Young aspen trees in Yellowstone are doing something they have not done in almost 100 years. Rather than sprouting and being eaten back to nubs by elk and bison, they're actually growing into tall, adult forest trees rising up towards the canopy.



This matters more than it might seem, because it shows what happens when a missing piece of an ecosystem returns.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-yellowstone-aspens-and-elk">Yellowstone, aspens, and elk</h2>



In the 1920s, people <a href="https://www.yellowstone.org/wolf-project/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">eliminated wolves in Yellowstone</a>. At the time, with limited scientific knowledge, managers believed it was the right thing to do.



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/from-wolves-to-dogs-did-domestication-begin-without-human-help/">Without wolves</a>, elk herds grew very large. Elk love to eat aspen shoots - the tender young growth is highly palatable to them.



For roughly 70 years, elk browsed aspen sprouts down to stub height, and the trees couldn't grow. 



If you had walked through Yellowstone in the 1980s, you would have seen many tiny aspen shoots covering the ground, but almost no young trees gaining height. 



The forest's regeneration was stalled. Old trees died, and no new ones replaced them.



In 1995 and 1996, park managers reintroduced wolves into the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/yellowstone-supervolcano-eruption-study-sparks-new-debate-on-where-and-when-it-will-erupt/">Yellowstone Park ecosystem</a>. Scientists hoped and wondered whether this would change anything for the trees.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-aspen-matter-to-yellowstone">Why aspen matter to Yellowstone</h2>



Aspen groves provide habitat for many species. Birds nest in them. Beavers eat the bark and use the wood for dams. Butterflies and moths lay eggs on the leaves. 



Their canopy admits enough light for wildflowers and shrubs to grow beneath. When it rains, aspen groves hold water in the soil better than some other forest types.



In short, when aspen return, dozens of other species benefit. More trees support more insects, which in turn support more birds, enriching the ecosystem.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-checking-the-trees-three-decades-later">Checking the trees three decades later</h2>



<a href="https://fwcs.oregonstate.edu/users/luke-painter" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Luke Painter</a>, an ecologist at <a href="https://oregonstate.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Oregon State University</a>, sought clear answers. His team returned to 87 aspen stands across Yellowstone that scientists had previously surveyed. 



They measured thousands of young trees, looked for bite marks, and counted how many stems were tall enough that elk could no longer reach the tips.



About a third of these stands now have many tall young aspens pushing toward the canopy. 



"About 26 of the 87 aspen stands we examined had large numbers of tall saplings throughout, a remarkable change from the 1990s when surveys found none at all," Painter said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-wolves-matter-to-yellowstone-aspens">Why wolves matter to Yellowstone aspens</h2>



Breaking it all down, the conclusions of this study are pretty simple. 



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wolves-move-pups-across-mountains-to-adapt-to-climate-pressure/">Wolves hunt elk</a>. When wolves came back, two things happened. First, elk numbers declined from unusually high levels. Second, elk changed their behavior. They spent less time in the same areas feeding.



With fewer elk and shorter feeding bouts, more aspen shoots survived long enough to exceed the browsing zone - about six to seven feet high. 



Once a sapling reaches that height, elk cannot easily reach the growing tip. The tree continues to grow.



"The reintroduction of large carnivores has initiated a recovery process that had been shut down for decades," Painter explained.



Scientists call this a <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/trophic-cascades-across-diverse-plant-ecosystems-80060347/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">trophic cascade</a> - when adding or removing one species causes changes that ripple through the whole system.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-some-places-recover-others-don-t">Some places recover, others don't</h2>



Unfortunately, not every aspen stand has recovered yet. Some valleys still have many short, heavily browsed shoots, because it's not only elk eating them anymore. 



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/yellowstones-iconic-bison-have-merged-into-a-single-herd/">Bison herds have grown</a>, and bison browse on aspen as well. They are strong enough to break young trees. 



"Increasing numbers of bison may be emerging as a new constraint to aspen in some areas," Painter confirmed.



Additionally, winter snow depth varies; droughts stress trees; bears and mountain lions also hunt elk; and hunting outside the park influences elk distribution. 



All of these factors interact, which is why some sites show strong recovery, others show moderate recovery, and a few have changed very little.



The key pattern is that places with many tall saplings experience little browsing, and aspen groves that remain popular eating grounds today stay short. 



This fact is the strongest indication that tree recovery is linked directly to wolf presence, not solely to weather or soil conditions.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-proof-in-the-measurements">Proof in the measurements</h2>



Painter's team did not rely on casual observation. They used the same methods as earlier researchers, measuring the same plots. 



They counted recruitment - when young trees surpass browsing height and begin progressing toward maturity. This measure is crucial. Sprouts are insufficient if they never grow; without recruitment, the forest cannot replace itself.



The results are robust. After being stalled for most of a century, Yellowstone's aspens are increasing in height. In recovering stands today, you will see saplings - six, eight, or ten feet tall - that were not present in the 1990s.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-future-of-yellowstone-s-aspens">The future of Yellowstone's aspens</h2>



"This is a remarkable case of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/giant-viruses-found-in-yellowstones-hot-springs-may-be-near-the-root-of-all-life-on-earth/">ecological restoration</a>," Painter concluded. "Wolf reintroduction is yielding long-term ecological changes contributing to increased biodiversity and habitat diversity."



Trees grow slowly, so even with wolves restored, it will take decades for these young aspens to form a full-grown forest. 



Some areas might never fully recover if bison numbers continue to rise or if the climate becomes too hot and dry.



Thanks to the work of Painter and his team, scientists are now certain that restoring the Yellowstone predator has restarted aspen forest regeneration. Not everywhere and not perfectly, but enough to be measured, creating hope for the future.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112725004499?via%3Dihub" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Forest Ecology and Management</a>.



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Yellowstone's aspen trees are growing again thanks to the reintroduction of wolves

Young aspen trees in Yellowstone are doing something they have not done in almost 100 years. Rather than sprouting and being eaten back to nubs by elk and bison, they're actually growing into tall, adult forest trees rising up towards the canopy. This matters more than it might seem, because it shows what happens when a missing piece of an ecosystem returns. Yellowstone, aspens, and elk In the 1920s, people eliminated wolves in Yellowstone. At the time, with limited scientific knowledge, managers believed it was the right...

Not long after the Big Bang, the universe was still scorching hot and filled with loose particles. It took hundreds of thousands of years before things cooled down enough for atoms to come together and form the first molecule. That molecule was the helium hydride ion (HeH⁺).



Dr. Holger Kreckel and his team at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (<a href="https://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/mpi/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MPIK</a>) discovered that one of this molecule’s most important reactions happens much faster than scientists used to think. That <a href="https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2025/07/aa55316-25/aa55316-25.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">finding</a> changes how we understand the birth of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ancient-radio-signal-just-changed-what-we-know-about-the-early-universe/">stars</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-first-molecule-cooled-universe">First molecule cooled universe</h2>



HeH⁺ forms when a helium atom grabs a proton, creating a charged molecule. Because it can give off energy in several ways, it helps hot gas cool down. This cooling is necessary for gas clouds to collapse and eventually create <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/three-red-monsters-discovered-very-early-universe-webb-telescope-new-era/">stars</a>.



As the gas cools more, gravity pulls it tighter, and the pressure builds until nuclear fusion kicks in. That’s how stars begin. Whether or not enough helium hydride survives during this time has a big effect on whether stars can form.



In 2019, scientists finally spotted HeH⁺ in space, in a cloud called NGC 7027. The molecule looked just like predictions had said, proving it was real and active in the cosmos.



But HeH⁺ doesn’t last forever. It reacts with other atoms like hydrogen or deuterium (a form of hydrogen with an extra neutron), and turns into different molecules. That reduces how much of it is available to help gas clouds cool down when it matters most.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-helium-hydride-reacts-faster">Helium hydride reacts faster</h2>



For years, scientists believed this HeH⁺ reaction slowed way down at cold temperatures. They thought there was an invisible barrier stopping the reaction from happening easily. But newer <a href="https://pubs.aip.org/aip/jcp/article/161/14/144312/3316842/Low-temperature-dynamics-of-H-HeH-H2-He-reaction" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">research</a> suggests that barrier might not exist after all.



Kreckel’s team put this idea to the test in a lab. They made HeH⁺ ions and hit them with deuterium atoms at temperatures just above absolute zero to mimic conditions in the early <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-planets-formed-in-the-harsh-early-universe/">universe</a>.



“Previous theories predicted a significant decrease in the reaction probability at low temperatures, but we were unable to verify this,” explained Dr. Kreckel. To their surprise, the reaction still happened quickly, even when it was freezing cold. 



If the reaction was always fast, there may have been much less HeH⁺ around than we thought. That means it may have played a smaller role in early star formation than many scientists assumed.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-hydrogen-cooled-the-universe-sooner">Hydrogen cooled the universe sooner</h2>



If HeH⁺ wasn’t around in large amounts, other cooling methods must have taken over. One of those is molecular hydrogen (H₂), a very common molecule. It doesn’t cool gas as efficiently as HeH⁺, but once it forms, it gets the job done over a broader temperature range.



The new findings suggest that this shift from HeH⁺ to H₂ happened sooner than expected. That would change how quickly clouds of gas could cool and become stars.



Cooling affects the size of the first stars. If a cloud cools slowly, it needs to collect more gas before it can start fusion, making the star bigger. Faster cooling means smaller <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/milky-way-like-galaxies-were-present-in-the-early-universe/">stars</a> could form. That would lead to more variety in the first generations of stars.



Less HeH⁺ also affects how we read the oldest light in the universe. This light, called the cosmic microwave background (<a href="https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Cosmic_Microwave_Background_CMB_radiation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CMB</a>), can be influenced by molecules like HeH⁺. If there was less of it, we may need to rethink how that light moved through space.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-first-molecules-in-the-early-universe">First molecules in the early universe </h2>



The team used a special machine called the Cryogenic Storage Ring (<a href="https://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/mpi/de/forschung/abteilungen-und-gruppen/gespeicherte-und-gekuehlte-ionen/forschung/csr" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CSR</a>), which is a large, super-cold ring where particles can move around for up to a minute. This gave them time to study the reactions closely.



They sent in a beam of deuterium atoms to meet the HeH⁺ ions, then checked how many new molecules were made. By changing the speed of the particles, they could see how the reaction changed at different temperatures.



The result was clear. The reaction stayed fast across the board. This matched new computer models from physicist Yohann Scribano’s group, which had corrected a mistake in earlier calculations. The new models and lab tests agreed.



That’s good news for scientists trying to build accurate models of the early universe. The better the data, the better the predictions about when and how the first stars formed.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-helium-hydride-changed-star-formation">Helium hydride changed star formation</h2>



With less HeH⁺ sticking around, gas clouds might have started forming hydrogen molecules sooner. That would let the gas cool faster and break apart into smaller pieces, leading to stars of different sizes.



But there’s another side to this. If HeH⁺ was helping gas clouds collapse, losing it too fast might have slowed star formation in some areas. How this all plays out depends on many other factors, like how dense the gas is and how much light is nearby.



This matters for understanding how the universe got its first carbon, oxygen, and other elements. Those came from the first stars exploding. If those stars formed at different times than we thought, our timeline for the spread of these elements might shift too.



It also affects predictions about gravitational waves. The first stars could have left behind huge black holes. If they formed in different numbers or sizes, it would change what we expect to find with space-based detectors like <a href="https://lisa.nasa.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LISA</a>.



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



Next, researchers will use this updated reaction speed in their computer simulations. They’ll see how it affects predictions about ancient stars and distant light patterns. Early results are expected within a year.



Meanwhile, scientists want to repeat the experiment using regular hydrogen instead of deuterium. Most of the universe is hydrogen, so testing this reaction will give an even clearer picture.



The storage ring is also getting an upgrade so particles can be stored longer. That will help scientists study even rarer reactions and maybe figure out how often HeH⁺ forms in the first place.



Researchers are also exploring other ancient molecules like lithium hydride (LiH) and hydrogen fluoride (HF). Each one plays a small role in cooling or shaping the early universe. By collecting more data, scientists can piece together the full picture.



Finally, astronomers are trying to detect helium hydride in more places. Seeing how strong its signals are in different environments could help confirm how much of it was out there billions of years ago.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2025/07/aa55316-25/aa55316-25.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Astronomy &amp; Astrophysics</a>.



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How the universe’s first molecule helped ignite the stars

Not long after the Big Bang, the universe was still...

Stroke remains one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. Despite advancements in emergency care and rehabilitation, many survivors still face long-term health issues, including cognitive decline, seizures, and even death. 



Research presented at the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery's 22nd Annual Meeting reveals an exciting new discovery. The study suggests that GLP-1 inhibitors, drugs used for type 2 diabetes and obesity, may reduce the severity or risk of strokes.



The diabetes drugs include semaglutide, marketed as Ozempic, which is known for lowering blood sugar and promoting weight loss. The researchers described three studies investigating how these drugs might help the brain during and after <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/stroke-risk-is-elevated-by-air-pollution-and-traffic-noise/">stroke</a>. 



The studies covered different patient populations and medical events. They all pointed in one direction: people on GLP-1 inhibitors had better survival odds and fewer long-term complications.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-diabetes-drug-helped-stroke-survival">Diabetes drug helped stroke survival</h2>



In the first study, researchers from the <a href="https://www.wisc.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Wisconsin-Madison</a> examined stroke patients on Ozempic. They compared data from their hospital and a global health network. Out of over 2 million stroke patients, 43,338 had used Ozempic.



The results showed a significant survival boost for Ozempic users. In the global data, 5.26% of users died after stroke, compared to 21.61% of non-users. 



Long-term survival stood at 77.5% for Ozempic users versus 30.95% for non-users. The university’s dataset also reflected this <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/eyes-serve-as-an-early-warning-system-for-stroke-risk/">benefit</a>. Ozempic users had lower death rates (5.26%) compared to those who did not use the drug (26.57%).



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fewer-emergency-stroke-cases">Fewer emergency stroke cases </h2>



The second study, also by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, looked at nationwide emergency department records. 



The research team examined the relationship between Ozempic use and stroke incidents. They found that people likely on Ozempic had much lower odds of experiencing a stroke.



However, the study was based on indirect data sources. So, the researchers recommend analyzing pharmacy records next. This could clarify how Ozempic might prevent strokes, not just lessen damage.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-brain-hemorrhages-and-long-term-effects">Brain hemorrhages and long-term effects</h2>



The third study came from the <a href="https://www.utexas.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Texas</a> Medical Branch. It focused on GLP-1 agonists and their effect on hemorrhagic strokes and brain bleeds. 



The researchers analyzed patient records at multiple points - six and twelve months after hemorrhage, one and two years post-stroke.



They found that patients using GLP-1 inhibitors had a lower risk of seizures, cognitive decline, and death after their stroke or hemorrhage. 



Additionally, these patients experienced fewer future brain bleeds. This pattern suggests that the benefits of these drugs may extend beyond stroke prevention.



GLP-1 inhibitors could play a broader role in protecting the brain and improving long-term recovery after injury.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-using-diabetes-drugs-for-stroke">Using diabetes drugs for stroke</h2>



Dr. Ahmed Elbayomy, a research fellow and data scientist from the University of Wisconsin, led two of the featured studies and emphasized the exciting implications of their findings. 



According to Dr. Elbayomy, these early results reveal a new and unexpected benefit of GLP-1 inhibitors. “More research is certainly needed, but seeing the potential protection offered by these medications is a fascinating finding."



Dr. Matias Costa, lead author of the third study, expressed similar optimism. He believes these results open up important conversations about <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cause-of-strokes-cervical-artery-dissection-has-increased-400-percent-since-2005/">stroke</a> care. 



“This research could introduce a new perspective to the discussion of preventing and mitigating the devastating effects of stroke and related brain injuries,” noted Dr. Costa.



Both researchers agree that while the data looks promising, it remains essential to test these outcomes in future clinical trials. Doing so will determine if these diabetes drugs can safely be used to support brain health in stroke patients.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-new-path-in-stroke-prevention">New path in stroke prevention</h2>



GLP-1 inhibitors, commonly used for diabetes and weight loss, may have a new role in stroke care. Collectively, the studies suggest these drugs could help prevent strokes and improve stroke recovery.



This potential crossover between metabolic treatment and brain health is promising. While the findings are still early, they point toward a future where one class of medication supports both physical and neurological health. 



Researchers are now planning prospective trials to confirm these results and better understand how GLP-1 drugs protect the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/17-best-strategies-to-protect-your-brain-from-stroke-dementia-and-depression/">brain</a>. If successful, this could shift how doctors approach stroke prevention and treatment in at-risk patients.



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Weight loss drug Ozempic may protect the brain from stroke

Stroke remains one of the leading causes of death and...

Quantum scientists have long treated quantum entanglement as precious cargo, forging fresh links for every secure message or computation. A new theoretical study proposes a thriftier route, letting an existing pair pass portions of its entanglement down an extended chain.



Experts from the Harish-Chandra Research Institute (<a href="https://www.hri.res.in/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HRI</a>) report that the hand-off could continue, in principle, without end, though each recipient would receive a smaller slice of the original <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-achieve-teleportation-between-quantum-computers-for-the-first-time-ever/">connection</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-quantum-entanglement-matters">Why quantum entanglement matters</h2>



<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature07127" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Entanglement</a> links the properties of two or more particles so tightly that measuring one instantly tells you the state of the other, regardless of separation. This non-local bond underpins quantum key distribution, distributed sensing, and proposals for a global quantum internet.



Because the link cannot be copied, every application has relied on fresh pairs produced on demand, often with delicate lasers or cryogenic circuits. Generating and storing those pairs remains an experimental bottleneck.



A strategy that lets devices recycle an existing pair would trim that overhead and simplify <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-form-of-quantum-entanglement-discovered-will-transform-next-gen-technology/">network</a> design. It could also cut the number of fragile qubit memories required at future repeater stations.



Networks built from recycled links could therefore run longer without waiting for central stations to reset and re-synchronize. That endurance matters for satellites or remote sensors that see only brief contact windows with the ground.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-one-quantum-link-for-many-network-users">One quantum link for many network users</h2>



The team models two theoretical participants (<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/quantum-internet-tech-takes-on-einstein-and-the-space-time-continuum-with-atomic-clocks/">quantum</a> systems) in the mathematical model they called Alice and Bob, who start with one entangled pair. 



Two newcomers, who they called Charu and Debu, each hold a separate particle that can interact locally with Alice and Bob but not with each other.



After one withdrawal, Alice and Bob still retain a reduced connection. That leftover can be used to fund the next pair in line without requiring any fresh entanglement.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-math-behind-quantum-network-sharing">Math behind quantum network sharing</h2>



The authors prove that the protocol can be iterated indefinitely, as long as each new customer is satisfied with a smaller balance. Their proof relies on a measure called <a href="https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/46443/what-is-the-motivation-for-the-definition-of-concurrence-in-quantum-information" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">concurrence</a>, which tracks how much two-particle entanglement survives each step.



Charu and Debu receive an amount that depends only on the local operation chosen at their step, not on the growing crowd waiting behind them. That independence lets the chain grow as long as the math permits.



The authors also derive an upper bound on the entanglement each newcomer can hope to gain, ensuring the protocol respects the monogamy rules that forbid one qubit from sharing full strength links with multiple partners.&nbsp;



The calculations confirmed that no party can cheat the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/quantum-entanglement-a-simple-way-to-grasp-this-impossible-concept-carl-kocher/">system</a> by claiming more than its share.The algebra, however, kept refusing to impose a hard cutoff.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-real-world-devices-limit-repeated-sharing">Real-world devices limit repeated sharing</h2>



Real <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22517-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hardware</a> will impose limits long before the math does. Each interaction leaks photons, picks up phase noise, or generates detector errors that sap usable correlations.



Engineers must therefore weigh the cumulative losses against the cost of preparing fresh pairs. A hybrid architecture might recycle links only once or twice before moving on.



Numerical simulations with realistic loss and detector models suggest usefulness may fade after a dozen rounds at telecom wavelengths. Superconducting circuits, with higher gate fidelities, could squeeze a few more iterations before noise dominates.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-testing-quantum-networks-in-labs">Testing quantum networks in labs</h2>



The protocol needs just local interactions and classical coordination, tools already common in superconducting and photonic labs. 



A tabletop demonstration could couple two microwave qubits to a shared resonator and then transfer part of their entanglement to two fresh qubits downstream.



Optical groups could pursue a version with time-bin entangled photons stored in fiber loops. Each loop could spin a photon back through a beam splitter network that hands off correlations to a new path without touching the partner loop.



Researchers will need a clear metric for “useful” entanglement in realistic settings. Measures linked to secret-key rate or teleportation fidelity would offer concrete benchmarks.



Cross-platform trials, in which a superconducting node hands off entanglement to a spin qubit or trapped ion, could test compatibility between disparate hardware families. Such demonstrations would mirror the heterogeneous nature of future metropolitan networks.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-future-of-quantum-networks">Future of quantum networks</h2>



The new model also raises new theoretical questions. How many independent customers can extract a fixed minimum entanglement from a single source before the well runs dry?



Future research could combine the sharing approach with entanglement distillation, replenishing the degraded entanglement after multiple uses. 



Scientists might also investigate whether multipartite connections - like Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states - behave differently under repeated sharing.



Policymakers investing in quantum infrastructure will likely pay close attention to these findings. Greater utilization could mean quicker returns on costly hardware deployments.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/17s4-rtdm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Physical Review A</a>.



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Quantum entanglement can now be recycled for networks

Quantum scientists have long treated quantum entanglement as precious cargo,...

Wildlife conservation often depends on simple but vital numbers. How many animals are left? Where do they gather? Are their populations growing or shrinking? 



In the dense forests and winding rivers of the Amazon, answering such questions is far from easy. A team of researchers from the University of Florida has found a better way to count animals.



Their method, which uses drones and statistical models, confirmed the largest known nesting site for Giant South American River Turtles. The site lies along the Guaporé River in the Amazon, shared by Brazil and Bolivia.



Researchers counted over 41,000 turtles in one nesting season. This effort improves how scientists monitor threatened <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/world-wildlife-day-2025-a-global-call-to-protect-nature/">species</a>. 



"We describe a novel way to more efficiently monitor animal populations," said Ismael Brack, a postdoctoral researcher at <a href="https://ifas.ufl.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">UF/IFAS</a> and lead author of the study.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-turtles-under-pressure">Turtles under pressure</h2>



The Wildlife Conservation Society (<a href="https://www.wcs.org" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WCS</a>) works across South America. It monitors the Giant South American River Turtle, a species under pressure from illegal hunting. These turtles are known for their social nesting behavior.



Every year in July or August, females gather to lay eggs on sandy banks. This seasonal event creates a rare chance to count them. Brack met WCS scientists at a conference and learned about their drone-based methods.



The team used orthomosaics - detailed images stitched from hundreds of aerial photos. These allow a wide view of nesting areas without disturbing the turtles.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-drone-counts-often-miss-animals">Drone counts often miss animals</h2>



Counting animals from <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/drones-reveal-hidden-biodiversity-in-rainforest-canopies/">drone</a> images is fast and non-intrusive, but it has limits. Traditional counts assume all individuals are visible and counted once. That’s rarely true.



Animals can leave or arrive during flights. Some may hide or appear multiple times. Marks on animals may also be obscured by dirt or shadows. To fix this, researchers used a modeling approach that corrects several common counting errors.



The method accounts for open populations, where animals come and go during the survey period. It also adjusts for movement-based double counts, where the same animal appears more than once in images. 



The model considers that some individuals may be unavailable during drone flights, and it includes cases where identifying marks on animals are not visible. The team painted 1,187 turtles with symbols and tracked sightings over 12 days.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tracking-how-animals-move-and-nest">Tracking how animals move and nest</h2>



The model used two core datasets: daily counts and repeated sightings of marked turtles. It assigned individuals to three states - walking, nesting, or gone.



By modeling how animals transitioned between these states, the team estimated true presence and visibility. The average turtle had a 36.9% chance of nesting each day.



Only about 35% of turtles present overnight were seen by the next morning. Just 11.8% of marked individuals stayed visible the following day.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-model-fixes-animal-count-mistakes">Model fixes animal count mistakes</h2>



Double counts caused major inflation. Roughly 20% of walking turtles appeared more than once. Some showed up seven times. About 22% of turtle marks were obscured and couldn’t be identified.



These corrections changed the results significantly. Ground teams counted nearly 16,000 turtles. Simple drone image counts (without corrections) gave a total near 79,000. The new method placed the number around 41,000.



"These numbers vary greatly, and that's a problem for conservationists," Brack said. "If scientists are unable to establish an accurate count of individuals of a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/thousands-of-animal-species-face-extinction-from-climate-change/">species</a>, how will they know if the population is in decline or whether efforts to protect it are successful?"



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-wider-value-for-conservation-science">Wider value for conservation science</h2>



The model adapts easily. It can support surveys of birds, seals, elk, and more. If animals are marked or tracked in some way, the approach adjusts for visibility, movement, and presence.



For example, seals may be clipped, elk wear collars, and goats marked with paint. The method could include GPS tags to track movement and avoid overcounts.



Different states - like nesting, feeding, or resting - can be defined depending on the species. This allows the model to capture time-based changes in animal behavior.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-drones-can-improve-animal-counts">Drones can improve animal counts</h2>



Researchers suggest marking individuals throughout the study, not just at the start. This captures changing patterns better. Surveys should cover the full aggregation period.



Skipping days between surveys can work, but only if the population turnover is low. When many animals come and go daily, shorter gaps give better data.



Ground observers missed many turtles, especially when numbers were high. Turtles block each other from view. Drones don’t have this problem. Images from above show the entire nesting site.



This gives researchers a repeatable, standardized method to compare counts over time. It reduces animal stress and is less invasive than catching or fencing turtles.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-s-next-in-animal-counting-nbsp">What’s next in animal counting&nbsp;</h2>



Brack and colleagues suggest expanding the surveys. Some turtles nested after the study ended. Nearby sandbanks may host others.



The new method could estimate total regional populations by including more sites and longer timeframes.



"By combining information from multiple surveys, we can detect population trends, and the Wildlife Conservation Society will know where to invest in conservation actions," Brack said.



This drone approach opens new paths for monitoring wildlife with accuracy, efficiency, and care.



The study is published in the <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.70081" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Journal of Applied Ecology</a>.



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Drones revolutionize animal counting and conservation efforts

Wildlife conservation often depends on simple but vital numbers. How...

On August 4, people across the world pause for a rare animal - one that few have seen in the wild. International Clouded Leopard Day shines a light on this elusive species, encouraging awareness, education, and action to support its conservation.



Clouded leopards live in dense forests across Asia. They’re not actually <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/xiaozhai-tiankeng-worlds-largest-sinkhole-heavenly-pit-showcases-nature-at-its-most-powerful/">leopards</a>. They are a unique kind of wild cat with big teeth, short legs, and beautiful markings. They move through trees like squirrels and vanish into the shadows when people approach.



Clouded leopards are facing serious threats. Their forest habitats are rapidly disappearing, fragmented by roads, farms, and expanding cities. 



Poachers target them for their teeth, bones, and fur, while others capture them for the illegal wildlife trade. As these pressures grow, their numbers continue to decline.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-purpose-of-clouded-leopard-day">Purpose of Clouded Leopard Day</h2>



International Clouded Leopard Day began in 2018. It was launched by two zookeepers, Lauren Amos and Dan Kem, at a zoo in the UK. They wanted more people to take notice of the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/leopard-seals-compose-songs-similar-to-nursery-rhymes/">species</a> and care about its future. 



Since then, dozens of zoos and wildlife groups have joined in. They hold events, share facts online, and raise money for conservation.



The idea caught on fast. The more people who hear about clouded leopards, the better their chances of survival.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-discoveries-about-clouded-leopards">Discoveries about clouded leopards </h2>



Over the last year, scientists have made big discoveries about clouded leopards. One 2025 study <a href="https://digitalrepository.wii.gov.in/items/d0cb2c7e-6844-438e-9b68-617172f4d2e2?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">mapped</a> 18 key wildlife corridors across Asia. These corridors connect scattered forests and let the cats move freely. 



Without them, clouded leopards could end up stuck in shrinking patches of land. The same study warned that climate change might destroy over 40% of their habitat.



In Borneo, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s44185-024-00052-8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">another study</a> showed that many protected zones don’t line up with where the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/leopards-reveal-their-identity-through-a-distinct-roar/">animals</a> actually live. Researchers suggested focusing on high-risk areas instead. That shift could protect more forest and store millions of tons of carbon.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-range-and-genetic-diversity">Range and genetic diversity</h2>



In India’s Manas National Park, scientists used camera traps to estimate how many clouded leopards were present. After 11,000 trap-nights, they found only 12 cats. That’s about 1.7 leopards per 100 square kilometers, and that is not a healthy number.



Another surprise came from Tibet. In past <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/oryx/article/new-records-of-the-clouded-leopard-neofelis-nebulosa-in-the-qomolangma-national-nature-reserve-tibet/B8EB060F86E084EFDD30CC48598650BD?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">studies</a>, cameras captured clouded leopards in a part of China where they weren’t expected. That discovery extended their known range by nearly 1,000 kilometers. It also raised questions - how many more places are they hiding?



And then there’s the genetic problem. A <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adh9143" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a> showed low genetic diversity in both species. Inbreeding weakens future generations. Conservationists now want better breeding plans and tech to help keep the species strong.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-you-can-help">How you can help</h2>



Everyone can make a difference. Share information about clouded leopards. Learn more about them and start conversations. 



Support zoos and wildlife centers that care for these cats. If you are able, make a donation - every bit helps. 



Watch a documentary, visit a zoo that's involved in breeding programs, or sign petitions pushing for stronger forest protection. 



Choose products that don’t contribute to deforestation. Small actions, when added together, can have a big impact.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-honoring-clouded-leopard-day">Honoring Clouded Leopard Day</h2>



Clouded leopards play a big role in keeping forests healthy. They are top <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/leopard-seal-diets-are-reshaping-antarctic-ecosystems/">predators</a>, which means they help control the number of smaller animals like deer, monkeys, and rodents. When prey populations stay balanced, the entire ecosystem works better. 



Plants grow without being overgrazed, and other animals can find food and space to live. If clouded leopards disappear, this balance breaks down. 



Overpopulation of prey can lead to damaged forests, and that affects many other species too - including humans who depend on forests for clean air, water, and climate control.



International Clouded Leopard Day is more than just a yearly celebration. It’s a global reminder that this species is in trouble and needs attention. 



We still have the power to change what lies ahead for the clouded leopard. Through local conservation efforts and global partnerships, we can protect forest habitats and ensure they have the room they need to thrive. Time remains - and so does hope.



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International Clouded Leopard Day: On the edge of survival

On August 4, people across the world pause for a...

It’s common knowledge that plants need water to survive, but what’s less obvious is how differently they manage it. From forests to grasslands, plants have developed remarkably varied strategies to cope with water stress.



Some plants burn through water like there’s no tomorrow. Others ration it carefully. The kapok trees of the Amazon have different tactics than the tough grasses on the American plains. 



But until now, scientists had no easy way to compare how these strategies play out across different ecosystems and how they change when the environment shifts.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-water-shortages-and-plant-behavior">Water shortages and plant behavior</h2>



Scientists at <a href="https://www.ucsb.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">UC Santa Barbara</a> and <a href="https://www.sdsu.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">San Diego State University</a> have found a way to make sense of this. They built a model that uses soil moisture data to detect how plants behave when it comes to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/not-all-plants-handle-water-the-same-heres-why-it-matters/">water</a>. 



The team applied this model to a global dataset, covering ecosystems all over the planet. The results show that two key factors drive plant behavior: how dry a place is, and how dense the vegetation is.



“When plants face water shortages, grasslands act like spendthrifts (using water aggressively until it’s gone). In contrast, forests act more like careful budgeters (cutting back water use early to avoid disaster),” said senior author Kelly Caylor, a professor at UCSB’s Bren School of Environmental Science &amp; Management.



The study also points out a flaw in existing models, noting that they likely overestimate how quickly ecosystems lose water during droughts. That has big implications for climate models, agriculture, and water planning.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-smarter-way-to-read-soil">A smarter way to read soil</h2>



Plants respond to water stress in a wide variety of ways. That’s part of what makes them so good at surviving. But it’s also made it hard for scientists to find broad patterns in their behavior.



Lead author Bryn Morgan noticed something others had missed: the way soil moisture changes over time might hold the key.



Until now, models of soil drying were focused on being easy to calculate, not on accurately reflecting how plants actually use water. Most treated the relationship between plants and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-much-energy-do-plants-use-to-lift-water-from-the-soil/">soil</a> as linear - simple input, simple output.



“But there is nonlinearity in the data,” said co-author Ryoko Araki, a joint doctoral student at UCSB and SDSU.



To address this, Araki led the development of a new, nonlinear model. It captures how soil dries after rain - not just as a mathematical curve, but in a way that reflects how plants take risks (or don’t) when water is scarce. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-plants-spend-their-water-budget">How plants spend their water budget</h2>



With this model in hand, the team looked at soil moisture readings from a global network of sensors. They found the parts of each record where soil was drying and fit the model to each episode.



By studying the shape and slope of each drydown curve, they could tell how aggressive or conservative the plants were.



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/grasslands-are-racing-to-adapt-to-climate-shifts/">Grasslands</a> and dry regions tended to show more aggressive water use. <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/forests-provide-different-health-benefits-based-on-their-structure/">Forests</a> and wetter regions leaned more conservatively.



“If water is the currency of vegetated ecosystems, grasses are out here like, ‘YOLO,’ while trees are investing for retirement. They’re playing the long game," said Morgan.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-risky-behavior-vs-cautious-planning">Risky behavior vs. cautious planning</h2>



It’s not just about water - it’s about strategy. Grasses often live fast and die young. They might only have one shot at life per year. Trees are in it for the long haul. They can’t afford to damage their water-transport systems.



“Grasslands are like sprinters who give everything they have until they hit the wall,” Caylor explained. “Forests are like marathon runners who pace themselves and slow down strategically to finish a longer race.”



“This is the overall behavior, but, of course, we see a range of aggressive to conservative strategies within a given ecosystem," said Morgan. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-adaptive-behavior-of-plants">Adaptive behavior of plants</h2>



Once the researchers had a sense of how ecosystems differ from each other, they looked at how behaviors shift within a single ecosystem.



The team found that as things get drier, or as water demand rises, plants change their strategy. They become more aggressive. For example, in a place like the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/burrowing-animals-in-the-mojave-desert-escape-the-heat-of-climate-change/">Mojave Desert</a>, where rainfall is highly seasonal, plant behavior can swing wildly across the year.



Until now, scientists mostly studied water use either up-close in the lab or from afar using satellites. This model bridges that gap.



“Bryn’s approach is clever in using in-situ measurements at a global scale,” Araki said. That middle-ground perspective helped them see patterns that had been hidden.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-building-better-climate-models">Building better climate models</h2>



Soil moisture plays a role in global carbon and climate models, but these models rarely include the subtleties of plant behavior. 



“The uncertainty in estimates of the global carbon cycle is really sensitive to how vegetation responds to soil moisture limitation,” Morgan said.



Better models mean better predictions. Morgan has submitted a proposal to NASA to explore how this new nonlinear parameter could be folded into existing earth system models. She’s also interested in how these plant strategies feed back into the system over time.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-capturing-soil-moisture-dynamics">Capturing soil moisture dynamics</h2>



Araki, on the other hand, is focused on scaling. Soil moisture isn’t uniform. It changes a lot, even over short distances. That makes it hard to build accurate large-scale models.



“In reality there is topography, vegetation, soil,” said Araki. “So scientists can’t apply simple statistics to the system.”



“Understanding how soil moisture values themselves scale is something hydrologists have been interested in for decades,” noted Morgan. 



The challenge now is figuring out how to capture those dynamics - from a single measurement site all the way up to an entire watershed.



The full study was published in the journal Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution.



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Plants use unique strategies to budget water in the wild

It’s common knowledge that plants need water to survive, but...

The fossil skeleton nicknamed Lucy has long been the poster child for Australopithecus afarensis - a small, bipedal human ancestor that walked East Africa roughly three million years ago.



For decades, researchers have debated whether males and females of A. afarensis differed sharply in body size or whether, like modern humans, the sexes overlapped substantially. A newly published study now answers that question - and upends some familiar assumptions.



“These weren’t modest differences,” said lead author Adam D. Gordon, an associate professor of anthropology at the <a href="https://www.albany.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University at Albany</a>. “In the case of A. afarensis, males were dramatically larger than females - possibly more so than in any living great ape.”



His work also shows that a close southern relative, Australopithecus africanus, shared a similar but slightly less extreme pattern. 



Together, the findings paint a picture of early hominin societies in which big-bodied males competed intensely for mates and smaller females faced their own evolutionary pressures to conserve energy.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-size-gap-in-early-humans">Size gap in early humans</h2>



In modern primates, sexual size dimorphism (SSD) is not merely cosmetic. High SSD, as seen in gorillas, typically signals strong male–male competition and social systems in which one or a few large males monopolize access to several females.



Low SSD, characteristic of modern humans, aligns with more egalitarian or pair-bonded structures. Gordon’s results place both A. afarensis and A. africanus at the high end of that spectrum - and even suggest that A. afarensis may have exceeded <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/some-gorillas-get-sick-from-being-too-social/">gorillas</a> in the male–female divide.



What makes the study novel is not just quantifying SSD in each fossil species but comparing them directly while accounting for the frustratingly incomplete nature of the fossil record.



Earlier efforts produced conflicting estimates - some pegged A. afarensis as almost human-like in its parity - partly because individual fossils are fragmentary and often cannot be sexed with confidence.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-new-tools-for-old-bones">New tools for old bones</h2>



To overcome those hurdles, Gordon devised an iterative resampling method. First, he gathered measurements from multiple skeletal elements - humerus, femur, tibia, and others - in as many Australopithecus fossils as possible. 



He then built a comparative framework using full skeletons of living gorillas, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/chimpanzees-select-the-best-materials-for-termite-fishing/">chimpanzees</a>, and humans.



By randomly deleting measurements in those modern skeletons to mimic the missing data pattern in the fossils, he could simulate the same limitations researchers face. 



Repeating that process thousands of times allowed him to generate robust expectations for SSD under different scenarios.



Unlike earlier studies that sometimes treated inconclusive statistics as evidence of similarity, Gordon’s approach revealed clear differences. It showed statistically significant gaps between the sex-specific size of the two fossil species and among all three living apes.



“This analysis overcomes these issues by using an iterative resampling method that mimics the missing data structure in both fossil species when sampling from skeletal material of living species," Gordon said. 



"This allows the inclusion of multiple fossil individuals even when those individual specimens are fragmentary.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-size-stayed-sexes-differed">Size stayed, sexes differed</h2>



Could the size variation within A. afarensis simply reflect gradual body growth over 300,000 years rather than a male–female split?



Gordon tested that possibility using fossils from the well-dated Hadar Formation in Ethiopia.



However, his analysis found no consistent trend toward larger or smaller bodies over time, ruling out a species-wide size shift and strengthening the case for pronounced dimorphism.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-environment-shaped-their-bodies">Environment shaped their bodies</h2>



Although both Australopithecus species show greater SSD than modern humans, they are surprisingly unlike each other. That contrast is unusual: among living apes, closely related species such as chimpanzees and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bonobos-group-cohesion-common-enemy-effect-do-not-kill-inside-their-species/">bonobos</a> exhibit similar levels of dimorphism.



The stark dimorphism gap between the two extinct hominins suggests they faced unusually different selection pressures, highlighting the diverse ways our ancestors interacted with the world.



One plausible driver is variation in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-environmental-stress-strengthens-ecosystems/">environmental stress</a>. Earlier work by Gordon links high SSD to habitats where food scarcity penalizes large females more than small ones.



If A. afarensis faced harsher dry seasons than A. africanus, selection could have driven the sexes apart -favoring ever-smaller females and ever-larger, competitive males, and widening the size gap. 



Alternatively - or additionally - male competition for mates may have been fiercer in East Africa than in southern Africa.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-unequal-societies-emerged-early">Unequal societies emerged early</h2>



Whatever the causes, the implications are striking. A. afarensis males may have enjoyed exclusive breeding rights, similar to silverback gorillas today. Females likely lived in groups dominated by these towering males.



The slightly lower - but still high - dimorphism in A. africanus hints at a somewhat different social structure, perhaps with less monopolization or different foraging pressures. 



Either way, the findings dispute the long-held view that gracile Australopitheci formed a uniform ecological and social bloc.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-rewriting-the-story-of-human-evolution">Rewriting the story of human evolution</h2>



Australopithecus afarensis is often cast as a direct ancestor of humanity, while A. africanus may represent a side branch. Yet the new evidence suggests that both lineages experimented with social strategies far removed from the relatively egalitarian norms of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/neanderthals-homo-sapiens-living-spaces-organized-similarly/">Homo sapiens.</a>



That realization complicates any tidy story of linear progress toward modern human sociality. Instead, early hominins display a “greater diversity of evolutionary pressures … than we had previously appreciated,” Gordon noted.



By illuminating the powerful interplay between sexual selection, ecological stress, and body size, the study invites paleoanthropologists to re-examine other fossil species with Gordon’s statistical toolkit.



As new fragments emerge from African sediments, researchers can now ask sharper questions: Were big males always best? Did female body size shrink in response to environmental crunches? How and when did the more balanced human pattern evolve?



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-size-reveals-ancient-human-roles">Size reveals ancient human roles</h2>



For now the message is clear: three million years ago, being male in an Australopithecus troop meant being massive. Being female meant staying small, perhaps to stretch scarce calories farther during pregnancy and lactation.



And for scientists today, these size differences between the sexes serve as a crucial proxy for the behaviors and conflicts that shaped our remote ancestors long before the genus Homo took its first steps.



The study is published in the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajpa.70093" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">American Journal of Biological Anthropology</a>.



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Big males, small females: A window into prehistoric power struggles

The fossil skeleton nicknamed Lucy has long been the poster...

Anyone who has trudged across a snowy field on a sunlit January afternoon has probably looked up to see a crystal-rimmed halo or the two jewel-like “sun dogs” that hover left and right of the Sun.



Those ethereal spectacles form when minute ice plates and columns aloft all tip at nearly the same angle, bending sunlight into glowing rings and patches. 



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-is-shrinking-earths-atmosphere-and-thats-bad-for-satellites/">Earth’s atmosphere</a>, it turns out, is not the only stage on which light and aligned crystals can dance.



A team at <a href="https://www.cornell.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cornell University</a> argues that a kindred bit of optical wizardry may be playing out 1,300 light-years away on WASP-17 b - a giant <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/hundreds-of-exoplanets-are-much-larger-than-we-thought/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">exoplanet</a> so hot its clouds are built from molten rock.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-vaporized-rock-becomes-crystals">Vaporized rock becomes crystals</h2>



WASP-17 b belongs to the “hot Jupiter” class of worlds. These bloated gas giants orbit scorchingly close to their host stars. One loop takes just four Earth days, and daytime temperatures soar past 2,000 °F.



Under such conditions, common silicates - minerals we normally see as sand or quartz - can vaporize near the planet’s equator. They rise on towering plumes and condense into microscopic crystals higher in the atmosphere.



In 2023, Professor Nikole Lewis and doctoral student Elijah Mullens used the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/webb-telescope-may-have-just-found-its-first-planet/">James Webb Space Telescope</a> (JWST) to detect the unmistakable spectral fingerprints of quartz nanograins wafting in those clouds. Each crystal is only about ten nanometers long, yet elongated.



For Lewis, the discovery rang an intellectual bell from Cornell’s past. In 1952, campus astrophysicist Tommy Gold suggested that gas streaming across asymmetrical dust grains could physically torque them into alignment. He compared it to how river currents swivel tiny boats so that their bows face downstream.



Though later work showed the idea does not explain dust alignment in the ultra-thin interstellar medium, Lewis saw potential elsewhere. He realized it might excel inside the deep, roaring atmosphere of a hot Jupiter. There, winds blow at nearly 10,000 mph.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-quartz-bend-light-far-away">Quartz bend light far away</h2>



If the quartz grains do point the same way, they should refract and polarize light from stars in distinctive ways - exactly as terrestrial ice plates produce halos, sun dogs, and vertical pillars called crown flashes.



Mullens and Lewis show that aligned silicates on WASP-17 b could produce unusual light patterns in reflected starlight. These might appear as luminous off-center spots, pastel arcs, or rainbowed pillars when seen in reflected optical light.



JWST observes primarily in infrared wavelengths and cannot produce direct images of such distant features. However, aligned crystals leave spectral and polarization signatures that the telescope can measure, allowing scientists to infer the geometry indirectly.



“Just like the alignment of ice crystals in Earth’s atmosphere produces observable phenomena, we can observe the alignment of silicate crystals in hot Jupiter exoplanets,” Mullens said.



Detecting those telltale alignments would not merely produce pretty pictures in the mind’s eye. On Earth, the exact kind of halo you see signals specific combinations of temperature, humidity, and crystal habit.



By analogy, the pattern of quartz “sun dogs” could reveal wind shear, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/invisible-electric-field-discovered-surrounding-earth-nasa-says-its-as-crucial-as-gravity/">electric fields</a>, or magnetic influences in a distant planet’s atmosphere. This provides vital data for improving models of exoplanet weather and energy balance.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-new-life-for-a-classic-theory"><a></a>A new life for a classic theory</h2>



Gold’s 1952 mechanical-alignment hypothesis has long lain dormant. It was overshadowed by other mechanisms such as radiative torques, where uneven stellar heating spins dust grains, and magnetic alignment.



The Cornell study revives Gold’s idea in a fresh context. Hot Jupiter combine enormous atmospheric density with hypersonic wind speeds - conditions tailor-made for the drag forces Gold envisioned.



“Now we see that the 1952 proposal doesn’t work for the interstellar medium, but it probably works for a hot Jupiter exoplanet, a very hot planetary atmosphere with high-speed winds,” Lewis said.



“When we started looking at planetary atmospheres, in particular these hot Jupiters, it occurred to me that with 10,000-mile-per-hour winds zipping around in these very dense atmospheres, surely the grains would align.”



The finding also broadens our understanding of cloud chemistry beyond water. WASP-17 b shows quartz can form high-altitude haze, unlike Earth’s<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-tiny-sugars-in-the-southern-ocean-help-clouds-freeze/"> ice clouds</a> or iron and corundum on brown dwarfs.



That powerful blend of mineralogy and dynamics hints that many other hot Jupiters - and perhaps smaller, rocky exoplanets orbiting red dwarf stars - might host their own glittering atmospheric optics.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-quartz-light-shows-hold-clues">Quartz light shows hold clues</h2>



Each optical effect is, in essence, a diagnostic of crystal size, shape, and orientation. If quartz grains align horizontally with gale-force winds, that tells researchers something about atmospheric drag and turbulence. If they tilt vertically, electric or magnetic fields may dominate.



Should grains remain random, other mechanisms - perhaps collisions or chemical processes - might rule. Mullens noted that the alignment of grains could even feed back into the thermal structure. 



It may change how effectively clouds reflect starlight or trap infrared heat, thereby modulating the planet’s climate.



“Other than being pretty, these effects can teach us about how crystals are interacting in the atmosphere,” Mullens said. “It’s really information-rich, just as on Earth where the atmospheric conditions need to be a certain way for them to be horizontally oriented to produce a sun dog.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-an-upcoming-look-at-alien-clouds">An upcoming look at alien clouds</h2>



Mullens is the principal investigator on a new JWST program slated for the coming cycle that will scrutinize WASP-17 b’s spectrum across an even broader wavelength range.



By teasing out subtle polarization angles and searching for additional mineral fingerprints, the team hopes to confirm whether horizontal alignment indeed dominates - or whether odd vertical or spiral patterns emerge.



Each dataset reveals how extreme winds, mineral clouds, and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/stellar-flares-can-rearrange-the-atmospheres-of-planets-within-days-including-earth/">stellar radiation</a> shape alien skies unlike those on Earth. The method could apply to exoplanets with high-altitude rain or snow of minerals like titanium oxide, iron, or sulfides.



Somewhere out there, in the glow of alien sunsets, quartz halos or ruby-red pillars may arch across the horizon, silent testimonies to the physics of light and crystal first glimpsed here on Earth.



The study is published in <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ade885">The Astrophysical Journal Letters</a>.



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Quartz clouds may bend light on distant exoplanets, like ice crystals do on Earth

Anyone who has trudged across a snowy field on a...

Every year, a large share of the carbon pollution we pump into the atmosphere - mainly from burning fossil fuels - is pulled back to the earth by natural systems.



Plants absorb carbon dioxide through photosynthesis and turn it into biomass. Oceans also soak up a portion of this pollution. These processes help slow the speed of climate change, but they can’t keep up with how fast we’re emitting.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-making-climate-solutions-more-effective">Making climate solutions more effective</h2>



For years, scientists and policymakers have pushed for nature-based approaches to help fill the gap - preserving forests, planting trees, restoring wetlands. The idea is to let nature do what it does best. However, these efforts haven’t delivered the climate punch many hoped for.



A new study led by scientists at the University of Utah’s <a href="https://science.utah.edu/the-wilkes-center/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Wilkes Center for Climate Science &amp; Policy</a>, with support from researchers at nine other universities, lays out a clearer path forward. 



The research proposes a way to make nature-based climate solutions more effective, more transparent, and better aligned with science.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-carbon-offsets-fail-to-cut-emissions">Carbon offsets fail to cut emissions</h2>



The study looks closely at the current system of carbon “offsets.” Companies and governments often use these programs to balance out their own emissions by funding <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/planting-trees-is-important-but-reforestation-can-help-too/">tree planting</a> or forest conservation. 



In theory, this should cancel out a portion of the carbon they emit. But in practice, it often doesn’t work that way.



“Nature-based climate solutions are human actions that leverage natural processes to either take carbon out of the atmosphere or stop the emissions of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fossil-carbon-emissions-hit-a-record-high-in-2023/">carbon</a> to the atmosphere,” said study lead author Professor William Anderegg.



“Those are the two main broad categories. There are the avoided emissions, and that's activities like stopping deforestation. Then there's the greenhouse gas-removal pathways. That's things like reforestation where you plant trees, and as those trees grow, they suck up CO2 out of the atmosphere.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-many-offsets-fall-short">Many offsets fall short</h2>



The paper highlights a fundamental flaw in how most current offset programs operate: they let companies claim credit for forest projects without guaranteeing those projects actually result in new carbon savings. 



Even worse, many projects aren’t built to last. Trees planted today could be wiped out tomorrow by wildfires, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-a-thirsty-atmosphere-is-making-global-droughts-much-worse/">drought</a>, pests, or disease.



“There are widespread problems with accounting for their climate impact,” said study co-author Libby Blanchard, a postdoctoral researcher in Anderegg’s lab.



“For example, despite the potential for albedo to reduce or even negate the climate mitigation benefits of some forest carbon projects, calculating for the effect of albedo is not considered in any carbon-crediting protocols to date.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-some-climate-solutions-are-flawed">Some climate solutions are flawed</h2>



The team outlines four critical components that must be in place for nature-based climate solutions to succeed. These aren’t just theoretical - they are essential if forest-based climate actions are going to make a measurable impact.



First, the project must lead to net <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/global-cooling-wont-be-a-quick-fix-for-the-state-of-our-oceans/">global cooling</a>. Some tree-planting efforts can unintentionally warm the planet instead. This happens when dark trees are planted in snow-covered regions, reducing the land’s ability to reflect sunlight - a phenomenon known as albedo. 



“If you go in an ecosystem that is mostly snow covered and you plant really dark conifer trees, that can actually outweigh the carbon storage benefit and heat up the planet,” Anderegg said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-interventions-must-include-real-benefits">Interventions must include real benefits</h2>



Second, the intervention must result in additional climate benefits. The action has to go beyond what would have happened anyway. 



Protecting forests that were never at risk of being cut down doesn’t count. “You have to change behavior or change some sort of outcome,” Anderegg said.



“You can't just take credit for what was going to happen anyway. One great example here is if you pay money to keep a forest from <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/global-deforestation-crisis-how-can-we-stop-massive-forest-losses/">deforestation</a>, but it was never going to be cut down to begin with, then you haven't done anything for the climate.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-locking-away-carbon">Locking away carbon</h2>



Third, the solution must avoid carbon “leakage.” This happens when carbon-saving actions in one location lead to increased emissions elsewhere - for example, stopping logging in one region only to have it shift to another.



Finally, the solution must store carbon long enough to make a difference. Fossil fuel emissions inject carbon into the atmosphere that lingers for centuries. That means nature-based projects must be designed to lock carbon away for at least that long.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-current-programs-are-too-weak">Current programs are too weak </h2>



“You have to know how big the risks are, and you have to account for those risks in the policies and programs,” Anderegg said. “Otherwise, basically you're going to lose a lot of that carbon storage as climate change accelerates the risks.”



Most current programs try to address these risks using “buffer pools,” but the study finds those safeguards are too weak. 



The research team is now working on stronger approaches to ensure carbon stays stored for the long haul.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-real-action-against-carbon-emissions">Real action against carbon emissions</h2>



Instead of handing out carbon credits that companies use to justify their emissions, the authors propose a simpler model: encourage companies to contribute to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/natural-climate-solutions-enhancing-the-role-of-seagrass-meadows/">climate solutions</a> without tying those contributions to claims of neutrality. 



In other words, fund the work, but don’t pretend it cancels out emissions unless the science backs it up.



This contribution model would push for higher standards. It would favor projects that actually reduce atmospheric carbon, last for decades or more, and don’t rely on shaky assumptions.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-taking-climate-solutions-seriously">Taking climate solutions seriously</h2>



The stakes are high. The study estimates that about 31% of the carbon we emit through human activity gets absorbed by terrestrial ecosystems, especially forests. 



But we’re also losing forests fast - deforestation today releases roughly 1.9 gigatons of carbon annually, nearly equal to Russia’s total emissions.



“Actions to halt and reverse deforestation are a critical part of climate stabilization pathways,” noted the researchers. It’s time to treat nature-based climate solutions with the seriousness they deserve. They can help, but only if we get them right.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09116-6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature</a>.



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Climate solutions are failing - but they can still be fixed

Every year, a large share of the carbon pollution we...

Concrete is everywhere - beneath our feet, around our buildings, and across our cities. It's one of the most used materials in the world, but it’s also a major contributor to pollution and climate change.



As the construction industry pushes to cut carbon emissions, some scientists are looking thousands of years into the past for ideas.



Researchers from <a href="https://www.uninorte.edu.co/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Universidad del Norte</a>, UC Davis, and UC Berkeley recently explored whether the techniques behind ancient Roman concrete could help us build in a more sustainable way today. The findings shed light on a surprising trade-off between emissions and durability.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-made-roman-concrete-different">What made Roman concrete different?</h2>



Modern concrete is made of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-crack-resistant-cement-material-inspired-by-nature/">cement</a> mixed with sand, gravel, and water. Roman builders used a different formula. They combined limestone, volcanic ash known as pozzolan, and even rubble from demolished structures.



The key ingredient in both types of concrete is limestone, which must be heated to very high temperatures. This process releases carbon dioxide and produces calcium oxide, which then reacts with other minerals to form a strong binding paste.



Despite the clear differences in recipe, the energy and water required to produce Roman concrete today would be similar to that of modern concrete. Even the carbon emissions would be roughly the same - or in some cases, slightly higher.



“Contrary to our initial expectations, adopting Roman formulations with current technology may not yield substantial reductions in emissions or energy demand,” said study lead author Daniela Martinez of Universidad del Norte.



The research team ran models comparing different Roman concrete recipes and modern methods. They factored in not just ingredients but also production techniques and energy sources - like <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/more-warnings-fossil-fuels-are-causing-climate-health-and-biodiversity-crises/">fossil fuels</a>, biomass, or renewables. The goal was to measure the environmental impact from all angles.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-less-pollution-more-durability">Less pollution, more durability</h2>



While Roman concrete didn’t offer a big drop in carbon emissions, it did produce significantly lower levels of other pollutants - especially <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/nitrous-oxide-emissions-erupt-from-farms-in-unpredictable-bursts/">nitrogen oxide</a> and sulfur oxide, which are known to damage human health.



Depending on the fuel source, these pollutants were reduced by anywhere from 11 to 98 percent. Renewable energy made the biggest difference.



And while emissions may be comparable today, Roman concrete’s potential lies in how long it lasts. The ancient structures built with it - bridges, aqueducts, public buildings - have stood the test of time. 



That kind of durability could translate into serious sustainability gains, especially in places where concrete needs frequent repair or replacement, like roads and highways.



“Studying <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-ancient-romans-made-such-incredibly-durable-concrete-is-no-longer-a-mystery/">Roman concrete</a> can teach us how to use materials in a way that can maximize the longevity of our structures, because sustainability goes hand-by-hand with durability,” said Martinez.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-concrete-that-lasts-and-less-waste">Concrete that lasts, and less waste</h2>



There’s growing awareness in the building industry that durability matters just as much as emissions. If we can build things that last longer, we don’t have to rebuild as often - and that reduces the environmental cost over time.



“When we take concrete’s service life into consideration, that’s when we start seeing benefits,” explained Martinez.



“In cases where prolonging the use of concrete can reduce the need to manufacture new materials, more durable concrete has the potential to reduce environmental impact,” noted study co-author Sabbie Miller of UC Davis.



But comparing ancient Roman concrete to modern concrete isn’t simple. Modern formulas have only been used for about 200 years, while Roman buildings have lasted over two millennia. 



More importantly, modern concrete often includes steel reinforcement bars, which Roman builders didn’t use. That adds another layer of complexity to the comparison.



“<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/steel-corrosion-is-a-major-contributor-to-climate-change/">Corrosion</a> of steel reinforcement is the main cause of concrete deterioration, so comparisons should be made with great care,” noted study co-author Paulo Monteiro of UC Berkeley.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-looking-to-the-future">Looking to the future</h2>



The research team plans to continue comparing performance and longevity between Roman and modern concrete in real-world scenarios. Their hope is to better understand how lessons from the past can help solve problems we face today.



“We were interested in how we can draw lessons from their methods to inform some of the climate-mitigation challenges that we currently face in our built environment,” said Martinez.



“There's a lot of lessons that we can draw from the Romans. If we can incorporate their strategies with our modern innovative ideas, we can create a more sustainable built environment.”



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(25)01313-6?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS2589004225013136%3Fshowall%3Dtrue" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">iScience</a>.



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Ancient Roman concrete offers lessons for sustainable building

Concrete is everywhere - beneath our feet, around our buildings,...

As a child, she watched her grandfather’s brain slowly betray him - taking away his ability to move, think clearly, and care for himself. Parkinson’s disease didn’t just affect his body - it changed how he lived, how he related to his family, and how he remembered the world. That experience stayed with her.



Now, decades later, Dr. Jessica Bernard is researching how the brain ages - and how to help people stay sharp and independent longer.



She and her team at <a href="https://www.tamu.edu/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Texas A&amp;M University</a> are focused on the <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthpedia-articles/cerebellum/">cerebellum</a> - a part of the brain that was long thought to handle only balance and movement. But new research suggests it also plays a key role in memory, cognition, and daily functioning.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-cerebellum-s-role-in-memory">The cerebellum's role in memory</h2>



Tucked at the back of the brain, the cerebellum is responsible for voluntary movements, posture, and balance. But it’s also involved in mental tasks like <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/native-language-is-specially-stored-in-the-brain-for-easy-access/">language</a> and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/memory-isnt-only-stored-in-our-brains-other-cells-can-remember-too/">memory</a>. 



As people age, nerve cells in the cerebellum may stop working, disconnect from other brain areas, or die off entirely.



“An individual’s ability to think and move can be measured by observing them as they engage in prescribed activities, administering surveys and imaging their brains structurally and functionally,” said Bernard. 



“In our research we ask questions about how the brain changes over time and whether we can develop interventions to slow or mitigate the negative effects of these changes.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-the-brain-changes-with-age">How the brain changes with age</h2>



Bernard is currently leading a two-year study supported by the WoodNext Foundation. The study includes 120 participants split into three groups: young healthy adults, cognitively normal older adults, and older adults showing signs of mild <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/millions-of-americans-have-mild-cognitive-impairment-and-dont-know-it/">cognitive impairment</a>.



“Our young adults serve as a baseline for optimum cognitive functioning,” said Bernard. “In cognitively normal older adults, we see occasional lost keys, forgetting a detail here or there as one might expect with healthy aging."



"Older adults with mild cognitive impairment may have difficulty thinking through things, recalling meaningful information or they may have balance or mobility challenges that can cause them to become increasingly dependent on others.”



The research goes beyond testing memory. It also looks at how thinking and movement work together. This connection can directly impact a person’s ability to do everyday tasks like getting dressed, using the bathroom, feeding themselves, or walking across a room without help.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-can-brain-stimulation-slow-aging">Can brain stimulation slow aging?</h2>



The intervention being tested is called Theta Burst Stimulation (TBS), a form of transcranial magnetic stimulation. It uses short pulses to mimic the brain’s natural rhythms, which may help improve how <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/every-part-of-the-brain-works-together-to-support-intelligence/">brain regions work together</a>.



Bernard believes TBS might improve behavioral performance, activate key functions, and strengthen brain networks - especially in those dealing with age-related decline or early cognitive impairment.



“By stimulating the brain’s capacity to process and interpret information and stimulating the connections between the different brain regions that work together to perform certain tasks, TBS may improve or preserve memory and motor performance,” said Bernard. 



“While this approach will not stop age-related decline, we are hopeful that it will provide a better quality of life and function for a longer period of time.”



If the findings are strong, this non-invasive approach could open the door to new treatments for more serious brain disorders in the future.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-research-beyond-aging">Research beyond aging</h2>



Bernard’s lab is also involved in other studies that explore how the brain changes in different life stages and situations. 



One project, funded by the Mental Research Institute, looks at how brain and hormonal shifts during and after pregnancy affect relationships between first-time mothers and their babies.



The research is a collaboration with Dr. Rebecca Brooker, a specialist in early development and parent-child interactions. 



“In the study we look at how these biological changes impact parenting and infant outcomes,” said Bernard. “We plan to use this information to prepare new moms to become parents and better understand what it means for maternal <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/three-common-mental-health-disorders-share-a-single-brain-circuit/">mental health</a> and well-being.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-clearer-picture-of-the-brain">A clearer picture of the brain</h2>



What unites all of Bernard’s projects is a single goal: helping people live fuller, more independent lives. Whether that means giving a mother more insight into her relationship with her child or helping an older adult remember their grandchildren’s names, the work is deeply human.



By studying how the brain changes and testing ways to support it, Bernard and her team are giving us new ways to think about aging - and to act on it.



“I am fortunate to work alongside colleagues from a variety of academic disciplines including statistics, nursing, health and kinesiology, biology and medicine,” said Bernard. 



“The brain is the most complex organ in the body, and we must take a comprehensive approach to understanding its structure, function and to developing best practices for its care.”



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Brain stimulation may help slow memory loss as people age

As a child, she watched her grandfather’s brain slowly betray...

On the night of October 22, 2017, a single flash of lightning wormed its way 515 miles from the pine woods of east Texas to the outskirts of Kansas City. The feat rewrote the distance record for an electrical discharge and forced scientists to rethink the reach of a storm’s electric muscles.



Researchers call this titanic spark a megaflash lightning event - a label reserved for bolts that stretch more than 60 miles. 



Thanks to satellites watching from 22,000 miles up, experts were able to measure the full extent of the lightning and confirmed what ground sensors never saw.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-satellites-spot-lightning-flashes">Satellites spot lightning flashes </h2>



<a href="https://www.asu.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Arizona State University</a> geographer Randy Cerveny guided the World Meteorological Organization panel that reviewed every pixel of satellite data. 



“Our weather satellites carry very exacting lightning <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/lightning-is-zapping-forests-harder-than-we-thought/">detection</a> equipment that we can use to document the millisecond when a lightning flash starts and how far it travels,” Cerveny said.



The Geostationary Lightning Mapper (<a href="https://www.goes-r.gov/spacesegment/glm.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">GLM</a>) on NOAA’s <a href="https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news/flashes-the-sky-how-the-lightning-sensor-weather-satellite-can-also-track-meteoroids" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">GOES-16</a> satellite alone clocks roughly one million flashes daily. Unlike ground antennas that triangulate radio pops, the mapper catches the faint optical blink of each discharge and plots it across a whole continent.



Engineers reprocessed seven years of GLM archives with sharper algorithms last year and spotted the overlooked 2017 giant. Similar rescans continue to expose other marathon <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/lightning-struck-trees-release-as-much-carbon-as-the-aviation-industry/">bolts</a> hiding amid terabytes of cloud flickers.



Orbiting at the same speed Earth spins, GOES-16 stares at North America nonstop, a trait that matters when a flash meanders for several seconds. Ground arrays often miss the middle of such tracks because hills, rain static, or plain distance shield radio signals.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-lightning-set-a-new-record">Lightning set a new record</h2>



The record lightning flash ignited along the leading edge of a sprawling mesoscale convective system rolling northeast ahead of a cold front. It threaded rearward into the storm’s broad stratiform shield, exploiting horizontal charge pockets that balloon for hundreds of miles.



Analysts counted five ground-hitting branches sprouting from the airborne superhighway, typical for a megaflash of this scale. Energy-weighted mapping showed the tip-to-tip path at 515 miles with a total journey time of 7.4 seconds.



Above the cloud tops, bright red sprites likely sparkled as the bolt dumped its charge into the upper atmosphere, a phenomenon often tied to giant <a href="https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/eint/25/1/EI-D-20-0016.1.xml" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">positive strokes</a>. These ghostly fireworks provide researchers with clues about the electric fields that propel such long leaders.



“Adding continuous measurements from geostationary orbit was a major advance,” said Michael Peterson, first author of the new analysis at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (<a href="https://www.gtri.gatech.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">GTRI</a>). 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-makes-long-lightning-possible">What makes long lightning possible</h2>



Less than one percent of thunderstorms ever spawn a megaflash, and the candidates share distinct DNA. They linger for 14 hours or more and sprawl over an area similar to New Jersey, providing a capacious charge reservoir.



In these giants, the convective line pumps charge into the rear shield where separate positive and negative layers resemble a two-prong battery. The megaflash <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/lightning-near-the-north-pole-signals-major-climate-shifts/">acts</a> like a switch, stepping through those layers in incremental sparks until the energy runs out.



Critics once argued that electric fields weaken too much over long stretches to keep a leader alive. New satellite evidence shows the channel taps fresh pockets of charged ice, re-energizing itself every few dozen miles.



A similarly sized storm on October 31, 2024, produced flashes only 300 miles long because its trailing charge pool was patchy. The contrast suggests horizontal extent alone is not enough, uniform charge density matters most.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-lessons-for-outdoor-safety">Lessons for outdoor safety</h2>



While half-thousand-mile bolts grab headlines, the everyday risk comes from ordinary lightning that can jump 10 to 15 miles beyond rain. That reach means blue sky overhead is no guarantee of safety.



The National Weather Service <a href="https://www.weather.gov/safety/lightning-odds" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reports</a> an average of 27 lightning deaths each year in the United States. About nine times as many people survive but often live with neurological injuries.



“That’s why you should wait at least a half an hour after a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/lightning-captured-creating-gamma-ray-bursts-on-earth-which-normally-come-from-space/">thunderstorm</a> passes before you go out and resume normal activities,” Cerveny said. The new record only strengthens that guidance, showing a thunderhead’s reach can be vast.



Modern weather apps that display real-time lightning data can warn users when bolts form within a safe-distance radius. Satellite-fed networks update every minute, outpacing traditional sirens.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-past-lightning-events-may-beat-the-record">Past lightning events may beat the record</h2>



Peterson thinks even longer discharges lurk in the data waiting for better algorithms to stitch their scattered pixels together. He suspects South America’s monster storm complexes may hide flashes topping 600 miles.



Europe’s Meteosat Third Generation (<a href="https://www.eumetsat.int/meteosat-third-generation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MTG</a>) and China’s <a href="https://www.eoportal.org/satellite-missions/fy-4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">FY-4</a> satellites now carry similar mappers, extending global coverage. Cross-hemisphere comparisons will test whether geography or storm type sets the upper limit.



Machine-learning tools already flag superbolts, and researchers are training them to recognize megaflashes without false merges. Faster sorting will let forecasters know when a storm starts spitting far-flung strikes, giving crews extra minutes to clear runways and fields.



Because sprites can be spotted from hundreds of miles away, coupling optical sprite cameras with GLM data may give an early megaflash signature. Pilots could then steer around invisible electric highways in the upper cloud deck.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-many-questions-remain">Many questions remain</h2>



Why some storms build such orderly charge bridges while neighbors do not, remains unsolved. Updraft strength, ice particle size, and wind shear probably choreograph the dance, but measurements inside the warm conveyor are scarce.



Researchers also wonder whether warming, which moistens the air and fuels bigger storms, will change megaflash frequency. Early GLM <a href="https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/bams/102/3/BAMS-D-20-0178.1.xml" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statistics</a> hint at a small uptick in long flashes over the Gulf Coast but the record is short.



Each megaflash discharges roughly as much energy as detonating several hundred pounds of TNT, producing a radio pulse heard in space. Understanding that energy budget may refine global electric circuit models.



For now, the 515-mile bolt stands as a dramatic reminder that lightning can redraw the map of risk in a blink. The next record might already be hidden, waiting for someone to click “reprocess.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/10.1175/BAMS-D-25-0037.1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society</a>.



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Lightning bolt stretching hundreds of miles breaks world record

On the night of October 22, 2017, a single flash...

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y4eLFNYrKE
</div></figure>



On the unforgiving landscape of North Greenland, temperatures drop and sunlight barely penetrates through the polar winter. It was here, however, that an international team of scientists found <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/predatory-worms-were-terror-beasts-half-a-billion-years-ago/#google_vignette" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">evidence of sea monsters</a> that would change our understanding of ocean life in the past.



This video captures the discovery of Timorebestia fossils that had been hidden for more than 500 million years in the Sirius Passet formation. The "terror beasts," as they are called, are a hidden chapter in the evolutionary history of <a href="https://www.earth.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Earth</a>, showing that sophisticated predator-prey interactions occurred much earlier than previously envisioned.



Dr. Jakob Vinther and his research team at the <a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Bristol</a>, in collaboration with researchers at the <a href="https://eng.kopri.re.kr/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Korean Polar Research Institute</a>, braved extreme weather conditions at 82.5 north latitude to locate these giant creatures. Using sophisticated electron microprobe analysis, they revealed the detailed anatomy of the animals, including their muscle and nerve tissues.



The find upsets the traditional timeline of sea predators. Although we've long appreciated that Cambrian oceans were at one time ruled by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWI3-UgA3_o&amp;list=PL1QLQMW9MWDwpkFOnvgAmu7wT6rZmYqdJ&amp;index=19" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">arthropods</a>, these discoveries indicate that relatives of arrow worms were first to dominate the seas. These worms were building sophisticated food webs several million years before other predator groups arose.



Each fossil is a story of ancient hunger, with fossil stomach contents revealing these meter-long beasts dined on heavily armored arthropods regularly, cementing their place as the ocean's first apex predators.



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Worms dominated seas before dinosaurs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y4eLFNYrKE On the unforgiving landscape of North Greenland, temperatures drop...

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow3JH03PqEQ
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">New York is the site of the world's oldest forest.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-385-million-year-old-trees-discovered">385-million-year-old trees discovered</h2>



Scientists have uncovered something extraordinary just two hours north of New York City. The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/worlds-oldest-forest-discovered-close-to-new-york-city/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">world's oldest forest</a>, dating back 385 million years, offers a window into how Earth's first complex forests shaped our planet's atmosphere.



Located near <a href="https://townofcairo.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cairo, New York</a>, in Greene County, these weren't merely primitive plants struggling to survive. These were sophisticated trees with root systems remarkably similar to modern forests. This ancient woodland predates dinosaurs by 140 million years.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-cairo-forest-discovery">The Cairo forest discovery</h2>



385 million years ago, upstate New York was a tropical paradise near the equator. Thanks to continental drift, this ancient forest has traveled thousands of miles to its current location.



The fossil forest sits in an abandoned quarry, roughly half the size of a football field. This represents just a slice of what was likely a massive forest system stretching from New York into Pennsylvania.



Charles Ver Straeten, curator of sedimentary rocks at the <a href="https://www.nysm.nysed.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">New York State Museum</a>, made the discovery in 2009. While scouting the former highway department property, his trained eye spotted wandering patterns in the stone that looked like marine features.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-revolutionary-age-and-preservation">Revolutionary age and preservation</h2>



The site contains 385-million-year-old rocks with fossilized woody roots forming horizontal patterns up to 18 feet (5.5 meters) wide. As Christopher Berry, a paleobotanist at Cardiff University, explains: "You are walking through the roots of ancient trees."



This discovery pushes back advanced tree evolution by millions of years. The research, published in <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/home" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Current Biology</a> in December 2019, fundamentally changes our understanding of when complex forests first emerged.



Researchers believe a massive flood buried the forest floor, creating perfect fossilization conditions. Over millions of years, sediment hardened into rock, preserving these root patterns like nature's time capsule.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-meet-archaeopteris-the-first-modern-tree">Meet Archaeopteris: the first modern tree</h2>



The star of this ancient forest is Archaeopteris – not to be confused with the feathered dinosaur Archaeopteryx. This tree was far older and more revolutionary.



William Stein from <a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Binghamton University</a> describes the roots as "strikingly modern, essentially what you'd see outside in my yard right now." These weren't simple root systems you'd expect from ancient plants.



Some fossilized roots are six inches (15 centimeters) in diameter, forming 36-foot-wide (11-meter) patterns. These giants grew up to 65 feet (20 meters) tall with five-foot-diameter (1.5-meter) trunks.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-climate-changing-impact">Climate-changing impact</h2>



These trees fundamentally changed Earth's environment. Kevin Boyce, a Stanford University geoscientist, explains how their deep roots triggered "weathering," chemical reactions that pulled carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.



This process dropped atmospheric CO2 levels from 10-15 times higher than today to roughly modern concentrations. These ancient trees helped create atmospheric conditions that made complex life possible.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ancient-forest-ecosystem">Ancient forest ecosystem</h2>



The forest was remarkably diverse. Scientists identified Eospermatopteris, palm tree-like plants with short roots that reached 30 feet (9 meters) tall but lacked woody structure. The forest also housed cladoxylopsids and a mysterious third species still being studied.



All reproduced through spores rather than seeds – millions of years before seeds evolved. This tropical environment had no grass, flowers, or flying insects, just towering trees creating Earth's first complex forest canopy.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-scientific-significance">Scientific significance</h2>



Before this finding, the Gilboa forest, located 25 miles (40 kilometers) away, held the "oldest forest" title. Cairo's trees are 2-3 million years older, showing that complex forest ecosystems developed much faster than scientists believed possible.



Patricia Gensel, a <a href="https://www.unc.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of North Carolina</a> paleobotanist, notes: "The size of those root systems is really changing the picture. Even 20 years ago, researchers assumed trees with such complex root systems didn't evolve so early."



The Cairo site presents three unique root systems, suggesting Devonian period forests were diverse ecosystems with different trees occupying different environmental niches, much like today's forests.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-modern-preservation-efforts">Modern preservation efforts</h2>



In 2022, New York State Senator Michelle Hinchey secured a $170,000 grant for the town of Cairo to construct specialized fencing around the fossil forest site. The town plans to conduct a feasibility study exploring the possibility of creating an educational center and working lab on-site.



Joe Hasenkopf, chair of the Cairo Planning Board, hopes to partner with educational institutions to create a research facility serving scientists, students, and the public.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-lessons-for-today-s-climate">Lessons for today's climate</h2>



Why does a 385-million-year-old forest matter today? It shows how dramatically forests can change Earth's climate. These ancient woodlands created the atmospheric conditions supporting complex life.



Understanding how prehistoric forests transformed the planet helps us appreciate modern forests' critical role in addressing climate change. Forests remain Earth's most effective carbon capture systems.



These prehistoric trees changed Earth's atmosphere by pulling massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the air. As we face modern climate challenges, this ancient forest reminds us of trees' incredible power to transform our planet's environment.



The next time you walk through a forest, remember you're experiencing an ecosystem whose blueprint was established 385 million years ago in upstate New York. These ancient pioneers didn't just survive – they thrived and changed the world forever.



The full study was published in the journal Current Biology.



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Earth's oldest forest found in the United States

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow3JH03PqEQ New York is the site of the world's oldest...

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prrq8Ql81zk
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Acid rain and a crisis solved.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-don-t-we-ever-hear-about-acid-rain-anymore-the-environmental-crisis-that-was-solved">Why don't we ever hear about "acid rain" anymore? The environmental crisis that was solved</h2>



Remember the 1980s when acid rain dominated headlines? Dire warnings about rain eating buildings, killing fish, and destroying forests filled every news cycle. Then, almost like magic, acid rain vanished from public discourse. What happened? Did we actually solve one of the late 20th century's most pressing environmental challenges?



The answer might surprise you. Unlike many environmental issues that drag on indefinitely, acid rain represents one of modern history's most successful ecological recovery stories. It's a tale of science, politics, and technology working together to tackle what seemed impossible.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What was acid rain?</h2>



Acid rain isn't regular rain having a bad day – it's precipitation that became significantly more acidic due to air pollution. When power plants, factories, and vehicles burn fossil fuels, they release sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) into the atmosphere.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The science behind it</h2>



Think of acid rain as nature's chemistry experiment gone wrong. These compounds react with water, oxygen, and other chemicals to form sulfuric and nitric acids. When mixed with water vapor in clouds, they create precipitation with dangerously low pH levels.



While clean rain has a pH of about 5.6, acid rain could drop as low as 4.2 to 4.4 – roughly as acidic as tomato juice or coffee. According to US Geological Survey documentation, Scottish chemist Angus Smith first coined "acid rain" in 1872, but it didn't become a household phrase until the 1960s and 1970s when Swedish scientist Svante Odén documented its devastating effects on Scandinavian lakes and European forests.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The crisis at its peak</h2>



During the height of public concern, environmental damage was both widespread and visible. This wasn't some abstract future threat – people could see destruction happening in real-time.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Environmental devastation</h2>



The most dramatic impacts were impossible to ignore. Research documented by the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation shows that in the Adirondack Mountains, more than 200 lakes became so acidic they couldn't support fish life. The Adirondack Council reports that 409 lakes once supported brook trout, but many lost their fish populations due to acid rain.



By 1976, when scientists cataloged all acidified lakes in the Adirondack Park, researchers found that half of the lakes over 2,000 feet above sea level had no fish, according to studies published in environmental journals. The acidification process worked like a slow-motion disaster. As acid rain fell into watersheds, it gradually lowered pH levels. Fish couldn't survive in acidic water, and their food sources died off too.



Trees at high elevations showed stress directly linked to acid rain. It weakened them by leaching nutrients and making them susceptible to disease. Historical records show Germany's Black Forest saw nearly half its trees damaged by the mid-1980s.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Economic impact</h2>



Acid rain wasn't just environmental – it was expensive. Acidic precipitation corroded infrastructure, buildings, and monuments. Historic stone structures deteriorated at accelerated rates. Tourism suffered as lakes became fishless and forests declined. EPA economic analyses from the period documented repair costs mounting into billions annually.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The solution: government action and technology</h2>



Transformation from crisis to success required unprecedented cooperation between governments, industries, and environmental groups.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Clean Air Act of 1990</h2>



The turning point came with the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, signed by President George H.W. Bush. This represented a fundamentally new approach to environmental regulation, as documented in EPA historical records.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Cap-and-trade success</h2>



Instead of mandating specific technologies, the 1990 amendments introduced something revolutionary: a cap-and-trade system for sulfur dioxide emissions. EPA program documentation shows this market-based approach set overall limits but allowed companies to trade emission allowances.



The genius was harnessing market forces to find cost-effective pollution reduction. Companies reducing emissions cheaply could sell excess allowances to those facing higher costs. Research published in environmental economics journals and EPA progress reports shows this resulted in dramatic SO2 reduction at a fraction of projected costs.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Technology advances</h2>



Policy provided the framework, but technology made reductions possible. Studies in atmospheric science journals document the widespread adoption of flue gas desulfurization systems ("scrubbers") that removed sulfur dioxide before it reached the atmosphere. By the 2000s, new installations could remove over 95% of SO2 emissions, according to EPA technical reports.



The push coincided with cleaner energy development. Natural gas produces fewer sulfur compounds than coal. Wind and solar, emerging in the 1990s, captured growing market share, reducing reliance on high-sulfur coal.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-we-don-t-hear-about-it-today">Why we don't hear about it today</h2>



Why did acid rain disappear from headlines? Simple: the problem was largely solved.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Success doesn't make news</h2>



There's an old journalism saying: "If it bleeds, it leads." Environmental success stories don't generate urgency like crisis reporting. Media attention shifted to other challenges: climate change, plastic pollution, and biodiversity loss. There's only so much environmental anxiety the public can absorb, and newer concerns replaced acid rain.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Mission accomplished</h2>



The primary reason is beautifully simple: interventions worked. EPA monitoring data shows sulfur dioxide emissions dropped over 90% since 1990. Academic research published in environmental science journals confirms pH levels in formerly affected areas returned closer to normal. This represents one of history's most dramatic environmental recoveries. Studies by the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation show fishless lakes now support healthy populations. Forests recovered, and building damage slowed dramatically.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-is-it-really-gone">Is it really gone?</h2>



The crisis is largely resolved, but monitoring data shows the problem isn't completely eliminated – it's managed to acceptable levels. Some areas still experience occasional events during high pollution periods. International environmental research indicates that rapidly industrializing Asian countries face similar problems to what we experienced decades ago, though they're implementing successful strategies.



EPA research shows nitrogen oxide emissions proved more challenging than sulfur dioxide, coming from vehicles and mobile sources. Climate science studies suggest changing weather patterns add complexity to how acid rain forms and falls.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What this teaches us</h2>



The acid rain experience proves that seemingly intractable environmental problems can be solved with scientific understanding, political will, and technological innovation. Environmental monitoring data shows recovery speed was remarkable – within a decade, measurable improvements appeared in air quality and ecosystem health.



Success came from bipartisan support across party lines. Policy analysis studies show the market-based approach appealed to those preferring economic incentives while achieving environmental goals. This support created lasting policy surviving political changes.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Conclusion</h2>



Acid rain's disappearance from public consciousness represents environmental science's greatest success stories. Through effective regulation, technological innovation, and international cooperation, we transformed an overwhelming crisis into a manageable challenge.



Today's silence isn't because we forgot – it's because we solved it. The 1990 Clean Air Act, combined with technology and energy market changes, reduced acid rain emissions over 90%, according to comprehensive EPA data analysis.



This success offers hope for current challenges. It proves complex problems can be solved when science, policy, and technology work together. As we face climate change and plastic pollution, acid rain reminds us that dramatic positive change is possible.



Next time someone asks whether environmental regulations work, remember acid rain. It's proof that sometimes, we get it right.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Sources: This article draws from EPA official documentation and progress reports, peer-reviewed research published in environmental and atmospheric science journals, historical data from the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation records, US Geological Survey publications, policy analysis studies, and environmental monitoring data collected over three decades.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Frequently Asked Questions</h2>



1. Is acid rain completely gone? No, but EPA monitoring shows it's reduced to manageable levels. US sulfur dioxide emissions dropped over 90% since 1990, making acid rain much less severe than the 1980s crisis.



2. How long did solving take? Environmental monitoring data shows significant improvements began within 5-10 years of 1990s emission controls. Full ecosystem recovery took longer – some areas need 20-30 years for complete recovery.



3. What made the solution successful? Clear scientific understanding, visible damage motivating action, bipartisan support, available technology, and innovative market-based policies like cap-and-trade.



4. Do other countries have acid rain problems? Yes, particularly rapidly industrializing Asian countries. However, international environmental research shows many implement similar successful control strategies.



5. Could acid rain return? Potentially, if regulations weaken or we return to high-sulfur coal without controls, though effects would take years to become severe according to environmental projections.



6. Can you recommend any teaching tools on the subject of "acid rain"? The United States Environmental Protection Agency produced a wonderful teacher's guide for ages 14 and under that you can find on the EPA website here: <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2017-03/documents/teachersguide.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2017-03/documents/teachersguide.pdf</a>



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The environmental problem we actually solved

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prrq8Ql81zk Acid rain and a crisis solved. Why don't we...

Fresh,Radish,Harvest,On,Soil,In,Garden.

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://youtu.be/Fi2OeEwuzRM?si=vTyd2m9FMmtyWkex
</div></figure>







Mid-July is an opportune time to kick-start a thriving fall garden, and this guide lays out the best vegetables and herbs to plant now for a fruitful autumn harvest. 



Fast-growing leafy greens such as spinach, lettuce, kale, and arugula perform especially well in the waning summer heat, with harvests beginning as soon as 30 days. 



These cool-season crops relish the transition into fall, offering repeated yields with cut-and-come-again methods.



Root vegetables like radishes, carrots, and beets also excel during this period. Radishes deliver satisfaction in under a month, while carrots and beets mature in about two months. Employing succession planting ensures a continuous stream of produce deep into the cooler months. 



For a boost of fresh flavor, herbs like cilantro, basil, dill, and chervil are excellent picks. These heat-loving varieties flourish in July’s warmth and are harvest-ready in about 30 days, especially when sown continuously.



Gardeners in zones 6 through 9 can benefit from planting bush beans and snap peas, which don’t require trellising and are ideal for compact plots. 



Maturing in 50–60 days, they’re a smart choice for quick, protein-rich harvests. For those in hotter regions, heat-tolerant crops such as okra and southern peas provide reliable yields and thrive in scorching conditions.



This guide emphasizes more than crop selection—it highlights the importance of timing, soil preparation, and ongoing sowing techniques. 



With thoughtful planning and attention to regional climate needs, even late-summer gardeners can enjoy fresh salads, hearty stews, and the satisfaction of a robust, homegrown harvest well into fall.



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What to plant in your garden in mid-July

https://youtu.be/Fi2OeEwuzRM?si=vTyd2m9FMmtyWkex Mid-July is an opportune time to kick-start a thriving...

Green,Ecoduct,Over,An,Empty,Highway,During,Sunset.

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://youtu.be/XYgiPzmNBTU?si=eFYY7gPHU1JznLvU
</div></figure>



A new long-term study in Monkton, Vermont, reveals that wildlife tunnels significantly reduce amphibian road mortality during seasonal migrations. 



Frogs and salamanders often cross roads to reach breeding ponds each spring, but many are killed by vehicles. 



Researchers from the <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Vermont</a>, in collaboration with local citizens and the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, installed two underpass tunnels in 2015. 



Over a 12-year monitoring period, they observed an 80.2% reduction in amphibian deaths, and up to 94% for non-climbing species like salamanders. 



The study used a before-after-control-impact design and documented more than 5,200 amphibians, highlighting the tunnels’ effectiveness even in nearby buffer zones.



Funded at $342,397 - far cheaper than wildlife crossings for large mammals - the project showcased the power of community-led conservation.



Local groups initiated the effort after observing mass amphibian deaths. Wildlife cameras later captured over 2,200 amphibians using a tunnel in just one spring, along with other species like raccoons and bobcats, indicating wider ecosystem benefits.



This marks the first peer-reviewed, long-term data set in the northeastern U.S. confirming amphibian-specific underpasses work. 



The study urges transportation departments to incorporate these designs into road planning and highlights how community action, thoughtful infrastructure, and persistence can make a real difference for biodiversity.



The full study was published in the <a href="https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1617138125000780" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Journal for Nature Conservation</a>.



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Wildlife tunnels save millions of amphibians

https://youtu.be/XYgiPzmNBTU?si=eFYY7gPHU1JznLvU A new long-term study in Monkton, Vermont, reveals that...

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



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



<figure class="wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://youtu.be/Ug657J67iEo?si=w96YjGMsg939LD_3
</div></figure>



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

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

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="0ynNMYkMKa-2340414-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

[sendtonews key="0ynNMYkMKa-2340414-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features northwest Lesotho in South Africa.



According to ESA, Lesotho is the only nation in the world that lies completely above 1,000 m in elevation. The country is famous for its tall mountains and narrow valleys, and is known as Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky."



Out of a population of around two million people, about 80 percent live in rural areas. More than 75 percent of these people are engaged in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-will-have-a-global-impact-on-agriculture/">agriculture</a>, including rainfed cereal production and animal grazing.&nbsp;



ESA reports that the country’s agricultural system faces a growing number of issues, with climate-related vulnerabilities such as drought, floods and extreme temperatures occurring more frequently. 



Diamonds are amongst the minerals found in the mountains. Indeed, Lesotho can truly be called the Kingdom in the Sky. Beautiful, culturally rich, safe, affordable, and easily accessible from Durban and Johannesburg, mountainous Lesotho is a vastly underrated travel destination. the Kingdom of Lesotho (Sotho: 'Muso oa Lesotho) is an enclaved country in southern Africa. It is just over 30,000 km2 (11,583 sq mi) in size and has a population of around 2 million.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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