Astronomers poring over new data from the James Webb Space Telescope have reported the most compelling hints yet that “dark stars,” cosmic behemoths fed by dark matter, really existed. 



A new <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2505.06101" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">analysis</a> of five ultra‑distant objects shows spectra and shapes that match simulations of dark <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/tiny-star-giant-gas-planet-toi-6894b-breaks-current-planetary-formation-rules/">stars</a> rather than ordinary fusion‑powered suns.



The candidates sit more than 13 billion light‑years away, meaning their light left them when the universe was only a few hundred million years old. 



The dark star <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/0705.0521" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">concept</a> was first introduced in 2007 by Katherine Freese and colleagues at the <a href="https://www.utexas.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Texas at Austin</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dark-matter-powering-giant-stars">Dark matter powering giant stars</h2>



Dark matter accounts for about 85 percent of the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/planet-forming-disks-surrounding-stars-often-last-much-longer-than-expected/">universe</a>’s mass but reveals itself only through gravity. Two decades of underground detectors have yet to capture a single dark‑matter particle, yet its invisible pull sculpts galaxies and galaxy clusters.



Freese proposed that in the first halos of gas, self‑annihilating dark‑matter particles could generate heat faster than the gas could cool, inflating stars that grow to millions of solar masses without ever igniting fusion. 



Once the local dark‑matter reservoir ran out, the stars would collapse, possibly forming black holes hefty enough to seed the earliest quasars.



Webb's infrared vision extends far enough redward to catch such ancient, swollen <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/massive-new-super-earth-kepler-725c-found-in-habitable-zone-around-its-star/">stars</a>, and its sensors have already revealed dozens of unexpectedly bright objects in the epoch known as Cosmic Dawn.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-webb-spotted-strange-ancient-stars">Webb spotted strange ancient stars</h2>



Freese’s team studied <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-sees-galaxy-mysteriously-clearing-fog-of-early-universe/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">JADES‑GS‑z11‑0, JADES‑GS‑z13‑0</a> and three even more distant specks, finding that each could be explained by a single dark star rather than a whole infant galaxy.



“If it’s real, then I don’t know how else you’d explain it other than with a dark star,” said Freese. A second clue comes from a tentative absorption dip at rest‑frame <a href="https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Sept15/Johnson/Johnson4.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">1,640 Å</a>, the signature of <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.6202" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">He II</a>, that appears in one spectrum and is predicted only for dark‑star atmospheres.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-some-doubt-the-dark-star-idea">Some doubt the dark star idea</h2>



Daniel Whalen of the <a href="https://www.port.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Portsmouth</a> studies massive stars forming without dark matter. He is not convinced about the existence of dark stars.



"They ignore an entire body of literature on the formation of supermassive primordial stars, some of which could give signatures very similar to the signatures that they show,” said Whalen. 



Whalen argues that rapid gas accretion alone can inflate stars to a million suns, and that Webb’s photometry cannot yet distinguish between such hot leviathans and Freese’s cooler, puffier dark stars.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dark-stars-may-explain-early-black-holes">Dark stars may explain early black holes</h2>



The debate matters because JWST and Chandra recently found a black hole in <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/missions/chandra/nasa-telescopes-discover-record-breaking-black-hole/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">galaxy UHZ‑1</a> whose mass approaches ten billion Suns just 500 million years after the big bang. Traditional growth models struggle to build such giants so fast. 



A dark star collapsing after millions of years would supply a head start that ordinary <a href="https://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/*/Population+III" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Population III stars</a> cannot match.



Supermassive primordial stars could also create big seeds, but they rely on rare <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/first-direct-image-cosmic-web-filaments-hidden-highways-universe-framework/">conditions</a> - pristine gas streams and intense ultraviolet fields - that may not occur often enough to explain the abundance of early quasars.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-light-signals-may-prove-dark-stars">Light signals may prove dark stars</h2>



The dark star candidates give off light that’s much cooler and puffier than expected from galaxies or fusion‑based suns, which means their spectral energy distribution should look unique. 



One telltale feature would be an absorption dip caused by <a href="https://physics.nist.gov/PhysRefData/Handbook/Tables/heliumtable4.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">singly ionized helium</a>, known as He II, at 1,640 Å. If confirmed, this dip could act like a fingerprint. In the Webb spectrum of <a href="https://esawebb.org/images/jades4/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">JADES‑GS‑z14‑0</a>, researchers spotted a faint signal that lines up with where the He II dip should appear.



However, the signal‑to‑noise ratio was just 2.4, which is barely above the threshold of what’s considered statistically meaningful. That makes it too early to declare the case closed. 



On top of that, observations from <a href="https://www.almaobservatory.org/en/home/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ALMA</a> spotted oxygen nearby, which shouldn't be present in pure dark stars. This could mean the dark star is part of a system with other stars, or something more complex is going on.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-future-research">Future research</h2>



One wrinkle is that ALMA detects oxygen in one candidate’s vicinity, implying metal‑rich companions that classic dark‑star theory does not expect. 



Future deep spectra will need to confirm whether the He II feature is genuine and whether metals truly permeate the system.



Webb keeps adding targets, and the <a href="https://roman.gsfc.nasa.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Roman Space Telescope</a> will survey wider areas, potentially catching hundreds of dark‑star‑like objects at redshifts beyond 14. 



For now, dark stars remain an intriguing, if unproven, explanation for several mysteries in the early universe.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://arxiv.org/html/2505.06101v1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.



Image Credit: Pierluigi Rinaldi / Rafael Navarro-Carrera / Pablo G. Pérez-González



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Signs of 'dark stars' discovered in the early universe

Astronomers poring over new data from the James Webb Space Telescope have reported the most compelling hints yet that “dark stars,” cosmic behemoths fed by dark matter, really existed. A new analysis of five ultra‑distant objects shows spectra and shapes that match simulations of dark stars rather than ordinary fusion‑powered suns. The candidates sit more than 13 billion light‑years away, meaning their light left them when the universe was only a few hundred million years old. The dark star concept was first introduced in 2007 by Katherine...

Dogs and other animals use their sense of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/fruit-fly-smell/">smell</a> to guide them toward desirable places and to steer them away from the places they need to avoid. Professor Jay Gottfried, a neurobiologist at the <a href="https://www.upenn.edu/">University of Pennsylvania</a>, set out to investigate whether humans also rely on odor information to help them navigate through the world. 

“Each of our five senses plays a unique role, but smell seems to be treated like the black sheep of the family,” said Professor Gottfried. “Obviously, you don't need your sense of smell to take a test or drive a car, but it has a major impact on our quality of life.”

After studying the science of smell for more than 15 years, Professor Gottfried’s research is now focused on olfactory spatial navigation. He designed an experiment using various combinations of pine and banana scents to build a two-dimensional grid, or a “smellscape.” 

Participants moved between grid points that represented a “start” and an “end” based on the odor mixtures they smelled. The study revealed that, as the individuals navigated, their brain activity created a pattern with hexagonal symmetry that was acting as an actual olfactory map. This pattern resembled grid-like mapping structures that have been previously shown to assist animals in other types of spatial navigation.

“Several exciting papers have revealed that using functional imaging techniques, you can find proxies of this grid-like architecture in the human brain,” said Professor Gottfried. “What we did in this study is bring together conceptual ideas about odor navigation with grid-cell models, then used a set of smells to define a two-dimensional space.”

Unlike a real-world setting, the volunteers in this experiment were not actively, physically moving through space. Movement involved mental navigation between two odor coordinates in the smellscape. However, the study design turned out to have something else in common with real-world scenarios.

“Odor intensity increases with distance to the smell's source,” said Professor Gottfried. “For example, as you get closer you to your favorite donut shop, the stronger the donut smell becomes. In this way, the odor space we created, where banana and pine smells go from strong to weak, suggests that this design roughly captures what a person might naturally encounter.”

In an effort to gain a greater understanding of smell, Professor Gottfried plans to alter his experimental set-up and use a virtual reality computer game in which participants will locate a specific scent as they move through an odor-filled arena. 

“Imagine everyone gathering around a Thanksgiving table and one person can't smell the food. They can't really engage in that conversation or feel connected to the shared experience of the meal. There are a lot of examples like that. The sense of smell serves a very unique purpose and confers one-of-a-kind behavioral advantages that other senses can't provide.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/neuron/home">Neuron</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Humans use their sense of smell for spatial navigation

Dogs and other animals use their sense of smell to...

The knee bone’s connected to the … other knee bone?

That’s not how the song traditionally goes, but researchers are finding that it’s increasingly true. A number of people alive today may have an extra knee bone called a fabella – a number that jumped sharply from a hundred years ago.

The discovery was made by a team of researchers from <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/joa.12994">Imperial College London</a>, who have published their findings in the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/joa.12994">Journal of Anatomy</a>.

Like the patella, the fabella is a sesamoid bone – it grows in a tendon. But unlike the patella, the fabella is linked to a higher risk of osteoarthritis. And the small knee bone, which scientists thought was disappearing due to evolution, is increasingly appearing in modern humans.

“A total of 52.83 percent of our individuals and 44.34 percent of our knees had fabellae detectable by computed tomography scanning,” the team wrote in their study. “Men and women were equally likely to have a fabella, and bilateral cases (67.86 percent) were more common than unilateral ones (32.14 percent).”

In 1918, the knee bone was found in only about 11 percent of the population. In 1900, it was only about 7.6 percent. 

So what has triggered the revival of the extra knee bone? 

The fabella seems to be making a comeback thanks to the modern diet. More humans around the world have access to a nutritious diet, and height and weight have gone up thanks to that. The obesity epidemic has also led to increases in weight globally. 

Sesamoid bones are known to grow in response to pressure, like a joint needing to deal with added force and stress. That may have triggered the knee bone to reappear, to help the joint better.

But it doesn’t seem to be doing that.

"The fabella may behave like other sesamoid bones to help reduce friction within tendons, redirecting muscle forces, or, as in the case of the kneecap, increasing the mechanical force of that muscle," lead author Dr. Michael A. Berthaume told the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/">BBC</a>. "Or it could be doing nothing at all."

Regardless of its purpose, the extra knee bone does seem to have a downside. Human knees are no longer built to work with the little bone. People with osteoarthritis of the knees are about twice as likely to have a fabella, and it can interfere with knee replacement surgery.

The researchers plan to keep studying the fabella, to see who is most likely to develop the knee bone and what it can reveal about human evolution and nutrition.

—

By Kyla Cathey, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> staff writer 

Image credit: Imperial College London

'Extra' knee bone on the rise thanks to modern diet

The knee bone’s connected to the … other knee bone?...

As technology advances by leaps and bounds, a new generation of cutting-edge satellites are helping to monitor the greenhouse gases linked to climate change.

For more than a decade, national space programs have helped to monitor greenhouse gas levels around the world. <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/">NASA</a> missions have monitored carbon dioxide and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/nasa-satellite-spots-methane-emissions-from-space/">methane levels</a>. The <a href="http://global.jaxa.jp/">Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency</a> has its <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/chinas-methane-emissions-rise/">Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite</a>, or GOSAT.

Now, environmental nonprofits and private organizations are getting in on the game with cutting-edge satellites of their own.

The <a href="https://www.edf.org/">Environmental Defense Fund</a> is one of them. Its MethaneSAT is a compact satellite that will be able to pinpoint the sources of methane emissions in the Earth’s atmosphere, and evaluate their impact.

“Human-made methane emissions account for a quarter of today's global warming,” the EDF says on its website. “The oil and gas industry is a leading source. From remote wellheads to gas utility lines, companies release about 75 million metric tons a year.”

Being able to spot the biggest sources of atmospheric methane could help environmental groups develop strategies to reduce it.

MethaneSAT is part of a larger EDF initiative to cut methane initiatives 45 percent by 2025.

“Just the first step will have the same near-term climate benefit as shutting down one third of the world’s coal-fired power plants,” the organization’s president, Fred Krupp, said in a <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks">TED Talk</a> when announcing the satellite project. The nonprofit hopes to launch the satellite within two years.

The firm <a href="https://bluefield.co/">Bluefield Technologies</a> is creating its own fleet of tiny, cutting-edge satellites that it says can be used by gas industry players to detect methane leaks.

In a blog entry, Bluefield’s president Yotam Ariel pointed out that eight major gas companies, including <a href="https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/">ExxonMobil</a> and <a href="https://www.eni.com/en_IT/home.page">Eni</a>, have committed to reducing methane emissions.

Part of the reason is the public attention on methane and its role in climate change, he said. Gas leaks have also been linked to high-profile accidents in recent years, and companies are seeking to prevent them. But there’s also a financial aspect.

“In reality, these oil and gas companies want to eliminate methane leaks from their operations because it’s good for their bottom line,” he said.

—

By Kyla Cathey, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Image credit: MethaneSAT, <a href="https://www.edf.org/climate/space-technology-can-cut-climate-pollution-earth">Environmental Defense Fund</a>

Cutting-edge satellites help monitor greenhouse gases

As technology advances by leaps and bounds, a new generation...

One of the primary objectives of synthetic biology is to find a way to control gene expression based on models that are applied to digital technology, which use logic gates to process input signals. 

Biotechnologists have attempted to build such digital circuits with the help of protein gene switches in cells. However, they found that the gene switches were not very flexible and were capable of processing just one input at a time, such as a specific metabolic molecule. 

In digital technology, circuits also depend on a single input in the form of electrons, but the circuits compensate for their lack of complexity with their speed. These circuits can execute up to a billion commands per second. 

Although cells are slower, they can still process up to 100,000 different metabolic molecules per second as inputs. Previous cell computers did not even come close to utilizing the massive metabolic computational capacity of a <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/older-adults-new-brain-cells/">human cell</a>.

Martin Fussenegger is a professor of Biotechnology and Bioengineering at the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering at <a href="https://www.ethz.ch/en.html">ETH Zurich</a>. His team has now found a way to use biological components to construct a flexible core processor that accepts different kinds of programming. 

The new processor is based on a modified CRISPR-Cas9 system and can work with as many inputs as desired in the form of RNA molecules.

“We have created the first cell computer with more than one core processor,” said Professor Fussenegger.

The biological computer is very small, but can potentially be scaled up to any size. 

“Imagine a microtissue with billions of cells, each equipped with its own dual-core processor. Such 'computational organs' could theoretically attain computing power that far outstrips that of a digital supercomputer - and using just a fraction of the energy,” said Professor Fussenegger.

According to the experts, the cell computer could eventually be used to help monitor health and even fight against cancer and other illnesses.

“This cell computer may sound like a very revolutionary idea, but that's not the case,” explained Professor Fussenegger. “The human body itself is a large computer. Its metabolism has drawn on the computing power of trillions of cells since time immemorial.”

“And in contrast to a technical supercomputer, this large computer needs just a slice of bread for energy.”


The study is published in the <a href="https://www.pnas.org/">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Scientists have built the very first cell computer with more than one processor

One of the primary objectives of synthetic biology is to...

Based on the remains of an upper and lower jaw that were recovered in northern Greece, experts believe that a previously unidentified group of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/earliest-hominins-migrating/">hominins</a> may have emerged in southeastern Europe. The research suggests that it was here when our earliest human ancestors appeared, and not in Africa. 

The 8 or 9-million-year-old fossils, which were found in the village of Nikiti in the 1990s, had been first linked to the extinct ape Ouranopithecus. However, a team led by David Begun from the <a href="https://www.utoronto.ca/">University of Toronto</a>’s Department of Anthropology has recently analyzed the remains and determined that they likely belonged to a male animal of a potentially new species. 

In 1871, Charles Darwin proposed that all hominins, including both modern and extinct humans, descended from a group in Africa, which is the most widely accepted theory today. On the other hand, Darwin also speculated that hominins could have originated in Europe where fossils of large apes had been discovered, and the new analysis supports this idea. 

While Begun does not believe the Nikiti ape was a hominin, he speculates that it could represent the group which hominins directly evolved from.


In 2017, the research team led by Begun had determined that a 7.2-million-year-old ape called Graecopithecus, which also lived in what is now Greece, could possibly be a hominin. In this case, the 8 to 9-million-year-old Nikiti ape would have directly preceded the first hominin, Graecopithecus, before hominins migrated to Africa 7 million years ago. 

According to a report in <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/">New Scientist</a>, Begun said this new concept will be rejected by many experts who believe in African hominin origins, but he hopes that the new scenario will be at least considered. 

“It’s widely agreed that this was the founding fauna of most of what we see in Africa today,” Begun told New Scientist. “If the antelopes and giraffes could get into Africa 7 million years ago, why not the apes?”

Begun presented the research last month at a conference of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists.

--
By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Hominins may have first appeared in Europe instead of Africa

Based on the remains of an upper and lower jaw...

42,000-year-old horse still contains liquid blood and urine. As <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/scientists-clone-42000-year-old-horse/">we reported</a>, researchers looking for mammoth tusks in Russia uncovered a 42,000-year-old frozen foal carcass. But now, researchers have confirmed that the specimen still contains liquid blood and urine. The foal was unearthed from the permafrost in Siberia's Batagaika crater, located in the region of Verkhoyansk, in 2018.

“An autopsy showed the foal carcass was extremely well-preserved, the body even without deformation," Semyon Grigoriev, director of the Mammoth Museum at <a href="https://www.s-vfu.ru/en/">Northeastern Federal University (NEFU) in Yakutsk</a>, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/18/europe/prehistoric-foal-liquid-blood-urine-trnd-scli-scn-intl/index.html">told CNN</a>. "The hair cover also preserved most parts of the carcass, especially at the head and legs."

Scientists believe the foal was only about two weeks old when it died, likely from drowning in mud during the Pleistocene epoch, which spanned from about 2.6 million years ago to about 11,700 years ago.

It’s rare to see such perfectly preserved fur, Grigoriev told CNN. “Now we can say what color was the wool of the extinct horses of the Pleistocene era," he said.42,000-year-old horse still contains liquid blood and urine 

However, it’s the liquid blood and urine that raised eyebrows within the science community. According to Grigoriev, there is only one other instance where liquid blood was found in a prehistoric animal carcass — an adult mammoth, which Grigoriev and his team found off the coast of Russia in 2013.

“As a rule,” Grigoriev explained, “the blood coagulates or even turns to powder in the ancient remains of animals of the ice age, even if the carcass is preserved seems to be well. This is due to mummification when moisture and other biological fluids gradually evaporate over thousands of years, even if the remains are in the permafrost. The remains are preserved best if they are in the ice, as it was with our mammoth."

Grigoriev added that scientists extracted the foal’s bodily fluids for potential cloning purposes. Specialists from NEFU are working with South Korea’s ethically controversial <a href="http://en.sooam.com/dogcn/sub01.html">Sooam Biotech Research Foundation</a> (the same foundation that faked the cloning of a human embryonic stem cell in 2004) to extract cells from the foal, however Grigoriev says the chances they’ll be able to produce a clone are slim.

"I think that even the unique preservation [of] blood is absolutely hopeless for cloning purposes since the main blood cells — the red blood cells or erythrocytes — do not have nuclei with DNA," Grigoriev told CNN. "We [are] trying to find intact cells in muscle tissue and internal organs that are also very well-preserved."

In 2020, the ancient foal will be on display in Japan as part of The Mammoth exhibition.

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Main Image Credit: Michil Yakolev/The Siberian Times

42,000-year-old horse still contains liquid blood and urine

42,000-year-old horse still contains liquid blood and urine. As we...

You’ve heard of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/environmental-impacts-solar-wind-energy/">solar, wind and hydropower</a>... but what about snow power? Researchers from the <a href="http://www.ucla.edu/">University of California-Los Angeles</a> have recently developed an incredible new device that can create electricity from snow. 

Around 30 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered by snow in the winter, and solar panels don’t always operate well in the snow. 

Researchers from UCLA have created the first nanogenerator of its kind that uses the positive charge of snow to create electricity. 

The device, called a snow-based triboelectric nanogenerator (snow TENG), is thin, flexible and small enough to fit on the sole of a shoe. 

Triboelectric nanogenerators use static electricity to generate a charge. With static electricity, the charge is produced by the exchange of electrons. 

“Static electricity occurs from the interaction of one material that captures electrons and another that gives up electrons,” said Richard Kaner, the senior author of a study detailing the new findings published in the journal Nano Energy. “You separate the charges and create electricity out of essentially nothing.”

[caption id="attachment_1871479" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Abdelsalam-Ahmed.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1871479" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Abdelsalam-Ahmed.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="583" /></a> Hiking shoe with device attached, Image Credit: Abdelsalam Ahmed[/caption]

Positively charged snow gives up electrons, and so the researchers needed to find a material that takes electrons. Silicone is negatively charged, and the researchers found that when combined with snow, it produced electricity.

“Snow is already charged, so we thought, why not bring another material with the opposite charge and extract the charge to create electricity?” said Maher El-Kady, a co-author of the study. “After testing a large number of materials including aluminum foils and Teflon, we found that silicone produces more charge than any other material.”

There are many potential uses for such a device. It could be integrated into solar panels to ensure that solar panels operate at maximum efficiency during the winter and could even power wearable monitors similar to the Fitbit specifically designed for winter sports. 

Skiers, snowboarders, and people who work outdoors in the winter could use the device to monitor snow conditions and performance. 

“The device can work in remote areas because it provides its own power and does not need batteries,” said Kaner. “It’s a very clever device — a weather station that can tell you how much snow is falling, the direction the snow is falling, and the direction and speed of the wind.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New device can generate electricity from snow

You’ve heard of solar, wind and hydropower... but what about...

A quick glance at the headlines and it sounds like something only Mary Shelley could think up, but researchers from <a href="https://www.yale.edu/">Yale University</a> successfully restored some cellular activity in a decapitated pig's brain four hours after its death. 

Full consciousness was not restored, nor was that the intent of the experiment. 

Yale researchers that specialize in brain evolution and brain development noticed that brain tissue samples showed regular showed signs of cellular viability even the tissue was harvested hours after a specimen died.

Expanding on this work, Nenad Sestan, a professor of neuroscience, and a team of colleagues tested potential <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sounds-incite-fear-brain/">cell activity</a> after death in an intact pig brain. 

The researchers detailed their methods in a new study published in the journal Nature. 

The team attached a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/long-necked-reptiles-tanystropheus-were-easily-decapitated-by-dinosaur-predators/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">decapitated</a> pig’s brain taken from a meatpacking plant to a series of tubes that pumped the brain with a circulating chemical solution of specially designed fluid meant to mimic natural blood flow. 

The solution was developed to preserve brain tissue and help nudge cells back to life. The researchers used a system called BrainEx to circulate the solution through the brain. 

Not only were cells preserved, but cellular activity in some parts of the brain were thoroughly restored. 

“The intact brain of a large mammal retains a previously underappreciated capacity for restoration of circulation and certain molecular and cellular activities multiple hours after circulatory arrest,” said Sestan. 

Cell death in the brain is thought to be irreversible and occurs minutes after oxygen and blood flow to the brain stops, but this study shows that it is possible to bring some activity back online in a way.

Having a method to study cell activity in the brain after death or after injury could help researchers examine neural connectivity and even potentially pave the way for new treatments for stroke patients and people who suffer brain injuries. 

“Previously, we have only been able to study cells in the large mammalian brain under static or largely two-dimensional conditions utilizing small tissue samples outside of their native environment,” said Stefano G. Daniele, a co-first author of the study. “For the first time, we are able to investigate the large brain in three dimensions, which increases our ability to study complex cellular interactions and connectivity.” 

The solution so far is designed for pig’s brains, and so it may not apply to the human mind, according to the researchers. But if the work expands to cell viability in the human brain, the researchers say that studies should be conducted under strict ethical oversight. 

--

By<a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com"> Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Pig brain shows signs of life hours after decapitation

A quick glance at the headlines and it sounds like...

By now you’ve probably heard about <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47279253">Flat Earth</a>, the surprisingly growing movement of skeptics that claim the Earth is flat. 

At the core of Flat Earth theory lies a deeply held belief that a simple fact proven through hundreds, if not thousands of years of scientific discovery, is nothing more than a lie fed to society by people in power. 

And the question that stands out, at least by those skeptical of Flat Earth theory, is why? 

Why do people hold so strongly to the concept of Flat Earth? What is so appealing, so plausible in the idea that our spinning globe is a stationary flat disk with a wall of ice at the edges? 

As much as the scientific community and the media would wish it, the Flat Earth theory isn’t sliding off into oblivion any time soon. 

Flat Earthers have formed a massive community, hosting <a href="https://flatearthconference.com/">conferences</a>, cruises, podcasts, a potential TV show, and even planned <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimdobson/2019/03/16/flat-earth-supporters-now-plan-an-antarctica-expedition-to-the-edge-of-the-world/">scientific expeditions </a>to prove their central hypothesis. 

Behind the Curve, a documentary directed by Daniel J. Clark gets up and personal with Flat Earthers from all over, but in true documentary style, allows the audience an inside look without agenda.

The Flat Earthers that grace the documentary, including self-proclaimed Flat Earth Mayor Mark Sargent and podcast host Patricia Steere, are never portrayed as wacky loons left to the fringes of society but instead are given an opportunity to share their views. 

There is no corner of Flat Earth that isn’t explored in Behind the Curve. 

We meet Matt Boylan through a few brief clips who was an artist for the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/">National Aeronautics and Space Administration</a> (NASA) that apparently blew the whole thing wide open, and according to Mark Sargent, was one of the driving reasons he first started exploring Flat Earth in the first place. 

The documentary also features Nathan Thompson, a Flat Earther that had this to say about his Flat Earth journey:

“And then the more I researched it, and then I found it’s actually the biblical cosmology is a geocentric cosmology, then I realized why they’re hiding the truth, it's because they don’t want anyone to know anything. They want people blind, dumb, deaf to the truth…so they can inject you with their vaccines, and public schooling and this heliocentric model which is basically forced sun worship.” 

Thompson also states that dinosaurs are made up and Clark shows footage of Thompson being kicked out of a Starbucks for yelling at a NASA employee. 

These brief interludes show the audience that even in a conspiracy, there is no one unifying belief or theory, and that there can be different kinds of conspiracies within the conspiracy. 

You have angry extremists who say Hollywood faked the 2017 Flat Earth Conference and you have well-meaning citizen scientists like Jeran Campanella and Bob Knodel who discuss several experiments in progress they hope will help prove the Earth is flat. 

Interestingly, both Knodel and Campanella appear to prove the Earth is round through two in-depth experiments. In one experiment, Knodel, a consultant with an impressive resume discusses an experiment he is working on with a team using a $20,000 laser gyroscope. 

Knodel and his team know that if the Earth is round, then theoretically you would be able to register a spinning movement or drift with a high-tech gyroscope.  

“What we found is, is when we turned on that gyroscope we found that we were picking up a drift,” Knodel says in the documentary. “A 15 degree per hour drift.” 

Not able to accept this, Knodel goes on to explain how the team will disprove the gyroscope’s initial readings.

“Now, obviously we were taken aback by that. ‘Wow, that’s kind of a problem,’” said Knodel. “We obviously were not willing to accept that, and so we started looking for ways to disprove it was actually registering the motion of the Earth.”

It’s Camapenella’s experiment, though, that gets the last word, as it’s one of the final scenes of the film. To prove the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/volcanoes-earths-largest-mass-extinction/">Earth</a> is flat, Campanella came up with an experiment using a laser that would show once and for all that the Earth has no curvature. 

The first attempt with the laser experiment doesn’t work because the laser beam isn’t focused enough to measure accurately. 

At the end of the film, Campanella walks the audience through his second attempt, where two styrofoam sheets have been placed at either end across a four-mile distance, with holes cut out at the same height. 

The theory was that by shining a light through one sheet, the light would travel and be visible by Campanella. If the Earth is round, the light wouldn’t hit the right marks. 

At the end of the documentary, Campanella orders one of his colleagues to turn on their light which is not visible by Campanella, thereby confirming the Earth’s curvature. And yet, seemingly undaunted by these experiments, the two are steadfast as ever in their belief that the Earth is flat. 

Clark doesn’t focus on these experiments too much because at the end of the day, Behind the Curve isn’t setting out to prove or disprove Flat Earth theory. 

Instead, we get an inside glimpse of what motivates and drives the Flat Earth theory. Clark provides a little context to the meme-worthy headlines and balances out Flat Earth theory with interviews from expert psychologists, physicists, science writers, and even astronaut Scott Kelly. 

Some of the more notable parts of the documentary examine the dangers of dismissing Flat Earthers outright. 

In multiple interviews, Clark says that his goal was not put Flat Earthers in a bad light and that he specifically chose not to reach out to Neil DeGrasse Tyson or Bill Nye because of their “antagonistic views” toward Flat Earthers. 

By including interviews with psychologists and psychiatrists, Clark goes into the why and how of conspiracies and why people might be swayed into believing the Earth is flat. 

When we lump all Flat Earthers under the dismissive term “crazy,” not only are we further isolating people but also just reinforcing the deep seeded “us-against-them” ideologies that help fuel so many conspiracies. 

“I hope people stop putting flat earthers into this huge group and just say they’re idiots, that they’re dumb and we should just throw them off the edge,” Clark told GQ.  “If you don’t have a conversation with them, and call them stupid, that only entrenches them in their belief. You want a society that can accept and trust science, but science needs to do a better job of communicating, and people need to be a little more accepting of other people’s beliefs, and not be so black and white about right and wrong.” 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Behind the Curve: Netflix doc examines why some insist the Earth is flat

By now you’ve probably heard about Flat Earth, the surprisingly...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/naturally-occurring-hormone-memory-loss/">Memory decline</a> is an unfortunate but natural part of the aging process and not always indicative of a more serious condition like Alzheimer's or dementia. 

Still, memory decline can still certainly make day to day life difficult. But researchers from the <a href="https://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/">Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine</a> may have found a potential treatment for reversing age-related memory decline in a new study published in the journal Neurology.

The team found that stimulating the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory decline, of older adults improved memory to such a degree that older adults scored the same as younger groups in memory tests. 

“Older people's memory got better up to the level that we could no longer tell them apart from younger people,” said Joel Voss, a lead investigator of the study. “They got substantially better.”

16 participants, aged 64 to 80, took part in the study and the researchers used Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to target the hippocampus.

The hippocampus is where connections are made and form a memory, according to the researchers.

“It's the part of the brain that links two unrelated things together into a memory, like the place you left your keys or your new neighbor's name,” said Voss. “Older adults often complain about having trouble with this.”

In older adults, the hippocampus is smaller, and the researchers applied the magnetic stimulation to a spot above the left ear by the parietal lobe which communicates directly with the hippocampus.

“We stimulated where brain activity is synchronized to the hippocampus, suggesting that these regions talk to each other,” said Aneesha Nilakantan, the first author of the study.

Before going through the TMS therapy, participants both young and old were asked to complete memory tasks to assess memory ability. The participants had to learn relationships between paired items and later recall these pairings.

Older adults remembered less than 40 percent of the correct pairings.

Next, the older adults had repetitive high-frequency stimulation applied to the same spot for 20 minutes a day, five days in a row.

After the five days of treatment, the participants were tasked with a new memory test, and scores were the same regardless of age.

Next, the researchers want to test how TMS impacts the memory of participants in the early stages of Alzheimer’s.

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Brain stimulation could help improve memory for older adults, study finds

Memory decline is an unfortunate but natural part of the...

Researchers have found what they believe is the strongest evidence yet that volcanoes caused the biggest mass extinction in Earth’s history. Paleontologists at the <a href="https://www.uc.edu/">University of Cincinnati</a> and the <a href="https://en.cug.edu.cn/">China University of Geosciences</a> discovered a spike in mercury buried in ancient rock at nearly a dozen sites around the world.

The findings suggest that volcanic eruptions were to blame for the mass extinction event that is also known as “the Great Dying.” Around 252 million years ago, catastrophic environmental conditions wiped out 95 percent of all life on the planet over the course of hundreds of thousands of years.

The results of the new analysis suggest that the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/volcanic-eruptions-dinosaur-extinction/">eruptions</a> ignited massive coal deposits, releasing mercury vapor high into the atmosphere. Eventually, it rained back down into marine sediment and created a lasting elemental signature.

“Volcanic activities, including emissions of volcanic gases and combustion of organic matter, released abundant mercury to the surface of the Earth,” said study lead author Jun Shen.

The powerful eruptions took place within a volcanic system called the Siberian Traps in what is now central Russia. Many of the frequent and long-lasting eruptions exploded through gaping fissures in the ground. 

“Typically, when you have large, explosive volcanic eruptions, a lot of mercury is released into the atmosphere,” explained Professor Thomas Algeo. “Mercury is a relatively new indicator for researchers. It has become a hot topic for investigating volcanic influences on major events in Earth's history.”

The eruptions released as much as three million cubic kilometers of ash high into the air over the years of the extinction event. To put this in perspective, the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington spewed only one cubic kilometer of ash, yet ash could be seen as far away as Oklahoma.

According to Professor Algeo, the Siberian Traps eruptions emitted so much material and gas into the sky that it warmed the planet by an average of about 10 degrees. He explained that this abrupt climate change would have likely been one of the biggest culprits in the mass extinction.

Shen said that understanding this catastrophic event could shed light on how global warming may lead to another mass extinction today. 

“The release of carbon into the atmosphere by human beings is similar to the situation in the Late Permian, where abundant carbon was released by the Siberian eruptions,” he said.

“A majority of biologists believe we're at the cusp of another mass extinction - the sixth big one. I share that view, too,” said Professor Algeo. “What we should learn is this will be serious business that will harm human interests so we should work to minimize the damage.”

“We're likely to see more famine and mass migration in the hardest hit places. It's a global issue and one we should recognize and proactively deal with. It's much easier to address these problems before they reach a crisis.”

The study is published in the journal Nature Communications.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

New evidence shows volcanoes did cause Earth’s largest mass extinction

Researchers have found what they believe is the strongest evidence...

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.earth.columbia.edu/">Earth Institute at Columbia University</a> have turned to ancient urine to work out the details of the transition from hunting to herding during the Neolithic Revolution, which occurred around 10,000 BC. The urine salts, the scientists claim, can help them map out the pace of change when humans first began domesticating animals in ancient Turkey.

“This is the first time, to our knowledge, that people have picked up on salts in archaeological materials, and used them in a way to look at the development of animal management," said lead author Jordan Abell, a graduate student at the <a href="https://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/">University of Columbia Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory</a>.

Prior to using urine salts, researchers relied on bone fragments and fossilized dung to estimate population size in ancient settlements, however, this process can be difficult. 

"We thought, well, humans and animals pee, and when they pee, they release a bunch of salt," Abell said. "At a dry place like this, we didn't think salts would be washed away and redistributed."

Using the salts, scientists were able to calculate the density of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/bacteria-humans-swapping-genes/">humans</a> and animals at the Turkey settlement at any specific time. Around 10,000 years ago, they found a jump in the number of animals and people at the settlement — from about zero to approximately one person per one animal for every 10 square meters. This finding suggests that domestication may have happened quicker than previously thought, perhaps within just 1,000 years.

The team looked at over 113 samples from the site in question, calculating sodium, nitrate, and chlorine salt levels along the way. They watched as the amount of urine salts increased over time, with the largest spike occurring between 10,000 and 9,700 years ago. Abell says that these findings support the theory that the ancient humans began as hunters of sheep and goats, then they corralled a few and then corralled a larger number, finally keeping domesticated goats and sheep on the periphery of the settlement.

The findings appear in <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/">Science Advances</a>.

The researchers hope to eventually be able to discern human urine from livestock urine. However, even without being able to do so, using urine salts as a method for tracking population have been proven useful in arid areas where dung and bone fragments may be lacking.

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Güne Duru

Transition from hunting to herding discovered in ancient urine

Researchers from the Earth Institute at Columbia University have turned...

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



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



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

Kainji Lake in north central Nigeria

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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



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

Designing crops that can beat the heat

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

[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

[sendtonews key="qjvhBOBnY8-2426650-12187" 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 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



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"

[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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