Most of us have heard a parent or grandparent say, “Time goes by faster every year,” while shaking their head at how quickly July 4 seems to roll around. 



When you’re twelve, however, the brain has a different perception of time - the wait for summer vacation feels endless, and a single school day can feel as slow as a traffic jam in August heat.



That gap between the child’s long afternoon and the adult’s lightning-fast month isn’t just storytelling, it’s how our brain's perception of time changes, altering the way it measures all of the moments that make up our lives.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-first-vs-fresh-experiences">First vs. fresh experiences</h2>



Children cram their days with firsts: a first dive into the pool, a first try at long division, a first sleepover away from home.



These fresh experiences swarm the brain with new images to file away, stretching the subjective length of a single afternoon.



Adults, by contrast, tend to replay <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/extreme-heat-impacts-our-daily-routines-and-transportation/">familiar routines</a>. With fewer novel snapshots to store, the days collapse into something closer to a highlight reel than a feature film.



According to psychologist Marc Wittmann at the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health <a href="https://igpp.de/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">(IGPP</a>), the feeling that time accelerates is tightly linked to how much new material our brains record each day.



He points out that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/memory-clutter-speeds-up-aging-in-the-brain/">memory</a> and time perception sit on the same neural bench; when one slows, the other shrinks. "Newness" holds the key to this phenomenon.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-human-brain-and-time-perception">Human brain and time perception</h2>



Whenever a brain encounters something it has never processed before, a quick surge of attention flags the event as worth keeping. The more flags raised, the thicker the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/human-brains-use-storage-trick-to-keep-your-memories-in-sequential-order/">memory log</a> becomes, and the longer that span later feels.



Kids, still green to nearly everything, throw flags left and right. A lunchroom joke, a new word in science class, or a game of tag - each registers as its own small chapter.



Adults often glide through copy-and-paste days that differ only by the date on the calendar. With fewer chapters recorded, the book of any given week reads as a short story.



Research using immersive virtual reality in 2024 showed that older volunteers underestimated simple time intervals by roughly 15 percent, highlighting how novelty <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S096800042300302X" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sharpens the inner clock</a>.



Routine doesn’t just compress the past; it also drains the present.



Studies tracking holiday seasons in several countries found that people who stuck to predictable daily rhythms felt that Christmas or Ramadan arrived sooner every year, while those who sprinkled in new activities reported a slower march toward the festivities.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-brain-processing-speed-linked-with-time">Brain processing speed linked with time</h2>



Every sensation has to travel from eye or ear to cortex. In youngsters, those <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/speech-pattern-wfd-that-is-a-clear-indication-a-person-is-in-cognitive-decline/">neural highways</a> are short and well-paved. As bodies grow, the routes lengthen, and the conduction speed though still quick can’t match its earlier zip.



Add natural age-related slowing of signal processing and the brain starts sampling the world less often each second.



Fewer samples mean fewer “ticks” on the subjective stopwatch, so a morning meeting seems to vanish faster for a forty-year-old than for a fourth grader.



This sampling <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-link-pupil-dilation-to-brains-working-memory-levels/">shows up in the eyes</a>. Our eyes jerk from point to point in rapid saccades, pausing in brief fixations while the brain grabs a visual frame.



Young, rested eyes squeeze in more fixations per minute. Older or fatigued eyes lag, offering the brain fewer still frames to stitch together. With a thinner film strip, the projection of the day speeds along.



Scientists studying eye movements liken perception to a flipbook. Each fixation is a page; flip them fast enough and you see smooth action.



When fixations slow, the flipbook loses pages. Motion still appears, but the storyline gets choppy, and, in recall, it shortens.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-sleep-and-alertness">Sleep and alertness</h2>



A single night of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sleep-can-boost-memory-in-a-surprising-way/">good sleep</a> can pull the brake on runaway days. When neurons are well-rested, they fire faster, notice more, and form clearer memories.



Athletes know the flip side: stepping onto the field after too little shut-eye makes the whole match blur. The plays happen, but the mind records only a highlight or two before the final whistle.



Students grinding through an all-nighter meet the same fate - an exam that seems to finish moments after it starts.



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/what-is-the-best-treatment-for-excessive-daytime-sleepiness/">Chronic fatigue</a> magnifies the effect. Continually short-changing rest lowers baseline alertness, trimming snapshots day after day.



Over months, life can feel like it’s slipping through the cracks, not because the clock sped up but because the recorder slowed down.



<a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/dopamine-the-pathway-to-pleasure" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dopamine</a>, a neurotransmitter tied to motivation and time estimation, also dips with sleep debt, further warping the <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1364166/full" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sense of duration</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-social-media-and-lost-time-perception">Social media and lost time perception</h2>



Endless feeds promise variety, yet most algorithms serve look-alike posts. Swipe through video after video of the same dance trend, and the brain barely registers a change.



Hours evaporate while the memory log remains nearly blank. Compound that with the blue-light-induced bedtime delay, and you have a double punch: fewer snapshots captured and fewer hours slept.



Cutting back on passive scrolling or swapping it for an activity with genuine novelty - trying a new recipe, learning a chord on guitar - feeds the brain more distinct moments. Those moments stretch subjective time, turning a blur of an evening into something that feels full.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-with-age-comes-responsibility">With age comes responsibility</h2>



Beyond slower processing, adults juggle long lists of responsibilities. Focus narrows to tasks at hand - emails, errands, budgets - scanning less of the environment for new input. Novelty drops, and subjective days shorten.



<a href="https://www.tiaa.org/public/institute/publication/2023/young-adults-their-attitudes-and-outlook-toward-retirement-and-the-future" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">A 2023 survey</a> comparing young adults with retirees found that the older group reported the year as “rushing by” nearly twice as often, linking the feeling to the predictability of daily routines rather than to health issues.



Even so, not every senior feels the rush. Researchers tracking so-called “<a href="https://www.nm.org/healthbeat/healthy-tips/4-habits-super-agers" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">super-agers</a>” note that those who keep learning new skills and staying socially engaged maintain sharper senses of time, along with stronger memory performance. Variety keeps the brain’s camera clicking.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-use-your-brain-to-slow-time-perception">Use your brain to slow time perception</h2>



Here's the good news - the tools to lengthen your days fit into ordinary life. Go to bed on a schedule that honors the seven-to-nine-hour rule.



Plan at least one activity each week that forces you out of autopilot: a different jogging route, a museum you’ve never visited, a new language app.



While doing it, pay close attention to sights, sounds, and textures. Engagement packs extra snapshots into the mental album.



Stay curious daily. Swap a lunchtime scroll for a short walk and notice five things you’ve never clocked before - a mural, a bird call, the scent of a bakery vent.



Those micro-discoveries add pages to the flipbook, expanding the subjective afternoon. Over time, the habit can "thicken" the memory book that tells the story of a year, making December feel like it belongs twelve full months away, right where the calendar says it should be.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-review/article/why-the-days-seem-shorter-as-we-get-older/2CB8EC9B0B30537230C7442B826E42F1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">European Review</a>.



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Scientists explain why time seems to move faster and 'fly by' as we age

Most of us have heard a parent or grandparent say, “Time goes by faster every year,” while shaking their head at how quickly July 4 seems to roll around. When you’re twelve, however, the brain has a different perception of time - the wait for summer vacation feels endless, and a single school day can feel as slow as a traffic jam in August heat. That gap between the child’s long afternoon and the adult’s lightning-fast month isn’t just storytelling, it’s how our brain's perception of time...

For decades, scientists have believed that the organs and structures within a living cell simply float around in the cytoplasm. A new study turns this on its head, discovering that cell structures are actually organized into a sort of “cell-wide web” that carries signals throughout the cell.

"We found that cell function is coordinated by a network of nanotubes, similar to the carbon nanotubes you find in a computer microprocessor,” Dr. Mark Evans of the <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/">University of Edinburgh</a> said in a press release.

The discovery changes our entire understanding of how cells are structured. Previously, cells were thought to send signals like waves through the cytoplasm. But the Edinburgh team found that signals move across a network structured similarly to a computer’s circuit board. 

Unlikely in a computer, however, the cell-wide web is plastic – it can rapidly restructure its communication network as needed.

The Edinburgh team discovered the cell-wide web by studying how calcium-charged move within each cell using high-powered microscopes and computer algorithms similar to those used by Katie Bouman and her team to reveal an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIvezCVcsYs">image of a black hole</a>.

"The most striking thing is that this circuit is highly flexible, as this cell-wide web can rapidly reconfigure to deliver different outputs in a manner determined by the information received by and relayed from the nucleus,” Evans said. “This is something no man-made microprocessors or circuit boards are yet capable of achieving."

Each signal gives the nucleus information that signal slight changes in structure. The changes then dictate which genes are switched on and off. For example, when a cell moves into its growth phase, the cell-wide web is reconfigured to turn on the genes that trigger growth.

Scientists hope that understanding the code cells use to transmit signals will help doctors understand diseases like cancer and pulmonary hypertension, and maybe even open up new treatments.

The study has been published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10055-w">Nature Communications</a>.

—

By Kyla Cathey, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Image Credit: The University of Edinburgh

'Cell-wide web' carries signals throughout cell structure

For decades, scientists have believed that the organs and structures...

A polymer cube that reacts to light and shadow is actually a nature-inspired computer that can perform basic addition and subtraction.

Researchers at <a href="https://www.mcmaster.ca/">McMaster University</a> were inspired by how plants turn to capture sunlight and cuttlefish change their skin for camouflage when they created the tiny cube, about the size of a die used in board games.

The translucent cube is filled with an amber-colored polymer that transforms from a liquid to a gel when researchers shine bands of layered light into the cube’s sides.

"These are autonomous materials that respond to stimuli and do intelligent operations," Dr. Kalaichelvi Saravanamuttu, who supervised the project, said in a press release. "We're very excited to be able to do addition and subtraction this way, and we are thinking of ways to do other computational functions."

The polymer cube is the basis for an entirely new form of computing. While the cube can only perform some very basic functions now, the team believes it can form the foundation for a much more complex and useful technology, perhaps one that would be organized like a neural network.

The team shined a neutral carrier beam through the cube to a camera that would read how the polymer refracted the light. The light would be refracted through the polymer in a variety of complex patterns; interpreting those patterns gave the team the results of their simple equations.

“Data input as binary (dark-bright) strings generate a unique distribution of filament geometries, which corresponds to the result of a specific operation,” the team wrote in their paper.

The students used a branch of chemistry called nonlinear dynamics – which engineers light-reactive materials – to conceive of the new polymer.

They're not the only researchers looking at light as a potential way to improve computer technology. Researchers at <a href="https://home.dartmouth.edu/">Dartmouth College</a> are looking at how to use light to <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/scientists-are-using-light-to-speed-up-the-internet/">speed data transfers</a>.

"We don't want to compete with existing computing technologies," said graduate student Fariha Mahmood, who co-authored the study. "We're trying to build materials with more intelligent, sophisticated responses."

Their research has been published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10166-4">Nature Communications</a>.

—

By Kyla Cathey, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Image credit: McMaster University

New technology uses light, polymer cube for computing

A polymer cube that reacts to light and shadow is...

Scientists have found a surprisingly large amount of frozen water buried beneath the sandy surface of Mars, according to two new studies published in the <a href="https://sites.agu.org/">American Geophysical Union’s</a> journal Geophysical Research Letters. 

The ice sheets are sandwiched between layers of sand, similar to the layers of a cake, and these layers provide evidence that the ice caps on <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/venus-mars-insight-earth/">Mars</a> declined and increased depending on the planet’s tilt. 

There is enough frozen water buried beneath the surface that if the ice were to melt it would create a planet-wide layer of water five feet deep. 

The discovery was made by researchers from the <a href="https://www.utexas.edu/">University of Texas at Austin</a> and the <a href="https://www.arizona.edu/">University of Arizona</a> who reviewed and analyzed measurements taken by <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mro/">Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter</a>. 

Not only does the data show rich deposits of ice comprised of 90 percent water in some areas, but the icy strata are also reliable indicators of past climate on Mars. Studying the layers could help researchers in their quest to determine if there was once life on the Red Planet. 

“We didn’t expect to find this much water ice here,” said Stefano Nerozzi, the lead author of the new study. “That likely makes it the third largest water reservoir on Mars after the polar ice caps.”

Nerozzi’s findings were corroborated by a second independent study conducted by researchers from <a href="https://www.jhu.edu/">John Hopkins University </a>who used gravity rather than radar to examine the composition of Mars. 

It’s long been theorized that Mars was once home to robust ice caps that shrank as the planet tilted toward the sun, but until now evidence of these ice caps has been challenging to find. 

It was even thought that Mars’ ice caps completely vanished, but the new studies show that ancient layers still linger, protected by sand. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: SA/DLR/FU Berlin; NASA MGS MOLA Science Team

Surprising amount of frozen water found beneath the surface of Mars

Scientists have found a surprisingly large amount of frozen water...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/facial-recognition-technology/">Facial recognition software</a> is now being used to help conservationists identify wild pandas in China. Tracking and monitoring these critically endangered animals can be challenging because of the extremely similar markings and faces that many pandas have.

To remedy this problem, researchers from the <a href="https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g1169756-d1795796-Reviews-China_Conservation_and_Research_Center_for_the_Giant_Panda-Wenchuan_County_Sichu.html">China Conservation and Research Center</a> for Giant Pandas started a facial recognition project in 2017, according to <a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-05/17/c_138066845.htm">Xinhua News</a>. 

Now, the Research Center has a database of 120,000 photos and 10,000 video clips. So far, 10,000 of the images have been annotated, analyzed, sorted and categorized. 

By filtering through thousands of panda images, the software will be able to cross-reference the database and identify a specific panda. 

The goal of the facial recognition project is to have a better way to collect data, track specific pandas, and monitor both wild and captive panda populations. 

“The app and database will help us gather more precise and well-rounded data on the population, distribution, ages, gender ratio, birth and deaths of wild pandas, who live in deep mountains and are hard to track,” Chen Peng, a researcher who is working on the project told Xinhua News. “It will definitely help us improve efficiency and effectiveness in conservation and management of the animals.” 

To see the software in action, visitors to the Conservation and Research Center can download the app, scan a panda’s face, and learn more information about the animals currently in captivity there. 

Pandas are one of the species most vulnerable to climate change. Like the polar bear, it’s continued existence is reliant on its preferred habitat and food sources. 

Bamboo makes up the majority of a panda’s diet, but habitat degradation due to climate change, deforestation, and urban sprawl are all threatening bamboo stocks. 

--

By<a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com"> Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Facial recognition software is being used for panda conservation in China

Facial recognition software is now being used to help conservationists...

For humans, it may seem obvious that gender is controlled by genetics.  For other animals, it’s not always the case. Research shows that in sea turtles and crocodilians, males and females are genetically identical.  Instead of a difference in chromosomes in boys and girls, the temperature at which eggs develop are involved in determining the gender of these young reptiles.

I volunteered for five months on Equatorial Guinea collecting sea turtle nest data.  One of the data points we collected was the temperature of different nests. Nests laid on the same beach at roughly the same time can vary.  <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-sea-turtles/">Sea turtles</a> often seem to have different ideas of how far in to nest. Most turtles would haul themselves tediously over the beach right to the edge of the forest, but a few went only half that distance.  It’s easy to see how a nest partially shaded by palm trees would be cooler than one buried in sand directly under the blazing sun. 

According to the <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/temperature-dependent.html">National Ocean Service</a>, in most species of sea turtle, eggs that incubate below 81.86 °F (~27.7°C) will hatch male turtles, while eggs incubated above 87.8 F (~31°C) will hatch female turtles.  Those nests that fluctuate somewhere between these outside temperatures will hatch a mix of male and female turtles. Crocodilians (alligators, caimans, crocodiles and gharials) have similar sex determination.  

According to a study in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/srep18581">Nature</a>, the American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) has eggs that develop baby alligators with different genders depending on the temperature.  Alligator eggs incubated during the critical period at 33 °C (~91.4°F) give rise to male offspring.  Eggs incubated below 30 °C (~80°F) give rise to female alligators. Interestingly, there’s a large amount of diversity among reptiles on how sex is determined.

Oddly, some turtles have gender determined by chromosomes, as opposed to most that are determined by temperature.

Black Marsh Turtles (Siebenrockiella crassicollis) are mostly dark but with whitish markings along the borders of their shells and a white pattern on their faces.  The black marsh turtle is native to Southeast Asia where it lives in slow moving water with abundant plants, eating snails, tadpoles, almost any small animal.  The Black Marsh Turtle is also the first turtle to be discovered with X and Y chromosomes.

Gender in Black Marsh Turtles is determined the same way it is in humans.  Females have two X chromosomes, one from each parent. Males have one X chromosome from mom and one Y chromosome from dad.  In other turtle species, the chromosomal system is different, these turtles have Z and W chromosomes. Males have two Z chromosomes, one from each parent.  Females are the odd ones in this case with a Z chromosome from dad and a W chromosome from mom. The differences in how chromosomes determine gender and the fact that some turtles are dependent on temperature to determine gender is telling.

Some other reptiles like the Green Iguana (Iguana iguana) have regular X and Y chromosomes like humans do to determine gender, according to <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/experts-temperature-sex-determination-reptiles/">Scientific American</a>.  Others as we’ve seen have no genetic differences between males and females at all.  Instead, gene expression is changed by temperature, turning female or male gene expression ‘on’ or ‘off’ depending.  The expression of genes is an interesting phenomena, as there are parts of any individual organism’s genome that aren’t expressed at any given time.  Sometimes partial expression of different genes combine to create a sort of hybrid gene expression. Sometimes environmentally controlled gene expression can be more important than non-environmentally expressed genes.  

In some lizards, sex is determined not just by a chromosome and not just by temperature but instead a combination of the two.  Australian skinks (Bassiana duperreyi) are one of the strange reptiles that falls somewhere in the middle between fully dependent on temperature for gender determination and those where sex chromosomes determine gender.  

Australian skinks have X and Y chromosomes, much like humans.  Two X chromosomes generally make a female skink while one of each usually makes a male skink.  I qualify these statements because gender determination in Australian Skinks is a bit complicated.  A <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2009/06/05/skinks-set-their-sex-in-three-ways-genes-temperature-and-egg-size/#.XLth9RplChA">few studies</a> have changed what we know about gender determination in reptiles.  

Australian Skink eggs that have XX chromosomes will develop into male lizards at low temperatures, despite the female chromosomes.  In Australian Dragon Lizards, the situation is a little different. In Dragon Lizards, ZZ chromosomes indicate a genotypic male. Under high incubation temperatures, ZZ lizards can develop into females.  There are some even stranger details in the gender of Australian skinks. 

It turns out that the amount of yolk in an egg plays some role in the sex determination of Australian skinks. Researchers noticed that larger eggs were more likely to develop into female lizards, so they took some pregnant skinks back to the lab.  Under a controlled setting, the eggs were slightly modified. Some eggs had an injection of egg yolk, making them larger. Some eggs had yolk removed until they were as light as the smallest eggs found naturally.  The eggs were then incubated to see how they’d develop. 

It turned out that the amount of yolk in an egg could determine gender in the Australian skinks.  The eggs with less yolk were less likely to survive the process, while those with more yolk were generally successful.  Still, the study showed undeniably that more yolk meant a much greater probability that the lizard would develop into a female while less yolk meant a much greater chance of a male lizard hatching.  

There are still plenty of studies to be done on gender determination in reptiles and who knows what we’ll find.  In the debate over nature versus nurture, it’s clear that genes are important. It’s also clear that in some organisms, environment can make determinations on things as fundamental as gender.  Some lizard mothers have a lot of control over their offspring, controlling which sperm they use to fertilize their eggs. 

We may think of lizards and other reptiles as ‘simple’ or ‘primitive’ life forms, but reproduction and gene expression is one of the many pieces of complex life histories in reptiles.                                       

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Image Credit: Shutterstock

In reptiles, gender can be determined in some unusual ways

For humans, it may seem obvious that gender is controlled...

The study of genomics, eukaryotic biology, and evolution have all been changing and advancing as a result of genome references from model organisms such as <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/fruit-flies-travel-miles/">fruit flies</a>, yeast, and worms. A near-complete reference genome for any such model organism can answer a number of important scientific questions.

Transparent nematodes known as Caenorhabditis elegans have been very widely studied due to the fact they provide a simple invertebrate animal model and have a short generation time. Despite being one of the first multicellular organisms sequenced, there are still knowledge gaps in the reference genome of C. elegans.

Three studies published by the <a href="https://www.cshlpress.com/">Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</a> are providing brand new insights into the gene expression of C. elegans. Advances in genome sequencing technologies are paving the way for longer reads which have facilitated genome assembly, finishing, and the sequencing of highly repetitive regions.

In one study, researchers used a combination of short- and long-read assemblies to improve upon the reference genome of a modern strain of C. elegans. Compared to the previous genome, the new sequence has an additional two million nucleotides and about 50 new genes.

A second project used long-read sequencing to construct a high-quality reference genome of a wild C. elegans strain for comparative studies. When compared against a laboratory strain, the researchers discovered more than 600 genes that had diverged in the wild strain.

Understanding when and where these genes are expressed is key to learning how an organism developed and how tissues carry out their specific functions. 

This growing collection of research will ultimately expand the usefulness of C. elegans as a model organism and will provide biologists with important data. 

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://genome.cshlp.org/">Genome Research</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: Marie-Anne Félix, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France

Rapidly advancing technology for genomic studies is improving resources

The study of genomics, eukaryotic biology, and evolution have all...

The difference between the Moon’s hemispheres has been a mystery for researchers since the Apollo missions first put people on the Moon and <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/">NASA</a> realized that the far side of the Moon and the side facing the Earth were very different. 

When the <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/gravity-recovery-and-interior-laboratory-grail/">Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission</a> in 2012 revealed that the crust is thicker on the far side of the Moon, it was suggested that either a dwarf planet in orbit around the sun <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/space-rock-moon-january-eclipse/">collided into the Moon</a> or that the Earth once had two moons that collided into each other. 

In a new study published in the <a href="https://sites.agu.org/">American Geophysical Union’s</a> Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, researchers analyzed data from the GRAIL mission to help solve the mystery of the Moon’s hemispheres and contrasting topography. 

Meng Hua Zhu from the <a href="https://www.must.edu.mo/en/ssi-old">Space Science Institute at Macau University of Science and Technology </a>and a team of researchers used data from the GRAIL mission to test 360 computer simulations of different giant impact scenarios with the Moon. 

“The detailed gravity data obtained by GRAIL has given new insight into the structure of the lunar crust underneath the surface,” Zhu said.

The most realistic scenario involved a large body 480 miles in diameter colliding into the near side of the Moon at 14,000 miles per hour. 

But this object was likely not a second moon but a dwarf planet or similar sized body that was in orbit around the sun and got pulled into the Moon’s path. 

An impact of that extent would have kicked up a large amount of dust and debris that would have later settled on the far side of the Moon, which helps explain the added layer of crust. 

“Understanding the origin of the differences between the nearside and the farside of the Moon is a fundamental issue in lunar science,” said Steve Hauck, the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. “Indeed, several planets have hemispherical dichotomies, yet for the Moon we have a lot of data to be able to test models and hypotheses with, so the implications of the work could likely be broader than just the Moon.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Collision with a dwarf planet likely shaped the Moon we know today

The difference between the Moon’s hemispheres has been a mystery...

From humans to sea cucumbers, most living organisms are equipped with a host of genes that work as <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plants-protect-sun-damage/">DNA repair and first aid kits</a>. These specific repair processes have evolved to prevent harmful gene mutations like those that lead to cancer. 

Without these safeguards, you would think that an organism would have little chance to evolve or thrive. But researchers from <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/">Vanderbilt University</a> and the<a href="https://www.wisc.edu/"> University of Wisconsin-Madison</a> have discovered an ancient lineage of yeasts that are doing just that. 

A new study, published in the journal <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000255">PLOS Biology</a>, shows that the yeasts in the genus Hanseniaspora are lacking a large number of genes found in most other organisms but are quickly evolving and able to function well without them. 

What’s especially interesting is that many of the genes not present in the yeasts are responsible for DNA repair and without them, mutations have flourished in the yeasts. 

In humans, mutations of the genes lacking in the yeasts dramatically increase the risk of cancer. 

The researchers analyzed 25 genomes, 11 of which were newly sequenced, of budding yeasts belonging to the Hanseniaspora genus, which is closely related to baker’s yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. 

Two quickly evolving ancient lineages of Hanseniaspora which started diversifying 87 million years ago stuck out from the other genomes analyzed. These two had lower gene counts and genome sizes and significant losses of genes involved in DNA repair, but these losses had not slowed evolutionary progress. 

“It appears that, in genomic terms, Hanseniaspora are the yeast with the least,” said Jacob L. Steenwyk. “They have very small genomes and among the smallest numbers of genes of any species in the lineage.” 

The researchers discovered that the Hanseniaspora yeasts had undergone many more changes and mutations in their DNA compared to other yeasts. 

“The speed with which the genomes of these yeasts have mutated is unprecedented and their cell division appears to be extremely fast but also somewhat erratic -- a quantity-over-quality approach, so to speak,” said Antonis Rokas, a professor at Vanderbilt University who oversaw the project. 

The research can reveal valuable insight into how these yeasts evolved and how gene repair and gene mutation hinders or helps with evolution in different organisms. 

“We’re excited to continue studying Hanseniaspora yeasts,” said Steenwyk. “There’s a lot we can learn about life’s basic processes from these humble yeasts.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Without DNA repairing genes, ancient yeasts have accumulated many mutations

From humans to sea cucumbers, most living organisms are equipped...

An international team of researchers led by the <a href="http://www.manchester.ac.uk/">University of Manchester</a> has conducted a groundbreaking study which reveals fossilized color pigments in a long extinct mouse species.

The researchers applied X-ray imaging to three-million-year-old fossils in an effort to identify the key pigments in the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/new-fossil-earliest-known-bird/">ancient animals</a>. The experts looked for chemical signatures of specific red pigments to help determine how the colors may have evolved.

“The fossils we have studied have the vast potential to unlock many secrets of the original organism,” said study lead author Professor Phil Manning. “We can reconstruct key facets from life, death and the subsequent events impacting preservation before and after burial. To unpick this complicated fossil chemical archive requires an interdisciplinary team to combine their efforts to crack this problem. In doing this, we unlock much more than just palaeontological information.”

“This was a painstaking effort involving physics, palaeontology, organic chemistry, and geochemistry,” added study co-author Professor Roy Wogelius. “By working as a team, we were able, for the first time, to discover chemical traces of red pigment in fossil animal material. We understand now what to look for in the future and our hope is that these results will mean that we can become more confident in reconstructing extinct animals and thereby add another dimension to the study of evolution.”

Nearly ten years ago, the same research team found chemical traces of black pigment in well-preserved soft tissue. The red pigment found in animals such as foxes, however, is not as durable and is much more difficult to detect.

“We had data which suggested red pigment residue was present in several fossils, but there was no useful data available to compare this to in modern organisms. So we needed to devote several years to analyzing modern tissue before we could go back and review our results from some amazing fossil specimens,” said Professor Wogelius. “In the end, we were able to prove that detailed chemical analysis can resolve such pigment residue, but along the way we learned so much more about the chemistry of pigmentation throughout the animal kingdom.”

The key was identifying trace metals in the soft tissues of ancient organisms and comparing these to living species. The trace metals in the mouse fur were found to be bonded to organic chemicals in exactly the same way that these metals are bonded to organic pigments in animals with high concentrations of red pigment.

“Palaeontology offers research that is more than relevant to our everyday life,” said Professor Manning. “Information gleaned from the fossil record is influencing multiple fields, including; climate research, the burial of biowaste and radwaste, the measure of environmental impact of oil spills on living species with techniques developed on fossil organisms. Whilst our research is firmly anchored in the past, we set our sights on its application to the future."

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/ncomms/">Nature Communications</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: University of Manchester

Scientists identify red color pigments in ancient fossil for the first time

An international team of researchers led by the University of...

Bacteria can maneuver seamlessly through obstacles to get food. Understanding how <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bacteria-travel-thousands-miles/">bacteria move,</a> get around obstacles, and find food has a wide range of implications for advancements in antibacterial medicines, biology, and even robotics. 

Bacteria use a commonly known “swim and tumble” tactic to get food where bacteria will swim for a bit and then tumble in circles to reposition themselves to stay on course to their target. 

In a new study, researchers from <a href="https://www.cmu.edu/">Carnegie Mellon University</a>, <a href="https://www.pitt.edu/">the University of Pittsburgh</a>, and the <a href="https://www.salk.edu/">Salk Institute for Biological Studies</a> found that when confronted with obstacles, bacteria change up their swim and tumble tactics to quickly reach their goals.Bacteria can maneuver seamlessly through obstacles to get food 

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and is one of the first studies to investigate how obstacles impact bacteria chemotaxis (how a bacteria moves toward a food source). 

Even though bacteria are constantly faced with obstacles in the real world like the complicated gastrointestinal tract that E. coli move through, chemotaxis research has previously studied bacteria movement in unobstructed areas. 

This led to the premise that obstacles would slow down bacteria, and to test this, the researchers created a microfluidic chamber filled with evenly distributed obstacles which E. coli had to maneuver around. 

“Almost regardless of the obstacles, they got to the food almost as quickly as they did without obstacles,” said Sabrina Rashid, the lead author on the study. “The obstacles were not affecting the time they needed to reach food, as the previous models predicted.”

The bacteria changed up their behavior when faced with an obstacle, swimming more and tumbling in circles less. The bacteria also secreted chemicals to communicate with each other. 

After running the tests with the bacteria obstacle course, the researchers created a chemotaxis model to predict bacteria movements apply the behavior changes to rescue robot simulations working to find people trapped in the debris. 

The simulation showed that robot rescue units could maneuver around debris quicker using the different tactics of bacteria looking for food in an obstacle course. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Bacteria can maneuver seamlessly through obstacles to get food

Bacteria can maneuver seamlessly through obstacles to get food. Understanding...

The trillions of microorganisms that thrive in our gastrointestinal tract are essential to our health and immune system. Our bodies are teeming with bacteria, and a healthy gut needs these good microorganisms to help fend off harmful bacteria, break down food, and produce vitamins.

There has been a growing interest in the role gut flora play in mental health with studies suggesting <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/gut-health-depression/">depression and gut health are linked</a> through the “gut-brain axis.”

Some research has suggested that regulating gut bacteria could help improve mental disorders like anxiety, one of the most common mental illnesses in the US, but so far there has been little conclusive evidence to back these claims. 

Researchers from the <a href="http://www.smhc.org.cn/index_en.aspx">Shanghai Mental Health Center</a> at <a href="http://en.sjtu.edu.cn/">Shanghai Jiao Tong</a> reviewed 21 studies that assessed the impacts of probiotics and non-probiotic lifestyle changes on gut health and anxiety. 

In all, the 21 studies followed 1,5013 participants and 14 of the studies involved using probiotics while the other seven examined non-probiotic treatments like changing diet. 

Some of the studies using probiotics tried two or three kinds of probiotics while some only used one probiotic. 

Eleven out of 21 studies had positive results showing that regulating gut flora helped reduce anxiety symptoms. 

The researchers found that the 14 studies that tested probiotics were 36 percent effective in total at reducing anxiety, but 6 out of 7 of the non-probiotic studies were effective in reducing anxiety.

In all the studies reviewed, there was an overall trend of the non-probiotic dietary changes being more effective than probiotics, especially when participants in a study tried both simultaneously. 

According to the researchers, this is because changing a diet has a much more dramatic impact on improving and regulating the gut microbiota. 

The results suggest that there is an essential connection between gut health and mental health, but more research is needed to understand this link. 

Regulating gut bacteria could help reduce anxiety, but the researchers note that the study is observational with many limitations. 

The researchers detailed their findings in a study published in the journal <a href="http://gut.bmj.com/lookup/doi/10.1136/gpsych-2019-100056">General Psychiatry</a>. 

“There are two kinds of interventions (probiotic and non-probiotic interventions) to regulate intestinal microbiota, and it should be highlighted that the non-probiotic interventions were more effective than the probiotic interventions,” the researchers said. “More studies are needed to clarify this conclusion since we still cannot run meta-analysis so far.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com </a>Staff Writer

Regulating gut bacteria could be key to alleviating anxiety

The trillions of microorganisms that thrive in our gastrointestinal tract...

Researchers from the <a href="https://ucsd.edu/">University of California San Diego</a> and <a href="https://case.edu/">Case Western Reserve University</a> have discovered that a particular plant virus, called the Tobacco mild green mosaic virus, can help deliver pesticide molecules deeper into the ground to better treat pest infestations without damaging the environment.

"It sounds counterintuitive that we can use a plant virus to treat plant health," said senior author of the study, published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/nnano/">Nature Nanotechnology</a>, Nicole Steinmetz, a professor of nanoengineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. "This is an emerging field of research in nanotechnology showing that we can use plant viruses as pesticide delivery systems. It's similar to how we're using nanoparticles in medicine to target drugs towards sites of disease and reduce their side effects in patients."

The problem with <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/tomatoes-insect-resistant-genes/">pesticides</a> is that they are incredibly sticky molecules, and bind to organic material in the soil before getting a chance to penetrate deeper into the soil. Because of this, farmers often use more pesticides, thus harming the environment, including the groundwater.

To test the efficiency of Tobacco mild green mosaic virus, the team attached a model insecticide to different types of nanoparticles. They watered each one through columns of soil. Tobacco mild green mosaic virus performed the best, having carried the pesticide down to 30 centimeters below the soil surface while other nanoparticles were only able to penetrate 8 to 12 centimeters, or carry less than the Tobacco mild green mosaic could.

Tobacco mild green mosaic’s efficiency can most likely be explained by its nanoparticle geometry and surface chemistry — it has a tubular structure and has a surface chemistry of synthetic particles like PLGA and silica, making it interact differently with the soil in comparison to other nanoparticles.

[caption id="attachment_1872883" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/plant-virus.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1872883" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/plant-virus.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="433" /></a> Researchers test how far Tobacco mild green mosaic virus travels through a soil column. Image Credit: David Baillot/UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering[/caption]

"We're taking concepts we've learned from nanomedicine, where we're developing nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery, and applying them to agriculture," Steinmetz explained. "In the medical setting, we also see that nanocarriers with skinny, tubular shapes and diverse surface chemistries can navigate the body better. It makes sense that a plant virus can more easily penetrate and move through the soil — probably because that's where it naturally resides."

Furthermore, Tobacco mild green mosaic is benign to plants other than those in the nightshade family (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, etc.), and can only be transmitted by mechanical contact between plants rather than air. Therefore it can be used to treat fields without fear of it infecting other nearby crops.

Steinmetz and her team also developed a computer model that can be used to predict how pesticide nanocarriers will behave in soil. "Researchers working with a different plant virus or nanomaterial could use our model to determine how well their particle would work as a pesticide delivery agent," said first author Paul Chariou, a bioengineering PhD student in Steinmetz's lab at UC San Diego.

"It also cuts down on experimental workload," Chariou continued. "[Testing just one nanoparticle] takes at least one month. But with the model, it only took us about 10 soil columns and 4 days to test a new nanoparticle.”

The goal for Steinmetz and her team is to introduce Tobacco mild green mosaic virus into actual crops. But they will test it with various pesticide loads first before applying.

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Main Image Credit: David Baillot/UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering

This plant virus can actually help keep plants healthy and pest-free

Researchers from the University of California San Diego and Case...

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

[sendtonews key="G9bUoxcjr4-2511624-12187" 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 Lake Trasimeno, which is located west of Perugia in central Italy. It is the fourth largest lake in the country. While Trasimeno’s water level varies, it has a maximum depth of approximately six meters.&nbsp;



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



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



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

Kainji Lake in north central Nigeria

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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



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

Designing crops that can beat the heat

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

[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



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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



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The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain. The image was captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.



"Together with the provinces of Huesca and Teruel, Zaragoza formed the old kingdom of Aragon. Its capital, also called Zaragoza (not visible in this image) is home to around half of Aragon’s population," says ESA.



"The Ebro River can be seen winding its way through the province from west to east in this image. Between its source in the Cantabrian Mountains in the northwest and its delta on the Mediterranean coast, the Ebro River is fed by more than 200 tributaries as it flows 910 km across much of northern Spain."



Since rainfall is very scarce in this region, irrigation in the Ebro basin is critically important. In the valleys surrounding the Ebro River, many fields are used for growing crops such as corn, wheat, and barley.



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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

Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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

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

[sendtonews key="0dEcERCq61-2283382-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from Stowers...

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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



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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



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Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

[sendtonews key="QIoVYJqRBi-2434608-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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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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