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Scientists have long mapped separate brain areas for sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. Yet new research reveals that when we focus sharply on any of those senses, signals converge on the same two structures buried deep in the brain - the midbrain reticular formation and the central thalamus.



This finding highlights a shared neural pathway that sustains <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/our-brain-stops-paying-attention-to-repeated-distractions/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">attention</a> and wakefulness and could inspire therapies for coma, epilepsy, and attention-deficit disorders.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-senses-in-a-single-brain-region">Senses in a single brain region</h2>



Research over the past century has shown that visual scenes activate the occipital cortex, melodies light up the temporal lobes, and so forth.



“We were expecting to find activity on shared networks, but when we saw all the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/our-sense-of-smell-and-different-odors-can-influence-how-we-see-colors/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">senses</a> light up the same central brain regions while a test subject was focusing, it was really astonishing,” said Aya Khalaf, a postdoctoral associate in neurology at <a href="https://medicine.yale.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Yale School of Medicine</a> and lead author of the study.



Those two regions - the reticular formation, a mesh of neurons in the upper brainstem, and the intralaminar and mediodorsal nuclei of the thalamus - form part of the so-called subcortical arousal system, a set of circuits long suspected to regulate alertness and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/consciousness-may-stem-from-unseen-dimensions-beyond-our-reality/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">consciousness</a>.



Previous work had linked these hubs to vigilance by studying patients emerging from coma or experiencing absence seizures. But most of those experiments examined responses to a single type of stimulus, for example flashing lights or chirping sounds.



Khalaf and colleagues asked the broader question: do different senses share the same arousal circuitry when people deliberately pay attention?



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-massive-data-mine">A massive data mine</h2>



To answer that, the team turned to the publicly available <a href="https://www.humanconnectome.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Human Connectome Project</a> and other repositories, assembling functional MRI scans from 1,561 healthy adults.



Across 11 tasks, participants viewed moving shapes, listened to spoken stories, sampled liquid tastants, or felt puffs of air on their fingertips. Each task included abrupt cues that forced subjects to switch attention - for instance, a sudden change in picture orientation or a surprise tone embedded in white noise.



The investigators processed more than 500 hours of scan data through a pipeline that removed head motion and physiological noise, then aligned brain volumes to a common atlas.



In every sensory domain, when a cue demanded rapid attentional re-orientation, blood-oxygen signals spiked in the reticular formation and the central thalamus. The effect was absent or minimal during passive stimulation, underscoring the importance of active engagement.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-consciousness-in-the-brain">Consciousness in the brain</h2>



Why would a taste test and a vision task end up at the same neural address? The authors propose that the midbrain reticular formation integrates sudden sensory changes and broadcasts a “wake-up” volley to the thalamus, which relays it to widespread cortical areas.



That burst synchronizes cortical rhythms, priming the brain to process incoming information. The scheme dovetails with classical animal studies showing that electrical stimulation of the reticular formation induces cortical desynchronization and behavioral arousal, while lesions produce stupor.



“It tells us how important this brain region is and what it could mean in efforts to restore consciousness,” Khalaf said.



“This has also given us insights into how things work normally in the brain. It’s really a step forward in our understanding of awareness and consciousness,” said senior author Hal Blumenfeld, a neurologist at Yale.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-awakening-senses-in-the-brain">Awakening senses in the brain</h2>



Because the same deep-brain hubs fire regardless of which sense is active, treatments aimed at modulating those hubs could benefit diverse conditions.



Drugs that enhance thalamic neurotransmission, for instance, might improve focus in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/autism-and-adhd-disorders-directly-linked-amount-of-time-kids-spend-on-screens/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">attention deficit hyperactivity disorder</a>. Conversely, overactivity in the arousal circuit has been implicated in insomnia; dampening the circuitry could help induce sleep.



The results also support ongoing trials that deliver low-intensity ultrasound or deep-brain electrodes to the central thalamus in patients with disorders of consciousness. 



If attention triggers the thalamus to “switch on” the cortex, stimulating it directly might help rouse patients who are minimally conscious.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-rethinking-sensory-rehabilitation"><a></a>Rethinking sensory rehabilitation</h2>



The discovery challenges sensory-specific training programs that ignore subcortical commonalities. 



For example, visual rehabilitation for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/stroke-risk-is-elevated-by-air-pollution-and-traffic-noise/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stroke</a> survivors may benefit from pairing attentional cues with tactile or auditory tasks to engage the shared arousal pathway.



Likewise, virtual-reality therapies that bombard users with multi-sensory surprises might more effectively sharpen attentional control.



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



The Yale team plans to refine the timeline of activation using magnetoencephalography, which offers millisecond resolution. They also hope to dissect the frequency bands that link the thalamus to frontal and parietal cortices during attentional jumps. 



Such work could reveal whether gamma-band bursts or alpha-band suppression carry the critical “wake-up” message.



Another frontier involves patients. Investigators will compare responses in healthy volunteers with those in people who have attention deficits or who are emerging from anaesthesia. 



Identifying a lost or delayed thalamic spike could serve as a biomarker for impaired consciousness.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-brain-regions-and-the-senses">Brain regions and the senses</h2>



For now, the study establishes the midbrain reticular formation and central thalamus as the universal relay through which sight, sound, taste, and touch gain conscious entry - at least when our minds snap to attention.



By showing that “all the senses light up the same central brain regions,” it confirms that consciousness depends not only on specialized cortical maps but also on a common deep-brain gatekeeper. 



Therapies that target this gatekeeper may eventually help restore awareness where it has dimmed and sharpen it where it wanders.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811925002277?via%3Dihub" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NeuroImage</a>.



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Scientists discover a brain region that connects all the senses

Scientists have long mapped separate brain areas for sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. Yet new research reveals that when we focus sharply on any of those senses, signals converge on the same two structures buried deep in the brain - the midbrain reticular formation and the central thalamus. This finding highlights a shared neural pathway that sustains attention and wakefulness and could inspire therapies for coma, epilepsy, and attention-deficit disorders. Senses in a single brain region Research over the past century has shown that visual scenes...

Hawaii officials proposed a series of steps to fight coral bleaching that's threatening the state's reefs, including new marine protected areas, limits on fishing and controlling polluted runoff from land.
Hawaii's ocean temperatures have been rising as greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have increased, forcing corals to expel algae they rely on for food. Vast stretches of reef have turned white over the past two summers, increasing the risk that the coral will get sick and die. Some already have died.
It's a serious concern for the health of the ocean because coral reefs provide habitat for fish and other marine life, scientists say. Severe or concurrent years of bleaching can kill coral reefs, as has been documented over the past two years in oceans around the world. Scientists expect a third year of bleaching to last through the end of 2016.
Bruce Anderson, the state Division of Aquatic Resources administrator, said addressing polluted runoff is difficult, noting it would cost millions of dollars to create artificial wetlands that would help control runoff. Fishermen in the past have also resisted moves to limit their catch.
But Anderson said the coral bleaching crisis presents an opportunity.
"We are going to have future bleaching events, and the water is going to get warmer. And it's going to happen again and again," he said Thursday. "So our challenge is to prevent the impacts of bleaching as much as we can and also to help the reefs recover."
Another idea is to ban lay gill nets that fishermen leave in the water. Anderson said these types of nets are harmful because they kill all the fish caught in them, not just the species targeted by the fisherman. The nets work because the mesh is large enough for a fish's head to go through but too small for its body to escape.
The state will hold public meetings on its proposals before any are adopted.
Anderson said the state came up with the proposals after surveying over 80 scientists around the world about what steps are most effective at helping coral reefs.
Warmer ocean temperatures bleached coral in Kaneohe Bay off Oahu in 2014. Last year, they bleached corals off the west coast of the Big Island and off Maui.
Hawaii Fishermen's Alliance for Conservation and Tradition President Phil Fernandez said he said he looks forward to working with Anderson and the state on the proposals.
The no-take zones may be problematic, depending on where they would be, he said, but his group is open to discussing them.
As for potential catch limits on parrotfish, a popular reef fish, he said the species needs to be managed but the question is to what degree and how. Parrotfish help coral by eating algae and preventing it from smothering the reef.
"We want the reef to come back. We fish, and the health of fish is completely dependent on habitat. When the habitat is decimated, the fish goes away," he said.
The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii's marine science director said he's excited and encouraged the state is taking on the issue and that it recognizes it needs to think strategically about coral bleaching.
Eric Conklin called the proposals ambitious and noted the state will need to get feedback and input from the community. He said the proposals face a long road to approval through a public process.
"It's really easy to say 'the science tells us these are the best things to do.' It's really tricky to figure out the best way to be guided by that science but develop up a plan that still meets the needs of the people who rely on the resource," Conklin said. "That's the real challenge in front of us."
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Hawaii develops a plan to fight coral bleaching

Hawaii officials proposed a series of steps to fight coral...

The federal government stepped into the fight over the Dakota Access oil pipeline Friday, ordering work to stop on one segment of the project in North Dakota and asking the Texas-based company building it to "voluntarily pause" action on a wider span that an American Indian tribe says holds sacred artifacts.
The government's order came minutes after a judge rejected a request by the Standing Rock Sioux to halt construction of the $3.8 billion, four-state pipeline.
The tribe, whose cause has drawn thousands to join their protest, has challenged the Army Corps of Engineers' decision to grant permits for the pipeline at more than 200 water crossings. Tribal leaders allege that the project violates several federal laws and will harm water supplies. The tribe also says ancient sites have been disturbed during construction.
The tribe's chairman, Dave Archambault II, spoke at the state Capitol in front of several hundred people, some carrying signs that read "Respect Our Water" and "Water Is Sacred." He called the federal announcement "a beautiful start" and told reporters that the dispute is a long way from over.
"A public policy win is a lot stronger than a judicial win," he said. "Our message is heard."
A joint statement from the Army and the Departments of Justice and the Interior said construction bordering or under Lake Oahe would not go forward and asked the Texas-based pipeline builder, Energy Transfer Partners, to stop work 20 miles to the east and west of the lake while the government reconsiders "any of its previous decisions."
The statement also said the case "highlighted the need for a serious discussion" about nationwide reforms "with respect to considering tribes' views on these types of infrastructure projects."
Vicki Granado, a spokeswoman for the company, said it had no comment.
The president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council said he was disappointed with the government's decision to intervene and called it "flagrant overreach" that will result in more oil being moved by trucks and trains.
The 1,172-mile project will carry nearly a half-million barrels of crude oil daily from North Dakota's oil fields through South Dakota and Iowa to an existing pipeline in Patoka, Illinois.
In denying the tribe's request for a temporary injunction, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington said that the court "does not lightly countenance any depredation of lands that hold significance" to the tribe and that, given the federal government's history with the tribe, the court scrutinized the permitting process "with particular care."
Nonetheless, the judge wrote, the tribe "has not demonstrated that an injunction is warranted here."
Attorney Jan Hasselman with the environmental group Earthjustice, who filed the lawsuit on the tribe's behalf, said earlier this week any such decision would be challenged. "We will have to pursue our options with an appeal and hope that construction isn't completed while that (appeal) process is going forward," he said.
Tribal historian LaDonna Brave Bull Allard said Boasberg's ruling gave her "a great amount of grief. My heart is hurting, but we will continue to stand, and we will look for other legal recourses."
Earlier in the day, thousands of protesters, many from tribes around the country, gathered near the reservation that straddles the North and South Dakota border.
"There's never been a coming together of tribes like this," according to Judith LeBlanc, a member of the Caddo Nation in Oklahoma and director of the New York-based Native Organizers Alliance. People came from as far as New York and Alaska, some bringing their families and children, and hundreds of tribal flags dotted the camp, along with American flags flown upside-down in protest.
The judge's order was announced over a loudspeaker there. John Nelson of Portland, Oregon, came to the camp to support his grandson, Archambault. The 82-year-old says he was not surprised by the ruling, "but it still hurts."
State authorities announced this week that law enforcement officers from across the state were being mobilized at the protest site. They said some National Guard members will work security at traffic checkpoints and another 100 would be on standby. The Great Plains Tribal Chairman's Association asked the Justice Department to send monitors to the site because it said racial profiling is occurring.
Nearly 40 people have been arrested since the protest began in April, including Archambault.
A week ago, protesters and construction workers were injured when, according to tribal officials, workers bulldozed sites on private land that the tribe says in court documents are "of great historic and cultural significance." Energy Transfer Partners denied the allegations.
The state's Private Investigation and Security Board received complaints about the use of dogs and will look into whether the private security teams at the site are properly registered and licensed, board attorney Monte Rogneby said Friday, adding that he would not name the firms.
On Thursday, North Dakota's archaeologist said a piece of private land that was not previously surveyed by the state would be surveyed for artifacts next week.
The company plans to complete the pipeline this year, and said in court papers that stopping the project would cost $1.4 billion the first year, mostly due to lost revenue in hauling crude.
A status conference in the tribe's lawsuit is scheduled for Sept. 16.
---
Kolpack reported from Fargo, North Dakota. Associated Press writers Blake Nicholson in Bismarck, North Dakota, and Doug Glass in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
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Feds halt work on part of the Dakota Access oil pipeline

The federal government stepped into the fight over the Dakota...

Members of an international environmental group are expected to vote on a proposal Saturday to urge leaders in every country to close domestic ivory markets that threaten elephants.
Ivory trading is banned internationally, but domestic ivory trade within countries is legal nearly everywhere.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature planned to vote on the proposal Friday at the World Conservation Congress in Honolulu, but some members of the global group of government and nonprofit representatives didn't want a ban, and the vote was delayed when they filed a complaint saying their concerns had not been heard.
"Some governments just don't see the reality of the crisis that the countries of central and East Africa are facing right now," said Susan Lieberman, vice president for international conservation at the Wildlife Conservation Society. "This is about saying to all governments, 'Make it so people can't buy ivory, because that's the only thing that's going to stop the organized criminals who are causing the poaching of elephants.'"
If the group passes the proposal, it won't have the power to enforce it. Each country would have to enact laws individually, but the group's policy experts could help countries craft laws.
"While the resolutions are not international law, in many cases, they are the genesis of international agreements," said Enrique Lahmann, global director of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The number of savanna elephants in Africa is rapidly declining and the animals are in danger of being wiped out because of the ivory trade, according to a recent study, which said the population plummeted by about 30 percent from 2007 to 2014 and is declining at about 8 percent a year.
Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul Allen funded the aerial survey that covered 18 countries using dozens of airplanes and involved 90 scientists.
The United States announced a near-total ban on the domestic sale of African elephant ivory in June.
"We're talking about the extinction of elephants," said Joseph Moravec, law student at Pace University and voting member of the conservation congress. "Ivory markets are going to close one way or the other, whether it's us closing them when the elephant is still alive, or they're going to close in a few years when these species are still extinct and there's no more ivory left."
Meetings to work out disagreements about the ivory ban proposal were closed to the press Wednesday and Friday, and conference organizers did not release the names of the representatives or countries who delayed the vote.
The IUCN has 1,300 members from more than 160 countries. For a measure to pass, more than half of the eligible members must be voting, and a majority of the votes must support the measure.
---
Follow Cathy Bussewitz on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/cbussewitz">https://twitter.com/cbussewitz</a> . Her work can be found at <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/cathy-bussewitz">http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/cathy-bussewitz</a> .
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Environmental group hopes to ban domestic ivory trade

Members of an international environmental group are expected to vote...

Up until a few years ago, mackerel were unknown in Greenland’s cold waters. The small oily fish typically spawned west of the British Isles and then migrated toward the northeast along the Norwegian current to feed for the summer. But in 2007, they began to show up in large numbers in the Irminger Current around Iceland. On the ocean highway, where they once turned right, they now turned left.

By 2011, the mackerel had found their way into Greenlandic waters, prompting the launch of a new fishery. Three years later, the mackerel fishery made up 23 percent of Greenland’s export earning, an “extreme example of how climate change can impact the economy of an entire nation,” Teunis Jansen, a researcher at the Technical University of Denmark, said in a release.

The mackerel aren’t the only species being affected by warmer oceans. Soaring temperatures and ocean warming have pushed entire groups of species toward the poles, caused increases in disease in plants and animals and changed weather patterns, according to a report launched this week by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Marine species are moving northward at a rate roughly five times faster than the migration of land animals.

The report, released during the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Hawaii, highlights the impacts of ocean warming on marine life, from microorganisms to mammals. Eighty scientists from a dozen countries worked on the report, considered to be the most comprehensive collection of research on the planet’s warming oceans.

Truly Staggering

“We were astounded by the scale and extent of ocean warming effects on entire ecosystems made clear by this report,” said Dan Laffoley, an IUCN marine adviser and one of the report’s lead authors.

The world’s oceans have acted as a buffer against climate change. A “staggering 93 percent” of the heat produced by human activities has been absorbed by the world’s oceans, Laffoley said. If the heat had entered the atmosphere instead of the oceans, the Earth would have warmed not by the 1C (1.8F) we have already experienced, but by 36C (64.8F). “Up to now, the ocean has shielded us from the worst impacts of climate change,” the report’s authors write.

Temperatures have risen most dramatically in the Arctic, where air temperatures over the Arctic Ocean have increased by 1–2C (1.8–3.6F) since 1980, melting sea ice and the undersides of glaciers.

The loss of sea ice has many consequences. Ice acts as a physical barrier, preventing species from moving from one ocean to another and filtering the amount of light that enters the water. Without it, there is an increased chance that species could use Arctic waters to migrate between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, the report said.

The thinning ice has also led to plankton blooms, which fundamentally shift the food available in the ecosystem, said Olof Linden, a marine environmental scientist at the World Maritime University, at the U.N.’s International Maritime Organization, and the author of the Arctic chapter in the report. Linden said the report focused on the biological aspects of warming Arctic waters, but he recognized that there would be many knock-on effects for the people who live along the coasts.

Fundamental Shifts Underway

“The change in ice cover has a dramatic impact on the ecosystem and biodiversity,” said Linden. “At the surface, there is now a soup of plankton and short-lived pelagic fish, like herring and sprat living up there. The groupers, the haddock are all gone because they cannot live off of those plankton.”

Warmer temperatures are already having an effect on bird populations that frequent the Arctic. Ivory gulls in Arctic Canada have declined by 70 percent and the number of Arctic skua breeding in Scotland declined by 74 percent between 1986 and 2011. Studies suggest that black-legged kittiwakes could be extinct in Norway within the next 10–100 years.

The length of the Arctic summer (reduced ice conditions) has already increased by 5–10 weeks throughout the Arctic – and by more than 20 weeks in the Barents Sea region, putting ice-dependent mammals on the edge. As the sea ice retreats, the reproductive success of pack-ice breeding seals will plummet and polar bears are likely to be pushed out of much of their current range in 50–70 years, according to the report.

And, at some point, the report said, the warming ocean could unlock billions of tons of methane frozen within the permafrost contained within the seabed, beneath the oceans.

Future Safeguards

Arctic species are thought to be particularly susceptible to warming ocean temperatures, because they are highly specialized in terms of what they eat, how they hunt and where they live.

There are measures that can be taken to reduce the vulnerability of the Arctic ecosystem to added human pressures, such as controlling emissions, waste and ballast waters from ships traveling in Arctic waters and minimizing the risk of an oil spill, said Linden.

“As fish species move to new jurisdictions, they could create conflicts for access,” said Brian Mackenzie, a researcher at the Technical University of Denmark. “[We] need to have clear science-based management policies in place, compliance, etc. … to avoid conflicts like what happened a few years ago when mackerel and herring moved farther North in N.E. Atlantic and created conflicts among different countries.”

Marine protected areas play a role, but the size of these areas is crucial to their success. They must contain many habitats of the same type and of different types in the same area to preserve the ecosystem, said Linden.

He points to the recent expansion of Papahānaumokuākea, an existing ocean reserve off the coast of Hawaii, which will now be the world’s largest marine protected area, covering 1.5 million square kilometers (582,578 square miles). Russia announced the enlargement of its Arctic National Park to include islands in the Franz Josef Land Archipelago and parts of the adjacent seas, making it Russia’s largest national park and marine wildlife sanctuary at 88,000 square kilometers (34,000 square miles).

But at its core, ocean warming is a “global temperature effect,” said Linden. “The only way to deal with it is to stop pumping out carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.”

---

Arctic Deeply/UPI

Ocean warming is already harming arctic birds and fish

Up until a few years ago, mackerel were unknown in...

<div>The normal flow of air high up in the atmosphere over the equator, known as the quasi-biennial oscillation, was seen to break down earlier this year. These stratospheric winds are found high above the tropics, their direction and strength changes in a regular two- to three-year cycle which provides forecasters with an indication of the weather to expect in Northern Europe. Westerly winds are known to increase the chance of warm and wet conditions, while easterlies bring drier and colder weather.</div>
<div>

Scientists from NCAS at the University of Oxford and the Met Office were part of an international team that observed the unusual behavior in February, noticing a reversal of the expected pattern in the winds. This same team then identified the reason why.

The quasi-biennial oscillation is a regular feature of the climate system. On average, these equatorial eastward and westward winds alternate every 28 to 29 months, making them very predictable in the long term. The team's findings published in Science this week, show that this unexpected change in wind direction was caused by atmospheric waves in the Northern Hemisphere.

Dr Scott Osprey, an NCAS scientist at the University of Oxford, said: "The recent disruption in the quasi-biennial oscillation was not predicted, not even one month ahead. If we can get to the bottom of why the normal pattern was affected in this way, we could develop more confidence in our future seasonal forecasts."

Prof Adam Scaife, Head of Long-range Forecasting at the Met Office and Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Exeter, said: "This unexpected disruption to the climate system switches the cycling of the quasi-biennial oscillation forever. And this is important as it is one of the factors that will influence the coming winter."

A return to more typical behaviour within the next year is forecast, though scientists believe that the quasi-biennial oscillation could become more susceptible to similar disruptions as the climate warms.

Later this month international research groups will meet in Oxford to discuss the origins and implications of this event.
###
The paper "An unexpected disruption of the atmospheric Quasi-Biennial Oscillation" is published in Science today. For copies of the paper, interviews, images or further information, contact Scott M Osprey on +44(0)1865 282434 or email <a href="mailto:Scott.Osprey@physics.ox.ac.uk">Scott.Osprey@physics.ox.ac.uk</a>

Key facts
<ul>
 	<li>In February 2016 the quasi-biennial oscillation, a regular feature of the climate system, broke down from its regular pattern.</li>
 	<li>The eastward winds in the upper atmosphere unexpectedly reversed to a westward direction</li>
 	<li>Seasonal forecasts did not predict the disruption, despite the quasi-biennial oscillation being the most predictable long term atmospheric variation after the annual cycle</li>
 	<li>The quasi-biennial oscillation varies every 28 to 29 months on average, and has known impacts on surface weather and climate</li>
 	<li>As the climate warms in future, similar disruptions to the quasi-biennial oscillation could become more frequent</li>
</ul>
Further information

About lead author: Scott M Osprey, NCAS Scientist, University of Oxford

The paper "An unexpected disruption of the atmospheric Quasi-Biennial Oscillation" is published in Science today. For copies of the paper, interviews, images or further information, contact Scott M Osprey on +44(0)1865 282434 or email <a href="mailto:Scott.Osprey@physics.ox.ac.uk">Scott.Osprey@physics.ox.ac.uk</a>

Department of Physics, University of Oxford

The Department of Physics at the University of Oxford is one of the largest physics departments in the world, employing about 500 people alongside around 650 undergraduate and 330 graduate students, and with an annual research income of about £25m. The department was judged to have the highest proportion of 4* (world leading) research of any UK physics department in the most recent Research Excellence Framework. <a href="http://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www2.physics.ox.ac.uk</a>

National Centre for Atmospheric Science

The National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) is a world leader in atmospheric science, a multi-million pound research centre, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). NCAS carries out research in climate science, atmospheric composition and air quality, physics of the atmosphere (including hazardous and extreme weather) and provides the UK community with state-of-the-art technologies and scientific facilities for observing and modelling the atmosphere, including a world-leading research aircraft. <a href="http://www.ncas.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.ncas.ac.uk</a>

Met Office

The Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Science and Services provides world-class guidance on the science of climate change and is the primary focus in the UK for climate science. Its work is, in part, jointly funded by BEIS (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) and DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs). <a href="http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate-guide/science/science-behind-climate-change/hadley" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate-guide/science/science-behind-climate-change/hadley</a>

Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Exeter

The University of Exeter is a Russell Group university that combines world-class research with very high levels of student satisfaction. Exeter has over 21,000 students and is one of the global top 100 universities according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2015-16, positioned 93rd. Exeter is also ranked 7th in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2016 and 11th in the Guardian University Guide 2017. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), the University ranked 16th nationally, with 98% of its research rated as being of international quality. Exeter was named The Times and The Sunday Times Sports University of the Year 2015-16, in recognition of excellence in performance, education and research. Exeter was The Sunday Times University of the Year 2012-13.

The University will launch its flagship Living Systems Institute in 2016, a world-class, interdisciplinary research community that will revolutionise the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. This follows recent investments of more than £350 million worth of new facilities across its campuses in recent years; including landmark new student services centres - the Forum in Exeter and The Exchange on the Penryn Campus in Cornwall, together with world-class new facilities for Biosciences, the Business School and the Environment and Sustainability Institute. <a href="http://www.exeter.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.exeter.ac.uk</a>

International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawai'i <a href="http://iprc.soest.hawaii.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">iprc.soest.hawaii.edu</a>

Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis, University of Victoria <a href="http://www.cccma.ec.gc.ca/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.cccma.ec.gc.ca</a>

</div>

The quasi-biennial oscillation: Important climate regulator has broken down

The normal flow of air high up in the atmosphere...

Native forest birds on the Hawaiian island of Kauai are rapidly dying off and facing the threat of extinction as climate change heats up their habitat and allows mosquito-borne diseases to thrive, according to a study released Wednesday.
Higher temperatures caused by global warming increase the spread of diseases such as avian malaria in wooded areas once cool enough to keep them under control, the research says. The findings are an early warning for forest birds on other islands and other species worldwide that rely on rapidly disappearing habitat, according to the study published in the journal Science Advances.
Most of Hawaii's forest birds are restricted to forests in high elevations where disease has been seasonal or absent. A sharp increase in disease has occurred over a 15-year period in the upper-elevation forests of Kauai's Alakai Plateau, a highly eroded crater of an extinct volcano, the study said.
"If native species linearly decline at a rate similar to or greater than that of the past decade, then multiple extinctions are likely in the next decade," it warns.
Two Hawaiian honeycreeper species - akikiki and akekee - are endangered. A petition is asking for the iiwi to be listed as endangered, too, said co-author Lisa Crampton, a wildlife ecologist and conservation biologist who is also coordinator for the Kauai Forest Bird Recovery Project.
The authors used long-term survey data collected by state and federal biologists to document the decline of Kauai's native forest birds, along with surveys tallying the prevalence of avian diseases. Some co-authors went into the forests to count birds, while others analyzed the data, Crampton said.
The scientists found an increase in mosquitoes in the birds' habitat, along with warmer temperatures in the area. Those are some of the correlations that led them to believe climate change is accelerating diseases, Crampton said.
While global warming is a "prime suspect" for the precipitous decline in the birds, other factors such as non-native plants and animals are contributing to the problem, the study said.
The authors describe climate change as a "tipping point" for the sensitive birds.
The study is a "signal that we need to do something about global warming and mosquitoes," said Sam Ohu Gon, senior scientist and cultural adviser for the Nature Conservancy of Hawaii, which was not part of the study.
It's only a matter of time before mosquito-borne diseases become commonplace in Hawaii, he said.
There are also cultural reasons to care about the study, he said, explaining that Native Hawaiians view birds, plants and animals as ancestors.
Crampton notes that feathers adorned regalia of ancient Hawaiian chiefs.
"If we lose these forest birds, we lose our connection to our past," she said, adding that they are also integral to Hawaii's watersheds.
"Even though the situation is dire, it's not too late," she said. "It's not hopeless."
State, federal and nonprofit agencies are moving to control rodents that prey on nests and fence off habitats to invasive animals such as pigs and goats, among other actions requiring public support, Crampton said.
In addition, individuals' efforts to reduce their carbon footprint will go a long way.
"Everything we can do to slow down the rate of climate change is going to help the birds," she said.
---
Online:
Science Advances: <a href="http://bit.ly/2bYIlsE">http://bit.ly/2bYIlsE</a>
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Climate change is killing the native forest birds of Hawaii

Native forest birds on the Hawaiian island of Kauai are...

As Hermine worked its way up the East Coast, scientists deployed several underwater drones they say will help them better understand what sustains and strengthens hurricanes and tropical storms - and ultimately better protect life and property.
The ocean gliders, as they are called, resemble yellow-winged torpedoes. They were released into the ocean roughly 100 miles offshore at the continental shelf, where at depths of 100 to 300 feet they measured water temperatures, salinity and density before, during and even after the storm.
Traditional research aircraft that are flown into the eye of a hurricane to take measurements can't get a read on any of that.
"One reason hurricanes are so hard to forecast is that intensity depends on conditions ahead of and below the storm," said Glen Gawarkiewicz, an oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Falmouth, Massachusetts.
The robotic gliders, which are remotely controlled from the shore, can delve into the heart of the storm where it's too dangerous or impractical to send people, and then feed real-time information via satellite to scientists safe on land.
The gliders have been in use for several years now, but this is the third year of the coordinated program funded by the NOAA office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. Gawarkiewicz said the latest deployments will give a "look at the continental shelf system in a more holistic manner."
Woods Hole works on the federally funded program in conjunction with the University of Maine, the University of Maryland, Rutgers University and the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.
The most important thing the gliders collect is water temperature, an important tool in predicting storm intensity, Gawarkiewicz said.
If the storm churns up colder water from the deep ocean, it will decrease in intensity.
The data will help forecasters better predict future storms, and perhaps better warn coastal residents when a monster hurricane is about to hit.
Scientists hit the jackpot with Hermine. Although it was a relatively weak hurricane and had been downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it reached waters off the Northeast, it moved slowly and lingered in the Atlantic off the New York/New England coast for a few days, giving scientists a wider window in which to gather data.
The gliders are still out there, collecting post-storm data that will give scientists a picture of what happens weeks after a hurricane or tropical storm passes through, which can affect future weather.
It may take months to fully analyze the Hermine data, but there have already been some surprises, Gawarkiewicz said. For example, the storm drifted farther west than originally predicted, and the data collected may help explain why.
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Scientists use undersea ocean gliders to predict hurricanes

As Hermine worked its way up the East Coast, scientists...

<div>An extinct reptile related to crocodiles that lived 212 million years ago in present day New Mexico has been named as a new species, Vivaron haydeni, in a paper published this week by Virginia Tech's <a href="http://www.geos.vt.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Department of Geosciences</a> researchers.</div>
<div>

Leading the paper that names the previously unknown animal is undergraduate researcher Emily Lessner of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, a double major in the departments of Geosciences and Biological Sciences, both in the Virginia Tech College of Science. Lessner's paper detailing the fossil of the animal - jawbones, other skull fragments, and hip-bones - appears in this week's open science journal, <a href="https://peerj.com/articles/2336.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PeerJ</a>.

Vivaron haydeni was found in Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, in 2009 during an excavation co-led by Sterling Nesbitt, then a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, and now an assistant professor of geosciences at Virginia Tech. Some of the fossils remained sealed in protective plaster jackets until 2014, when they were transported to Blacksburg for study. That's where Lessner enters.

At the time a sophomore majoring in Biological Sciences with a minor in Geosciences, she was seeking an independent research experience that piqued her interest and provided a challenge. She found it with the Paleobiology Research Group in Derring Hall.

Nesbitt had not arrived on campus yet and was looking for students interested in conducting research projects. When Lessner heard of the opportunity and the chance to work with Nesbitt and Michelle Stocker, also a newly arriving paleontologist in the college, Lessner jumped at the chance.

"Initially, I cleaned fossils in the lab and worked on a project reconstructing soft tissue structures using computed tomographic, or CT, scans on the computer," said Lessner, now a senior. "I began looking at Vivaron pretty soon after."

The name of the new species came from Lessner. Vivaron haydeni is named for a famed, monstrous snake - 30 feet long - of Ghost Ranch lore, a story passed around campfires more than a century ago, and John Hayden, a hiker who in 2002 discovered the New Mexico quarry from which the fossils were collected.

The fossil represents the sixth species of rauisuchid found thus far, and the second found in what is now the American Southwest, but was once part of the western portion of the supercontinent Pangea.

Vivaron was a carnivorous archosaur - a large set of animals that includes crocodilians and dinosaurs, as mammals includes humans and dogs. Vivaron itself measured 12 to 18 feet long, and walked on four legs. Thus far, three jaw bones, other skull fragments, and hip-bones from at least three individuals - two large, one smaller - have been found.

"These were some of the biggest predators at the time, all dinosaurs were much smaller," added Nesbitt, speaking of the Triassic Period, more than 200 million years ago.

Vivaron is distinguishable by its upper jaw bone, which is smoother in appearance than other rauisuchid species. Other features of the animal must be inferred from close relatives. The New Mexico location in which it was found is a hot spot for paleontology research. Other parts of Vivaron may still be there.

"It is possible that other bones were not preserved, were previously collected, or are still in the ground," said Lessner, who added geosciences as a second major soon after beginning work on Vivaron.

Bones of Vivaron that Lessner took apart, cleaned, and are on hand in the paleontology lab, some kept in protective sleeves and plaster jackets as they are thin and incredibly fragile. The detailed cleaning process was as much a learning process as any part of Lessner's work with the lab. "When you look at anything so long, so close, you realize extra details and patterns you would not otherwise notice," she added.

Lessner said her undergraduate research experience has greatly enriched her college experience.

"It has given me opportunities that simply attending class never has and has opened up doors for my future. I have been able to gain first-hand experience in the field," said Lessner.

She has learned to write scientifically, met paleontologists from around the world, and participated in digs in Arizona, New Mexico, and Wyoming with both Stocker and Nesbitt. She has presented her findings to the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology; the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology; the Southeastern Association of Vertebrate Paleontology; and will speak before the 2016 Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

All this in addition to being published in a journal by the age 22.

She credits Nesbitt and Stocker for setting her undergraduate education on a new course. "They got here just as I was looking for them," Lessner said of her sophomore year looking for a new direction.

Nesbitt said he is "paying it forward" when working with undergraduate students in the paleontology lab, as he himself began his career as a paleontologist via independent undergraduate research projects at University of California Berkeley. "These experiences are what really made me understand what it is like to think as a scientist and how to take on complex scientific problems one step at a time," he said.

"Emily embodies a key characteristic all undergraduate researchers need, bravery,"said Nesbitt. "You constantly are in situations that you have never been in, from fieldwork in the middle of a desert to presenting research in front of 200 professionals."

Added Stocker: "Emily has become an important member of our research group. She's taken on an increasing amount of responsibility since she first started with us, and she's now a leader among our students. She's ready to tackle the next steps of her career."

Among her career plans, Lessner wants to enter a graduate program upon completion of her undergraduate degree and she wants to one day investigate the Triassic fossil quarries of her native southeastern Pennsylvania.

"There is something for everyone, whether it be within your major or outside it, as mine was," she said of the variety of research projects and methods across Virginia Tech. "Contact and even work with multiple people, especially if you are unsure of your interests; do not be afraid to reach out to professors. Find something you really like and it will turn into something meaningful."
###
Lessner's New Mexico fieldwork experience and research at Virginia Tech was supported by a National Science Foundation grant to a collaborative research team consisting of scientists from Virginia Tech, the University of Utah, Stony Brook University, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

Additional resources are available at <a href="http://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2016/09/science-EmilyLessnerVivaronHaydeni.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Virginia Tech News</a>.

</div>

Vivaron haydeni: New species of reptile from 212 million years ago

An extinct reptile related to crocodiles that lived 212 million...

Gov. Jerry Brown is set to extend the nation's most ambitious climate change law by another 10 years on Thursday as California charts a new goal to reduce carbon pollution.
The Democratic governor chose an urban natural park on the edge of downtown Los Angeles as the setting to sign the legislation, SB32, into law.
The bill expands on California's landmark 2006 law, which set the goal of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. The state is set to meet or exceed that benchmark, Brown said, with steps including restricting the carbon content of gasoline and diesel fuel, encouraging sales of zero-emission vehicles and imposing a tax on pollution.
The new measure by Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, sets a new goal of reducing emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, which Brown called the most aggressive target enacted by any government in North America.
He says the ultimate goal is to cut climate-warming pollution by 80 percent under 1990 levels by 2050, though legislation that would have enacted that target was watered down.
Supporters overcame strong opposition from oil companies and other industry interests to pass the bill a year after business-friendly Democrats in the Assembly derailed an even more ambitious proposal to limit the use of oil in the state. Republicans say California's efforts have raised consumer costs without noticeably affecting global emissions.
Brown told a gathering a day earlier in Sacramento that critics have long tried to scuttle reforms by saying they aren't feasible.
"It wasn't too many years ago that our electric utilities said they could not get to 20 percent renewable electricity," Brown told a meeting hosted by the California Independent System Operator, which oversees the state's power grid. "Well, this month it's been over 26 percent. They said they couldn't get there by 2020. Now, they're all saying - all the major privately owned utilities - they can get to 50 percent by 2030."
Brown also plans to sign another bill, AB197, by Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia, D-Coachella, that provides more legislative oversight of the appointed Air Resources Board, which is responsible for implementing the law, and gives aid to poorer areas that lawmakers say have suffered the most harm from climate change.
The governor, who has traveled the world promoting greenhouse-gas reduction efforts, issued an executive order last year setting the 2030 goals contained in SB32.
But his signing leaves in jeopardy the state's best-known emissions reduction measure. The California Chamber of Commerce has a pending legal challenge to the tax on carbon known as cap-and-trade, which requires polluters to buy permits to emit greenhouse gases. The last two permit sales also have fizzled.
The chamber warned that SB32 will require severe new restrictions that could make the state's energy supply less affordable.
---
Associated Press writers Don Thompson and Juliet Williams in Sacramento contributed to this report.
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California to extend climate change law by 10 years

Gov. Jerry Brown is set to extend the nation's most...

<div>The effects of man-made climate change can hamper scientific projections of how key global weather patterns will act in the future, a new study has revealed.</div>
<div>

The pivotal study, carried out by a team of international researchers, has shown that 'multiple' environmental influences can stymie predictions of how mid-latitude storms could behave.

Professor Mark Baldwin, Head of Mathematics at the University of Exeter and co-author of the paper said: "The study frames the important problem of what factors influence the paths of storms, and explores the possible future changes to storms and precipitation as climate changes."

Specifically, the study looks at how a series of environmental forces such as enhanced surface warming in the Arctic - known as Arctic amplification - will impact the position of storm tracks. These are regions where storms travel from west to east across oceans and continents, driven by the prevailing jet stream.

The study suggests that there is a 'tug of war' between how these different environmental forces could change the position of the storm tracks.

Crucially, such major changes could significantly impact many of the most iconic cities worldwide - including New York, Chicago, London, Tokyo, Cape Town and Melbourne - because they shape temperature, precipitation and extreme weather.

The study, a review of the latest research in the field, is published in leading scientific journal Nature Geoscience.

In idealized and comprehensive climate model simulations, warming due to increased carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere leads the clouds in high latitudes to reflect more solar radiation - thereby cooling the earth's surface in those regions and increasing the temperature gradient between the equator and the poles. In isolation (the amount of solar energy reaching the Earth's surface) this would lead to a poleward shift of the storm tracks.

Meanwhile, those same clouds tend to enhance the greenhouse effect, thereby warming the Earth's surface in those same regions and decreasing the temperature gradient between the equator and the poles, producing an opposite shift (also, in isolation).

Dr Tiffany S. Shaw, assistant professor in geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago and lead author of the paper added: "Changes in the position of storm tracks in response to anthropogenic climate change depend on how the equator-to-pole temperature gradient will change, and among the various factors affecting this gradient, cloud changes stand out as one of the important pieces of the puzzle.

The study found many examples of opposing influences affecting the position of storm tracks. These included the opposing influence of warming in the tropical upper atmosphere and Arctic amplification (enhanced surface warming in the Arctic), both of which occur in models in response to climate change.

Ultimately, any major changes in the position of storm tracks will have a significant impact on society because storm tracks shape temperature, precipitation, and extreme weather.

"The opposing cloud influences on the equator-to-pole gradient should be studied in more detail to understand the ultimate outcome of this 'tug of war' as it relates to the future position of the storm tracks," Shaw said.

The researchers have now called for expanding observational efforts and the hierarchy of computer simulations used to understand how storm tracks will shift in response to the increased concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Such shifts in position have the potential to significantly change patterns of rain, snow, heat waves and cold outbreaks. For example, if storm tracks shift poleward, New York and Chicago will likely experience warmer weather and less snow. And there's already evidence that the shift of the austral storm track southward - which was caused by the ozone hole at the South Pole -has impacted rain in Australia and South America.
###
The Nature Geoscience review article, titled Storm track processes and the opposing influences of climate change, grew out of a conference held last year in Grindelwald, Switzerland, that was sponsored by the National Science Foundation and The World Climate Research Program.

</div>

Man-made climate change can hamper weather forecasts

The effects of man-made climate change can hamper scientific projections...

<div>Researchers reporting in the journal Current Biology show catastrophic declines in wilderness areas around the world over the last 20 years. They demonstrate alarming losses comprising a tenth of global wilderness since the 1990s - an area twice the size of Alaska and half the size of the Amazon. The Amazon and Central Africa have been hardest hit.</div>
<div>

The findings underscore an immediate need for international policies to recognize the value of wilderness areas and to address the unprecedented threats they face, the researchers say.

"Globally important wilderness areas--despite being strongholds for endangered biodiversity, for buffering and regulating local climates, and for supporting many of the world's most politically and economically marginalized communities--are completely ignored in environmental policy," says Dr James Watson of the University of Queensland in Australia and the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York. "Without any policies to protect these areas, they are falling victim to widespread development. We probably have one to two decades to turn this around. International policy mechanisms must recognize the actions needed to maintain wilderness areas before it is too late. We probably have one to two decades to turn this around."

Watson says much policy attention has been paid to the loss of species, but comparatively little was known about larger-scale losses of entire ecosystems, especially wilderness areas which tend to be relatively understudied. To fill that gap, the researchers mapped wilderness areas around the globe, with "wilderness" being defined as biologically and ecologically intact landscapes free of any significant human disturbance. The researchers then compared their current map of wilderness to one produced by the same methods in the early 1990s.

This comparison showed that a total of 30.1 million km2 (around 20 percent of the world's land area) now remains as wilderness, with the majority being located in North America, North Asia, North Africa, and the Australian continent. However, comparisons between the two maps show that an estimated 3.3 million km2 (almost 10 percent) of wilderness area has been lost in the intervening years. Those losses have occurred primarily in South America, which has experienced a 30 percent decline in wilderness, and Africa, which has experienced a 14 percent loss.

"The amount of wilderness loss in just two decades is staggering" Dr Oscar Venter of the University of Northern British Colombia. "We need to recognize that wilderness areas, which we've foolishly considered to be de-facto protected due to their remoteness, is actually being dramatically lost around the world. Without proactive global interventions we could lose the last jewels in nature's crown. You cannot restore wilderness, once it is gone, and the ecological process that underpin these ecosystems are gone, and it never comes back to the state it was. The only option is to proactively protect what is left".

Watson says that the United Nations and others have ignored globally significant wilderness areas in key multilateral environmental agreements and this must change.

"If we don't act soon, there will only be tiny remnants of wilderness around the planet, and this is a disaster for conservation, for climate change, and for some of the most vulnerable human communities on the planet," Watson says. "We have a duty to act for our children and their children."
###
Watson et al.: "Catastrophic Declines in Wilderness Areas Undermine Global Environment Targets" <a href="http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(16)30993-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(16)30993-9</a>

WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society)

MISSION: WCS saves wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education, and inspiring people to value nature. To achieve our mission, WCS, based at the Bronx Zoo, harnesses the power of its Global Conservation Program in nearly 60 nations and in all the world's oceans and its five wildlife parks in New York City, visited by 4 million people annually. WCS combines its expertise in the field, zoos, and aquarium to achieve its conservation mission. Visit: <a href="http://newsroom.wcs.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">newsroom.wcs.org</a> Follow: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/WCSNewsroom" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@WCSNewsroom</a>. For more information: 347-840-1242.

</div>

Study: 10 percent of global wilderness has been lost since 1990

Researchers reporting in the journal Current Biology show catastrophic declines...

<div>
<div class="img-wrapper">As global temperatures rise, how will lake ecosystems respond? As they warm, will lakes -- which make up only 3 percent of the landscape, but bury more carbon than the world's oceans combined -- release more of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane? And might that create a feedback loop that leads to further warming?</div>
To predict the effects of rising air temperatures on the carbon cycle of lakes, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute researchers will link computer models of changing weather, water temperature, and emissions of carbon dioxide and methane for 2,000 lakes across the United States, including Lake George, through 2105. The project is supported with a $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, and led by Kevin Rose, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Rensselaer and the Frederic R. Kolleck '52 Career Development Chair in Freshwater Ecology.

"We know lakes are important in the global carbon cycle -- absorbing and emitting carbon- - and that's critical to regulating global air temperatures. But we don't know how the role of lakes will change as a result of rising air temperatures," said Rose. "Right now, we can model changes for an individual lake -- using characteristics like surface area, depth, water clarity, and temperature profile -- but to be useful as a planning and research tool, we need to work on a much larger scale."

Carbon enters a lake as organic matter (such as falling leaves or soil suspended in runoff) and is cycled through the food chain, feeding plants and then animals. Some carbon settles to the lake bottom and is buried in sediment, but some is released back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and methane. As with all biological processes, lake emissions are temperature dependent, rising and falling along a temperature gradient. The challenge in predicting lake emissions for thousands of lakes across the country lies in the enormous variety of characteristics from lake to lake.

To tackle that challenge, the project will forecast future weather conditions for 2,000 lakes over the next 90 years using high-resolution weather forecasting models and projections of climate change provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

In the second phase of the project, the team will draw upon the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Lakes Assessment, a statistical survey that tracks chemical, biological, and physical characteristics of the target lakes. By feeding those characteristics and the forecasted weather data into an existing open source hydrodynamic model, the team will generate predicted changes in lake thermal characteristics such as the temperature profile (mapping temperature according to depth), depth of temperature stratification, and ice cover.

The team is able to calibrate and validate the model by running the model back through time, as far back as 1979, and comparing their results with recorded weather and lake temperature data available from the North American Land Data Assimilation System and the EPA National Lakes Assessment.

The team will then use the resulting lake temperature data to estimate changes in lake metabolism -- the absorption versus emission of carbon--and seek to draw conclusions based on those estimates, such as differences based on region or specific characteristics of lakes.

"The goal is to close the loop between long-term changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide, leading to global temperature increases, leading to changes in lake water temperature, leading to changes in the role of lakes in the global carbon cycle," Rose said. "In other words, how much carbon dioxide is going to come out of lakes with more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere -- is there going to be positive feedback?"

Rose's research fulfills the vision of The New Polytechnic, an emerging paradigm for higher education which recognizes that global challenges and opportunities are so great they cannot be adequately addressed by even the most talented person working alone. Rensselaer serves as a crossroads for collaboration--working with partners across disciplines, sectors, and geographic regions -- to address complex global challenges, using the most advanced tools and technologies, many of which are developed at Rensselaer. Research at Rensselaer addresses some of the world's most pressing technological challenges -- from energy security and sustainable development to biotechnology and human health. The New Polytechnic is transformative in the global impact of research, in its innovative pedagogy, and in the lives of students at Rensselaer.
###
About Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1824, is America's first technological research university. The university offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in engineering; the sciences; information technology and web sciences; architecture; management; and the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Rensselaer faculty advance research in a wide range of fields, with an emphasis on biotechnology, nanotechnology, computational science and engineering, data science, and the media arts and technology. The Institute has an established record of success in the transfer of technology from the laboratory to the marketplace, fulfilling its founding mission of applying science "to the common purposes of life." For more information, please visit <a href="http://www.rpi.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.rpi.edu</a>.

</div>

How do lakes impact global warming?

As global temperatures rise, how will lake ecosystems respond? As...

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.



<figure class="wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://youtu.be/Ug657J67iEo?si=w96YjGMsg939LD_3
</div></figure>



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



---



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

[sendtonews key="0ynNMYkMKa-2340414-12187" 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.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;



---



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

[sendtonews key="G9bUoxcjr4-2511624-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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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



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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



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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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Dublin, the capital and largest city of Ireland. Beyond its pub culture, Dublin is known as a modern culinary destination and a UNESCO City of Literature.



"Dublin is located near the midpoint of Ireland’s east coast in the province of Leinster. The city, which covers an area of around 115 square kilometers, is bordered by the Dublin Mountains, a low mountain range to the south, and is surrounded by flat farmland to the north and west," says ESA.



"The city straddles the River Liffey, which rises in the Wicklow Mountains and flows around 80 kilometers eastwards through the city of Dublin, in which it is canalised and bordered with quays. It then empties into Dublin Bay, an arm of the Irish Sea."



Dublin has an abundance of green spaces, including one of the largest enclosed public parks in any European capital city. Phoenix Park, which was originally formed as a royal hunting park in the 1660s, includes 707 hectares of green space.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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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



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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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2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes two exoplanets that are orbiting a star 218 light-years away. A team of researchers led by the University of Montreal has found evidence that these planets are "water worlds."



The experts used data from NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. They discovered that exoplanets Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 could be composed largely of water.



"We previously thought that planets that were a bit larger than Earth were big balls of metal and rock, like scaled-up versions of Earth, and that's why we called them super-Earths," explained study co-author Björn Benneke.&nbsp;



"However, we have now shown that these two planets, Kepler-138 c and d, are quite different in nature and that a big fraction of their entire volume is likely composed of water. It is the best evidence yet for water worlds, a type of planet that was theorized by astronomers to exist for a long time."



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and Leah Hustak (STScI)



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Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes Earth’s interconnected systems, and how this network is affected by rising temperatures.&nbsp;



During 2020, average global temperatures matched the hottest year on record. The hurricane season was also record-breaking, with many of the storms intensifying at extraordinary speeds. Hot water in the ocean is fuel for hurricanes. The satellite data shows that it's all one interconnected system showing how Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected.



According to NASA, dust swept up from Northern Africa plays a major role in the formation of hurricanes, and is also a key source of fertilization in the Amazon rainforest. As a result of<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seagrass-wasting-disease-is-fueled-by-climate-change/"> climate</a> change, dust plumes are expected to decline, which will have an effect on vegetation far away.&nbsp;



Images from Earth-observing satellites show how the world’s plant life is affected by natural disasters, fires, and deforestation. Satellites also reveal how widespread changes in vegetation impact waterways,&nbsp; the climate, air quality. Satellites communicate by using radio waves to send signals to the antennas on the Earth. "Earth From Space" is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. 



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

[sendtonews key="JbW4VsY53O-1632195-12187" type="single"] Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected...

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