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Scientists have long mapped separate brain areas for sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. Yet new research reveals that when we focus sharply on any of those senses, signals converge on the same two structures buried deep in the brain - the midbrain reticular formation and the central thalamus.



This finding highlights a shared neural pathway that sustains <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/our-brain-stops-paying-attention-to-repeated-distractions/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">attention</a> and wakefulness and could inspire therapies for coma, epilepsy, and attention-deficit disorders.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-senses-in-a-single-brain-region">Senses in a single brain region</h2>



Research over the past century has shown that visual scenes activate the occipital cortex, melodies light up the temporal lobes, and so forth.



“We were expecting to find activity on shared networks, but when we saw all the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/our-sense-of-smell-and-different-odors-can-influence-how-we-see-colors/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">senses</a> light up the same central brain regions while a test subject was focusing, it was really astonishing,” said Aya Khalaf, a postdoctoral associate in neurology at <a href="https://medicine.yale.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Yale School of Medicine</a> and lead author of the study.



Those two regions - the reticular formation, a mesh of neurons in the upper brainstem, and the intralaminar and mediodorsal nuclei of the thalamus - form part of the so-called subcortical arousal system, a set of circuits long suspected to regulate alertness and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/consciousness-may-stem-from-unseen-dimensions-beyond-our-reality/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">consciousness</a>.



Previous work had linked these hubs to vigilance by studying patients emerging from coma or experiencing absence seizures. But most of those experiments examined responses to a single type of stimulus, for example flashing lights or chirping sounds.



Khalaf and colleagues asked the broader question: do different senses share the same arousal circuitry when people deliberately pay attention?



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-massive-data-mine">A massive data mine</h2>



To answer that, the team turned to the publicly available <a href="https://www.humanconnectome.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Human Connectome Project</a> and other repositories, assembling functional MRI scans from 1,561 healthy adults.



Across 11 tasks, participants viewed moving shapes, listened to spoken stories, sampled liquid tastants, or felt puffs of air on their fingertips. Each task included abrupt cues that forced subjects to switch attention - for instance, a sudden change in picture orientation or a surprise tone embedded in white noise.



The investigators processed more than 500 hours of scan data through a pipeline that removed head motion and physiological noise, then aligned brain volumes to a common atlas.



In every sensory domain, when a cue demanded rapid attentional re-orientation, blood-oxygen signals spiked in the reticular formation and the central thalamus. The effect was absent or minimal during passive stimulation, underscoring the importance of active engagement.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-consciousness-in-the-brain">Consciousness in the brain</h2>



Why would a taste test and a vision task end up at the same neural address? The authors propose that the midbrain reticular formation integrates sudden sensory changes and broadcasts a “wake-up” volley to the thalamus, which relays it to widespread cortical areas.



That burst synchronizes cortical rhythms, priming the brain to process incoming information. The scheme dovetails with classical animal studies showing that electrical stimulation of the reticular formation induces cortical desynchronization and behavioral arousal, while lesions produce stupor.



“It tells us how important this brain region is and what it could mean in efforts to restore consciousness,” Khalaf said.



“This has also given us insights into how things work normally in the brain. It’s really a step forward in our understanding of awareness and consciousness,” said senior author Hal Blumenfeld, a neurologist at Yale.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-awakening-senses-in-the-brain">Awakening senses in the brain</h2>



Because the same deep-brain hubs fire regardless of which sense is active, treatments aimed at modulating those hubs could benefit diverse conditions.



Drugs that enhance thalamic neurotransmission, for instance, might improve focus in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/autism-and-adhd-disorders-directly-linked-amount-of-time-kids-spend-on-screens/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">attention deficit hyperactivity disorder</a>. Conversely, overactivity in the arousal circuit has been implicated in insomnia; dampening the circuitry could help induce sleep.



The results also support ongoing trials that deliver low-intensity ultrasound or deep-brain electrodes to the central thalamus in patients with disorders of consciousness. 



If attention triggers the thalamus to “switch on” the cortex, stimulating it directly might help rouse patients who are minimally conscious.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-rethinking-sensory-rehabilitation"><a></a>Rethinking sensory rehabilitation</h2>



The discovery challenges sensory-specific training programs that ignore subcortical commonalities. 



For example, visual rehabilitation for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/stroke-risk-is-elevated-by-air-pollution-and-traffic-noise/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stroke</a> survivors may benefit from pairing attentional cues with tactile or auditory tasks to engage the shared arousal pathway.



Likewise, virtual-reality therapies that bombard users with multi-sensory surprises might more effectively sharpen attentional control.



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



The Yale team plans to refine the timeline of activation using magnetoencephalography, which offers millisecond resolution. They also hope to dissect the frequency bands that link the thalamus to frontal and parietal cortices during attentional jumps. 



Such work could reveal whether gamma-band bursts or alpha-band suppression carry the critical “wake-up” message.



Another frontier involves patients. Investigators will compare responses in healthy volunteers with those in people who have attention deficits or who are emerging from anaesthesia. 



Identifying a lost or delayed thalamic spike could serve as a biomarker for impaired consciousness.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-brain-regions-and-the-senses">Brain regions and the senses</h2>



For now, the study establishes the midbrain reticular formation and central thalamus as the universal relay through which sight, sound, taste, and touch gain conscious entry - at least when our minds snap to attention.



By showing that “all the senses light up the same central brain regions,” it confirms that consciousness depends not only on specialized cortical maps but also on a common deep-brain gatekeeper. 



Therapies that target this gatekeeper may eventually help restore awareness where it has dimmed and sharpen it where it wanders.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811925002277?via%3Dihub" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NeuroImage</a>.



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Scientists discover a brain region that connects all the senses

Scientists have long mapped separate brain areas for sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. Yet new research reveals that when we focus sharply on any of those senses, signals converge on the same two structures buried deep in the brain - the midbrain reticular formation and the central thalamus. This finding highlights a shared neural pathway that sustains attention and wakefulness and could inspire therapies for coma, epilepsy, and attention-deficit disorders. Senses in a single brain region Research over the past century has shown that visual scenes...

A new study led by <a href="https://www.gsu.edu/">Georgia State University</a> has found that, similarly to humans, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/snow-monkeys-go-fishing-to-survive-during-the-winter/">monkeys</a> can become stressed when they need to perform in high-pressure situations. Thus, the phenomenon of “choking under pressure” does not seem to be a consequence of humans’ advanced cognitive skills coupled with societal pressures, as scientists previously thought, but rather a phylogenetically older response shared by other animals.



In order to assess if non-human primates experience such phenomena, the researchers built an experimental protocol involving tufted capuchin monkeys living in groups at Georgia State’s <a href="https://lrc.gsu.edu/">Language Research Center</a>. The monkeys were given a computerized matching task with some trials typical in difficulty and others cued to be harder, and having higher rewards and timeout consequences for wrong answers.



The scientists found that there was significant variation in how individual monkeys responded to the trials when the difference in difficulty was removed, suggesting that, for some monkeys, the pressures related to high stakes significantly impacted performance.



“There are several different explanations for why humans might ‘choke’ or ‘thrive’ under pressure, but all of these explanations have traditionally considered this sensitivity to pressure to be a human-specific trait,” said study lead author Meg Sosnowski, a doctoral student at Georgia State University.



“Our new results provide the first evidence that other species also might be susceptible to this influence of pressure, and that our responses to that pressure are, in part, the result of individual variation in an evolutionarily common stress response.”



The scientists also discovered that levels of cortisol (a naturally occurring biomarker of stress) were strongly related to the monkeys’ performance. Higher levels of cortisol were associated with a lower ability to successfully complete the high-pressure tasks, adding evidence to the hypothesis that an individual’s long-term stress state can impact cognitive performance.



“This opens the door not just to explore how responses to pressure might have impacted the evolution of cognition, but also provides clues pointing us to potential avenues that might mitigate performance deficits, both in humans and in other species,” concluded Sosnowski.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-04986-6">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

Monkeys, like humans, can “choke under pressure”

A new study led by Georgia State University has found...

An international team of paleontologists has recently described a new species of titanosaur <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/two-new-predatory-dinosaurs-found-on-the-isle-of-wight/">dinosaur</a> (Abditosaurus kuehnei) that was discovered at the Orcau-1 site in the southern Pyrenees in Catalonia, Spain. 



The 70.5-million-year-old fossils represent the most complete specimen of this herbivorous group of dinosaurs discovered in Europe, and the largest titanosaur species found in the Ibero-Armorican island (a prehistoric region which nowadays comprises Iberia and the south of France), measuring 17.5 meters in length and weighing 14,000 kg.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Low-Res_Imatge-1.-Abditosaurus.jpg.png" alt="" class="wp-image-1903466"/><figcaption>Image Credit: Oscar Sanisidro / Museu de la Conca Dellà</figcaption></figure>



The first remains of this dinosaur were found in 1954 by German paleontologist Walter Kühne, and fieldwork conducted over the next decades unearthed a total of 53 skeletal elements, including several teeth, vertebrae, ribs, limb, scapular, and pelvic bones, and a semi-articulated fragment of the neck.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Titanosaurs are a group of sauropod dinosaurs which became very diverse and abundant in the Upper Cretaceous period (between 83 and 66 million years ago). They were quadrupeds and phytophagous, with a small, pointed skull, and nail-shaped teeth used to uproot vegetation. 



Since Europe was a large archipelago consisting of dozens of islands during the Upper Cretaceous, and thus provided limited food resources to their inhabitants, the titanosaurs living there were usually smaller than the specimen discovered in the Pyrenees.



“Titanosaurs from the Upper Cretaceous of Europe tend to be small or medium-sized due to their evolution in insular conditions,” explained study lead author Bernat Vila, a paleontologist at the <a href="https://www.icp.cat/index.php/ca/">Catalan Institute of Paleontology Miquel Crusafont</a> (ICP). 



“It is a recurring phenomenon in the history of life on Earth, we have several examples worldwide in the fossil record of this evolutionary trend. That’s why we were astonished by the large dimensions of this specimen.”



Due to its large size, Dr. Vila and his colleagues hypothesize that Abditosaurus belongs to a group of massive saltasaurine titanosaurs from South America and Africa, and that its lineage reached the Ibero-Armorican island taking advantage of a global drop in sea level which reactivated migration routes between Africa and Europe.



“During the Jurassic and Cretaceous, Iberia was the point of connection between Eurasia, Africa, and North America. Studying how Abditosaurus relates to the fauna of these continents helps us to understand when there were connections between them, and when they became isolated,” concluded study co-author Miguel Moreno-Asanza.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-021-01651-5">Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution</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

Enormous Titanosaur discovered in the Pyrenees

An international team of paleontologists has recently described a new...

According to a new study led by the <a href="https://www.exeter.ac.uk/">University of Exeter</a>, the “<a href="https://ukcop26.org/breakthrough-agenda-launching-an-annual-global-checkpoint-process-in-2022/">Breakthrough Agenda</a>” recently agreed upon at the international climate change summit <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cop26-deal-failure-or-historic-achievement/">COP26</a> could help trigger positive tipping points to mitigate the climate crisis. At this summit, leaders from all over the globe pledged to “make clean technologies and sustainable solutions the most affordable, accessible, and attractive option in each emitting sector globally before 2030.”&nbsp;



Such a pledge marks a key shift in thinking. Instead of focusing directly on greenhouse gas emissions targets, this strategy aims to tip economic sectors into new states in which the “green,” sustainable options are the cheapest and easiest to implement. Finding such “positive tipping points” could trigger self-reinforcing feedbacks that can accelerate systemic change.



“The only way we can get anywhere near our global targets on key issues like carbon emissions and biodiversity is through positive tipping points,” said study lead author Tim Lenton, the director of the&nbsp;<a href="https://gsiexeter.co.uk/">Global Systems Institute</a>&nbsp;(GSI) at the University of Exeter.



“The challenges are enormous – we need to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, and reverse biodiversity loss to make our impact 'nature-positive.' The Breakthrough Agenda is the first time a large group of countries has agreed joint climate change goals in the form of economic tipping points.”



According to Professor Lenton and his colleagues, tipping points can be triggered by coalitions of committed individuals and, in order to function, need enabling conditions such as the declining price of a green technology. Such combinations of cost and public attitude have already helped to trigger tipping points in the electric vehicles and solar energy sectors, which are both rapidly advancing around the world.



Another positive tipping point that can soon be triggered is related to the growth and uptake of plant-based diets, including <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/kfc-is-launching-a-plant-based-chicken-product/">meat substitutes</a>.&nbsp;



“Policymakers have a critical role in triggering the shift away from meat-rich diets, for example by investing the trillions of dollars of public R&amp;D spend into the development of plant-based and cell-based meat and dairy alternatives, and by directing the trillions of dollars of public procurement spend towards these products to stimulate demand and drive down costs,” said study co-author Scarlett Benson, a researcher at the global sustainability consultancy <a href="https://www.systemiq.earth/">SYSTEMIQ</a>.



Positive tipping points can help counter widespread feelings of disempowerment in the face of global crises, and offer possibilities for everyone to get involved in solving them. “These changes often start with small groups of people with a big idea. These can become networks of change that grow into large movements with a major impact,” concluded Professor Lenton.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/sus.2021.30">Global Sustainability</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

COP26 agenda could initiate positive climate tipping points

According to a new study led by the University of...

Scientists at <a href="https://www.osu.edu/">Ohio State University</a> have made some new discoveries while tracking eastern whip-poor-wills with GPS tags during their annual migrations. Although the birds come from many places - ranging from northern Wisconsin to southern Ontario - they all follow the same pathway south to their wintering grounds in Mexico and Central America. In fact, the birds stick relatively close as they travel. 



The research, which was led by OSU graduate student Aaron Skinner, showed that the eastern whip-poor-will population was concentrated within 300 miles of each other in Oklahoma, Arkansas and East Texas during a single day.&nbsp;



Being all in one area leaves the birds vulnerable to a single threat. This is particularly concerning because the eastern whip-poor-will population has already dropped by 70 percent in recent years.&nbsp;



“About half of the entire population of whip-poor-wills breed in the Midwest, and our findings indicate their migration south is very synchronized," explained study co-author Professor Christopher Tonra.&nbsp;



"That suggests we have to protect the forested habitat in that small area of Oklahoma, Arkansas and east Texas, which is a vital migratory stopover. And we must find ways to protect the birds as they all move through the highly urbanized areas of east Texas.”



The whip-poor-will is an iconic nocturnal bird, seldom seen but known (and named) for its unique call. For the investigation, the scientists captured and tagged birds from five breeding areas in four states: Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio and Missouri.&nbsp;



The birds were fitted with GPS tags that tracked their movements, and were recaptured for data collection when they returned the next year. Out of 115 whip-poor-wills that were tagged in 2017 and 2019, 52 individuals yielded useful data.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Professor Tonra noted that while the overall population of whip-poor-wills is in decline, populations in some breeding areas in the United States are relatively stable, and other populations have disappeared altogether.



This fact, coupled with the finding that nearly all the birds wintered in the same area, suggest that whip-poor-wills may face their greatest challenges here in their U.S. breeding grounds, said Professor Tonra.&nbsp;



“If the wintering grounds were the major problem, we should see similar population declines in all their different breeding areas, which is not what is happening,” he explained.



The experts speculate that one issue could dwindling insect populations across some U.S. breeding sites. Whip-poor-wills are insectivores that eat moths, fireflies,&nbsp; beetles, and other flying insects.&nbsp;



The research is an important step toward understanding and hopefully halting the decline of the eastern whip-poor-will.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“I associate whip-poor-wills with camping in eastern forests and hearing them call through the night,” said Professor Tonra. “The idea of them disappearing is very alarming, and we’re trying to learn more about what may be causing their decline.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14724642">Diversity and Distributions</a>.



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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

Synchronized migration could endanger the eastern whip-poor-will

Scientists at Ohio State University have made some new discoveries...

Many animals carry weapons that are overly large and impressive, seeming to represent more a case of overkill than a genuine need for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/protected-areas-are-highly-effective-for-wildlife-conservation/">protection</a>. Indeed, these weapons would be heavy and metabolically expensive for the animal to carry around and maintain. Whether they are giant horns, spreading antlers, claws, pincers or tusks, there is a disadvantage to the individual that has to look after these large weapons.



For example, in clawed crustaceans, such as shrimps, lobsters, and crabs, their weapons can weigh more than a third of the animal’s body mass. That tissue has to be fed with nutrients and oxygen, and maintained in fighting condition, which uses up some of the animal’s energy budget, even when it is sitting absolutely still.



“Some animals can spend 40 percent of their energy budget for the day just maintaining themselves sitting there doing nothing,” said Jason Dinh, Ph.D. candidate in Biology at <a href="https://duke.edu/">Duke University</a>, and author of a new study that shows animal weapons can be a lot like plastic guns: impressive on the outside, but ultimately cheap. “It's a very slow and steady cost that's happening throughout the animal’s adult life."



Bigger animals often have disproportionately large weapons that would be very costly to maintain. However, it seems that appearances may be deceptive in the case of these outsized weapons. Although soft tissues, such as muscles, require lots of energy to remain viable, the chitin that forms the main component of a crab’s pincer is inert and low maintenance. It is the same for structures made of keratin, including rhino horns, bird feathers, claws and fingernails – they look threatening but cost almost nothing to maintain.&nbsp;



In the recent study, Dinh used two species of snapping shrimps and one species of fiddler crab to test whether the animals were building their weapons out of metabolically cheap tissues, such as chitin. He compared the ratio of soft, expensive tissue to cheap exoskeleton in the weapons present in each species. He was particularly interested in whether this ratio was the same in small and large weapons.&nbsp;



His results, published today in the journal <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsbl">Biology Letters</a>, showed that the larger the weapon, the higher the proportion of exoskeleton it contained. In other words, large weapons were not packed with metabolically costly tissues but were instead constructed rather on the cheap. Clearly, these animals were cheating.



Even when comparing similar-sized individuals within a species, some can have markedly exaggerated weapons. Dinh looked at the relationship between exaggeration and the ratio of soft tissue to exoskeleton and found that, regardless of body size, exaggerated weapons also had disproportionately more exoskeleton. Once again, they were mostly show and little substance.&nbsp;



“These individuals with exaggerated claws are pretty good at deceiving their opponents,” said Dinh. “Their opponents have trouble assessing whether they're bigger, stronger, or simply have an exaggerated claw.”



This does not imply that an exaggerated weapon is useless. To the contrary, larger weapons still have advantages. Dinh explained that among fiddler crabs who pinch and push each other, a bigger claw may have advantages in combat. In snapping shrimps, which fight by throwing extremely high-pressure bubbles at each other, larger claws may also present an advantage.



“It’s a way animals can deceive, but they can also improve their performance during these fights, and apparently they can do it in a really cheap way,” said Dinh.



Animal battles are usually not fought to the death but consist of a series of ritualized displays that aim to intimidate an opponent into submission and retreat. In these circumstances, an animal with an outsized but cheaply built weapon may escape detection. Cheating clearly pays in these cases.&nbsp;



And if an opponent really did enter into violent combat and a crab or shrimp lost its outsized claw, it could simply grow a replacement.



“We think of these weapons and ornaments as honest indicators of how good of a fighter an individual is, but animals seem to be able to play these nice physiological tricks to really cheaply deceive or exaggerate how strong they are during these fights, and it’s primarily by using cheap tissues instead of muscles," said Dinh.



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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

In animal conflicts, large weapons may be designed for deception

Many animals carry weapons that are overly large and impressive,...

Young people can add years onto their life expectancy through dietary changes, according to a new study published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/">PLOS Medicine</a>. The experts report that a young adult in the United States can add more than a decade to their life by shifting away from a typical Western diet to a healthy diet with more legumes, whole grains and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/eat-a-handful-of-walnuts-every-day-for-better-heart-health/">nuts</a>.&nbsp;



The researchers analyzed data from existing studies, such as the Global Burden of Diseases study, to build a model that instantly estimates the impact of dietary changes on life expectancy. The results show that healthy diets, including less red or processed meat, could also extend the lives of adults by eight years.&nbsp;



“Research until now have shown health benefits associated with separate food group or specific diet patterns but given limited information on the health impact of other diet changes. Our modeling methodology has bridged this gap," said study lead author Lars Fadnes of the University of Bergen.



For young adults in the United States, the model estimates that a sustained shift from a typical Western diet to the optimal diet beginning at age 20 would increase life expectancy by up to 10.7 years among women and 13 years among men.&nbsp;



Adopting a healthy diet at age 60 could increase life expectancy by eight years for women, and by 8.8 years for men. Furthermore, an 80-year-old adult could gain an average of 3.4 years from such dietary changes.



The largest gains in life expectancy are associated with eating more legumes, more whole grains, and more nuts, while eating less red or processed meat.&nbsp;



Each year, dietary risk factors are estimated to cause 11 million deaths and 255 million disability-adjusted life-years annually. The new model makes it possible to instantly calculate how life expectancy (LE) is affected by a range of dietary changes. This tool, called the <a href="https://food4healthylife.org/">Food4HealthyLife calculator</a>, is available to the public online.&nbsp;



“Understanding the relative health potential of different food groups could enable people to make feasible and significant health gains,” said the researchers. “The Food4HealthyLife calculator could be a useful tool for clinicians, policy makers, and lay-people to understand the health impact of dietary choices.”



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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

Dietary changes can add years to your life expectancy

Young people can add years onto their life expectancy through...

A new worldwide survey of over 250,000 mountain glaciers has revised earlier estimates of glacial ice volume. The results suggest that there is 20 percent less ice available in the world’s glaciers than previously thought. These findings have important implications for estimates of freshwater availability, as well as for climate models taking into account the relation between glacier melting and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/venice-faces-an-uncertain-fate-due-to-sea-level-rise/">sea level rise</a>. 



A research team led by the <a href="https://www.ige-grenoble.fr/-English-">Institute of Environmental Geosciences (IGE)</a> in France and <a href="https://home.dartmouth.edu/">Dartmouth College</a> in the United States has studied more than 800,000 pairs of satellite images of glaciers acquired in 2017 and 2018 by NASA’s Landsat-8 and the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites. The data, which was processed using over one million hours of computation at IGE, comprises information about 98 percent of the world’s glaciers, including large ice caps, narrow alpine glaciers, slow valley glaciers, and fast tidewater glaciers.



“We generally think about glaciers as solid ice that may melt in the summer, but ice actually flows like thick syrup under its own weight,” said study senior author Mathieu Morlighem, a professor of Earth Sciences at Dartmouth. “The ice flows from high altitude to lower elevations where it eventually turns to water. Using satellite imagery, we are able to track the motion of these glaciers from space at the global scale and, from there, deduce the amount of ice all around the world.”



According to the scientists, the world’s glaciers contain about 20 percent less ice than initially thought. These findings fundamentally change projections for climate-driven <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sea-levels-are-rising-at-an-alarming-rate/#:~:text=Through%20ocean%20measurements%2C%20satellite%20observations,melting%20of%20Arctic%20sea%20ice.">sea level rises</a>. The new estimate reduces the potential for glacial contribution to sea level rise by approximately three inches, revising downwards the projected number from 13 to 10 inches.&nbsp;



While this may seem good news to many, the researchers stress the fact that comparing global differences with previous estimates is only one side of the picture. “If you start looking locally, then the changes are even larger. To correctly project the future evolution of glaciers, capturing fine details is much more important than just the total volume,” Professor Morlighem explained.



&nbsp;The research findings suggest that many of the world’s glaciers are shallower than previously estimated. In South America’s tropical Andes Mountains, for example, there is nearly a quarter less ice than previously thought. This means that there is up to 23 percent less freshwater stored in an area on which millions of people depend to get their water supplies.



“Many regions around the world have less ice than we thought, and it will have implications for millions of people,” Professor Molighem said. “Drinking water, power generation, and agriculture are among the essential services that will be impacted by these findings.”



Further research is needed to clarify the evolution of glaciers in various parts of the world, and assess the potential impact their potential melting due to global warming might have on sea level rises and freshwater availability.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-021-00885-z">Nature Geosciences</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

The world’s glaciers contain less ice than previously thought

A new worldwide survey of over 250,000 mountain glaciers has...

A new study published by <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/">Frontiers</a> highlights the need for better mapping of peatland ecosystems and peatland fires, along with regular pre-and post-fire ground measurements. The researchers also emphasize the need for stricter <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/tree-rings-reveal-the-carbon-storage-capacity-of-a-forest/">forest</a> and peatland protection policies, especially considering that their environmental impacts have been underestimated.



Global demand for wood and foods, such as soy beans, palm oil and beef, is known to fuel the deforestation of rainforests in countries such as Brazil and Indonesia. Felling these forests to make space for croplands, pastures and plantations removes the trees that would otherwise absorb and store carbon. This process also involves burning the indigenous vegetation to the ground, and even below the ground.



Although visual images of deforestation fires raging in the Amazon have become more common in the media, calculations of the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reaching the atmosphere due to deforestation fires have been varied and contradictory.&nbsp;



Now, Dr. Ramanan Krishnamoorti of the University of Houston has quantified the GHG emissions associated with the 2019 and 2020 deforestation fires in Brazil and Indonesia. The study also considered the contribution from the burning of peatlands - dense, waterlogged ecosystems that underlie many of the rainforests in these two countries.



“The impact that human activities are causing in forests, especially in critical ecosystems like peatlands, is not well communicated to the general audience,” explained Dr. Krishnamoorti.



“During the 2019 fire season in Indonesia and Brazil, we observed a wide range of numbers being quoted in scientific and media communications."&nbsp;



“We wanted to understand the basis of these numbers but ran into challenges accessing the data. That led us to analyze the sources of measurement and errors, how the errors are compounded over time, and their impact on policies.”



The researchers used publicly available data for deforestation in Brazil and Indonesia to estimate the total GHG impact of deforestation fires in 2019 and 2020. They analyzed available data from all Indonesian provinces, and the Legal Amazon and Pantanal regions in Brazil. They accounted for emissions from the burning of above-ground biomass, as well as from the peat soils and dry matter in peatlands.&nbsp;



In Brazil, a total of 11,088 km2&nbsp;of forest were destroyed between August 2019 and July 2020. In 2019, Indonesia lost 31,000 km2&nbsp;of forest to deforestation fires. Many of these fires burned in carbon-rich peatland ecosystems.



Peatlands are wetland ecosystems in which&nbsp;waterlogged conditions prevent plant material from fully decomposing. Instead, it accumulates and becomes a dense layer of carbon-rich organic matter. Peatlands are known to store and sequester more carbon than any other type of terrestrial ecosystem.&nbsp;



In the humid tropics, peat forms under conditions of high precipitation and high temperature such as are found in Brazil’s Amazon and in the rainforests of Indonesia. In these locations, peatlands underlie the rainforest trees and are exposed when the forests are cleared.&nbsp;



During deforestation fires, peat ignites and burns, often underground. Peatland fires can smolder for weeks, as the dense organic matter slowly combusts. The stored carbon gets released into the atmosphere as CO2, along with other GHGs such as carbon monoxide (CO) and methane (CH4). The accompanying smoke causes a haziness of fine particulate matter that contributes to air pollution and affects wildlife and human health.



The results of the analysis, published today in <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/climate/sections/climate-services">Frontiers in Climate</a>, show that Brazil and Indonesia collectively emitted nearly 2 gigatons of CO2 equivalents (<a href="https://climatepolicyinfohub.eu/glossary/co2eq">CO2e</a>) in 2019 and 1 gigaton CO2e in 2020 from the combustion of above-ground biomass.&nbsp;



However, when the researchers included the emissions from deforestation fires in peatlands, the combined GHG impact in both countries increased to 3.65 gigatons CO2e in 2019 and 1.89 gigatons CO2e in 2020.&nbsp;This represents an increase of around 200 percent from the emissions generated by burning above-ground biomass alone.&nbsp;



The results indicate that burning peatlands contributed to between 40 and 60 percent of the GHG emission impact caused by deforestation fires, in those two countries. This implies that previous estimations underrepresented the contribution of these slow-burning fires in peat ecosystems.&nbsp;



In total, deforestation fires in Brazil and Indonesia accounted for three and seven percent, respectively, of the planet’s total greenhouse gas emissions in 2019 and 2020,&nbsp;reports the study.



“Monitoring and measurement challenges in peatlands lead to an underestimation of the true impact of deforestation fires. Since these estimates form the basis of the policy response from national governments, it results in inadequate attention to forest and peatland protection as part of climate crisis mitigation efforts,” said Krishnamoorti.



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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 true impact of peatland fires has been underestimated

A new study published by Frontiers highlights the need for...

Since light limits the productivity of algae, few nutrients reach the depths of the permanently ice-covered Arctic Ocean. However, a team of scientists led by the <a href="https://www.mpi-bremen.de/en/Home.html">Max Plank Institute for Marine Microbiology</a> has recently discovered surprisingly rich and densely populated ecosystems on the peaks of extinct underwater volcanoes in the Arctic, consisting of giant sponge gardens.



“Thriving on top of extinct volcanic seamounts of the Langseth Ridge we found massive sponge gardens, but did not know what they were feeding on,” said the chief scientist of the expedition Antje Boetius, an expert in Deep-Sea Ecology and Technology at the Max Planck Institute.



By analyzing samples collected during the expedition, the scientists discovered that the sponge gardens adapted to their nutrient-poor environment by accommodating complex communities of microorganisms in symbiotic relationships, and forming so-called “sponge holobionts.” These microbial symbionts contribute to the health and nutrition of the sponges by producing antibiotics, transferring nutrients, and disposing of excretions.&nbsp;



According to the researchers, thousands of years ago, substances seeping from the interior of the seabed were supporting a rich ecosystem, home to a large diversity of animals. When they died, their remnants remained, forming the food base of the current sponge population.



“Our analysis revealed that the sponges have microbial symbionts that are able to use old organic matter. This allows them to feed on the remnants of former, now extinct inhabitants of the seamounts, such as the tubes of worms composed of protein and chitin and other trapped detritus,” explained study first author Teresa Morganti, a marine scientist at the Max Planck Institute.&nbsp;



In addition, the sponges seem to act as ecosystem engineers, producing spicules that form a mat on which they crawl, and which traps particles and biogenic materials. The symbiotic microbes can digest refractory particulate and dissolved organic matter and use it as a carbon and nitrogen source. Thus, with the help of their symbionts, the sponges can tap into this detrital matter, utilizing it as a food source.



Since the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/arctic-ecosystems-are-endangered-by-global-warming/">Arctic</a> is one of the most affected regions by climate change, these sponge communities are in need of immediate protection. 



“With sea-ice cover rapidly declining and the ocean environment changing, a better knowledge of hotspot ecosystems is essential for protecting and managing the unique diversity of these Arctic seas under pressure,” concluded Professor Boetius.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28129-7">Nature Communications</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

Giant sponge gardens found deep in the Arctic Ocean

Since light limits the productivity of algae, few nutrients reach...

Thanks to groundbreaking technology developed by the <a href="https://www.epfl.ch/en/">Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne</a> (EPFL) in collaboration with the <a href="https://www.lausanneuniversityhospital.com/">Lausanne University Hospital</a> (CHUV), three paraplegics have now been able to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/lack-of-sleep-changes-how-you-walk/">walk</a>, swim, and cycle again, after years of inactivity cased by their illness. The new technology consists of spinal cord implants controlled by artificial intelligence software that employs electrical stimulation to reactivate spinal neurons which control trunk and leg muscles.



“Our stimulation algorithms are still based on imitating nature,” said study senior author Grégoire Courtine, a neuroscientist at EPFL and CHUV. “And our new, soft implanted leads are designed to be placed underneath the vertebrae, directly on the spinal cord. They can modulate the neurons regulating specific muscle groups. By controlling these implants, we can activate the spinal cord like the brain would do naturally to have the patient stand, walk, swim or ride a bike, for example.”&nbsp;



The researchers implanted the leads into the patients’ spinal cords, and inserted a pacemaker into their stomach, which they connected to a tablet able to forward a variety of signals to the pacemaker, which in turn activated spinal cord neurons responsible for specific types of movements.&nbsp;



Until now, three paraplegics with complete sensorimotor paralysis have successfully tested the system as part of an ongoing clinical trial. Within a single day, the implants controlled by the stimulation programs enabled the participants to stand, walk, cycle, swim, and control their trunk movements.&nbsp;



“That’s thanks to the specific stimulation programs we wrote for each type of activity,” explained Professor Courtaine. “Patients can select the desired activity on the tablet, and the corresponding protocols are relayed to the pacemaker in the abdomen.”



While the progress these patients achieved in a single day is amazing, the gains visible in a few months of using the new device are even more astonishing. After following a training regimen based on the stimulation programs, the three paraplegics were able to regain muscle mass, move around more independently, and participate in social activities such as having a drink while standing at a bar.



“This study further demonstrates the benefits of our approach,” said Professor Courtine. “We’re now working with&nbsp;<a href="http://onwd.com/">ONWARD Medical</a>, which recently listed on Euronext, to turn our discoveries into genuine treatments that can improve the lives of thousands of people around the world.”



The new technology and its results are described in an article published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01663-5">Nature Medicine</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

Groundbreaking new technology helps paraplegics move again

Thanks to groundbreaking technology developed by the Swiss Federal Institute...

A recent study led by the <a href="https://www.anu.edu.au/">Australian National University</a> (ANU) has argued that ancient giant mountain ranges as high as the Himalayas and stretching up to 8,000 kilometers across entire supercontinents may have played a crucial role in the emergence and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/what-role-did-meat-eating-play-in-human-evolution/">evolution</a> of life on Earth. According to the scientists, the erosion of these supermountains has provided essential nutrients to the oceans while boosting oxygen levels in the atmosphere – which are both necessary ingredients for life to emerge and thrive.



The researchers found that the largest of these supermountains only formed twice in our planet’s history – the first between 2,000 and 1,800 million years ago (called the “Nuna Supermountain”), and the second one between 650 and 500 million years ago (the “Transgondwanan Supermountain”). While the Nuna Supermountain corresponded to the emergence of eukaryotes (the ancestors of plants and animals), the Transgondwanan marked the appearance of large animals 575 million years ago and the Cambrian explosion 45 million years later, when an amazing diversity of animal species emerged and rapidly proliferated.



“What’s stunning is the entire record of mountain building through time is so clear. It shows these two huge spikes: one is linked to the emergence of animals and the other to the emergence of complex big cells,” said study co-author&nbsp;Jochen Brocks, a professor of Earth Sciences at ANU.



According to Professor Brocks and his colleagues, when these supermountains eroded they most probably provided essential nutrients such as phosphorous or iron to the oceans, promoting new biological cycles and driving life on our planet to new levels of complexity. Furthermore, these supermountains may also have boosted oxygen levels in the atmosphere, which was necessary for complex forms of life to breathe.&nbsp;



“The early Earth’s atmosphere contained almost no oxygen. Atmospheric oxygen levels are thought to have increased in a series of steps, two of which coincide with the supermountains,” explained study lead author Ziyi Zhu, a doctoral candidate at ANU.&nbsp;“The increase in atmospheric oxygen associated with the erosion of the Transgondwanan Supermountain is the largest in Earth's history and was an essential prerequisite for the appearance of animals.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



Between these two major evolutionary events, there is no evidence of the formation of other supermountains. “The time interval between 1,800 and 800 million years ago is known as the Boring Billion, because there was little or no advance in evolution,” said study co-author Ian Campbell, an emeritus professor of Geochemistry and Geochronology at ANU.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“The slowing of evolution is attributed to the absence of supermountains during that period, reducing the supply of nutrients to the oceans. This study gives us markers, so we can better understand the evolution of early, complex life.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0012821X22000279?dgcid=author#!">Earth and Planetary Science Letters</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

Supermountains were essential for the evolution of life on Earth

A recent study led by the Australian National University (ANU)...

In a new study from <a href="https://www.ucsb.edu/">UC Santa Barbara</a>, experts have investigated a deadly fungal <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/pigs-are-highly-resistant-to-sars-cov-2-infection/">infection</a> called chytridiomycosis that has been killing amphibians all over the world for decades. The research represents the most comprehensive study to date of the devastating amphibian disease in the Mediterranean region of Baja California.&nbsp;



Amphibians are already severely threatened by invasive species, habitat loss, climate change and pollution. In an effort to safeguard these endangered animals, the scientists have analyzed many aspects of chytridiomycosis, including its origin, genetics, and impact. The findings indicate that the disease is more prevalent on the Baja peninsula than in similar areas of Southern California.



“Contrary to what we had expected, what’s going on in Baja California is very different than what’s going on with chytrid fungus in Southern California, where the species are pretty much the same, and the environment is very similar," said study lead author Andrea Adams.



Chytrids are a large group of soil-dwelling fungi that are typically harmless. Two species of chytrids, however, have evolved to infect the skin of amphibians. In animals with severe infections, the skin responds by thickening. This can be very detrimental because frogs not only "drink through their skin,” but also exchange salts and minerals this way. For many amphibians, thicker skin can be deadly.&nbsp;



The researchers set out to investigate the environmental and biological factors that influence chytrid infection in Baja California, particularly at different elevations.&nbsp;



“We knew chytrid was here, but we didn’t know how it was affecting different species or which variables mattered most,” said study co-author Anny Peralta-García, director of Conservación de Fauna del Noroeste, a nonprofit organization dedicated to research and conservation in Baja California.



“We found that when it comes to chytrid infection, the most important things are where you live and who you are,” said Adams. The team found that chytrid infections were more common and more intense at higher elevations. This is because the environment is cooler and holds more moisture - conditions that are just right for the fungus to thrive.



According to the experts, some species are also more susceptible to the infection than others. For example, the California red-legged frog was among the most infected.



While the researchers found that 68 percent of animals they surveyed in Baja California had the fungus, only 15 percent of amphibians were infected in Southern California. “In Baja California, we found that 99 percent of the California red-legged frogs at the highest-elevation site were infected,” said Adams.



The disease was not only was not only more prevalent in Baja - the infected animals also carried a higher pathogen load. The chytrid fungus has evolved over time, and more virulent or infectious strains could emerge in different locations.



“Right now, our main focus is trying to increase populations of California red-legged frogs in Baja California and Southern California,” said Peralta-García.



“Anny and I are actually doing very similar things,” said Adams. “We are both working to find the best ways to bring these frogs back to places they’ve disappeared from, and we learn a lot from each other.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.journals.elsevier.com/global-ecology-and-conservation">Global Ecology and Conservation</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

Fungal disease is wiping out amphibians in Baja California

In a new study from UC Santa Barbara, experts have...

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

[sendtonews key="LvS8v8bp9z-2564889-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



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



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

Kainji Lake in north central Nigeria

[sendtonews key="iuA5mpp3jv-1641775-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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



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

Designing crops that can beat the heat

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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

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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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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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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