In the arid, fossil-rich landscape of Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park, a team of paleontologists stumbled across something unexpected. The experts found the fossilized jawbone of a pterosaur that may be the oldest ever found in North America.



The discovery came from a remote site that revealed not just one remarkable creature, but a whole ecosystem preserved in stone.



The study was led by scientists from the Smithsonian’s <a href="https://www.si.edu/museums/natural-history-museum">National Museum of Natural History</a> and <a href="https://www.nps.gov/pefo/index.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Petrified Forest National Park</a>. The research introduces a new pterosaur species alongside more than 1,000 other fossils.



Some of these include one of the world’s oldest turtle specimens. Together, the fossils paint a vivid picture of life just before one of Earth’s biggest mass extinctions.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-life-before-mass-extinction">Life before mass extinction</h2>



The pterosaur fossils come from rock layers that date back to the Late <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-did-not-impact-dinosaur-abundance-in-the-triassic/">Triassic</a> period. During this time, ancient amphibians and crocodile-like reptiles lived side by side with animals that would go on to shape the future of the planet, including early turtles, frogs, and flying reptiles.



“The site captures the transition to more modern terrestrial vertebrate communities, where we start seeing groups that thrive later in the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dinosaurs-were-not-the-only-animals-that-grew-fast-during-the-mesozoic/">Mesozoic</a> living alongside these older animals that don’t make it past the Triassic,” said study lead author Ben Kligman.



This glimpse into prehistoric life is especially valuable because it dates to just before the end-Triassic extinction - about 201.5 million years ago - when massive volcanic eruptions dramatically altered Earth’s climate. 



The event wiped out roughly 75% of all species, paving the way for dinosaurs to rise to dominance.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fossils-hidden-by-ash">Fossils hidden by ash</h2>



Direct fossil evidence from just before this extinction is hard to come by. Few fossil-rich outcrops from this time exist, but Petrified Forest National Park is one of the rare exceptions. 



Known for its colorful layers of petrified wood and Triassic fossils, the park has long been a treasure trove for paleontologists.



One rock layer, called the Owl Rock Member, has proven especially important. It’s full of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fire-and-ice-volcanic-ash-plays-a-surprising-role-in-cloud-formation/">volcanic ash</a>, which helped scientists date it precisely to around 209 million years ago. These are some of the park’s youngest rocks - but also among its least explored.



Study co-author William Parker explained that the Owl Rock exposures are tucked away in extremely remote areas. Few teams have been able to study them in detail.



In 2011, a research group led by Kay Behrensmeyer decided to take on the challenge. Braving the rugged terrain - complete with rattlesnakes and wild horses - they went in search of mammal-like fossils. 



What they found instead was a densely packed bonebed, full of life from a vanished world.



“That’s the fun thing about paleontology: you go looking for one thing, and then you find something else that’s incredible that you weren’t expecting,” said Kligman, who started working at the site during his PhD studies in 2018.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ancient-life-buried-by-floods">Ancient life buried by floods</h2>



Back in the Triassic, this part of Arizona was located near the equator and sat in the center of the supercontinent <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthpedia-articles/supercontinents-101-pannotia-gondwana-and-pangea/">Pangaea</a>. 



The land was semi-arid, with winding river channels and a seasonal flood cycle. One of those floods likely buried the animals that are now preserved in the bonebed.



The fossil layer was so dense with tiny remains that collecting them onsite was impossible. Instead, researchers carved out large blocks of sediment, wrapped them in plaster, and brought them back to the lab.



Many of these blocks were sent to the Smithsonian’s FossiLab, where volunteers spent thousands of hours carefully exposing the bones. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-small-fossils-major-clues">Small fossils, major clues</h2>



The rivers teemed with fish like coelacanths and freshwater sharks. Giant amphibians - some stretching over six feet long - swam through the streams. On land, armored herbivores and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ancient-crocodile-like-beast-was-a-terrifying-predator/">crocodile-like predators</a> ruled.



At the same time, smaller creatures were starting to make their mark. The team identified early frogs, relatives of today’s tuataras, and a turtle with spike-like armor that could fit in a shoebox. 



The remains of a small pterosaur were also hidden among the layers - just one part of a fossil record that shows how quickly new groups were emerging and spreading across Pangaea.



“This suggests that turtles rapidly dispersed across Pangaea, which is surprising for an animal that is not very large and is likely walking at a slow pace,” said Kligman.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-pterosaur-that-perched-like-a-bird">Pterosaur that perched like a bird</h2>



One of the most exciting finds was a jawbone with teeth still in place. It belonged to a small pterosaur, one of the first vertebrates capable of powered flight. This early flier could have perched on a person’s shoulder.



The pterosaur fossil was uncovered by Suzanne McIntire, a volunteer who spent 18 years working in the FossiLab.



“What was exciting about uncovering this specimen was that the teeth were still in the bone, so I knew the animal would be much easier to identify,” McIntire said.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/pterosaur_Eotephradactylus-mcintireae_Arizona_illustration_credit-Brian-Engh_1big.jpg"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/pterosaur_Eotephradactylus-mcintireae_Arizona_illustration_credit-Brian-Engh_1s.webp" alt="An artist's reconstruction of the fossilized landscape, plants and animals found preserved in a remote bonebed in Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. The newly described pterosaur Eotephradactylus mcintireae is seen eating an ancient ray-finned fish alongside an early species of turtle and an early frog species, with the skeleton of an armored crocodile relative lying on the ground and a palm-like plant growing in the background. Credit: Brian Engh" class="wp-image-1977432"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">An artist's reconstruction of the fossilized landscape, plants and animals found preserved in a remote bonebed in Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. The newly described pterosaur Eotephradactylus mcintireae is seen eating an ancient ray-finned fish alongside an early species of turtle and an early frog species, with the skeleton of an armored crocodile relative lying on the ground and a palm-like plant growing in the background. Click image to enlarge. Credit: Brian Engh</figcaption></figure>



The wear on the teeth gave scientists a clue about the pterosaur’s diet. It likely fed on armored fish that were common in the area. 



The new species was named Eotephradactylus mcintireae, which translates to “ash-winged dawn goddess." This title honors McIntire, who retired last year.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-exactly-is-a-pterosaur">What exactly is a pterosaur?</h2>



Pterosaurs were flying reptiles that existed during the time of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/where-did-dinosaurs-come-from-missing-fossils-hold-the-secret/">dinosaurs</a>. They were the first animals with backbones to evolve powered flight, well before birds or bats came on the scene.



Powered by skin stretched across an extended fourth finger, they ranged in size and shape from something no larger than a crow to giants with wings up to 30 feet or more.



Pterosaurs were not dinosaurs. They formed their own group of reptiles and possessed special adaptations for flight. Some flew above coastlines, while others preyed on fish or small land animals inland.



The new fossil contributes to what is known about those early birds and how they expanded around the globe.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2505513122" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.



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North America's oldest known pterosaur discovered in a petrified forest

In the arid, fossil-rich landscape of Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park, a team of paleontologists stumbled across something unexpected. The experts found the fossilized jawbone of a pterosaur that may be the oldest ever found in North America. The discovery came from a remote site that revealed not just one remarkable creature, but a whole ecosystem preserved in stone. The study was led by scientists from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and Petrified Forest National Park. The research introduces a new pterosaur species alongside more...

The 2018 Kilauea Volcano eruption resulted in <a href="https://www.earth.com/image/kilauea-volcano-lava-flows-continue-to-reshape-hawaiis-big-island/">millions of cubic feet of molten lava</a> falling into the sea. 

When the lava made its way into the nutrient-poor waters off Big Island, it led to massive phytoplankton blooms, and now researchers from the <a href="https://manoa.hawaii.edu/">University of Hawai’i (UH) at Mānoa</a> and <a href="https://www.usc.edu/">University of Southern California</a> know why. 

When Kilauea injected tons of lava into the water, nutrient levels spiked resulting in microbe blooms that were so big they could be seen from space.  

What’s surprising is that the phytoplankton blooms depended on nitrate but there is very little nitrogen in basaltic lava and not nearly enough to explain the sudden blooms.  

The researchers discovered that when the lava fell into the ocean, it quickly warmed up nutrient-rich deep water which rose to the surface, providing a rich feast for microbes.  

For the study, the researchers conducted an expedition during the peak of Kilauea’s eruption. The team monitored the lava’s entry into the water 24/7 and tested the water chemistry. 

At first, the researchers hypothesized that lava and volcanic dust were helping microorganisms that need phosphate and iron, both of which are found in lava. 

However, these nutrients were unavailable to microbes, but heated deep water was rising to the surface, bringing with it nitrate concentrations. 

“The expedition in July 2018 provided a unique opportunity to see first-hand how a massive input of external nutrients alters marine ecosystems that are finely attuned to low-nutrient conditions,” said Sam Wilson, a co-lead author of the study. 

The very same interactions observed in this study may have been responsible for past ocean fertilization events linked to the formation of Hawaii’s islands. 

“Ecosystem responses to such a substantial addition of nutrients are rarely observed or sampled in real time,” said Wilson. “UH has a strong tradition of not only volcanic research, but also looking at its impacts on the surrounding environment such as the ocean, groundwater, atmosphere. This latest piece of research improves our understanding of lava-seawater interactions within the much broader context of land-ocean connections.”

The researchers published their findings in the journal<a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aax4767"> Science.</a> 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Karin Bjorkman, UH

Why lava from Kilauea helped drive phytoplankton blooms

The 2018 Kilauea Volcano eruption resulted in millions of cubic...

Ancient DNA study spans millions of years of Central and South Asian history. The largest-ever study of ancient human DNA sheds light on the early history and migrations of people in Central and South Asia from the Mesolithic Era to the Iron Age. 

A team of archaeologists, geneticists and anthropologists analyzed and sequenced the genomes of 524 ancient individuals from Central and <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=south+asia&amp;cvid=054854f3d8ff480d9d9ad22327ba1d3a&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">South Asia</a>, increasing the number of total ancient studied and published genomes worldwide by 25 percent. 

The researchers sequenced ancient human genomes, compared the DNA data to other previously sequenced genomes and reviewed key archeological and linguistic records from the region. 

The expansive research was published in two papers in the journals Science and Cell and has helped put several debates about the early origins of language and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dna-first-farmers-east-africa/">farming</a> to rest. 

“These studies speak to two of the most profound cultural transformations in ancient Eurasia--the transition from hunting and gathering to farming and the spread of Indo-European languages, which are spoken today from the British Isles to South Asia--along with the movement of people,” said Vagheesh Narasimhan, a co-first author of both papers.

One of the biggest takeaways of the study is that it helps confirm the theory that Indo-European languages spread and first arrived in Europe via the Eurasian Steppe. 

More than 400 languages including Hindu, Bengali, Persian, Russian, Spanish, and English are considered Indo-European, and as the largest language family on Earth, it’s long been wondered how the roots of these languages spread. 

It’s long been thought that Indo-European languages either arrived in Europe from herders traveling through the Steppe or by farmers migrating from Anatolia, which is present-day Turkey. 

This recent study helps confirm the Steppe theory because people living in South Asia share little common ancestry with ancient Anatolian farmers. Ancient DNA study spans millions of years of Central and South Asian history

“We can rule out a large-scale spread of farmers with Anatolian roots into South Asia, the centerpiece of the ‘Anatolian hypothesis’ that such movement brought farming and Indo-European languages into the region,” said David Reich, a co-senior author of the papers. “Since no substantial movements of people occurred, this is checkmate for the Anatolian hypothesis.”

The researchers linked present-day speakers of certain branches of Indo-European languages to a subgroup of ancient Steppe pastoralists that spread into Europe 5,000 years ago before returning to Central and South Asia. 

Another important mystery solved by the study is how ancient populations shifted from hunting and gathering to farming. Did settlements switch to farming as populations migrated into new areas or did they copy other communities?

The researchers found that the practice of farming in Iran and Turan coincides with the arrival of Anatolian ancestry. 

“This confirms that the spread of agriculture entailed not only a westward route from Anatolia to Europe but also an eastward route from Anatolia into regions of Asia previously only inhabited by hunter-gatherer groups,” said Ron Pinhasi, a co-senior author of the Science article.

However, the history of farming in Central and South Asia is not clean-cut and the researchers found that by 5,000 years ago, a two-way pattern of ancestry and farming technology split north and south along the “Bronze Age Silk Road.” 

In South Asia, the researchers didn’t find any common ancestry to Anatolian people who helped spread farming west, rather South Asians are related to an Iranian lineage that separated from early farmers and hunters and gathers. 

For South Asia, farming was a practice adopted by local foragers rather than through the spread of farming cultures. 

“The study directly ties present-day South Asians to the ancient peoples of South Asia’s first civilization,” said Narasimhan.

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Vasant Shinde/Cell

Ancient DNA study spans millions of years of Central and South Asian history

Ancient DNA study spans millions of years of Central and...

New AI software can recognize and track chimpanzees in the wild. Using more than 10 million images from <a href="https://www.pri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/">Kyoto University’s Primate Research Institute</a> (PRI), scientists at the <a href="http://www.ox.ac.uk/">University of Oxford</a> have just developed new artificial intelligence software that can recognize and track the faces of chimpanzees in the wild. 

These images from a video archive of wild <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/chimpanzees-hunting-eating-crabs/">chimpanzees</a> in Guinea, West Africa were used to develop what is now the first software to continuously track and recognize individuals in a wide range of poses. The AI is even able to do this in difficult conditions such as low lighting, poor image quality, and motion blur.

“For species like chimpanzees, which have complex social lives and live for many years, getting snapshots of their behavior from short-term field research can only tell us so much,” explains Dan Schofield, a researcher and DPhil student at Oxford University's Primate Models Lab, School of Anthropology. “By harnessing the power of machine learning to unlock large video archives, it makes it feasible to measure behavior over the long term, for example observing how the social interactions of a group change over several generations.”

This new software will help wildlife conservationists save time and resources currently spent analyzing video footage. 

“Our method differs from previous primate face recognition software in that it can be applied to raw video footage with limited manual intervention or pre-processing, saving hours of time and resources,” says Arsha Nagrani, co-author of the study and DPhil student at the Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford.

Detailed in a paper published in <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/">Science Advances</a>, this new technology – while it focuses on chimpanzees – can potentially be applied to monitoring other species as well. 

“All our software is available open-source for the research community,” says Nagrani. “We hope that this will help researchers across other parts of the world apply the same cutting-edge techniques to their unique animal data sets.”

As climate change and human interference threaten many species around the world, technology-driven conservation is a much-needed development in the fight to save these ecosystems. 

“With an increasing biodiversity crisis and many of the world’s ecosystems under threat, the ability to closely monitor different species and populations using automated systems will be crucial for conservation efforts, as well as animal behavior research,” says Schofield. “Interdisciplinary collaborations like this have huge potential to make an impact, by finding novel solutions for old problems, and asking biological questions which were previously not feasible on a large scale.”

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Sergey Uryadnikov

New AI software can recognize and track chimpanzees in the wild

New AI software can recognize and track chimpanzees in the...

Scientists have discovered what may be one of the first trails made by animals on the Earth’s surface about 550 million years ago. 

These ancient fossilized trails are some of the most convincing evidence to show that ancient animals had mobility about a half-billion years ago — before the dinosaur age and the Pangea supercontinent.

Both the trail and the fossilized creature who made it, dubbed Yilingia spiciformis (which translates to Yiling bug), were unearthed from multiple layers of rock near the city of Yiling in <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/china-co2-emissions-targets/">China</a>. 

They were discovered by Shuhai Xiao, a professor of geosciences with the <a href="https://www.science.vt.edu/">Virginia Tech College of Science</a>, and his colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ <a href="http://english.nigpas.cas.cn/">Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology</a>.

"This discovery shows that segmented and mobile animals evolved by 550 million years ago," Xiao said. "Mobility made it possible for animals to make an unmistakable footprint on Earth, both literally and metaphorically. Those are the kind of features you find in a group of animals called bilaterans. This group includes us humans and most animals. Animals and particularly humans are movers and shakers on Earth. Their ability to shape the face of the planet is ultimately tied to the origin of animal motility."

Yilinia spiciformis was a millipede-like animal, about a quarter inch to an inch wide and about 4 inches long. It would move by dragging its body across the ocean floor, resting along the way, and thus leaving a trail as long as about 23 inches. 

What’s more is that this discovery places the evolution of bilaterians (symmetric animals with segmented bodies and directional mobility) exactly where scientists estimated it to be — between 635 and 539 million years ago. 

"We are the most impactful animal on Earth," Xiao said. "We make a huge footprint, not only from locomotion, but in many other and more impactful activities related to our ability to move. When and how animal locomotion evolved defines an important geological and evolutionary context of anthropogenic impact on the surface of the Earth."

This discovery is published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1522-7">Nature</a>.

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Virginia Tech College of Science

550 million-year-old animal trail fossil discovered in China

Scientists have discovered what may be one of the first...

Earthquakes of different magnitudes may have more similarities than previously thought, according to a new study published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1508-5">Nature</a>. 

As of yet, there is no accurate way to predict a major earthquake, according to the <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/can-you-predict-earthquakes?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products">US Geological Survey</a>. 

Even though seismologists have been tackling <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/stress-earthquakes-faults-predict/">earthquake prediction</a> since the 1980s, the closest we have to an earthquake warning system is that researchers can calculate the probability of a seismic event occurring in a specific area. 

We are still long-ways from knowing exactly when and where an earthquake will happen and how strong the event will be. 

If researchers could identify enough variation between seismic events, it could provide a plausible jumping-off point for predicting how an earthquake will behave. 

Could measurements taken at the point of origin help predict an earthquake’s eventual magnitude? 

Satoshi Ide, a professor at the <a href="https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/">University of Tokyo</a>, conducted a study comparing thousands of seismic events to look for similarities and differences. 

By reviewing seismic data from 100,000 events, Ide found that earthquakes of different magnitudes have many similarities between them, a fact that does not bode well for the development of earthquake warning systems. 

“Taking inspiration from a study comparing different-sized earthquakes, I decided to analyze a seismic data set from a region known as the Tohoku-Hokkaido subduction zone in eastern Japan,” said Ide. “A systematic comparison of around 100,000 seismic events over 15 years leads me to believe earthquakes are not different in random ways but share many similarities.”

For the study, Ide used a statistical function to compare seismic information between large and small pairs of earthquakes across ten seismic stations. 

“Some pairs of large and small earthquakes start with exactly the same shaking characteristics, so we cannot tell the magnitude of an earthquake from initial seismic observations,” said Ide. 

While the study may not help improve earthquake forecasting, it does show that seismic events of different magnitudes are not so random. 

“However, for future forecasting attempts, given this symmetry between earthquakes of different magnitudes, it is good to know they are not completely random,” said Ide. 

--

By<a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com"> Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Andrey VP

Earthquake similarities complicate the development of early warning systems

Earthquakes of different magnitudes may have more similarities than previously...

The discovery of a gene in the barley plant could be the key to creating <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/drought-resistant-plants-enhanced/">drought resistant crops</a> in the future. 

After nearly five years of research, scientists from <a href="https://www.hw.ac.uk/">Heriot-Watt University</a> identified a gene called HvMYB1 and proved that this gene is responsible for tolerance to stressors like drought and heat in barley and other cereals.  

The study was published in the Journal of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry.

Barley has more than 39,000 genes and so finding a specific gene that helps with stress tolerance was more than a challenge.  

After the researchers identified the HvMYB1 gene, tests with plants showed that when gene expression is prominent, a plant can survive drier conditions. 

“By increasing the expression of this particular gene in test plants and simulating drought conditions, we’ve been able to prove that plants in which HvMYB1 is more prominently expressed are able to survive prolonged periods of drought,” said Peter Morris, the leader of the research. 

Cereals are staple crops and an important source of nutrients worldwide. According to Morris, 2018 was already a hard year for European cereal harvests and future crop yields will be impacted by drouts and heat waves due to climate change. 

Finding ways to help make crops heartier and “future-proof,” is crucial for food security.  

“As climate change gathers pace and we experience more extreme seasons, it is essential we can maintain continuity of supply,” said Morris. “This is significant for key industries like Scotch whisky, one of the UK’s leading export items. Our project focused specifically on barley; one of the three ingredients used in the production of Scotch whisky.” 

The <a href="https://www.scotch-whisky.org.uk/">Scotch Whisky Association</a> funded the research, but the study has broader implications beyond helping ensure the future of the UK’s whiskey exports. 

“This also has important implications for the wider cereals industry including the production of wheat, maize, and rice,” said Morris.

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette,</a> <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Newly discovered barley gene could help cultivate drought resistant crops

The discovery of a gene in the barley plant could...

Researchers find no link between testosterone and a lack of cognitive empathy. Boys are four times more likely to be diagnosed with autism compared to girls, according to the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html">Centers for Disease Control</a>, but researchers have yet to understand why this disproportion exists.  

In one of the largest studies of its kind, researchers from the <a href="https://home.www.upenn.edu/">University of Pennsylvania</a> and the <a href="https://www.uwo.ca/">Western University</a> have confidently ruled out any direct link between testosterone and a lack of cognitive empathy <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/autism-less-empathy/">characteristic of some spectrum disorders.</a> 

 The researchers conducted two randomized controlled studies exploring how testosterone impacts cognitive empathy, which allows people to interpret another’s emotions. 

 It’s been suggested by past research that testosterone can limit cognitive empathy, but studies on the subject were limited by small sample sizes and had inconclusive results. 

For this study, 643 men, all in good health, were given either testosterone or a placebo. Next, the participants were asked to complete questionnaires and behavioral tasks to measure cognitive empathy. 

In one experiment, the participants had to guess the emotional state and expression of an actor by looking at a picture of their eyes. 

The testosterone, applied as a gel, did raise hormone levels, but the researchers found no evidence of the gel impairing empathy or ability to answer the cognitive empathy test questions correctly.

“The results are plain,” said Nave. “However, it’s important to note that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. We found that there is no evidence to support this effect of testosterone, but that doesn’t rule out any possible effects. From what we know, though, it seems that if testosterone does have an influence, the effect is complex, not linear.” 

The researchers published their findings in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

--

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

Researchers find no link between testosterone and a lack of cognitive empathy

Researchers find no link between testosterone and a lack of...

In a project funded by <a href="https://www.nato.int/science/">NATO Science for Peace and Security</a>, experts are training bees to locate explosives, radioactive metals, and drugs. Under some circumstances, the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/world-without-bees-food-shortages/">bees</a> will be more useful than sniffer dogs because they can work longer with less financial investment. 

Dr. Ross Gillanders, a senior researcher at the University of St Andrews, helped develop equipment that detects whether the bees return to the hive with tiny traces of explosives. During early trials in Croatia, drones were used to locate the source of any small traces picked up by the bees.

The bees are trained to form an association between the scent of explosives and sugar water. This allows the bees to pick up on the scent of explosives, which they believe is nectar, from a distance of up to two kilometers. 

According to Dr. Gillanders, once the bees are trained and released they immediately seek out the explosives.

"Basically we teach them by a version of reward like you do with dogs," said Dr Gillanders. "The bees fly out of their hive to go about their normal day to day job of finding pollen but instead of finding pollen they find explosives. It's the sugar syrup, which draws them out."

"However, after three days the bees realise that they aren't getting reward from the TNT and as a result are disinterested in it and look for other things." At this point, the bees must be re-trained to find explosives. 

In Croatia, real-world tests using honeybees from local hives began in 2017. Dr. Gillanders confirmed the bees found abandoned land mines and other explosives lost during The Croatian War of Independence, which was was fought from 1991 to 1995.

In the United States, bees were previously conditioned to detect explosives in vehicles at checkpoints. Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico trained honeybees to stick out their proboscis, the tube they use to feed on nectar, when explosives were detected. 

In 2015, researchers at the University of Cologne proposed that bees could eventually replace dogs for drug detection at airports. 

The results in Croatia suggest that honeybees could help to clear millions of abandoned mines around the world that put thousands of lives at risk.

According to oneybees will be ready for deployment searching out the mines in between five and ten years and have already been trained to identify other dangerous or illicit materials.

The study is published in the <a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/bul/">Psychological Bulletin</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/SorasakPhotoDreams

Scientists train sniffer bees to detect explosives and radioactive materials

In a project funded by NATO Science for Peace and...

The feeding habits of fruit flies provide more insight into human diets. Scientists at <a href="https://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/">Kyoto University</a> have investigated the diverse diet of the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/fruit-fly-smell/">fruit fly</a>, Drosophila melanogaster. The team discovered that this diversity is tied to the fly's flexible response to carbohydrates, which provides new insight into how the human diet evolved.

Species such as humans and fruit flies are collectively known as "nutritional generalists" because we eat a wide variety of foods. Some genetic cousins of the fruit fly, however, are known as "nutritional specialists" because they require very specific plants for survival. The feeding habits of fruit flies provide more insight into human diets

The researchers set out to gain a better understanding of how organisms have such different feeding habits, even when they are genetically related.

"Uncovering the differences in the molecular mechanisms between nutritional generalists and specialists can help us understand how organisms adapt to variable nutritional environments," said the study authors. "In our investigation, we changed the nutrient balance in the food of different Drosophila species and compared their nutritional adaptability along with their transcriptional and metabolic responses."

The team evaluated whether larvae of generalists and specialists could adapt to three experimental diets that were high in protein, high in carbohydrates, or had a moderate mix of the two. The generalist flies, including the common fruit fly, were found to grow and thrive with all three diets. 

On the other hand, the larvae of specialists could not survive on a carbohydrate-rich diet. The researchers examined the nutritional composition of the fruits and flowers that are usually eaten by the specialists, and determined that they have low-carbohydrate profiles.  

The team theorized that the difference between the generalist and specialist flies resides in the genetic pathways that control their response to carbohydrates.

"A signaling pathway known as 'TGF-β/Activin signaling' regulates the body's response to carbohydrates. In the generalists, this pathway is quite flexible and maintains metabolic homeostasis under different diets. In fact, there are about 250 metabolic genes that are downregulated when their diet is carbohydrate-rich," explained the researchers. 

By contrast, the specialist flies expressed these genes at higher levels where they accumulated metabolites, which led to a lack of adaptation. When a gene in the TGF-β/Activin pathway named dawdle was disabled in the common fruit fly, the same lack of adaptation was observed. 

The findings suggest that generalists were constantly under pressure to retain carbohydrate-responsive systems throughout their evolution, while specialists must have been surrounded by low-carbohydrate environments.

"Considering that humans and flies share a number of genes and regulatory factors, we can begin to develop an interspecies comparative approach that provides an informative model system for addressing the genetic variability among humans in response to dietary intakes," concluded the researchers. 

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/home">Cell Reports</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/Claudia Evans

The feeding habits of fruit flies provide more insight into human diets

The feeding habits of fruit flies provide more insight into...

The interaction between <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/size-community-complexity-language/">language</a> and thought is a concept that has long challenged neuroscientists and philosophers, who have been working to determine whether language shapes the way we categorize what we perceive or if language corresponds with categories that are formed through perception.

In a recent case study, a stroke patient was left unable to name the colors of various objects. This provided experts with an opportunity to explore the patient's perception of color in the absence of language. 

Study senior author Paolo Bartolomeo is a neurologist at the Brain and Spine Institute in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piti%C3%A9-Salp%C3%AAtri%C3%A8re_Hospital">Salpêtrière Hospital</a> in Paris.

"We perceive colors as continuous. There is no sharp boundary between, say, red and blue. And yet conceptually we group colors into categories associated with color names," explained Dr. Bartolomeo. "In our study, we had the unique opportunity to address the role of language in color categorization by testing a patient who couldn't effectively name colors after a stroke."

Many scientists believe that, in order to categorize colors, an individual needs top-down input from the language system to the visual cortex. Color names are believed to be stored in the brain's left hemisphere, and are thought to be dependent on language-related activity in the left side of the brain.

By contrast, the latest findings suggest that color categorization is distributed bilaterally in the human brain - a concept that is further supported by recent neuroimaging studies.

As the patient viewed discs containing two colors from the same category, such as two shades of blue, he was asked to identify same-category colors. The patient was also asked to name 34 color patches presented on a computer screen.

The stroke had created a lesion in the left region of the man's brain that had apparently severed his memory of color names from his visual perception of colors and his language system. However, the patient was still able to group most colors, including those that he did not have a name for, into dark, light, and mixture categories.

"We were surprised by his ability to consistently name so-called achromatic colors such as black, white, and gray, as opposed to his impaired naming of chromatic ones such as red, blue, and green," said study first author Katarzyna Siuda-Krzywicka. This indicates that our language system may process black, white, and gray differently from chromatic colors. 

According to Siuda-Krzywicka, such striking dissociations raise important questions about how different color-related signals are segregated and integrated in the brain. She pointed out that future studies could explore the implementation of color categorization in non-human primates, as well as how language acquisition interacts with color categorization at stages of childhood development.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/home">Cell Reports</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/PeterPhoto123

Language may not be needed for the brain to categorize objects and colors

The interaction between language and thought is a concept that...

Vintage Antarctic radar film shows ice shelf is melting faster than realized. Radar data captured on 35-millimeter film in the 1970s and newly digitized has provided researchers with a rare look at the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/antarctic-glacier-cavity-collapse/">Thwaites Glacier</a> ice shelf in West Antarctica. 

The film doubled the records of Antarctic monitoring data in terms of how far back researchers can go into the history of Antarctica’s ice shelf.  

A team of researchers from <a href="https://www.stanford.edu/">Stanford University</a> and <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">Cambridge University</a> was able to digitize the radar data taken during flight surveys recorded between 1971 and 1979. 

Not only does the film provide a further look back into the history of Antarctica’s ice shelf, but the researchers found that the Thwaites Glacier ice shelf is thawing faster than previously realized. 

“You can really see the geometry over this long period of time, how these ocean currents have melted the ice shelf - not just in general, but exactly where and how,” said Dustin Schroeder, the lead author of the study. “When we model ice sheet behavior and sea-level projections into the future, we need to understand the processes at the base of the ice sheet that made the changes we’re seeing.” 

Future studies can use the data to compare modern radar data with baseline conditions during the 70s to track changes and melting over 40 years, which will help with future sea-level rise projections. Vintage Antarctic radar film shows ice shelf is melting faster than realized

The radar data shows a world covered in ice, including mountains, lakes, and volcanoes that lie beneath Antarctica’s surface. 

The researchers were able to identify ash layers from volcanic eruptions and areas where the ice is thinnest due to water eroding the bottom of the ice shelf.  

“By having this record, we can now see these areas where the ice shelf is getting thinnest and could break through,” said Schroeder. “This is a pretty hard-to-get-to area, and we’re really lucky that they happened to fly across this ice shelf.” 

The film and the findings show how important historical data and accurate records are in informing our understanding of Antarctica and to future climate projections. 

It may be old data, but it’s still extremely valuable, according to the researchers.  

“It was surprising how good the old data is,” said Schroeder. “They were very careful and thoughtful engineers, and it’s much richer, more modern looking, than you would think.”

The study was published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1821646116">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Courtesy of Dustin Schroeder

Vintage Antarctic radar film shows ice shelf is melting faster than realized

Vintage Antarctic radar film shows ice shelf is melting faster...

Plant gene breakthrough can help battle fertilizer pollution in waterways. Researchers from <a href="https://btiscience.org/">Boyce Thompson Institute</a> (BTI) have figured out the function of a pair of genes in plants that could aid farmers in phosphate capture and reduce fertilizer pollution in waterways, which is currently a massive environmental issue that can lead to mass fish die-offs among other problems.

This new discovery is published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/nplants/">Nature Plants</a>.

Researchers built off of BTI Professor Maria Harrison’s prior work on plants’ symbiotic relationships with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. AM fungi occupy a plant’s roots and allows a plant to trade fatty acids for phosphate and <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/nitrogen-runoff-killing-coral/">nitrogen</a>. AM fungi can also aid plants in recovering from stressful situations like drought. But because the AM fungi colonization is so costly, the plants pay close attention to the process.

To better understand how plants control AM fungi colonization, Harrison and colleague Lena Müller studied genes that encode short proteins called CLE peptides in two plants — Medicago truncatula and Brachypodium distachyon. These CLE peptides are important to cell development and response to stress, and they are used by a majority of plants throughout the plant kingdom.

Harrison and Müller found that two CLE genes are key modulators of the AM fungal symbiosis. One of said CLE genes, CLE53, reduces colonization rates once the roots of a plant have already been colonized, and the other, CLE33, reduces colonization rates when there is copious amounts of phosphate available to the colonized plant.

"Being able to control fungal colonization levels in plant roots and maintain the symbiosis even in higher phosphate conditions might be useful to a farmer," Harrison said. "For example, you may want the other beneficial effects of AM fungi, like nitrogen uptake and recovery from drought, as well as further uptake of phosphate.”

"You might be able to achieve these benefits by altering the levels of these CLE peptides in the plants," she added.

Müller saw the CLE peptides act via a receptor protein called SUNN and modulate the plant’s synthesis of strigolactone, which is a compound exuded by plant roots that stimulates AM fungi to grow and occupy the root. Then, once the roots are colonized or receive enough phosphate, the CLE genes suppress the synthesis of strigolactone and restrict colonization.

"In the early 2000's, researchers found that plants had a way to measure and then reduce colonization," Müller said. "But until now, nobody really understood the molecular mechanism of that dynamic."

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Mike Carroll/BTI

Plant gene breakthrough can help battle fertilizer pollution in waterways

Plant gene breakthrough can help battle fertilizer pollution in waterways....

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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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



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

[sendtonews key="EjmSP20gQK-2593093-12187" 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 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



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

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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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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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