Rare earth elements are everywhere - in your smartphone screen, in the MRI machine at the hospital, in the battery of an electric vehicle, and even in oil and gas refining. They are a key ingredient of modern life.



As global tensions rise, so does the competition for access to these minerals. Recent headlines show the stakes: China has halted rare earth exports to the United States, and a deal was just signed to secure U.S. access to Ukraine’s mineral resources.



Despite their name, rare earth elements aren’t actually scarce; what’s rare is finding them in high enough concentrations to mine economically. These deposits are scattered unevenly across the globe and often buried deep underground, shaping who controls their production and the global supply chain.



Scientists at <a href="https://www.tufts.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tufts University</a> are trying to better understand how and why rare earth minerals ended up where they did. Their research reveals how the movement of continents over billions of years helped form - and hide - these valuable deposits.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-supercontinents-shaped-rare-deposits">Supercontinents shaped rare deposits</h2>



To explain how this mineral drama began, we need to go back in time. Way back. Earth's surface is always on the move. Over millions of years, massive landmasses shift, collide, and break apart, reshaping the planet in the process.



"Most of us are familiar with <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthpedia-articles/supercontinents-101-pannotia-gondwana-and-pangea/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pangea</a> - the supercontinent that formed about 300 million years ago and that the current seven continents broke off from to form their present-day arrangement," said Jill VanTongeren, professor and chair of the Department of Earth and Climate Sciences.



"But Pangea is only the most recent supercontinent. Throughout Earth history, there have been at least five major <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/australia-north-america-supercontinent/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">supercontinent</a> cycles - periods when continents all come together and then spread back out again into different pieces. We think this process happens roughly every 500 million years."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-where-minerals-begin">Where minerals begin</h2>



As these continents drifted apart, they created rifts - places where the Earth's tectonic plates pulled away from each other. These rifting zones became birthplaces for rare earth element-rich magmas.



"As the rocks are pushed apart, they decompress, causing melting. It's kind of like taking the lid off a soda bottle, and the bubbles rise to the surface," said VanTongeren.



"Those early magmas contain the highest abundance of rare earth and other incompatible elements that then enter the crust, either erupting in volcanic centers or solidifying at depth."



Some of these mineral-rich magmas cooled and stayed near the surface. Others got dragged back down into the mantle or remain buried too deep to mine with today’s technology.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-race-for-control-resources">A race for control resources</h2>



Today, the number of economically viable rare earth deposits is limited. China dominates the market, with nearly 70% of global production coming from its Bayan Obo mine. The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/crucial-rare-earth-elements-discovered-coal-mines-united-states/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">U.S.</a> has a smaller operation at Mountain Pass in California, and a few other countries have scattered deposits.



In the late 1990s and early 2000s, China flooded the market with rare earth minerals, driving down prices and shutting down other global producers. That move reshaped global dependence.



In response, the U.S. government took steps to re-establish a domestic supply. Recent investments from the 2021 Infrastructure and Jobs Act and the Department of Defense aim to restart full operations at the Mountain Pass mine, though it could take up to a decade.



There’s also hope that Ukraine's <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/nasa-is-on-a-mission-to-map-americas-mineral-wealth/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">mineral deposits</a> could help diversify supply. But for now, their potential remains unclear.



"Political boundaries and the desire to obtain access to mineral resources have been the source of economic and military conflicts throughout human history," said VanTongeren. "This is likely to continue as the world shifts toward green energy and a greater dependence on rare earth elements in the future."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-hunting-for-mineral-deposits">Hunting for mineral deposits</h2>



VanTongeren’s work tracks these mineral stories from source to surface. Her fieldwork has taken her from a ship near Antarctica to platinum mines in South Africa, Morocco’s mountains, and even a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/huge-lithium-deposit-from-volanic-ash-found-in-pennsylvania/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lithium</a> discovery in Maine.



"It's a fascinating area of study partly because it lies at the intersection of science, economics, and politics," she said. Back on the Tufts campus, this intersection takes a more visual form.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tufts-secret-mineral-vault">Tufts' secret mineral vault</h2>



Tucked into the basement of Lane Hall, the P.T. Barnum Mineral Collection offers a glimpse into the Earth’s treasures. It includes thousands of mineral specimens, some collected by Barnum himself. He was an early supporter of Tufts and a major collector of natural history in the 1800s.



"In the late 1800s, it was considered fashionable for many prominent individuals to accumulate their own natural history collections," noted VanTongeren.



"P.T. Barnum was one of the biggest collectors of the time. His collection of animals, plants, and minerals was among the first gifts to Tufts University and part of an endowment to establish Tufts as one of the major natural history museums in the country."



After a fire destroyed the Barnum Museum in 1975, the mineral collection moved to Lane Hall. Now, it’s about to move again - this time to Bacon Hall, the new home for the Department of Earth and Climate Sciences.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-global-hunt-for-rare-earth-elements">Global hunt for rare earth elements</h2>



VanTongeren hopes this new home will be more than just a storage site. She wants it to become a space that encourages curiosity and exploration, not just for scientists, but for everyone.



"My pie-in-the-sky vision is to set up a mineral gallery with both a permanent exhibit as well as pop-up exhibitions every semester highlighting minerals important for technology, related to other research at the university, or to global events," said VanTongeren.



"I'd like to help bring back Barnum's vision of bringing the beauty of, and an appreciation for, the natural world to campus."



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Global hunt for rare earth elements is underway

Rare earth elements are everywhere - in your smartphone screen, in the MRI machine at the hospital, in the battery of an electric vehicle, and even in oil and gas refining. They are a key ingredient of modern life. As global tensions rise, so does the competition for access to these minerals. Recent headlines show the stakes: China has halted rare earth exports to the United States, and a deal was just signed to secure U.S. access to Ukraine’s mineral resources. Despite their name, rare earth elements...

All <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wild-animals-can-evolve-faster-than-previously-thought/">animals</a> need survival skills, and one critical skill for mice is finding the quickest route to safety. Researchers at the <a href="https://www.sainsburywellcome.org/web/">Sainsbury Wellcome Centre</a> at UCL wanted to know how mice decide on the best route to safety when they are in a new environment.



Study co-author Tiago Branco explained why this experiment differs from previous studies. “In many neuroscience studies, mice are trained to solve complex mazes and are given lots of time to learn how to do so. But in nature, mice do not have that luxury – when faced with threat, they must escape to shelter as quickly as possible. The question is how do mice learn this very quickly, without the opportunity of trial and error.”&nbsp;



To answer this question, the neuroscientists presented two or three routes back to a shelter and exposed mice to simulated threats. Then they blocked the most direct route and watched to see which path the animals would choose. The experts found that the mice preferred the shortest way to shelter.



Next, the team analyzed the inexperienced mice encountering a threat for the first time. Surprisingly, the researchers discovered that these individuals preferred the shortest route after exploring their surroundings for only 10 minutes.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Mice are predated on by many species and so for a mouse it’s very important to know how to escape to safety," explained Branco. "If you put a mouse in a new environment, its priority is to map out space and figure out how to get to a safe place. This is in the natural repertoire of the mouse’s behavior and does not have to be explicitly instructed.”



The experts ascertained that mice can discover the shortest route by exploring their environment and assuming the best path to safety. This Is known as an innate heuristic, meaning that mice have evolved neural circuits that facilitate making intrinsic choices after exploring their environment.



“Animals are very good at learning about the things that matter to them," explained Branco. "To understand the mouse brain and the algorithms and neural circuits that support learning, it is important to look at the behaviours that the mouse has evolved to do and the constraints that they are under to learn fast and efficiently.”



The researchers look forward to exploring other questions about how animals make choices based on expectations. They also believe their findings will prove useful in the area of rapid learning research.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/home">Current Biology</a>.



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

Mice make it a priority to find the best escape route

All animals need survival skills, and one critical skill for...

Due to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-threatens-the-health-of-billions-of-people/">climate change</a>, temperatures in the Arctic are rising rapidly. As a result, the treeline for Siberian larch forests is steadily advancing northward, gradually replacing the broad expanses of tundra, which are home to a unique and diverse community of plants and animals, many of which are endemic to this region.&nbsp;



By using computer simulations, a research team led by the <a href="https://www.awi.de/en/">Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research</a> (AWI) has now found that only consistent climate protection measures could allow roughly 30 percent of the Siberian tundra to survive to mid-millennium. In less favorable greenhouse-gas reduction scenarios, this habitat may disappear completely.



“For the Arctic Ocean and the sea ice, the current and future warming will have serious consequences,” said study co-author Ulrike Herzschuh, Head of the Polar Terrestrial Environmental Systems Division at AWI.



“But the environment on land will also change drastically. The broad expanses of tundra in Siberia and North America will be massively reduced, as the treeline, which is already slowly changing, rapidly advances northward in the near future. In the worst-case scenario, there will be virtually no tundra left by the middle of the millennium.”&nbsp;



Professor Herzschuh and her colleagues simulated this process for the tundra in northeast Russia, and found that, in the majority of greenhouse-gas reduction scenarios, less than six percent of today’s tundra will survive by mid-millennium. Only drastic reductions in emissions could save about 30 percent of this habitat, which is currently home to a diversity of plant and animal species that are adapted to live in harsh conditions, including mountain avens, Arctic poppies, willows, birches, reindeer, lemmings, and Arctic bumblebees.



“At this point, it’s a matter of life and death for the Siberian tundra,” said Eva Klebelsberg, an expert in Sustainable Development at the <a href="https://www.arcticwwf.org/">World Wildlife Fund Arctic Program</a>. “Larger areas can only be saved with very ambitious climate protection targets. And even then, in the best case there will ultimately be two discrete refuges, with smaller flora and fauna populations that are highly vulnerable to disrupting influences. That’s why it’s important that we intensify and expand protective measures and protected areas in these regions, so as to preserve refuges for the tundra’s unparalleled biodiversity,” she concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://elifesciences.org/articles/75163">eLife</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

Siberian tundra could vanish by mid-millennium

Due to climate change, temperatures in the Arctic are rising...

Coral reefs have complex soundscapes – created by fish and other creatures living there - which can be used by scientists to measure <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/diversity-abundance-coral-reef-health/">coral health</a>. However, traditional acoustic surveys of reefs rely on labor-intensive methods which face significant difficulties in assessing reef health through the use of individual recordings.&nbsp;



Now, a research team led by the <a href="https://www.exeter.ac.uk/">University of Exeter</a> has trained a computer algorithm using multiple recordings of both healthy and degraded reefs, allowing the machine to learn the difference. When fed new data, this algorithm was able to successfully identify reef health 92 percent of the time. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Coral reefs are facing multiple threats including climate change, so monitoring their health and the success of conservation projects is vital,” said study lead author Ben Williams, a doctoral student in Soundscape Ecology at the University of Exeter. “One major difficulty is that visual and acoustic surveys of reefs usually rely on labor-intensive methods. Visual surveys are also limited by the fact that many reef creatures conceal themselves, or are active at night, while the complexity of reef sounds has made it difficult to identify reef health using individual recordings.”



The scientists’ approach to this problem was to use machine learning in order to train computers to learn “the song of the reef.” Their findings suggest that computers can pick up patterns that are undetectable to the human ear, which they can use to faster and more accurately assess reef health. While the meaning of many individual calls of reef inhabitants remains unknown, this new method can nevertheless distinguish between the overall sounds of healthy and unhealthy reefs.



“This is a really exciting development,” said study co-author Timothy Lamont, a marine biologist at <a href="https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/">Lancaster University</a>. “Sound recorders and AI could be used around the world to monitor the health of reefs, and discover whether attempts to protect and restore them are working.”



“In many cases it’s easier and cheaper to deploy an underwater hydrophone on a reef and leave it there than to have expert divers visiting the reef repeatedly to survey it – especially in remote locations,” he concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X22004575?via%3Dihub">Ecological Indicators</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

Coral reef health can be measured through sound

Coral reefs have complex soundscapes – created by fish and...

A new study led by the <a href="https://en.uniss.it/">University of Sassari</a> (UNISS) in Italy has found that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bottlenose-dolphins-struggle-with-weight-in-their-40s/">bottlenose dolphins</a>’ signature whistles, which they use to identify one another, are strongly influenced by where they live, and by the size of their local population. 



Although these whistles are unique to each individual animal, the experts discovered that their acoustic features are structured to a certain degree by dolphins’ local habitats and communities – a phenomenon similar to the development of regional accents in humans.



&nbsp;“Even if the bottlenose dolphin is among the most studied species of Cetacean, many aspects of their ecology and behavior are still unknown,” said study lead author Gabriella La Manna, a marine biologist at UNISS.&nbsp;



“Given how quickly human activities are changing the oceans, it is important to understand the environmental and socio-behavioral factors that allow animals to adapt to their environment.”&nbsp;



The scientists investigated the whistling habits of common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in six geographically distinct populations in the Mediterranean Sea. By analyzing 188 hours of recorded sounds, they mapped variations in acoustic features such as duration and changes in pitch, and identified 168 signature whistles. The analysis revealed that the local ocean environment and population size had a significant effect on the whistles’ acoustic features.



For instance, signature whistles in areas with sea grass, such as Port Cros or Lampedusa, were higher pitched and shorter in length compared to those of dolphins living in areas with muddy sea floors. Moreover, among small dolphin populations like those from the Gulf of Corinth, the whistles had more changes in pitch than among larger populations. These findings suggest that bottlenose dolphins develop signature whistles that are best suited to their local habitats (the so-called “acoustic adaptation hypothesis”).



“I would like people to reflect on the importance of the acoustic environment in which dolphins live for the development and maintenance of their communication,” said Dr. La Manna.&nbsp;“Human activities, such as commercial shipping and nautical traffic, can severely affect this fundamental aspect of dolphins’ life.”



Further research is needed to clarify why certain environmental features influence in specific ways dolphins’ signature whistles, and to assess what impact anthropogenic factors have on these animals’ behavior and social communication.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-10920-7#Sec2">Nature Scientific Reports</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

Dolphins have "accents" that vary by region

A new study led by the University of Sassari (UNISS)...

Social power among animal species has usually been characterized as being either male or female dominated. However, a new study published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2022.04.004">Trends in Ecology &amp; Evolution</a> argues that such a binary understanding of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/inequality-among-animals-can-shed-light-on-social-evolution/">inequality</a> in the degree of control or power that members of one sex exert over members of the other sex is too simplistic, failing to properly characterize the complex distribution of power between sexes.&nbsp;



The experts propose a new framework for assessing dominance, which places each species on a continuum, ranging from strict male to strict female dominance.&nbsp;



“Progress in this area has long been hampered by a binary vision of power asymmetries between the sexes, where most species were dominated by males and female dominance was anecdotal. This simplistic view has been reinforced by stereotypes that researchers carry because of the society in which they live and then unconsciously project onto the animals they're studying," explained study senior author Elise Huchard, a behavioral ecologist at the <a href="https://isem-evolution.fr/en/">Institute of Evolutionary Science of Montpellier</a> (ISEM).



According to Dr. Huchard, the distribution of power between the sexes has not been properly quantified in previous studies. By providing a comprehensive definition of intersexual power, together with a framework to measure it across various animal species, the researchers argued that each species could be placed on a continuum from strict male dominance to strict female dominance, so that hypotheses regarding how females or males can empower themselves can be better assessed.



While for males, the path to power seems rather simple and straightforward, involving physical dominance and coercion, for females the methods of establishing social power are more diverse, involving physiological, morphological, behavioral, and socio-ecological routes.&nbsp;



In the case of species where females are dominant, such as bonobos, hyenas, or lemurs, reproductive control (control over when and with which partners to mate) appears to be the main strategy for securing power. This comes in the form of resistance to mating, promiscuity, or even, in the case of hyenas, the evolution of genitals designed specifically for females to control fertilization.



“We hope that this framework will be used to quantify intersexual power in reproductive and social contexts and to facilitate the study and comparison of intersexual power relationships across mammalian societies, perhaps even including humans,” the authors concluded.



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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

Power between the sexes has not been properly quantified

Social power among animal species has usually been characterized as...

Strong friendships between males aren’t very common in the animal kingdom. Instead, males typically compete among themselves for access to females. In some special circumstances though, male friendships can help with <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/gut-molecule-makes-animals-switch-from-eating-to-mating/">mating</a> success. In fact, some manakins depend on males working together to attract females with elaborate cooperative mating displays.&nbsp;



Among other animals, such as baboons, male friends can help each other rise in social status or defend females from another male, which promotes mating success.&nbsp;



Now, researchers from the <a href="https://www.dpz.eu/en/home.html">German Primate Center (DPZ) Leibniz Institute for Primate Research</a> looked into the benefits of male friendships among wild Guinea baboons in Senegal. These baboons are known for strong male social bonds but lack of a clear male hierarchy.



Among these baboons, the core social groups are made of one male with one to six females and their offspring, with the male typically fathering all of the offspring. The females choose a male freely and stay with him for a few weeks to several years. There are also bachelor males who are not usually sexually active. Several of these core groups along with bachelor males make up a “gang” of baboons.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The scientists wanted to know if male baboons with more friends attracted more females due to the possibility of greater levels of protection for the females and their offspring. Contrary to the hypothesis, males with more friends were not more attractive.&nbsp;



The study revealed that males also spent less time with their male friends once they started spending time with a female and especially when they fathered offspring. Males still maintained some friendships, but just adjusted the amount of time they spent with those friends.&nbsp;



To carry out the research, Federica Dal Pesco and her colleagues collected four years of field data. The experts observed the behavior of 30 males and determined paternity of 50 young.&nbsp;



"Contrary to our predictions, we found no evidence that male-male sociality was linked to higher reproductive success. Instead, we observed a strong negative relationship between bond strength and male reproductive success (i.e. number of associated females and paternities)," explained the study authors. "Guinea baboon males that were associated with a higher number of females spent less time affiliating with other males.&nbsp;



"While a number of now classic studies reported a positive relationship between sociality and reproductive success in both males and females across several mammalian and bird species, our results indicate that male-male sociality need not directly translate into increased short-term reproductive success. Instead, males that invest time and energy in relationships with females, at the expense of relationships with males, have the highest reproductive success."



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rspb">Proceedings of the Royal Society B</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Male baboons invest more time in relationships with females

Strong friendships between males aren’t very common in the animal...

A new study led by <a href="https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/">Cardiff University</a> has shed more light on how the tilting and wobbling of the Earth as it orbits around the Sun has influenced the melting of ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere over the past two million years. This phenomenon drives the succession of global ice age cycles.&nbsp;



Scientists have long known that the waxing and waning of the massive ice sheets from the Northern Hemisphere results from changes in the geometry of Earth’s orbit around the Sun.&nbsp;



According to the experts, there are two main aspects of Earth’s geometry that can lead to the melting of ice sheets: obliquity – the angle of the Earth’s tilt as it orbits around the Sun, and precession – the way in which the Earth wobbles as it rotates, like a slightly off-center spinning top. Due to the angle of this wobble, sometimes the Northern Hemisphere and other times the Southern one is closer to the Sun. Thus, about every 10,000 years or so, one hemisphere will have warmer summers compared to the other.



Over the past million years, the combined effects of obliquity and precession on the waxing and waning of Northern ice sheets have resulted, through complex interactions within the climate system, in ice age cycles lasting approximately 100 thousand years. However, scientists have previously argued that, before one million years ago - during a period known as the early Pleistocene - the duration of ice ages (about 41,000 years) was controlled solely by obliquity.&nbsp;



Yet, according to the Cardiff researchers, precession played a significant role during the early Pleistocene too. While warmer summers driven by precession have always caused Northern Hemisphere ice sheets to melt, before one million years ago, these events were less severe and did not lead to a complete collapse of ice sheets.



“Early Pleistocene ice sheets in the northern hemisphere were smaller than their more recent counterparts, and limited to higher latitudes where the effects of obliquity dominate over precession,” explained study lead author Stephen Barker, a professor of Earth Science at Cardiff University. “This probably explains why it has taken so long for us to find evidence of precession forcing during early Pleistocene.”



“Improving our understanding of Earth’s climate dynamics, even in the remote past, is crucial if we hope to predict changes over the next century and beyond. Ongoing changes may be manmade, but there’s only one climate system and we need to understand it,” he concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm4033">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

How Earth’s orbit drives global ice age cycles

A new study led by Cardiff University has shed more...

An international team of researchers set out to determine who should be held accountable for the world's <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/u-s-plastic-recycling-dropped-under-six-percent-in-2021/">plastic</a> packaging waste. According to the paper published in the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jiec.13282">Journal of Industrial Ecology</a>, only 14 percent of plastic waste is recycled.



Study co-author Sandy Dall’erba is a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics (ACE) and director of the Center for Climate, Regional, Environmental and Trade Economics (CREATE) at the <a href="https://illinois.edu/">University of Illinois</a>.&nbsp;



"We wanted to follow the plastic packaging waste embedded in the global supply chain. This work allows us to conclude the problem is a responsibility shared between economic agents, from the producers and their intermediaries to the retail stores and the consumers,” said Dall’erba.



The researchers found that the top producers of plastic package waste are also some of the world's wealthiest countries and biggest consumers, including the United States (19%), Brazil (13%), and China (12%). The experts also found that animal agriculture, the most significant contributor to global climate change, produces a lot of plastic waste.



"High-protein food such as meat, fish, and dairy is a trademark in the Americas and those generate a lot of plastic packaging waste," explained Dall’erba. "For instance, every 1 kg (2.2 lbs.) of fish consumed will lead to an average of about 1.6 kg (2.5 lbs.) waste. This includes plastic bags, trays, and cellophane used to wrap and cover the fish during transportation, storage, and sales.”



Global trade is also a significant contributing factor. The study authors state that 25 percent of plastic packaging waste results from international exports. The researchers acknowledge that plastic is not going anywhere anytime soon. But, we can make changes to produce less waste.&nbsp;



"We need to further develop technologies that make plastics more biodegradable, such as products based on algae," said Dall'ebra, who emphasized that we also need stricter regulations to discourage plastic packaging production and use.



“All agents along the supply chain and final consumers need incentives to reduce plastic use. Some examples are taxes on waste management or refunds for returning plastic bottles,” explained study lead author Xiang Gao, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.



“Other steps include banning of single-use plastic straws, or imposing fees for grocery store plastic bags. Consuming locally grown, seasonal food would help, and so would better transparency about the true recyclability associated with the resin identification code stamped on plastic packaging.”



The researchers concluded that producers and consumers must share responsibility and costs of tackling the increasing burden of plastic packaging waste.



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

Who is responsible for the burden of plastic packaging waste?

An international team of researchers set out to determine who...

A new report from the <a href="https://www.exeter.ac.uk/">University of Exeter</a> emphasizes the need for people to be "the heart of climate action." Given that all <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/our-warming-climate-is-changing-how-animals-hibernate/">climate</a> solutions will involve people in one way or another, the social sciences will have a vital role to play, explained the researchers.&nbsp;



"Achieving the urgent and necessary transformations laid out in the recently published IPCC report will require placing people at the heart of climate action," wrote the study authors.&nbsp;&nbsp;



"Tackling climate change cannot be achieved solely through technological breakthroughs or new climate models. We must build on the strong social science knowledge base and develop a more visible, responsive and interdisciplinary-oriented social science that engages with people and is valued in its diversity by decision-makers from government, industry, civil society and law."



The experts say social science can help to engage people and societies, and to establish a green transition that is both effective and promotes other climate action goals such as equity and fairness. The report is the first paper published by the new Advancing Capacity for Climate and Environment Social Science (ACCESS) program.



"To meet our climate goals, we need both profound societal change and continued technical improvements," said ACCESS team leader Professor Patrick Devine-Wright. "This dual approach can improve people’s quality of life, reduce emissions and ensure thriving economies and ecosystems."



"If people are at the heart of climate action, then understanding and tackling climate change cannot be done by engineers or natural scientists alone. All disciplines need to work together - not least a range of social sciences including political science, sociology, geography and psychology - to find solutions in ways that achieve wider societal goals."



Professor Devine-Wright said this progress should now continue, with the aim of developing more visible, responsive and interdisciplinary social science that engages with people and is valued in its diversity by decision-makers from government, industry, civil society and law.



The report is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/climate/">PLOS Climate</a>.



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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

People must be placed at the heart of climate action

A new report from the University of Exeter emphasizes the...

A newly discovered network of “lost” ancient cities in the Amazon could provide new insight into how ancient civilizations constructed vast urban landscapes while living harmoniously with nature.&nbsp;An international team of researchers uncovered intricate settlements that have been hiding under tree canopies for centuries in the Llanos de Mojos savanna-forest, Bolivia.&nbsp;



The cities, built by the Casarabe communities between 500-1400 AD, feature elaborate and intricate structures unlike any previously discovered in the region. This challenges the view of Amazonia as a historically “pristine” landscape. Instead, Amazonia was home to an early urbanism created and managed by <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/indigenous-people-harvested-oysters-sustainably-for-thousands-of-years/">Indigenous</a> populations for thousands of years.&nbsp;



The cities were built and maintained alongside nature, using sustainable strategies that promoted conservationism and preserved the rich biodiversity of the surrounding landscape.&nbsp;



“We long suspected that the most complex pre-Columbian societies in the whole basin developed in this part of the Bolivian Amazon, but evidence is concealed under the forest canopy and is hard to visit in person," said Professor José Iriarte of the <a href="https://www.exeter.ac.uk/">University of Exeter</a>.



"Our lidar system has revealed built terraces, straight causeways, enclosures with checkpoints, and water reservoirs. There are monumental structures that are just a mile apart connected by 600 miles of canals, long raised causeways connecting sites, reservoirs and lakes."&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Lidar technology combined with extensive archaeological research reveals that Indigenous people not only managed forested landscapes but also created urban landscapes, which can significantly contribute to perspectives on the conservation of the Amazon."&nbsp;&nbsp;



“This region was one of the earliest occupied by humans in Amazonia, where people started to domesticate crops of global importance such as manioc and rice. But little is known about daily life and the early cities built during this period.”&nbsp;



The team used lidar technology to peer through the forest canopy and examine the sites. This revealed the sheer magnitude and magnificence of the civic-ceremonial centres found buried in the forest. The research team suggests that the scale of labor and planning to construct the settlements is comparable only with the Archaic states of the central Andes.&nbsp;



The discovery provides new insight into how ancient urbanism was carried out sustainably and embracing conservationism. For example, seasonally flooded savannas were transitioned into productive agricultural and aquacultural landscapes.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The study shows that the Indigenous people managed forested landscapes and created urban landscapes in tandem. This is evidence of successful, sustainable strategies but also a previously undiscovered cultural-ecological heritage.&nbsp;



“These ancient cities were primary centres of a regional settlement network connected by still visible, straight causeways that radiate from these sites into the landscape for several kilometres. Access to the sites may have been restricted and controlled," said study co-author Dr. Mark Robinson.



“Our results put to rest arguments that western Amazonia was sparsely populated in pre-Hispanic times. The architectural layout of Casarabe culture large settlement sites indicates that the inhabitants of this region created a new social and public landscape."



"The scale, monumentality and labour involved in the construction of the civic-ceremonial architecture, water management infrastructure, and spatial extent of settlement dispersal, compare favourably to Andean cultures and are to a scale far beyond the sophisticated, interconnected settlements of Southern Amazonia.”&nbsp;



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



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By <a href="mailto:katherinebucko@gmail.com">Katherine Bucko</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Lost cities in the Amazon were built in harmony with nature

A newly discovered network of “lost” ancient cities in the...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/hummingbirds-cannot-maintain-an-energetic-lifestyle-at-high-altitudes/">Birds</a> that hunt their prey during the night need special adaptations in order to allow them to see in low light conditions and to judge the distance to obstacles in their flight path as well as the distance to their prey. Although these adaptations have been relatively well studied in nocturnal birds such as owls and nightjars, they have not been investigated in the world’s only nocturnal hawk, the letter-winged kite (Elanus scriptus).



Although some species of hawks (Accipitriformes) and falcons (Falconiformes) can hunt at dusk, the letter-winged kite is the only species that is primarily active at dusk and at night. It inhabits the arid central regions of Australia, avoiding settled areas and towns. This habitat preference, along with the species’ nocturnal activity pattern and nomadic movements, makes&nbsp;E. scriptus&nbsp;rather difficult to observe in the wild.



In the past, there has been speculation that the species is more like an owl than a hawk because it appears to have unusually large eyes that face forwards. Some have suggested that the soft tissues of the eyes resemble those of nocturnal birds more than diurnal species, including the other Australian Elanus species, the black-shouldered kite (Elanus axillaris).&nbsp;



Birds that hunt their prey during the night often show specialized adaptations to their visual systems and skeletons. These anatomical changes include large orbits to accommodate eyes with large retinas that contain many photoreceptors. The eye of a nocturnal raptor also usually has a relatively small optic foramen, the hole in the skull through which the optic nerve travels to the brain. Certain areas of the brain of a nocturnal raptor may also be enlarged to facilitate detailed processing and interpretation of the images received by the eyes.



An international study led by <a href="https://www.flinders.edu.au/">Flinders University</a> has now tested the speculation about the letter-winged kite’s adaptations using computed tomography (CT) scanning techniques to obtain high-resolution images from three specimens, along with 27 other raptor skulls. The skulls, all of which were sourced from museums within Australia, came from 16 raptor species in total, 12 of which belong to the Accipitriformes (hawks, eagles and kites) and the remaining three to the Falconiformes (falcons). The images were used to measure and compare eye socket characteristics, such as the orbit diameter and the optic foramen diameter.&nbsp;



“Letter-winged kites hunt at night and must be able to navigate obstacles in the dark while tracking down their favorite prey, the long-tailed rat,” said Professor Vera Weisbecker. “It has therefore long been speculated that their visual system shows adaptations for seeing in the dark, and particularly that they are similar to owls in having larger eyes than other hawks, and larger image processing centers in the brain.”



Dr. Karine Mardon is an experts in The National Imaging Facility at the University of Queensland Centre for Advanced Imaging. Dr. Mardon scanned the skulls of the birds of prey included in the study, and the researchers then compared 3D reconstructions of the letter-winged kite skulls and brains with those of the other birds of prey.



The results of the analysis revealed that things are not as clear as night and day. There was no difference in the relationship between the orbit and optic foramen diameters for the nocturnal&nbsp;letter-winged kite and its diurnal congeners, the black-winged kite (Elanus caeruleus) and the black-shouldered kite (Elanus axillaris). Elanine kites, as a whole, seem to have relatively large orbit diameters, but relatively small optic foramina compared to other species.



“Contrary to many anecdotal reports, the dimensions of the eye of letter-winged kites were no different to two closely related kites from the same genus – the black-shouldered and the black-winged kites,” said study lead author Aubrey Keirnan, a PhD student in Dr. Weisbecker's lab.



“But there was a twist in the story: we realized that all three kite species had larger orbits relative to their optic foramen, the hole in the back of orbit that the optic nerve passes through. This is often seen in nocturnal birds, where a small number of nerves relay a lot of input from the eye into a high-contrast, low-resolution image.”



“This suggests all&nbsp;Elanus&nbsp;kites may be pretty good at seeing in the dark and not too good at seeing in daylight – but for some reason, only the letter-winged kite has made the move into a nocturnal lifestyle."



According to Dr Weisbecker, this might also explain many reports that the letter-winged kite is particularly active during moonlit nights: “It might not actually be very good at flying in the total dark, unlike many owls.”



The study was co-led by Dr. Andrew Iwaniuk from the University of Lethbridge in Canada. He noted that the use of anatomical observations to infer the species’ behavior was an innovative approach to understanding a bird that is notoriously difficult to observe in the wild.



“The species lives in remote, arid Australia, avoids human settlements and is highly elusive. Population estimates vary between 670 and 6,700 individuals according to the IUCN, and it is currently listed as near-threatened. To conserve the species, it is critical that we understand its behavioral needs and capabilities, but they are extremely difficult to observe," said Dr. Iwaniuk.



“We are extremely lucky to have Australia’s amazing museum collections at our disposal to help us understand this bird without the need to find and disturb the species. For example, the letter-winged kite, and its relatives, might be impacted differently by artificial light sources than other hawks."



Dr. Jeroen Smaers of Stony Brook University said the research perfectly exemplifies how studying variation across many species enlightens our understanding of individual species - an approach that is starting to show its contributions to animal conservation.



“Our work on the letter-winged kite is really just the beginning," said Keirnan. "Our measurements showed that many other birds of prey are quite unique in one aspect or other of their visual system. I am excited to spend my PhD on delving further into how measurement of the visual system can help in the understanding and management of other birds.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.220135">Royal Society Open Science</a>.



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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

The world’s only nocturnal hawk may not see well in the dark

Birds that hunt their prey during the night need special...

Tidal flats fringe the edges of coastal areas and are important ecosystems for plant and animal communities, as well as for people. They include beaches and coastal <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wetlands-are-caught-in-a-battle-between-co2-and-rising-seas/">wetlands</a>, both of which are used extensively for human activities, such as fishing and bathing.&nbsp;



These areas, where the tide rises and falls each day, act as buffer zones between the land and the ocean, and can protect coastal communities from the most severe effects of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, tsunamis and floods. However, urban expansion and ever-increasing pressure from human activity threaten the functionality of these tidal ecosystems, and even their very existence, as people seek new places to occupy and build infrastructure.&nbsp;



About 29 percent&nbsp;of the United States’ population lives in coastline counties – more than 41 million live in Atlantic counties alone. This high population density poses a critical threat to coastal areas because it brings with it intense human activity, some of which is focused on the tidal flat areas. Although several recent studies have found that tidal areas are shrinking due to direct and indirect human activity, there is as yet no unified method for assessing or quantifying the interactions between urban areas and tidal flats on a large scale. At best, research is focused on local areas only and uses different methodological approaches.



Researchers from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fau.edu/">Florida Atlantic University</a>&nbsp;have now developed a novel approach that quantifies patterns of change in tidal flats from a spatiotemporal perspective, using data that has been collected over time. For their study, they analyzed the annual dynamics of three highly urbanized coastal counties in the southeastern U.S., namely Charleston in South Carolina, Chatham in Georgia, and Duval in Florida.&nbsp;



The area under investigation contains several unique environmental settings, including a tidal flat system of more than 3,168 square kilometers that is characterized by numerous sounds, estuaries and wetlands. The researchers identified and quantified the tidal flat losses in these three counties, between 1985 and 2015, that were directly or indirectly associated with urban expansion. Their study is one of the first to investigate correlations between tidal flats and urban areas using this technique.



The data used in this study came from the 30 m annual map collection of urban extent in the U.S., which was derived from Landsat images taken between 1985 and 2015. The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) archives the land cover maps in different time periods throughout the U.S., which provides worthwhile references for urban mapping before 2011. In addition, a set of nighttime light images given by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite was used for analysis of urban extent after 2011. Using a similar approach, data from 30 m annual maps of tidal flat areas in the southeastern U.S. between 1984 and 2020 were also used.&nbsp;



The findings showed that currently, Charleston, SC, has the largest tidal flats (544.87 km2&nbsp;on annual average), followed by Chatham, GA (343.46 km2&nbsp;on annual average), and Duval, FL (89.49 km2&nbsp;on annual average).&nbsp;However, the tidal flats in all three of these counties showed significant shrinkage in area between 2005 and 2015.



The results also showed that the tidal flats are under pressure from urban expansion from both the eastern and western sides. In particular, the western side has been rapidly urbanized during the three decades, giving Duval County the largest new urban areas within two kilometers of the coast. Duval County has experienced more erosion and urban growth than the other two counties and also has much smaller tidal flats than the other two counties. It has the largest newly urbanized area toward the seashore. Compared with the two other counties, Duval County also has a less stable environment of tidal flats, which calls for a higher level of public awareness and concern.



Meanwhile, some suburbs in the two other counties have also been rapidly urbanized, including the eastern and western wings of the city of Charleston and southwestern side of the city of Savannah. These urbanizations would have affected the surrounding tidal flats, with the closest areas experiencing higher environmental pressures.&nbsp;



The researchers found that, in locations where new urban areas overlap with tidal flats, the constant shrinkage of the tidal flats is hysteretic to (lags behind) the accelerated process of urbanization in the coastal area. This hysteresis effect also exists in the restoration and management of ecosystems, and severe damages could result in irreversible changes.



“It takes time to observe the follow-up ecological effects of urban expansion in recent years. Based on our research, the tidal flats in these three counties urgently need a sustainable plan of management in response to the rapid expansion of urban areas,” said study senior author Dr. Weibo Liu.



These results highlight the conflicts between intensified human activities and tidal flat environments. The study authors said that, in order to deal with this environmental crisis, the conflict between human beings and the coastal environment urgently calls for public awareness, as well as effective collaborations between lawmakers, scientists, and local authorities.



“Urban expansion is regarded as one of the major anthropogenic threats to the environment of tidal flats,” said study first author Chao Xu. “While it is challenging to stop the inundation process driven by sea level rise, a more practical solution would be to limit urbanization near the shoreline. This way, tidal flats would be more flexible to migrate toward the inland area.”



The researchers propose that their method could be modified and then usefully applied to assess changes in tidal flat areas around the entire coast of the U.S., and even in other areas of the world.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/journal/earth">Earth</a>.



Image Credit: Florida Atlantic University



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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

Tidal flats are under pressure from urban expansion

Tidal flats fringe the edges of coastal areas and are...

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

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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

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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

[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



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

[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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research&nbsp;



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



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

How the immune system responds to injury

[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



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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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"

[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



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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