studies going forward. In particular, we plan to use genetic manipulation to study particular parts of this circuit in more detail.” 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

What’s going on in the brain during a hallucination?

There has been a growing interest in the use of...

The brain only needs a small amount of storage to learn a language. A new study from <a href="https://www.berkeley.edu/">UC Berkeley</a> has investigated how much storage space your brain needs to learn its first <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/learn-language-deep-sleep/">language</a>. Using a mathematical technique known as information theory, the team determined that the average adult only uses about 1.5 megabytes of storage for access to the entire English language. 

“In terms of digital media storage, our knowledge of language almost fits compactly on a floppy disk,” wrote the study authors.The brain only needs a small amount of storage to learn a language.

The brain sorts through data to make sense of a word or sentence, and researchers led by Frank Mollica at the <a href="https://www.rochester.edu/">University of Rochester</a> set out to quantify how many bits of data are required. For example, the experts determined that the average English vocabulary set of 40,000 words requires about 400,000 bits of data storage.

The team used computer models to estimate the storage requirements needed for other factors as well, including language semantics and syntax, and discovered that approximately 12.5 million bits of information is necessary for language acquisition.

“Ours is the first study to put a number on the amount you have to learn to acquire language,” said study senior author Professor Steven Piantadosi. “It highlights that children and teens are remarkable learners, absorbing upwards of 1,000 bits of information each day.”

The study also revealed that linguistic knowledge focuses mostly on the meaning of words, as opposed to their complex arrangement.

“A lot of research on language learning focuses on syntax, like word order,” said Professor Piantadosi. “But our study shows that syntax represents just a tiny piece of language learning, and that the main difficulty has got to be in learning what so many words mean.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsos">Royal Society Open 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

The brain only needs a small amount of storage to learn a language

The brain only needs a small amount of storage to...

A new way to make fertilizer and produce fewer emissions. Fertilizers are vital to the world’s agricultural industries and without healthy, fertile soils, plants and crops would not get the nutrients they need to grow. 

Fertilizers help local and global agricultural operations meet rising food demands, but the production process for fertilizer emits large amounts of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-nitrogen-is-great-for-crops-but-bad-for-the-environment/">greenhouse gasses</a>. 

It all boils down to ammonia, a key ingredient in many fertilizers. To make ammonia, fertilizer production uses an old process first developed in the early 1900s called the Haber-Bosch process. 

The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/Haber-Bosch-process">Haber-Bosch process</a> takes hydrogen and nitrogen from the air and combines them using high pressures and temperatures which then produces ammonia. 

The problem with the Haber-Bosch process is that it requires an immense amount of energy to produce and so ammonia manufacturers rely on fossil fuels which produce large amounts of emissions. 

The ammonia industry accounts for over 1 percent of annual greenhouse gas emissions, according to <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24232273-500-clever-chemistry-could-make-fertiliser-with-a-smaller-carbon-footprint/">New Scientist</a>. 

Chemists have long been looking for alternative ways to manufacture ammonia without producing harmful emissions, and now researchers from the<a href="https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/"> University of Tokyo</a> may have finally found a scalable solution to the problem. 

The researchers successfully created a catalyst for making ammonia from nitrogen that works at room temperature and doesn’t require high pressures using molybdenum iodide. 

The team also found a way to use readily available compounds like alcohol or water as a reactive agent to combine with the molybdenum iodide. Not only does this process produce fewer emissions, but it’s also faster. 

“The ammonia production rate is 500 times faster than that of the Haber-Bosch process,”  Yoshiaki Nishibayashi, a member of the research team, told New Scientist. 

The team hopes that their new methods could be used at the industrial scale and will continue to refine and perfect the production process. 

A study detailing the alternative fertilizer production process was published in the journal Nature. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

A new way to make fertilizer and produce fewer emissions

A new way to make fertilizer and produce fewer emissions....

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.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

[sendtonews key="QGPzYnXEtN-1712599-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from Carl...

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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

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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



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.

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



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://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



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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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