Tiny bits of plastic no wider than a human hair have turned up in some unexpected places, including the human bloodstream. 



Now, data presented at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology meeting shows that these <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/microplastics-spread-deep-into-the-ocean-far-below-the-surface/">fragments</a> have breached the fluids that surround eggs and travel with sperm.



The research team led by Dr. Emilio Gómez‑Sánchez of Next Fertility Murcia in Spain scanned <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-and-molecular-biology/follicular-fluid" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">follicular fluid</a> from 29 women and seminal fluid from 22 men.



The experts found microplastics in 69 percent of the women and 55 percent of the men they studied. According to Dr. Gómez‑Sánchez, the team was surprised to find that the particles were so widespread.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-plastics-in-human-reproductive-fluids">Plastics in human reproductive fluids</h2>



The study detected polymers such as <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/polytetrafluoroethylene" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">polytetrafluoroethylene</a> and <a href="https://adrecoplastics.co.uk/polypropylene-uses/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">polypropylene</a>, materials better known for slick frying pans and food packaging. Seeing them next to human eggs turns a theoretical hazard into a measurable one.



Back in 2021, Italian obstetricians spotted twelve plastic fragments in every placenta they examined, confirming that particles smaller than five millimeters can cross the <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33395930/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">maternal‑fetal boundary</a>.



Similarly sized particles have been uncovered deep in <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35364151/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lung tissue</a> removed during surgery, proving that inhalation is a realistic delivery route for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/simple-way-to-remove-microplastics-from-tap-water-home-faucet/">plastic</a> dust.



Researchers in the Netherlands have even measured plastic mass circulating in human blood samples, an <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35367073/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">observation</a> that explains how fragments migrate to distant tissues.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-plastics-enter-the-human-body">How plastics enter the human body</h2>



Most people take in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/microplastics-in-human-brains-may-affect-mental-health/">plastic</a> flecks by eating, drinking, or breathing, because everyday products shed invisible dust whenever they are heated, abraded, or exposed to sunlight. 



Once swallowed or inhaled, particles small enough can slip through the gut wall or the thin air‑blood membrane in the lungs.



Animal studies suggest that fragments under one micrometer can enter cells directly, whereas larger shards get trapped in tissue and spark local irritation. Either way, they bypass the body’s usual waste filters.



Laboratory work on mice shows that digestive uptake rises when <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/airborne-microplastics-where-they-come-from-and-where-they-go/">microplastics</a> hitchhike on fats, a detail that matters for fertility research because reproductive hormones ride on similar lipid highways. 



The overlap raises worry that plastics may act as endocrine mimics or carriers for other chemicals.



Dr. Gómez‑Sánchez’s team avoided laboratory contamination by collecting every human sample in glass vials and verifying the absence of background plastic. This means the polymers they found were genuine residents, not stray lab dust.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-plastic-harms-fertility">Plastic harms fertility</h2>



Mice exposed to polystyrene fragments shed sperm with damaged DNA and sluggish movement, effects traced to <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31896473/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">oxidative stress</a> that overwhelms antioxidant defenses.



Separate <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36948006/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">work</a> on rodent Leydig cells shows shriveled mitochondria after nanoplastic exposure, which throttles testosterone production and shrinks litter sizes.



Reviews published in 2024 concluded that microplastics can disrupt the <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38750730/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hypothalamic‑pituitary‑gonadal axis</a>, leading to hormonal imbalances and faulty egg maturation.



Because human oocytes develop over months, chronic exposure could matter more than a short spike. That makes the repeated detection of PTFE in both eggs and sperm especially noteworthy.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-plastic-levels-in-eggs-and-sperm">Plastic levels in eggs and sperm</h2>



In the current data set, PTFE appeared in 31 percent of sampled egg fluid and 41 percent of semen. PP ranked second among women and <a href="https://www.chemicalsafetyfacts.org/chemicals/polystyrene/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">polystyrene</a> second among men, with <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/polyethylene-terephthalate" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">polyethylene terephthalate</a> also present but in smaller numbers.



Annual plastic output has climbed from under two million tons in 1950 to about 460 million in 2019, a 230‑fold jump documented by the <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36969097/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Minderoo‑Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health</a>.



Each uptick in production increases litter, weathering, and fragment release, tightening the feedback loop between plastics and people. Reproductive cells, delicate by design, stand on the front line.



Gómez‑Sánchez reported that most reproductive samples contained only one or two plastic particles, amounts considered low compared with overall debris in the fluids. Yet fertility specialists note that even trace metals can derail embryo development, so particle counts alone may not predict risk.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-human-fertility-research-must-include-plastics">Human fertility research must include plastics</h2>



“They should be considered an additional argument in favor of avoiding the generalized use of plastics in our daily lives,” said Professor Carlos Calhaz‑Jorge of the University of Lisbon. He also noted that further research is needed to prove causation.



The research team will now study hundreds of patients and link particle loads to embryo quality during <a href="https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/22457-ivf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">in vitro fertilization cycles</a>. Those correlations could supply the first direct human evidence beyond laboratory rodents.



They plan lifestyle questionnaires to test whether habits such as heavy bottled‑water use or microwaving food in plastic correlate with higher particle counts. The approach could convert abstract exposure theory into personal advice.



“Microplastics are just one variable in a complex equation,” said Dr. Gómez‑Sánchez. He urges moderation of plastic use rather than alarm. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-simple-habits-to-lower-exposure">Simple habits to lower exposure</h2>



Switching from plastic bottles to glass or stainless steel lowers ingestion because heat and time no longer leach particles from container walls. Replacing scratched nonstick pans can cut PTFE flakes in the diet.



Researchers advise skipping plastic cutting boards and using ceramic or bamboo instead, because knife action liberates shavings that cling to food. Letting take‑out cool before transferring it from polystyrene boxes also helps.



Air purifiers with HEPA filters capture airborne fibers shed by synthetic textiles, a step especially useful for nurseries. Regular vacuuming with a sealed system keeps particles from resuspending.



These tweaks are not foolproof, yet they come with side benefits like removing chemical additives that ride on plastic dust. They buy time while science sorts out the clinical stakes.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-efforts-to-cut-human-plastics-pollution">Efforts to cut human plastics pollution</h2>



Public‑health researchers argue that personal choices alone cannot outrun a supply chain making more than a billion pounds of new plastic every day. 



Negotiators at the United Nations are hammering out a global treaty that could cap production and streamline recycling.



<a href="https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/morrissey/departments/biology/people/faculty-directory/Phil-Landrigan.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dr. Philip Landrigan</a> of Boston College calls the treaty a once‑in‑a‑generation chance to protect human health, because curbing output remains the only sure way to slow microplastic fallout. He points to the emerging fertility data as evidence that time is short.



Whether lawmakers act or not, the science of sub‑visible plastic is moving fast thanks to sharper imaging tools and nanomechanical sensors. Studies that once took months now finish in days, filling the literature with fresh clues.



Every new dataset sharpens the same picture: plastics weather into dust, the dust goes everywhere, and living tissue keeps no closed doors. Eggs and sperm, it turns out, are no exception.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://academic.oup.com/humrep#google_vignette" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Human Reproduction</a>.



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Tiny plastic particles found in human egg and sperm fluids

Tiny bits of plastic no wider than a human hair have turned up in some unexpected places, including the human bloodstream. Now, data presented at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology meeting shows that these fragments have breached the fluids that surround eggs and travel with sperm. The research team led by Dr. Emilio Gómez‑Sánchez of Next Fertility Murcia in Spain scanned follicular fluid from 29 women and seminal fluid from 22 men. The experts found microplastics in 69 percent of the women and 55...

Researchers have developed a computer model that is providing new insight into how people responded to <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/humans-driving-climate-change/">climate change</a> in the past. The experts are now able to identify the underlying causes of cultural shifts by examining how the changing conditions transformed people's ability to produce food in particular places.

Study lead author Jade d'Alpoim Guedes is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at the <a href="https://ucsd.edu/">University of California San Diego</a>.

“There's been a large body of literature in archaeology on past climates, but earlier studies were mostly only able to draw correlations between changes in climate and civilization,” said Professor d'Alpoim Guedes. “What we're showing in this work is exactly how changes in temperature and precipitation, over space and time, would have actually impacted people - by affecting what they could and couldn't grow.”

By combining contemporary weather station data from across Asia with a climate reconstruction of the entire hemisphere, the researchers were able to create a simulation of how temperatures in Asia changed across space and time. The model also includes data on archaeological sites and the record of seeds found there.

When a major global cooling event happened around 3,700 to 3,000 years ago, not all regions of the globe were affected equally. Just as with climate change today, the impacts were most pronounced in the high latitude and high-altitude areas. 

For example, the team demonstrated how dramatic the changes were in Mongolia and the Tibetan Plateau. Around 3,500 years ago, broomcorn and foxtail millet would have failed to come to harvest about half of the time across this region. People had to abandon the crop and replace it with crops that were more resilient to the increasingly cold conditions, such as wheat and barley.

The researchers also concluded that cooling temperatures would have made it increasingly difficult to grow grain crops across Northern China between AD 291 and 360. According to the experts, this likely played a key role in the relocation of the Chinese capital from Xi'an to what is now Nanjing.

In other cases, the crop failures led to much more extreme migrations of people that were accompanied by conflict, including violent struggles.

The study also revealed that climate change instigated the development of transportation infrastructure across Asia, including Sui Dynasty's decision to invest in China's Grand Canal. The canal is the world's longest and oldest canal, linking the Yellow and Yangtze rivers, and serves as a major facilitator of trade.

“Crises are opportunities for culture change and innovation,” said study co-author and computational archaeologist Kyle Bocinsky. “But the speed and scale of our current climate change predicament are different.”

Professor d'Alpoim Guedes said that the impacts of warming are going to become quicker and greater. “With global warming these long-lasting patterns of adaptation will begin to change in ways that are unpredictable. And there might not be the behavioral flexibility for this, given current politics around the world.”

The study was published in the journal <a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/">Science Advances</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: Jade d'Alpoim Guedes, UC San Diego

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

What happened in the past when the climate changed?

Researchers have developed a computer model that is providing new...

While each of us may only appear to be one individual, living creature, that’s not entirely the case. Our bodies are full of viruses, fungi, bacteria, and other microscopic organisms that sit on our surface and live within our organs. Although it may gross you out when you think about it, we need these microbial communities – known as our <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/protect-gut-bacteria/">microbiome</a> – to digest food, support our immune system, synthesize vitamins, and even maintain our mental health.

It may seem like we’re living in harmony with these microbes, but new research reports that our relationship with our microbiome is more adversarial than once thought. A study from <a href="https://www.duke.edu/">Duke University</a> has found that we hosts starve our microbial benefactors of nutrients, basically enslaving the microbes within our gut so they can do what helps our body best. 

“There appears to be a natural pecking order to the bacteria and us,” says Lawrence A. David, Ph.D., an assistant professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at Duke University School of Medicine. “In a way it’s not surprising that we, the host, should hold more of the cards.”

Researchers have recently begun questioning the previous theory that microbes are so plentiful within our gut because it’s a desirable environment. Aspen Reese, a Ph. D candidate at Duke who is now a principal investigator at <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/">Harvard University</a> began asking the question; if almost every other ecosystem on the planet has competition over resources, why would the gut be any different?

Reese wanted to see if nitrogen was a limiting resource in the gut, as it often is for bacteria in streams and lakes. She began collecting stool samples from 30 different mammal species stretching from giraffes in Kenya to sheep in New Jersey. After grinding up the samples, she analyzed the amount of carbon and nitrogen atoms available to the microbes. 

Results showed that microbes in the human gut had access to an average of only one nitrogen atom for every ten carbon atoms, while the most-free-living microbes have a diet made up of one nitrogen to every four carbons. But when she fed mice a diet rich in proteins – which contain a lot of nitrogen – she found that the number of bacteria in their gut grew tenfold. And when Reese injected nitrogen into the bloodstream of mice, some of the nitrogen ended up in the gut bacteria. This suggests that the host can secrete nitrogen through cells lining its gut in order to save microbes from starvation.

“Our findings support the idea that we’ve evolved a way to keep our bacteria on a leash by leaving them starving for nitrogen,” David says. “It also explains why the Western diet might be bad for us. When people eat too much protein, it swamps the host’s ability to take up that nitrogen in the small intestine, and more of it ends up making its way to the large intestine, eliminating our ability to control our microbial communities.”

The over-prescription of antibiotics is also a concern when it comes to the fragility of our gut microbiomes. Studies have found that after antibiotic treatment, some individuals’ microbiomes have been altered for months or even years.

“Normally, pathogens are going to have a hard time colonizing the gut,” explains David. “There are trillions of other bacteria they have to beat out to survive. But if we suddenly take away the microbial competition for resources, we lose control, and the bad bacteria that cause nasty illnesses like C. difficile colitis have a clearer path.”

The researchers are now investigating how our diet can be manipulated to maintain a healthy relationship with our microbiome. After all, if you’re not happy on the inside, how can you be happy on the outside?

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Humans have a complicated relationship with the microbes inside us

While each of us may only appear to be one...

Scientists at <a href="https://www.jhu.edu/">Johns Hopkins University</a> have made a breakthrough in understanding how the brain decides what to pay attention to. The experts made the discovery while studying barn owls, and they believe that the finding applies to all animals, including humans.

Study co-author and neuroscientist Shreesh Mysore is an assistant professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences.

“There are a million things out there in the world bombarding our eyes, our ears, our skin and other sensory organs. Of all of those things, what particular piece of information do we most need to pay attention to at any instant to drive our behavior?” said Professor Mysore. “Our work provides a really beautiful answer to how the brain solves a key component of that problem.”


For decades, studies focused on the forebrain of animals have produced no clear insight into how the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/brain-decide-information-retain/">brain</a> chooses what to focus on. In the current study, the researchers decided to examine the midbrain, an evolutionarily older part of the brain.

“All animals have a need to pay attention to the thing that might impact our survival, but we don't all have a highly developed forebrain,” said Professor Mysore.

The researchers chose to focus their investigation on owls because they have a midbrain that is organized in a way that makes it relatively easy to track the activity of specific neurons.

When the researchers showed 15 owls visual stimuli on a monitor while measuring the activity of individual neurons in their midbrains, they found something unexpected. Individual neurons usually encode visual space topographically, which means that neighboring neurons encode the spaces for neighboring parts of the world. But now, the experts observed single neurons responding to various locations that were sometimes very far apart.

Using a model developed by lead author Nagaraj Mahajan, a doctoral candidate in Electrical and Computer Engineering, the team found that neurons needed to signal the most important location in the world no matter where visual input was coming from. The only way it was possible to encode space while keeping metabolic and wiring costs in check was to have fewer neurons than locations in the world, with each neuron encoding multiple locations. The brains of owls matched these computational predictions almost exactly.

“This gives us an answer for the first time about how the brain actually solves the problem of selection at all possible locations,” said Professor Mysore. “What we have now is a satisfying answer for a problem that is both fundamental and universal. There is promise that the insights from this study could generalize very well all the way up to humans.”

The team hopes that the findings will ultimately help experts to understand what's going wrong in disorders like attention-deficit disorder.

“Our thinking is that these midbrain neurons might be an important key to the puzzle of that inability to focus,” said Professor Mysore. “This is basic research but it's building ideas that can eventually be tested in patients and, if we're lucky, can help us come up with therapeutics.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/home">Cell Reports</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Nagaraj Mahajan/Johns Hopkins University

How does the brain decide what to focus on?

Scientists at Johns Hopkins University have made a breakthrough in...

A 99-million-year-old insect preserved inside of a piece of amber is giving scientists new clues about how Earth's landmasses were arranged millions of years ago. In 2016, Shuhei Yamamoto studied the creature trapped inside of a penny-sized piece of Burmese amber from Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar, and discovered that it was a new species.

Yamamoto is a researcher at the <a href="https://www.fieldmuseum.org/">Field Museum</a> and the lead author of a paper describing the new species. He explained that the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/fossilized-baby-snake-amber/">fossil</a> beetle is a rare find because it is one of the oldest known members of its family. Based on the fact that it is an ancient relative of the flat rove beetles in the Piestus genus, the species was named Propiestus archaicus.

Living alongside the dinosaurs during the Late Cretaceous era, Propiestus had a flattened body, a long antenna, and short legs. It could be found beneath the bark of rotting trees - an environment similar to that of today's flat rove beetles.

“The antennae probably had a highly sensitive ability as a sensory organ,” said Yamamoto.

Smaller hair-like structures attached perpendicular to the antennae would have increased the beetle’s ability to feel out its surroundings. “There wouldn't have been a lot of space available in the beetle's habitat, so it was important to be able to detect everything.”

The flat rove beetle cousins of Propiestus that are alive today are found mostly in South America, with the exception of one species in Southern Arizona. Propiestus was found in Myanmar, which is literally on the other side of the globe from the Americas, but this has not always been the case.

Millions of years ago, Myanmar and South America were quite close to each other as part of the megacontinent Gondwanaland, which formed when the earlier megacontinent Pangea broke apart. Eventually, Gondwanaland broke apart as well, which is when the continents began to form as we  recognize them today.

Scientists have a clear understanding of which of today's continents made up Gondwanaland and which made up its sister continent, Laurasia. However, the detailed timing and pattern of the Gondwanaland split is not yet clear.

“Like koalas and kangaroos today, certain animals that we think lived in Gondwanaland are only found in one part of the world,” said Yamamoto. “Although Propiestus went extinct long ago, our finding probably shows some amazing connections between Southern Hemisphere and Myanmar. Our finding fits well with the hypothesis that, unlike today, Myanmar was once located in the Southern Hemisphere.”

Many inclusions in Burmese amber that have been researched in the last 15 years, including Propiestus, have traits in common with insects from Gondwanaland. By studying these tiny creatures trapped in amber, experts can begin to answer questions about the structure of the Earth millions of years ago.

“This fossil helps us understand life in the Mesozoic era,” said Yamamoto. “We need to think about everything from that time, both big and small.”

The study is published in the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tjsp20">Journal of Systematic Palaeontology</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image (c) Field Museum, Shuhei Yamamoto

99 million-year-old beetle reveals how Earth’s landmasses shifted

A 99-million-year-old insect preserved inside of a piece of amber...

We encounter so many stimuli in our day-to-day lives, it’s hard to imagine everything that our <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/brain-compensates-uncertainty/">brain</a> has to process along the way. When we actively want to remember something – like when we’re in the classroom or learning a new co-worker’s name – we’ll often make a conscious effort. But how does our brain know when to remember and retain other information that is important, but not something we’re actively trying to learn?

<a href="https://www.stanford.edu/">Stanford University</a> biologists report in <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/">Science</a> that they may have figured out how animals are able to learn which sights, sounds, and sensations within their environment are most important to remember. Through studying mouse models, the researchers found that a part of the brain called the paraventricular thalamus (PVT) plays the role of gatekeeper within the brain, ensuring that it tracks and identifies the most important details of a given situation.

In their study, the research team taught mice to associate specific odors with good and bad outcomes. One odor would indicate that a sip of water was coming, while the other signaled that the mouse was about to receive a puff of air to the face. The researchers then replaced the air puff with a mild shock – a more negative outcome. 

The results showed that neurons in the PVT tracked this change. During the air-puff outcome, two-thirds of PVT neurons responded to both odors, while an additional 30 percent were activated only by the odor that signaled water. This means that the PVT had a more significant response to the good outcome. But during the electric-shock phase, almost all PVT neurons responded to the shock, while only about three-quarters of the neurons responded to both good and bad outcomes.

The same type of shift occurred during the water phase when mice were not thirsty. The less the water mattered to the mice, the less responsive the PVT was to water, and the more responsive it was to air puffs. Together, these results indicate that the PVT tracks what is most important in the moment to the individual.

This study could lead to new ways to modulate learning through stimulating or suppressing PVT activity. Researchers also believe that one day this research could help find alternative strategies for treating drug addiction, through helping addicts to unlearn the association between taking a drug and the high that it provides.

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

How does the brain decide which information to retain?

We encounter so many stimuli in our day-to-day lives, it’s...

Researchers at <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/">Durham University</a> are reporting that dogs could be trained to sniff out malaria in people. While investigating ways to prevent the spread of the deadly disease, the experts found that <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/dogs-understand-words-mri/">dogs</a> could identify the scent of malaria in samples of socks worn by infected children.

The findings could ultimately lead to the first rapid, non-invasive test for malaria. 

"There is no test diagnostic that is 100% effective," Professor Steve Lindsay, study lead investigator, exclusively told <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>. "The best we have is Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assays which can be used to identify very low densities of parasites, but this requires blood to be taken. It is too early to give costs for the dogs. But we see the dogs being used in malaria-free countries to help reduce the number of people carrying malaria parasites into the country. The cost of a malaria resurgence in a country that was once malaria free is huge."

Even though the research is in its early stages, the scientists hope that trained sniffer dogs can help pinpoint infected people faster so that they can be treated more quickly, which would also help to keep malaria from spreading to other countries.

“While our findings are at an early stage, in principle we have shown that dogs could be trained to detect malaria infected people by their odor with a credible degree of accuracy,” explained study lead investigator  Professor Steve Lindsay.

“This could provide a non-invasive way of screening for the disease at ports of entry in a similar way to how sniffer dogs are routinely used to detect fruit and vegetables or drugs at airports.”

“This could help prevent the spread of malaria to countries that have been declared malaria free and also ensure that people, many of whom might be unaware that they are infected with the malaria parasite, receive antimalarial drug treatment for the disease.”

For the study, the researchers used nylon socks to collect foot odor samples from seemingly healthy children between the ages of 5 and 14 in the Upper River Region of The Gambia in West Africa. The children were also tested for the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum in their blood.

Using the sock samples, a Labrador-Golden Retriever and a Labrador at the Medical Detection Dogs (MDD) charity were trained to distinguish between the scent of children infected with malaria parasites and those who were uninfected. 


Overall, there were 30 sock samples from malaria-positive children and 145 samples from uninfected children. The dogs were able to correctly identify 70 percent of the malaria-infected samples, as well as 90 percent of the samples without malaria parasites.

Study co-author Dr. Claire Guest is the Chief Executive Officer of Medical Detection Dogs, located in Milton Keynes, UK.

“MDD have had positive results training dogs to detect diseases including cancer and diabetes sugar changes by odor. This is the first time we have trained dogs to detect a parasite infection and we are delighted by these early results,” said Dr. Claire.

“The possible potential to train dogs to detect tropical disease where diagnostics are poor, such as leishmaniasis and trypanosomiasis is huge. I believe that this study indicates that dogs have an excellent ability to detect malaria and if presented within an individual infected with the parasite or a piece of recently worn clothing, their accuracy levels will be extremely high. This is a reliable, non-invasive test and is extremely exciting for the future.”

Study co-author Professor James Logan is the Head of the Department of Disease Control at the <a href="https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/">London School of Hygiene &amp; Tropical Medicine</a>.

“Worryingly, our progress on the control of malaria has stalled in recent years, so we desperately need innovative new tools to help in the fight against malaria,” said Professor Logan. “Our results show that sniffer dogs could be a serious way of making diagnosis of people who don't show any symptoms, but are still infectious, quicker and easier.”

The research, which was funded by the <a href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/">Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation</a>, was presented at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Medical Detection Dogs

&nbsp;

Dogs can be used to quickly and easily diagnose malaria

Researchers at Durham University are reporting that dogs could be...

All active volcanoes pose a risk to nearby people and communities, but some are more dangerous than others. In an updated volcano threat assessment, the <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/">U.S. Geological Survey</a> has listed 18 volcanoes as “very high threats.”

Eleven of the 18 riskiest volcanoes in the U.S. are in Washington, Oregon or California, and five are in Alaska, but it’s Hawaii’s erupting Kilauea that tops the volcano threat list.

“This report may come as a surprise to many, but not to volcanologists,” Dr. Janine Krippner of <a href="https://www.concord.edu/">Concord University</a> told the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html">Daily Mail</a>. “The USA is one of the most active countries in the world when it comes to volcanic activity.”

The <a href="https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/sir20185140">2018 report</a> also lists 39 high threat, 49 moderate threat, 34 low threat and 21 very low threat volcanoes in the U.S. – 161 active volcanoes in total.

Each volcano threat was assessed on 24 different different risk factors, including how active the volcano is, its historic eruptions, how close it is to large populations, and more. 

But a high-risk volcano won’t necessarily be the next one to erupt and cause damage.

“The threat ranking is not an indication of which volcano will erupt next,” the USGS report noted. “Rather, it indicates how severe the impacts might be from future eruptions at any given volcano.”

The top five “high threat” volcanoes on the report are Hawaii’s Kilauea, Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier in Washington, Redoubt Volcano in Alaska, and Mount Shasta in California. The majority of the moderate threat volcanoes are in Alaska, the USGS reported. The report also raised the volcano threat level of Yellowstone in Wyoming.

The volcano threat assessment comes at a time when about <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/volcanic-hazards-millions-risk/">800 million people</a> around the world live within 60 miles of an active volcano. 

“Understanding how volcanic threat varies with distance from the volcano and which groups of people are affected most can contribute to risk reduction by providing empirical data on which to forecast impacts or support evidence-based eruption planning and preparedness,” researchers wrote in a <a href="https://appliedvolc.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s13617-017-0067-4">study published last October</a>.

--

By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Kilauea tops new USGS volcano threat assessment

All active volcanoes pose a risk to nearby people and...

Kicking alcohol addiction is hard. Part of the difficulty might be because alcohol hijacks a neural pathway that forms memories, triggering your brain to remember the good times and ignore the bad.

A single alcoholic drink can alter that pathway for a time, a new study suggests – which may be why you remember the fun and forget about any embarrassing moments or the side effects that follow.

"All drugs of abuse – alcohol, opiates, cocaine, methamphetamine – have adverse side effects. They make people nauseous or they give people hangovers, so why do we find them so rewarding? Why do we remember the good things about them and not the bad?” Dr. Karla Kaun of <a href="https://www.brown.edu/">Brown University</a> said in a press release. 

Although alcohol addiction and substance abuse can ruin lives, it’s difficult to fight the addiction. Kaun and her team wanted to see what role memories played in keeping addicts from kicking their habits.

The researchers used fruit flies to study how alcohol affects memory, since the molecular signals that trigger rewarding memories and avoidance are similar to the signals in human brains. Fruit flies have about 100,000 neurons compared to humans’ more than 100 billion, making them a sort of scale model. And scientists have already developed genetic tools that allow them to manipulate and observe fruit flies’ neural pathways.

The team trained fruit flies to seek out alcohol, then observed which proteins were activated by the activity. The study uncovered a specific gene, dopamine-2-like receptor, that appeared to play a role in the fruit flies’ alcohol addiction.

"The dopamine-2-like receptor is known to be involved in encoding whether a memory is pleasing or aversive," said Dr. Emily Petruccelli, who led the research. 

They found that alcohol changed the version of the protein the gene produced. The single tiny change seemed to trigger the brain to encode memories as pleasant, or ignore them. That, in turn, seems to trigger cravings.

The way alcoholic drinks affect the D2-like receptor could help explain why alcohol addiction is so difficult to conquer despite its negative consequences.

"If this works the same way in humans, one glass of wine is enough to activate the pathway, but it returns to normal within an hour," Kaun said. "After three glasses, with an hour break in between, the pathway doesn't return to normal after 24 hours. We think this persistence is likely what is changing the gene expression in memory circuits.”

The study has been published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/neuron/home">Neuron</a>.

--

By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Alcohol addiction tied to 'hijacking' of memory pathway

Kicking alcohol addiction is hard. Part of the difficulty might...

The ancient residents of Central America knew how to prioritize. Geneticists have found that they first domesticated the cacao tree about 3,600 years ago.

The discovery doesn’t just show that ancient farmers knew what was important. It can also help geneticists and anthropologists trace human migrations throughout the two continents that make up the Americas.

"This evidence increases our understanding of how humans moved and established in America," lead author Dr. Omar Cornejo of <a href="https://wsu.edu/">Washington State University</a> said in a press release. "It is important in itself because it gives us a timeframe for asking questions that are perhaps trickier: How long did it take to make a good cacao? How strong was the process of domestication? How many plants were necessary to domesticate a tree?"

Cornejo led a team of 18 scientists from 11 different institutions, including <a href="https://www.stanford.edu/">Stanford University</a>, <a href="https://www.indiana.edu/">Indiana University</a>, <a href="http://www.mars.com/global">Mars, Inc.</a> and the <a href="https://www.usda.gov/">U.S. Department of Agriculture</a>.

The researchers sequenced 200 plants, to spot variations in the genome that could indicate where and when the cacao tree was first domesticated.

They found that the “prince of cocoas,” a variety of Theobroma cacao known as Criollo, originated in the Amazon, near the border of Colombia and Ecuador. However, it was domesticated in Central America, where seeds were probably brought by traders.

The farmers who domesticated the cacao tree selected for flavor, disease resistance, and theobromine, a stimulant, but this meant that the plant kept genes linked to smaller crops.

These insights may be able to help researchers increase cacao tree production without sacrificing flavor, the researchers said.

"What we would like to have is a way to combine plants from populations with high productivity – like Iquitos – with plants of Criollo origin, while retaining all these desirable traits that make Criollo cacao be the best in the world," Cornejo said.

The study has been published in the open source journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-018-0168-6">Communications Biology</a>. Funding for the study came from chocolate company Mars, Inc., which is backing efforts to study the cacao tree genome.

--

By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Farmers first grew cacao tree 3,600 years ago

The ancient residents of Central America knew how to prioritize....

The asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dinosaur-extinction-event-darkness/">60 million years ago</a> left behind a crater so massive that it measures over 115 miles in width.

This crater, called Chicxulub, is buried by rocks beneath the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, and it’s the only crater on Earth with a peak ring consisting of broken rock fragments surrounding the crater. 

When an asteroid as big as a city crashes into Earth, like the one that formed Chicxulub, the resulting crater is so large that it’s usually very unstable and collapses. 

The impact is also so forceful it can vibrate the surrounding Earth and rocks to such a degree that they move like liquid, forming a peak ring. 

Now, for the first time, an international team of researchers drilled deep below the ocean floor to better understand how Chicxulub’s peak ring was formed. 

A study, published in the journal Nature, sheds new light on the moments following the asteroid impact that caused the mass extinction event. 

How exactly powerful vibrations cause rocks to move in such a fluid like way has been a topic of some debate. 

The research was only possible thanks to the efforts of the<a href="https://www.iodp.org/"> International Ocean Discovery Program</a> which drilled a mile deep into the Earth and produced core samples that were six inches in diameter. 

“What we found in the drill core is that the rock got fragmented,” Ulrich Riller, an author of the study, told the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45986449">BBC.</a> “It was smashed to tiny little pieces that initially are millimetre sized; and that basically causes this fluid-like behaviour that produces, in the end, the flat crater floor, which characterises Chicxulub and all such large impact structures, including those we also see on the Moon.” 

After examining the core samples and rock fragments, the researchers found that a process called acoustic fluidization forced the rocks that collapsed inward after the asteroid strike to rise in the center and form a mountainous ring. 

“For a while, the broken rock behaves as a fluid,” said Jay Melosh, an author of the study. “There have been a lot of theories proposed about what mechanism allows this fluidization to happen, and now we know it's really strong vibrations shaking the rock constantly enough to allow it to flow.”

To put the forceful vibrations in perspective, Sean Gulick, a member of the drill team, told the BBC that the amount of energy moving through the rocks after the asteroid struck was equivalent to ten billion Hiroshima bombs. 

The study gives researchers a better understanding of the mechanic of forceful asteroid impacts which are present on many planets and moons in our solar system. 

“These findings help us understand how impact craters collapse and how large masses of rock behave in a fluid-like manner in other circumstances, such as landslides and earthquakes,” said Melosh. “Towns have been wiped out by enormous landslides, where people thought they were safe but then discovered that rock will flow like liquid when some disturbance sets a big enough mass in motion.”
--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

How the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs formed such a unique crater

The asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 60 million years...

Wall Of Fans Will Capture CO2 And Turn It Into Clean Fuel

To limit <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/2030-limit-climate-change-warming/">warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius</a> above pre-industrial levels will require a massive effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions worldwide and effective methods to capture carbon from the atmosphere. 

Current carbon capture and storage methods involve scrubbing CO2 from power plants and storing it deep below the Earth.

Carbon capture and storage is costly for coal and other power plants, but it also does nothing for the carbon already emitted into the atmosphere or the emissions from cars and planes. 

An obvious solution to help solve the carbon crisis might be to plant more trees, but the globe just doesn't have enough land for forests to make that a possibility. 

The amount of land and trees required to combat today’s current emissions would mean taking over viable agricultural land in a world where increasing food demands are a top concern. 

But now, <a href="http://carbonengineering.com/">Carbon Engineering</a>, a Canadian-based clean energy company, has developed promising direct air capturing technology that could capture carbon dioxide using fans. 

Not only could the carbon fans be placed anywhere to capture emissions, but the carbon captured would also be turned to carbonate and could be used again for fuel. This would start a sustainable process of emitting carbon, capturing it, storing, turning it into fuel where it will again be emitted. 

The company now has the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/04/carbon-emissions-negative-emissions-technologies-capture-storage-bill-gates">backing of Bill Gates</a>, but the question is will the costs make it feasible for a wide scale. 

A study published in the journal Joule earlier this year found that the that the costs of operating such technology would be between $94 and $232 per ton. 

This is well below previous cost estimates of around $600 per ton, which had been calculated by David Keith, a founder of Carbon Engineering and <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/">Harvard University</a> professor. 

“I hope to show that this as a viable energy industrial technology, not something that is a magic bullet ... but something that is completely doable,” Keith told <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-carbon/scientists-say-cost-of-sucking-carbon-from-thin-air-could-tumble-idUSKCN1J325H">Reuters. </a>

Because the carbon capture technology harvests carbon for fuel that can be used to power planes and cars, it could make fuel as cheap as a dollar a liter, according to Keith. 

Direct carbon capture promises to be a viable solution for removing carbon from the atmosphere and could be a crucial part of limiting emissions and mitigating climate change. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Carbon Engineering

Wall of fans can suck carbon out of the air for a reasonable price

To limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels...

Druck

How evolution repeats itself with stripes and color patterns. Researchers from the <a href="https://www.uni-konstanz.de/en/">University of Konstanz</a> discovered why some species of colorful African cichlid fish have stripes while others don’t.

The study sheds insight on the genetic basis of convergent or repeated evolution, where different biological features will show up repeatedly independent of each other in a species' history. 

In this case, the researcher’s findings help explain what’s driving the repeated <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/evolution-changes/">evolution of stripes</a> for cichlids in African lakes.How evolution repeats itself with stripes and color patterns

The study was published in the journal Science. 

Stripes are common in the animal kingdom and among the thousand or so types of cichlid fish in Africa, there are many different variations of vertical and horizontal stripes and well and distinct color patterns. 

This makes the cichlid an excellent model for studying repeated evolution, according to the researchers.

[caption id="attachment_1861287" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/color.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1861287" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/color-1024x724.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="495" /></a> Image Copyright: Claudius Kratochwil[/caption]

"They are extremely diverse in terms of social behaviour, body shape, colour pattern, and many other biological aspects, but at the same time certain features repeatedly evolved independently in the different lakes,” said Axel Meyer, the leader of the study. 

The researchers were able to identify the genetic mechanisms responsible for stripes and reconstructed the expression of genes necessary to turn stripes “on” or “off” in different breeds of cichlids using CRISPR, a precise tool for editing genes.

“If we use CRISPR-Cas to remove the gene from the genome of a species without stripes,” said Claudius Kratochwil, the first author of the study. “Then even a ‘stripeless’ fish will suddenly develop stripes, as we showed with a CRISPR-Cas mutant fish. This proves that the stripes gene is the decisive genetic factor.” 

The stripe gene is called agrp2 and is similar to the genes responsible for coloring and patterns in different species as well. 

“In breeding experiments, we can exactly determine on which of the 22 chromosomes, even on which area of the chromosome of the fish, the genetic instruction for stripes is located,” said Kratochwil.

Cichlids' stripes have disappeared and re-emerged over the course of millions of years which is why the fish are so intriguing to researchers. Typically when an evolutionary characteristic is lost, it’s lost forever in favor of new traits that better serve a species. 

The specific stripe gene agrp2 of the cichlid fish makes repeated evolution a possibility. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Copyright: Claudius Kratochwil

How evolution repeats itself with stripes and color patterns

How evolution repeats itself with stripes and color patterns. Researchers...

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



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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

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research&nbsp;



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



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

How the immune system responds to injury

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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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



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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