The Earth spins steadily, but not without a wobble. While we imagine the North and South Poles as fixed points, they’re not exactly anchored. Over time, they shift slightly, influenced by how mass is distributed across the globe. 



Ice sheets melt, tectonic plates shift, and oceans swell. But now, researchers have revealed that humans, through dam building, have also nudged the planet’s spin ever so slightly.



In a quiet but measurable way, our thirst for water control and hydroelectric energy has shifted the Earth's poles. From the earliest major dams in the 19th century to the massive reservoirs constructed in Asia and Africa during the 20th century, the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-is-now-impacting-earths-rotation/">effect</a> has grown stronger. 



According to a study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, this phenomenon has moved Earth’s rotational axis by more than a meter (3.3 feet) since 1835.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dam-building-shifts-earth-s-poles">Dam building shifts Earth’s poles</h2>



True polar wander refers to the shifting of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/magnetic-north-pole-is-moving-faster-than-ever-as-it-races-toward-russia/">Earth</a>’s solid outer shell relative to its spin axis. This motion occurs when mass on the planet’s surface moves around. 



Think of Earth like a spinning basketball. Place a lump of clay on one side, and the ball shifts slightly to balance the extra weight. When this happens on Earth, the solid crust adjusts its position, moving relative to the axis of rotation. The poles then pass through new locations on the surface.



Traditionally, this phenomenon has been linked to natural processes like glacial melting. But the recent study by Natasha Valencic and her team at <a href="https://www.harvard.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Harvard University</a> shows that human activity, specifically water impoundment from dam construction, has become another significant contributor. 



The findings suggest that this artificial redistribution of mass has created a measurable shift in the Earth’s pole positions.



“As we trap water behind dams, not only does it remove water from the oceans, thus leading to a global sea level fall, it also distributes mass in a different way around the world,” said Valencic. That mass, once fluid and ocean-bound, is now stored in still reservoirs scattered across continents.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-earth-s-poles-moved-in-two-phases">Earth’s poles moved in two phases</h2>



Using data from the Global Reservoir and Dam (GRanD) database, the researchers mapped the water storage of 6,862 artificial reservoirs from 1835 to 2011. The dam analysis revealed a striking, non-linear shift in the Earth’s poles. 



From 1835 to 1954, dam building focused heavily in North America and Europe. This caused the North Pole to move about eight inches toward 103.4°E, a direction passing through Russia and parts of Asia.



After 1954, the pattern of dam construction changed. Major projects emerged across East Africa and Asia. As a result, the pole reversed direction, moving 22.5 inches toward −117.5°E, roughly through the western United States and into the South Pacific. 



These changes did not follow a smooth path. The polar motion was highly variable, influenced by the size and location of dams being built over time.



Across the entire study period, the poles shifted about 44.6 inches. Notably, 40.9 inches of that motion occurred during the 20th century. This finding suggests that modern infrastructure, rather than long-term natural <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/this-is-what-the-total-collapse-of-the-earths-magnetic-field-sounded-like-41000-years-ago/">processes</a> alone, has become a key factor in Earth's orientation.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dams-and-earth-s-pole-positions">Dams and Earth's pole positions</h2>



To track these subtle shifts, the team used a detailed physical model. They combined gravitationally self-consistent sea level theory with equations for rotational stability. 



The researchers accounted for how Earth’s crust responds elastically to mass changes, and how these changes, in turn, influence Earth’s spin.



The Earth model used, known as PREM (Preliminary Reference Earth Model), includes variations in Earth’s density and elasticity. The team also incorporated seepage, the loss of stored water into surrounding soils, using a parameterization method from earlier work by Chao et al. (2008). 



Despite excluding about 28 percent of the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earths-magnetic-field-is-shifting-and-putting-navigation-at-risk/">global</a> impoundment volume, mainly from smaller dams, the results remained consistent. 



The missing volume came mostly from minor reservoirs, each contributing less than 0.024 cubic miles, and these had minimal influence on the final polar calculations.



To test the significance of these smaller dams, the team plotted how pole position changed with each added reservoir. After about 6,000 of the largest were included, the results stabilized. This confirmed that the many small, excluded dams had negligible overall effect.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dam-water-storage-and-sea-levels">Dam water storage and sea levels</h2>



Global sea levels are rising today, but during the 20th century, the creation of reservoirs temporarily offset this trend. The researchers found that the 6,862 dams in their study led to a sea level drop of 0.86 inches between 1900 and 2011.



This artificial dip matters. While it’s small compared to the rise caused by melting glaciers and warming oceans, it complicates calculations. 



“Depending on where you place dams and reservoirs, the geometry of sea level rise will change. That’s another thing we need to consider, because these changes can be pretty large, pretty significant," said Valencic.



In the first half of the 20th century, the mean polar motion rate from impoundment was about 0.12 inches per year. 



In the second half, it rose to 0.37 inches per year, a threefold increase. The pole's changing pace mirrors the rapid expansion of dam building after 1950.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-revisiting-old-assumptions">Revisiting old assumptions </h2>



Previous studies underestimated the effect of dam-induced polar wander. One earlier estimate in 2008 suggested a mean movement of −0.06 inches per year in the east direction and −0.31 inches per year northward across the 20th century.



But Valencic’s team found it was actually −0.12 inches per year and −0.09 inches per year, respectively. This difference matters because it rebalances the budget of polar motion. 



Scientists trying to understand how much glaciers, groundwater, or ocean changes contribute to Earth's spin now have to subtract out the dam effect. Without this correction, estimates about ice loss and sea level rise remain incomplete.



Interestingly, the influence of dam building didn’t act alone in shifting Earth's poles. The researchers also modeled how the oceans responded to displaced water. 



While water impoundment dominated the first half of the century, the second half saw both dam storage and ocean mass redistribution playing nearly equal roles in shaping Earth’s polar path.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-subtle-shift-in-earth-s-poles">Subtle shift in Earth's poles</h2>



This study began as a classroom project at Harvard but quickly grew into a deeper investigation of Earth’s shifting balance. It reveals that something as mundane as a dam, one of civilization’s most common tools, has reshaped the geography of our spinning planet.



The pole has not leapt across continents. It has crept, step by engineered step, with every new concrete wall holding back a river. While not disastrous on its own, this shift reveals a truth: our actions reach farther than we often imagine.



Every dam, every floodgate, becomes part of the Earth’s momentum. What we store on land doesn’t just change rivers. It nudges Earth’s rotation, redistributes the weight of water, and contributes silently to a planet that, while spinning, is never truly still.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2025GL115468" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Geophysical Research Letters</a>.



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Dams built by humans have shifted Earth’s poles

The Earth spins steadily, but not without a wobble. While we imagine the North and South Poles as fixed points, they’re not exactly anchored. Over time, they shift slightly, influenced by how mass is distributed across the globe. Ice sheets melt, tectonic plates shift, and oceans swell. But now, researchers have revealed that humans, through dam building, have also nudged the planet’s spin ever so slightly. In a quiet but measurable way, our thirst for water control and hydroelectric energy has shifted the Earth's poles. From the...

In a role reversal, it’s female pipefish who do all the work of competing for a mate. And male pipefish? They get pregnant.

That role reversal is rare in the animal kingdom, and it has scientists fascinated.

Male pipefish, like seahorses, sea dragons, and other fish in the Syngnathidae family, are among a very small number of species where the male, not the female, carries the young to term.

For all of these fish, the females still produce the eggs. But they transfer their clutch to a specialized brood pouch on the males. Then, the males carry the eggs to term, often sharing nutrients.

"From a research standpoint, pipefish are interesting because of the unique opportunity they provide to study sexual selection in reverse, which can tell us a lot about how variation works in mating and reproductive success," Dr. Sarah Flanagan said in a <a href="http://www.nimbios.org/press/FS_pipefish">press release</a>. Flanagan is a postdoctoral fellow at the <a href="http://www.nimbios.org/">National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis</a>.

The reversal of roles has led to a reversal of the typical sex characteristics seen in the wild. Female pipefish are the flashier members of the species, sometimes with more colorful ornamentation. They’re the ones who have to compete for males, who prefer larger females that produce more eggs.

But in a <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00265-016-2255-3">new study</a> led by Flanagan, a team of researchers from the U.S. and Sweden found that when it comes to courting, it’s not just about what males want.

Females have some input, too, and size matters. The team, which looked at broad-nosed pipefish, found that larger male pipefish carry more eggs and produce healthier offspring. Those offspring are better survivors, too, and that makes large males much more desirable for the females.

“Our results show that larger males mate earlier than smaller males and that pregnant males have higher measures of condition compared to non-pregnant males,” the researchers wrote.

Males that breed earlier can also carry more pregnancies over the course of the breeding season, the team noted.

"This study shows that there are many factors at play in this system, more than perhaps we ever realized, but it's that variation in traits and fitness which allows for sexual selection to work," Flanagan said.

She plans to extend the research, looking into how pipefish genetics play a role in their reproductive behavior.

The study was published in the journal <a href="http://link.springer.com/journal/265">Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology</a>.

Male pipefish 'motherhood' is complicated, new study shows

In a role reversal, it’s female pipefish who do all...

A new, three-dimensional map will let scientists track ocean ecosystems in stunning, unprecedented detail.

The international team of developers who created it hope it will be a powerful new tool for studying the ocean’s “biogeography” and deciding which areas are at the most risk. The map is intended for conservationists, biologists, government officials, and others who make decisions about ocean preservation.

The map sorts ocean regions worldwide into 37 categories. Regions with similar water temperature, oxygen levels, salinity (salt content), and nutrient levels are grouped together by category.

Maps already exist that attempt to describe ocean ecosystems, lead author Dr. Dawn Wright said.

“What’s often missing is all that’s between the surface of the ocean and the ocean bottom,” Wright told the journal Nature. “That’s what our project will hopefully bring to the table.”

Wright is the chief scientist for <a href="http://www.esri.com/">Esri</a>, the California-based geographic information-systems company helped build the map.

Unlike previous maps, the one created by Esri uses ecological marine units, or EMUs, to create a three-dimensional representation of the ocean.

EMUs describe the type of ecosystem from the surface down to the ocean’s floor. This means that the map can offer up information about why marine animals choose to live in a specific location. It can show the interaction between warm and cold waters, or oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor regions.

It can even show how the ocean changes with natural events like the El Niño warming cycle.

That information is vital for those who make the oceans their livelihood, from marine biologists to tuna fishing crews.

Projects like the <a href="http://www.sanbi.org/">South African National Biodiversity Institute</a> plan to use EMUs to update their data on their ocean habitats. That information will be used in the country’s next national biodiversity assessment.

EMUs is the second step that began with a project to map land-based ecosystems. The ocean map used data collected over five decades by dozens of agencies.

Wright presented the project at a December meeting of the <a href="https://sites.agu.org/">American Geophysical Union</a>.

New, 3D map is a powerful tool to track ocean ecosystems

A new, three-dimensional map will let scientists track ocean ecosystems...

In December 2014, a massive string of storms brought extreme rainfall to Northern California.

The pineapple express dumped three inches of water on the San Francisco Bay Area in just an hour on December 11, a day that also set records for rainfall in Sacramento. It triggered the first blizzard warning in six years in the Sierra Nevadas. It blew out power for 50,000 people.

The tempest was known as the “Storm of the Decade,” but it may soon be the new norm for California, according to researchers from the <a href="http://web.mit.edu/">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a>. Why? Climate change could bring more atmospheric rivers, they said.
<h3>Extreme rainfall on the rise?</h3>
Atmospheric rivers are narrow flows of concentrated water in the lower atmosphere. They can carry anywhere from seven to 15 times the amount of water in the Mississippi River, and most of that reaches the ground as torrential downpours.

A pineapple express, like the one that caused the December 2014 storm, is a type of atmospheric river that forms near Hawaii. California sees a lot of them already.

But it may see a lot more in the future, if global temperatures continue to rise, the MIT team said. Warmer temperatures encourage atmospheric rivers to form, and warmer air can hold a lot more water, they said.

The scientists created a new model for predicting the frequency of extreme rainfall in specific locations. The technique looks for telltale patterns in atmospheric data, then connects those patterns to the location in question.

They created the new model because old ones were unable to accurately predict extreme weather events like the atmospheric rivers.

Current models use global data to predict local weather. That means local weather experts can predict that there may be rainfall, but are unable to accurately estimate how much water will fall.

“None of the [older] models are even close to the observations,” lead author Dr. Xiang Gao said in a <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2017/more-extreme-storms-ahead-california-0103">press release</a>. “And regardless of the combination of atmospheric variables we used, the new schemes were much closer to observations.”

[caption id="attachment_129998" align="aligncenter" width="550"]<img class="wp-image-129998" src="http://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Study-finds-more-extreme-storms-ahead-for-California.jpg" alt="New studies from scientists at MIT and UC Davis are predicting more torrential downpours in California's future." width="550" height="367" /> New studies from scientists at MIT and UC Davis are predicting more torrential downpours in California's future.[/caption]

California served as a test case for the new technique.

The scientists found that their rainfall predictions were much more accurate if, instead of trying to “zoom in” on a local spot using global data, they instead focused on large-scale atmospheric patterns.

“We’ve actually found there’s a connection between what climate models do really well, which is to simulate large-scale motions of the atmosphere, and local, heavy precipitation events,” study co-author Dr. Adam Schlosser said. “We can use this association to tell how frequently these events are occurring now, and how they will change locally, like in New England, or the West Coast.”

They also found that when they applied this technique to future weather, they saw a lot more atmospheric rivers on the horizon. If global temperatures rise by just 4 degrees Celsius by 2100, the model showed an average of three more extreme rainfall events each year in California.

Their findings were published in the <a href="http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0544.1">Journal of Climate</a>. The <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/">National Science Foundation</a>, the <a href="https://energy.gov/">U.S. Department of Energy</a>, and <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/">NASA</a> supported the research.
<h3>Study backed up by recent oyster research</h3>
The findings follow a similar study published last month.

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.ucdavis.edu/">University of California, Davis</a> and <a href="http://www.sfbaynerr.org/">San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve</a> studying a mass die-off of oysters found that atmospheric rivers had likely caused the event.

The Olympia oysters near <a href="http://www.parks.ca.gov/chinacamp/">China Camp State Park</a>, at the northern edge of the bay, were among the densest populations in the world. An average 3,000 oysters per square meter lived at the site, the researchers said.

In the spring of 2011, nearly all of those oysters died. At least 100,000 oysters perished, and probably much more, the researchers said. The die-off was surprising, because the hardy native oysters are pretty resilient when it comes to changing water conditions.

“Species that undergo [mass mortality events] may require decades to recover, and in extreme cases, MMEs may trigger extinction,” the study authors, led by Dr. Brian Cheng, wrote.

This would be devastating in the case of oysters, which are a “foundation species,” they wrote. The study was published in the journal <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/283/1844/20161462">Proceedings of the Royal Society B</a>.

The researchers discovered large flows of freshwater into the bay that spring had caused its salt levels to drop drastically. Olympia oysters cannot survive in freshwater, and the bay’s salinity dropped below their threshold, killing them.

While the researchers have focused on restoring the oysters’ population and spreading them out so they can better withstand disaster, they also wanted to figure out what had caused the freshwater flows.

Studying weather conditions through field data and remote sensing equipment led them to the likely culprit: atmospheric rivers flowed into California in the weeks ahead of the die-off, delivering extreme rainfall.

That heavy rain flowed into the rivers and out to the bay – a massive freshwater injection the oysters couldn’t survive.

"Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and severity of extreme events [such as atmospheric rivers], with theory predicting that extreme precipitation events should intensify because of increased evaporation and greater atmospheric water-holding capacity," the scientists wrote in their study.
<h3>Atmospheric rivers in California history</h3>
Atmospheric rivers are old news in California.

One pineapple express-fueled extreme rainfall event changed the state’s history. Beginning in December 1861 and stretching into the new year, more than 40 days of storms linked to atmospheric rivers turned the state’s massive Central Valley into an inland sea.

The Great Flood of 1862, which also dropped record rain in Oregon and Nevada, turned most of California’s massive Central Valley into a giant inland sea with some areas under 30 feet of water.

Floodwaters breached the levees around the capital of Sacramento. The levees then acted as a dam, leaving the city a western Venice even after floodwaters began to recede.

The Gold Rush town of Red Dog recorded more than 25 inches of rain in one month. About 11 of those inches fell on two days alone. The flooding also destroyed an Army fort near Klamath.

Dozens of towns were underwater and countless homes and businesses were destroyed. Thousands of people died and more than 800,000 cattle drowned. California declared bankruptcy, not even 12 years after achieving statehood.

Atmospheric rivers have caused other disasters in the state. In January 1952, a massive blizzard stranded a train in the Sierras. Storms in 1955 wreaked havoc on the Sacramento Valley. Another series of pineapple expresses flooded large swaths of the West Coast in 1997. And in 2005, an atmospheric river deluged the San Gabriel Mountains with 31 inches of rain in just four days.
<h3>What now?</h3>
Both the UC Davis and MIT studies found that atmospheric rivers are likely to increase in the coming decades. The MIT study figured out how to predict extreme rainfall events.

But what does that mean for California residents?

If global temperatures rise 4 degrees Celsius, it could mean more frequent intense storms, the MIT team said.

If worldwide climate change goals are met – and if they actually succeed in cutting global warming in half by 2100 as promised – California will still see extreme rainfall, but not nearly as much, they said.

And in either case, the ability to predict extreme rainfall events will leave Californians better prepared, the scientists said. That includes extra maintenance on important systems such as levees to prevent costly damage.

“That is actionable information,” Schlosser said.

The MIT team is now working on translating the technique from torrential downpours to heatwaves.

Scientists: extreme rainfall may be the new norm for California

In December 2014, a massive string of storms brought extreme...

Flight-disrupting ash clouds found to occur twice a century 

The 2010 eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull released an ash cloud so dense that it caused major disruptions in air travel across northwestern Europe. Over 10 million air passengers were left stranded, costing the European economy £4 billion.

The incident inspired a research team from the <a href="http://www.leeds.ac.uk/">University of Leeds</a> to begin examining how frequently such flight-disrupting ash clouds can occur across Europe. Led by Dr. Liz Watson from the School of Geography, the team found that these types of ash clouds occur about every 44 years and have about a 20% chance of occurring in Europe over a decade. 

"Reliable estimates of the frequency of volcanic ash events could help airlines, insurance companies and the traveling public mitigate the economic losses and disruption caused by ash clouds in the future,” said Watson.

The team worked alongside colleagues from the <a href="https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk">University of St. Andrews</a> and the <a href="http://www.usf.edu">University of South Florida</a> to compare records of volcanic ash in northern Europe over the last 1,000 years. By identifying tiny shards of volcanic ash called cryptotephra found in peat and lake sediment, the team was able to track the point at which ash clouds had spread across Europe. This data was then compared to historical records of volcanic eruptions in northern Europe.


The results showed that 84 ash clouds had occurred in the past 7,000 years, most of which from Icelandic volcanoes. 

"In 2010, when Eyjafjallajökull erupted, people were really shocked - it seemed to come completely out of the blue, but the eruption of Grímsvötn, the following year, was an extraordinary coincidence,” said co-author Dr. Graeme Swindles, Associate Professor at the University of Leeds. "Although it is possible that ash clouds can occur on an annual basis, the average return interval for the last 1,000 years is around 44 years.

"The last time volcanic ash clouds affected Northern Europe before the recent event was in 1947, 69 years ago - but aviation was much less intense at that time and it simply didn't have the same sort of impact.

"Our research shows that, over thousands of years, these sorts of incidents are not that rare - but people wondering how likely it is that the 2010 chaos will be repeated in the next few years can feel somewhat reassured."

Flight-disrupting ash clouds found to occur twice a century

Flight-disrupting ash clouds found to occur twice a century The 2010...

One of winter’s greatest dangers: those icy sidewalks that send you slipping, sliding, and maybe falling.

A little salt makes them a lot less treacherous – but it may be harming the local environment, too. The <a href="https://www.soils.org/">Soil Science Society of America</a> posted a new warning on its blog <a href="https://soilsmatter.wordpress.com/">Soils Matter</a> about overuse of the useful mineral.

“The most commonly used item for managing ice is road salt, or sodium chloride. While this salt does melt ice, when overused or mismanaged, it can become a serious environmental pollutant,” wrote blog contributor Mary Tiedeman, a doctoral student in soil microbiology.

The U.S. applies between 10 to 20 million tons of salt to roadways and sidewalks every winter, she noted, citing research by the <a href="http://www.caryinstitute.org/">Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies</a>. Salt is such a popular deicer because it’s cheap, available, and effective.

But salt meant for wintery roads and icy sidewalks can end up elsewhere, including in soil, Tiedeman said. It can bounce away during application, be washed away by melting snow and ice, or blow away during strong winds.

And that’s bad news for topsoil.

“Once deposited, components of salts, particularly sodium ions, can wreak havoc on soil systems. They do this by reducing soils’ ability to retain plant nutrients and water, and maintain soil structure,” Tiedeman wrote.

Sodium contamination and the breakdown of soil structure makes it harder for water to flow through soil. The top layer can also wash away through erosion more easily. Once salt is in the soil, it can take years to become diluted enough that it’s no longer causing harm.

Too much salt can also be toxic to most plant species.

The best way to avoid damaging the soil and staying safe this winter is to be proactive, Tiedeman wrote.

Shoveling quickly after snowfall means the snow has less time to become ice, she said. That means you can use less salt to deice. Wetting the salt slightly before application helps keep it where it’s supposed to be: on icy sidewalks, not bouncing or blowing into soil. Try to keep salt application only to areas where you expect foot traffic, if possible.

“Clay-based kitty litter and/or sand can also be used instead of, or in addition to salts, as they add traction to otherwise slippery surfaces,” she added.

Icy sidewalks add to 'salt of the Earth' and that's not a good thing

One of winter’s greatest dangers: those icy sidewalks that send...

Chickens aren’t known for their brains – but maybe they should be. Studies of chicken psychology show the birds may be a lot smarter and more complex than they get credit for.

The new foray into chicken studies was undertaken by <a href="https://www.farmsanctuary.org/learn/the-someone-project/">The Someone Project</a>. The project’s goal is to gain a better understanding of the cognitive abilities of farm animals.

“At least some birds are now known to be on par with many mammals in terms of their level of intelligence, emotional sophistication, and social interaction,” said Dr. Lori Marino, the author of the scientific review. “Yet, views of chickens have largely remained unrevised by this new evidence.”

She acknowledged that chicken psychology seems like a strange topic to research. However, she wondered if the birds really deserved their reputation as lacking in intelligence.

So Marino dove into the literature on chickens and analyzed dozens of scientific studies on their mental abilities.

The review turned up a number of interesting facts about chicken psychology:
<ul>
 	<li>By the time chicks are five days old, they can differentiate between larger and smaller amounts of items like food.</li>
 	<li>Chickens can follow a ball’s trajectory even as it disappears from their sight, a skill shared by primates.
They appear to be able to perceive the passage of time and anticipate future events.</li>
 	<li>Chickens socialize and have a complex hierarchy. Individual chickens can assess their social “rank” and behave accordingly with hens of higher or lower status.</li>
 	<li>De-beaked chickens show defensive behaviors for months after the procedure. De-beaking is a common practice in large egg production operations that cage their hens.</li>
 	<li>Mother hens show different parenting styles that may be based on varying personality traits.</li>
 	<li>Chickens demonstrate both self-control and self-assessment in social situations, which may indicate some self-awareness.</li>
</ul>
One study Marino reviewed involved a computer exercise. Chickens had to peck at a screen consistently to get food. The first peck after six minutes delivered the food.

Not only did the hens in the study grasp that they had to keep pecking at the screen, they began pecking much faster when the clock was almost at six minutes. This showed both that they understood the concept, and that they could figure out when the food was about to come, the authors of that study said.

“My overall conclusion is that chickens are just as cognitively, emotionally and socially complex as most other birds and mammals in many areas,” Marino wrote.

Marino’s review was published in the journal <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10071-016-1064-4">Animal Cognitition</a>.

The Someone Project is the research arm of <a href="https://www.farmsanctuary.org/">Farm Sanctuary</a>, a nonprofit farm animal rescue organization.

Farm Sanctuary promotes vegan diets, but the organization’s main goal is to improve the lives of farm animals and end factory farming. Three sanctuaries in New York and California provide homes for rescued farm animals awaiting adoption.

Chicken psychology: birds may be smarter, more complex than we thought

Chickens aren’t known for their brains – but maybe they...

For some species, conservation efforts began paying off in 2016. For others, they weren’t enough. Endangered species around the world continued their march toward extinction in 2016, and a few disappeared forever.

The giraffe is one example. Habitat loss and isolation has landed the world’s tallest mammals on the <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/">Red List</a>. The database of vulnerable, endangered, and extinct species is maintained by the <a href="https://www.iucn.org/">International Union for Conservation of Nature</a>.

Elephants have seen a decline, too. Africa lost about a third of its elephants in just seven years. Poaching has long been the main culprit behind the deaths, spurring several countries including China and the U.S. to enact or strengthen ivory bans.

Madagascar’s ring-tailed lemur also saw a huge drop in numbers. The two main factors were habitat loss and hunting, the IUCN reported. Lemurs are also popular on the illegal pet market, it said.

Illegal fishing has driven both the totoaba fish – the main target – and the vaquita porpoise – collateral damage – one step away from extinction off the coast of Mexico. IUCN lists both as “critically endangered." Though the totoaba’s numbers are unknown, the IUCN believes no more than 60 vaquitas are left in the wild.

Other endangered animals that continued to bleed numbers in 2016 include African rhinos, the Ploughshare tortoise, orangutans, leopards, and red wolves.

Meanwhile, Toughie the frog died, triggering the complete extinction of the Rabbs’ tree frog. Toughie had been the last of his kind for some time.

The Bramble Cay melomys, a unique rodent species that lived only on the tiny island off the coast of Queensland, Australia, also went extinct. High tides and storm surges brought by rising oceans has wiped out the reef island’s vegetation, and flooded it repeatedly.

Other extinctions in 2016: the Laysan honeycreeper, Pagan reed warbler, Raiatea starling, Tatum Cave beeting, Stephan’s riffle beetle, and others.

The Addax antelope, with just three members left in the wild, may follow in the next few years.

Though conservationists are taking steps to slow the march toward extinction, in some cases human industry has taken precedence. In Aceh, Indonesia, the government ruled against conservationists fighting to protect the last intact forest in the world that houses orangutans, tigers, rhinos, and elephants. Plans for the forest: tearing it down to replace it with palm oil plantations.

Still, the news isn’t all bad. New tech solutions are emerging to combat illegal fishing worldwide. Nepal had its second year in a row without rhino poaching. Thailand shuttered its infamous Tiger Temple, and an international agreement to ban the endangered pangolin trade is moving ahead.

March toward extinction continued for many species in 2016

For some species, conservation efforts began paying off in 2016....

Global warming is connected to the rising frequency of extreme weather events like heavy rainfall and drought, according to at least one researcher in the field of attribution science.

In the past five years, scientists at the <a href="http://www.ox.ac.uk/">University of Oxford</a> and elsewhere have studied tornado outbreaks in the U.S., flooding in Paris, a heatwave in the Arctic, and drought in southern Africa. Their goal was to see if these and other events are connected to climate change.

The connection is there, said Dr. Friederike Otto, deputy director of Oxford’s <a href="http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/">Environmental Change Institute</a>.

Thanks to the growing field of attribution science, researchers aren’t just able to predict future environmental changes, Otto said. Now, they can find the causes of changing local climates and extreme weather, and quickly.

“We aim to provide scientific evidence to answer that question within the news time frame – so within two weeks of the event occurring,” Otto told <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/yes-some-extreme-weather-can-be-blamed-on-climate-change/">Scientific American in an interview</a>.

Scientists in the field look at specific extreme weather events to find how they connect to a region’s climate, and then global climate. They also look at weather patterns and how they’re changing as global surface temperatures rise, Otto said.

She offered the example of her most recent study. It focused on a heatwave in the Arctic, which the team connected to a wider pattern of warming temperatures worldwide.

Otto compared attribution science to rolling a loaded die.

“It's kind of like when you roll a die and you roll 10 sixes in a row. You become suspicious that something's wrong with that die, but from these 10 rolls, you can’t determine that it’s a loaded die,” she said.

But imagine you keep rolling the die over and over, recording each roll and the conditions that affected it. Then you use that data run statistics studies and simulations. You can prove what you already suspected: the die is loaded.

Attribution science works similarly. A few extreme weather events are likely natural. But when certain types of events begin appearing over and over in a pattern, climate scientists become suspicious.

Intensive study, data collection, statistical and climate models, simulations, and more can determine the cause of the pattern. After that, scientists can easily link that cause or rule it out for future events as part of the pattern.

The models and formulas the scientists use account for natural patterns like El Niño, Otto said.

The field is still new, though, she warned. The computer technology needed to run simulations on the scale needed has only become available in the past five years. Scientists are adding new data to the models every day.

The new field can mean major breakthroughs for predicting and perhaps eventually preventing major climate disasters, Otto said.

“When we know a drought is becoming more likely by a factor of 10 because of climate change, then we know we need to focus our adaptation efforts on that” she said.

Attribution science connects climate change to extreme weather events

Global warming is connected to the rising frequency of extreme weather...

Aerospace company Rolls-Royce has foundered in recent years, but in the new year, it wants to soar above that reputation. The engineering company is looking to lead the next aviation revolution: electric planes.

The company’s CEO, Warren East, is hoping cutting edge electric and hybrid engines could help turn <a href="http://www.rolls-royce.com/">Rolls-Royce</a>’s fortunes around.

Electric planes have seemed like an improbable idea for years. Existing designs are simply not able to carry large planes long distances the way jet engines are.

Rolls-Royce is taking that as a challenge rather than a limitation in 2017.

“There’s a lot of chatter about hybrid electric flight, not just little aeroplanes but regional aeroplanes. I’m convinced we will see these things happen sooner rather than later,” East told <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/12/31/warren-eastrolls-big-company-lot-inertia-good/">The Telegraph</a>, a British daily. “There is a race on.”

To that end, Rolls-Royce has created a series of electric fan-powered engines. The company’s engineers are also looking into hybrid solutions.

If successful, the company believes the new engines will reduce carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions – two greenhouse gases scientists link to climate change. The air travel industry is a major producer of carbon emissions.

Electric planes could also cut down on noise pollution, the company said.

Rolls-Royce engineers hope to have a demonstration engine ready before 2020, and have the engines ready for commercial release by 2030 or soon after.

Rolls-Royce has struggled in recent years. In February 2014, after shareholders learned the company expected profits to stay stable rather than grow that year, Rolls-Royce stock lost half its value. In 2015, the company stayed profitable but those profits shrunk, triggering a shake-up in leadership.

One of East’s first moves after being hired on as CEO in late 2015 was to scrap a layer of management. He announced a restructuring of the company and scrapped two divisions. Rolls-Royce leadership cut another 200 managers in September.

In 2016, downturns in gas and oil led to 800 layoffs in the company’s marine sector.

Rolls-Royce sees electric planes leading the next aerospace revolution

Aerospace company Rolls-Royce has foundered in recent years, but in...

San Salvador Island in the Bahamas is famous for its beautiful sandy beaches and stunning shallow water reefs. But further inland, the island boasts an incredible array of wildlife diversity. In particular, the saltwater lakes of San Salvador are home to a massive number of fish species, including three different Bahaman pupfish. And according to a recent study, genetics are behind the extraordinary specialization seen in the waters of San Salvador. 

Over the past 10,000 years, the Bahaman pupfish have developed specialized jaws with a beak shaped to consume specific seeds. As a result, they have evolved into three different species of pupfish with jaws capable of monopolizing different foods, including snails, algae, and smaller fish.

A team of scientists from the <a href="http://www.unc.edu">University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill</a>, led by head researcher Christopher Martin, set out to determine the root cause of this level of specialization. The team reported their findings in an article published in the journal <a href="http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/12/26/molbev.msw286">Molecular Biology and Evolution</a>.

The team took nine populations of pupfish representing each of the three species and sequenced 37 genomes from each. 12 million single DNA mutations, otherwise known as single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs, were identified pointing researchers to several gene candidates associated with jaw size. 

"Overall, we uncovered very few regions with single SNPs fixed between species that were also strongly associated with divergent jaw sizes," said Martin. "Many of these regions contained only a single gene with known effects on skeletal development in model organisms."

While the study explains the genetic background of the Bahaman pupfish specialization, it remains unknown why this phenomenon is occurring in San Salvador but not elsewhere.
According to Martin, "Answering this question will require continued exploration of the ecological and genetic factors shaping this exceptional case of rapid ecological specialization. So far, the usual suspects -- lake area, ecological and genetic diversity -- do not seem to provide the trigger of adaptive radiation as is commonly assumed. Instead, the answer seems to be far more complex and interesting than we ever imagined."

Genes found responsible for Bahaman pupfish specialization

San Salvador Island in the Bahamas is famous for its...

Genetic mutations have often been attributed to making an individual more predisposed to certain illnesses and diseases. But as it turns out, context is everything, and that some of the genetic mutations that put us at risk for illness can actually have a positive impact in a different environment.

A team of researchers from <a href="https://shesc.asu.edu/">Arizona State University’s School of Human Evolution and Social Change</a>, led by Assistant Professor Ben Trumble, set out to explore how certain genetic mutations may have impacted cognitive function in a different way for humans living prior to industrialization. The team reported their findings in a paper published in <a href="http://www.fasebj.org/">The FASEB Journal</a>. 

Trumble and team focused in specifically on the apolipoprotein E (ApoE) gene. ApoE historically contributes to cholesterol metabolism and the transportation of fatty acids to the brain. But in industrialized populations, those who carry the ApoE4 variant mutation face a high risk for cardiovascular disease and are four times more likely to develop Alzheimer's.

The team of researchers studied how the ApoE4 mutation (or allele) may not have had such harmful effects on humans living in much different conditions thousands of years ago. 

According to Trumble, "For 99 percent of human evolution, we lived as hunter gatherers in small bands and the last 5,000-10,000 years – with plant and animal domestication and sedentary urban industrial life – is completely novel. I can drive to a fast-food restaurant to 'hunt and gather' 20,000 calories in a few minutes or go to the hospital if I'm sick, but this was not the case throughout most of human evolution."

As a point of comparison, the researchers studied a group of Amazonian forager-horticulturalists known as the Tsimane. The Tsimane have no access to sanitation, electricity, or running water and as a result, experience high exposure to pathogens and parasites that damage cognitive function. Because the ApoE4 allele has such harmful effects on urban industrialized populations, it would be reasonable to assume the mutation would be especially devastating for the Tsimane population.

But according to data from the <a href="https://www.unm.edu/~tsimane/">Tsimane Health and Life History Project</a>, Tsimane individuals carrying both ApoE4 and high parasitic levels experienced steady if not improved cognitive function compared to non-carriers with similar parasitic levels. The results suggest that the allele may have helped maintain cognitive function despite environmental pathogens. 

"It seems that some of the very genetic mutations that help us succeed in more hazardous time periods and environments may actually become mismatched in our relatively safe and sterile post-industrial lifestyles," Trumble said.

Genetic mutations that cause illness may have once helped fight disease

Genetic mutations have often been attributed to making an individual...

One air purification company sees a boom in its future. After all, 2016 was a big year for rising awareness about air pollution, Blueair founder Bengt Rittri reasons. It makes sense that a search for solutions will follow.

"(The year) 2016 has seen many new scientific studies showing the cost to human health and society caused by toxic air," Rittri said.

Several new studies have linked air pollution to illnesses from asthma to coronary artery disease. It has also been linked to regional climate issues, the <a href="https://www.blueair.com/">Blueair</a> founder said.

In the beginning of 2016, the UK's <a href="https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/">Royal College of Physicians</a> and the <a href="http://www.rcpch.ac.uk/">Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health</a> released a joint study that found harm from air pollution lasts throughout an individual's lifespan.

A few months later, the World Health Organisation reported that as much as 92 percent of the world's urban population now live in cities suffering bad air quality.

The <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/">World Bank</a> has linked health effects of air pollution to hundreds of billions of dollars in lost work.

Around the world, people are becoming more aware of the dirty air they’re breathing.

In Delhi, residents once scoffed at the idea that air pollution could cause health problems. Now, they’re seeking solutions such as air purifiers and special pollution masks. Companies including <a href="http://smartairfilters.com/en/">SmartAir</a> and <a href="https://www.vogmask.com/">Vogmask</a> reported sales booms.

Parisian residents have been donning masks like those worn in Beijing, too. The city has scrambled to enact new regulations and restrictions aimed at cutting air pollution.

And <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/canned-clean-air/">canned air</a>, created as a joke, has taken off.

Blueair is banking on 2017 being the year that more people look for real solutions.

"Today we are already seeing new solutions being sparked in cities globally, including Paris, Mexico City, Athens and Madrid whose mayors in December pledged to ban diesel engines within a decade," Rittri said.

Dozens of cities around the world are taking new steps to clean up their air, he said.

Blueair has created a selection of air purifiers and quality monitors, and a smartphone app to connect them. The company’s goal is to provide seamless integration of air purification tech into customer’s lives.

"Blueair's vision for the future is about being at the forefront of innovating bold air cleaning technologies and helping them go mainstream," Rittri said.

Could air purification go mainstream in 2017? Blueair hopes so

One air purification company sees a boom in its future....

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



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



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

Kainji Lake in north central Nigeria

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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



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

Designing crops that can beat the heat

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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

Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research&nbsp;



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



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

How the immune system responds to injury

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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

2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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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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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"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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