Scientists have proposed a new explanation for dark matter and how the elusive substance that anchors galaxies might have taken shape in the newborn universe.



The scenario begins with weightless particles zipping through the cosmic furnace and ends with a chill population of massive pairs that could still be drifting through space today.



The work - carried out by physicists at <a href="https://home.dartmouth.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dartmouth College</a> - offers predictions that astronomers can check against existing observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background, the after-glow of the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/if-the-big-bang-theory-is-correct-what-exactly-happened/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Big Bang</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-particles-after-the-big-bang">Particles after the Big Bang </h2>



“Dark matter <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/existence-of-dark-matter-confirmed-by-new-study/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">started its life</a> as near-massless relativistic particles, almost like light,” said Robert Caldwell, senior author of the study. “That’s totally antithetical to what dark matter is thought to be - it is cold lumps that give galaxies their mass.”



In the model designed by Caldwell and undergraduate researcher Guanming Liang, countless high-energy quanta filled the universe just after the Big Bang. These particles, similar to the photons that carry light, hurtled about at near-light speed.



Under certain conditions, two such quanta could lock together because their spins pointed in opposite directions, rather like the attraction between the north and south poles of tiny magnets. 



The moment they bonded, the new entity’s energy plummeted and its inertia skyrocketed. Within a flash it went from a racing ray to a hefty relic.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-sudden-drop-in-energy"><a></a>A sudden drop in energy</h2>



“The most unexpected part of our mathematical model was the energy plummet that bridges the high-density energy and the lumpy low energy,” Liang explained.



The researchers liken the transformation to steam condensing into water - a hot, diffuse gas suddenly collapses into a cooler, denser phase.



“At that stage, it's like these pairs were getting ready to become dark matter,” Caldwell said. “This phase transition helps explain the abundance of dark matter we can detect today. It sprang from the high-density cluster of extremely energetic particles that was the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-planets-formed-in-the-harsh-early-universe/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">early universe</a>.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cooper-pairs-as-a-clue"><a></a>Cooper pairs as a clue</h2>



The paper introduces a brand-new particle to trigger the shift, yet the authors argue that nature already provides a parallel. In certain superconducting metals, two <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/massless-dirac-electrons-seen-moving-in-four-dimensions/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">electrons</a> with opposite spins form so-called Cooper pairs that glide without electrical resistance.



“We looked toward superconductivity for clues as to whether a certain interaction could cause energy to drop so suddenly,” Caldwell noted. “Cooper pairs prove that the mechanism exists.”



If the analogy holds, the relic pairs born in the cosmic dawn would have cooled into a nearly pressure-free state - a key hallmark of the unseen matter whose <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/theory-gravity-exists-without-mass-so-dark-matter-does-not-exist/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">gravity</a> sculpts galaxies.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-simple-model-for-dark-matter">A simple model for dark matter</h2>



Dark matter accounts for roughly eighty-five percent of all mass, yet the universe’s overall energy density has fallen dramatically since its first moments.



Liang points out that the new theory addresses both facts at once: “Structures get their mass due to the density of cold dark matter, but there also has to be a mechanism wherein energy density drops to close to what we see today.”



The abrupt condensation of massless quanta into massive pairs drains energy from the radiation budget while boosting the matter budget, squaring theory with observation.



“The mathematical model of our theory is really beautiful because it's rather simplistic - you don't need to build a lot of things into the system for it to work,” said Liang. “It builds on concepts and timelines we know exist.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-signature-written-in-ancient-light">A signature written in ancient light</h2>



Because the transition would have left the paired particles almost motionless, the team predicts a distinctive imprint on the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/universe-more-complicated-less-clumpy-than-it-should-be-cosmic-microwave-background-cmb/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cosmic microwave background</a>.



The CMB has already been mapped by satellites and ground-based projects, and more precise surveys are under way at the Simons Observatory in Chile and in planned CMB Stage-4 experiments.



“It's exciting,” Caldwell said. “We're presenting a new approach to thinking about and possibly identifying dark matter.”



The researchers emphasize that their proposal is testable: if future CMB data reveal the subtle pattern predicted by their equations, the case for heavy pairs born from light-like quanta will strengthen. If not, the idea will need revision or replacement - exactly how science should proceed.



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



For now the paper stakes out a middle ground between theoretical elegance and observational reach. 



Upcoming missions will either expose the predicted CMB trace or tighten the limits on how dark matter could have formed. Either outcome will refine our view of the invisible framework that holds the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/more-than-one-big-bang-may-explain-cosmic-expansion-without-dark-matter/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cosmos</a> together.



Should the ancient sky bear the scar of those primordial pairings, physicists might finally glimpse how ghostly matter traded light speed for lasting weight - and reshaped the universe in the process.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.191004" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Physical Review Letters</a>.



Image Credit: NASA, ESA and M. Montes (University of New South Wales)



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Where did dark matter come from? The answer may be surprisingly simple

Scientists have proposed a new explanation for dark matter and how the elusive substance that anchors galaxies might have taken shape in the newborn universe. The scenario begins with weightless particles zipping through the cosmic furnace and ends with a chill population of massive pairs that could still be drifting through space today. The work - carried out by physicists at Dartmouth College - offers predictions that astronomers can check against existing observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background, the after-glow of the Big Bang. Particles after the...

Researchers from the <a href="https://illinois.edu/">University of Illinois</a> have discovered that the fathead minnow, a small fish species found in North American streams, can survive <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/human-activities-are-fueling-more-extreme-heatwaves/">heatwaves</a> with few adverse effects.&nbsp;



"Fathead minnows are really common throughout North America and they're important prey for a lot of charismatic sport fish anglers care about. So, learning how they handle heatwaves in this study gives us good insights into the potential fate of freshwater food webs under climate change," said study co-author Cory Suski.



Previous research focused on how well animals can tolerate temperatures 2-3 degrees Celsius warmer than the current average. The U of I team wanted to look at how the minnows responded to short-term increases of 5-10 degrees Celsius.



Doctoral student Qihong Dai simulated three types of heatwaves; single short-term heatwaves, repeated heatwaves three days in a row, and extended heatwaves that lasted 48 hours.&nbsp;



"After our simulated heatwaves, we tested enzymes reflecting the minnows' ability to perform aerobic and anaerobic activities. We also were able to test changes in their metabolic rates during heatwaves," said Dai. "After all three heatwave simulations, most minnows rapidly returned to normal physiological functioning when we cooled the water back down."



The researchers also discovered that minnows previously subjected to heatwaves were more resilient to higher temperatures than fish that had not been exposed. However, some fish suffered negative effects.&nbsp;



"The heatwave didn't impair their ability to swim or go about their business. In fact, they could handle higher temperatures after the heatwaves, but some became more susceptible to oxidative stress. That could lead to long-term tissue degradation from free radical damage and other physiological problems," said Suski.



Still, most minnows seemed to recover well after exposure to heatwaves. "We are surprised but also excited to see how minnows can be so resilient to heatwaves in the Midwest," said Dai.



"We witnessed high thermal resilience of fathead minnow to extreme heatwaves," wrote the study authors. "This result suggests that some fish species, particularly thermally tolerant ones, can withstand current and near-future heatwaves in disturbed ecosystems such as agricultural streams."



The research is published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/fwb.13976">Freshwater Biology</a>.



---



By <a href="mailto:nire518@gmail.com">Erin Moody </a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Minnows can rapidly recover from heatwaves

Researchers from the University of Illinois have discovered that the...

Central Asia is a significant producer of some of the world's most widely consumed delicacies, including <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/eat-a-handful-of-walnuts-every-day-for-better-heart-health/">walnuts</a>, apricots, plums, apples, and pears. Many of these crops are grown in home gardens in Central Asia's rural landscapes and provide a living for growers.



In a new study from the <a href="https://ciat.cgiar.org/">International Center for Tropical Agriculture</a> (CIAT), researchers have found that home gardens in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan are an average of 40 to 50 years old, with some gardens more than 70 years old. In Tajikistan, these gardens have saved lives.



"These trees have been vital for people to survive during times of conflict, and these home gardens with trees and vegetables play an important role to support families, providing a lot of the food for the household, in addition to income," explained Barbara Vinceti, a forest ecologist and lead author of the study.&nbsp;



Despite their importance, Central Asian gardens have not received much attention from the scientific community. However, the CIAT research is shedding new light on the subject.&nbsp;



"Central Asia is an important center of origin for many globally valued fruit and nut tree species. Forest degradation and deforestation are cause for concern for the conservation of these valuable species, now confined to small remnant populations," wrote the study authors.&nbsp;



"Home gardens have the important function of sustaining household food consumption and income generation, and can potentially play a critical role in conserving diversity of fruit and nut trees."



The researchers studied diversity within and across the fruit and nut trees in the region by talking to the growers and analyzing wild versions of the trees in neighboring forests.&nbsp;



"We looked at home gardens situated close to forests and examined how genetic material moves between the forests and the home gardens," said Marlène Elias, a senior scientist at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT.&nbsp;



Elias noted that home gardens are a bastion for genetic diversity, which makes them "living genebanks" that are essential to protect. However, they are threatened by outside influences from the USA, Russia, and Europe.&nbsp;



Growers in Central Asia realize they can make more money from foreign varieties, especially apples and pears, and are replacing their traditional crops with these commercial varieties. This loss of diversity is devastating, according to Vinceti, who warns that "once that diversity is lost is lost, it is lost forever."&nbsp;



"We saw a significant erosion of local tree varieties of key species as more varieties come from outside," said Vinceti. "In Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, we examined this dynamic flow of planting material and its sources, understanding the future prospects of home gardens, and looking at differences between the three countries."



Crop diversity is essential for protection against disease and climate change. So, while there may be some short-term financial gain, the growers could be setting themselves, and future generations, up for failure.



The research is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0271398">PLoS ONE</a>.



---



By <a href="mailto:nire518@gmail.com">Erin Moody </a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Home gardens in Central Asia are "living genebanks"

Central Asia is a significant producer of some of the...

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.ox.ac.uk/">University of Oxford</a> has investigated how hunting hawks and other raptors solve the problem of intercepting a single bat within a dense swarm. The experts found that, instead of targeting individual bats, the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/top-predators-trapped-by-trying-to-adapt-to-climate-change/">predators</a> would steer towards a fixed point within the swarm, a technique which increases their chances to capture the prey.



Scientists have long argued that being in a large group, such as a swarm of bats, a school of fish, or a flock of birds, offers significant protection from predators, since the presence of so many potential targets may confuse them, making it more difficult to focus on and capture a specific individual. However, empirical evidence for such a “confusion effect” has not been very strong.&nbsp;



To gain more insight into predators’ hunting strategies when facing large groups of prey, the researchers filmed Swainson’s Hawks (Buteo swainsoni) and other raptors hunting a colony of approximately 700,000 to 900,000 Mexican Free-tailed Bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) as the bats emerged from a cave in the Chihuahuan Desert in New Mexico at dusk. Then, they reconstructed the hawks’ flight paths using 3D modeling and compared the trajectories of the real birds with those modeled by the computer algorithm.&nbsp;



The analysis revealed that, instead of continuously targeting an individual bat, the raptors would steer towards a fixed point within the swarm. Since any bat on a collision course with the hawk would appear stationary to the predator, the latter may use this to single out a target bat from the swarm. “From the viewpoint of a stationary observer – such as a person stood on the ground - all members of the swarm appear to move erratically. For a mobile observer – like the hunting hawks in flight - any bat that it is on a collision course with it will appear stationary against the background movement of the swarm,” explained study lead author Caroline Brighton, a postdoctoral researcher in Biology at Oxford.&nbsp;



“Our work shows how the appearance of a swarm depends on the predator’s own motion, so starling murmurations and many other group behaviors that look bewildering to our own eyes may not appear so confusing to a predator taking the plunge,” added study senior author Graham Taylor, a professor of Mathematical Biology at Oxford.



These findings suggest that such a strategy of targeting a fixed point in a group of prey could be a more general mechanism yet to be discovered in other predators. However, such a technique may only be effective when prey aggregations are sufficiently dense.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32354-5">Nature Communications</a>.



---



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

How do hawks target prey inside chaotic swarms?

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

A recent study led by <a href="https://www.dal.ca/">Dalhousie University</a> in Canada has found that, if greenhouse gases continue to be emitted at current rates, nearly 90 percent of all marine species could be at risk of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-sixth-mass-extinction-is-currently-in-progress/">extinction</a> by the end of the century. Among the various species of animals, plants, chromists, bacteria, and protozoans examined, higher trophic species – particularly those that are harvested for food, including tunas, sharks, or pufferfish - had the highest risk of going extinct.



The researchers evaluated threats faced by almost 25,000 marine species which inhabit the upper 100 meters of oceans if greenhouse gas emissions continue to stay at high levels, under a “business as usual” scenario. The analysis revealed that almost 90 percent of these animals may be at high or critical risk of extinction by 2100, and will not be expected to survive in their current habitat across an average of 85 percent of their geographical distribution. In addition, the scientists found that about 10 percent of the ocean has areas of combined high climate risk and endemism (the state of a species being found in a single defined geographical location), which place further threats on a vast majority of ecosystems.



According to study lead author Daniel Boyce, an ecologist at Dalhousie University, these findings are “quite startling and very sobering,” providing clear evidence of the massive danger life on our planet faces if extraction of fossil fuels continues unmitigated. “I’d like to think that that’s an implausible scenario,” he said. “But nonetheless, it is the worst-case scenario. And when we evaluated that scenario, we found that there was a very grim picture for the climate risk for marine species.”



The threats were found to be higher for many species that are currently harvested for food in low-income countries highly dependent on fisheries. “There was a really striking pattern where the risk was systematically higher for nations that have a lower socioeconomic status, lower income nations that tend to be more dependent on fisheries and tend to have a lower food security, and overall nutritional status,” Professor Boyd explained.



These findings should lead to increased efforts to prioritize the conservation of vulnerable ecosystems by taking into account the susceptibility and adaptability of various species in climate management strategies. “It should provide a strong motivation for us to do everything that we can to mitigate our emissions and focus on avoiding that worst-case scenario,” he concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01437-y">Nature Climate Change</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



---



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

Unchecked emissions could kill 90 percent of marine species

A recent study led by Dalhousie University in Canada has...

Despite the fact that the U.S. has ample resources, and a relatively well-studied flora, there is currently no complete checklist of the native trees. There is also no comprehensive, up-to-date assessment of the threats currently facing native U.S. trees, or the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/shark-videos-could-contribute-to-conservation-efforts/">conservation</a> status of individual species. In order to fill these gaps, a research project commenced in 2017, with the express aim of documenting this information. Strangely enough, the researchers had to begin their study by defining exactly what constitutes a tree!



The most complete tree check lists and data bases available at a national level all follow different definitions of a tree, and range in estimates of the number of native tree species from 748 to 1114. And none of these definitions of a tree matches that of the Botanic Gardens Conservation International initiative known as Global Tree Assessment, which aims to publish conservation assessments for all the world’s tree species.



According to the standardized Global Tree Assessment definition, a tree is a woody plant with usually a single stem, growing to a height of at least two meters; or if multi-stemmed, then at least one vertical stem five centimeters in diameter at breast height. Based on this definition, the researchers in the current study identified 881 species of native trees in the U.S.&nbsp;



It has taken five years of collaborative research to produce this first comprehensive checklist of trees native to the contiguous U.S. states, as well as the extent to which each species is currently threatened. The research was conducted by&nbsp;scientists from Botanic Gardens Conservation International-U.S. (BGCI-US), the Morton Arboretum and NatureServe, in partnership with the United States Botanic Garden (USBG) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service, and the results are published in the journal <a href="https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ppp3.10305">Plants People Planet</a>.



“These results lay the groundwork for U.S. tree and ecosystem conservation efforts that will contribute to achieving critical international conservation goals, including the United Nations Decade for Ecosystem Restoration and the Global Tree Assessment," said Abby Meyer, executive director of BGCI-US, a partner on the project.



Dr. Murphy Westwood is vice president of science and conservation at The Morton Arboretum and senior author of the report. She noted that much of the world’s biodiversity depends on trees, which offer food and habitat for countless plant, animal and fungal species while providing invaluable benefits to humans. “Understanding the current state of trees within the U.S. is imperative to protecting those species, their habitats and the countless communities they support,” said Dr. Westwood.



The research found that most native (plants that evolved in the contiguous U.S.) and endemic (plants found only in the contiguous U.S.) trees are found in the southeastern states, including California and Texas. Florida and Texas have the highest number of native tree species, with 342 and 321, respectively, while Florida and California have the highest number of threatened tree species, with 45 and 44, respectively.



Oaks (genus Quercus) and hawthorns (genus Crataegus) dominate the tree flora of the U.S., with 85 and 84 native species, respectively. Hawthorns and oaks were also found to have the most threatened species, with 29 and 17 species, respectively. The new assessment also reveals that 11–16 percent of native tree species in the contiguous 48 U.S. states are threatened with extinction, with the most common threat being from invasive and problematic pests and diseases.



“This assessment advances our understanding of the threats faced by America’s native trees and will help focus the conservation efforts of public gardens, federal agencies and conservation organizations,” said Dr. Susan Pell, acting executive director of USBG. “The U.S. Botanic Garden is proud to sponsor national partnerships such as this that advance plant conservation.”



In addition, the new and up-to-date, standardized checklist of US tree species and the associated threat assessments will help inform future urban planning, land acquisition decisions, restoration efforts, forestry, scientific research and public education. The project also helps support the first objective of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), that “plant diversity is well understood, documented and recognized.”



“Trees form the basis of many of the world’s terrestrial ecosystems,” said Sean T. O’Brien, Ph.D., president and CEO of NatureServe. “Understanding what trees are threatened and why is critical to informing conservation for trees and ecosystems across the nation.”



According to BGCI’s PlantSearch database of plants in botanical collections, 95 percent (849) of native U.S. tree species are represented in at least one collection, such as a botanic garden, arboretum or seed bank. Most species are actually present in dozens or even hundreds of collections, such as Franklinia alatamaha, which is extinct in the wild. However, the research revealed that there are 17 threatened tree species that are not currently conserved in any collection and thus have no insurance policy against extinction.&nbsp;



“Through initiatives like the Global Tree Assessment, tree research and conservation has evolved from a series of small individual efforts to a global venture grounded in collaborative, scientifically-backed strategies,” said Dr. Westwood. “The checklist is a major milestone for trees, but most importantly, our hope is that this study will inform and amplify the scope of tree conservation efforts across the country,” she added.



---



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

At least 1 in 9 native trees in the U.S. are threatened

Despite the fact that the U.S. has ample resources, and...

According to a new study published in the journal <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2022.871238/full">Frontiers in Nutrition</a>, children and teenagers who eat a healthy breakfast at home have better psychosocial health. While previous research has provided evidence for the important role of a nutritious breakfast, this is the first study to investigate the reported effects of whether young people eat breakfast, as well as where and what they eat. These findings offer valuable insights and recommendations for both parents and their <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/air-pollution-increases-risk-of-future-disease-in-children/">children</a>.



“Our results suggest that it is not only important to eat breakfast, but it’s also important where young people eat breakfast and what they eat,” said study first author José Francisco López-Gil, a postdoctoral fellow in Health and Social Research at the <a href="https://www.uclm.es/?sc_lang=en">University of Castilla-La Mancha</a> in Spain. “Skipping breakfast or eating breakfast away from home is associated with increased likelihood of psychosocial behavioral problems in children and adolescents. Similarly, consumption of certain foods/drinks are associated with higher (e.g., processed meat) or lower (e.g., dairies, cereals) odds of psychosocial behavioral problems.”



The scientists analyzed data from the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ine.es/en/metodologia/t15/t153041917_en.pdf">2017 Spanish National Health Survey</a>, which included questionnaires about breakfast habits and psychosocial health that parents or guardians of 3,772 Spanish children aged four to 14 filled in. The results showed that, while coffee, tea, milk, chocolate, cocoa, bread, yoghurt, toast, cereals, and pastries were associated with lower chances of psychological and behavioral problems, eggs, ham, and cheese were linked to higher risks of such health issues. Surprisingly, the scientists found that eating breakfast away from home may be nearly as detrimental as skipping the meal completely – most likely because meals away from home are usually less nutritious.



“The fact that eating breakfast away from home is associated with greater psychosocial health problems is a novel aspect of our study,” said Dr. López-Gil. “Our findings reinforce the need to promote not only breakfast as part of a healthy lifestyle routine, but also that it should be eaten at home. Also, to prevent psychosocial health problems, a breakfast that includes dairy and/or cereals, and minimizes certain animal foods high in saturated fat/cholesterol, could help to decrease psychosocial health problems in young people.”



Further research is needed to understand the causal relationships between these observations and to devise dietary plans that maximize health and development.



---



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

Breakfast lowers the risk of behavioral problems in children

According to a new study published in the journal Frontiers...

Traces of Neanderthal DNA in modern <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/can-we-prevent-a-catastrophic-meltdown-of-the-worlds-largest-ice-sheet/">humans</a> may be attributed to interbreeding that took place in the "Near East," which ranges from North Africa to Iraq. This is the conclusion of a new study that analyzed the facial features of prehistoric skulls.



Study co-author Steven Churchill is a professor of evolutionary anthropology at <a href="https://duke.edu/">Duke University</a>. “Ancient DNA caused a revolution in how we think about human evolution,” said Professor Churchill.&nbsp;



“We often think of evolution as branches on a tree, and researchers have spent a lot of time trying to trace back the path that led to us, Homo sapiens. But we’re now beginning to understand that it isn’t a tree – it’s more like a series of streams that converge and diverge at multiple points.”



“Our work here gives us a deeper understanding of where those streams came together,” explained study co-author Professor Ann Ross of <a href="https://www.ncsu.edu/">North Carolina State University</a>.



“The picture is really complicated,” said Professor Churchill. “We know there was interbreeding. Modern Asian populations seem to have more Neanderthal DNA than modern European populations, which is weird – because Neandertals lived in what is now Europe. That has suggested that Neandertals interbred with what are now modern humans as our prehistoric ancestors left Africa, but before spreading to Asia."&nbsp;



"Our goal with this study was to see what additional light we could shed on this by assessing the facial structure of prehistoric humans and Neandertals.”



According to Professor Ross, facial morphology allows us to trace the intentions and movements of human populations over time. “And the evidence shows us that the Near East was an important crossroads, both geographically and in the context of human evolution.”



For the investigation, the researchers analyzed data from published studies involving 13 Neandertals, 233 prehistoric Homo sapiens, and 83 modern humans.



After assessing the size and shape of key facial structures found in the skulls, the experts conducted an in-depth analysis to determine the likelihood that a given human population interbred with Neanderthal populations.



“Neanderthals had big faces,” said Professor Churchill. “But size alone doesn’t establish any genetic link between a human population and Neandertal populations. Our work here involved a more robust analysis of the facial structures.”



The experts accounted for environmental variables that may have altered facial characteristics in the skulls. 



“We found that the facial characteristics we focused on were not strongly influenced by climate, which made it easier to identify likely genetic influences,” said Professor Ross. “We also found that facial shape was a more useful variable for tracking the influence of Neandertal interbreeding in human populations over time. Neandertals were just bigger than humans. Over time, the size of human faces became smaller, generations after they had bred with Neandertals. But the actual shape of some facial features retained evidence of interbreeding with Neandertals.”



“This was an exploratory study,” said Professor Churchill. “And, honestly, I wasn’t sure this approach would actually work - we have a relatively small sample size, and we didn’t have as much data on facial structures as we would have liked. But, ultimately, the results we got are really compelling.



“To build on this, we’d like to incorporate measurements from more human populations, such as the Natufians, who lived more than 11,000 years ago on the Mediterranean in what is now Israel, Jordan and Syria.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/11/8/1163">Biology</a>.



---



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

Ancient skulls shed light on human interbreeding

Traces of Neanderthal DNA in modern humans may be attributed...

A compound used in electronics known as vanadium dioxide (VO2) has a memory like the human <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/brain-thermometer-explains-why-heat-makes-us-feel-sleepy/">brain</a>, according to a new study led by the <a href="https://www.epfl.ch/">Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne</a>. The experts discovered that VO2 is capable of “remembering” the entire history of previous external stimuli. This is the only material that is known to possess this property. 



Mohammad Samizadeh Nikoo is a PhD student at EPFL’s Power and Wide-band-gap Electronics Research Laboratory (POWERlab). He stumbled upon the fascinating capability of VO2 while observing phase transitions of the inorganic compound.



When relaxed at room temperature, vanadium dioxide experiences an insulating phase. At 68 °C, the compound undergoes a complete structural change during an insulator-to-metal transition.&nbsp;



Furthermore, according to Nikoo, VO2 exhibits a volatile memory. "The material reverts back to the insulating state right after removing the excitation."



Nikoo set out to discover how long it takes for VO2 to transition from one state to another. After taking hundreds of measurements, he recognized a memory effect in the material’s structure. Nikoo then applied an electric current to a sample of VO2



“The current moved across the material, following a path until it exited on the other side." As the current heated up the material, it caused the VO2 to change state.&nbsp; Once the current had passed, the material returned to its initial state.&nbsp;



Next, when Nikoo applied a second current pulse to the material, he found that the time it took to transition was directly linked to the history of the material.&nbsp;



“The VO2 seemed to ‘remember’ the first phase transition and anticipate the next,” explained Professor Elison Matioli, who heads the POWERlab. “We didn’t expect to see this kind of memory effect, and it has nothing to do with electronic states but rather with the physical structure of the material. It’s a novel discovery: no other material behaves in this way.”



Ultimately, the experts determined that VO2 is capable of remembering its most recent external stimulus for up to three hours. “The memory effect could in fact persist for several days, but we don’t currently have the instruments needed to measure that,” said Professor Matioli.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/natelectron/">Nature Electronics</a>.



Image Credit: POWERlab / 2022 EPFL



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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

Material identified that can learn like the human brain

A compound used in electronics known as vanadium dioxide (VO2)...

The meat of wild game <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/brain-fog-affects-a-wide-range-of-animals/">animals</a> is commonly eaten in many households across the EU and UK. In these two regions alone, about five million people eat at least one meal of game meat per week. Figures from the UK show that people consume around 11,000 tons of meat derived from wild-shot game birds alone each year.&nbsp;



Most of these animals are shot using lead ammunition. It has always been assumed that the lead is easy to locate and remove from the muscle tissue before consumption. A new study by UK scientists has found that this is not the case - certainly not for wild-shot pheasants that are destined to be food for humans. Instead, their research reveals that pheasants killed with lead shot contain many tiny fragments of the metal that are embedded deep within the tissues and are unlikely to be detected by means of sight or touch. These shards of lead have been shown to come from the ammunition that fractures upon entering the target animal.



The researchers examined the carcasses of eight free-ranging common pheasants that were killed on farmlands using lead shotgun ammunition and were on sale in a UK butcher’s shop. They used a high-resolution computerized tomography (CT) X-ray scanner to obtain 3D images of the carcasses and found that, while only seven of them contained obvious shotgun pellets, all eight contained multiple tiny lead fragments in their flesh.&nbsp;



The mean number of shotgun pellets identified per pheasant carcass was 3.5 (n=7), while the mean number of smaller (&lt;2 mm diameter) metal fragments per carcass was 39.0 (n=8). Of the 340 embedded metal objects that were identified on the images, 92 percent had a diameter of less than 1mm. The researchers found up to 10mg of tiny lead shards per pheasant, all of which were much too small to be detected by eye or by touch.&nbsp;



Lead is toxic to humans when absorbed by the body and there is no known safe level of exposure. Lead accumulates in the body over time and can cause long-term harm, including increased risk of cardiovascular disease and kidney damage in adults. It is known to lower IQ in young children, and affect the neurological development of unborn babies. In previous studies using rats it has been found that absorption of lead into the blood stream is enhanced when the lead is in the form of very small particles.



The findings of this study, published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0268089">PLoS ONE</a>, indicate that wild-shot pheasant meat is likely to have high levels of lead contamination, even if the obvious large pellets are removed during careful preparation or chewing.&nbsp;



“While lead gunshot continues to be used for hunting, people who eat pheasants and other similar gamebirds are very likely to be also consuming a lot of tiny lead fragments,” said study first author Rhys Green, a professor in the Department of Zoology at the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a>.



“It seems to have been widely assumed in the past that a lead shot embedded in a pheasant carcass remained intact, and could be removed cleanly before the pheasant was eaten – removing any health risk. Our study has shown the extent to which this is really not the case,” said Professor Green. “By eating pheasant, people are also unwittingly eating lead, which is toxic.”&nbsp;



“One pheasant is a reasonable meal for two or three people. Consuming this much lead occasionally wouldn’t be a great cause for concern – but we know that there are thousands of people in the UK who eat game meat, often pheasant, every week."



There are no UK or EU regulations about the maximum allowable levels of lead in human food from wild-shot game animals. This is in contrast with strict maximum levels for lead in many other foods including meat from cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry, and shellfish harvested from the wild.



Observational studies of humans have found a positive correlation between the concentration of lead in blood plasma and the frequency of consumption of the meat of wild animals killed using lead ammunition. This suggests that some lead derived from ammunition is both ingested and absorbed by human consumers. Since it is impossible to locate and remove all the very tiny shards of lead embedded in the flesh of the animal, it is likely that dietary exposure to ammunition-derived lead and its absorption and significance for public health may be greater than was previously thought.&nbsp;



Steel shotgun pellets are a practical alternative to lead, and their use in place of lead for hunting is recommended by UK shooting organizations. But there is very little evidence of a voluntary switch away from lead being made by hunters. The UK Health &amp; Safety Executive is currently preparing a case for banning the use of lead ammunition for hunting in the UK, and the European Chemicals Agency is doing the same for Europe.



Other game, including partridge, grouse and rabbit, is also mainly shot using lead shotgun pellets, and wild deer are shot using lead bullets. Hunters often remove the guts of deer carcasses to make them lighter to carry, and the discarded guts – which often contain many bullet fragments – are eaten by wildlife, which then also suffer the harmful effects of lead toxicity.



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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

Toxic lead shards in wild pheasants pose a human health risk

The meat of wild game animals is commonly eaten in...

Plastic <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/noise-pollution-is-impacting-life-on-the-seafloor/">pollution</a> is one of the main hazards our planet is currently facing, endangering a variety of ecosystems and contributing to climate change. Despite increased efforts, very little plastic is currently recycled, due to a range of economic and practical reasons. However, petroleum-based plastic waste presents an untapped source of carbon-based chemicals which could serve as the building blocks for useful durable materials and fuels.&nbsp;



A research team led by the <a href="https://www.pnnl.gov/">Pacific Northwest National Laboratory</a> (PNNL) has now discovered an innovative method to convert plastics more efficiently to valuable chemicals, through a process called “upcycling.” This technique is cheaper than previous ones and produces less methane.



“The key discovery we report is the very low metal load,” said study senior author Janos Szanyi, a chemist at PNNL. “This makes the catalyst much cheaper.” “It was very interesting to us that there had been nothing previously published showing this result,” added first author Linxiao Chen, a postdoctoral fellow at the same laboratory. “This research shows the opportunity to develop effective, selective, and versatile catalysts for plastic upcycling.”



Scientists have already known that adding hydrogen to difficult-to-recycle plastics such as polypropylene and polyethylene presents a promising strategy to convert plastic waste into value-added small hydrocarbons, through a process called hydrogenolysis. Now, the PNNL scientists discovered that reducing the amount of the precious metal ruthenium could improve the polymer upcycling efficiency and selectivity, by causing the structure to shift from an orderly array of particles to disordered rafts of atoms. Moreover, they showed that single atoms – or very small clusters of atoms - are more effective catalysts during this process.



In order to make the method practical to use with mixed plastic recycling streams, the researchers are now exploring how the presence of chlorine affects the efficiency of the chemical conversion.&nbsp;



“We are looking into more demanding extraction conditions,” said study co-author&nbsp;Oliver Y. Gutiérrez, an expert in industrial applications for catalysis at PNNL. “When you don’t have a clean plastic source, in an industrial upcycling process, you have chlorine from polyvinylchloride and other sources. Chlorine can contaminate the plastic upcycling reaction. We want to understand what effect chlorine has on our system.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acscatal.2c00684">ACS Catalysis</a> and was presented at the American Chemical Society <a href="https://acs.digitellinc.com/acs/live/28/page/905/">fall meeting</a> in Chicago.



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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&nbsp;&nbsp;

Converting plastic waste into valuable chemicals

Plastic pollution is one of the main hazards our planet...

We are all familiar with the human response to a crying baby. Those tears generate in us an immediate desire to comfort and console, to give appropriate care. But what if our <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/playfulness-is-a-key-personality-trait-of-gifted-dogs/">dogs</a> cried in response to emotional stimuli as well? Would that elicit a human caregiving response? No research had been done on tear production in dogs, or any other animal, apparently, until Takefumi Kikusui noticed a subtle change in his standard poodle after she had puppies. Each time she nursed them her face changed – there were tears in her eyes.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Kikusui wondered whether this emotional response was perhaps linked to the levels of oxytocin in his dog. This hormone, he explained, is known as the maternal or “love hormone,” and is important in bond formation between mother and offspring, as well as within other relationships.&nbsp;



Previous research has shown that the gaze of a dog stimulates the secretion of oxytocin in its owner, and also that concentrations of this hormone increase in dogs when they are reunited with their owners. Kikusui wondered whether oxytocin was mediating the teary-eyed response in his own dog as she nursed her puppies. “That gave me the idea that oxytocin might increase tears,” said Kikusui, who is from the Azabu University in Japan.



First, the researchers decided to test whether dogs responded to the emotional event of being reunited with their owner by producing more tears. They used a standard Schirmer Tear Test (STT) and measured tear volume in dogs while they were at home with their owner, and then again within five minutes of being reunited with the owner after a separation of between five and seven hours.&nbsp;



The experts found that the 18 dogs in the study produced more tear fluid while being reunited with their owner than they did while simply relaxing at home. In addition, a greater volume of tear fluid was produced while were being reunited with an owner, but not while greeting a familiar non-owner. While dogs do not cry spouts of tears like a distressed human baby, their eyes do become wetter as the volume of tear fluid increases.



Kikusui said that the findings came as a surprise. “We had never heard of the discovery that animals shed tears in joyful situations, such as reuniting with their owners, and we were all excited that this would be a world first!”



To assess the role of oxytocin in tear production in dogs, the researchers applied solutions of oxytocin to the eyes of some of the dogs while others received a control peptide comprising the same amino acids but rearranged into a different form. When tear volume was measured, the results showed that there was significantly increased tear production after oxytocin administration, but not after the dogs received the control peptide solution.&nbsp;



“We found that dogs shed tears associated with positive emotions,” said Kikusui. “We also made the discovery of oxytocin as a possible mechanism underlying it.”



In the final part of their experimental study, the researchers tested whether humans are more likely to want to care for dogs with teary eyes than for dogs with normal, tearless eyes. Human participants were given photographs of dogs, some with artificially teary eyes and some without, and asked to rate how likely they would be (the humans) to want to care for each dog.&nbsp;



The results, published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(22)01132-0?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982222011320%3Fshowall%3Dtrue">Current Biology</a>, show that people were significantly more likely to want to care for dogs with tears in their eyes than for normal, tearless dogs. These findings suggest that dogs’ tear production helps to forge stronger connections between people and their dogs.



The authors state that dogs seem to produce tears in situations that humans would consider “happy.” They haven’t yet tested whether dogs also respond to negative emotions in this way. In addition, they don’t know yet if dogs make tears when they get reunite with other dogs. They hope to learn if this response also has a social function in the dog world. But, for now, they say it seems to have clear implications for the dog-human bond.



“Dogs have become a partner of humans, and we can form bonds,” said Kikusui. “In this process, it is possible that the dogs that show teary eyes during interaction with the owner would be cared for by the owner more.”



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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

Dogs cry tears of joy when reunited with their owners

We are all familiar with the human response to a...

Shore,Breaking,Wave

In January 2022, a massive <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/catastrophic-volcanic-eruption-is-more-likely-than-we-think/">eruption</a> of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai underwater volcano, followed by a tsunami, killed five people and led to large scale destruction in the Tongan archipelago. An international team of researchers led by the <a href="https://www.bath.ac.uk/">University of Bath</a> has now found that the initial tsunami wave created by the eruption reached 90 meters in height - around nine times taller than that from the highly destructive 2011 tsunami that struck Japan.&nbsp;



According to the experts, these findings should act as a wake-up call for international organizations aiming to protect people from similar events in the future, since detection and monitoring systems for volcano-based tsunamis are three decades behind comparable tools used to detect earthquake-based events.



“The Tongan tsunami tragically killed five people and caused large scale destruction, but its effects could have been even greater had the volcano been located closer to human communities. The volcano is located approximately 70 km from the Tongan capital Nuku’alofa – this distance significantly minimized its destructive power,” explained study lead author Mohammad Heidarzadeh, the Secretary-General of the International Tsunami Commission and a senior lecturer of Civil Engineering at the University of Bath.



“This was a gigantic, unique event and one that highlights that internationally we must invest in improving systems to detect volcanic tsunamis as these are currently around 30 years behind the systems we used to monitor for earthquakes. We are under-prepared for volcanic tsunamis.”



By analyzing ocean observation data recordings of atmospheric pressure changes and sea level oscillations, in combination with computer simulations validated by real-world data, Dr. Heidarzadeh and his colleagues discovered that the Tonga tsunami was highly peculiar, with its waves being created not only by the water displaced by the volcanic eruption, but also by enormous atmospheric pressure waves that circled the globe multiple times. Since tsunami warning centers are programmed to detect such events based solely on water displacements, they failed to detect the initial waves created by the atmospheric pressure.



“What is important is to have efficient warning systems, which include both real-time warnings and education on what to do in a case of a tsunami or warning - such systems save lives. In addition, at volcanic areas, monitoring of volcanic activity should be organized, and more high-quality research into volcanic eruptions and areas at hazard is always a good idea,” concluded senior author Jadranka Šepić from the <a href="https://www.unist.hr/en/">University of Split</a> in Croatia.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2022.112165">Ocean Engineering</a>.



---



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

Tsunami wave from Tonga eruption was 90 meters tall

In January 2022, a massive eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga...

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



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



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

Kainji Lake in north central Nigeria

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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



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

Designing crops that can beat the heat

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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

Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research&nbsp;



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



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

How the immune system responds to injury

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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

2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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