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...

A recent study shows that reading chemical marks on just two stretches of human DNA can estimate a person’s chronological age to within about 1.36 years - if the person is younger than 50.



The work comes from the <a href="https://en.huji.ac.il/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hebrew University</a> of Jerusalem, where Professor Tommy Kaplan and his colleagues trained a deep learning model called <a href="https://github.com/MagNet-DL/magnet" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MAgeNet</a> to read single‑molecule methylation patterns.



“It turns out that the passage of time leaves measurable marks on our <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earth-day-2025-our-power-our-planet/">DNA</a>,” said Kaplan, enthused about this finding he credits to the team’s focus on high‑resolution data.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dna-tags-like-a-clock">DNA tags like a clock</h2>



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/some-genes-may-predict-infertility-and-disease-by-flipping-like-a-light-switch/">DNA methylation</a> is a steady change that happens over time, where a small chemical tag gets added to specific spots in the DNA.



Because methylation builds up or fades in predictable ways as people age, scientists have treated it as a molecular clock for more than a decade.



Earlier age prediction models looked at hundreds of scattered DNA sites, but MAgeNet focuses on just two specific regions. 



It studies thousands of individual DNA fragments from those regions and runs them through a layered AI system to figure out a person’s age.



The network learns whether each fragment is fully methylated, partly marked, or untouched, then weighs more than 130,000 possible patterns to calculate a final age prediction.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-two-dna-regions-determine-age">Two DNA regions determine age</h2>



Horvath’s 2013 epigenetic clock needed 353 CpGs and still missed the mark by almost four years on individual <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/hundreds-of-exoplanets-are-much-larger-than-we-thought/">blood</a> samples.



Non‑linear “<a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10545910/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">GP‑age</a>” modeling cut that error to about two years using 30 <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/cpg-site" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CpG</a>s, but it still relied on array data that blurs single‑molecule details. Pyrosequencing <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26026729/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">work</a> later trimmed the list to five CpGs yet could not beat a 3.9‑year median error.



Kaplan’s team showed that focusing on pattern combinations rather than single averages lets a neural network squeeze out nearly twice the accuracy of any earlier clock.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-age-test-informs-care">Age test informs care</h2>



MAgeNet’s predictions did not change when researchers stratified volunteers by body‑mass index, smoking history, or sex, suggesting that the two‑locus signatures are insulated from lifestyle noise.



Such stability could help physicians decide whether a patient’s treatment plan matches cellular age rather than calendar age, a crucial distinction in emerging “<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-39786-7" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">gerotherapeutic</a>” trials that target biological aging.



The study also tracked 52 Jerusalem residents a decade apart and found that early deviations between predicted and calendar age remained almost unchanged ten years later.



This fact implies that the methyl tags lay down a durable timestamp rather than fluctuating with short‑term health shifts.



Because the assay works on as few as 50 DNA molecules, even a pediatric finger prick or archived neonatal blood spot could, in principle, reveal whether growth‑related <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/astonishing-global-heat-in-january-2025-defied-climate-expectations/">therapies</a> are accelerating or slowing a child’s cellular timeline.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-forensics-and-dna-age-testing">Forensics and DNA age testing</h2>



Forensic scientists have long sought a tool that can reveal a suspect’s age from a trace <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/everyday-dna-damage-requires-constant-repair-by-cells-to-prevent-disease/">DNA profile</a>, something standard methylation arrays could not deliver without milligrams of tissue.



The Hebrew University team showed that down‑sampling their libraries to the equivalent of 20 genomic copies still kept the median error below four years, a tolerance well within the age ranges investigators typically publish in bulletins.



Urine samples predicted age within 2.5 years, while saliva lagged at 6.4 years, indicating that re‑training the model on cell type-specific data could broaden its courtroom utility.



Because most criminal suspects are under 40, the sub‑one‑year error seen in that age band may finally let agencies add an accurate number, not just a broad bracket, to DNA‑based composite sketches.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-clock-slows-after-60">Clock slows after 60</h2>



What drives some CpG clusters to tick in lockstep while others drift stochastically remains unclear. The authors speculate that nucleosome positioning and local enzyme kinetics may set the pace.



They also note that the clock’s error grows past age 60, hinting that accumulated epigenetic noise or selective survival of certain <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/blood-stem-cells-grown-in-the-lab-for-first-time-ever-leukemia-treatment/">blood cell</a> types begins to obscure the signal after mid‑life.



Future work aims to attach unique molecular identifiers during PCR to remove duplicate reads, a simple change that could shave away the remaining variance in the model.



A broader donor pool will test whether ethnicity, chronic disease, or extreme environments push the two‑locus DNA age clock off course, or whether, as the early data suggest, every cell on the planet keeps DNA time with the same molecular second hand.



The study is published in <a href="https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(25)00729-6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cell Reports</a>.



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New DNA test can tell your exact age from just a tiny blood sample

A recent study shows that reading chemical marks on just...

Exercise might be one of the most effective ways to tackle insomnia. Millions of people find themselves tossing and turning at night, waking up too early, or lying awake for hours. 



While medication and therapy can help, they’re not always available - or ideal - for everyone. A new analysis highlights just how powerful exercise can be.



Researchers analyzed 22 clinical trials to understand which types of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fitness-focused-medicine-physical-activity-reduces-chronic-disease-risk/">physical activity</a> work best for people with insomnia. The trials included over 1,300 participants and compared 13 different treatments. 



Seven of them were exercise-based, including yoga, Tai Chi, walking or jogging, and combinations of strength and aerobic training. 



The rest included cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), sleep hygiene education, massage or acupuncture, Ayurveda, or usual care. The findings could influence how doctors treat <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/poor-sleep-habits-may-age-the-brain-faster/">poor sleep</a> moving forward.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-exercise-enters-insomnia-research">Exercise enters insomnia research</h2>



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/strength-training-may-be-the-best-exercise-for-insomnia/">Insomnia</a> affects between four percent and 22 percent of people, depending on the population studied. It’s not just a nuisance - it’s linked to serious issues like depression, heart disease, and even dementia.



 Traditional treatments like medication come with side effects. CBT works, but trained therapists are in short supply. That’s where exercise comes in.



The researchers used a method called network meta-analysis to compare all the treatments at once. They looked at both subjective and objective sleep outcomes, including total sleep time, how long it took people to fall asleep, how often they woke up, and overall sleep quality.



CBT showed the strongest results overall. It helped people sleep longer, fall asleep faster, and stay asleep more consistently.



But certain exercises weren’t far behind - and in some cases, they even outperformed existing treatments.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-exercise-improves-sleep">Exercise improves sleep</h2>



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/yoga-together-with-regular-exercise-improves-heart-health/">Yoga</a> showed some of the most promising results. Compared to standard treatment, this exercise helped people sleep almost two hours longer. It improved sleep efficiency by nearly 15 percent, reduced time awake during the night by almost an hour, and helped people fall asleep 30 minutes faster.



Tai Chi also made a strong showing. It improved overall sleep quality, increased total sleep time by nearly an hour, reduced nighttime wakeups by over 30 minutes, and helped people fall asleep about 25 minutes faster.



Even more impressive, Tai Chi continued to deliver results for up to two years, both in how people felt and in measurable sleep data.



Exercises like <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/walking-each-day-at-any-speed-lowers-the-risk-of-cancer/">walking</a> or jogging turned out to be particularly good at reducing insomnia symptoms. Participants in those programs saw their insomnia severity scores drop by nearly 10 points. 



“Walking or jogging may result in a large reduction in insomnia severity of nearly 10 points,” noted the study authors.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-exercise-calms-the-brain">Exercise calms the brain</h2>



Each of these exercises may improve sleep in different ways. For yoga, it’s about body awareness and breath control. These elements may calm the brain and reduce anxiety - two key roadblocks to sleep.



Tai Chi combines slow movement with mindfulness and relaxation. It may lower nervous system arousal and ease “mental chatter,” helping people wind down more effectively at night. 



The researchers also suggest it could reduce the body’s production of inflammatory chemicals over time.



Walking or jogging boosts energy use and helps regulate emotions. It may also lower stress hormones like cortisol and increase melatonin, the hormone that makes you sleepy. Plus, it could deepen the most restorative stages of sleep.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-promising-but-not-perfect">Promising, but not perfect</h2>



Despite the promise of these findings, there are limitations. Most of the studies had small sample sizes and inconsistencies in how exercise routines were structured. The researchers pointed out that 68 percent of the trials had at least one design flaw.



Even so, they believe the overall message is clear: The findings of this study further underscore the therapeutic potential of exercise interventions in the treatment of insomnia, suggesting that their role may extend beyond adjunctive support to serve as viable primary treatment options.



Although current clinical guidelines make only limited mention of exercise, this study provides relatively comprehensive comparative evidence that may inform the development of more specific and actionable clinical recommendations.



Given the advantages of exercise modalities such as yoga, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/tai-chi-reduces-inflammatory-risks-in-cancer-survivors/">Tai Chi</a>, and walking or jogging - including low cost, minimal side effects, and high accessibility - these interventions are well-suited for integration into primary care and community health programs.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-customize-your-sleep-routine">Customize your sleep routine</h2>



There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, and what works best for one person might not work for another. 



But if you’re looking for a drug-free way to sleep better, adding an exercise routine like walking, a yoga class, or some Tai Chi might be a good place to start.



And as the researchers point out, science is still working out which exercises work best for which sleep problems.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://ebm.bmj.com/content/early/2025/07/09/bmjebm-2024-113512">BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine</a>.



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Move more, sleep better: Exercise helps fight insomnia

Exercise might be one of the most effective ways to...

Elephants that live near farms in Thailand are bolder and more willing to investigate new things than elephants that range deep in protected forests. That curiosity may help them locate calorie-rich crops - but it also raises the odds of dangerous encounters with people. 



Understanding how personality and place interact could be key to easing human-elephant conflict. 



A new study led by <a href="https://www.gc.cuny.edu/">CUNY Graduate Center</a> doctoral student Sarah Jacobson, under the supervision of Professor Joshua Plotnik, examined this issue.



The research forms a chapter of Jacobson’s dissertation and expands what we know about how wide-ranging, intelligent animals adjust their behavior across human-dominated vs. protected landscapes.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-curious-elephants-take-chances">Curious elephants take chances</h2>



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/beehive-fences-keep-elephants-from-raiding-farms/">Crop-raiding</a> is one of the most persistent problems between people and Asian elephants. Some individuals routinely leave forest cover to forage in orchards, cassava fields, or storage sheds, creating economic losses for farmers and risking injury on both sides.



Any trait that predicts which elephants are most likely to take those chances could help communities target early-warning systems, deterrents, or alternative food programs where they are most needed.



“Understanding why some elephants are more willing to take risks to engage with humans in habitats where they share food and other resources may help in the development of more effective conflict mitigation methods,” said Plotnik, who directs the <a href="https://ccconservation.org/">Comparative Cognition for Conservation Lab at Hunter College</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tracking-the-daring-elephants">Tracking the daring elephants</h2>



Jacobson set out to look beyond “average elephant behavior” and instead focus on individuals. “We conducted this study because we wanted to learn more about how individual elephants differ,” she said.



“We were interested in the characteristics of those elephants who are leaving the forest to spend time close to people, which can cause a lot of problems.”



Working with field teams in Thailand, she and her colleagues compared elephants that frequented a remote forest sanctuary with elephants whose home ranges overlapped village <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/feeding-the-world-without-harming-nature-the-complex-balance-of-farming/">farmland</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-testing-elephant-curiosity">Testing elephant curiosity</h2>



Because elephants are smart, flexible, and wary, measuring their willingness to explore is not trivial. 



The researchers presented unfamiliar, low-risk objects - things elephants had not encountered before, such as cattle brushes and lengths of retired firehose - at sites used by each group.



Motion-triggered video and direct observation captured whether elephants approached, touched, manipulated, or ignored the objects.



Elephants living near people were more likely to investigate and interact, showing higher levels of neophilia (attraction to novelty) than forest-dwelling elephants that rarely encounter human gear.



That extra curiosity could be an advantage when seeking high-energy food in crop fields, but it also lures elephants into places where conflict flares.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-testing-personality-stability">Testing personality stability</h2>



Jacobson set out to test whether an elephant that explores one new object will also explore others - a sign of stable <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/personality-has-a-profound-influence-on-gene-expression/">personality</a>. Some individuals did encounter multiple objects across the study.



However, sample sizes were too small to draw firm conclusions about consistency; wild elephants’ vast ranges and the rarity of repeat encounters limited the data. Even so, the pattern of heightened exploration in the farm-edge population held.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-elephants-adapt-to-people">Elephants adapt to people</h2>



The findings offer a window into how environment shapes behavior. Edge-dwelling elephants encounter people, machines, livestock, fences, and crops; those that are less fearful of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/digital-distraction-our-phones-are-irresistible-because-we-crave-novelty/">novelty</a> may learn to exploit new foods faster.



The trade-off is exposure to people with different tolerance levels, from elephant-friendly farmers to communities that rely on noise, lights, or other deterrents - sometimes more lethal ones - to protect their livelihoods.



Mapping which elephants are bold could help tailor responses: early alerts in high-risk zones, reinforcement of barriers where daring elephants probe, or targeted community outreach.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-using-minds-to-save-lives">Using minds to save lives</h2>



The project builds on Plotnik’s long-running effort to connect animal cognition with on-the-ground conservation solutions; his lab’s work on human-elephant conflict in Thailand was recently profiled on CBS’s 60 Minutes.



Jacobson sees promise in scaling behavioral insight into practical tools. “I feel fortunate to have been able to work on a research project that can help both people and elephants as part of my dissertation at the Graduate Center."



“I look forward to seeing more results about elephant personality traits and the current work to integrate this behavioral knowledge into novel ways to reduce negative interactions between elephants and people.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mapping-personality-for-peace">Mapping personality for peace</h2>



Future research will need larger samples and longer tracking to nail down how stable traits like <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/curiosity-of-cichlid-fish-boosts-biodiversity-in-lake-tanganyika/">curiosity</a>, boldness, or risk tolerance are within and across elephant populations.



Integrating GPS collar data, crop-raiding records, and local community reports with behavioral tests could reveal whether the most neophilic elephants are also the most frequent crop-raiders - and whether interventions aimed at them yield the biggest gains in coexistence.



For now, the message is encouraging: personalities matter, and paying attention to them could help people share landscapes with one of the world’s most intelligent - and resourceful - animals.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.250896">Royal Society Open Science</a>.



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Elephants take more risks when they live around people

Elephants that live near farms in Thailand are bolder and...

Coral reefs in the Florida Keys, Hawaii, and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef are showing alarming signs of stress. Where bright, living structures once stretched across the seafloor, many now appear ghostly and drained of color. 



The vivid greens, yellows, and blues of the corals have faded. What remains looks more like underwater ruins than living ecosystems. This phenomenon, known as coral bleaching, happens when climate-driven <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-temperatures-are-rising-faster-than-expected-and-likely-to-accelerate/">ocean warming</a> disrupts the delicate relationship between coral and the algae that live inside them.



Though the organisms remain alive, bleaching makes them vulnerable - to disease, starvation, and eventually, death.



But recent research out of <a href="https://msu.edu/">Michigan State University</a>, in collaboration with Duke University and the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, has uncovered something hopeful: certain corals can pass their heat tolerance to their offspring. This finding could help protect reefs around the world.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-corals-under-climate-stress">Corals under climate stress</h2>



Coral reefs support nearly a quarter of all <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/body-size-of-85000-marine-species-mapped-in-new-database/">marine species</a>. They also protect coastlines and help sustain millions of people globally. 



Recently, researchers discovered that resistance to heat isn’t just a fluke of one generation - It can be inherited.



“The Coral Resilience Lab in Hawaii has developed amazing methods to breed and rear corals during natural summer spawning,” said study co-author Rob Quinn.



“This is a true scientific collaboration that can support coral breeding and reproduction to cultivate more resilient corals for the warming oceans of the future.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-color-behind-the-corals">The color behind the corals</h2>



In exchange for shelter and nutrients, the algae use <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-have-finally-decoded-the-process-of-photosynthesis/">photosynthesis</a> to produce sugars that feed their host - providing up to 95 percent of the energy it needs. It’s a tight-knit relationship. But when water gets too warm, that partnership breaks down.



Bleached coral has kicked out its algae. It becomes pale. It loses its source of energy. And it starts to struggle.



“Corals are like the trees in an old-growth forest; they build the ecosystems we know as reefs on the energetic foundation between the animal and algae,” said study co-author Crawford Drury.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-lab-to-ocean-collaboration">A lab-to-ocean collaboration</h2>



Michigan State University, far from any tropical reef, brings a unique set of tools to the table. Samples collected from spawning events in Hawaii are sent to MSU, where researchers use a method called metabolomics to study them.



This technique lets scientists see what’s happening inside a coral’s cells at a specific moment. The goal is to find the biochemical fingerprints linked to thermal tolerance.



The experts analyzed sperm, eggs, embryos, larvae, and algae. The results showed that heat resistance comes from both the coral and its algae - and that this resistance successfully passes from parent to offspring.



“HIMB and MSU have developed a really amazing partnership. I’m just happy they’ve let me be a part of it. I can’t wait to see what comes out of it next,” said Ty Roach, a visiting faculty at Duke University and lead author of the new study.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-coral-eggs-carry-algae">Coral eggs carry algae</h2>



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/natural-sunscreen-helps-blue-rice-corals-adapt-to-warming-climate/">Rice coral</a> comes in many forms - some branch out like tiny fingers, others spread flat like layered shelves. But they all share a remarkable feature: little grain-like bumps that inspired the name, and a surprising ability to pass thermal tolerance to the next generation.



Unlike many coral species that acquire algae from surrounding seawater, rice coral packages its eggs with algae from the start. 



This means that both the coral and its symbiotic algae begin their journey together from the very first moments of life. That early partnership offers a head start in facing warming oceans.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-studying-heat-in-coral-babies">Studying heat in coral babies</h2>



Quinn and his team used MSU’s advanced instruments to examine the chemistry of each sample. They set out to investigate whether the molecules linked to heat resistance - such as specific lipids - appeared consistently across generations.



The researchers discovered that even embryos and larvae, the earliest life stages, showed chemical signatures tied to their parents’ heat resilience.



“Corals usually spawn based on the lunar cycle; for our experiment, this means late nights around the summer new moons and months of work rearing coral larvae and juveniles,” Drury said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-heat-traits-passed-during-spawning">Heat traits passed during spawning</h2>



One of those long nights left a big impression on MSU graduate student Sarah VanDiepenbos.



“It was such a serene, beautiful experience. The timing is impeccable, as the process only lasts 20 to 30 minutes total,” she said. 



The coral bundles slowly float upward, trying to find another gamete to combine with once they get to the surface. This release is gradual, so they can have a maximum chance of finding spawn from a different coral.



“To have this algae’s thermal tolerance remain through an entire generation and all the stages of coral development - that’s surprising, and promising for the future of coral reefs,” Quinn said. 



“Coral lipid biochemistry is maintained through all stages of development during reproduction. These lipids come from both the host coral and its algal symbiont, indicating there is crosstalk between them to prepare the next generation to resist bleaching.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-coral-resilience-in-a-changing-climate">Coral resilience in a changing climate</h2>



The results don’t just offer insight. They offer an opportunity for action. Understanding how thermal resistance is passed down gives scientists better tools for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/restored-coral-reefs-can-bounce-back-in-just-four-years/">restoring reefs</a>. It also gives them a clearer sense of which corals are worth breeding in a changing climate.



“Our metabolomics research at MSU could support reef restoration efforts at places like the Kāneʻohe Bay by identifying corals that are resistant to bleaching,” Quinn said.



The oceans are changing. But thanks to research like this, we might be ready for what comes next.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-61102-8">Nature Communications</a>.



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Baby corals inherit a powerful climate change defense from their parents

Coral reefs in the Florida Keys, Hawaii, and Australia’s Great...

Medical,Marijuana,Flower,Buds.,Recreational,Marijuana,Strain.,Cannabis,Strain.,Weed

Cannabis remains the most used illicit drug on the planet, with an estimated 219 million adults consuming it in <a href="https://www.unodc.org/res/WDR-2023/WDR23_Exsum_fin_DP.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2023</a>.



A fresh report from Switzerland now suggests that giving existing users a safe, legal supply may trim the edge off risky habits rather than encourage them. The findings come from the six‑month Weed Care randomized trial run in Basel.



<a href="https://loop.frontiersin.org/people/1898354/overview" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dr. Lavinia Baltes‑Flückiger</a>, deputy head of the study at <a href="https://www.pdag.ch/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Psychiatric Services Aargau</a>, helped steer the project alongside colleagues from the University of Basel and local health agencies.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-taking-cannabis-into-pharmacies">Taking cannabis into pharmacies</h2>



Switzerland still bans recreational sales of cannabis nationwide. 



Basel, however, received a federal waiver on January 30, 2023, allowing 189 adult volunteers to buy measured, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cannabis-extract-cbd-proven-highly-effective-at-killing-mosquitoes/">contaminant‑free flower</a> or hash in nine pharmacies, while a matched control group kept using street sources.



The design mirrors real‑world retail but strips out slick marketing, price wars, and high‑potency gimmicks that dominate some commercial markets. 



Investigators registered every legal purchase and offered brief counseling at the counter. Keeping over‑the‑counter talk focused on lower‑risk use also echoes <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/drugs-medication/cannabis/resources/lower-risk-cannabis-use-guidelines.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Canada’s public‑health model</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-makes-use-problematic">What makes use “problematic”</h2>



Researchers tracked changes with the Cannabis Use Disorders Identification <a href="https://wellness.caltech.edu/documents/18162/CUDIT.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Test–Revised</a>, a short checklist of behaviors that signal harm, even when full <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32485547/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cannabis use disorder</a> is absent. 



Heavy users face up to a one‑in‑three lifetime risk of that disorder, according to a meta‑analysis of 21 cohort studies.



Scores above 13 suggest dependency, but smaller shifts still matter. Cutting just two points on the scale is considered clinically meaningful and can translate into fewer missed obligations, less time chasing the drug, and lower tolerance.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-early-numbers-favor-legal-cannabis">Early numbers favor legal cannabis</h2>



“There has never been a controlled, randomized study like this before,” said Baltes‑Flückiger, the study’s lead author.



After half a year, the legal group’s average misuse score slipped by 0.8 points, while the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cannabis-legalization-does-not-increase-youth-substance-abuse/">illegal</a> group barely budged. 



Among participants who also used other illicit drugs, the legal pathway slashed scores nearly two points, marking the threshold for a “reliable change.”



“Legal access eases the burden on consumers,” added Professor Marc Walter of the <a href="https://www.unibas.ch/en.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Basel</a>, underscoring that the regulated approach did not boost depression, anxiety, or psychotic symptoms at interim check‑ins.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mental-health-concerns-remain-steady">Mental health concerns remain steady</h2>



Worries that legal access might worsen mood or <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/1000-adults-reveal-how-marijuana-alters-dna-methylation/">trigger psychosis</a> often dominate public hearings. 



A 2024 scoping <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38650490/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">review</a> covering 28 North American studies found mixed and mostly null links between recreational laws and psychiatric outcomes.



The Swiss data echo that broader picture: neither group showed significant shifts in depression or anxiety scales, and psychotic‑like experiences stayed flat. 



Critics may note the short follow‑up, yet the absence of early harm offers some reassurance.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-polydrug-users-benefit-from-legal-cannabis">Polydrug users benefit from legal cannabis</h2>



Why did people juggling multiple substances respond best? 



Easy pharmacy access saved them the effort of hunting down street dealers, trimming time spent “getting, using, or recovering,” one of the test’s key items.



Reduced hustle can free attention for work, study, or family, all protective factors against escalating misuse. Counseling handed out at each sale likely helped too. 



Staff trained on Canada’s Lower‑Risk Cannabis Use Guidelines reminded buyers to favor products under 20 percent <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK563174/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tetrahydrocannabinol</a> and balance them with cannabidiol‑rich strains, choices linked to milder cognitive effects.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-quiet-rebuttal-to-gateway-fears">Quiet rebuttal to gateway fears</h2>



The trial saw <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK609473/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">no uptick</a> in alcohol days or other drug use inside the legal arm, challenging the long‑held idea that a sanctioned market pulls people toward wider intoxication. 



Twenty‑four U.S. states now allow adult possession, yet nationwide surveys show flat or only modest rises in heavy use since the first state referendum in 2012.



Policy researchers often point out that the devil lies in the details. Switzerland capped monthly sales at about 0.35 ounces of pure THC, required organic cultivation, and banned all advertising. 



Those guardrails differ sharply from the profit‑driven dispensary scene common in parts of the United States and may explain the modest but positive shift.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-future-of-legal-cannabis-access">The future of legal cannabis access</h2>



All volunteers now have legal access through July 2025, giving the team a two‑year window to track long‑term patterns. 



Parallel <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2833180" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">studies</a> in Canada report slight bumps in overall consumption but, interestingly, equal or lower misuse scores after five years of legalization.



Future analyses will need to weigh market structure, potency limits, pricing models, and education campaigns. 



If results stay consistent, lawmakers elsewhere could consider legal cannabis sales through pharmacies or non‑profit social clubs as middle‑ground options between prohibition and full commercialization.



For regular consumers worried about slipping into <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/smoking-cannabis-significantly-increases-the-risk-of-heart-attack/">harmful patterns</a>, the Swiss experience offers a practical lesson. 



Access to tested products, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cannabis-potency-why-you-shouldnt-trust-the-label/">honest labeling</a>, and low‑key advice can chip away at risky behavior without demanding total abstinence.



Public‑health‑oriented legalization is not a silver bullet, but it may give heavy users a safer runway to moderation.



The study is published in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.70080" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Addiction</a>.



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Legal access to cannabis is proving to be good for both the users and society as a whole

Cannabis remains the most used illicit drug on the planet,...

Plants can’t pull carbon from the air without nitrogen in the ground. A new global study finds that forests, prairies, and other natural areas are receiving far less new nitrogen than scientists previously believed. This shortfall could weaken nature’s ability to slow climate change.



Meanwhile, farms worldwide are increasing biological nitrogen inputs to boost crop growth. But when those nutrients spill over, they threaten water, air, and biodiversity.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-the-study-was-conducted"><a></a>How the study was conducted</h2>



The analysis was led by Carla Reis Ely while she was a postdoctoral scholar in the <a href="https://www.forestry.oregonstate.edu/">Oregon State University College of Forestry</a>. The project involved 24 scientists from around the world.



The team re-examined field measurements of biological nitrogen fixation, the microbial process that turns <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/nitrous-oxide-emissions-erupt-from-farms-in-unpredictable-bursts/">nitrogen gas</a> in the air into plant‑usable forms. In doing so, they uncovered a major blind spot.



Past studies focused on places where nitrogen‑fixing organisms were especially common. These hotspots were represented in the data about 17 times more often than they occur across natural ecosystems globally. Correcting for that bias drove estimated natural nitrogen inputs sharply downward.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-nitrogen-fuels-plant-growth">Nitrogen fuels plant growth</h2>



Nitrogen makes up more than three‑quarters of Earth’s atmosphere (most of the rest is <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/oxygen-detected-in-the-most-distant-and-primitive-galaxy-ever-analyzed/">oxygen</a>), yet most organisms can’t use it in that gaseous form (N₂).



Nitrogen‑fixing bacteria step in. They convert N₂ into ammonia and related compounds that plants can take up through their roots. 



Plants need nitrogen to build proteins and chlorophyll - the green pigment that powers photosynthesis. This allows them to grow, stay healthy, reproduce, and convert atmospheric carbon dioxide into biomass.



“In natural ecosystems, nitrogen fixation improves soil fertility and supports plant growth, thereby increasing carbon storage,” said Reis Ely.



“However, our new estimate of natural nitrogen fixation, based on improved scientific understanding, suggests less new nitrogen enters natural ecosystems.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-less-nitrogen-less-carbon">Less nitrogen, less carbon</h2>



If soils in wild landscapes are getting less fresh nitrogen, plants in those systems may be more nutrient‑limited than expected. That could mean slower growth and, over time, less CO₂ capture than many global carbon budgets assume.



According to Reis Ely, one implication of the revised numbers is that natural ecosystems may take up less carbon dioxide than scientists had projected, which in turn lowers the expected capacity of unmanaged lands to buffer climate change.



While nature’s nitrogen input shrinks on paper, agriculture’s slice is growing. Farmers are planting more legumes - soybeans, alfalfa, peanuts, and clovers - that host nitrogen‑fixing bacteria in root nodules. 



That living fertilizer reduces the need for synthetic nitrogen, supports yields, and can help rebuild tired soils.



“Using nitrogen-fixing crops in rotation can support long-term soil health and reduce environmental damage from chemical fertilizers,” Reis Ely said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-farms-flood-soil-with-nitrogen">Farms flood soil with nitrogen</h2>



There is a tipping point, though. Reis Ely explained that too much nitrogen can throw off the overall balance of nutrients in the soil, and excess nitrogen can leach into groundwater or run off into lakes and streams, causing algae blooms and harming aquatic life.



Surplus nitrogen can also transform into <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/nitrous-oxide-is-a-growing-threat-to-human-and-planetary-health/">nitrous oxide</a>, a potent greenhouse gas, and can tilt plant communities toward fast‑growing invasive species that crowd out natives and reduce biodiversity.



“High agricultural nitrogen fixation is a complex issue. We do benefit from it, but along with applications of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, it contributes to nitrogen pollution and climate change,” noted Reis Ely.



“Measuring and monitoring biological nitrogen fixation need to be ongoing to help us ensure we have all the nitrogen in the ground that we need without it becoming too much of a good thing.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-carbon-math-needs-updating">Carbon math needs updating</h2>



The study’s recalibration matters beyond academic interest. Governments and companies are banking on land-based carbon removal - through reforestation, restoration, and soil carbon programs - to help meet climate targets.



Those plans rest on assumptions about how much <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-do-plants-produce-their-own-nitrogen-fertilizer/">plants</a> can grow under rising CO₂. If nitrogen limits are tighter, projected carbon gains may need adjusting. 



Likewise, nutrient management rules, water quality programs, and climate policies that address nitrous oxide all depend on accurate knowledge of nitrogen levels. It's essential to know where nitrogen is scarce and where it exists in excess.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-keep-nitrogen-on-the-farm">Keep nitrogen on the farm</h2>



The path forward is not to abandon nitrogen‑fixing crops but to use them wisely. Better crop rotations, timing, and residue management can keep nitrogen cycling on the farm and out of rivers.



Cutting <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/food-waste-has-a-surprising-impact-on-climate-change/">food waste</a> - one of the biggest hidden sources of nitrogen loss across the production‑to‑plate chain - would reduce pollution pressure without sacrificing food supply. 



In addition, continued monitoring of biological nitrogen fixation in both natural and managed systems will help keep the global nitrogen ledger in balance.



Nature’s soils seem to be running leaner than we hoped; our farms, richer than we can afford to waste. Bridging that divide - feeding people while protecting water, air, and climate - will require paying closer attention to the invisible flow of nitrogen that underpins life on Earth.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09201-w">Nature</a>.



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Soil is losing nitrogen, along with its climate-fighting power

Plants can’t pull carbon from the air without nitrogen in...

Americans throw away staggering amounts of food waste. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that 30 to 40 percent of the nation’s food supply never gets eaten. Much of it winds up in landfills, where it rots and releases methane and carbon dioxide.



At the same time, the world is drowning in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plastic-pollution-is-changing-the-entire-earth-system/">plastic</a>. Bottles, bags, and film break apart into microplastics that seep into water, soil, and eventually - us.



Now, imagine diverting even a slice of that wasted food and using it to make biodegradable plastic that won’t linger for centuries. In a new study, a research team at Binghamton University (<a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/">SUNY</a>) demonstrates that this future is within reach.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-new-purpose-for-waste">A new purpose for waste</h2>



The project was led by graduate researcher Tianzheng Liu, working with Professor Sha Jin and a team in the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science.



Jin’s interest in food waste sharpened in 2022 after she received a New York State grant to explore new uses for discarded food.



“We can utilize food waste as a resource to convert into so many industrial products, and biodegradable polymer is just one of them,” she said.



“We’re aiming not only to valorize food waste but also to reduce manufacturing cost of this eco-friendly polymer. There are also different options, like generating biofuels and biochemicals.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-plastic-from-food-and-bugs">Plastic from food and bugs</h2>



Making biodegradable plastics today is often expensive. Producers typically start with refined sugar feedstocks and grow microbes in pure cultures - steps that add cost and limit scale. 



The Binghamton team took a different approach. The researchers fermented food waste to produce lactic acid (a carbon source) and added ammonium sulfate for nitrogen. 



The resulting broth was fed to Cupriavidus necator, a bacterium known for stockpiling carbon as polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA).



The cells build PHA as internal storage granules. Researchers can recover roughly 90 percent of what the microbes produce and form it into films, packaging, or molded items that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-future-of-plastic-biodegradable-durable-and-even-edible/">biodegrade</a> under the right conditions.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-from-stem-cells-to-sludge">From stem cells to sludge</h2>



Liu came to the project with a stem cell background, so pivoting to industrial microbiology meant a steep learning curve. "The bioconversion of food waste into organic acids was a relatively easy one," he said. 



"Cultivation of the plastic-producing <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/when-bacteria-get-hungry-they-turn-on-each-other/">bacteria</a> was hard, because at the beginning I didn’t have experience with bacteria fermentation for producing biopolymer. At every move, I felt like something was not what I expected.”



Those frustrations led to tweaks in nutrient balance, fermentation timing, and downstream recovery that now form the backbone of the team’s published method.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dining-halls-join-the-mission">Dining halls join the mission</h2>



Binghamton University Dining Services and food contractor <a href="https://www.sodexo.com/">Sodexo</a> supplied the waste stream that fed the experiments. 



“I talked to the sustainable officer at the university and learned that SUNY doesn’t allow landfill food waste - that’s the policy,” she said. “Each campus is expected to solve the problem. At Binghamton, the dining halls give wasted food to farmers to feed their livestock."



"I thought maybe we could try to directly convert that food waste into biodegradable plastic. There was little information from research publications about the feasibility of this idea, so we felt like maybe that was the gap we could work on.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-food-waste-proves-dependable">Food waste proves dependable</h2>



Industrial recycling projects live or die on logistics. The team tested whether they needed to process the collected food scraps right away. 



The results showed that the material can sit for at least a week without harming the bioconversion, giving haulers and processors some breathing room.



“We discovered that the process is very robust, as long as we have different types of food mixed in at the same ratio,” Jin said. “We control the temperature and the pH during fermentation, and those conditions encourage organic acid-producing bacteria to grow.”



Fermenting food produces solids as well as acids. Rather than discard the leftover paste, Jin’s group is developing it into an organic <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fertilizer-reduces-plant-damage-caused-by-droughts/">fertilizer</a> that could replace some synthetic blends. 



Closing that loop would squeeze yet more value from campus scraps while cutting chemical inputs on fields.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-lunch-today-package-tomorrow">Lunch today, package tomorrow</h2>



The lab results are promising, but the real impact depends on scale. Jin’s next goal is to ramp up the process and confirm that yields, costs, and product quality hold steady in larger reactors and more variable waste streams.



For that, the group will seek additional grants or an industry partner ready to turn cafeteria leftovers into packaging that composts instead of persisting.



Food waste and plastic waste are two massive problems. This work hints that, with the right microbes and engineering, yesterday’s lunch could become tomorrow’s earth‑friendly packaging.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960852425006856?via%3Dihub">Bioresource Technology</a>.



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Food waste can be used to make biodegradable plastic

Americans throw away staggering amounts of food waste. The U.S....

Geologists have stumbled on what they call gigantic fortresses lying almost 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) below our feet in Earth's mantle.



New seismic evidence shows how these subterranean bulwarks are older and tougher than the cooler debris of dead ocean plates that surround them. This find turns a long‑running mystery into a concrete data story.



Each fortress spans an area comparable to a continent, lying beneath Africa and the Pacific, and registers hotter than its immediate surroundings.



<a href="https://www.uu.nl/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Utrecht University</a>'s seismologist Arwen Deuss, working with colleagues across Europe, Australia, and the United States, led the crew that pieced together the picture.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fortresses-in-earth-s-mantle">Fortresses in Earth's mantle</h2>



The scientific shorthand for the fortresses is "large low seismic velocity provinces" or <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22185-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LLSVPs</a>. These are continent‑scale masses perched at the <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1148028" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">core‑mantle boundary</a>, about 1,800-1,900 miles (2,900-3,000 kilometers) down.



They dampen shear waves and slow them down, marking the fortresses out as zones of hot, sluggish rock that differ sharply from the stiff material around them.



Seismic tomography first lit them up in global maps during the 1990s. Two hulking blobs emerged, one under Africa and one under the central Pacific, each more than 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) across.



Later surveys confirmed that the African LLSVP towers roughly 600 miles (965 kilometers) high while its Pacific twin rises even further.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-earth-s-mantle-fortresses-remained-enigmatic">Earth's mantle fortresses remained enigmatic</h2>



Whether the hidden masses were temporary stains or ancient fixtures remained unsettled, in part because most models assumed vigorous, homogenizing flow in the lower mantle.



Taken together, the two provinces occupy about eight percent of the mantle’s volume, a reminder that Earth’s interior is far from uniform.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-listening-to-the-planet-s-bell">Listening to the planet's bell</h2>



Seismologists treat the Earth like a giant bell that rings when a great quake strikes. The catastrophic <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/95GL01598" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">1994 Bolivia event</a> provided tones that hummed for hours, carrying clues from the deepest layers and offering clean, low‑noise data.



“Large earthquakes make the whole Earth ring like a bell with different tones,” said Deuss after reviewing decades of records. 



Her team tuned in not only to the pitch shifts but also to how loudly each mode persisted, a seldom‑used metric called quality factor.



That loudness, known as damping, revealed something odd. Vibrations grew quiet in the cold slab graveyard but stayed loud inside the hot mantle fortresses, implying low internal friction and unexpectedly efficient energy transmission.



Against expectation, the LLSVPs sapped little energy from the waves. The finding overturned the simple view that heat alone controls attenuation, and forced scientists to search for another variable.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-texture-tells-a-deeper-story">Texture tells a deeper story</h2>



The key, it seems, lies in <a href="https://web.mit.edu/hufaul/www/UPubs/JacksonJGR02.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">grain boundaries</a>, the microscopic seams between crystals in mantle minerals. Fewer seams mean fewer places for energy to bleed away, a principle that is familiar to anyone who has tried to push water through a coarse versus a fine filter.



Subducted plates recrystallize into tiny grains as they plunge, multiplying boundaries and soaking up seismic energy. They show up as the quietest patches in the global map, matching the high‑damping ring around the Pacific.



Inside the fortresses, however, grains have had eons to grow fat. Large crystals line up like chunky bricks, stiffening the rock and letting waves glide through with little loss, a behavior confirmed in high‑pressure laboratory rigs.



Laboratory tests on olivine confirm the trend, showing that doubling grain size can nearly halve seismic attenuation at mantle temperatures. 



That experimental curve fits the numbers seen in the new global model, and strengthens the grain‑size explanation.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-restless-mantle-and-giant-fortresses">Restless mantle and giant fortresses</h2>



Modeling suggests the grain growth needed to reach that size takes at least 500 million years, perhaps far longer. The fortresses, therefore, predate many <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/australia-north-america-supercontinent/">supercontinents</a> that have since broken apart, including Pangea and its earlier cousins.



Such rigidity helps them ignore the slow churn of mantle convection. They stand their ground while cooler slabs crawl and sink around them, like boulders lodged in a riverbed of flowing rock.



“There is less flow in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sunken-worlds-discovered-under-the-pacific-ocean-in-earths-mantle/">Earth's mantle</a> than is commonly thought,” Deuss explained, noting that the presence of these immovable masses forces scientists to rethink convection cycles. The textbook picture of a well‑stirred mantle no longer fits.



A layered mantle, part conveyor and part castle, now seems more likely. That hybrid view changes every surface process driven from below, from the drift of continents to the cycling of carbon.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-the-finding-matters-at-the-surface">Why the finding matters at the surface</h2>



The hot edges of the fortresses appear to be launchpads for mantle plumes that punch up to volcano chains such as Hawaii. Their buoyant rise fuels not only island arcs but also the massive basalt floods seen in Earth’s deep past.



Large igneous provinces linked to mass extinctions tend to cluster above these plume zones. Knowing that the plumes come from fortress margins ties surface cataclysms to deep‑<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fresh-lava-from-deep-earth-mantle-pulses-burst-onto-land-where-new-ocean-is-forming/">mantle</a> architecture.



Mountain belts form where plates collide, but the deep heat flow that drives those collisions may trace back to these hot roots. In that sense, the fortresses could set the tempo of orogeny and rifting alike.



Over geologic time, their stability may even shape the drift path of continents, steering plates around the mantle’s slow‑moving keystones. That possibility will feed new computer models that link deep convection to plate motions.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-scientists-will-chase-next">What scientists will chase next</h2>



Researchers plan denser global arrays and machine‑learning tools to catch fainter normal modes. Each new quake becomes another flashlight aimed into the depths, refining the 3‑D map with every event.



Geochemists will compare <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/volcanic-gold-precious-metals-discovered-hawaii-may-have-come-from-earths-core/">volcanic rocks</a> to lab‑made analogs, hunting the chemical fingerprints of the fortresses. A match would close the loop between seismic images and real material, settling the debate over whether the fortresses differ in composition as well as temperature.



Mineral physicists also want to recreate fortress conditions in diamond‑anvil presses, squeezing and heating samples to map how grain growth unfolds through deep time. The work could reveal why some minerals coarsen while others stay fine and brittle.



Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.geol.umd.edu/~mcdonoug/documents/geoneutrino/Dye_etal_(AIP-CP-1182_09).pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">geoneutrino observatories</a> may soon detect radioactive decay signatures that differ inside and outside the fortresses. Any contrast would add a new dimension to the planet‑sized puzzle, linking deep geology to particle physics.



The study is published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08322-y" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature</a>.



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Geologists found 'gigantic fortresses' beneath the Earth's crust in the mantle

Geologists have stumbled on what they call gigantic fortresses lying...

Recognition,Of,Odor,Traces,By,Police,Dog,On,Location

A pair of specially trained dogs has shown that Parkinson’s disease leaves a telltale scent on human skin. This scent is strong enough for a canine nose to detect with remarkable accuracy.



This discovery could open the door to faster, cheaper, and entirely non‑invasive screening for a condition that currently lacks an early diagnostic test.



The study brought together <a href="https://www.medicaldetectiondogs.org.uk/">Medical Detection Dogs</a> in Milton Keynes with scientists from the Universities of <a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/%C3%B9">Bristol</a> and <a href="https://www.manchester.ac.uk/">Manchester</a>.



Over several months, the charity’s trainers conditioned two retriever-type dogs to recognize the odor that clings to sebum. This oily substance, which our skin naturally produces, changes when <a href="https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/disorders/parkinsons-disease" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Parkinson’s disease</a> (PD) is present.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-training-dogs-to-detect-disease">Training dogs to detect disease</h2>



During training, the canines encountered more than 200 gauze swabs. Some were taken from recently <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-discover-that-dogs-can-alert-humans-to-valley-fever-disease/">diagnosed patients</a>, others from volunteers with no neurological illness, and a few from people living with different conditions.



Each pad was clipped to a stand. When a dog paused and pointed at a positive sample, the handler quietly clicked and offered a reward.



In the final double-blind trial - where neither the dog handler nor the overseeing scientist knew which positions held a patient’s swab - the dogs showed sensitivity of up to 80 percent and specificity of up to 98 percent.



Moreover, they were also able to detect Parkinson’s in swabs from people with multiple health conditions.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-scent-of-parkinson-s">The scent of Parkinson’s</h2>



Dog noses are legendary, but <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cancer-immunotherapy-drug-also-works-to-slow-progression-of-parkinsons-disease/">Parkinson’s</a> researchers turned to them for a very specific reason. Excess sebum and a change in body odor often precede the familiar motor symptoms - shaking, slowed movement, and rigid muscles - by years.



A Scottish nurse named Joy Milne famously noticed a musky shift in her husband’s scent long before his diagnosis. Her observation inspired scientists to hunt for molecular fingerprints in skin oil.



A laboratory method based on mass‑spectrometry is inching forward, yet requires expensive instruments and trained personnel. Canines offer a shortcut.



“We are extremely proud to say that once again, dogs can very accurately detect disease," said Claire Guest, CEO and Chief Scientific Officer at Medical Detection Dogs.



“There is currently no early test for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cancer-immunotherapy-drug-also-works-to-slow-progression-of-parkinsons-disease/">Parkinson’s disease</a> and symptoms may start up to 20 years before they become visible and persistent leading to a confirmed diagnosis."



"Timely diagnosis is key as subsequent treatment could slow down the progression of the disease, and reduce the intensity of symptoms.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-detection-rates-that-rival-medical-tests">Detection rates that rival medical tests</h2>



Even seasoned neurologists can misclassify early Parkinson’s, and imaging scans or spinal fluid assays are costly. By contrast, the gold-coated sensitivity and specificity reported here exceed those of many existing point-of-care tests in medical use.



“Identifying diagnostic biomarkers of PD - particularly those that may predict development or help diagnose disease earlier - is the subject of much ongoing research,” said lead author Nicola Rooney, an animal behavior specialist at the University of Bristol.



Rooney noted that the dogs in the study achieved high sensitivity and specificity and showed there is an olfactory signature distinct to patients with the disease.



“Sensitivity levels of 70 percent and 80 percent are well above chance, and I believe that dogs could help us develop a quick, noninvasive, and cost-effective method to identify patients with Parkinson’s disease.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-blinded-trials-confirm-the-results">Blinded trials confirm the results</h2>



To guard against subconscious cues or handler bias, the researchers also presented every testing line in reverse order.



A computer kept track of which sample sat where, and only after the dog’s choice did researchers learn whether to dispense a treat. 



This rigorous protocol mirrors clinical trial standards and boosts confidence that the animals relied on smell alone.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dogs-help-build-smell-sensors">Dogs help build smell sensors</h2>



Dogs will never replace neurologists, but the findings give chemists a shortlist of volatile molecules to capture with sensors.



"This study adds to the growing body of evidence showing that simple, noninvasive skin swabs can be used to diagnose Parkinson’s disease," said Perdita Barran, a professor of analytical chemistry at the University of Manchester.



Professor Barran's lab is already dissecting the swab chemistry; the canine results confirm those molecules belong on the diagnostic radar.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dogs-and-other-neurological-diseases">Dogs and other neurological diseases</h2>



Researchers and dog trainers are beginning to explore how these animals can detect other neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, and even conditions like migraines or autism-related sensory episodes. 



In the case of Alzheimer’s, for example, people in early stages of the disease may emit subtle changes in body odor - things a human nose would never catch, but a dog’s nose picks up with ease. 



These scent cues could one day help in screening or early detection, well before symptoms become obvious.



There are also stories of dogs acting differently before their owners have a migraine or during MS flare-ups - becoming restless or unusually attentive - as if they sense something’s coming. 



Some families of children with autism even report that service dogs notice sensory overload before it escalates, helping calm things down before a meltdown.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-expanding-the-science-of-scent">Expanding the science of scent</h2>



Future trials aim to include people with <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sleep-disruptions-could-signal-the-onset-of-alzheimers/">REM sleep behavior disorder</a> - a risk state for Parkinson’s - to see whether dogs can spot the disease before a neurologist could.



Parallel chemical analyses will hunt for the exact compounds responsible for the odor. If those molecules prove consistent worldwide, engineers could embed them in low‑cost sensor chips.



For now the message is hopeful: a straightforward skin swab carries hidden information about <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/coffee-grounds-could-help-prevent-neurodegenerative-diseases/">neurodegeneration</a>, and a dog’s nose can read it.



That knowledge could accelerate the quest for a rapid, painless test. It would offer one more tool to bring Parkinson’s onto clinicians’ radar while there is still time to slow its march.



The study is published in the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1877718X251342485" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Journal of Parkinson’s Disease</a>.



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Dogs can detect some neurological diseases, like Parkinson's, years before symptoms appear

A pair of specially trained dogs has shown that Parkinson’s...

What if the survival of half a species depended on a gene so small, it barely counts as one? Deep in the early embryonic stages of birds, a powerful microRNA does exactly that. It doesn’t build feathers or shape beaks. Instead, it quietly ensures that male embryos survive in a genetically uneven world. 



Until now, no one knew just how vital this molecule was, or that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/tropical-birds-migrate-without-riding-the-wind/">birds</a> had taken such a different evolutionary path from mammals.



A recent study, led by researchers from Heidelberg University and the <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Edinburgh</a>, uncovers a hidden mechanism in birds that balances the uneven load of sex chromosome genes.



The study shows that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/hundreds-of-bird-species-could-vanish-in-the-next-century/">birds</a> didn’t adopt the strategies used by mammals to fix the same problem. Instead, they crafted a unique genetic answer using a microRNA called MIR2954 to rescue their males from potential developmental collapse.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-gene-balance-of-birds-and-mammals">Gene balance of birds and mammals </h2>



In both <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/birds-may-be-using-quantum-physics-for-migration/">birds</a> and mammals, sex is determined by a pair of chromosomes. In mammals, females have two X chromosomes, and males have one X and one Y. In birds, it is the opposite in structure: males are ZZ and females are ZW. 



Over evolutionary time, the Y chromosome in mammals and the W chromosome in birds lost many of their genes. This created a genetic imbalance where one sex had two full chromosome copies, while the other sex had only one.



Mammals solved this by boosting the X chromosome’s activity and then silencing one of the two X chromosomes in females. This careful adjustment equalized gene expression. 



However, birds took a very different approach. Instead of inactivating an entire chromosome, they increased gene activity on the single Z chromosome in females. That solved one side of the problem - but it created another.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-overactive-genes-in-male-birds">Overactive genes in male birds</h2>



In birds, males carry two Z chromosomes. When the genes on these chromosomes are too active, it can cause developmental issues. 



Without a way to reduce this double dose, male embryos are vulnerable. For a long time, scientists weren’t sure how birds avoided this problem.



This mystery led Professor Henrik Kaessmann and Dr. Mike McGrew to study chickens. Prior research hinted that a specific microRNA might be involved. It showed up repeatedly in male tissues and seemed absent in females. 



Known as MIR2954, this tiny RNA didn’t code for proteins but influenced how other genes behaved. It had the markings of a regulatory tool.



“This microRNA is predominantly active in male birds, which led us to assume that it helps balance the activity of the Z chromosome,” explained Professor Kaessmann, who conducts research at the Center for Molecular Biology of <a href="https://www.uni-heidelberg.de/en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Heidelberg University</a> (ZMBH).



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-crucial-gene-for-male-birds">A crucial gene for male birds</h2>



To test their theory, the team used CRISPR/Cas9 to delete MIR2954 from chicken embryos. What followed confirmed their suspicion. 



Male embryos without this microRNA failed to survive. Females developed normally. On a molecular level, males experienced runaway activity from their Z-linked genes. The balance had been lost.



The paper shows the stark contrast in survival between male embryos with and without the microRNA. In its absence, the males exhibited developmental arrest by embryonic day 5. Females, with only one Z chromosome and no need for suppression, continued unaffected.



According to the researchers, this microRNA is present in all birds studied to date, but absent in other animals. 



“It is the only known microRNA that is essential for the survival of one sex, but not the other,” said Dr. Amir Fallahshahroudi, a researcher at <a href="https://www.uu.se/en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Uppsala University</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dialing-down-gene-activity">Dialing down gene activity</h2>



Dr. Mike McGrew describes the microRNA’s function in simple terms. “The mechanism of the male-specific microRNA works like a dimmer switch, dialing down the overactive genes on the two male Z chromosomes.”



Instead of silencing a chromosome, MIR2954 modulates individual gene activity. This precision tool prevents developmental chaos in male embryos. 



It doesn’t act alone. MIR2954 binds to mRNAs from many Z-linked genes, especially those that would otherwise be expressed at dangerously high levels. These include transcription factors, growth regulators, and metabolic <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/birds-are-declining-fastest-where-they-were-once-common/">genes</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-evolution-of-sex-chromosomes">Evolution of sex chromosomes</h2>



Birds seem to have evolved this system independently. Mammals use different tools. But this raises an interesting question. Is MIR2954 an evolutionary one-off, or are there similar microRNAs at work in other animals?



“We now have to ask whether other animal species also use microRNAs to regulate their sex chromosomes, or whether they rely on different systems entirely,” noted Professor Kaessmann.



This discovery changes how scientists think about sex chromosome evolution. It proves that even the smallest genetic elements can shape the fate of an entire sex. 



While mammals use a global shutdown system, birds opted for selective moderation using a single molecule with laser focus.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tiny-gene-keeps-male-birds-alive">Tiny gene keeps male birds alive</h2>



The study highlights how different evolutionary paths can lead to the same endpoint: survival. 



The research also reminds us that solutions in biology are not one-size-fits-all. Birds didn't copy the mammalian strategy. They created something new, a micro-sized solution with macro-level impact.



What started as a minor RNA fragment turned out to be the key to male bird life. In doing so, it opened new doors for research into sex chromosome regulation across the animal kingdom. And once again, it showed that in biology, size rarely predicts power.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09256-9" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature</a>.



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Male birds depend on a special gene to survive

What if the survival of half a species depended on...

We like to think our shopping decisions come down to personal preference. But then a friend gives a quick nod of approval to a pair of sneakers, and suddenly the choice just feels right - almost without a second thought.



A new project led by Jia Jin at <a href="http://en.sbm.shisu.edu.cn/main.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Shanghai International Studies University</a> suggests that this social nudge reaches past surface influence and into coordinated brain activity. 



The researchers tracked more than 100 undergraduates for an entire semester and logged every change in their friendship network. 



In a separate experiment, the team scanned dozens of the student's brains while they watched a series of advertisements together.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-friends-shape-our-shopping-opinions">Friends shape our shopping opinions</h2>



The behavioral part of the study began with 175 students who rated everyday products on price, quality, and appeal. Agreement was strongest for practical gadgets but still showed up for status items such as branded shoes.



Over 16 weeks of campus life, the friendships ebbed and flowed, and the rating data shifted with them. Pairs who grew closer showed steadily shrinking opinion gaps, while pairs who drifted apart edged toward stranger‑level disagreement.



“Friends, compared to nonfriends, exhibit higher similarity in product evaluation,” explained Jin. By week 16, average distance within friend pairs had dropped by an extra eight percent - a subtle but reliable change that mirrored the strengthening ties.



In 2018, <a href="https://bri.ucla.edu/people/carolyn-parkinson/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Carolyn Parkinson</a> observed that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5790806" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">neural responses</a> when viewing audiovisual movies are exceptionally similar among friends. The new project extends that insight from entertainment to the daily act of spending money.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-shopping-ads-and-syncing-brains">Shopping ads and syncing brains</h2>



The imaging portion of the study placed 47 volunteers into a 3‑tesla scanner and recorded oxygen‑related signals with fMRI while each watched sixty short commercials beside a friend. 



The pair's brain activity revealed cortical areas lighting up in near unison, almost like two stereos tuned to the same station.



The alignment, or <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/integrative-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/neuro.07.017.2009/full" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">neural synchrony</a>, emerged most strongly in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the precuneus. These brain regions are known for weighing value, recalling personal associations, and judging social meaning. 



When a shiny logo flashed, friends’ reward circuits rose and fell together, suggesting that the brand carried comparable weight for both people.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-friendship-and-shopping-preferences">Friendship and shopping preferences </h2>



A follow‑up <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00445/full" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">meta‑analysis</a> linked the shared activity to object perception, visual attention, memory consolidation, and reward processing, weaving a tidy bridge from perception to choice. 



Strangers placed in the same room and shown the identical ads displayed weaker, noisier patterns with no consistent overlap across those networks.



Notably, shopping-related brain synchrony shifted with self-reported closeness. Friends who rated their bond a perfect ten showed almost twice the inter-brain correlation seen in weaker pairs, hinting that emotional intimacy tunes friends’ shopping responses.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-predicting-what-your-buddy-will-buy">Predicting what your buddy will buy</h2>



Jin’s group next trained a ridge regression model on each volunteer’s functional connectivity map, feeding the algorithm patterns from hundreds of brain regions rather than surface‑level behavior. 



The model learned to flag a yes‑or‑no intention to buy every product shown onscreen.



Accuracy reached 63 percent for predicting the participant’s own choice and 59 percent for forecasting a friend’s choice, both comfortably above the 50 percent chance line. 



Because the algorithm needed only the viewer’s brain data, the result serves as a proof of concept for inferring another person’s future action from a third‑party scan.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-taking-advantage-of-social-bonds">Taking advantage of social bonds</h2>



Marketers see a goldmine in this possibility - envisioning perfectly timed, personalized ads delivered in key social moments. 



Privacy advocates, on the other hand, see a Trojan horse, cautioning that neuromarketing could shift from tracking group behavior to probing individual minds.



For now, the researchers emphasize that the predictive edge applies only to close ties. The machine guessed the intentions of a randomly paired stranger no better than a coin toss, showing that the social bond is the secret sauce.



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



Social scientists label this pull <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/homophily" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">homophily</a>, the tendency to gravitate toward people who see the world as we do. The current paper suggests the arrow points both ways, because new data show we also come to see the world more similarly after the friendship forms.



A hyperscanning <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-51990-7" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a> last year found the opposite trend during open‑ended conversation, in which friends diverged and strangers converged as the chat unfolded. 



The result hints that context decides whether shared history promotes alignment or encourages partners to seek novelty.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-shopping-and-friends-the-feedback-loop">Shopping and friends: The feedback loop</h2>



Dartmouth <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36519530/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">researchers</a> have shown that synchronized activity in the posterior cingulate during live storytelling predicts how accurately friends recall the plot the next day. Overlapping signals may mark moments the group deems important.



Taken together, the data portray shopping and friendship as a feedback loop: similar minds become friends, and friendship shapes those minds to stay in sync, especially in shopping choices. This shaping explains how social norms form quickly within tight circles.



Shared brain patterns help explain viral fashion crazes, speculative bubbles, and information cascades on social media. 



A flashy post that resonates with one member of a tight‑knit group can ripple outward through synchronized attention and reward circuits, turning a niche trend into a crowd movement.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-broader-implications-of-the-study-0">Broader implications of the study</h2>



Educators designing group projects might harness the same principle. Placing students with strong positive ties together could amplify engagement and recall, while carefully mixing near‑strangers might spark creative friction and prevent echo chambers.



Clinicians are exploring whether disrupted synchrony signals social difficulties in autism and schizophrenia. If so, friendship‑driven alignment could serve as a healthy benchmark, guiding therapies that aim to restore interpersonal attunement.



The present work leaves one puzzle unsolved: Does deeper neural similarity in shopping spark the friendship, or do friends shape that similarity? Only longitudinal scans that begin before two people meet can settle the debate.



The study is published in the <a href="https://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2025/06/12/JNEUROSCI.0073-25.2025" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Journal of Neuroscience</a>.



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Friends affect how our brain responds to shopping

We like to think our shopping decisions come down to...

Forests do more than provide timber and shelter wildlife. They regulate water, stabilize soil, and buffer communities from natural disasters. But when forests are cut, the disruption doesn’t stop at tree stumps. 



A recent study led by researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) reveals the alarming and long-lasting consequences of clear-cutting on flood patterns.



A once-in-70-years flood now hits every nine years. These findings come from one of the longest-running <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/smarter-forest-design-can-help-fight-climate-change/">forest</a> hydrology experiments in the world.



“This research challenges conventional thinking about forest management’s impact on flooding,” said senior author Dr. Younes Alila, a hydrologist in the UBC faculty of <a href="https://forestry.ubc.ca" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">forestry</a>. 



“We hope the industry and policymakers will take note of the findings, which show that it matters not only how much forest you remove but also where, how and under what conditions.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-landscape-factors-and-flood-risk">Landscape factors and flood risk</h2>



The researchers studied two neighboring watersheds in North Carolina. Both were clear-cut in the 1950s but responded very differently. One faced north, retained moisture, and received less sunlight. The other faced south and dried out faster.



"We found seemingly minor landscape factors - like the direction a slope faces - can make or break a watershed's response to treatment," said study first author Henry Pham, a doctoral student in the faculty of forestry.



In the north-facing watershed, floods became four to 18 times more frequent. Some flood volumes more than doubled. In contrast, the south-facing watershed showed almost no changes in flood behavior. 



The same treatment led to wildly different results, emphasizing how orientation and microclimate drive watershed resilience.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-outdated-flood-models">Outdated flood models </h2>



Conventional flood models estimate runoff by applying a simple formula: cut X percent of trees, expect Y percent more water. The research team challenged this outdated thinking. They used a probabilistic framework across 70 years of data from the <a href="https://research.fs.usda.gov/srs/forestsandranges/locations/coweeta" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory</a>.



“This experimental evidence validates our longstanding call for better analysis methods,” said Dr. Alila. “When we apply proper probabilistic tools to long-term data, we find much stronger and more variable <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/forests-will-struggle-without-winter-snow/">impacts</a> than older models suggest.”



The study showed that forest removal doesn’t just raise flood averages - it changes how floods behave entirely. Rare events become frequent, and peak flood volumes rise unpredictably.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-forest-removal-and-flood-patterns">Forest removal and flood patterns</h2>



The team examined how floods behaved over decades after forest removal. The research revealed that altered flood behavior in the north-facing watershed remained extreme for many years. 



This wasn’t a short-term shock but a deep, long-term shift in the watershed’s hydrologic response. Even 40 years after all the trees were cut, floods were still stronger and lasted longer than before. 



Scientists think this happened because cutting the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/forests-provide-different-health-benefits-based-on-their-structure/">trees</a> permanently changed how the soil holds water, how water evaporates through plants, and how soaked the ground stays after rain.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-past-forest-loss-led-to-major-floods">Past forest loss led to major floods</h2>



Dr. Alila noted that the findings can be applied to current and future flood disasters. British Columbia has many similar landscapes, including areas affected by the 2021 Sumas Prairie floods. 



The team suggests that their models could be used to assess how clear-cutting contributed to these <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/forests-are-lagging-centuries-behind-in-climate-adaptation/">events</a> and to predict future risks.



The researchers concluded that the big Texas floods, which occurred between 2015 and 2023, were intensified by changes in the land and heavy rain caused by climate change. 



Cutting down forests long ago may have made the land weaker, which led to more damage when the floods developed.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-rethinking-forest-policy">Rethinking forest policy</h2>



The evidence is clear: where, how, and when we log matters. The old one-size-fits-all approach no longer holds. Forests are not simple reservoirs. They are complex systems shaped by slope, exposure, soil, and rainfall patterns.



“Our findings highlight how multiple landscape factors interact in complex ways. As climate conditions shift, understanding those dynamics is becoming increasingly important for forest and water management.”



By treating watersheds as living systems with unique personalities, policymakers can make smarter decisions. It’s no longer just about how many trees we cut - but about where and what happens next.



The study is published in the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002216942501042X" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Journal of Hydrology</a>. 



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Forest removal can turn rare floods into regular disasters

Forests do more than provide timber and shelter wildlife. They...

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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...

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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...

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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.

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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.

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https://youtu.be/XYgiPzmNBTU?si=eFYY7gPHU1JznLvU
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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...

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

[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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

[sendtonews key="0879czfG3k-1785905-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from NASA...

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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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"

[sendtonews key="QIoVYJqRBi-2434608-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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