NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has never been shy around cameras. From iconic selfies to being spotted from space, its activities have been well-documented over the years.



But something new happened on February 28, the 4,466th Martian day - or sol - of its mission. Curiosity was caught mid-drive, possibly for the first time, by one of NASA’s Mars orbiters.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-rare-glimpse-of-curiosity">A rare glimpse of Curiosity </h2>



The <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-orbiter-spots-curiosity-rover-making-tracks-to-next-science-stop/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">image</a> was taken by the HiRISE (High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera, which is aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.



Scientists at the <a href="https://www.arizona.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Arizona</a> operate this camera, which offers a sharp view of the Martian surface. In the <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-orbiter-spots-curiosity-rover-making-tracks-to-next-science-stop/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">photo</a>, Curiosity appears as a small, dark speck at the front of a long trail of tracks stretched across the Red Planet.



The tracks cover about 1,050 feet (320 meters) and reflect roughly 11 drives that started on February 2, 2025. 



During these moves, Curiosity crawled along at a top speed of just 0.1 mph (0.16 kph), making its way from the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mars-curiosity-rover-finds-sulfur-crystals-martian-rock-hints-at-possible-life/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gediz Vallis</a> channel toward its next science destination: a region that may hold boxwork formations created by ancient groundwater billions of years ago.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-curiosity-is-still-roaming-mars">Why Curiosity is still roaming Mars</h2>



Curiosity wasn’t just sent to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mars-captured-in-true-color-like-youve-never-seen-the-red-planet-before/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mars</a> to take pretty pictures. Its mission, which began with a dramatic landing in 2012, is all about asking a big question: Was Mars ever able to support small forms of life? 



To answer that, the rover has been exploring the ancient environments of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/gale-crater-reveals-secrets-of-water-on-mars/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gale Crater</a>, drilling into rocks, analyzing soil, and studying the planet’s climate and geology. 



Every discovery Curiosity makes helps build a clearer picture of what Mars was like, billions of years ago. Some of its biggest finds so far include evidence of ancient rivers, lakes, and the chemical ingredients necessary for life.



Even after more than a decade, Curiosity is still hard at work, pushing uphill to study higher and older layers of Martian history.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-closer-look-at-curiosity-s-journey">A closer look at Curiosity’s journey</h2>



Curiosity’s arrival at its next stop isn’t on a set timeline. Several factors can affect its progress, including how its navigation software handles the landscape and how steep the terrain becomes. 



Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California work hand-in-hand with scientists to plan each day’s drive carefully.



“By comparing the time HiRISE took the image to the rover’s commands for the day, we can see it was nearly done with a 69-foot (21-meter) drive,” said Doug Ellison, Curiosity’s planning team chief at JPL.



HiRISE is built for incredible detail. Most of its images are in black and white, with a strip of color down the center to boost spatial resolution. 



Although HiRISE has captured Curiosity in color in the past, this time the rover happened to fall inside the black-and-white section of the image.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tracks-that-tell-a-story">Tracks that tell a story</h2>



In the latest image, Curiosity’s tracks stretch across the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/clues-beneath-mars-surface-reveal-possible-habitats-for-ancient-life/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Martian surface</a> and lead up to the base of a steep slope. 



Since the image was taken, the rover has successfully climbed that slope. If everything goes smoothly, Curiosity is expected to reach its new science site within the next month or so.



The trail it left behind could remain visible for months, unless Martian winds sweep the marks away. 



Every track, every footprint on Mars tells part of the story of a journey that's been unfolding for more than a decade - and is still going strong.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-comes-next-for-mars-exploration">What comes next for Mars exploration</h2>



Curiosity’s journey is just one piece of the bigger picture, a stepping stone in our long-term efforts to explore another world. 



NASA and other space agencies are already planning the next steps to explore Mars even further, using the lessons learned from past and current missions.



Missions like Perseverance are already collecting rock samples that could someday be brought back to Earth for detailed study.



Future plans include launching more helicopters, building complex sample return missions, and even sending <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/astronauts-can-survive-mars-space-journey-but-their-kidneys-will-be-permanently-damaged/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">astronauts</a> to the Red Planet in the 2030s - a goal that once seemed like pure science fiction.



Each discovery Curiosity makes helps shape and inspire these future missions. It reminds us that even the slow, careful drive of a lone rover can lay the groundwork for humanity’s bigger dreams beyond Earth.



Information for this article came from a <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-orbiter-spots-curiosity-rover-making-tracks-to-next-science-stop/">press release</a> by NASA's JPL.



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Curiosity rover captured in action for the first time

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has never been shy around cameras. From iconic selfies to being spotted from space, its activities have been well-documented over the years. But something new happened on February 28, the 4,466th Martian day - or sol - of its mission. Curiosity was caught mid-drive, possibly for the first time, by one of NASA’s Mars orbiters. A rare glimpse of Curiosity The image was taken by the HiRISE (High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera, which is aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Scientists at the University...

Replacing traditional wood and charcoal <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/gas-stoves-create-dangerous-levels-of-indoor-pollution/">stoves</a> could save nearly half a million lives each year in Africa alone, according to a new study from <a href="https://www.kth.se/en">KTH Royal Institute of Technology</a> in Stockholm. The researchers have published an open-source tool known as OnStove that can be used by local policymakers across the region to address a "severe market failure” in delivering clean cooking methods.



"Clean cooking is commonly defined as cooking with fuels and stove combinations that meet the standards set by the World Health Organization’s Guidelines for Indoor Air Quality," wrote the study authors.



"As of 2020, roughly 2.4 billion people worldwide lacked access to clean cooking, relying on polluting fuels instead to meet their daily cooking needs. The lack of clean cooking is especially pronounced in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where only 17% of the population currently use clean solutions."



According to the researchers, the OnStove geospatial tool provides a data-based way to calculate the costs and benefits of transitioning to clean cooking alternatives such as gas and electric stoves.



OnStove data shows that as many as 463,000 deaths could be prevented in Africa every year by replacing traditional wood- and charcoal-burning stoves. Professor Francesco Fuso-Nerini noted that clean cooking in sub-Saharan Africa could generate a savings of $66 billion in healthcare costs.



The OnStove tool has already been applied to support the Nepal government’s energy policies. The researchers have also begun working with the Kenyan government to assist in a widespread transition toward clean cooking.



“It was well received where we started to use it. There’s a lot of interest from other organizations and governments,” said Professor Fuso-Nerini. “But it’s a complex issue and this is one of the first tools that gives good information and a good picture of what you would need to transition away from these bad ways of cooking.”



The tool supports policy making by assigning actual value to traditional cooking methods’ negative aspects, such as respiratory disease or lost time due to collecting wood or other burnable biomass, explained Professor Fuso-Nerini.



“These values give a better understanding about costs and benefits of clean cooking. That enables governments to step in and take a broad view that moves people in the right direction.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-01039-8">Nature Sustainability</a>.



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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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Clean cooking could save half a million lives each year

Replacing traditional wood and charcoal stoves could save nearly half...

Tyrannosaurus Rex, a fierce predator that lived in the Cretaceous Period (83.6 to 66 million years ago) has long been thought to be a big, dimwitted brute. However, according to a new study led by <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/">Vanderbilt University</a>, T. rex may have been much smarter than scientists previously believed it to be. In fact, this creature’s <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/habitual-social-media-checking-affects-adolescent-brain-development/">brain</a> has likely contained enough neurons to potentially allow it to solve complex problems and even form cultures.



“What if the asteroid [which wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago] hadn’t happened? That’s a whole other world that would have been terrifying,” said study author Suzana Herculano-Houzel, a neuroscientist and biologist at Vanderbilt.



Since the soft tissues that make up dinosaurs’ gray matter has not been conserved, Herculano-Houzel looked at T. rex’s bony brain case and compared it to the skeleton of its living relatives: birds. Extrapolating from an examination of the brains of emus and ostriches, she estimated that T. rex’s cerebrum had as many as three billion neurons, which is comparable to a baboon’s brain. In such a case, the dinosaur may have been able to use tools and even pass down acquired knowledge through generations.



Thus, while prior research argued that T. rex was a solitary, dumb beast, these new findings suggest that it may have been a clever social animal working in packs. This is confirmed by other studies that found mass burial sites in Utah and Montana, indicating that the carnivores moved in groups like wolves, as well as by the discovery of other fossils of male therapods guarding clutches of eggs (a social behavior frequently seen in modern birds).&nbsp;



Herculano-Houzel’s investigations hinge on treating theropods as a separate, warm-blooded group of dinosaurs – which may even have had feathers - instead of lumping T. rex and its relatives with all the rest of the dinosaurs. However, further research is needed to unearth more evidence of T. rex’s rich cognitive and social capacities.



“If they were hunters, maybe you find evidence of them hunting in groups, using some sort of social communication,” Herculano-Houzel concluded.



The study is published in the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cne.25453">Journal of Comparative Neurology</a>.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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T. rex may have had brains and brawn

Tyrannosaurus Rex, a fierce predator that lived in the Cretaceous...

The Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata) is found on the main islands of Japan, except Hokkaido, and is the most northerly occurring non-human primate in the world. In addition, in parts of its range it inhabits sub-alpine regions&nbsp;of the Japanese Alps (elevation 1500–1600&nbsp;m), which become extremely cold and harsh during winters. Since the monkeys have little access to their preferred diet of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fruits-and-vegetables-can-reduce-adhd-symptoms/">fruits</a>, seeds, flowers and leaves when snow covers the ground, scientists have wondered what they eat in order to survive.



Previous research involving the DNA analysis of fecal samples from macaques living in Chubu Sangaku National Park during winter revealed evidence not only of the bark and leaves of bamboo (that stand out above the snow), but also of freshwater fish, mollusks and aquatic arthropods. It is very rare for monkeys to eat fish, unless the fish are dead or dying, trapped in receding pools. A research team led by scientists from <a href="https://www.shinshu-u.ac.jp/english/">Shinshu University</a> therefore decided to investigate how and where the macaques are catching fish to supplement their winter diet.&nbsp;



Between mid- and late January, 2022, the researchers entered the Kamikochi area of the Chubu Sangaku National Park in the Japanese Alps on a daily basis. They located troops of monkeys by tracking their footprints in the snow, and then followed them and observed their behavior along the Azusa River. The team used several cameras, including a shoulder-mount camcorder, to record macaque behavior. In this way, they followed three different troops of macaques, one for five days, one for four days and one for three days.&nbsp;



In addition, 12 infrared sensor cameras were set up as trail camera traps to record macaque behavior, for two months from the end of January 2022. The cameras were positioned in three areas – a small wetland and two small, spring-fed streams. The cameras recorded 1,122 instances of macaque behavior, with each recording lasting one minute. The researchers analyzed all photographic footage and divided the different behaviors into categories.&nbsp;



The results, published in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-23799-1">Scientific Reports</a>, identified 14 cases of macaques hunting for actively swimming fish, and then consuming them. Their behavior along the river also included grabbing drifting invertebrates from the surface of the water, turning over pebbles and capturing food from beneath, and feeding on riverine plants. When fishing, a monkey commonly chased a fish into shallow water, where it attempted to hide between the rocks. The monkey then held the fish down in the stream with both hands and grabbed it with the mouth.&nbsp;



The river and associated small streams are supplied with warmer water from many groundwater springs and active volcanoes in the area, such that their waters keep a stable temperature of around 5–6&nbsp;°C, despite the snow and cold conditions. The streams thus flow throughout the winter and are accessible to the monkeys.&nbsp;



The catching and feeding behavior recorded in this study appears to be an extension of existing, documented behaviors of feeding on vegetation that grows above the surface of the snow, as well as on aquatic plant matter. These types of vegetation also often carry insects, a food source that is readily utilized by the macaques. The streams containing aquatic plants are also home to many cold-water salmonids, so it is a small step for the macaques to transition from locating insects in streams to locating fish.&nbsp;



“Video analysis has also shown that, during these behaviors, when the fish are nearby, [the monkeys’] attention is diverted to the fish. We interpreted this sequence of behavior as a pre-adaptation to fish-eating, and that fish-eating behavior may have evolved through these several stages,” said Masaki Takenaka and Koji Tojo, both from the Department of Biology at Shinshu University.



These “pre-adaptations” are the proposed mechanism for the evolution of the novel fish-hunting and eating behaviors observed, hypothesize the authors. They state that the macaques do not choose to eat fish as a preferred food source, but pressures brought about by the harsh winter conditions and the shortage of other suitable foods make this unique fishing behavior a matter of survival.&nbsp;



The researchers now wish to investigate how the fishing behavior is spread between members of the macaque group. Not all of them hunt for fish, or accept fish as a food, as evidenced by the fact that only 20 percent of fecal samples over three winters contained DNA from brown trout.&nbsp;



“Having obtained evidence that Japanese macaques in the Kamikochi area catch and eat live fish, the next step for us in this research was to investigate how these fish-eating behaviors spread within the macaque group," said Tojo. "Is it genetic? Is it a kind of culture that can be transmitted within the group?”&nbsp;



Now, after identifying 200 individuals across four distinct groups, Tojo and the team seek to identify relationships based on these individuals and their fish-seeking (or fish-avoidance) behavior, to see how it may be passed on to other individuals in the group and to future generations.



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Japanese snow monkeys have learned to fish for food

The Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata) is found on the main...

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.univie.ac.at/en/">University of Vienna</a> has found that fishes living in the deeper parts of the oceans (below 200 meters depth in the water column) would most likely decrease in size as the climate continues to warm. According to the experts, this change may have major ecological effects, impacting a variety of marine ecosystems.



The scientists retrieved <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/as-oceans-warm-up-smaller-species-of-fish-will-dominate/">fish</a> otoliths – small stones located in the inner ear of bony fishes which facilitates their sound and balance perception – from sedimentary formations dating between 800 and 700 thousand years ago from the island of Rhodes in the Aegean Sea. The morphology of these body structures is particular to each fish species, and their size directly reflects the size of the individual fish they come from, thus allowing researchers to get an idea of fish sizes in past fish faunas.



“Thanks to the otolith analysis we have found that fishes during the interglacial period were smaller in size by 35 percent, when the global temperature had increased by 4°C, which could happen again nowadays due to the ocean warming,” explained study lead author Konstantina Agiadi, a geoscientist and paleontologist at the University of Vienna.



This study is one of the first to address the consequences of climate change on the deeper parts of the oceans – the so-called “mesopelagic zone” (200 to 1000 meters deep). The researchers focused on changes in lanternfishes, a group of tiny mesopelagic fishes named for their capacity to produce their own light.&nbsp;



Currently, lanternfishes are major contributors to the biological carbon pump, a natural mechanism reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. After phytoplanktonic organisms absorb CO2 from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, each night lanternfishes travel hundreds of meters upward to the ocean surface and return to the mesopelagic zone, bringing massive amounts of carbon from the surface to the depths of the ocean. Moreover, these fishes make up more than half the fish biomass in the deep sea, and over 100 times more than the total global annual fishery catches.



“Knowing the response of these organisms to ocean warming is key, since they contribute to ecosystem stability, reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide, and are a huge food resource for other organisms in the marine food web,” concluded study co-author Marta Coll, a researcher at the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.icm.csic.es/en">Institut de Ciències del Mar</a>&nbsp;(ICM-CSIC) in Barcelona.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.1994">Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Deep ocean fishes will get smaller as the water warms

A new study led by the University of Vienna has...

Recently, there have been growing concerns in the scientific community that anthropogenic noise has a number of damaging effects on wildlife in urban environments. Anthropogenic noise contains a wide range of frequencies, types of sounds (such as those from traffic), and varying amplitudes, including sounds with rapid onset times which can be startling.



Although previous studies have argued that noise pollution can affect cognitive performance in many animal species, including <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/songbirds-have-some-impressive-cognitive-skills/">songbirds</a>, a new study led by <a href="https://www.fau.edu/">Florida Atlantic University</a> is the first to test whether exposure to urban noise affects also the coloration of these birds’ beaks.



The scientists focused on zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata), a species of songbirds in which males have a colorful plumage of white, black, gray, brown, and orange, while females are all gray. In addition, males have bright red beaks and females have orange beaks. This beak ornamentation is a social signal and a secondary sexual trait which can signal a male’s quality and affect females’ mate preference, while also affecting dominance hierarchies in male zebra finches.



The researchers conducted two separate experiments to investigate the effects of anthropogenic noise on cognition, growth, and beak coloration in these songbirds. In the first experiment, they tested adult zebra finches on a variety of cognition assays during exposure to playbacks of urban noise versus exposure to other types of natural sounds. In the second experiment, the experts measured the cognitive performance on adult zebra finches after raising them with consistent exposure to urban noise.&nbsp;



Afterward, the team compared the birds' performance to that of birds exposed to “pink noise” (a type of noise control) or to normal sounds of the aviary. Moreover, the researchers tracked their growth and development of beak coloration during the first 90 days of the birds’ lives.



The analysis revealed that exposure to urban noise caused the birds to take longer to learn novel foraging tasks and association-learning tasks. Although exposure to such sounds did not seem to affect growth rate or adult body size, males tended to develop less bright beak coloration, while females developed beaks with brighter, orange coloration.



“Our finding suggest that urban noise exposure may affect morphological traits, such as beak color, which influence social interactions and mate choice,”&nbsp;said study senior author Rindy C. Anderson, an associate professor of Biology at FAU. “However, the mechanisms by which noise affects beak ornamentation remain unclear. If traffic noise raises corticosterone levels and corticosterone levels affect beak color, then it is possible that stress is mediating the effects of noise exposure on beak ornamentation.”



“Further research should investigate the effects of beak ornamentation on social hierarchies and mate selection in urban environments, and test whether social interaction in noisy environments can ameliorate negative effects from urban noise on traits such as problem-solving and neophobia or fear of new things,”&nbsp;she concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10211-022-00406-0">Acta ethologica</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Urban noise affects the color of songbirds’ beaks

Recently, there have been growing concerns in the scientific community...

For a long time, scientists have used to associate <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dogs-are-more-aware-of-actions-than-objects/">dogs</a>’ aggressiveness solely with breed. However, a paradigm shift has occurred over the past decade, due to research linking behavioral profiles to factors such as dogs’ sex, age, metabolism, and hormonal patterns.&nbsp;



Now, based on a survey of 665 dog owners detailing the physical and behavioral features of their pet dogs, a team of researchers led by the <a href="https://www5.usp.br/">University of São Paulo</a> (USP) in Brazil has investigated how morphological, environmental, and social factors modulate canine aggressiveness.



The scientists found that aggressiveness was influenced both by physical traits such as weight and skull morphology, and by social and environmental factors like the type of household the dogs lived in, the animals’ life histories, and the owner’s gender and age. These findings confirmed the hypothesis that behavior is not only learned or influenced by genetics but also the outcome of interactions with the environment.



“The results highlight something we’ve been studying for some time: behavior emerges from interaction between the animal and its context. The environment and the owner-pet relationship, as well as morphology, are all factors that influence how pets interact with us and how we interact with them,” said study senior author Briseida de Resende, a professor of Psychology at USP.



“The owner’s gender was found to be a good predictor of behavior toward strangers, in that absence of aggressiveness was 73 percent more frequent among women’s dogs,” reported lead author Flávio Ayrosa, a psychologist at the same university.&nbsp;



Moreover, the dogs’ sex and snout characteristics also appeared to influence their aggressiveness. “The likelihood of aggressive behavior toward the owner was 40 percent lower among female dogs than among males,” Ayrosa said.&nbsp;



“Snout length was even more significant: aggressiveness toward the owner was 79 percent more likely among brachycephalic [dogs with short snouts] than mesocephalic dogs [characterized by a longer snout].”&nbsp;



In addition, the researchers also discovered that the heavier the dog, the less likely it was to display aggressiveness toward its owner, with aggressive behavior decreasing by three percent per extra kilogram of body mass.



However, the scientists stressed that the owner-related findings are not necessarily cause-and-effect correlations.&nbsp;



“We found relationships, but it’s impossible to say which comes first. In the case of the factor ‘walking the dog,’ for example, it may be that people walked their dog less because the animal was aggressive, or the dog may have become aggressive because the owner didn’t take it out enough,” Ayrosa explained.&nbsp;



“Traits such as weight, height, cranial morphology, sex, and age influence the interaction between dogs and their environment. They may spend more time inside the home because of them, for example.”&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2022.105766">Applied Animal Behavior Science</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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What factors predict aggressiveness in dogs?

For a long time, scientists have used to associate dogs’...

A new study by scientists at <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/">Harvard University</a> and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research has reviewed the climate studies conducted or paid for by the oil and gas company currently known as ExxonMobil. The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal&nbsp;<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abk0063">Science</a>, dives deeply into the company data from the late 1970s onwards (before Exxon and Mobil joined forces), in order to assess the accuracy of the climate projections produced by or on behalf of Exxon over several decades.&nbsp;



The results of the investigation are summarized in one single chart that displays every global warming projection reported by Exxon and ExxonMobil scientists between 1977 and 2003. The authors of the study collected their data from previously unreported information and models buried in the company’s own documents. They conclude that the projections are startlingly accurate and reveal that the company knew just how much global warming would occur and the damage that was attributable to the burning of fossil fuels.&nbsp;



In fact, the scientists have&nbsp;put a number on what ‘Exxon knew,’ decades ago, about climate science: that the burning of fossil fuels would lead to 0.20 ± 0.04 degrees Celsius of global warming per decade.&nbsp;



Although it has been widely reported that Exxon has known about the threat of global warming since the 1970s, this study is the first quantitative review of the company’s early climate science.&nbsp;Previous research focused on Exxon's inconsistent internal and external rhetoric on climate change, and the fact that the oil company understood the science before it became a public issue and then spent millions to promote misinformation.



“We find that most of their projections accurately forecast warming consistent with subsequent observations,” the report concludes. “Their projections were also consistent with, and at least as skillful as, those of independent academic and government models.”



The researchers used established statistical techniques that are also used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body that is responsible for assessing the science related to climate change. The researchers found that 63–83 percent of global warming projections reported by ExxonMobil scientists were consistent with subsequently observed temperatures changes. Moreover, projections modeled by ExxonMobil scientists had an average ‘skill score’ of 72 ± 6 percent, with the highest scoring 99 percent.&nbsp;



For comparison, NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen’s global warming predictions, presented to the U.S. Congress in 1988, had skill scores ranging from 38 percent to 66 percent.&nbsp;(When we account for differences between forecast and observed atmospheric CO2&nbsp;levels, the ‘skill score’ of projections modeled by ExxonMobil scientists was 75 ± 5 percent, with seven projections scoring 85 percent or above. Again, for comparison, Hansen’s 1988 projections had corresponding skill scores of 28 to 81 percent.)



The study finds that “Exxon and ExxonMobil Corp also correctly rejected the prospect of a coming ice age, accurately predicted when human-caused global warming would first be detected, and reasonably estimated the ‘carbon budget’ for holding warming below 2°C. On each of these points, however, the company’s public statements about climate science contradicted its own scientific data.”



It is clear from the study’s analysis that this company, the world’s largest oil and gas company, was in possession of accurate and reliable scientific information in the 1970s and 80s, and understood that&nbsp;mankind was indeed influencing the global climate through carbon dioxide release from the burning of fossil fuels. However, this did not stop the company from spending decades refusing to publicly acknowledge climate change and even promoting climate misinformation.



For example, in June 1988, when NASA scientist James Hansen told a congressional hearing that the planet was already warming, Exxon stated publicly that the science was still controversial. By 1989, the company had helped create the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=38">Global Climate Coalition</a>&nbsp;(disbanded in 2002) to question the scientific basis for concern about climate change. It also helped to prevent the U.S. from signing the international treaty on climate known as the Kyoto Protocol, in 1998, to control greenhouse gases.&nbsp;



The findings of the current study add weight to ongoing legal and political investigations into ExxonMobil and the extent to which the company’s personnel sowed doubt about the scientific basis for climate change predictions.



“These findings corroborate and add quantitative precision,” the authors write, “to assertions by scholars, journalists, lawyers, politicians, and others that ExxonMobil accurately foresaw the threat of human-caused global warming, both prior and parallel to orchestrating lobbying and propaganda campaigns to delay climate action, and refute claims by ExxonMobil Corp and its defenders that these assertions are incorrect.”



“This is the nail-in-the-coffin of ExxonMobil’s&nbsp;<a href="https://perma.cc/6GWL-V89E">claims</a>&nbsp;that it has been falsely accused of climate malfeasance,” commented study lead author Geoffrey Supran of Harvard University&nbsp;. “Our analysis shows that ExxonMobil’s own data contradicted its public statements, which included exaggerating uncertainties, criticizing climate models, mythologizing global cooling, and feigning ignorance about when – or if – human-caused global warming would be measurable, all while staying silent on the threat of stranded fossil fuel assets.”



An article published in the Guardian in 2019 finds that ExxonMobil is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/09/revealed-20-firms-third-carbon-emissions">one of 20 companies</a>&nbsp;responsible for one-third of energy-related global carbon emissions since 1965. In addition, half of the greenhouse gas emissions in our atmosphere were released after 1988. What a difference it would have made if the fossil-fuel companies, including ExxonMobil, had been upfront about this and had been part of the solution instead of the problem. We are likely to have been in much better environmental shape than we are now.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Exxon’s climate predictions were remarkably accurate, but ignored

A new study by scientists at Harvard University and the...

Dolphins are highly intelligent, social mammals that tend to form alliances that rely on <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dogs-use-their-tails-more-for-communication-than-movement/">communication</a> between group members. Their underwater calls consist of a series of whistles, that are used to communicate with conspecifics, and clicks that are used in echolocation to identify prey items and objects in their surroundings. The animals are able to carry out cooperative tasks, such as rounding up a school of fish, that depend on successful underwater communication with others in the group.



Given the importance of underwater sound communication to dolphins and other cetaceans, it is natural to be concerned that the increasing noise levels in oceans worldwide could have significant negative impacts on the successful functioning of these animal. Ocean bed drilling, the establishment of offshore wind turbines, and increasing shipping traffic all produce underwater noise that is potentially disruptive.&nbsp;



Previous studies have found that animals from several different taxa, including mammals, birds, fish and invertebrates, respond to increased noise levels in their environments and may adopt mitigation strategies such as modifying the frequency, amplitude and duration of their calls, orientating themselves to minimize the interference from the noise source, or even moving to an entirely different area.&nbsp;



However, little is known about how successful these compensatory mechanisms are at overcoming the impacts of noise disturbance when individuals are actively working together.&nbsp;



A new experimental study by scientists from the University of Bristol, U.K., Syracuse University in New York, The Dolphin Research Center in Florida, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts has now tested whether the ability of two dolphins (living in human care) to solve a cooperative task is impacted by the presence of anthropogenic noise at different intensities. The results are published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.12.063">Current Biology</a>.



The two bottlenose dolphins (Tursiop struncatus.), known as Delta and Reece, had previously been trained to carry out a cooperative task that required them to understand the role their partner must play in the task, and use the sound of whistles to coordinate their behavior with extreme precision. The task required both dolphins to swim to their own stations at opposite ends of a pool. There, they had to press their own underwater button simultaneously with the other dolphin, or within a one-second time window.&nbsp;



The two dolphins were equipped with suction-cup sound recorders to document their vocalizations as they carried out the task. During each of the 200 trials, the dolphins were released from a starting point but, for certain trials, one of the dolphins was held back for five to ten seconds while the other was released immediately to swim to its underwater button. In the delayed-release trials, the dolphins had to rely solely on vocal communication to coordinate the button press with precision.



At the same time, the researchers chose five different noise-level categories. These were ambient noise level, and low, medium, high and very high noise treatments.&nbsp; A total of 20 trials was carried out at each noise level. The noise levels corresponded to 115 dB, 119 dB, 126 dB, 135 dB and 150 dB respectively, as recorded adjacent to each dolphin’s underwater button.



The researchers found that Delta and Reece were able to coordinate their button-pushing to within one second of each other in 85 percent of trials at the ambient (lowest) noise level. As the levels of noise played from an underwater speaker increased, both dolphins compensated by increasing the volume and duration of their whistles. Reese’s whistles were on average 1.85 times longer in the highest noise exposure trials than in the ambient noise trials, and Delta’s whistles were on average 1.66 times longer in the very high noise trials than in the ambient noise trials.



In addition to “shouting” louder and longer, the dolphins also changed their body positions to face each other more often, and swam to the other side of the pool to be closer to one another. Despite these strategies to help them cope with the loud noise, they were only able to achieve a success rate of 62.5 percent in trials at the highest noise level.&nbsp;



“This shows us that, despite them using these compensatory mechanisms, their communication was impaired by noise,” explained study first author Pernille Sørensen of the University of Bristol. “Our work shows that, despite their attempts to compensate, despite being highly motivated and the fact that they know this cooperative task so well, the noise still impaired their ability to successfully coordinate.”



“Those same reasons that make sound so advantageous for animals to use also make them susceptible to disturbance from noise in the environment,” said Sørensen. “Within the last couple of decades, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in human-made noise, and noise pollution in the oceans is no exception.”



While this research was conducted with dolphins living in human care, human-generated noise can potentially have detrimental effects on wild dolphins, too. “If groups of animals in the wild are, for example, less efficient at foraging cooperatively, then this will negatively impact individual health, which ultimately impacts population health,” said study co-author Stephanie King, associate professor at the University of Bristol.



“Our work shows that these adjustments are not necessarily enough to overcome the negative effects of noise on communication between individuals,” said Professor King. Since dolphins rely on their communication skills to successfully hunt and reproduce, noise levels can affect their behaviors, which in turn affect population health.



“This collaboration with international colleagues at the Dolphin Research Center provided us with a unique opportunity to investigate the impact of noise on animals working together in a controlled setting, something that is almost impossible to do in the wild,” said Sørensen. To study this in the wild, the researchers would need further understanding of when animals are actively working together and how cooperative behavior is coordinated. “Our results clearly show the need to account for how noise affects group tasks in wild animals."



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Dolphins must "shout" over underwater noise to communicate

Dolphins are highly intelligent, social mammals that tend to form...

A team of researchers led by the <a href="https://illinois.edu/">University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign</a> has developed a new <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dna-can-help-predict-ecosystem-changes-when-animals-are-reintroduced/">DNA</a>-collection method that allows scientists to capture genetic information from wildlife without disturbing the animals or putting their own lives into jeopardy. The experts tested this protocol on elephant dung and managed to collect enough DNA to sequence the whole genomes not only of the elephants, but also of the microbes, plants, and other organisms associated to them.



“We combined existing methodologies in such a way that we are now able to use noninvasive samples to generate genome-scale data,” said&nbsp;study lead author Alida de Flamingh, a postdoctoral researcher in Genetics and Ecology at Illinois. “This allows us to assess wildlife populations without having to dart, capture, or immobilize animals.”



According to study co-author Alfred Roca, a professor of Animal Sciences at the same university, collecting DNA from animal dung is not something new. “Elephant fecal samples have been used for decades to study the genetics of elephants,” he said. “But this relies on very cumbersome methods, often involving chemicals that in some cases may be dangerous. The collections are bulky, they’re hard to ship and they have to be refrigerated, making the whole process very costly.”



Now, the researchers tested a less expensive alternative: using small data-collection cards that have previously been treated to prevent the samples from degrading, allowing to store them for months without refrigeration.



First, the scientists collected and analyzed samples from zoo elephants to determine how long after defecation the fecal samples would still yield viable genomic data. The analysis revealed that even after 72 hours, the samples could be reliably used for genomic sequencing. In a next step, the team tested this procedure on samples collected from wild African savanna elephants. The sequencing led to treasure trove of information.



“I was surprised. I thought we might get some elephant DNA from the cards, but I was thinking on the order of two percent. However, on average, more than 12 percent of the DNA was attributed to the elephant,” Roca reported.&nbsp;



Since this was achieved without using costly and time-consuming laboratory methods that target only elephant DNA, each sample yielded a vast amount of information not only about the elephants, but also the microbial composition of their guts, their habitat, and diet.



“It’s really beneficial to get an idea of everything that’s in there because now you can start asking questions, not only about elephant genomes but also about things like their health, their diet and whether there are pathogens or parasites present,” de Flamingh explained.



According to the researchers, when it comes to elephant genomes, the results are comparable with – or even better than - those obtained from blood samples. “You can explore the connectivity of different elephant populations, the level of genetic diversity, the level of inbreeding and relatedness among elephants. And I would say there are lots of reasons you don’t want to have to collect blood samples from wild elephants,” Roca said.



“It’s possible to do what you could do with blood, but it goes beyond that. You now can do analyses that you couldn’t do before with blood DNA, which only provides information about the elephant’s genome,” de Flamingh concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2022.1021004">Frontiers in Genetics</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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New DNA-collection method is harmless to wildlife

A team of researchers led by the University of Illinois...

As humans, we share many characteristics with other primates, such as <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bonobos-early-human-evolution/">bonobos</a>, who – together with chimpanzees – are the ape species most closely related to us. While there are many similarities in the social behavior of bonobos and humans, a team of researchers led by <a href="https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en">Leiden University</a> and the <a href="https://www.uva.nl/">University of Amsterdam</a> has recently found that there are also remarkable differences.&nbsp;



The experts discovered that, although both species are more interested in photos of conspecifics that show emotion than in neutral photos, human attention is more easily drawn to photos of family members or friends, whereas the attention of bonobos is drawn to the emotion of individuals they don’t know.



In a first experiment, the scientists trained bonobos from the <a href="https://apenheul.nl/">Apenheul</a> zoo to press a dot on a screen. After pressing it, two images appeared briefly that showed bonobos from the same group as well as unfamiliar conspecifics. While some images were neutral, others expressed emotions related to fear, play, or sex. Then, a dot appeared again behind one of the two images, and the bonobos had to touch it as quickly as possible in order to receive a food reward. 



The researchers kept track of how fast the bonobos pressed the dot that appeared after seeing the different pictures, with the presupposition that the apes would be faster at touching the dot behind the photo that immediately grabs their attention.



A second experiment presented people visiting the zoo with the same task, with photos of strangers or a person with whom they visited the zoo that day, and with varying facial expressions, such as neutral, happy, angry, or scared.&nbsp;



“In these studies, we saw that both humans and bonobos react more quickly to photos of conspecifics with an emotional charge than neutral photos,” said study lead author Evy Van Berlo, a postdoctoral researcher in Cognitive Behavioral Ecology at the University of Amsterdam. “That is what we expected: it makes sense given that we are both social animals. Yet there was also a remarkable difference. We humans are mainly focused on emotionally charged photos of people we know, while the attention of bonobos is focused on studying emotionally charged photos of unfamiliar others.”



According to the researchers, this evolutionary difference has probably emerged due to differences in the living environment of the two species. “Bonobos live in a relatively stable ecological environment in Congo, where there is enough food available. Under those circumstances, there is less need for competition with other groups and peaceful interaction with strangers might even be beneficial for the conservation of the species. Early humans, on the other hand, lived in nomadic groups that had to compete with other groups of humans for food. Under such circumstances, it is probably evolutionarily more beneficial to favor individuals from your own group over strangers,” Van Berlo explained.



In future research, the scientists plan to repeat this study with other species of great apes with different social organizations, such as chimpanzees, which are more competitive, male-dominated, and socially stratified. “With chimpanzees, for example, I would expect them to be more interested in the emotions of individuals they know than the emotions of strangers,” Van Berlo concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/emo0000882">Emotion</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Bonobos are more interested in the emotions of strangers

As humans, we share many characteristics with other primates, such...

Snow-capped mountains are valuable <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/parts-of-asia-face-irreversible-declines-in-freshwater-storage/">freshwater</a> resources that could potentially be wiped out by global warming in the coming decades. These "water towers" provide up to 80 percent of the world's freshwater, and more than half of the global population depends on mountain ecosystems for water, food, and energy.&nbsp;



Last year, a study co-led by Alan Rhoades and Erica Siirila-Woodburn of the <a href="https://www.lbl.gov/">Berkeley Lab</a> predicted that mountain ranges in the western United States will regularly experience low-to-no-snow winters in 35 to 60 years if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced.



In a new study, Rhoades and his colleagues have determined that mountain ranges in the southern midlatitudes will face a low-to-no-snow future much sooner. These mountains, particularly in the Andean region of Chile, may transition to low-to-no-snow conditions as early as 2046.



According to the researchers, low-to-no-snow occurs when the annual maximum water stored as snowpack is within the bottom 30 percent of historical conditions for a decade or more. The study revealed that low-to-no-snow winters will emerge in the southern midlatitudes at a third of the warming compared to the northern midlatitudes.



“These findings are pretty shocking. We assumed that both regions in the southern and northern hemispheres would respond similarly to climate change, and that the Andes would be more resilient given its high elevation,” said Rhoades. “This shows that not every degree of warming has the same effect in one region as another.”



On a positive note, the researchers found that low-to-no-snow winters can be prevented in both the northern and southern midlatitude mountain ranges if global warming is limited to 2.5 degrees Celsius. Rhoades pointed to another study from the Berkeley Lab, which found that it is possible to reach net zero CO2 emissions in the United States by 2050. This could be accomplished by rebuilding the energy infrastructure to run primarily on renewable energy.



“It just requires the will and initiative to invest financial resources at the level of urgency that climate change demands, which means we need to start doing this today,” said Rhoades.



The research is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01518-y">Nature Climate Change</a>.



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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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Mountains face low-to-no-snow winters in a warming climate

Snow-capped mountains are valuable freshwater resources that could potentially be...

Being socially connected is vital to human wellbeing but this aspect of human functioning is often impaired in people who suffer the symptoms of depression or <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/artificial-sweetener-has-been-linked-to-anxiety/">anxiety</a>. They may feel withdrawn and tired, unable to find the energy or drive to interact with people. Many patients with depression tend to withdraw from social contact and would rather stay at home, or in bed, than face society.&nbsp;



A new study by researchers from <a href="https://www.osu.edu/">Ohio State University</a> has revealed that when depressed or anxious people perform acts of kindness towards others, the symptoms of their mental illness become less severe and they are able to heal themselves to a certain extent.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Social connection is one of the ingredients of life most strongly associated with wellbeing. Performing acts of kindness seems to be one of the best ways to promote those connections,” said David Cregg, who led the research as part of his PhD dissertation.



Cregg and his colleague Professor Jennifer Cheavens tested their acts of kindness technique in an experiment involving 122 people from central Ohio who had moderate to severe symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress.&nbsp;



After an initial introductory session, the participants were randomly allocated to one of three different groups.&nbsp; Two of the groups received interventions that are commonly used in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) treatments for depression. The first group was instructed to plan social activities for two days a week, and the members of the second group had to keep records, for at least two days a week, that helped them identify negative thought patterns and revise their way of thinking in order to reduce depression and anxiety (a form of cognitive reappraisal).&nbsp;



The participants in the third group were instructed to perform three acts of kindness a day, for two days out of each week. Acts of kindness were defined as “big or small acts that benefit others or make others happy, typically at some cost to you in terms of time or resources.” Examples of kind acts that participants performed included baking cookies for friends, offering to give a friend a ride, and leaving sticky notes with worlds of encouragement in places where s roommate would find them.



All three interventions continued for a period of five weeks. Participants were evaluated after week five, and then again after a further five weeks, to see whether the interventions were successful at reducing the symptoms of depression and anxiety.



The researchers’ findings, published in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2022.2154695">Journal of Positive Psychology</a>, showed that helping others is a powerful technique for healing oneself. &nbsp;Although participants in all three groups showed an increase in sense of life satisfaction, and a reduction in depression and anxiety symptoms after the 10 weeks of the study, those participants in the acts of kindness group showed the greatest improvements.



“These results are encouraging because they suggest that all three study interventions are effective at reducing distress and improving satisfaction,” Cregg said. “But acts of kindness still showed an advantage over both social activities and cognitive reappraisal, by making people feel more connected to other people, which is an important part of well-being."



Cheavens noted that just taking part in social activities did not improve feelings of social connection in this study. In addition, the process of cognitive reappraisal also does not involve increasing social connectedness in any way. &nbsp;



“There’s something specific about performing acts of kindness that makes people feel connected to others. It’s not enough to just be around other people, participating in social activities,” she said.



The researchers also discovered why performing acts of kindness worked so well to improve the symptoms of people with depression or anxiety. It helped distract participants from their own suffering while they were reaching out to help and consider others.&nbsp;



“Doing nice things for people and focusing on the needs of others may actually help people with depression and anxiety feel better about themselves,” explained Cheavens.



“We often think that people with depression have enough to deal with, so we don’t want to burden them by asking them to help others. But these results run counter to that,” she said.



Cregg said that, while this study used techniques of CBT, it is not the same experience as going through a complete CBT treatment. Those who undergo the full treatment may have better results than those in this study. However, the findings do show that even the limited CBT exposure given in this study can be helpful to people with depression or anxiety.&nbsp;



“Not everyone who could benefit from psychotherapy has the opportunity to get that treatment,” she said.&nbsp;“But we found that a relatively simple, one-time training had real effects on reducing depression and anxiety symptoms.”



And even those who are able to get CBT treatment may benefit even more if they are encouraged to carry out acts of kindness towards others on a regular and ongoing basis. This study shows that helping others has a healing effect through creating vital social connections.



“Something as simple as helping other people can go above and beyond other treatments in helping heal people with depression and anxiety,” concluded Cregg.



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Acts of kindness can help relieve depression

Being socially connected is vital to human wellbeing but this...

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



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Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

[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



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Kainji Lake in north central Nigeria

[sendtonews key="iuA5mpp3jv-1641775-12187" 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.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

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

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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?

[sendtonews key="X0f6OHYoI4-2310561-12187" 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 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

[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



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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

[sendtonews key="qjvhBOBnY8-2426650-12187" 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 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

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

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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