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Illustration,Concept,Of,A,Fleet,Of,Internet,Starlink,Satellites,In

Space is usually quiet at the frequencies that radio telescopes prize most. Over the last two years, however, scientists listening for whispers from the infant universe keep hearing radio signals from a loud new neighbor: SpaceX’s Starlink fleet.



<a href="https://staffportal.curtin.edu.au/staff/profile/view/steven-tingay-167822b3/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Steven Tingay</a> of Curtin University and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (<a href="https://www.icrar.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ICAR</a>) led the team that traced the interference back to nearly 2,000 satellites using a prototype station of the Square Kilometre Array‑Low (<a href="https://www.skao.int/en/explore/telescopes/ska-low" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SKA‑Low</a>) in Western Australia.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-starlink-radio-noise-blocks-cosmic-signals">Starlink radio noise blocks cosmic signals</h2>



Radio telescopes hunt for the faint glow of <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.07250" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">neutral hydrogen</a>, a gas that filled space before the first stars switched on. Those signals arrive on Earth at strengths a thousand times weaker than a modern phone tower.



Even unplanned emissions from orbit can wipe them out. The survey found that unintended <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/largest-ever-map-of-the-universe-reveals-800000-galaxies/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">satellite</a> leakage can match the brightest natural radio sources seen from Earth, which is enough to bury data at key hydrogen frequencies.



“It’s like taking the strongest sources in the sky and putting a bunch more artificial ones in, then making them move around a lot,” described Tingay.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-desert-telescope-tracks-starlink-leaks">Desert telescope tracks Starlink leaks</h2>



The team pointed 256 dipole antennas across a 35‑meter (115-foot) patch of desert known for its radio silence. 



Across 29 days they recorded 2,446,692 full‑sky images spanning 24 frequencies between 73 and 235 megahertz.



Sophisticated software compared each snapshot with real‑time <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/thousands-of-galaxies-revealed-in-a-single-webb-image/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">satellite</a> orbits. Every time a passing craft lined up with an unexpected spike in brightness, the program logged a hit.



By the end, 1,806 individual Starlink satellites, about 28 percent of the active constellation at the time, had betrayed a signal. 



Some appeared in nearly a third of all images captured at 170 megahertz, a band earmarked for early‑universe studies.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-satellite-noise-outshines-natural-space-signals">Satellite noise outshines natural space signals</h2>



Two kinds of emissions dominated the log. 



Most <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/largest-cosmic-particle-cloud-ever-found-has-stunned-astronomers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">satellites</a> leaked a broadband hum across the entire 0.9‑megahertz window being measured. In addition, a smaller subset blasted a narrow, 13‑kilohertz tone every 100 seconds at 137.05 megahertz. 



Those pulses hit seven million janskys at the dish, outshining the Milky Way by orders of magnitude.



<a href="https://research.curtin.edu.au/cira/about-cira/our-people/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dylan Grigg</a>, a Curtin University data specialist, noted that “the best way to stop this unintended emission is for the satellites to either reduce it or to stop it,” at the end of a long overnight observation run.



The International Telecommunication Union (<a href="https://www.itu.int/pub/R-HDB-22-2013" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ITU</a>) reserves three slices of the spectrum, 73‑74.6, 150.05‑153, and 322‑328.6 megahertz, for <a href="https://public.nrao.edu/radio-astronomy/the-science-of-radio-astronomy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">radio astronomy</a>. 



Starlink leakage turned up in two of them, with 703 satellites detected in the lower protected band alone.



Because the rules govern only deliberate transmissions, no regulations are technically being broken. Yet the power difference between the leaks and the cosmic signals that astronomers seek can reach a factor of ten thousand.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-reducing-starlink-radio-noise">Reducing Starlink radio noise</h2>



Starlink already dims its spacecraft in visible light by tipping solar panels away from Sun reflections. A similar hardware tweak, better shielding around onboard avionics, could muffle stray radio waves before they leave the bus.



Software filters on Earth offer a backup plan. Still, Tingay warns that erasing satellite noise in post‑processing may demand more computing power than the science analysis itself.



If hardware fixes prove impractical, operators could at least switch off problem components when passing above observatories. 



SpaceX already blanks its internet beams over major facilities; extending that courtesy to background electronics would help.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mega-constellations-and-future-astronomy">Mega‑constellations and future astronomy</h2>



Starlink is only the largest of several planned networks. Amazon’s Kuiper, <a href="https://oneweb.net/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">OneWeb‑Eutelsat</a>, and <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/satellite-internet" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">China’s G60 project</a> each aim for thousands of craft in similar orbits.



Without new standards, the combined leakage could turn Earth’s low‑frequency sky into broadband static. 



That would cripple missions such as SKA‑Low’s quest to map the “<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earthcares-first-year-surprising-climate-clues-unveiled-from-space/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cosmic</a> dawn,” when the first galaxies ignited about 13 billion years ago.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-radio-astronomy-and-leaky-starlink">Radio astronomy and leaky Starlink</h2>



Astronomers have begun lobbying the ITU to extend protections to unintentionally radiated energy. Defining leakage limits, as already exists for consumer electronics on the ground, would give satellite makers a clear design target.



National spectrum agencies could then certify satellites before launch. Failing that, operators might face strict observing‑zone blackouts enforced by orbital debris tracking systems.



“The emissions are not regulated right now, but discussion has started,” Tingay said during the team’s briefing to Australian policymakers. He hopes the new data “provides the evidence base needed to move that process along.”



Time is tight. Starlink launches continue roughly once a week, with each <a href="https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/falcon-9/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Falcon 9</a> delivering up to 23 new units. Every fresh craft adds to the background haze, and older models show no sign of going quiet on their own. If action waits for the full 30,000‑satellite network, recovering a clean sky could be impossible.



Astronomy survived shortwave radio and television because engineers and regulators learned to share the dial. Whether low‑Earth orbit broadband joins that success story now rests on choices made in the next few years.



The study is published in <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.02831" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Astronomy &amp; Astrophysics</a>.



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SpaceX’s Starlink satellites leak radio signals that threaten to ruin astronomy

Space is usually quiet at the frequencies that radio telescopes...

Nearly every modern gadget relies on metals that behave exactly as textbooks predict. Gallium refuses to play along. Nearly 150 years after French chemist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul-%C3%89mile_Lecoq_de_Boisbaudran" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran</a> added the element to the periodic table, researchers are still sorting out why this silvery liquid shifts its personality when the heat is on. 



A spoon made of gallium will liquefy in a cup of tea, yet the same element anchors semiconductors, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/floating-solar-panels-could-power-every-home-in-the-u-s/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">solar panels</a>, and laser diodes that withstand scorching factory conditions.



For more than 30 years, physicists have wrestled with gallium’s structure in the liquid state. Competing studies have offered clashing explanations, especially around the role of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-and-molecular-biology/covalent-bond" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">covalent bonding</a> - a type of electron-sharing connection that metals rarely show. 



Fresh simulations have now stitched the puzzle pieces together and point to what scientists believe to be the decisive proof they've been searching for.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-gallium-melts-early">Why gallium melts early</h2>



Gallium melts at 85 °F, far below the temperature of a warm summer day. That quirky transition happens because solid gallium forms tiny two-<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/hidden-chemistry-of-wine-what-actually-shapes-its-texture/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">atom pairs</a> called dimers, and those pairs pack less densely than the liquid. The moment the dimers break apart, density rises and the metal flows. 



The story becomes stranger at higher heat. At temperatures well above the phase change, the dimers re-form, but not in ways scientists expected.



“Thirty years of literature on the structure of liquid gallium has rested on a fundamental assumption that is evidently not true,” says Professor Nicola Gaston of Waipapa Taumata Rau, <a href="https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Auckland</a>, and the <a href="https://www.macdiarmid.ac.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MacDiarmid Institute</a> for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology. 



Her team combined ab initio molecular-dynamics data with decades of experimental records to see how individual atoms mingle at several checkpoints on the thermometer.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-liquid-gallium-myths-overturned">Liquid gallium myths overturned</h2>



Conventional wisdom held that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/water-molecule-discovery-will-force-textbooks-to-be-rewritten/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">covalent bonds</a> fade out once gallium liquefies and play only a minor role afterward. 



The fresh computational work shows the opposite: covalency matters more as the temperature climbs. In other words, the tighter electron sharing that disappears at 85 °F re-emerges and strengthens when the metal is pushed hundreds of degrees hotter.



The insight explains a long-standing electrical oddity. Gallium’s resistivity dips as it first passes the melting line - counter to most metals - then creeps upward in a nonlinear fashion. 



If covalent bonds regroup at elevated heat, they create a conduction bottleneck that raises resistivity, squaring experimental curves with <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/poorly-understood-force-helps-keep-atomic-nuclei-stable/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">atomic-level theory</a>.



Textbook melting points depend on the tug-of-war between internal order and random motion. When the dimers dissolve, entropy shoots up, giving atoms the freedom to shift. 



That entropy spike accounts for gallium’s unusually low melt point without invoking mysterious bonding tricks at 85 °F. 



Once the liquid sits comfortably above the transition, the atomic sea settles just enough for bonds to snap back together - only this time within a looser, more disordered framework.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-zinc-crystals-from-liquid-gallium">Zinc crystals from liquid gallium</h2>



Gallium’s renewed covalency at high temperatures also clarifies why the liquid can pull other metals into solution with minimal energy input. 



The shared-electron environment encourages elements such as <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/zinc-plays-an-overlooked-role-in-ocean-processes/">zinc</a>, copper, and tin to mix, forming room-temperature liquid alloys that engineers mold into stretchable circuits, heat-free solders, and microfluidic pumps.



A few years ago, researchers crystallized zinc inside a bath of molten gallium and watched delicate six-sided plates snowball outward. That project hinted at liquid gallium’s knack for directing complex shapes without external templates. 



The new structural roadmap shows that covalent rebonding supplies the subtle forces that align dissolved atoms as they solidify, making it easier to predict - and exploit - growth patterns.



Gallium-based liquids already act as catalysts that shuffle reactants into greener chemical pathways. The updated model will help chemists tune alloy recipes for faster charge transfer or sharper selectivity. 



In battery prototypes, thin films of gallium alloys spread across electrodes, filling microscopic cracks that normally kill capacity. Knowing when the liquid switches bonding modes could lengthen <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-created-carbon-14-battery-that-lasts-5700-years-without-a-recharge/">battery lifetimes</a> and lower manufacturing temperatures.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-quirks-in-fabrication">Quirks in fabrication</h2>



Gallium’s solid compounds, including gallium arsenide and gallium nitride, drive radio-frequency amplifiers, high-brightness LEDs, and fast chargers. 



Fabricating those compounds sometimes involves droplets of pure gallium that remove heat or transport precursor atoms. 



Process engineers need precise viscosity, density, and conductivity data at every stage, and the re-emergence of covalent links at high heat feeds directly into those parameters.



Understanding gallium’s behavior also safeguards supply chains. The metal is mined as a by-product of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/exposing-the-hidden-climate-costs-of-everyday-materials/">aluminum production</a>, mainly from bauxite ore. 



Global output hovers around 460 tons per year, and demand surges whenever display or photovoltaic markets expand. Tailoring alloys that use less gallium, yet keep its liquid perks, will ease strain on future inventories.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-does-any-of-this-matter">Why does any of this matter?</h2>



Beyond Earth, gallium could help planetary scientists sniff out ancient microbes. Because the element forms stable bonds with <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/moon-volcanoes-left-sparkling-clues-behind-in-form-of-tiny-glass-beads/">oxygen and sulfur</a>, it may lock biosignatures into Martian rock layers. 



Some geochemists argue that gallium traces could outlast fragile carbon compounds, providing a longer-lived clue to life. The revamped structural picture supplies the chemical logic behind that durability.



As liquid metals step into flexible electronics, soft robotics, and low-carbon chemistry, knowing exactly how gallium’s atoms dance under heat will pay dividends.



Gallium still bends spoons for party tricks, but its greater trick lies in how a simple temperature dial rewrites atomic rules. 



By showing where covalent bonds vanish and return, the research clears fog from a field that fuels countless technologies, from phone screens to satellite links. 



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2024/mh/d4mh00244j/unauth" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Materials Horizons</a>.



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Previously unknown properties of a very unusual metal challenge a 150-year-old assumption

Nearly every modern gadget relies on metals that behave exactly...

Steel is the skeleton of modern life, yet the iron that makes it has a backstory far older than the first nail. For decades, geologists thought the world's richest and largest iron ore deposits formed not long after breathable oxygen spread through Earth’s air some 2.2 billion years ago.



Fresh evidence now knocks that timing sideways, suggesting the world-class reserves in the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Simplified-geological-map-of-the-Hamersley-Province_fig1_366035930" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pilbara’s Hamersley Province</a> of Australia are about 1.4 to 1.1 billion years younger than previously believed.



The billion-year gap isn’t a rounding error - it reshapes both scientific thinking and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/chinas-rare-earth-jackpot-1-15-million-tons-of-minerals-uncovered/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">mining strategy</a>.



Across the red plains east of the coastal town of Karratha, open-pit mines peel back ancient rock like pages in a weather-worn diary. Their iron feeds furnaces from Indiana to India. 



Western Australia alone supplied 38 percent of global iron ore in 2023, far out-muscling every other region on the planet.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-1-3-billion-year-iron-ore-correction">A 1.3 billion-year iron ore correction</h2>



<a href="https://www.earth.com/earthpedia-articles/what-the-heck-is-iron-ore/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hematite</a>, the lustrous mineral that drives these operations, occasionally traps a whisper of uranium inside its lattice. That radioactive speck decays into lead at a steady pace, letting scientists read the mineral’s “birth certificate.” 



Using that method, Dr. Liam Courtney-Davies and colleagues from <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Curtin University</a> dated crystals from every major banded iron formation in the Hamersley. Their clock pointed stubbornly to a younger era, long after the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/it-took-200-million-years-for-earth-to-get-its-oxygen/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Great Oxidation Event</a>. 



“The energy from this epic geological activity likely triggered the production of billions of tons of iron-rich rock across the Pilbara,” Dr. Courtney-Davies said.



The team’s timeline ties high-grade ore to a stretch when the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1342937X17300485" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">supercontinent Columbia</a> had ripped apart and new continental mash-ups were brewing. 



Crustal plates heaved, mountains rose, and faults opened, pumping hot, oxygen-laden fluids through pre-existing iron beds. 



Those fluids stripped out silica, leaving hematite that tops 60 percent iron - twice the grade of the original sea-floor rust.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-tectonics-forged-treasure">How tectonics forged treasure</h2>



Plate motion rarely draws headlines, yet its fingerprints sit on everything from fossil-fuel reservoirs to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/geologists-discover-the-largest-copper-gold-and-silver-deposit-in-the-last-three-decades/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">copper belts</a>. The Hamersley story adds one more chapter: bulk commodities. 



Associate Professor Martin Danišík, part of the Curtin University group, noted, “Our research indicates these deposits formed in conjunction with major tectonic events, highlighting the dynamic nature of our planet’s history and the complexity of iron ore mineralization.”



Before that remark, his team spelled out the scale of the upgrade. 



“Until now, the exact timeline of these formations changing from 30 percent iron as they originally were, to more than 60 percent iron as they are today, was unclear, which has hindered our understanding of the processes that led to the formation of the world's largest ore deposits,” Danišík continued.



Their solution - a fine-point uranium-lead probe inside single grains - sidesteps the guesswork of dating surrounding rocks.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-this-helps-iron-ore-miners">How this helps iron ore miners</h2>



Age is more than trivia. If a deposit formed in a tectonic “sweet spot” 1.3 billion years ago, explorers can hunt elsewhere for the same recipe: ancient banded iron reworked by heat and fluid flow during that window. 



In practice, that means following suture zones and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/most-dangerous-part-of-this-west-coast-earthquake-fault-cascadia-subduction-zone/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fault corridors</a> that lit up when Columbia fell apart and its successor, Rodinia, took shape.



For the industry, timing meets money. The value of Western Australia’s iron ore exports hit $136 billion in the 12 months to June 2024, with China absorbing about four-fifths of that haul. 



Federal forecasters expect Australia’s iron ore earnings to fall to about $107 billion in 2024–25 as prices retreat. Efficiency matters when margins tighten, so guidance on where to drill next carries real weight.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fluid-highways-in-ancient-rock">Fluid highways in ancient rock</h2>



To grasp why fluids matter, picture an interstate highway system beneath solid rock - not a puddle here or there, but branching paths that cut through thousands of feet of crust. 



When supercontinents crunch or tear, pressure and heat send chemically rich water racing along those paths. 



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/iron-ore_deep-blue_Hamersley-Province-Map_credit-Curtin-University_1m.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/iron-ore_deep-blue_Hamersley-Province-Map_credit-Curtin-University_1s.webp" alt="Geologic map of the Pilbara craton with sample locations marked by blue stars (Left). Stratigraphic column (Right) showing the Hamersley Group, which hosts all martite-microplaty hematite deposits and overlying groups hosting hematite ore clasts. Credit: Curtin University" class="wp-image-1974248"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Geologic map of the Pilbara craton with sample locations marked by blue stars (Left). Stratigraphic column (Right) showing the Hamersley Group, which hosts all martite-microplaty hematite deposits and overlying groups hosting hematite ore clasts. Click image to enlarge. Credit: Curtin University</figcaption></figure>



In the Pilbara, such pulses ferried extra oxygen, converting magnetite and siderite into hematite far purer than the original mix. 



Those same highways are visible in other cratons, from Brazil’s Quadrilátero Ferrífero to India’s Singhbhum region, hinting that younger ages could emerge elsewhere once geochronologists put them under the microscope.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-economic-iron-ore-ripples">Economic iron ore ripples</h2>



Global <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/decarbonizing-worlds-industrial-emissions-possible-with-current-technology/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">steel demand</a>, already recovering after pandemic doldrums, is forecast to edge up 1.2 percent to about 1.815 billion metric tons in 2025. 



Meeting that appetite without <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/chatgpts-carbon-footprint-is-astronomical-and-not-sustainable/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ballooning emissions</a> pushes producers toward higher-grade feedstock; richer ore needs less coke per ton of metal. Western Australia’s stash, upgraded by billion-year-old fluids, stands out in that carbon calculus.



Green-steel projects now pepper feasibility studies on three continents. Australia believes converting its ore into hydrogen-reduced “green iron” before shipping could more than double export value - potentially topping $250 billion a year. 



While those numbers rely on policy shifts and infrastructure build-outs, the geologic backstory underpins the commercial lure: ore that almost smelts itself.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-detective-work-never-ends">The detective work never ends</h2>



“By using an emerging technique to date <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/phantom-nutrient-the-secret-force-that-fuels-plant-growth/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">iron oxide minerals</a> through uranium and lead isotope analysis within the mineral grains, we directly dated all the major giant BIF-hosted iron ore deposits in the Hamersley Province.” 



That line from the research team reads like a footnote, yet it signals a methodological leap. Asking the rocks directly, rather than their neighbors, can overturn decades of assumption in a single lab session.



“The discovery of a link between these giant iron ore deposits and changes in supercontinent cycles enhances our understanding of ancient geological processes and improves our ability to predict where we should explore in the future.” 



With that, Dr. Courtney-Davies closes the loop between academic insight and drill-bit decisions. The story of iron is still being written, one crystal at a time.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2405741121" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.



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Scientists studying Earth's largest iron ore deposits uncover a 1.3-billion-year-old secret

Steel is the skeleton of modern life, yet the iron...

Every year, mosquito-borne diseases cut short more than a million lives across the globe, outpacing every other animal threat to humanity. The rising toll has public-health teams scrambling for fresh combat tools, especially as traditional chemical sprays lose their edge.



That loss stems from two hard truths. First, the very <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7692614/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pyrethroid insecticides</a> that once worked wonders now linger in soil and water, nudging delicate ecosystems off balance. 



Second, mosquitoes adapt fast. Larvae soaking in tainted puddles and adults drifting through treated neighborhoods increasingly shrug off doses that once killed them. 



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mosquito-repellents-that-actually-work-yes-thanks-to-ai-machine-learning/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Controlling the pests</a> at their waterborne stage is vital, yet options that stay potent without harming everything else remain limited.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cannabis-cbd-and-mosquitoes">Cannabis, CBD, and mosquitoes</h2>



Recent research published in the journal Insects points to a solution hiding in plain sight: the hemp plant, Cannabis sativa. 



After air-drying and grinding ordinary hemp leaves, scientists at <a href="https://www.osu.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Ohio State University</a> led by Erick Martinez Rodriguez extracted <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cbd-reduces-the-unwanted-side-effects-of-thc/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cannabidiol (CBD)</a> and added the concentrate to cups of water teeming with yellow fever mosquito larvae. 



Within 48 hours, both a strain that laughs at <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rising-temperatures-could-make-insect-repellents-less-effective/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">common insecticides</a> and a non-resistant strain were wiped out.



“Mosquitoes are one of the deadliest animals in the world, mainly because as adults they serve as vectors of disease,” Rodriguez explained.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-from-resistance-to-vulnerability">From resistance to vulnerability</h2>



Two important findings jumped out. The first was total mortality: every mosquito larva exposed to sufficient CBD died by the two-day mark, regardless of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-learn-how-mosquitoes-use-sound-to-outsmart-and-evade-human-defenses/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">its genetic armor</a>. 



The second was efficiency. While industrial chemicals often push resistance higher with every generation, CBD’s effect cut straight through those defenses. Doses varied, but even modest concentrations proved lethal to all mosquito larvae.



“If you compare the amount of hemp extract needed to kill 50 % of the population to other synthetic conventional insecticides, it is on the high side, but when you compare it side by side to other natural extracts we have tested in our lab, only a relatively low amount is required to produce high mortality values in larvae,” said Martinez Rodriguez.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-cbd-kills-mosquitoes">How CBD kills mosquitoes</h2>



Chemical sleuthing showed that CBD dominated the hemp extract, and terpene fractions did little damage on their own. 



Larvae were judged dead once they stopped moving under a gentle nudge, confirming the cannabinoid’s direct impact on vital systems.



Insects lack the endocannabinoid receptors that give <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cbd-can-help-ease-chronic-pain-anxiety-and-mood-disorders/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CBD its wellness reputation</a> among humans, so the compound must strike different molecular targets - possibly ion channels that govern nerve impulses or enzymes tied to muscle control. 



Whatever the route, CBD skirts the metabolic tricks that shield many larvae from pyrethroids.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-hemp-economics-meet-public-health">Hemp economics meet public health</h2>



Hemp is no niche crop. U.S. farmers planted about 27,680 acres in 2023, and the total value of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/hemp-seeds-could-be-a-game-changer-as-an-alternative-protein-source/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hemp products</a> topped $291 million.



Leaves, often left as low-value waste after flowers and seeds are harvested, could become raw material for larvicides. 



Turning those leaf cast-offs into mosquito-control pellets would give growers an extra revenue stream while trimming refuse piles.



The crop’s adaptability sweetens the deal. Hemp thrives across a wide climate range, grows quickly, and rarely needs harsh pesticides of its own. 



Rural communities looking to diversify incomes and urban growers cultivating indoor micro-hemp could both feed a supply chain aimed at vector-control programs from Texas to Tanzania.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-strains-and-waterway-safety">Strains and waterway safety</h2>



Field trials must still answer hard questions: How long does CBD linger in ponds? Does it bother tadpoles, fish fry, or helpful insects? 



Early lab work hints at selectivity, yet natural habitats are complex. Regulators will demand data showing that CBD pellets, briquettes, or slow-release films silence mosquito larvae without tipping aquatic ecosystems.



A second layer of testing will match different hemp strains for efficacy. Plants bred for fiber deliver more stalk than cannabinoid, while floral varieties boast <a href="https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Cannabidiol" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">richer CBD profiles</a>. 



Selecting cultivars that maximize larvicidal punch and minimize unwanted compounds will keep costs down and environmental margins wide.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-next-steps-for-cbd-and-mosquito-control">Next steps for CBD and mosquito control</h2>



Scientists plan to refine dosage, explore formulations that stick to the water’s surface, and probe how CBD interacts with other biocontrol measures like Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis. Combining modes of action could slow resistance even further. 



Teams will also map out manufacturing pipelines - picture hemp-leaf extract concentrated at regional facilities, then shipped as shelf-stable granules to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/why-some-people-are-mosquito-magnets/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">mosquito-control districts</a>.



Policy makers, meanwhile, need clear guidelines. Approving a botanical larvicide means balancing urgent disease threats against conservation goals. Transparent monitoring and community engagement will help keep public trust.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-another-weapon-in-the-mosquito-wars">Another weapon in the mosquito wars</h2>



Hemp-derived CBD will not single-handedly end malaria, dengue, or Zika. Yet the discovery that a familiar wellness compound doubles as a larval assassin widens the playbook. 



By uniting agriculture, chemistry, and entomology, researchers have opened <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mosquito-habitats-are-expanding-due-to-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a practical path</a> toward safer mosquito control. 



If larger-scale tests confirm the promise seen in the lab, those humble hemp leaves could soon guard countless backyard birdbaths, drainage ditches, and rice paddies - one cup of water at a time.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/15/7/517" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Insects</a>.



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Cannabis extract proves to be highly effective at killing the most dangerous animals in the world

Every year, mosquito-borne diseases cut short more than a million...

From corporate boards to honeybee hives and ants colonies, groups tend to follow the majority. But biologists and social scientists have found that a vocal minority - sometimes just 5 to 10 percent - can sway the final decision if they’re persuasive, energized, or well-connected. This effect is known as “minority influence.”



A new study shows that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fire-ants-can-teach-us-how-to-create-stronger-materials/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fire ants</a> offer a dramatic, gene-driven version of the same principle. A handful of workers carrying a particular stretch of&nbsp;“<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/selfish-dna-transposons-control-early-human-development-not-genes/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">selfish DNA</a>” can push their nest-mates to welcome extra queens, transforming the colony’s entire social order.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-selfish-dna-and-ant-colony-structure">Selfish DNA and ant colony structure</h2>



The invasive red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, dominates swaths of the southeastern United States and is spreading on multiple continents. 



Ecologically and economically, it is one of the most impactful insects on Earth. It also comes in two distinct social forms.



Single-queen colonies (monogyne) recognize and defend one egg-laying monarch. Workers in these nests are intensely territorial, killing any foreign queen that dares enter.



Multiple-queen colonies (polygyne) tolerate several unrelated <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ant-queens-turn-to-cannibalism-recycle-bodies-for-colony-disease-control/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">queens</a> and spread by budding - new queens and escorts walk a short distance and start satellite nests.



The social form matters: monogyne nests are aggressive but slower to spread; polygyne nests can carpet landscapes with interconnected supercolonies.



A single gene complex, dubbed Gp-9, largely decides whether a colony embraces one queen or many. The variant known as Gp-9 B promotes single-queen structure; the variant Gp-9 b pushes toward multiple queens.



Only workers with the b allele accept extra royalty - and that gene acts in strikingly “selfish” fashion, ensuring its own propagation.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-genetic-roots-of-ant-behavior">Genetic roots of ant behavior</h2>



Takao Sasaki, now an associate professor in the <a href="https://www.sas.rochester.edu/bcs/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Rochester’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences</a>, teamed with postdoctoral researcher Haolin Zeng and Professor Kenneth Ross at the <a href="https://www.uga.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Georgia</a>. Together, they tested how small a minority of b-bearing workers could tip an entire colony.



Most previous work had examined stable nests already committed to one form or the other. The new experiments created mixed groups from scratch, mirroring the early stages of an invasion when different ant lineages collide.



“Our research may help us understand how other animals make consensus decisions,” Sasaki said.



Using DNA markers, the team first verified each ant’s social-genotype - B B for single-queen preference or B b for multiple-queen preference. They then built experimental colonies of 3,000 workers and a single B-type queen.



Into these colonies they introduced B b workers in varying proportions, from zero to 30 percent, along with test queens carrying either genotype. Continuous video monitored how workers treated potential newcomers.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dna-can-shift-the-ant-colony">DNA can shift the ant colony </h2>



With no B b workers present, resident ants killed any stranger queen in the colony within hours, matching monogyne behavior in the wild. But once the minority of B b workers reached roughly 10 percent, the colony’s stance softened.



Those few workers began grooming and feeding extra queens that carried the same b allele, escorting them safely into the brood chambers. 



Over the following days, B B workers joined the caretaking - even though the shift ultimately lowers their own inclusive fitness. The single-queen colony had morphed into a multi-queen society, simply because a genetic minority rewrote the ground rules.



“By looking at their genes, we know their preferences for having one queen versus multiple queens,” Sasaki said. “By manipulating the proportion of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/larger-ant-colonies-drove-the-evolution-of-worker-castes/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">workers</a> with certain genes, we can test if and how a minority can convince the rest of the group members.”



Chemical communication is the likely mechanism. Fire ants rely on pheromones to tell friend from foe and to decide which queens belong.



Additional tests showed b-bearing workers alter queen pheromones or change how nest-mates respond to those chemical signals. Whichever the pathway, the outcome favors any queen - and thus any gene - matching the minority’s genotype.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-selfish-dna-shapes-behavior">Selfish DNA shapes behavior</h2>



The study highlights an evolutionary twist known as an indirect genetic effect: one individual’s traits are molded not just by its own DNA and environment, but by the genes carried by its social partners.



Here, the selfish DNA in roughly a tenth of the ants drives an outcome (polygyne structure) that benefits copies of that same element, even though it may not help the colony at large.



“This knowledge is important not only for understanding the biology of social insects like fire ants but also for broader insights into the evolution of cooperation and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/survival-of-the-friendliest-social-animals-live-longer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sociality</a> in animals, including humans,” Zeng said.



Because multi-queen colonies bud readily and thus expand invasion fronts, the ability of a genetic minority to flip nest behavior could accelerate the spread of fire ants worldwide. Evolutionary models will need to account for such feedback between genes and group dynamics.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ants-think-like-neurons">Ants think like neurons</h2>



Sasaki frames the findings in terms of “collective cognition,” his broader research focus. Just as neurons exchange signals to create unified thoughts, social insects exchange chemical and tactile cues to make group decisions.



If a small cluster of neurons can trigger a mental state, why not a small cluster of genetically distinct ants triggering a social state?



“The brain is a good example,” Sasaki explained. “Each neuron talks to other neurons. A brain is a cognitive unit. Ants as colonies make collective decisions like brains do.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-genes-help-outvote-majority-rule">Genes help outvote majority rule</h2>



The fire-ant case suggests that minority influence may have a deeper biological foundation than previously realized. In some cases, it’s encoded in selfish stretches of DNA that manipulate social systems like ant colonies from within.



Whether similar elements lurk in other species, subtly guiding flock movements, pack hierarchies, or even aspects of human <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/secret-social-lives-pandas-have-their-own-version-of-facebook/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">social networks</a>, remains an open question.



What is clear is that in complex societies, majority rule is never absolute: under the right genetic and social conditions, the few can still lead the many.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2501740122">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.



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'Selfish DNA' can result in minority influence in social animal groups, including humans

From corporate boards to honeybee hives and ants colonies, groups...

The disappearance of South America’s mastodons some ten millennia ago did more than erase a charismatic animal; it severed an ancient partnership that once spread the seeds of large-fruited trees across the continent.



A new study shows that these elephant-like creatures were habitual fruit-eaters and indispensable couriers of botanical life. This helps explain why several modern tree species now teeter on the brink of extinction.



An international research team examined ninety-six fossil molars of Notiomastodon platensis collected along a 1,500-kilometer sweep of Chilean coastline.



Using microscopic wear patterns, chemical fingerprints locked in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/tooth-enamel-analysis-suggests-early-eurasians-were-multiple-species-paranthropus-robustus/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tooth</a> enamel, and residues trapped in dental calculus, they pieced together the animal’s menu.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fossil-traces-reveal-fruit-diet">Fossil traces reveal fruit diet</h2>



Florent Rivals is a researcher at the Catalan Institute for Human Palaeoecology and Social Evolution (<a href="https://cerca.cat/en/centres-cerca/iphes/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">IPHES-CERCA</a>).



“We found starch residues and plant tissues typical of fleshy fruits, such as those of the Chilean palm (Jubaea chilensis),” he said.



Those tiny traces, preserved since the Pleistocene, provide the first direct evidence that the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/student-discovers-a-34000-year-old-mastodon-fossil-by-accident-while-walking-around-a-farm/">mastodon</a> routinely swallowed whole fruit - and by extension the seeds buried inside.



Stable-isotope signatures reinforced the picture. “Through stable isotope analysis, we were able to reconstruct the animals’ environment and diet with great precision,” said Iván Ramírez-Pedraza, a researcher at IPHES-CERCA who helped chart the chemical trail.



The pattern points to a mixed woodland rich in fruit resources, the kind of landscape where a multi-ton mammal could feast while roaming long distances.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-testing-a-forty-year-old-idea"><a></a>Testing a forty-year-old idea</h2>



Back in 1982, biologist Daniel Janzen and paleontologist Paul Martin suggested that many tropical trees evolved oversized, sugary fruits specifically to lure now-extinct megafauna.



These included mastodons, giant <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/lost-world-of-giant-sloths-why-did-they-shrink-and-when-did-it-happen/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sloths</a>, and native horses - animals capable of gulping down the bounty and depositing viable seeds far from the parent plant.



Their “neotropical anachronism” hypothesis was ingenious but largely speculative. The new study supplies the hard proof those pioneers lacked.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/mastodons_Notiomastodon-platensis_chile_diversity_credit-Mauricio-Alvarez_1m.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/mastodons_Notiomastodon-platensis_chile_diversity_credit-Mauricio-Alvarez_1s.webp" alt="Diversity of extinct mammals that inhabited the surroundings of Ancient Lake Tagua Tagua. Credit: Mauricio Álvarez" class="wp-image-1974219"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Diversity of extinct mammals that inhabited the surroundings of Ancient Lake Tagua Tagua. Click image to enlarge. Credit: Mauricio Álvarez</figcaption></figure>



Lead author Erwin González-Guarda of the <a href="https://www.uoh.cl/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of O’Higgins</a> argued that the multi-proxy approach was crucial.



Conventional wear studies alone cannot distinguish leaves from soft fruit, while isotopes reveal diet breadth but not specific ingredients. Residual microfibers in dental plaque filled that gap, confirming that fruit made up a regular part of the mastodon’s meals.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mastodons-spread-forest-seeds">Mastodons spread forest seeds</h2>



“Dental chemistry gives us a direct window into the past,” said co-author Carlos Tornero, an isotope specialist at IPHES-CERCA.



The team concludes Notiomastodon was a key long-distance seed disperser in late Pleistocene South America.



When the animals died out - probably under combined pressure from rapid <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ancient-climate-shift-sheds-light-on-future-global-warming/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">climate shifts</a> and expanding human hunting - no substitute of equal size and wanderlust remained.



Tapirs, peccaries, and monkeys still disperse some fruit in tropical zones, but across central Chile, the ecological courier service is effectively bankrupt.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-forests-feel-the-absence">Forests feel the absence</h2>



The researchers ran a machine-learning analysis to gauge present-day risk for plants once dependent on megafaunal dispersers.



In central Chile, forty percent of those trees now sit on threatened or endangered lists - four times the proportion in regions where alternative animal carriers survive.



“Where that ecological relationship between plants and animals has been entirely severed, the consequences remain visible even thousands of years later,” said co-author Andrea P. Loayza, paleontologist at the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity (<a href="https://ieb-chile.cl/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">IEB</a>) in Chile.



Today the Chilean palm endures in a few fragmented groves. The monkey-puzzle tree, Araucaria araucana, iconic yet genetically impoverished, clings to high Andean ridges.



The gomortega, Gomortega keule, known locally as queule, hangs on in scattered coastal valleys. Its plum-sized fruit now mostly drops beneath the parent canopy, rather than being hauled kilometers away inside a mastodon’s gut.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-forests-seeds-and-mastodons">Forests, seeds, and mastodons</h2>



Beyond its detective work, the paper carries a cautionary message. Ecosystems retain the impact of lost species for millennia, and restoring their roles will be a major challenge.



Rewilding with living <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/large-herbivores-are-not-always-harmful-in-new-territories/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">large herbivores</a> has been floated as one possibility, and the fresh Chilean data offer a benchmark for choosing modern analogues based on diet and ranging behavior, not just body mass.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/mastodons_Notiomastodon-platensis_paleoenvironment-chile_credit-Mauricio-Alvarez_1m.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/mastodons_Notiomastodon-platensis_paleoenvironment-chile_credit-Mauricio-Alvarez_1s.webp" alt="Reconstruction of the paleoenvironments in which Chilean mastodons lived, from the semi-arid north to the cold rainforests of Patagonia. Credit: Mauricio Álvarez" class="wp-image-1974221"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Reconstruction of the paleoenvironments in which Chilean mastodons lived, from the semi-arid north to the cold rainforests of Patagonia. Click image to enlarge. Credit: Mauricio Álvarez</figcaption></figure>



“By combining different lines of evidence, we’ve been able to robustly confirm their frugivory and the key role they played in these ecosystems,” Tornero emphasized.



Conservation managers might use such findings to prioritize corridors that allow surviving mammals to move seeds. They could also experiment with human-mediated dispersal for tree species marooned by the mastodon’s absence.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-old-bones-new-purpose">Old bones, new purpose</h2>



“Paleontology isn’t just about telling old stories,” Rivals concluded. “It helps us recognize what we’ve lost - and what we still have a chance to save.”



With climate change and habitat fragmentation tightening their grip, lessons from deep time may guide present-day action.



Protecting and, where possible, mimicking the ancient partnership between fruit-bearing trees and their gigantic gardeners could give endangered South American forests a second shot at resilience.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-025-02713-8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution</a>.



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Mastodon extinction is still causing problems with South American ecosystems

The disappearance of South America’s mastodons some ten millennia ago...

Antarctic krill - the shrimp-like crustaceans that feed whales, seals, and penguins - sit at the heart of the Southern Ocean food web. Yet these tiny animals are also the target of a fast-growing commercial fishery.



A new study led by the <a href="https://www.awi.de/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Alfred Wegener Institute</a> (AWI) and the <a href="https://www.hi.no/hi/en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Norwegian Institute of Marine Research</a> used more than 30,000 hours of sonar recordings from krill-trawling vessels. 



The analysis pinpointed when and where fishing fleets overlap with natural krill predators. The results highlight seasonal hotspots of competition that managers can no longer afford to ignore.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-using-sonar-for-krill-clues">Using sonar for krill clues</h2>



Fishing vessels routinely run powerful echo sounders to locate krill swarms. By repurposing those same acoustic logs, scientists gained an unprecedented view of the submarine “traffic” beneath the ships.



The team analyzed over 30,000 hours of sonar data from three krill fishing vessels, gathered over six years in the Southern Ocean. Machine learning algorithms filtered the files for the distinctive signatures produced when <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/whales-blow-bubble-smoke-rings-near-humans-to-communicate/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">whales</a>, penguins, or seals dive under a vessel.



“During such encounters, ships and krill predators pursue the same krill swarms," said lead author Dominik Bahlburg, a scientist at AWI. 



"This allowed us to analyze the spatial and temporal dynamics of this competition in order to identify locations and time periods where the interaction between the two groups is particularly intensive."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-where-penguins-seals-and-trawlers-converge"><a></a>Where penguins, seals, and trawlers converge</h2>



Patterns emerged once the detections were mapped. <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/penguins-are-threatened-by-mercury-contamination/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Penguins</a> and fur seals appeared alongside fishing gear in both summer and winter, especially around the South Orkney Islands and South Georgia. 



Whales appeared most near the Antarctic Peninsula in autumn, when they fatten for their long migration north.



“The South Orkney Islands seem to be a real hotspot for encounters with penguins,” Bahlburg said. “Compared to the Antarctic Peninsula, they have received far less attention in the debate on the impact of krill fishing and many of the colonies affected there are currently not regularly monitored.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-direct-competition-with-penguins">Direct competition with penguins</h2>



The overlap is worrisome as trawlers fish near breeding colonies when adult birds must feed their chicks. Voluntary buffer zones aimed to ease this conflict, but sonar evidence reveals an unintended side effect.



This also suggests that fishing vessels continue to encounter penguins despite the voluntary restriction zones around the Antarctic Peninsula. 



The vessels also continue to compete directly with penguins for krill during the breeding season. Instead, the pressure appears to have shifted to the South Orkney Islands.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fishing-overlaps-persist-in-winter">Fishing overlaps persist in winter</h2>



One assumption had been that moving effort into winter - when breeding pressures ease - would spare <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/human-noise-is-disrupting-wildlife-in-antarctica/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wildlife</a>. The new data challenge that view.



“We were able to show that fisheries and penguins as well as fur seals encounter each other just as frequently in the winter as in the summer season,” Bahlburg said.



Since animals roam farther from colonies in winter, the persistence of close encounters surprised the authors and may require a reassessment.



While penguins and seals were encountered less often near the Peninsula, autumn fishing there overlapped heavily with whales. These whales depend on krill to build blubber reserves before migrating to equatorial calving grounds.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-krill-fleet-data-goes-public">Krill fleet data goes public</h2>



The team found little year-to-year fluctuation in their maps. “Remarkably, these patterns were quite stable for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/elephant-seals-provide-a-window-into-the-oceans-twilight-zone/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">seals</a>, penguins and whales over a six-year period,” noted study co-author Sebastian Menze, a scientist at the Norwegian Institute.



Such consistency implies the method can deliver rapid, reliable diagnostics as fishing tactics or quotas change.



“Consequently, our results show that acoustic data from fishing vessels and machine learning can act as a reliable foundation for rapid and convenient assessments of fisheries' interaction with the ecosystem,” Menze added.



Collecting those data costs almost nothing extra; crews already archive echo-sounder files as part of normal operations. The largest krill harvester, <a href="https://www.akerbiomarine.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Aker Biomarine</a>, even makes its records public through the <a href="https://www.hubocean.earth/platform" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HUBOcean platform</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-positive-changes-in-krill-management">Positive changes in krill management </h2>



Until now, scientists mainly used fishery sonar to estimate krill biomass. The study’s broader ecological application opens fresh possibilities.



Bettina Meyer of AWI represents Germany on the <a href="https://www.ccamlr.org/en/organisation/home-page" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources</a> (CCAMLR).



“We are expanding the potential uses for ecological questions and demonstrating new, cost-effective ways in which fishing vessels can contribute to krill fishery management,” said Meyer, who's also a senior author of the study. 



“Acoustic data make it possible to quickly draw an initial picture of how changes in fishery management or fleet behavior impact on the Antarctic ecosystem.”



Supported by Germany’s <a href="https://www.bmel.de/EN/Home/home_node.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture</a>, the project feeds directly into CCAMLR deliberations on updated catch limits and dynamic closure zones.



By revealing when and where krill fishing most conflicts with wildlife, the acoustic approach offers a blueprint for fine-tuned regulations. This could help ensure that the Southern Ocean’s keystone crustacean can sustain both its natural predators and the fishery that now depends on it.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2417203122" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.



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Sonar reveals how krill fishing is hurting Antarctic wildlife

Antarctic krill - the shrimp-like crustaceans that feed whales, seals,...

Rising nighttime temperatures could quietly aggravate one of the world’s most widespread sleep disorders: obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). This could bring steep costs to public health and the global economy.



This warning comes from a new study by sleep researchers at <a href="https://www.flinders.edu.au/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Flinders University</a>. The experts analyzed more than 58 million nights of sleep data and found a strong link between ambient temperature and breathing interruptions.



The results of the analysis suggest that, unless climate change is slowed, the worldwide burden of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/obstructive-sleep-apnea-speeds-up-aging-on-a-cellular-level/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">OSA</a> may double before today’s newborns reach old age.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-billion-people-and-counting">A billion people and counting</h2>



OSA already affects nearly a billion adults. People with the disorder repeatedly stop breathing during sleep as throat tissues collapse. This leads to drops in blood oxygen, loud snoring, and dozens or even hundreds of brief awakenings each night.



Untreated OSA is tied to hypertension, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/heart-disease-remains-the-leading-cause-of-death-worldwide/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">heart disease</a>, cognitive decline, accidents, and depression. In Australia, the combined medical and productivity losses linked to poor sleep are estimated at roughly $66 billion per year.



Researchers knew little about how outdoor climate might influence the severity of the condition, despite its prevalence.



Bastien Lechat of the <a href="https://www.flinders.edu.au/fhmri/research/sleep-health" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute (FHMRI) Sleep Health group</a> is lead author of the study.



“This helps us to understand how environmental factors like climate might affect health by investigating whether ambient temperatures influence the severity of OSA,” said Lechat.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-linking-sleep-apnea-to-high-temperatures">Linking sleep apnea to high temperatures </h2>



Lechat’s team partnered with a digital health company that provides a thin, FDA-cleared sensor placed under the mattress. The device measures subtle pressure changes to track breathing and body movement.



The researchers collected an average of 500 consecutive nights of raw data for each of 116,000 anonymous users in 29 mainly high-income countries. Altogether, this added up to more than 30,000 user-years of continuous monitoring.



The team then merged those sensor records with hourly surface-air temperatures generated by high-resolution climate models.



By comparing night-to-night shifts in breathing disruptions with local temperature fluctuations, the team could isolate the effect of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/extreme-heat-impacts-our-daily-routines-and-transportation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">heat</a> from other confounding factors such as age, weight, or chronic illness.



“Overall, we were surprised by the magnitude of the association between ambient temperature and OSA severity,” Lechat said. When the overnight temperature rose, apnea severity followed.



“Higher temperatures were associated with a 45 percent increased likelihood of a sleeper experiencing OSA on a given night.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cooling-technology-may-buffer-heat-stress">Cooling technology may buffer heat stress</h2>



“These findings varied by region, with people in European countries seeing higher rates of OSA when temperatures rise than those in Australia and the United States, perhaps due to different rates of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ancient-buildings-used-passive-cooling-methods-to-reduce-heat-with-out-air-conditioning/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">air conditioning</a> usage,” Lechat said.



In other words, cooling technology - and the affluence that underwrites it - can buffer heat-related sleep stress, while people in older buildings or lower-income areas remain vulnerable.


The researchers translated these nightly risks into long-term stakes by running a health-economics model. They based it on disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), the same yardstick the <a href="https://www.who.int/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">World Health Organization</a> uses to compare illnesses.


“Using our modeling, we can estimate how burdensome the increase in OSA prevalence due to rising temperature is to society in terms of well-being and economic loss,” Lechat noted.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-price-of-lost-sleep">The price of lost sleep</h2>



“The increase in OSA prevalence in 2023 due to global warming was associated with a loss of approximately 800,000 healthy life years across the 29 countries studied,” Lechat said.



“This number is similar to other medical conditions, such as bipolar disorder, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/pesticide-exposure-increases-the-risk-of-parkinsons-disease/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Parkinson’s disease</a>, or chronic kidney diseases.”



The team also attached a price tag. “Similarly, the estimated total economic cost associated was $98 billion, including $68 billion from well-being loss and $30 billion from workplace productivity loss,” Lechat said.



Those figures reflect only the added harm from climate change, not the baseline burden of OSA from other causes. Looking ahead, the numbers get starker. 



According to Lechat, the findings highlight that without greater policy action to slow global warming, OSA burden may double by 2100 due to rising temperatures.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-sleep-study-misses-hot-regions">Sleep study misses hot regions</h2>



Senior author Danny Eckert, a sleep scientist at Flinders, points out important caveats. Wealthier nations and individuals who can afford a modern sleep tracker dominate the data set.



“This may have biased our estimates and led to an underestimation of the true health and economic cost,” he said.



Many of the hottest, least air-conditioned regions - South Asia, Africa, parts of Latin America - are underrepresented, yet stand to experience the strongest warming trends.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-adapting-sleep-to-hotter-nights">Adapting sleep to hotter nights</h2>



Even as climate policy lags, the clinical community can act. “Higher rates of diagnosis and treatment will help us to manage and reduce the adverse health and productivity issues caused by climate-related OSA,” Eckert said.



Doctors still consider continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines the gold-standard therapy. But alternative approaches - oral appliances, weight loss, and positional training - can also reduce breathing disturbances.



The next step for the researchers is to test protective strategies directly. “Going forward, we want to design intervention studies that explore strategies to reduce the impact of ambient temperatures on sleep apnea severity,” Eckert added.



For now, their message is clear: hotter nights are more than a comfort issue. They may be quietly robbing millions of restorative sleep, healthy years, and economic productivity - making <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-mitigation-strategies-may-be-endangering-biodiversity/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">climate mitigation</a>, bedroom cooling, and sleep-health screening part of the same urgent conversation.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-60218-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Communications</a>.



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Rising temperatures are driving a surge in sleep apnea cases

Rising nighttime temperatures could quietly aggravate one of the world’s...

Ocean water is turning ever so slightly more acidic, and that small shift has now pushed the chemistry of the sea past a point that scientists once marked as the global “do not cross” line.



A new assessment shows that by 2020 the average concentration of calcium carbonate, a building block for shells and reefs, had fallen more than 20 percent from pre‑industrial levels in many regions. 



This results in a thinning of nature’s protective shield for corals, oysters, other mollusks, and countless plankton.



“<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/world-oceans-day-2025-sustaining-what-sustains-us/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ocean</a> acidification isn’t just an environmental crisis, it’s a ticking timebomb for marine ecosystems and coastal economies,” said Professor Steve Widdicombe of Plymouth Marine Laboratory, after reviewing the study.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-carbon-drives-ocean-acidity">How carbon drives ocean acidity</h2>



One extra molecule of carbon dioxide in the air means another will slip into the sea, combine with water, and release a hydrogen ion. 



Over the industrial era, that reaction has raised the average hydrogen ion concentration of the ocean about <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/figures/chapter-5/figure-5-21/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">30 percent</a> and knocked seawater pH down by roughly 0.1 units, which is a large jump on the logarithmic pH scale.



Many <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.1097329" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">calcifying </a>species depend on carbonate ions to form shells and skeletons; when ions grow scarce these organisms must divert energy from growth and reproduction toward basic survival. 



Laboratory work has shown that carbon‑rich water can dissolve the paper‑thin shells of the tiny sea butterfly <a href="https://hakaimagazine.com/news/the-shells-of-wild-sea-butterflies-are-already-dissolving/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Limacina helicina</a> within days.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ocean-acidity-crossed-the-safety-limit">Ocean acidity crossed the safety limit</h2>



The <a href="https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">planetary boundaries framework</a> was introduced to define the safe operating limits for Earth’s major life-supporting <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-climate-fixes-could-worsen-the-oxygen-crisis/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">systems</a>. These boundaries act like guardrails; once crossed, the risk of large-scale environmental disruptions increases sharply. 



Out of nine total boundaries, including climate change and biodiversity loss, <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/acidification.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ocean acidification</a> was once thought to be safely within limits.



That assumption no longer holds. The latest study shows that the planet has already moved beyond the threshold meant to safeguard <a href="https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/files/dickson_thecarbondioxidesysteminseawater_equilibriumchemistryandmeasurementspp17-40.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">marine carbonate chemistry</a>. What was once a buffer zone has become an active hazard. 



The proposed new limit is a 10 percent decline in carbonate levels from pre-industrial norms and that is now decades behind us.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ocean-acidity-now-affects-deep-waters">Ocean acidity now affects deep waters</h2>



The report, led by Dr. Helen Findlay and colleagues, stitched together 150 years of measurements and modeling to map acidity down to 660 feet (180 meters). 



Sixty percent of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/darkening-oceans-are-shrinking-vital-marine-habitats/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">waters</a> at that depth now sit beyond the old safety line, meaning the problem is not confined to sun‑lit shallows but reaches the heart of many food webs.



“Since these deeper waters are changing so much, the impacts of ocean acidification could be far worse than we thought,” noted Dr. Findlay, an ocean biogeochemist at <a href="https://pml.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Plymouth Marine Laboratory</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-reefs-and-jobs-are-at-risk">Reefs and jobs are at risk</h2>



Reefs cover <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/aa-updates/international-year-of-the-reef-022218.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">less than 1 percent</a> of the ocean floor yet shelter about a quarter of all marine species and buffer shorelines that more than 275 million people call home. 



The ongoing decline of coral reefs threatens food security, recreation, and an ocean tourism industry worth billions.



Shellfish growers have already felt the sting. Around 2010 hatcheries in the U.S. Pacific Northwest lost entire crops of oyster larvae when acidic upwelling water flooded their intake pipes, forcing emergency buffering and multi‑million‑dollar retrofits.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-when-ocean-acidity-crossed-the-danger-line">When ocean acidity crossed the danger line</h2>



To confirm the timing of the threshold breach, the team combined surface records, ice‑core carbon dioxide data, and the <a href="https://oceanacidification.noaa.gov/ocean-acidification-data/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network</a>’s sensor archive. 



The models converged on the late 2010s as the moment the global average slipped past the 20 percent mark.



Importantly, that average hides stark regional contrasts. Polar seas, already low in carbonate, crossed the line earlier, while warm tropical basins hovered just above it until the past decade.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-shrinking-safety-margin">Shrinking safety margin</h2>



The authors propose tightening the planetary boundary to a 10 percent decline, arguing that the original 20 percent buffer fails to protect deep <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earths-oceans-are-rapidly-changing-colors-matching-climate-predictions/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reefs</a> and sensitive plankton. 



Under the looser standard, forty percent of the ocean surface is already in the danger zone; under the stricter one, almost the entire surface passed the limit by the early 2000s.



Moving the goalpost highlights how little headroom remains. Every additional ton of fossil‑fuel emissions steals more carbonate from seawater, and only aggressive cuts in carbon dioxide, along with emerging drawdown technologies, can reverse the chemical slide.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ocean-acidity-needs-more-than-local-fixes">Ocean acidity needs more than local fixes</h2>



Local fixes still matter. Seagrass beds that absorb CO₂, limits on coastal nutrient runoff, and refuges that protect genetic diversity can buy time for vulnerable species. 



However, Professor Widdicombe cautions that such measures “cannot solve acidification at the planetary scale.”



International agreements now recognize ocean acidification alongside warming, but policies lag behind science. 



The new findings give negotiators a clear metric - keep average carbonate depletion below 10 percent - to guide emission targets and monitor progress.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.70238" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Global Change Biology</a>.



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Ocean acidity crosses dangerous threshold, threatening marine life

Ocean water is turning ever so slightly more acidic, and...

Pangolins in Nigeria’s Cross River forests are in trouble. Most are killed for supper, not for overseas trade in their scales. A new field survey shows that nearly every pangolin taken from the wild ends up in a cooking pot.



Scientists from the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Cambridge</a> spent three years talking with more than 800 hunters and traders across 33 villages. 



The team estimates that about 21,000 pangolins die each year in the region. Hunters rarely set out to look for them. They pick the animals up by hand while checking snares or working in farm plots. 



Almost three-quarters of the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-meat-paradox-people-care-about-animals-but-still-eat-meat/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">meat</a> is eaten by the hunters’ own families, and the rest is sold locally.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-meat-is-the-motive-for-killing-pangolins">Meat is the motive for killing pangolins </h2>



Study lead author Dr. Charles Emogor conducted the research while pursuing his PhD in the Department of Zoology at Cambridge.



“Thousands of kilos of pangolin scales are seized at Nigeria’s ports, creating the impression that the international demand for scales is behind pangolin exploitation in West Africa,” said Dr. Emogor.



"When we spoke to hunters and traders on the ground around the Cross River forest, the largest stronghold for Nigeria’s pangolins, it was obvious that meat was the motivation for almost all of the pangolin killings.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-pangolin-scales-often-hit-the-bin">Pangolin scales often hit the bin</h2>



Less than a third of the scales from those animals ever reach a trader. Most are tossed aside. <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/does-hunting-fishing-connect-humans-with-nature-or-reinforce-superiority-complex/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hunters</a> said meat earns three to four times more money per animal than scales do in local markets.



“We found that dedicated pangolin hunts are virtually non-existent. Most pangolins are killed by hunters out for any type of game,” said Dr. Emogor. 



"Around a third of pangolins are caught opportunistically, often while people are working in the fields. Pangolins curl into a ball when threatened, which sadly makes them easy to catch.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-prized-taste-and-old-beliefs">A prized taste and old beliefs</h2>



Pangolin meat is considered more flavorful than beef, chicken, or even antelope in many villages. It’s sometimes prepared for pregnant women, based on the belief that it promotes strong, healthy babies. 



This cultural value, combined with the species’ slow reproductive rate, puts intense <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/hundreds-of-mammals-show-how-humans-influence-animal-activity/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pressure</a> on the animal's survival.



“Pangolins face a lethal combination of threats,” said Dr. Emogor. “Pangolins are easy to hunt, breed slowly, taste good to humans, and are falsely believed to have curative properties in traditional medicines. In addition, their forest habitat is being destroyed.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-local-solutions-to-save-pangolins">Local solutions to save pangolins </h2>



Because food is the real pull, the researchers argue that local solutions - better patrols, new bylaws, and help with food security - may cost less and work faster than trying to police international trafficking alone.



“Clearly in designing any intervention we need good information on what’s motivating the hunters,” said study co-author Professor Andrew Balmford. “That’s why studies such as this are vital for effective conservation of endangered species.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-losing-80-million-years-of-evolution">Losing 80 million years of evolution</h2>



Dr. Emogor now runs Pangolino, a volunteer network that helps villages write and enforce pangolin-friendly rules. His motivation is personal as well as scientific.



"If we lose the pangolin, we lose 80 million years of evolution,” said Emogor. “Pangolins are the only mammals with scales, and their ancestors existed when dinosaurs still roamed the planet."



Cameroon, Gabon, and other nations show similar habits: people value pangolins mainly for food. Until diets change or enforcement improves, Africa’s only scaly <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-mammals-have-evolved-over-66-million-years/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">mammals</a> will keep slipping toward extinction - one meal at a time.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-protecting-pangolins-and-forest-life">Protecting pangolins and forest life</h2>



Efforts to save pangolins must go beyond curbing international trade. Protecting these animals - and the ecosystems they live in - means addressing the local drivers of hunting. 



That includes improving food security, offering economic alternatives to bushmeat, and increasing public awareness about the role pangolins play in forest health.



Education and outreach are key. Many hunters don’t realize pangolins are at risk. Some may not know the animals help control insect populations and support ecological balance. 



Wildlife conservation groups are working to spread this knowledge, while local governments and partners explore ways to boost law enforcement in remote areas.



Ultimately, protecting pangolins also helps safeguard other species that share their shrinking <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/north-americas-mammals-are-seeking-refuge-in-forest-habitats/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">habitats</a>. When forests are preserved and hunting is managed sustainably, entire ecosystems stand a better chance of survival.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-025-02734-3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution</a>.



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Disturbing study finds the true reason this amazing creature is on the verge of extinction

Pangolins in Nigeria’s Cross River forests are in trouble. Most...

Scientists have puzzled over the brain’s memory storage system for decades. Many have wondered how our minds can file away new information without wiping out what we already know.



After rigorous investigations, researchers have found that <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/place-cell" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">place cells</a> hold essential clues to this process. 



<a href="https://bcs.mit.edu/directory/ila-fiete">Ila Fiete</a>, a member of MIT’s <a href="https://mcgovern.mit.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">McGovern Institute for Brain Research</a> and the senior author of a recent study, believes these discoveries open fresh perspectives on how internal “maps” guide us to recall events with ease.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-memory-storage-uses-scaffolding">Memory storage uses scaffolding</h2>



Place cells were first reported about half a century ago. Early <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/5124915/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">evidence</a> showed that they become active when a rodent occupies a particular spot in a maze. 



Further work revealed these cells reside in the <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3548359/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hippocampus</a>, a core region for memory. They align with <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK435751/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">grid cells</a> in the entorhinal cortex.



Together, these populations form a foundation. Both spatial details and personal experiences rest on this scaffold, ensuring that details remain anchored to distinct neural patterns.



The recent model, called vector hippocampal scaffolded heteroassociative memory <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39814883/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">(Vector-HaSH)</a>, proposes that the hippocampus functions a bit like an index. 



It holds pointers, which direct the brain to the finer content stored in vast areas of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/sensory-cortex" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sensory cortex</a>. That index can then “fill in” previously stored information whenever we recall it.



“This model is a first-draft model of the <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2024.1448791/full" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">entorhinal-hippocampal</a> episodic memory circuit. That’s the thing I’m really excited about,” said Fiete.



In simpler words, the hippocampus does not permanently hold every detail. It directs us to the right place in the cortex, where the nuts and bolts of each stored memory lie.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-understanding-the-hippocampus-the-basics">Understanding the hippocampus - the basics</h2>



The hippocampus is tucked deep within the medial temporal lobe. Because of it's crucial role in converting short-term memories into long-term ones, without <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sleep-reboots-the-brain-making-room-for-new-memories/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the hippocampus</a>, experiences would simply fade away moments after they occurred. 



This brain region also helps us navigate space, build mental maps, and orient ourselves in our environments.



It works closely with the amygdala and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-brain-pathways-identified-as-being-unique-to-humans/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">prefrontal cortex</a>, forming a network that governs how we learn from experience and respond emotionally to events.



Damage to the hippocampus can lead to serious memory issues, such as anterograde amnesia - the inability to form new memories. 



This kind of impairment has been observed in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and in cases of brain trauma or stroke. 



Research also shows that the hippocampus is highly plastic - it can grow new neurons even in adulthood, a process known as neurogenesis.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-inside-the-scaffold">Inside the scaffold</h2>



Grid cells create repeated patterns that look like triangular lattices. Each triangular arrangement, referred to as a well, can point to a specific episode. 



The content itself is not housed in these wells. Instead, each well is a label that refers the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/17-best-strategies-to-protect-your-brain-from-stroke-dementia-and-depression/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">brain</a> to the correct memory storage location in the sensory cortex.



As more events pour in, the circuit spreads them out, allowing older memories to fade gently. The model bypasses the so-called memory cliff, a snag that often affects older computational frameworks. 



This design reflects how real neural networks accommodate both new items and older recollections without hitting a harsh limit.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-implications-for-memory-strategies">Implications for memory strategies</h2>



Training for events that require memorizing large sets of information can benefit from these findings. The time-honored <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nn988" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">memory palace method</a> aligns with the notion of using spatial backdrops to link to new data.&nbsp;



Experts often picture a familiar location and place items there in a structured sequence. Later, they mentally revisit each spot to retrieve those items. 



This new model suggests that tapping an already entrenched memory storage map can free up cognitive space for large-scale memorization.



The principle is straightforward. By designating specific neural wells as placeholders, we can link a chain of events without jumbling them up. 



Our internal index system calls up the correct cluster of cells. That cluster cues the finer content that is stashed in sensory regions.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-sequential-order-explained">Sequential order explained</h2>



Sometimes, we need to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sleep-rewires-the-brain-to-strengthen-memories/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">recall</a> a story in the exact order it happened. This framework highlights that each well holds cues about what comes next. 



That helps us replay those experiences in the correct sequence. The model draws on the same arrangement for both location-based and experience-based details.



Memories about where you ate lunch last week or how you maneuvered a tricky hiking trail can emerge from the same scaffolding. You tap the index that leads you to the right well, and the rest naturally falls into place.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-future-memory-storage-studies">Future memory storage studies</h2>



One area of interest is how short-term recollections solidify into more general facts. These are sometimes called semantic memories. 



The fresh approach provides a structure for investigating how personal events might become separated from contextual details after enough time.



Researchers also want to clarify how episodes are chunked or defined. 



Another question is whether a model like Vector-HaSH can fuel more efficient machine <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-discover-a-better-way-for-kids-to-learn-math/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">learning</a>. Understanding how the brain organizes sequences might help AI systems handle incremental learning.



This study supports the idea that hippocampal and entorhinal circuits form an integrated reference system for storing huge amounts of information without abrupt loss.



All of this underscores that the same circuit that once guided our ancestors through forests and deserts can also manage recollections of birthdays, daily errands, and major life milestones.



The study is published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08392-y" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature</a>.



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Human brains use a storage trick to keep your memories in sequential order

Scientists have puzzled over the brain’s memory storage system for...

Coffee is more than just a wake-up call. For many, it's a daily ritual that brings comfort and energy. But new research suggests that drinking coffee might also offer something unexpected - a longer life. That is, if you drink it right.



Scientists at <a href="https://www.tufts.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tufts University</a> have found that coffee can be linked to a lower risk of dying - but there’s a catch. The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/drinking-this-amount-of-coffee-helps-prevent-heart-disease-and-diabetes/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">benefits</a> depend on how much sugar and saturated fat you add. A splash of cream and a spoonful of sugar could cancel out the good stuff.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-black-coffee-for-a-longer-life">Black coffee for a longer life</h2>



The research team at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy took a closer look at what people actually put in their coffee. The study reveals something simple but important: less is more when it comes to additives.



The experts found that drinking one to two cups of caffeinated coffee a day was associated with a lower risk of death from all causes, including heart disease. 



Those who drank black coffee, or coffee with just a little sugar and fat, had a 14% lower risk of dying compared to non-coffee <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/human-brains-solve-complex-problems-with-simple-tricks/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">drinkers</a>. But when sugar and saturated fat increased, the benefit disappeared.



“Coffee is among the most-consumed beverages in the world, and with nearly half of American adults reporting drinking at least one cup per day, it’s important for us to know what it might mean for health,” said Professor Fang Fang Zhang, senior author of the study.



“The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/drinking-this-amount-of-coffee-helps-prevent-heart-disease-and-diabetes/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">health benefits</a> of coffee might be attributable to its bioactive compounds, but our results suggest that the addition of sugar and saturated fat may reduce the mortality benefits.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-coffee-habits-of-46-000-american-adults">Coffee habits of 46,000 American adults</h2>



The study didn’t just look at coffee drinkers in general. The researchers analyzed nearly 20 years of data from 46,000 adults who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NHANES</a>) between 1999 and 2018.



Participants shared details about what they ate and drank in a 24-hour period. Their coffee habits were tracked alongside information from the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/ndi/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">National Death Index</a>, which listed causes of death including cancer, heart disease, and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/y-chromosome-is-disappearing-may-already-be-causing-problems-for-men/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">others</a>.



The researchers classified coffee types by caffeine level and how much sugar and saturated fat they contained. 



For context, low sugar meant less than 2.5 grams per cup - about half a teaspoon. Low saturated fat meant no more than 1 gram, which is what you'd get from one tablespoon of light cream or half-and-half.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-more-coffee-doesn-t-mean-more-benefit">More coffee doesn’t mean more benefit</h2>



One cup a day? A 16% drop in overall mortality risk. Two to three cups? Slightly better, at 17%. But drink more than that, and the benefits didn’t keep rising. 



In fact, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/drinking-coffee-may-reduce-frailty-in-aging-adults/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">drinking</a> more than three cups a day didn’t seem to offer any extra protection - especially when it came to heart-related deaths.



Also, coffee didn’t show any meaningful connection to cancer-related mortality. The positive effects were mostly linked to cardiovascular health and general longevity.



Study first author Bingjie Zhou is a recent Ph.D. graduate from the nutrition epidemiology and data science program at the <a href="https://nutrition.tufts.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Friedman School</a>.



“Few studies have examined how coffee additives could impact the link between coffee consumption and mortality risk, and our study is among the first to quantify how much sweetener and saturated fat are being added,” said Zhou.



“Our results align with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans which recommend limiting added sugar and saturated fat.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cream-and-sugar-dilemma">Cream and sugar dilemma</h2>



A spoonful of sugar might make your coffee taste better, but it could also reduce the health benefits. The study offers a clear takeaway: coffee itself isn’t the problem. What you put in it matters.



Coffee contains bioactive compounds like <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/shrimp-proven-to-be-a-nutritional-treasure-packed-with-antioxidants/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">antioxidants</a> and anti-inflammatory agents that might help protect against disease and support a longer, healthier life.



But loading your cup with creamers, flavored syrups, and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/childrens-cereals-now-contain-more-sugar-and-fat-than-ever/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">extra sugar</a> changes the nutritional equation. It turns a health-friendly drink into something closer to dessert.



This nuance matters. People often think of coffee as either good or bad. This research suggests the truth is more subtle - coffee can be beneficial, but only if it’s not drowning in additives.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-limitations-of-the-study">Limitations of the study</h2>



As with any observational study, there are limitations. The researchers relied on self-reported dietary recall, which can vary depending on memory and accuracy. What someone reports eating on one day might not reflect their long-term habits.



Also, decaffeinated coffee didn’t show the same benefits in this study. But that may be because not enough people reported drinking decaf to make the data strong enough.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-gaining-years-of-life-with-coffee">Gaining years of life with coffee </h2>



If you enjoy a daily cup of coffee, there’s no need to stop. In fact, if you drink it black or with just a touch of milk and minimal sugar, you might actually be doing your body a favor. 



But if your coffee resembles dessert in a cup, you might want to rethink what you're sipping.



In short: it’s not just the coffee that matters, but also how you drink it. Keep it simple, keep it balanced, and you might gain more than just a morning boost. You might just gain a few more years.



The study is published in the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S002231662500286X?via%3Dihub" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Journal of Nutrition</a>.



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Coffee may help you live longer - if you drink it this way

Coffee is more than just a wake-up call. For many,...

In the face of global biodiversity loss, protected areas have emerged as a crucial conservation strategy. These regions are set aside to limit human interference and provide wildlife with a safe space. 



Conservationists often focus on species counts when measuring success. But are these protected zones doing enough to preserve the entire structure of ecosystems?



This question is at the heart of a new study from <a href="https://www.swansea.ac.uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Swansea University</a>. Instead of focusing only on species richness, the researchers examined how protected areas affect the complex interactions between species. 



These species interactions - especially predator-prey relationships - build the food webs that make <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/extinction-by-design-should-we-genetically-erase-harmful-species/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ecosystems</a> stable and functional.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-species-count-is-not-enough-nbsp">Species count is not enough&nbsp;</h2>



Species richness is important. However, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/why-millions-of-fungal-species-still-remain-unknown/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ecosystems</a> are more than a list of species. The relationships between organisms play a key role in ecological balance. A hawk hunting smaller birds or a songbird feeding on insects reflects interactions that keep ecosystems working.



The Swansea team wanted to understand if protected areas help maintain this ecological balance. They examined the structure of food webs rather than just counting how many species lived in each location. 



A food web includes all the feeding relationships between animals in a region. It shows who eats whom and how energy flows through the environment.



To conduct this study, the researchers turned to citizen science. They used data from platforms like eBird, where volunteers record bird sightings. This allowed the experts to track 509 bird species across 45 ecological networks from Spain to Finland.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-food-webs-inside-and-outside-reserves">Food webs inside and outside reserves</h2>



Using this large database, the team combined observational bird records with known predator-prey links. For example, if a particular raptor feeds on smaller birds, that relationship was mapped. Each network captured the structure of a local bird community and its food web.



The team compared food webs inside protected areas to those in surrounding, non-protected <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/international-lynx-day-2025-protecting-the-silent-hunters/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">landscapes</a>. These comparisons were not simple. 



The researchers controlled for many variables. They looked at habitat diversity, the percentage of forest and agricultural land, and levels of human pressure.



The experts also considered the designation status of the protected areas. Some zones were part of the European Bird Directives, which provide stronger conservation measures. Others had more general protections. 



These different conservation levels allowed the team to ask whether clearer goals led to better ecological outcomes.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-protected-areas-help-in-some-places">Protected areas help in some places</h2>



So, what did the researchers find? In some cases, protected areas improved the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/international-day-for-biological-diversity-2025-bonding-with-nature/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">structure</a> of food webs. The networks inside protected zones tended to have more species overall. Intermediate-level species - those neither top predators nor at the bottom - were more common. 



Also, predators inside protected areas tended to be larger in body size, both at the top and middle levels of the food web.



However, not all of the results were encouraging. The length of food chains and the connectivity of species within the web did not show consistent improvement. In other words, simply having more species did not guarantee a healthier or more connected ecosystem.



The effects varied across Europe. Food webs in Spain responded differently from those in Finland or central Europe. This suggests that local conditions still matter greatly. Protection alone cannot guarantee the same results everywhere.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-factors-behind-food-web-differences">Factors behind food web differences</h2>



What caused the variation in results? Several environmental factors played a role. Areas that were more remote generally had healthier food webs. Places with higher habitat diversity also performed better. Human pressure and the amount of nearby farmland had a strong influence too.



Interestingly, areas under the European Bird Directives showed stronger positive trends. This suggests that clearer conservation planning makes a real difference. Just designating a region as "protected" is not enough. What matters is how that protection is implemented.



Study co-author Dr. Miguel Lurgi, who leads the Computational Ecology Lab, emphasized the significance of the research. 



“Studies like ours highlight the complexity of conservation action and the importance of considering key aspects of biodiversity beyond species richness, such as ecological interactions and the tangled networks that they form, into biodiversity assessments,” noted Dr. Lurgi.



“These networks not only structure communities and enable their persistence, but they also play important roles in the functions that ecosystems fulfil in nature.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-we-must-protect-species-and-their-roles-nbsp">We must protect species and their roles&nbsp;</h2>



This study challenges a common assumption in conservation planning. Many projects measure success by the number of species saved. The research shows that relationships between species are equally vital. 



Protecting one bird species is good. Ensuring that it still plays its ecological role - as predator, prey, or pollinator - is better.



Protected areas clearly help in some ways. They offer space for species to live and grow. But without active planning, their impact on food webs may fall short. Conservation needs to think about networks, not just numbers.



By looking at predator-prey relationships, this research opens a path to more holistic conservation strategies. It also highlights the value of citizen science. 



Platforms like eBird make this kind of large-scale ecological work possible. Every birdwatcher’s observation helps build a clearer picture of how our ecosystems function.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-protected-areas-need-better-plans">Protected areas need better plans</h2>



Europe's protected areas are not failing, but they are not universally succeeding either. They need tailored strategies, grounded in ecological data. Simple protection does not always support complex ecosystems.



This study gives policymakers a reason to refine their approaches. If the goal is to protect ecosystems, not just individual species, then conservation must shift. It must include ecological interactions, food web structures, and the subtle forces that hold nature together.



As this research shows, conservation cannot afford to stay simple. Nature is complex. Our strategies must match that complexity.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2025.0614" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences</a>.



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Protected areas don't always protect food webs

In the face of global biodiversity loss, protected areas have...

Fires sweep through forests, darkening skies and sparking conversations about smoke pollution, health, and lost trees - but few of us picture how this may affect life in the ocean.



Every smoke plume carries tiny particles and nutrients that fall into the sea and quietly reshape life below the waves.



In a new study, led by a team at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (<a href="https://www.bsc.es/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BSC-CNS</a>), scientists traced the smoke-ocean link with advanced climate models.



The results point to a future in which rising temperatures bring more fires in the far north and, with them, more iron-rich dust for the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/antarctic-warming-triggers-rising-north-atlantic-sea-levels/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">North Atlantic</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fires-as-a-source-of-ocean-fertilizer">Fires as a source of ocean fertilizer</h2>



Fires loft bits of burned wood and soil into the upper air. Winds push those particles across continents and oceans. When they land, the particles deliver <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/low-iron-levels-will-make-it-hard-for-corals-to-endure-global-warming/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">iron</a> - an essential micronutrient that is in short supply in many parts of the sea.



With the additional iron, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/arctic-heatwaves-have-complex-effects-on-phytoplankton-food-web/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">phytoplankton</a> can bloom just as crops respond to fertilizer. The plankton draw carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air as they grow, which links forest flames on land to the global climate balance.



Professor Carlos Pérez García-Pando is co-leader of the BSC's Atmospheric Composition group and senior co-author of the study.



“Climate-driven fires arise from more favorable weather conditions for fire, such as low humidity and high temperatures, which in turn are influenced by anthropogenic climate change," noted Professor García-Pando.



"Understanding these fires and their impact on the fertilization of key ocean regions, like the North Atlantic, is essential for more accurately predicting future atmospheric CO2 levels."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-forest-fire-smoke-and-ocean-life">Forest fire smoke and ocean life</h2>



The researchers ran high-resolution simulations to study changing <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/human-activity-is-rapidly-changing-weather-in-north-america/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">weather patterns</a>, vegetation, and emissions. They found that by the late 21st century, climate change could push boreal wildfires to release 1.8 times more iron than today.



In North Atlantic zones where iron is scarce, that extra supply could raise summer phytoplankton productivity by as much as 40 percent.



Smoke-borne iron is only one piece of the nutrient puzzle. <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plankton-change-their-cell-chemistry-to-survive-warming-oceans/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Warming oceans</a> are expected to reduce the upwelling of other key nutrients in many regions. That drop could blunt some of the carbon-absorbing benefit of new phytoplankton growth.



“Quantifying this nutrient source for phytoplankton is important for gaining a more precise idea of how much CO2 will remain in the atmosphere in the coming decades," said Elisa Bergas-Massó, BSC-CNS researcher and lead author of the study.



"By determining how climate-driven fires will increase the supply of iron to the ocean, we are revealing a crucial feedback loop in the Earth system that we must understand to address climate change." 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-estimating-future-co-2-levels">Estimating future CO2 levels</h2>



Fire science, atmospheric chemistry, oceanography, and climate policy often move on separate tracks. This study pulls them together and shows why that matters. Accurately estimating future CO2 levels depends on knowing how land fires fertilize the sea.



Study co-senior author Maria Gonçalves Ageitos is a researcher at the BSC and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC).



“The results of this study are crucial for improving projections of the carbon cycle and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/alarming-shifts-in-ocean-health-less-oxygen-more-heat-and-acidity/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ocean health</a> under a changing climate, paving the way for more accurate climate models and better-informed future climate change adaptation policies,” said Gonçalves.



The authors call for better observations of smoke plumes, ocean nutrient levels, and phytoplankton blooms, along with finer-scale modeling. 



Each improvement will tighten the numbers on how much carbon the ocean can pull from the air - and how forest management, fire prevention, and emissions cuts on land might echo across the planet’s largest ecosystem.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-earth-s-hidden-connections">Earth’s hidden connections</h2>



In a warming world, nothing exists in isolation. Climate change doesn’t just melt ice or just raise sea levels - it alters winds, shifts fire seasons, changes ocean chemistry, and influences the tiniest organisms at sea.



This study is one more example of how deeply connected Earth’s systems really are. Fires in distant forests can influence life and carbon absorption in the ocean. What happens on land doesn’t stay on land.



As the climate continues to change, we need to pay closer attention to these hidden links - because solving one part of the puzzle means understanding how it fits into the whole.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-025-02356-4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Climate Change</a>.



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Forest fire smoke boosts ocean life - but with a hidden cost

Fires sweep through forests, darkening skies and sparking conversations about...

3d,Rendering,X,And,Y,Chromosome,With,Telomeres

Flip open a high-school biology textbook, and the rule seems tidy: two X chromosomes mean girl, and an X paired with a Y means boy. That much smaller Y chromosome carries the SRY gene, which is the switch for testis development. 



For the last 300 million years or so, this system has been working very well. Now, however, chatter in genetics circles hints that something is amiss. 



Over time, the Y chromosome has been losing pieces of itself, and computer models suggest the last scraps could vanish in roughly 11 million years. This is no trivial matter, because what it holds - or drops - can sway everything from cancer risk to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mouse-with-two-dads-survives-to-adulthood-major-implications-for-same-sex-human-couples/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">how future humans reproduce</a>.



Would that erase men from the planet, or would life simply shrug and invent a new plan? Rodents on remote islands and subtle changes inside aging human <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/blood-stem-cells-grown-in-the-lab-for-first-time-ever-leukemia-treatment/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bone marrow</a> are now providing clues. 



One story shows how a mammal kept producing males after its Y disappeared entirely. The other warns how men already pay a price when some of their cells drift away from the chromosome during middle age.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-y-chromosome-fade-away">Y chromosome fade away</h2>



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mothers-pass-down-x-chromosomes-that-accelerate-brain-aging/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The X chromosome</a> carries about 900 genes that do everything from wiring nerves to repairing DNA. Its partner, the Y, keeps only about 55. 



Comparative work across mammals shows that, once our lineage split from the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-do-animals-balance-their-sex-chromosomes/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">platypus</a> some 166 million years ago, the Y began dropping about five genes every million years. Run that line forward, and the ledger hits zero in 11 million years - a geological heartbeat.



Most biologists once chalked that outcome up to hype. After all, many species never shed their sex chromosomes. 



But the idea gained traction when researchers found the Japanese spiny rat and a few mole vole species thriving today without any Y at all. Somehow, they had rewired the traditional circuit for making testes.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-rodents-changed-the-rules">Rodents changed the rules</h2>



In 2022, scientists found a duplicated piece of DNA near a gene called <a href="https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/gene/sox9/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SOX9</a> in the spiny rat. Usually, another gene (SRY) turns SOX9 on to make male traits develop. 



But in this rat, the new DNA copy does that job on its own - even without a Y chromosome - so a genetically female animal (XX) can still develop as male.



Drop the fragment into lab mice and testes still form. Evolution, it seems, can lay a new cable when the old one burns out.



That discovery hints that, should the human Y fizzle out one distant day, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/lifes-rules-natural-selection-change-significantly-often-daphnia/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">natural selection</a> could promote an alternative trigger. 



Different populations might even settle on different triggers, eventually splitting into separate species that cannot interbreed. The idea sounds like science fiction, but the rodent reality shows it is genetically feasible.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-y-chromosomes-and-men-s-health">Y chromosomes and men's health</h2>



Long before any species-wide overhaul, countless men are already losing the Y chromosome cell by cell. Starting in their fifties, bone-marrow <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/living-mouse-created-with-stem-cells-that-predate-animals/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stem cells</a> sometimes mis-segregate it during division. 



The resulting white-blood-cell lineages, missing their Y, multiply quietly. By 80 years old, more than 40 percent of men carry sizable pockets of this “mosaic loss of Y” in their blood.



Tracking 1,153 Swedish men in their seventies and eighties, researchers found that those with the loss died 5.5 years earlier, suffered more solid tumors and heart disease, and faced a seven-fold rise in Alzheimer’s. 



Kenneth Walsh of the <a href="https://www.virginia.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Virginia</a> then bred mouse blood stem cells without the Y chromosome and transplanted them. The recipients developed fibrosis, failing hearts, and early death, showing the loss is the culprit, not a bystander.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-direct-link-to-the-immune-system">Direct link to the immune system</h2>



A gene on the Y chromosome called <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/7404" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">UTY</a> helps control the immune system. Without it, some immune cells stop working properly - one kind makes more scar tissue, and another becomes weaker, which helps cancer grow and spread. 



In mice, tumors grow twice as fast without the Y. In men, bladder cancers missing the Y chromosome are more dangerous - except they respond better to a certain kind of cancer treatment called checkpoint inhibitors.



The picture is complicated: a chromosome that underpins male development also tames inflammation and restrains tumors, yet its selective absence can make some drugs shine. 



Medicine and evolution rarely share the same bottom line. Natural selection prizes reproductive success over a lifetime, while clinicians care about the here and now.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-offsetting-y-chromosome-loss">Offsetting Y chromosome loss</h2>



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/does-vaping-help-people-quit-smoking-cigarettes-new-study-breaks-it-down/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cigarette smoke</a>, air pollution, and certain industrial chemicals add extra DNA damage and accelerate the Y chromosome loss. Kicking tobacco, breathing cleaner air, and limiting exposure to mutagens therefore rank as simple defenses - all it takes is willpower.



General habits that slow genomic wear - regular exercise, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mediterranean-diet-may-be-a-fountain-of-youth-for-women/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mediterranean-style</a> meals, and solid sleep - may also keep the Y chromosome in more cells for longer.



Antifibrotic drugs cleared for lung disease are being tested to blunt heart damage from the loss. Oncologists already use chromosome status in bladder tumors to steer checkpoint therapy. 



As single-cell sequencing gets cheaper, your physical exam might soon include a “Y-loss score” beside cholesterol.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-where-do-we-go-from-here">Where do we go from here?</h2>



The Japanese spiny rat proves that mammals can reinvent the rulebook after the ‘puny little chromosome’ disappears. That prospect keeps evolutionary biologists buzzing. 



Yet the rodent’s triumph offers little comfort to a 60-year-old man whose marrow has already shed Y in a third of his white-blood-cell army. 



Species-level salvation and individual-level hazard can coexist. That dichotomy - long-term adaptability versus immediate personal cost - will likely guide both medical practice and evolutionary debate in the years ahead.



The Y chromosome is quirky but crucial. It shapes male development, steadies immunity, and may also be plotting its own disappearance. 



However, the good news is that the practical advice is simple: dodge mutagens, stub out cigarettes, consider a mid-life test for loss, and keep an eye on new research as this chromosome writes its final chapters.



Let's go, men, you got this!



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(23)00646-3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cell</a>.



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The Y chromosome is disappearing, a fact that is already causing problems for men

Flip open a high-school biology textbook, and the rule seems...

The SnugSoft Deluxe Pillow Sham is made from 100% wool, surrounding your pillow with a 1" pile height for a comfortable sleep. Read more Overview The SnugSoft Deluxe Pillow Sham is a cozy way to complete your sleeping comfort. Made from 100% wool, these shams surround your pillow and transform it into a comfortable delight! Shams are backed with a 100% cotton French tuck enclosure. Size Options: Standard 20" x 26" Queen 20" x 30" King 20" x 38" Features & Benefits: 1-inch wool pile height Made from 100% wool Machine washable Made in the USA Why use wool? A natural thermostat Wool has the ability to act as a natural thermostat. In the summer, you'll stay cool because of wool's ability to wick moisture away from you on humid summer nights. A single fiber can absorb up to 30% of its weight in body vapor. In the winter, you'll stay cozy because wool also acts as a natural insulator. Air spaces between the fibers trap body heat, and circulate warm air next to your body. The result is an undisturbed, quality sleep like never before. Enhances comfort Wool's naturally crimped fibers form a springy, cushioned support that cradles your body. This support relieves pressure points, muscle aches, and back pain. While it is not a miracle cure, it has soothing qualities that help those who suffer from arthritis, rheumatism, and injuries. It has been used in hospitals for years to enhance their patient's comfort. By soothing the body and reducing fatigue, you will quickly fall into a restful sleep and wake up recharged for the day ahead. SnugFleece products are made from 100% American wool, which has a higher degree of crimp than its foreign competitors. Easy care and cleaning Because sheets protect your cover, it will require little cleaning. Wool's low static fibers resist dust and staining, and its natural lanolin oil resists liquids. Occasionally leaving your bed unmade during the day will allow your SnugFleece to breathe and rejuvenate itself. Because of the natural resilience of the wool fiber, your cover will spring back to its original shape with a simple vacuuming. SnugFleece products can be dry cleaned. SnugSoft products are designed for machine wash and dry. Environmentally safe Wool and cotton are natural fibers. You can rest easy knowing that synthetic materials were not released into the environment from the manufacturing of SnugFleece products. Infant care Studies have shown that wool is soothing and swaddling for babies, resulting in reduced stress and a higher quality sleep. Because wool repels dust, it also makes a cleaner environment for babies to sleep or play.

SnugSoft Deluxe Wool Pillow Sham

The SnugSoft Deluxe Pillow Sham is made from 100% wool,...

The SnugSoft Imperial is constructed with a 1.25" pile height and a weight of 55 oz./linear-yard, and is machine washable! Read more Overview SnugSoft products are knitted through a durable poly backing that allows the added convenience of machine washing. This makes them perfect for infants, children, and the elderly. SnugFleece products are made from 100% American virgin wool, and offer superb craftsmanship and quality. The natural solution for a perfect night's sleep, the wool products offer soft, springy, body-conforming support. Sleep studies have shown that wool induces a more relaxed sleep, and can offer relief from stiffness and pain. SnugFleece wool is sanitized with Ultra-Fresh to prevent the growth of microorganisms. Ultra-Fresh prevents odors and guards against premature deterioration caused by mold, mildew, or dust. It is locked within the fibers during wool blending, meaning that it will withstand dry cleaning and washing and last the life of the product. Features & Benefits: 1.25" pile height 55 oz. wool/linear-yard 2" elastic corner straps secure the cover to your bed Made from 100% American virgin wool Machine wash and dry Available Sizes Crib: 28" x 52" - $76.00 Twin: 39" x 75" - $145.00 XL-Twin: 39" x 80" - $156.00 Full: 54" x 75" - $195.00 Queen: 60" x 80" - $213.00 King: 78" x 80" - $271.00 Cal-King: 72" x 84" - $290.00 Massage: 30" x 73" - $137.00 Why use wool? A natural thermostat Wool has the ability to act as a natural thermostat. In the summer, you'll stay cool because of wool's ability to wick moisture away from you on humid summer nights. A single fiber can absorb up to 30% of its weight in body vapor. In the winter, you'll stay cozy because wool also acts as a natural insulator. Air spaces between the fibers trap body heat, and circulate warm air next to your body. The result is an undisturbed, quality sleep like never before. Enhances comfort Wool's naturally crimped fibers form a springy, cushioned support that cradles your body. This support relieves pressure points, muscle aches, and back pain. While it is not a miracle cure, it has soothing qualities that help those who suffer from arthritis, rheumatism, and injuries. It has been used in hospitals for years to enhance their patient's comfort. By soothing the body and reducing fatigue, you will quickly fall into a restful sleep and wake up recharged for the day ahead. SnugFleece products are made from 100% American wool, which has a higher degree of crimp than its foreign competitors. Easy care and cleaning Because sheets protect your cover, it will require little cleaning. Wool's low static fibers resist dust and staining, and its natural lanolin oil resists liquids. Occasionally leaving your bed unmade during the day will allow your SnugFleece to breathe and rejuvenate itself. Because of the natural resilience of the wool fiber, your cover will spring back to its original shape with a simple vacuuming. SnugFleece products can be dry cleaned. SnugSoft products are designed for machine wash and dry. Environmentally safe Wool and cotton are natural fibers. You can rest easy knowing that synthetic materials were not released into the environment from the manufacturing of SnugFleece products. Infant care Studies have shown that wool is soothing and swaddling for babies, resulting in reduced stress and a higher quality sleep. Because wool repels dust, it also makes a cleaner environment for babies to sleep or play.

SnugSoft Imperial Wool Mattress Cover

The SnugSoft Imperial is constructed with a 1.25" pile height...

Use this cork bowl in the kitchen for fruit, on the table for bread, or in the living room as a catch-all container for items around your home. Read more Shape it or fold it down to modify its size for whatever you put in it. The durable cork fabric will get even softer and more pliable over time. Our cork fabric is anti-microbial, water-resistant and stain-resistant too. Features & Benefits: Adjustable cork fabric bowl to use around the home Made from natural, renewable cork Beautiful, durable and washable Measures 10 inches in diameter Hand wash and wipe dry Cork Fabric Cork is harvested from the cork oak tree. The cork oak grows in the forests of Mediterranean countries. The largest concentration of plantations is found in Spain and Portugal. The Chinese Cork Oak (Quercus variabilis) is a wild crop in China. The average lifespan of a cork oak is approximately 170 years. The bark, from which cork is made, is harvested every 10-12 years. Harvesting cork does not harm the tree and a new layer of cork re-grows. Cork is an abundant natural and renewable resource. Cork fabric is produced using thin sheets of natural cork laminated to a cotton blend backing. This versatile and lightweight fabric is stain-resistant and easy to wipe clean. Cork does not retain moisture, and is therefore waterproof and washable.

Soft Cork Fabric Bowl

Use this cork bowl in the kitchen for fruit, on...

Designed to attract bluebirds, and deter sparrows. Your local bluebirds will feel right at home when you put out this Kentucky style, slot entrance house. Read more Overview Approved by the North American Bluebird Society, this bluebird house is designed to deter sparrows. Some studies have shown that bluebirds prefer a slot entrance to the standard circular hole entrance and sparrows prefer the opposite. Also, sparrows tend to avoid shallow homes so the Sparrow-Resistant Bluebird House was constructed to be only 5" deep and includes a wooden insert to adjust the depth to a mere 3-1/2". Sparrows will avoid this depth, but bluebirds will still occupy the house. Features & Benefits: Front panel has latch opening for easy cleaning House is rough-sawn to give fledglings a foothold when they are ready to climb out of the nest Ventilation slots located at the top of the sides prevent overheating Slots in the bottom corners provide drainage Floor is also recessed to keep inside dry Mounting hardware not included (2/1-1/2" wood screws recommended) Handcrafted from 1" white pine for insulation and durability Made in the USA About the Bluebird House Our nest boxes are correct in every detail for each species and come with species specific literature and mounting instructions. All of our nest boxes are crafted of custom milled, premium grade, sustainably grown, Eastern white pine, from Robbins Lumber mill in Maine. Robbins Lumber is a leader in responsible forestry management practices. They replant where they harvest, secure the soil from erosion, preserve wildlife habitats and ensure that a sixth generation of the Robbins family can depend on a healthy and productive forest. Product Quality: Customers tell us again and again that the Coveside products are "the best on the market" with the unique rougher-head finish and secure construction. Environmental Concern: The dimensions are correct for each species and care is given to ventilation and drainage for the well being of the inhabitants. Conservationists Prefer: Coveside products are manufactured from eastern white pine which is preferable because it is a second-growth tree which rejuvenates quickly. Educational Materials: Each product comes with a brochure and a card telling about the wildlife inhabitant that will use it, recommending ideas for location and suggestions for maintenance procedures. Experts Select: Coveside habitats were selected to be on permanent display in the United States Arboretums Buchheister National Bird Garden in Washington, DC and the Wildlife Garden at River Farm Gardens of the American Horticultural Society in Alexandria, VA.

Sparrow-resistant Bluebird House

Designed to attract bluebirds, and deter sparrows. Your local bluebirds...

Help change shower habits from long to short showers and save resources. Read more Overview Encourage efficient showering with the Stop In Time shower timer. This timer is an easy, inexpensive way to save water and save energy by providing a way to monitor and reduce showering time. The Stop In Time shower timer comes with a suction cup to set it up on you shower wall. At the beginning of a shower, simply rotate the Stop In Time shower timer to activate the hour glass style sand timer for an approximate 5 minute shower time. When the sand has traveled from one cavity to another, you know enough time has elapsed and you should be clean and out of the shower.

Stop In Time Shower Timer

Help change shower habits from long to short showers and...

An emergency water distiller so effective that it can create high-purity drinking water from virtually any water source, including ocean water. Read more Overview The Survival Still is a non-electric water distiller that purifies water by boiling the water and collecting only the pure steam (a process called distillation). The result; consistently pure water from virtually any water source, without the use of filters. If you're in an emergency, you can purify water from your swimming pool, a stream or even the ocean, for as long as is needed. Features & Benefits: Converts contaminated water and ocean water into high purity drinking water Meets Red Cross, FEMA and AWWA recommendations for the process of distillation when treating water in emergency situations Kills and removes bacteria and viruses Fail Safe Protection (unlike filters, the Survival Still has a permanent air gap that separates the raw water from the purified water) Effective on radioactive contaminants Effective on toxic metals Designed and made in the USA Lifetime performance guarantee, reusable and no deterioration in performance over time Package Includes: Two Piece Survival Still, High-Temp Silicone Tubing, Instruction Manual, Product Key for a Free E-Book titled, "How to Use the Survival Still to Save your Life". **POTS AND COLLECTION BOTTLE ARE NOT INCLUDED.** Important Information Raw Water Requirements: Source water should be potable water, ocean water or pool water. FEMA and the Red Cross recommend using the process of distillation on contaminated water during an emergency, but user does so at their own risk. Performance: Third-party testing demonstrated the reduction of contaminated ocean water from over 30,000 parts per million (ppm) to less than 3 ppm. In bringing the water to a boil before placing the Survival Still on top, we can remove Volatile Organic Compounds and other contaminants which has lower boiling points with water. These contaminants will have vented away before putting the Survival Still on the pot. In addition, the Survival Still received a perfect rating for the removal of biological contaminants. The Survival Still was further tested by the University of Nebraska for removal of uranium, and received a greater than 98% removal. Furthermore, the Survival Still removes bacteria, viruses and parasites up to 99.9+%. No claim is made that the Survival Still is perfect or that it offers 100% removal of contaminants, because there is no water treatment process that is perfect nor is there such a thing as 100% pure water. Production Rate: The production rate depends upon the amount of heat/energy you put into the boiling water. Our tests showed a rate of 1/2 gallon of distilled water per hour. Pot Sizes: The Survival Still is designed to be used with the pots you already have at home. The bottom pot should provide a stable base and should have an inner diameter no smaller than 9a ^2 and an outer diameter no larger than 11a ^2. The top pot should have a bottom diameter no smaller than 8 5/8a ^2 and no greater than 9 5/8a ^2. The top pot should be made of stainless steel, be clean on the bottom and hold at least 8 to 12 quarts of water. The bottom pot does not need to be stainless steel. Heat Source: You can use many different heat sources. We recommend the use of a controlled heat source which you can turn off after the batch is complete. In addition, the heating surface must be level and stable.

Survival Still Water Purifier and Desalinator

An emergency water distiller so effective that it can create...

SWITCH 3-WAY is the industry's first LED 3-way lamp. This adjustable bulb replaces 30, 60 and 75-watt incandescent bulbs, while consuming 80% less power than an incandescent bulb! Omnidirectional, use anywhere you would use a standard incandescent bulb, up, down or sideways. Frosted bulb. Read more Overview The industry's first 3-way LED lamp, SWITCH 3-WAY is an adjustable, omnidirectional LED bulb. It can be used in any three way fixture in any orientation to provide three levels of warm, shade filling light. It has three settings to give you control over light intensity and energy use in each fixture. Features & Benefits: Incandescent quality light: Provides the same light distribution and performance as an incandescent bulb Exceptional design: Stunning visual design that looks as good off as it does on, all within the standard A form factor LQD Cooling System: Industry leading technology offers up to 40% better thermal performance than standard air-cooled lamps (details below) Reduced energy costs: SWITCH 3-WAY uses 75% less energy and lasts 25 times longer than an incandescent 3 Lighting Levels: 30/60/75-watt equivalent light for three way fixtures Complete functionality: Instant on, operates in any orientation and with any three way fixture, such as a table or floor light Fully certified: UL/cUL listed for damp use; RoHS; FCC CFR 47 Part 15 Eco friendly: Uses less energy, lasts thousands of hours, free of hazardous materials Liquid Cooling System: Switch's breakthrough liquid-cooling technology allows for the bulb to be fully enclosed, unlike most LED bulbs. LQD Cooling System is a blend of two technologies: a cooling liquid that bathes the LEDs inside the bulb, and a highly efficient patented driver. This design cools the LEDs by using the bulb's entire surface to disperse heat. LQD Cooling System uses a liquid silicone that is electrically non-conductive, non-toxic, and colorless. Will not degrade bulb components or harm the environment. General Information about LED Lights: LED stands for "light-emitting diode" 90% more efficient than halogen and incandescent lamps Last much longer than incandescent bulbs (eg 1,000 hrs vs 30,000 hrs) No toxic chemicals. CFLs contain mercury, and LEDs do not No UV emissions Durable, and shock-resistant Starts up instantly, unlike CFL bulbs Stays cool and does not give off much heat Frequent cycling on/off will not shorten lifespan (unlike CFLs)

SWITCH 3-WAY LED - Frosted

SWITCH 3-WAY is the industry's first LED 3-way lamp. This...

For recessed downlights and track lights, this PAR30 LED flood reflector replaces 75-watt incandescent bulbs, while consuming just 14 watts of power. Read more Overview This PAR30 flood reflector is ideal for recessed downlights and track lights. With a beam angle of 40 degrees, it is suitable for most residential and office applications. Dimmable from 100% down to 10%. Features & Benefits: Power Consumption: 14 Watts Replaces: 75-watt recessed lights or spot lights Input Voltage: 120V Lumens: 950 Lumens Color Temperature: 4100K (neutral white) CRI: 85 Beam Angle: 40 degrees Lifespan: 50,000 hours Construction: Aluminum with integrated heatsink Base Type: E26 (standard screw-in base) Cost to run for one year:* - $4.96 Calculated assuming 8 Hours a day operation, 365 Days a Year with $.10 KWh Electricity Cost. The LED would last over 17 years at this usage. A comparable incandescent or halogen light would cost $21.90 per year. General information about LED lights 90% more efficient than halogen and incandescent lamps Last much longer than incandescent bulbs (eg 1,000 hrs vs 30,000 hrs) No toxic chemicals. CFLs contain mercury, and LEDs do not. No UV emissions Durable, and shock-resistant Starts up instantly, unlike CFL bulbs Stays cool and does not give off much heat Frequent cycling on/off will not shorten lifespan (unlike CFLs)

TCP PAR30 LED Flood Reflector 14-Watts

For recessed downlights and track lights, this PAR30 LED flood...