Medical,Marijuana,Flower,Buds.,Recreational,Marijuana,Strain.,Cannabis,Strain.,Weed

Cannabis remains the most used illicit drug on the planet, with an estimated 219 million adults consuming it in <a href="https://www.unodc.org/res/WDR-2023/WDR23_Exsum_fin_DP.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2023</a>.



A fresh report from Switzerland now suggests that giving existing users a safe, legal supply may trim the edge off risky habits rather than encourage them. The findings come from the six‑month Weed Care randomized trial run in Basel.



<a href="https://loop.frontiersin.org/people/1898354/overview" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dr. Lavinia Baltes‑Flückiger</a>, deputy head of the study at <a href="https://www.pdag.ch/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Psychiatric Services Aargau</a>, helped steer the project alongside colleagues from the University of Basel and local health agencies.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-taking-cannabis-into-pharmacies">Taking cannabis into pharmacies</h2>



Switzerland still bans recreational sales of cannabis nationwide. 



Basel, however, received a federal waiver on January 30, 2023, allowing 189 adult volunteers to buy measured, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cannabis-extract-cbd-proven-highly-effective-at-killing-mosquitoes/">contaminant‑free flower</a> or hash in nine pharmacies, while a matched control group kept using street sources.



The design mirrors real‑world retail but strips out slick marketing, price wars, and high‑potency gimmicks that dominate some commercial markets. 



Investigators registered every legal purchase and offered brief counseling at the counter. Keeping over‑the‑counter talk focused on lower‑risk use also echoes <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/drugs-medication/cannabis/resources/lower-risk-cannabis-use-guidelines.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Canada’s public‑health model</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-makes-use-problematic">What makes use “problematic”</h2>



Researchers tracked changes with the Cannabis Use Disorders Identification <a href="https://wellness.caltech.edu/documents/18162/CUDIT.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Test–Revised</a>, a short checklist of behaviors that signal harm, even when full <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32485547/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cannabis use disorder</a> is absent. 



Heavy users face up to a one‑in‑three lifetime risk of that disorder, according to a meta‑analysis of 21 cohort studies.



Scores above 13 suggest dependency, but smaller shifts still matter. Cutting just two points on the scale is considered clinically meaningful and can translate into fewer missed obligations, less time chasing the drug, and lower tolerance.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-early-numbers-favor-legal-cannabis">Early numbers favor legal cannabis</h2>



“There has never been a controlled, randomized study like this before,” said Baltes‑Flückiger, the study’s lead author.



After half a year, the legal group’s average misuse score slipped by 0.8 points, while the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cannabis-legalization-does-not-increase-youth-substance-abuse/">illegal</a> group barely budged. 



Among participants who also used other illicit drugs, the legal pathway slashed scores nearly two points, marking the threshold for a “reliable change.”



“Legal access eases the burden on consumers,” added Professor Marc Walter of the <a href="https://www.unibas.ch/en.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Basel</a>, underscoring that the regulated approach did not boost depression, anxiety, or psychotic symptoms at interim check‑ins.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mental-health-concerns-remain-steady">Mental health concerns remain steady</h2>



Worries that legal access might worsen mood or <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/1000-adults-reveal-how-marijuana-alters-dna-methylation/">trigger psychosis</a> often dominate public hearings. 



A 2024 scoping <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38650490/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">review</a> covering 28 North American studies found mixed and mostly null links between recreational laws and psychiatric outcomes.



The Swiss data echo that broader picture: neither group showed significant shifts in depression or anxiety scales, and psychotic‑like experiences stayed flat. 



Critics may note the short follow‑up, yet the absence of early harm offers some reassurance.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-polydrug-users-benefit-from-legal-cannabis">Polydrug users benefit from legal cannabis</h2>



Why did people juggling multiple substances respond best? 



Easy pharmacy access saved them the effort of hunting down street dealers, trimming time spent “getting, using, or recovering,” one of the test’s key items.



Reduced hustle can free attention for work, study, or family, all protective factors against escalating misuse. Counseling handed out at each sale likely helped too. 



Staff trained on Canada’s Lower‑Risk Cannabis Use Guidelines reminded buyers to favor products under 20 percent <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK563174/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tetrahydrocannabinol</a> and balance them with cannabidiol‑rich strains, choices linked to milder cognitive effects.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-quiet-rebuttal-to-gateway-fears">Quiet rebuttal to gateway fears</h2>



The trial saw <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK609473/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">no uptick</a> in alcohol days or other drug use inside the legal arm, challenging the long‑held idea that a sanctioned market pulls people toward wider intoxication. 



Twenty‑four U.S. states now allow adult possession, yet nationwide surveys show flat or only modest rises in heavy use since the first state referendum in 2012.



Policy researchers often point out that the devil lies in the details. Switzerland capped monthly sales at about 0.35 ounces of pure THC, required organic cultivation, and banned all advertising. 



Those guardrails differ sharply from the profit‑driven dispensary scene common in parts of the United States and may explain the modest but positive shift.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-future-of-legal-cannabis-access">The future of legal cannabis access</h2>



All volunteers now have legal access through July 2025, giving the team a two‑year window to track long‑term patterns. 



Parallel <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2833180" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">studies</a> in Canada report slight bumps in overall consumption but, interestingly, equal or lower misuse scores after five years of legalization.



Future analyses will need to weigh market structure, potency limits, pricing models, and education campaigns. 



If results stay consistent, lawmakers elsewhere could consider legal cannabis sales through pharmacies or non‑profit social clubs as middle‑ground options between prohibition and full commercialization.



For regular consumers worried about slipping into <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/smoking-cannabis-significantly-increases-the-risk-of-heart-attack/">harmful patterns</a>, the Swiss experience offers a practical lesson. 



Access to tested products, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cannabis-potency-why-you-shouldnt-trust-the-label/">honest labeling</a>, and low‑key advice can chip away at risky behavior without demanding total abstinence.



Public‑health‑oriented legalization is not a silver bullet, but it may give heavy users a safer runway to moderation.



The study is published in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.70080" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Addiction</a>.



-----



Like what you read?<a href="https://www.earth.com/subscribe/"> Subscribe to our newsletter</a> for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.&nbsp;



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



-----

Legal access to cannabis is proving to be good for both the users and society as a whole

Cannabis remains the most used illicit drug on the planet, with an estimated 219 million adults consuming it in 2023. A fresh report from Switzerland now suggests that giving existing users a safe, legal supply may trim the edge off risky habits rather than encourage them. The findings come from the six‑month Weed Care randomized trial run in Basel. Dr. Lavinia Baltes‑Flückiger, deputy head of the study at Psychiatric Services Aargau, helped steer the project alongside colleagues from the University of Basel and local health agencies. Taking cannabis...

Food tossed in trash cans contains nutrients that could help many Americans meet daily dietary requirements, a new study says.

Each day, 1,217 calories per person are squandered, according to the <a href="https://www.jhu.edu/">Johns Hopkins University</a> study published in the <a href="http://www.jandonline.org/">Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics</a>  .

Discarded food contains large amounts of vitamin D, fiber and potassium that could help people get the food they need to meet their daily recommended intake, said the study, the first to quantify the nutritional value of discarded food.

Perishable foods such as fruits and vegetables are lost at particularly high rates, the researchers said.

They hope the findings will raise awareness of food <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/14-billion-dollars-edible-foods-trashed/">waste</a> and how to prevent it. The data can be as a baseline for tracking intervention impacts, the authors said. 

"Although only a portion of discarded food can realistically be made available for human consumption, efforts to redistribute surplus foods where appropriate and prevent food waste in the first place could increase the availability of nutrients for Americans, while saving money and natural resources," the study said. "The U.S. has established a target of halving food loss and waste by 2030. This research supports the case for action and for registered dietitian nutritionists to bring their expertise to the effort."

Researchers used data from the <a href="https://www.usda.gov/">USDA</a> <a href="https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/">National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference</a> to calculate the nutritional value of retail and consumer level waste of 213 commodities.

Americans waste food at an alarming rate throughout the food supply chain with  an estimated at 31-40 percent of the post-harvest food supply discarded, the study said.

Just the fiber discarded each day is equivalent to the fiber recommended daily allow for 74 million adult women.

--

By: <a href="mailto:dbeasley@earth.com">David Beasley </a><a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="https://www.eu.elsevierhealth.com/">Elsevier Health Sciences</a>

Image Credit: <a href="http://www.jhsph.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/johns-hopkins-center-for-a-livable-future/">Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future</a>

Study: Americans discard food at alarming rates

Food tossed in trash cans contains nutrients that could help...

One modern quirk has researchers wondering whether human ancestors could have navigated the treetops far longer than previously believed. 

The “light fingertip touch” strategy that helps modern humans avoid falls boosted study participants’ balance by 30 percent in a simulated forest canopy, scientists from the <a href="http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/">University of Birmingham</a> found in a new study.

“Some argue that arboreal bipedalism was prohibitively risky for hominins whose increasingly modern anatomy prevented them from gripping branches with their feet. Balancing on two legs is indeed challenging for humans under optimal conditions let alone in forest canopy, which is physically and visually highly dynamic,” the researchers wrote in their paper, published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-01265-7">Scientific Reports</a>.

The study looked at the modern human behavior of lightly resting fingertips against a solid support when feeling off-balance. But the improvement in balance shows that human ancestors may have used the same strategy – even as they were learning to walk on two legs – to keep from falling while traveling through the trees.

Study participants were asked to stand and move on a “branch-like bouncy springboard” while watching a video of swaying branches. The moving environment and images destabilized them as much as a blindfold might have, the scientists found.

However, a light fingertip touch on a stable surface improved their balance and allowed their thigh muscles to work less at providing stability, the study showed.

“This demonstrates how a light touch strategy could have been central to our ancestor’s ability to avoid falls and reduce the mechanical and metabolic cost of arboreal feeding and movement,” the researchers wrote. 

The team of scientists believe that the adaptation shows that human ancestors could have continued to use forest canopies to travel and for other activities, even as they began adapting to use tools. Along with other recent studies, this calls into question the assumption that early human ancestors transitioned smoothly and permanently from arboreal living to walking on the ground.

“Instead ancestral bipedal hominins appear to have continued to exploit tree canopy habitats well into our own genus Homo,” the researchers wrote.

—

By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com/staff">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Human ancestors may have stayed in the trees longer than we thought

One modern quirk has researchers wondering whether human ancestors could...

When LSD was made illegal in the United States more than 50 years ago, research on the drug ground to a near halt. Advocates of LSD microdosing, however, claim the psychedelic could help boost creativity, treat alcohol addiction and psychological disorders, and more.

But before scientists can study microdosing’s effects on mental health, they need a baseline. 

That’s why Amanda Feilding wants to launch the first LSD microdosing study, pitting humans on either LSD or a placebo against artificial intelligence to play the game of Go. Her goal is to see whether the psychedelic can boost human performance – and winning streaks. 

Feilding, the founder of the <a href="http://beckleyfoundation.org/">Beckley Foundation</a> that supports neuroscientific research into mind-altering drugs, hopes to show that LSD can be useful in small doses.

Why Go? Feilding used to play the game with friends regularly, and found that she tended to win more if she dosed herself with LSD first, especially when she was playing against someone not using the drug. 

"For me that was a very clear indication that it improves cognitive function, particularly a kind of intuitive pattern recognition,” Feilding told <a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/first-ever-lsd-microdosing-study-will-pit-the-human-brain-against-ai">Motherboard</a>.

Her study would be the first to look at the benefits of LSD microdosing. Until now, all data on the effects of small doses of LSD have been self-reported, like Feilding’s own experiences.

In the study, she plans to give 20 participants 10mg, 20mg or 50mg doses of LSD or a placebo, on four different occasions. Then, the participants will undergo MRI and MEG scans while performing a number of tasks, such as completing neuropsychological tests and playing Go against a computer.

It will be only the second time test participants have their brains scanned while on LSD, and the first time on microdoses.

The LSD microdosing study is being supported by <a href="http://www.fundamental.nyc/">Fundamental</a>, which has launched a crowdfunding campaign to support it along with additional studies into LSD and the drug MDMA.

Fundamental is the organization of Rodrigo Niño, CEO of <a href="https://www.prodigynetwork.com/">Prodigy</a> and a New York real estate magnate. He launched the company after being diagnosed with end-stage cancer, which he survived.

“That near death experience changed me in a number of ways. It opened the door for somebody like me – science driven, rational, numbers driven – to start looking for alternative treatments to ease my suffering when traditional medicine failed me,” Niño continued.

After finding relief from end-of-life anxiety with ayahuasca, he decided to help fund research into psychedelic drugs and how they could aid in psychological disorders from anxiety and PTSD to addiction.

He’s teamed up with Feilding and other scientists to study LSD’s effects on end-of-life distress, alcoholism and other issues.

“For decades, we have seen anecdotal evidence that microdosing improves mood and well-being, enhances cognition, increases productivity, and boosts creativity,” Feilding said in a press release. “Now we have the opportunity to undertake the first controlled scientific investigation, including the latest brain imaging technology, into the effects of microdosing LSD, thereby finally establishing whether the claims about its benefits are true.”

—

By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com/staff">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Human brain vs. AI: LSD microdosing could be key to victory

When LSD was made illegal in the United States more...

A common marine sponge hosts bacteria that specialize in the production of toxic compounds nearly identical to man-made fire retardants, according to a new study.

The new findings by researchers at at the<a href="https://scripps.ucsd.edu/"> Scripps Institution of Oceanography</a> at the<a href="https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/"> University of California</a>, could help scientists better understand the human health implications of a powerful group of chemical compounds, known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs).

"For many years scientists have been finding clues that suggested nature was making these compounds," said SIO marine chemist Brad Moore, a senior author of the study. "Now that we understand how they are produced in the marine environment, we are exploring why they exist, and the human health concerns associated with them."

Vinayak Agarwal, a researcher at SIO, re-launched the new study first started nearly 50 years ago by SIO chemist John Faulkner, an early pioneer in the study of natural products from the sea. Agarwal continued Faulkner's investigation into the source of toxic PDBEs, found in large quantities in the world's oceans.

“For the first time we were able to conclusively show that genes and enzymes produced in bacteria from sponges are responsible for the production of these compounds toxic to humans," said Agarwal, co-first author of the paper along with Scripps researcher Jessica Blanton.

In 2014, Agarwal and colleagues were first to discover that unrelated free-living marine bacteria produce the fire retardant compounds naturally.

Researchers took the research a step further by using genome "mining" and environmental DNA sequencing to identify the specific genes and enzymes involved in the overproduction of the toxic molecules in sponges.

Marine sponges obtain food and oxygen by filtering seawater through the pores and channels in their bodies. This constant flow of water means that the immobile animals host many <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-unleashing-viruses/">bacteria</a>, viruses and fungi in complex microbiomes.

Researchers collected 18 sponge samples for the study  then isolated the various components in the complex mixture of organisms from the sponge's tissues to identify the specific genes and enzymes that code for the production of PBDEs.

The genome "mining" approach along with metagenomic sequencing gave the scientists a way to connect the natural chemicals produced by organisms back to the enzymes that constructed them.

"We care about naturally produced PBDEs because they end up in the food chain," said NIEHS's Frederick Tyson. "Preliminary data from this research team suggest that some naturally occurring PDBEs may be even more toxic than those that are man-made, so we need to develop a better understanding of these compounds."

The next step is to mine the genes and enzymes in other marine species to found out what other organisms are making similar toxic compounds and why.

--

By: <a href="mailto:dbeasley@earth.com">David Beasley </a><a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/">National Science Foundation</a>

Image: Jason Biggs

Sponge bacteria produce same toxic compounds as fire retardants

A common marine sponge hosts bacteria that specialize in the...

When babies divide colors into categories, it’s rooted in their biology, not language, a new study found.

According to the study performed by the <a href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/">University of Sussex</a>, humans see color as a result of cells known as cones, which are sensitive to either long, short or medium wavelengths of light. The way in which the brain interprets combinations of signals from these cells allows us to see a whole spectrum of color.

Previous research has shown that babies group colors based on their language, with different languages having different groupings.

The new study suggests there there is a biological origin to color categories, which is later influenced by culture and environment.

In the study, four of the infants’ color boundaries were found to map to the four extremes produced by signals from different cone types when they are combined and interpreted by the brain.

“These results are important because they strongly support the view that the universality of color categories seen in world languages has a biological origin, since color categorical structure is demonstrated long before infants ‘learn’ their native words for the color categories,” Delwin Lindsey, professor of psychology at <a href="https://www.osu.edu/">Ohio State University</a> who was not involved in the work, told the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/">Guardian</a>.

After children have developed language skills, their color categorization can be changed, researchers said.

“If you [use] a language that doesn’t make a distinction between green and blue, for example, then as they grow up babies and children learn to no longer make that distinction,” Alice Skelton, first author of the research and a doctoral candidate at the University of Sussex, told the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/">Guardian</a>.

Research should now explore how categories shift as we develop language, she said.

Writing in the journal<a href="http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1612881114"> Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>, Skelton and colleagues describe how they analyzed the response of 176 babies, between four and six months old, to patches of color.

From the webcam recordings, the team examined a phenomenon known as novelty preference: when <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/first-3-parent-babies-uk/">babies</a> look longer at a “new” color they perceive it to be different to a familiar one.

If a baby consistently looks longer at the new color – it suggests the color is perceived as belonging to a different category.

The team then compared these color categories to those found in English, and to 110 languages from non-industrialized countries.

The results revealed that babies have five color categories: red, yellow, green, blue and purple. The team then compared these color categories to those found in English, and to 110 languages from non-industrialised countries.

“This [new study] is adding to a solid body of work showing that babies, before they have learned any kind of mastery of their language, are already busy [making] the building blocks of the concepts that they are going to have,” Asifa Majid of <a href="http://www.ru.nl/english/">Radboud University</a> in the Netherland, told the Guardian.

It is still possible that the colors that babies are surrounded with from birth – for example in baby toys – could be preconditioning them to categorize colors in a particular way, Majid said. The study should be repeated with babies from different cultures to explore whether the five categories are truly ubiquitous, she added.

--

By: <a href="mailto:dbeasley@earth.com">David Beasley </a><a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/">Guardian</a>

Study: Humans perceive colors based on biology, not language

When babies divide colors into categories, it’s rooted in their...

It could take oceans a million years to recover from a dramatic drop in oxygen that would cause mass extinctions of sea life, a new study said.

Researchers at the <a href="https://www.exeter.ac.uk/">University of Exeter</a> say it is “critical” to limit carbon emissions in order to prevent the depletion of oxygen from oceans, a condition known as “anoxia.”

Oceans can recover from anoxia, but it would take a million years, according to the study. 

"Once you get into a major event like anoxia, it takes a long time for the Earth's system to rebalance," said lead researcher Sarah Baker, an Exeter geographer. "This shows the vital importance of limiting disruption to the carbon cycle to regulate the Earth system and keep it within habitable bounds."

The researchers studied the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event, which took place 183 million years ago and depleted oxygen in Earth's oceans, causing <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fossil-footprints-recovery-extinction/">mass extinction</a> of marine life.

Numerical models predicted increased burial of organic carbon - due to less decomposition and more plant and marine productivity in the warmer, carbon-rich environment, should drive a rise in atmospheric oxygen, which would end an anoxic event after a million years.

Scientists tested the theory by examining fossil charcoal samples to see evidence of wildfires - which would be more common when oxygen levels are high.

They found a period of increased wildfire activity that started one million years after the onset of the anoxic event, and lasted for about 800,000 years.

"We argue that this major increase in fire activity was primarily driven by increased atmospheric oxygen," said Baker. "Our study provides the first fossil-based evidence that such a change in atmospheric oxygen levels could occur in a period of one million years."

An increase in fire activity may have helped end ocean anoxia by burning and reducing the amount of plants on land. Plants can help to erode rocks on the land that contain nutrients needed for marine life.

Less marine life would mean less oxygen being used in the oceans, and could therefore help the oceans rebuild a higher oxygen content, ending anoxia.

It may be essential to maintain the natural functioning of wildfire activity to help regulate the Earth system in the long-term, the researchers said.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/ncomms/">Nature Communications</a>.

--

By: <a href="mailto:dbeasley@earth.com">David Beasley </a><a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="https://www.exeter.ac.uk/">University of Exeter</a>

Study: Depleted oceans could take a million years to recover

It could take oceans a million years to recover from...

Researchers have uncovered three previously unknown subspecies of the snow leopard.

A study of snow leopard scat from wildlife trails and marking sites identified three primary genetic clusters, according to a the study published in the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jhered">Journal of Heredity</a>.

The Northern group was found in the Altai region, the Central group in the core Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau, and the Western group in the Tian Shan, Pamir, and trans-Himalaya regions.

The patterns of variation within the snow leopard subspecies suggest a 'barrier effect' due to the desert basins in the area, with the northern subspecies isolated by the Gobi Desert and the central and western species divided by the trans-Himalayas, the study said. 

The snow leopard occupies vast area across 12 countries in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/desert-dust-air-pollution/">Asia</a> and is considered the world's most elusive large big cat.

 It is the largest carnivore in the high-altitude habitat in many areas and is under substantial threat throughout its range.

"This study is important as it provides the first glimpse of how snow leopard populations are structured and connected,” Jan E. Janecka, assistant professor at <a href="http://www.duq.edu/">Duquesne University</a> in Iowa and an author of the study. “In a nutshell, populations that are connected with other populations, are more stable and have a greater chance of persisting.”

The study provides a better understanding of the evolution and ecology of the snow leopard, Janecka said.

“Our study highlights the need for transboundary initiatives to protect this species, and other wildlife in Asia,” she added.

--

By: <a href="mailto:dbeasley@earth.com">David Beasley </a><a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jhered">Journal of Heredity</a>

Three new subspecies of snow leopard have been discovered

Researchers have uncovered three previously unknown subspecies of the snow...

Study finds that beauty requires thought. Experiencing beauty requires thought, while pleasures, like eating or sex, can be beautiful, a new study says.

The research was designed to test a question that has long preoccupied philosophers such as Immanuel Kant who claimed beauty requires thought, unlike sensuous pleasure, which, he said, can never be beautiful.  

The new <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/daily-meditation-works-wonders/">research,</a> published in <a href="http://www.cell.com/current-biology/home">Current Biology</a>, concludes Kent was right on the first count, wrong on the second one.

"We find that beauty, when it happens, is strongly pleasurable, and that strong pleasure is always beautiful," says researcher Denis Pelli of <a href="https://www.nyu.edu/">New York University</a>. "Strong pleasure and beauty both require thought."

Pelli and fellow NYU researcher Aenne Brielmann asked 62 people to indicate how much pleasure and beauty they felt while they saw an image, tasted a candy, or touched a soft teddy bear. Participants then rated their experience of each object on a four-point beauty scale.

In another round of the experiment, participants were asked to repeat what they'd done earlier, this time while they were distracted with a secondary task.

Distraction didn’t change the experience of viewing non-beautiful objects but diminished the experience of beauty, which does require thought.

Also, about 30 percent of participants said they'd definitely experienced beauty after sucking on a candy or touching a soft teddy bear.

"Our findings show that many other things besides art can be beautiful--even candy," Brielmann says. "But for maximum pleasure, nothing beats undistracted beauty."

The findings show  that although beauty subjective and ephemeral , it can still be measured and mathematically modeled and has practical applications, the researchers say.

"These are important insights for people who want to create beauty, such as artists or museum curators," Brielmann added. "You should, for example, not distract people in museums if you want them to find beauty in the art."

--

By: <a href="mailto:dbeasley@earth.com">David Beasley </a><a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="http://www.cell.com/">Cell Press</a>

Study finds that beauty requires thought

Study finds that beauty requires thought. Experiencing beauty requires thought,...

High-level officials from the world's eight Arctic nations, including U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, are meeting in Alaska as the Arctic Council amid President Donald Trump’s call for more oil drilling and development.

Key issues such as climate change, development, and oil drilling will provide a backdrop as the chairmanship of the Arctic Council council passes from the U.S. to Finland.

"We are unsure what the Trump administration thinks about the Arctic region in general, about the Arctic Council in particular and about its role," said Victoria Herrmann, president of <a href="http://www.thearcticinstitute.org/">The Arctic Institute</a>, a Washington, D.C.-based group that provides research to shape Arctic policy.

The Arctic Council is an advisory body promoting cooperation among member nations and indigenous groups and focusing on sustainable development and environmental protection of the Arctic.

Protesters gathered in a city park nearby to denounce the presence of Tillerson, who was CEO of Exxon Mobil Corp.

"My message for Rex Tillerson is: Alaska shouldn't be for sale for what's in our earth," Hannah Hill, 36, who works at a Fairbanks soup kitchen, told the <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ARCTIC_COUNCIL?SITE=AP&amp;SECTION=HOME&amp;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&amp;CTIME=2017-05-11-05-27-15">AP</a>. "This place is beautiful, and this place is delicate, and what already is happening on in the Arctic will affect the rest of the Earth. And that is science."

Pat Lambert, a retired <a href="https://www.alaska.edu/">University of Alaska</a> math professor, attended the rally because he believes climate change is a serious problem. He told the <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ARCTIC_COUNCIL?SITE=AP&amp;SECTION=HOME&amp;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&amp;CTIME=2017-05-11-05-27-15">AP</a> he thinks Tillerson "should get away from his cronies in the oil business and start listening to the people of Alaska, for instance, and the people of the world who are so interested in these issues."

The United States - an <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ice-loss-antarctic-peninsula/">Arctic</a> country because of the state of Alaska - is joined on the council by Canada, Russia, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

The U.S. began chairing the council two years ago. Much of the council's work during that time stemmed from the policies of President Barack Obama, who made climate change and the Arctic priorities of his administration.

--

By: <a href="mailto:dbeasley@earth.com">David Beasley </a><a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="https://www.ap.org/en-us/">AP</a>

Arctic council meets in Alaska amid drilling controversy

High-level officials from the world's eight Arctic nations, including U.S....

How often have you heard someone say that a dog’s sense of smell is a thousand times better than a human’s? Did you believe them? Well, according to new research published in the journal <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/">Science</a>, that’s all one big myth.

John McGann, a neuroscientist at <a href="http://newbrunswick.rutgers.edu/">Rutgers University – New Brunswick</a>, has been studying the olfactory system for the past 14 years. He spent the last year reviewing the long history of research that has created the myth that our sense of smell as humans was inferior to many animal species due to the size of our olfactory bulb. “For so long people failed to stop and question this claim, even people who study the sense of smell for a living,” says McGann. “The fact is the sense of smell is just as good in humans as in other mammals, like rodents and dogs.”

In the past, it was thought that humans could only detect around 10,000 different odors. But according to McGann, we may be able to differentiate between up to one trillion different odors. He has determined that the human olfactory bulb, which is responsible for sending signals to parts of the human brain that help identify scents, is actually large and contains a similar number of neurons compared to other <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mammals-shrink-planet-warms/">mammals</a>.

The 19th century brain surgeon Paul Broca may have been the originator of the myth, as he claimed that the smaller size of the olfactory area in humans compared to the rest of the brain meant that humans had free will. He believed that other animals that had to rely on smell to survive were held hostage by this ability. However, McGann now says that there is no evidence to support this belief.

“Dogs may be better than humans at discriminating the urines on a fire hydrant and humans may be better than dogs at discriminating the odors of fine wine, but few such comparisons have actual experimental support," McGann explains.

McGann believes it’s important this myth be dispelled, as smell strongly influences human behavior, memories, and emotions. Humans’ sense of smell also plays a role in how we interact with others, chose romantic partners, and decide what we want to eat. Smell can even be a trigger in activating PTSD.

He hopes that this type of research continues, as “some research suggests that losing the sense of smell may be the start of memory problems and diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s,” says McGann. “One hope is that the medical world will begin to understand the importance of smell and that losing it is a big deal.”

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="http://newbrunswick.rutgers.edu/">Rutgers University</a>

A human’s sense of smell is actually comparable to a dog’s

How often have you heard someone say that a dog’s...

Some grizzly bears in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/yellowstone-wolves-hunting-bison/">Yellowstone National Park</a> are eating more plants and berries after climate change has caused a decline of whitebark pine trees, which provide food for the animals.

Shorter and milder winters have increased beetle infestations of the whitebark pine, which are now listed as endangered by the <a href="https://www.iucn.org/">International Union for Conservation of Nature</a>. 

A new study by scientists at the <a href="https://ucsd.edu/">University of California San Diego</a> and <a href="http://www.unity.edu/">Unity College</a> found that some grizzlies at Yellowstone continue to forage for whitebark pine seeds while others are shifting to plants and berries.

"Whitebark pine trees have declined due to an introduced fungal disease called blister rust, and, more recently, to increased infestation by the mountain pine beetle, which is exacerbated by climate change," said study coauthor Carolyn Kurle, an assistant professor at UC San Diego's Division of Biological Sciences. "Such declines further highlight the need to monitor diets of grizzlies as the environment continues to change."

Lead author Jack Hopkins, an assistant professor at Unity College, and his team measured stable isotopes in bear hair and related their abundances to those found in their foods.

"Stable isotope analysis is a powerful ecological tool for reconstructing the diets of animals," said Hopkins. "Instead of investigating the diets of animals based on what's eliminated (feces), we estimate the importance of major food sources to animals based on what's assimilated into their tissues.”

Previous research has shown that whitebark pine seeds are raided by grizzlies in the fall, fueling reproduction and ensuring the survival of grizzlies in the region. One of the main reasons grizzly bears have remained protected for decades is because it has not been clear how declines in whitebark pine trees will impact population trends over the long term.

Since the new study is limited to a small area in the region and a small number of bears, the researchers recommend a large-scale study and urge others to use their new modeling framework to investigate the diets of other species of concern.

"Such analyses could be used to monitor grizzly bear recovery efforts and inform other wildlife conservation and management programs worldwide," Hopkins said.

--

By: <a href="mailto:dbeasley@earth.com">David Beasley </a><a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="https://ucsd.edu/">University of California San Diego</a>

Climate change forces Yellowstone grizzly bears to change diet

Some grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park are eating more...

If you’ve ever wondered what baleen whales may have looked like over 30 million years ago, you’re in luck. Researchers’ analysis of a 36.4-million-year-old fossil has revealed some interesting anatomical differences from the whales we know today.

Scientists discovered this specimen in the Pisco Basin in Southern Peru. It is now the oldest known member of the mysticete group, which includes the humpback whale, blue whale, and the right whale. They believe the animal was between 3.75 and 4 meters long, which makes it smaller than any of its living relatives. But they found the most important difference hiding in its skull.

Modern members of the mysticete group have baleen instead of teeth, which allows them to filter ocean water and feed on the tiny marine animals that get trapped in the baleen. Surprisingly, this fossil had actual teeth, leading the paleontologists to call it Mystacodon, which means “toothed mysticete.”

Further analysis of this fossil suggested that prior to baleen whales losing their teeth, they might have been suction feeders, diving to the ocean floor and inhaling prey into their mouths. “This find by our Peruvian colleague Mario Urbina fills a major gap in the history of the group, and it provides clues about the ecology of early mysticetes,” says paleontologist and study co-author Olivier Lambert of the <a href="https://www.naturalsciences.be/">Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences</a>.

Unlike members of the basilosaurid group, which contains whales believed to be active hunters, Mystacodon’s teeth showed a different pattern of wear and tear. This led researchers to suggest that the Mystacodon may represent an intermediate step between active <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/hunting-reduces-populations/">hunting</a> and filter feeding, bridging a divide between ancient basilosaurids and modern mysticetes.

“For a long time, Creationists took the evolution of whales as a favorite target to say that, ‘Well, you say that whales come from a terrestrial ancestor, but you can’t prove it. You can’t show the intermediary steps in this evolution,’” says Lambert. “And that was true, maybe thirty years ago. But now, with more teams working on the subject, we have a far more convincing scenario.”

The researchers believe this finding is also evidence of the predictive power of the theory of evolution. But this difference in teeth and hunting-style wasn’t their only discovery.

While observing the fossil’s pelvis, the team found another anatomical anomaly in the form of fully articulated, tiny vestigial hind limbs that stuck out from the whale’s body. Before this find, paleontologists had thought that whales lost their hip articulation before baleen whales and modern toothed whales diverged. This may no longer be the case. The articulation of these tiny limbs with the pelvis suggests that mysticetes and modern toothed whales may have actually both lost this feature independently.

Hoping to carry on the momentum from these exciting discoveries, Lambert and his team plan on returning to the excavation site in Peru to search for more whale fossils from different epochs.

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: Cell Press

Photo Credit: Alberto Gennari

New fossil discovery changes evolutionary history of baleen whales

If you’ve ever wondered what baleen whales may have looked...

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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="0ynNMYkMKa-2340414-12187" type="single"]</div>



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="G9bUoxcjr4-2511624-12187" type="single"]</div>



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="3upvlAaHgO-2256633-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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

[sendtonews key="3upvlAaHgO-2256633-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="LvS8v8bp9z-2564889-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

[sendtonews key="LvS8v8bp9z-2564889-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="iuA5mpp3jv-1641775-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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



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

Kainji Lake in north central Nigeria

[sendtonews key="iuA5mpp3jv-1641775-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="QGPzYnXEtN-1712599-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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

[sendtonews key="QGPzYnXEtN-1712599-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from Carl...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="X0f6OHYoI4-2310561-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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?

[sendtonews key="X0f6OHYoI4-2310561-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="JRaP49ISmm-2357509-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

[sendtonews key="JRaP49ISmm-2357509-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="e4ZG0Jawp3-2374785-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="EjmSP20gQK-2593093-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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



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

Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

[sendtonews key="EjmSP20gQK-2593093-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="qjvhBOBnY8-2426650-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

[sendtonews key="qjvhBOBnY8-2426650-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="oL4FnPTGCV-2384527-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="f8fukm28Vz-2491833-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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



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

Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

[sendtonews key="f8fukm28Vz-2491833-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="0879czfG3k-1785905-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="6HyfrAJTBI-1831843-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="0dEcERCq61-2283382-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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



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

How the immune system responds to injury

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

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="3UUsNkFOuS-2487333-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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



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

2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

[sendtonews key="3UUsNkFOuS-2487333-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="QIoVYJqRBi-2434608-12187" type="single"]</div>



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)



---



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="JbW4VsY53O-1632195-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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

News coming your way