Mammalian sperm are unusually picky. They prefer cooler environments, thriving below normal body temperature. Yet, they must navigate the female reproductive tract, which is warmer. So how do they survive and succeed?



New research from <a href="https://medicine.washu.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Washington University</a> School of Medicine in St. Louis explains how. Sperm use the temperature difference as a signal.



 When they enter the warmer female reproductive tract, they switch behavior. They move from calm, forward swimming to a vigorous, whip-like thrash. This change helps them pierce the egg for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/our-current-fertility-rate-isnt-enough-for-human-survival/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fertilization</a>.



This discovery sheds light on male fertility. It also opens new directions for contraception.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-heat-flips-a-sperm-switch">Heat flips a sperm switch</h2>



All mammals carry a sperm-surface protein called CatSper. It regulates ion entry, powering the tail’s strong motions. Scientists found that temperatures above 38°C (100.4°F) activate this protein.



“That hyperactive state in sperm is key for successful fertilization, and no one knew exactly how temperature triggers it,” said Polina Lishko, PhD, professor of cell biology and physiology at WashU Medicine. 



“Our work has identified a temperature-controlled switch in sperm that triggers these increased movements precisely when they are needed during <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/global-fertility-rates-are-quickly-declining-and-little-is-being-done-about-it/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fertilization</a>.”



Before this study, CatSper was thought to respond only to pH and progesterone. But most mammalian sperm ignore progesterone. Temperature turns out to be the real switch.



This change explains why testicles hang outside the body. <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/resveratrol-may-boost-female-fertility-naturally/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Evolution</a> keeps them cool so sperm remain inactive until they reach warmer territory - then, they activate at just the right moment.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mammals-evolved-to-keep-sperm-cool">Mammals evolved to keep sperm cool</h2>



Humans aren't the only species with clever cooling tricks. Dolphins pass blood through their dorsal fins to cool it before it reaches their testes. Elephants do the same through their ears. These adaptations protect the sperm’s sensitivity.



Birds, which lack CatSper, don’t need this. Their sperm do not rely on the same activation signal. This protein, and its temperature-based switch, is unique to mammals.



Using advanced tools, the researchers watched electric charges shift inside individual <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/poor-semen-quality-signifies-more-than-just-fertility-problems/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sperm</a>. When exposed to higher temperatures, CatSper lit up. This marked the start of vigorous movement - just in time for fertilization.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-using-heat-to-make-sperm-hyperactive">Using heat to make sperm hyperactive </h2>



CatSper’s exclusive presence in sperm makes it an ideal drug target. Previous attempts to block it didn’t work well. But Lishko suggests a twist: instead of blocking it, activate it too early.



“Instead of creating inhibitors, it might be possible to activate CatSper with temperature thus, prematurely switching on this channel to drain the sperm of energy, so that by the time the sperm cell is ready to do its job and enter the egg cell, it is powerless,” said Lishko.



If successful, this method could prevent fertilization without affecting the rest of the body. It may also help men struggling with infertility by ensuring proper sperm activation.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ovarian-changes-reduce-fertility">Ovarian changes reduce fertility </h2>



While sperm need temperature to activate, the female reproductive system faces a different aging problem. 



The researchers examined 62 human ovaries from donors aged 20 to 77. Using advanced gene-mapping tools, they found that different ovarian regions age at different rates.



The ovarian cortex, which houses immature eggs, showed signs of decline after age 40. The follicular niche - the support system for eggs - starts breaking down. In the medulla, immune activity ramps up by age 30. These changes reduce fertility well before menopause.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-egg-support-in-aging-ovaries">Egg support in aging ovaries</h2>



Granulosa and stromal cells showed the most dramatic aging. Fibroblasts, the builders of connective tissue, multiply in aging ovaries. They deposit fibrotic proteins that stiffen the ovarian tissue.



One key factor behind this fibrosis is reduced TGF-beta signaling. This pathway helps regulate repair and inflammation. Its loss leads to unchecked buildup of scar-like tissue in the ovarian cortex.



Over time, this damages the egg’s environment, even if some eggs remain. Fertility fades not just because of egg loss, but because the surrounding support system collapses.



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



These studies together offer a broader view of fertility. In men, it’s about activation - timing sperm behavior using heat. In women, it’s about preservation - protecting the ovarian environment from early decline.



New therapies might target these weak points. In men, premature CatSper activation could offer safe birth control. In women, boosting TGF-beta or controlling fibrosis might preserve fertility longer.



Understanding both perspectives - activation and aging - could help design next-generation fertility treatments that support both partners in reproduction.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-58824-0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Communications</a>.



-----



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Sperm have a heat-activated switch that may be key to fertility

Mammalian sperm are unusually picky. They prefer cooler environments, thriving below normal body temperature. Yet, they must navigate the female reproductive tract, which is warmer. So how do they survive and succeed? New research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis explains how. Sperm use the temperature difference as a signal. When they enter the warmer female reproductive tract, they switch behavior. They move from calm, forward swimming to a vigorous, whip-like thrash. This change helps them pierce the egg for fertilization. This discovery sheds...

Wood mulch can help in climate change fight. In addition to looking nice, covering soil with wood mulch can actually help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, UBC research shows.

In a recent study undertaken in <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=kelowna&amp;form=EDGEAR&amp;qs=PF&amp;cvid=ece0444d0c1b40a8a542a3af8da874a4&amp;cc=US&amp;setlang=en-US&amp;elv=AXK1c4IvZoNqPoPnS%21QRLOOncircQbKhy8wgeiACO*7%21vkfITAMUrJrwvmHmp56N63c5RnU1LjgRKa0HJruF36eJnts9WRezWxRuBPVQgAqT&amp;plvar=0&amp;PC=HCTS">Kelowna</a>-area apple orchards and vineyards, UBC researchers discovered that using mulch in agriculture can cut nitrous oxide emissions up to 28 per cent.

"In addition to saving water, improving soil, combatting pests and stopping weeds, wood mulch actually reduces the release of a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide," says Craig Nichol, senior instructor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at UBC's Okanagan campus. "Provided you are not driving great distances to obtain the mulch, it would appear that mulch could be a powerful tool in helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, particularly if used in these agricultural systems."Wood mulch can help in climate change fight

Nichol's research was part of a two-year study in which small emissions-recording chambers were placed on top of bare soil as well as soil covered by mulch.

In addition to reduced levels of nitrous oxide emissions, mulched areas also showed a 74 per cent reduction in soil nitrates. The nitrates are the source material for nitrous oxide emissions and can also leach into groundwater.

According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, nitrous oxide emitted from soil accounts for one half of agriculture emissions that contribute to global warming. Emission levels are often higher in agricultural soil due to the use fertilizers and manure.

Nichol's research was part of a larger study with fellow UBC researchers Melanie Jones and Louise Nelson. The study was recently published in the journal Agricultural Water Management.

Wood mulch can help in climate change fight

Wood mulch can help in climate change fight. In addition...

Huge ancient river basin explains location of Jakobshavn Isbræ glacier. An ancient basin hidden beneath the Greenland ice sheet, discovered by researchers at the University of Bristol, may help explain the location, size and velocity of Jakobshavn Isbræ, Greenland's fastest flowing outlet glacier.

The research also provides an insight into what past river drainage looked like in Greenland, and what it could look like in the future as the ice sheet retreats.

Michael Cooper and colleagues from Bristol's School of Geographical Sciences and Cabot Institute, and Imperial College London, studied the bedrock in Greenland using data collected mainly by<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA"> NASA</a> (through Operation Ice Bridge), as well as various researchers from the UK and Germany, over several decades. This data is collected by aircraft using ice penetrating radar, which bounces back off the bedrock underneath the ice (as ice is mostly transparent to radio waves at certain frequencies).

Mr Cooper said: "The drainage basin we discovered shows signs of being carved by ancient rivers, prior to the extensive glaciation of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/greenland-and-antarctica-are-losing-318-gigatons-of-ice-each-year/">Greenland</a> (i.e. before the Greenland Ice Sheet existed), rather than being carved by the movement of ice itself. It has been remarkably well preserved - and has not been eroded away by successive glaciations. The channel network has never been seen before by humans - it was last uncovered around 3.8 million years ago."Huge ancient river basin explains location of Jakobshavn Isbræ glacier

The size of the drainage basin the team discovered is very large, at around 450,000 km2, and accounts for about 20 per cent of the total land area of Greenland (including islands).

This is comparable to the size of the Ohio River drainage basin, which is the largest tributary of the Mississippi. The channels the team mapped could more appropriately be called 'canyons,' with relative depths of around 1,400 metres in places, and nearly 12km wide, all hidden underneath the ice.

As well as being an interesting discovery of great size, the channel network and basin was instrumental in influencing the flow of ice from the deep interior to the margin, both now and over several glacial cycles, as well as influencing the location and speed of the Jakobshavn ice stream.

###

Paper: 'Palaeofluvial landscape inheritance for Jakobshavn Isbrae catchment, Greenland' by M. A. Cooper, K. Michaelides, M. J. Siegert and J. L. Bamber in Geophysical Research Letters

Huge ancient river basin explains location of Jakobshavn Isbræ glacier

Huge ancient river basin explains location of Jakobshavn Isbræ glacier....

<div class="img-wrapper"></div>
Geohazard: Giant sinkholes near oil patches. Residents of Wink and neighboring Kermit have grown accustomed to the two giant sinkholes that sit between their small West Texas towns.

But now radar images taken of the sinkholes by an orbiting space satellite reveal big changes may be on the horizon.

A new study by geophysicists at Southern Methodist University, <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/keto-diet-anti-cancer/">Dallas</a>, finds the massive sinkholes are unstable, with the ground around them subsiding, suggesting the holes could pose a bigger <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazard">hazard</a> sometime in the future. Geohazard: Giant sinkholes near oil patches

The two sinkholes -- about a mile apart -- appear to be expanding. Additionally, areas around the existing sinkholes are unstable, with large areas of subsidence detected via satellite radar remote sensing. That leaves the possibility that new sinkholes, or one giant sinkhole, may form, said geophysicists and study co-authors Zhong Lu, professor, Shuler-Foscue Chair, and Jin-Woo Kim, a research scientist, in the Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences at SMU.

"This area is heavily populated with oil and gas production equipment and installations, hazardous liquid pipelines, as well as two communities. The intrusion of freshwater to underground can dissolve the interbedded salt layers and accelerate the sinkhole collapse," said Kim, who leads the SMU geophysical team reporting the findings. "A collapse could be catastrophic. Following our study, we are collecting more high-resolution satellite data over the sinkholes and neighboring regions to monitor further development and collapse."

Lu and Kim reported the findings in the scientific journal Remote Sensing, in the article "Ongoing deformation of sinkholes in Wink, Texas, observed by time-series Sentinel-1A SAR Interferometry."

The research was supported by the U.S. Geological Survey Land Remote Sensing Program, the NASA Earth Surface &amp; Interior Program, and the Shuler-Foscue Endowment at Southern Methodist University.

Unstable ground linked to rising, falling groundwater

The sinkholes were originally caused by the area's prolific oil and gas extraction, which peaked from 1926 to 1964. Wink Sink No. 1, near the Hendricks oil well 10-A, opened in 1980. Wink Sink No. 2, near Gulf WS-8 supply well, opened 22 years later in 2002.

It appears the area's unstable ground now is linked to changing groundwater levels and dissolving minerals, say the scientists. A deep-seated salt bed underlies the area, part of the massive oil-rich Permian Basin of West Texas and southeastern New Mexico.

With the new data, the SMU geophysicists found a high correlation between groundwater level in the underlying Ogallala Aquifer and further sinking of the surface area during the summer months, influenced by successive roof failures in underlying cavities.

Satellite images and groundwater records indicate that when groundwater levels rise, the ground lifts. But the presence of that same groundwater then speeds the dissolving of the underground salt, which then causes the ground surface to subside.

Everything's bigger in Texas, and the Wink sinkholes are no exception

Officials have fenced off the two sinkholes near Wink, a town of about 940 people, and Kermit, a town of about 6,000 people. The giant holes are notable features on the area's vast plains, which are dotted mostly with oil pump jacks, storage facilities, occasional brush and mesquite trees.

Based on modeling of satellite image datasets, SMU's researchers report that Wink Sink No. 1, which is closer to the town of Kermit, appears to be the most unstable. The smaller hole of the two, it has grown to 361 feet (110 meters) across -- the length of a football field.

"Even though Wink No. 1 collapsed in 1980, its neighboring areas are still subsiding," say the authors, "and the sinkhole continues to expand." An oval-shaped deformation circling the sinkhole measures three-tenths of a mile (500 meters) wide and is subsiding up to 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) a year.

Wink Sink No. 2, which is nine-tenths of a mile south of No. 1 and which sits closer to the town of Wink, is the larger of the sinkholes. It varies from 670 feet to 900 feet across.

Wink No. 2 is not experiencing as much subsidence as Wink No. 1. However, its eastern side is collapsing and eroding westward at a rate of up to 1.2 inches (3 centimeters) a year.

"Wink No. 2 exhibits depression associated with the ongoing expansion of the underground cavity," the authors report.

Some ground that doesn't even border the edges of the two sinkholes is also subsiding, the scientists observed. An area more than half a mile (1 kilometer) northeast of No. 2 sank at a rate of 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) in just four months.

Ground northeast of sinkholes is subsiding, suggesting new ones forming

The largest rate of ground subsidence is not at either sinkhole, but at an area about seven-tenths of a mile (1.2 kilometers) northeast of No. 2. Ground there is subsiding at a rate of more than 5 inches (13 centimeters) a year.

It's aerial extent, the researchers report, has also enlarged over the past eight years when a previous survey was done.

"The enlarged deformation could be an alarming precursor to the potential future development of hazards in the vicinity," said the authors.

Additionally, ground along a road traveled by oil field vehicles, about a quarter mile (400 meters) directly north of No. 2, is subsiding about 1.2 inches (3 centimeters) a year.

Ground's movement detected with radar technique

The satellite radar datasets were collected over five months between April 2015 and August 2015. With them, the geophysicists observed both two-dimension east-west deformation of the sinkholes, as well as vertical deformation.

The SMU scientists used a technique called interferometric synthetic aperture radar, or InSAR for short, to detect changes that aren't visible to the naked eye.

"From 435 miles above the Earth's surface, this InSAR technique allows us to measure inch-level subsidence on the ground. This is a monumental human achievement, and scientists will not stop endeavoring to improve this technique for more precise measurements," said Lu, who is world-renowned for leading scientists in InSAR applications. Lu is a member of the Science Definition Team for the dedicated U.S. and Indian NASA-ISRO InSAR mission, set for launch in 2020 to study hazards and global environmental change.

InSAR accesses a series of images captured by a read-out radar instrument mounted on the orbiting satellite Sentinel-1A. Sentinel-1A was launched in April 2014 as part of the European Union's Copernicus program.

Simply put, Sentinel-1A bounces a radar signal off the earth, then records the signal as it bounces back, delivering measurements. The measurements allow geophysicists to determine the distance from the satellite to the ground, revealing how features on the Earth's surface change over time.

"Sinkhole formation has previously been unpredictable, but satellite remote sensing provides a great means to detect the expansion of the current sinkholes and possible development of new sinkholes," said Kim. "Monitoring the sinkholes and modeling the rate of change can help predict potential sinkhole development."

Sentinel-1A data were obtained from Sentinels Scientific Data Hub - Copernicus. Groundwater well data came from the Texas Water Development Board.

Geohazard: Giant sinkholes near oil patches

Geohazard: Giant sinkholes near oil patches. Residents of Wink and...

Scientists: Ban Arctic offshore drilling. Nearly 400 scientists have signed a letter urging President Obama to eliminate the possibility of Arctic offshore drilling in the near future by taking the Arctic Ocean out of the next federal offshore lease sale plan.

The scientists include Jane Lubchenco, Obama's former administrator of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, now a researcher and teacher at <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/unequal-treatment-protestors/">Oregon</a> State University.

"I've witnessed some of the unprecedented changes underway in the Arctic" Lubchenco said in a prepared statement. "Conserving important marine areas is an essential step in sustaining the region's resilience." Scientists: Ban Arctic offshore drilling

The 388 signees include scientists from 13 countries and 25 current or emeritus professors at the University of Alaska. Their opinion runs counter to Alaska elected officials, who strongly support opening Alaska waters to drilling as a new source of oil for the trans-Alaska pipeline.

The Interior Department is collecting public comment through Thursday on the proposed 5-year oil and gas leasing program, which would cover 2017 to 2022.

Environmental groups strongly oppose Arctic drilling. They say industrial activity will harm marine mammals already hurt by a loss of sea ice and that global warming will be accelerated by burning oil found in the Arctic Ocean.

Two sales in Arctic waters are in the plan: the Beaufort Sea, off Alaska's north shore, in 2020, and the Chukchi Sea, off the northwest coast, in 2022.

The letter was released by Pew Charitable Trusts. Pew's Arctic science director, Henry Huntington, said the Obama administration has been clear that it wants decisions to be science-based. The letter is a chance for scientists to weigh in on decisions in the Arctic, a region that's rapidly changing.

"It's hard to know what's coming next, so caution is a good idea," he said.

The White House and the Interior Department, said Gov. Bill Walker in an email message Tuesday, will be subjected to incredible pressure to make the lease sales so restrictive that it makes little sense for companies or the state to participate.

"We can protect the ocean and develop," Walker said. "The whaling captains we have talked with tell us it is important to move forward with development. Their communities depend on it. They also believe they can balance development with their subsistence way of life."

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell in October canceled Beaufort and Chukchi lease sales in the current five-year plan She cited market conditions and low industry interest.

Her decision followed a Sept. 28 announcement by Royal Dutch Shell PLC, the only company in the last decade to drill in federal waters, that it would cease exploration in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas after spending upward of $7 billion. The company cited disappointing results from a well drilled in the Chukchi and the unpredictable federal regulatory environment.

Alaska's all-Republican congressional delegation, Rep. Don Young and Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, last month urged Jewell to retain future Arctic lease sales.

The Chukchi and the Beaufort hold an estimated 23.6 billion barrels of conventionally recoverable oil - enough to meet all of California's demands for oil for 37.5 years, they said.

Drilling was proven safe though dozens of wells in the 1980s and '90s, they wrote.

"We must warn against any attempt to use past lease sale cancellations and the chaotic regulatory regime that Interior has imposed as evidence of a 'lack of industry interest' in offshore Alaska," they said.

© 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Scientists: Ban Arctic offshore drilling

Scientists: Ban Arctic offshore drilling. Nearly 400 scientists have signed...

France ratifies Paris Agreement on climate change. France's President Francois Hollande has ratified the Paris Agreement, a deal on curbing global warming reached last year by 195 countries.
France on Wednesday became the second European country to ratify, after Hungary, and the first the Group of Seven advanced economies. The ratification was formally authorized by the<a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=swedish&amp;form=EDGEAR&amp;qs=PF&amp;cvid=f31dac1bec5e471f94a2d890e68ba5f2&amp;cc=US&amp;setlang=en-US&amp;elv=AY3%21uAY7tbNNZGZ2yiGNjfOabOUBoozd5xZV3aGO2sgHE6iItIHR1S9o8hmxaL4qnFdskP6ThXWHohyvVGpgJGiFGaXRxmlEbM45kaYukkeO&amp;plvar=0&amp;PC=HCTS"> French</a> parliament last week. France ratifies Paris Agreement on climate change
The Paris agreement aims to keep the global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with preindustrial times. It enters into force once 55 countries representing at least 55 percent of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/increasing-air-pollution-affects-half-of-the-global-population/">global</a> emissions have joined it.
China, the world's top carbon emitter, said it intends to ratify the agreement before the G-20 summit in China in September. The United States, the second-largest emitter, also announced its intention to ratify this year. Therefore the carbon has caused a lot of health issues for the community. Also the climate change has been a huge change for the whole world causing many things to be different. Such as the changing of temps and for the agriculture business.
© 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about ourPrivacy Policy and Terms of Use.

France ratifies Paris Agreement on climate change

France ratifies Paris Agreement on climate change. France's President Francois...

Saildrones are studying climate change on the seas. Researchers in the Bering Sea are using autonomous sailing vessels, powered by the sun and wind, to collect data on ocean conditions, fish and marine mammals in a rapidly changing, biologically rich area.

AT THE END of May, two 6m (20ft)-tall orange autonomous sailing vessels, each with a vertical carbon-fiber wing, were set loose in the Bering Sea from a dock in Dutch Harbor, <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=alaska&amp;cvid=9fa8e026c54246b1aae21599995796ce&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Alaska.</a> Each of the vehicles had been programmed with a single instruction: to sail hundreds of kilometers into the southeastern Bering Sea to a bright yellow, donut-shaped buoy named “Peggy.” Saildrones are studying climate change on the seas

By June 3, 11 days into the trip, the pair of Saildrones, as they’re called, had traveled more than 200 nautical miles through cold and choppy seas. En route, Saildrone 128 snapped pictures, including one of its companion Saildrone 126 floating on the dark blue water, one of a purple sky and one of a crooked sunset. They had also collected hundreds of thousands of data points, sampling the water and the air, and listening for sea life.Saildrones are studying climate change on the seas

The solar- and wind-powered vehicles, built by a California company, are part of an ocean research program that aims to expand researchers’ understanding of the physics, chemistry and biology of the Bering Sea, and how it is changing. “They can provide a new platform that scientists can use to remotely study the oceans in ways that were not possible before,” said Chris Sabine, director of the National <a href="https://www.earth.com/endangered-species/megalagrion-oceanicum/">Oceanic</a> and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Marine Environmental Lab (PMEL), at a press conference.

The Bering Sea is a wide wedge of ocean, sandwiched between Alaska and Russia, and bounded to the south by the sweeping arc of the Aleutian Islands. It holds some of the world’s most biologically productive waters, abundant in food for the ribbon seals, gray whales and tufted puffins that feast there in the spring. It also produces almost half of the fish and shellfish caught in the U.S. Salmon, king crab and the biggest catch of all, Alaska pollock, pull in more than $1 billion a year.

But the Bering Sea is showing strong signs of climate change. The sea ice doesn’t reach as far south as it once did and the seasonal melt is starting earlier in the spring. The sea is also becoming more acidic. Cold water is especially good at absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, nudged along by glacier melt and river runoff.

“The Bering Sea is very sensitive to climate change, and how its ecosystem responds to the reduction of sea ice is an important question that we are investigating,” said Phyllis Stabeno, a physical oceanographer at PMEL in Seattle, Washington.

Each Saildrone carries a payload of sensors that measure wind speed, air temperature and humidity, ocean surface temperature, water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and fluorescence (an estimate of how much phytoplankton is in the water). They also hold acoustic fish finders to look for pollock and passive acoustic monitors that listen for the distinctive shotgun pop and up-call vocalizations of the endangered North Pacific right whale. Each vessel records up to 86,400 measurements a day – almost one every second. Some are transmitted through a satellite link to researchers, others are archived to an onboard hard drive for later retrieval.

The Saildrones appeal to researchers because they can cover large areas and collect near real-time oceanographic data in a more cost-effective way. The alternative – the way most research on the area has been done up until now – is to spend days at a time on a ship, such as the 63m (208ft)-long Oscar Dyson, a research vessel operated by NOAA.

But ship time is costly. Research onboard the Dyson runs at $20,000–25,000 per day, compared to the $1,000–2,000 per day it costs to operate a Saildrone. “These aren’t going to replace ships, but they’re going to supplement and be a strong partner in the program,” said Doug DeMaster, science director of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center.

Studying the North Pacific whale is a good example of how the drones can complement ship-based research, said DeMaster. Although they once numbered in the tens of thousands, the whales were nearly hunted to extinction.

“They were knocked down to less than 100 animals in the eastern North Pacific, and there are probably now fewer than 50,” said DeMaster. Trying to find them in the eastern half of the sea – an area larger than the state of California – from a cruising ship is “very inefficient,” he said. “At this point we don’t even know what neighborhood they’re in.” If a Saildrone hears one, it will give researchers some clues about where these elusive whales might be found on the next research cruise.

The passive acoustic monitors on board the Saildrones will record marine mammal sounds throughout the mission, said Jessica Crance, a marine mammal biologist with the Alaska Fisheries Science Center. “By integrating the Saildrone into our research, we can cover a large area that we have not been able to cover in over a decade,” she said.

As the air and water sensors collect environmental data, the Saildrone will also use an active acoustic pinger – a fish finder – to gather information about pollock. In addition to being important to commercial fishermen, pollock are the primary food for northern fur seals, a species whose 30-year decline is poorly understood.

The Saildrones will steer back to Dutch Harbor and be picked up in September, after logging thousands of kilometers through the Bering Sea. Despite the harsh weather conditions – 80-knot winds, 12m (40ft) seas and near-freezing temperatures – they’re expected to do well. Last year, the same Saildrone pair spent three months touring the Bering Sea. “It’s a pretty brutal environment,” said DeMaster. “But so far, the technology has kept up.”

---

Arctic Deeply

Saildrones are studying climate change on the seas

Saildrones are studying climate change on the seas. Researchers in...

John Kerry tours the Arctic circle to view climate change impact. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday visited Norway's extreme north in the Arctic circle, viewing areas where climate change has melted ice and opened new sea lanes.

Trailed by staff and journalists in small Zodiac-type inflatable boats, Kerry and Norway's foreign minister motored in an <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=arctic&amp;cvid=ab16238a753e43c189238bef5e4700e7&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Arctic</a> scientific vessel from a research station in Ny-Alesund, the world's northernmost civilian settlement. The short cruise took Kerry and his delegation across the iceberg strewn Kongsifjorden (King's Bay Fjord), where puffins and other Arctic birds skirted the waters, to the Blomstrand Glacier. John Kerry tours the Arctic circle to view climate change impact

The glacier has receded significantly in the past 25 years to 30 years, with summer temperatures that can now be 8 degrees and 11 degrees higher than they once were, according to Jan-Gunnar Winther, the director of the Norwegian Polar Institute, who guided Kerry and Foreign Minister Borge Brende.

"It's stunning," Kerry told reporters from aboard the vessel as it idled in front of the massive ice wall. "This is the center of change within the center of change."

As America's top diplomat, Kerry has made the health of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-worlds-oceans-have-become-less-resilient-to-climate-change/">oceans</a> and combating the effects of climate change a priority, and he will host an international conference on oceans in September, the third such event he has organized since taking office in 2013.

"We're not on the pace we need to be" to reverse the effects of climate change, Kerry said. He called for renewed efforts to move away from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy.

"Even where there is awareness, the steps that people are taking are not big enough fast enough," Kerry said. "So, we have a huge distance to travel."

Kerry was a champion of the global change agreement reached in December in Paris that seeks to hold the temperature change to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), although he said ideally the world would agree to less than 2 degrees.

"If we move more rapidly to the various other clean energies that already exist, we hope to be able to meet what we need to preserve a level of temperature increase that's supportable, survivable," he said. "We'll get there hopefully."

After the visit to Norway's portion of the Arctic Circle, Kerry planned to see icecaps in Greenland after a stop in Copenhagen. Both trips were intended to highlight his concern about climate change and oceans ahead of the September conference.

The ice-loss-driven opening of the Arctic Ocean has led to competition among several nations for its resources and access to newly available sea lanes for commercial maritime trade. U.S. officials say both Russia and China are preparing to exploit those possibilities and that the United States should take note.

On his brief visit to the glacier, Kerry did not address those issues and seemed more impressed by the beauty of the bluish ice.

"It's stunning," Kerry said. "The power of nature and the importance of our respecting it."

He then pulled out a smartphone to take pictures of the Blomstrand Glacier as his boat turned to head back to the research station.

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John Kerry tours the Arctic circle to view climate change impact

John Kerry tours the Arctic circle to view climate change...

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Tropical seas once surrounded Britain A team from the University of Bristol has shed new light on the creatures that inhabited the tropical seas surrounding Britain at the start of the age of the dinosaurs.

Some 210 million years ago, Britain consisted of many islands, surrounded by warm seas. Europe at the time lay farther south, at latitudes equivalent to North <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=africa&amp;cvid=b65171dde68e461c83ec7c05c4ff2e32&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Africa</a> today. Much of Europe was hot desert, and at this point was flooded by a great sea - the Rhaetian Transgression.

Published in Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, the Bristol team's work is the most extensive study yet, based on more than 26,000 identified fossils, of the Rhaetian shallow sea sharks, bony fishes, marine reptiles, and other creatures. Unusually, five members of the team were undergraduates when they did the work, and this was part of a series of summer internships.

The team was led by Ellen Mears, now a postgraduate at the University of Edinburgh, and Valentina Rossi, now a postgraduate at the University of Cork.

Ellen Mears said: "I studied the shark and fish teeth, and found remains of at least seven species of sharks and four of bony fishes. The sharks were all predators, but some were quite small. The bony fishes were unusual because many of them were shell crushers."

Valentina Rossi, who worked on the reptile remains, added: "We found teeth and bones of ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs, the classic great sea dragons of the Triassic and Jurassic, as well as some other reptiles, including a tooth possibly from a dinosaur - but it was heavily worn."

Professor Michael Benton, who supervised the students' work over the summers of 2014 and 2015, explained: "The students came to the project with no prior knowledge, but each one took on the task of identifying and documenting their group of fossils. They had to look at thousands of specimens and assign them to species, and then each contribute their part of the paper to proper professional standards. This is the eighth paper published from this internship scheme."

The new work has emphasized the complexity of major global changes, like this remarkable rise in sea level ten million years ago. It has been documented from dozens of localities in England, but also from central Europe. Careful measurement of the rock sections, and documentation of the fossils bed-by-bed allow us to reconstruct the to-and-fro of major animal groups over a few million years.

The fossils even include dozens of examples of coprolites, pellets of dung, hat were deposited by the various fishes and reptiles - some of these even contain bones and scales of fishes, and one even shows small bones of a marine reptile - clear evidence of who was eating whom in those ancient seas.
###
Paper:

'The Rhaetian (Late Triassic) vertebrates of Hampstead Farm Quarry, Gloucestershire, UK' by Ellen Mears, Valentina Rossi, Ellen MacDonald, Gareth Coleman, Tom Davies, Caterina Arias-Riesgo, Claudia Hildebrandt, Helen Thiel, Christopher J. Duffin, David I. Whiteside, and Michael J. Benton in Proceedings of the Geologists' Association

</div>

Tropical seas once surrounded Britain

Tropical seas once surrounded Britain A team from the University...

Hawaii continues fight to outlaw genetically engineered crops. The fight over regulating genetically engineered crops in three Hawaii counties was back in a federal courtroom as some agricultural giants look to protect their farms from bans against modified food.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in Honolulu Wednesday on ordinances that seek to regulate or outlaw genetically engineered crops in Hawaii, Kauai and <a href="https://www.earth.com/image/puu-kukui-on-the-hawaiian-island-of-maui/">Maui</a> counties.
Agrichemical companies and trade associations sued each county, and federal court rulings sided with the businesses. The counties and interested environmental groups want the 9th Circuit to overturn the decisions.
There is scant scientific evidence to prove that foods grown from engineered seeds are less safe than their conventional counterparts. But in the islands, some are still concerned, especially about the use of pesticides. Hawaii continues fight to outlaw genetically engineered crops
Lawyers representing the counties argued that state laws do not specifically address genetically engineered crops relevant to the proposed regulations. The counties, which have policing powers to protect their residents, assert that they have the right and obligation to regulate the industry.
They also argued that the Hawaii Supreme Court should have taken up the issue as there is no written opinion specifically on genetically engineered crops in the state.
"This matter should have been turned over via certified question to the Hawaii Supreme Court because it's an important issue for the entire state of Hawaii," said David Minkin, representing the county of Kauai at the hearing.
The state Department of Agriculture regulates harmful plants in Hawaii, however, and attorneys representing the agrichemical companies said the state could and would specifically regulate genetically engineered plants if they felt it was warranted. The department has not said genetically engineered crops are harmful.
"The issue in this case isn't whether pesticides or GE plants should be regulated or what those regulations should be. The only question here is who does the regulating. Under current Hawaii law, the answer is clear," said Chris Landau, representing the companies in the Kauai and Big Island cases. "The state has comprehensive schemes in place."
While the state gives counties some power to regulate issues on a local level, those ordinances cannot conflict with state laws.
In Kauai, the county wants to require the companies to report exactly where and what they are growing and seeks to ban the use of pesticides. The companies argue that the reporting process itself is a form of regulation, and the farms would risk both vandalism and espionage if that reporting were required.
Alika Atay, 62, who is a certified natural Hawaiian farmer who has lived on Maui his entire life, said his major concern is the heavy usage of pesticides.
"In a very short period of time these people have come to our island and they have poisoned our island, "Atay said.
"They are killing the Hawaiian people... if they kill us - or kill our land, kill our water - where do we have to go? This is our home. We must protect our home,"Atay said.
Companies that develop new types crops are drawn to Hawaii's warm weather, which allows them to grow more generations of crops and accelerate their development of new varieties.
Monsanto and Dow Chemical have research farms in Maui County.
U.S. District Chief Judge Susan Oki Mollway ruled last June that federal and state law pre-empts that county's ban on cultivating genetically engineered crops, making it invalid. She stressed then that her order addressed only the question of county authority.
Two years ago, Kauai and Hawaii counties adopted measures regulating GMO crops and pesticides. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Kurren struck them down, saying state law superseded them.
---
Follow Caleb Jones on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/CalebAP.">https://twitter.com/CalebAP.</a> Find more of his work at <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/caleb-jones.">http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/caleb-jones.</a>
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Hawaii continues fight to outlaw genetically engineered crops

Hawaii continues fight to outlaw genetically engineered crops. The fight...

South Pole passes global warming milestone. The Earth passed another unfortunate global warming milestone May 23 when carbon dioxide surpassed 400 parts per million (ppm) at the <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/south-pole/">South Pole</a> for the first time in 4 million years.

The South Pole has shown the same, relentless upward trend in carbon dioxide (CO2) as the rest of world, but its remote location means it’s the last to register the impacts of increasing emissions from fossil fuel consumption, the primary driver of greenhouse gas pollution.

“The far southern hemisphere was the last place on earth where CO2 had not yet reached this mark,” said Pieter Tans, the lead scientist of NOAA's Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network. “Global CO2 levels will not return to values below 400 ppm in our lifetimes, and almost certainly for much longer.”

Over the course of the year, CO2 levels rise during fall and winter and decline during the Northern Hemisphere’s summer as terrestrial plants consume CO2 during photosynthesis. But plants capture only a fraction of annual CO2 emissions, so for every year since observations began in 1958, there has been more CO2 in the atmosphere than the year before.

Last year’s global CO2 average reached 399 ppm, meaning that the global average in 2016 will almost certainly surpass 400 ppm. The only question is whether the lowest month for 2016 will also remain above 400.

Upward trend continues

And the annual rate of increase appears to be accelerating. The annual growth rate of atmospheric CO2 measured at NOAA’s Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii jumped 3.05 ppm during 2015, the largest year-to-year increase in 56 years of monitoring. Part of last year’s jump was attributable to El Nino, the cyclical Pacific Ocean warming that produces extreme weather across the globe, causing terrestrial ecosystems to lose stored CO2 through wildfire, drought and heat waves.

Last year was the fourth consecutive year that CO2 grew more than 2 ppm – which set another record. This year promises to be the fifth.

“We know from abundant and solid evidence that the CO2 increase is caused entirely by human activities,” Tans said. “Since emissions from fossil fuel burning have been at a record high during the last several years, the rate of CO2 increase has also been at a record high. And we know some of it will remain in the atmosphere for thousands of years.”

---

<a href="http://www.noaa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NOAA</a>

South Pole passes global warming milestone

South Pole passes global warming milestone. The Earth passed another...

Bark beetle epidemic is killing California forests. Bark beetle epidemic is killing California forests. California's drought and a bark beetle epidemic have caused the largest die-off of Sierra Nevada forests in modern history, raising fears that trees could come crashing down on people or fuel deadly wildfires that could wipe out mountain communities.
Aerial images show vast forests that have turned a rust-color. The epidemic has killed an estimated 40 million trees since 2010 in the central and southern Sierra, and it's spreading north.
Officials who are cutting down and stacking the most dangerous trees in piles across six counties, however, say they are stumped by how to get rid of them all.
One solution is to fire up a fleet of 10 large, mechanized incinerators the state recently purchased. Promoters say they burn so hot that they spew little if any smoke, making them environmentally friendly.
Environmentalists contend the burners undercut an emergency order by Gov. Jerry Brown - considered a global leader in the fight against climate change - who called for sending the trees to biomass plants and converting them into energy.
Chief Ken Pimlott, who manages the state's response to the die-off as director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, defended the air burners as one of many tools.
He acknowledged the burners will contribute to air pollution, as with any work in the forest, but much less than a large wildfire, which the air burners may prevent by removing dead trees.
"We could have a catastrophic wildfire in any of these communities," he said, adding that sending trees to electricity-generating plants remains a priority. "We have to be aggressive in terms of protecting life and property."
Called air-curtain burners, the 20-foot long, steel containers blast a sheet of air over the open top, disposing of up to eight trees an hour. The state bought them for roughly $1 million, part of a $5 million investment in equipment to meet the epidemic.
A lack of visible smoke, however, doesn't mean the air burners are clean, said Chad Hanson, a forest ecologist at Earth Island Institute's John Muir Project. He called them a waste of taxpayer money and a misguided approach to managing California's forests.
"You're still pumping a lot of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere," Hanson said.
Living trees absorb and store carbon dioxide, a major source of greenhouse gases, which is released again when the wood is burned. Hanson said he favors leaving the trees that need to be cut down on the forest floor to naturally decompose as wildlife habitat.
He urged Brown to withdraw the emergency declaration, fearing that it would increase logging of dead trees that forests need to replenish. Hanson added that dead trees don't fuel more fierce wildfires as commonly believed.
Last year alone 29 million trees died at the height of California's drought now in its fifth year, the U.S. Forest Service reports. Officials say they'll soon release an updated count.
Drought makes trees vulnerable to the insects' attack, officials say.
A beetle epidemic in forests of the Rocky Mountain states was blamed in 2013 for contributing to Colorado's second largest wildfire, forcing entire communities to be evacuated, said Jeff Mai, aerial survey manager for the U.S. Forest Service based in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado">Colorado.</a>
Officials removed some trees throughout the region that threatened people, selling them as lumber products like fence posts. Most were left to decompose naturally. Mai said that in California, bark beetles have killed five times more area of forests than in Colorado.
It's unclear how many trees in the Sierra will be cut down. Officials say the first job is removing those that threaten motorists and mountain communities.
Declaring the emergency on Oct. 30, Brown formed a task force, including representatives of the energy industry and environmentalists, that is charged with carrying out the order, which emphasizes sending the trees to biomass plants that turn agriculture and tree waste into electricity.
That has moved slowly because California's few remaining biomass plants are closing as utility companies turn to cheaper sources of solar and wind.
Another solution to turn the dead trees to lumber has hit obstacles because they quickly deteriorate, and beetles carry a fungus that stains the wood blue, diminishing its value.
Urgency for residents at the heart of the tree epidemic remains high as California enters another potentially explosive wildfire season.
"One big fire in the wrong place will become very big, very fast," said Randy Hanvelt, a Tuolumne County supervisor. "I'm afraid people are going to die."
CalFire plans to start running the air burners around the clock this fall.
An environmental benefit of the air burners is that they eliminate the soot, a major contributor to climate change, said Norbert Fuhrmann, vice president of Air Burners, Inc., the device's Florida-based manufacturer.
Jim McDougald, a CalFire division chief in Fresno County overseeing the burners, said he prefers turning the trees into energy, lumber or opening undiscovered markets to give them value.
But the air burners are one means for the state to get rid of trees in the massive die-off that's changing the Sierra's landscape for years to come, he said.
"This is bad," said McDougald, standing at a lookout point south of Yosemite, where a few patches of dead trees two years now dominate the vista. "It'll never come back - not in our lifetime."
© 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Bark beetle epidemic is killing California forests

Bark beetle epidemic is killing California forests. Bark beetle epidemic...

Scientists are battling to save the world's coral reefs. After the most powerful <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Niño">El Nino</a> on record heated the world's oceans to never-before-seen levels, huge swaths of once vibrant coral reefs that were teeming with life are now stark white ghost towns disintegrating into the sea.
And the world's top marine scientists are still struggling in the face of global warming and decades of devastating reef destruction to find the political and financial wherewithal to tackle the loss of these globally important ecosystems.
"What we have to do is to really translate the urgency," said Ruth Gates, president of the International Society for Reef Studies and director of the <a href="http://www.earth.com/image/the-extreme-terrain-of-mauna-loa-in-hawaii/">Hawaii</a> Institute of Marine Biology.
Gates, who helped organize a conference this week for more than 2,000 international reef scientists, policymakers and others, said the scientific community needs to make it clear how "intimately reef health is intertwined with human health."
The International Coral Reef Symposium convenes Monday to try to create a more unified conservation plan for coral reefs. She said researchers have to find a way to implement large scale solutions with the help of governments.
Consecutive years of coral bleaching have led to some of the most widespread mortality of reefs on record, leaving scientists in a race to save them. While bleached coral often recovers, multiple years weakens the organisms and increases the risk of death.
Researchers have achieved some success with projects such as creating coral nurseries and growing forms of "super coral" that can withstand harsher conditions. But much of that science is being done on a very small scale with limited funding.
Bob Richmond, director of the University of Hawaii's Kewalo Marine Laboratory, said the problems are very clear: "overfishing of reef herbivores and top predators, land-based sources of pollution and sedimentation, and the continued and growing impacts of climate change."
While reefs are major contributors to many coastal tourist economies, saving the world's coral isn't just about having pretty places for vacationers to explore. Reefs are integral to the overall ecosystem and are an essential component of everyday human existence.
Reefs not only provide habitat for most ocean fish consumed by humans, but they also shelter land from storm surges and rising sea levels. Coral has even been found to have medicinal properties.
In one project to help save reefs, researchers at the University of Hawaii's Institute of Marine Biology have been taking samples from corals that have shown tolerance for harsher conditions in Oahu's Kaneohe Bay and breeding them with other strong strains in slightly warmer than normal conditions to create a super coral.
The idea is to make the corals more resilient by training them to adapt to tougher conditions before transplanting them into the ocean.
Another program run by the state of Hawaii has created seed banks and a fast-growing coral nursery for expediting coral restoration projects.
Most of Hawaii's species of coral are unlike other corals around the world in that they grow very slowly, which makes reef rebuilding in the state difficult. So officials came up with a plan to grow large chunks of coral in a fraction of the time it would normally take.
Coral reefs have almost always been studied up close, by scientists in the water looking at small portions of reefs.
But NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is taking a wider view, from about 23,000 feet above. NASA and other scientists recently launched a three-year campaign to gather new data on coral reefs worldwide. They are using specially designed imaging instruments attached to aircraft.
"The idea is to get a new perspective on coral reefs from above, to study them at a larger scale than we have been able to before, and then relate reef condition to the environment," said Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences' Eric Hochberg, principal investigator for the project.
If the scientific community and the world's governments can't come together to address coral's decline, one of earth's most critical habitats could soon be gone, leaving humans to deal with the unforeseen consequences.
"What happens if we don't take care of our reefs?" asked Gates. "It's dire."
---
Follow Caleb Jones on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/CalebAP">https://twitter.com/CalebAP</a> Find more of his work at <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/caleb-jones">http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/caleb-jones</a>
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Scientists are battling to save the world's coral reefs

Scientists are battling to save the world's coral reefs. After...

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

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

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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...

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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



---



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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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



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How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

[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



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The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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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



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How the immune system responds to injury

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

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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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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Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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

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