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...

The monarch may steal the spotlight, yet an ongoing crisis is affecting nearly every butterfly <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/butterflies-can-adapt-quickly-but-evolution-has-its-limits/">species</a> in the lower 48. Between 2000 and 2020, total abundance fell by 22 percent, according to the largest survey ever assembled.



That national <a href="https://naba.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Rapid-butterfly-declines-across-the-United-States-during-the-21st-century_Science_03072025.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dip</a> works out to 1.3 percent each year, a slow‑motion slide that rarely makes headlines but never takes a day off.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-butterfly-species-decline-and-habitat-loss">Butterfly species decline and habitat loss</h2>



Roughly a third of the 342 <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/butterfly-migration-habits-are-not-determined-by-their-dna/">species</a> with solid data are shrinking fast, and 107 have already slipped by more than half of their former counts. 



Habitat carved into parking lots, hotter summers driven by climate change, and heavy use of pesticides each gnaw at different life stages, yet together they form a three‑pronged squeeze.



Even the unglamorous caterpillar matters here: without the right host leaves, no egg survives, no adult emerges, and no pollination happens. 



Cheryl Schultz of <a href="https://wsu.edu/">Washington State University</a> helped write the new recovery roadmap. She says the clock is ticking for the insects she has studied for three decades.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-long-term-drop-in-butterfly-numbers">Long-term drop in butterfly numbers</h2>



The Science team pulled 12.6 million field observations from 76,000 surveys, then wrangled conflicting protocols into one set of trend lines.



Patterns varied by region, but the Southwest stood out as hardest hit, while the Pacific Northwest held steady only because one irruptive tortoiseshell species briefly boomed.



The authors stress that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/butterfly-hovering-technique-could-revolutionize-drone-design/">butterflies</a> act as living barometers: when they vanish, so do many less‑monitored insects doing similar ecological work. 



Losing butterflies also removes food for birds and other wildlife that depend on soft‑bodied prey each spring.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cleaning-data-to-track-real-trends">Cleaning data to track real trends</h2>



Tracking butterfly abundance across hundreds of species isn't easy. Observations often come from community science platforms like iNaturalist, where users sometimes upload misidentified species or report tropical butterflies from butterfly houses as wild sightings.



To clean the data, researchers used <a href="https://txtav.com/en/range-map" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">range maps</a> to flag out-of-place records and exclude bad data from their models. 



Eliza Grames, an assistant professor at <a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/">Binghamton University</a>, said this step was key to making sure the trends reflected actual changes in nature rather than errors in reporting. Professor Grames specializes in using <a href="https://libguides.uta.edu/quantitative_and_qualitative_research/quant" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">quantitative methods</a>, evidence synthesis, and long-term datasets to understand how climate, habitat loss, and species interactions are affecting biodiversity. 



Her work focuses on combining scattered data sources like historical surveys and citizen science to track insect declines and guide effective conservation.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-restoring-habitats-for-butterfly-species">Restoring habitats for butterfly species</h2>



Scott Black is the director of the <a href="https://www.xerces.org/">Xerces Society</a> and a co‑author of the recovery roadmap.



"Butterflies need host plants on which to lay eggs, wildflowers on which to feed, a refuge from pesticides, and sites to overwinter. There is hope for these animals if we focus on providing habitat for butterflies across all landscapes,” said Black. 



Providing season‑long bloom is key, and <a href="https://xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/habitat-restoration/management" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Xerces</a> maintains region‑specific plant lists that match native flowers with local nectar feeders.



Land managers are urged to skip blanket spraying and instead spot‑treat weeds, mow outside bloom windows, and leave leaf litter for overwintering adults or chrysalids. 



Protecting habitat also buffers butterflies against flash droughts and early frosts that are becoming more common as weather swings widen.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-green-spaces-support-butterfly-species">Green spaces support butterfly species</h2>



The recovery roadmap emphasizes that conservation must happen everywhere, not just in protected wilderness. Even small green spaces can play a huge role when stitched together across cities, suburbs, and farms.



Pollinator corridors, like roadside flower strips or native plant buffers on farmland, let butterflies travel, feed, and lay eggs without interruption. 



When neighbors and land managers coordinate efforts, isolated patches of habitat can become a functioning network that supports entire species.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-butterfly-species-and-cotton-yields">Butterfly species and cotton yields</h2>



Economics add weight to conservation: research in <a href="https://cns.utexas.edu/news/research/supporting-pollinators-could-have-big-payoff-texas-cotton-farmers" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Texas</a> shows that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/national-learn-about-butterflies-day-an-enchanting-world-awaits/">butterflies</a> translate into about $100 million in annual pollination value for cotton alone.



When rows of nectar plants bordered the fields, cotton set more bolls, and farmers noticed a boost in yield without another drop of chemical inputs.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-to-help-butterfly-species">How to help butterfly species</h2>



Homeowners can swap a slice of turf for milkweed, asters, and goldenrod. City planners can seed bloom strips along bike paths and medians instead of short mowed grass.



Rural roadsides double as corridors when mowing heights stay above six inches and herbicide use is limited to targeted patches, a change that costs little but scales quickly.



Even small pollinator islands in solar arrays or utility rights‑of‑way create stepping‑stones that let populations recolonize after drought or fire.



Success stories already exist. The Fender’s blue butterfly, once presumed lost, bounced back enough for the <a href="https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2023/10/16/pink-wildflower-in-oregon-and-southwest-washington-removed-from-federal-protection/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">U.S. Fish &amp; Wildlife Service</a> to reclassify it from endangered to threatened in 2023.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adp4671" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Science</a>.



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Butterfly species are declining fast across the United States

The monarch may steal the spotlight, yet an ongoing crisis...

Relocating elephants to fresh herds can boost genetics and social health - but what if the animals can’t “talk” to their new hosts? 



Field biologists have discovered that elephant groups separated by only a few hundred miles emit subtly different low-frequency rumbles. Those dialects might complicate friendships, alliances, or alarm calls when animals are translocated. 



The puzzle is part of a broader realization that many species possess local traditions - learned behaviors that function much like human culture.



To help researchers explore that idea, scientists at the <a href="https://www.arizona.edu/">University of Arizona</a> have launched the first open-access, global catalog of animal <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/saving-the-cultural-legacy-of-wild-animals/">cultures</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mapping-animal-cultures">Mapping animal cultures</h2>



The <a href="https://viz.datascience.arizona.edu/ACDB/">Animal Culture Database</a> brings together hundreds of peer-reviewed reports on socially learned behaviors - from whales’ evolving migration routes to chimpanzees’ stone-tool know-how.



Kiran Basava is the paper’s lead author and a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Arizona.



“There is a consensus among animal behavior researchers that cultural traditions and socially learned behaviors are important to conservation,” said Basava. "There are decades of research investigating these behaviors across different species that are scattered throughout the literature."



"We synthesized that work to facilitate creative research and discussions about how culture is defined across different species, as well as how animals respond to different environmental disturbances caused by humans.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-animal-culture-by-region">Animal culture by region</h2>



The database centers on an interactive world map dotted with pins. Click on a marker and you can read about orangutans’ nesting tricks in Borneo, humpback <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/hidden-patterns-in-whale-songs-predict-ecosystem-shifts/">whales</a>’ complex songs off Tonga, or urban crows that drop nuts at traffic lights so cars will crack them open.



A search panel lets visitors filter by species, behavior type, or geographic region. For example, it reveals how rats in European forests learned to peel pinecones, or how certain <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/some-birds-trick-their-way-into-mating-by-removing-testosterone-from-their-bodies/">birds</a> remodeled mating dances after wildfires changed their habitat.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-building-a-living-archive">Building a living archive</h2>



To assemble the resource, Basava and colleagues combed through thousands of journal articles published over several decades. 



The experts screened more than 1,000 promising papers. From those, they coded 121 into the pilot version - covering 30 mammalian, 30 avian, and one insect species. The team is adding 600 more studies and will soon let other scientists upload their own findings.



Study co-author Cristian Román-Palacios, an assistant professor of information science, said the tool could transform how researchers study cultural evolution.



“You can investigate the origins of culture by not just tracing it back to humans, but by seeing how much variance there is between different species and asking what drives those differences,” explained Professor Román-Palacios.



“Culture is not just a human phenomenon, and this database can help investigate what drives culture across the animal kingdom.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cultural-loss-risks-extinction">Cultural loss risks extinction</h2>



Understanding animal culture is more than academic curiosity. Conservationists are realizing that an <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/elephants-may-be-the-first-non-human-animals-to-call-each-other-by-names/">elephant dialect</a>, a whale migration route, or a songbird melody can be as crucial as genetics for a population’s survival.



Human-driven habitat loss, noise pollution, and climate change threaten to erase those traditions. If relocated elephants cannot communicate with resident herds, or if dam construction blocks a salmon run taught across generations, restoration projects may fail.



By pooling case studies in one searchable hub, the database helps practitioners identify culturally important behaviors that need protection - much like <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en">UNESCO</a>’s list of human cultural heritage.



The data can also reveal patterns: Are populations with richer cultural repertoires more resilient to disturbance? Do species that lose key traditions decline faster?



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-science-meets-animal-tradition">Science meets animal tradition</h2>



The experts hope educators will use the site to teach evolutionary biology, while data scientists mine the entries for global trends. Basava envisions adding tools to visualize how behaviors spread over time, akin to epidemiological models for disease.



Future iterations may incorporate audio clips of vocalizations or video of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/some-fish-use-tools-to-crack-open-prey/">tool use</a>, creating a multimedia atlas of animal ingenuity. 



The designers also plan multilingual interfaces to attract contributions from researchers worldwide, including Indigenous observers whose knowledge often predates academic studies.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-culture-isn-t-just-human">Culture isn’t just human</h2>



The project resonates with a paradigm shift in biology: culture is no longer viewed as uniquely human. 



From dolphins that pass down signature whistles to capuchin monkeys that adopt local grooming fashions, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/food-availability-influences-social-learning-among-orangutans/">social learning</a> pervades the animal kingdom. Recognizing those parallels can inform debates about animal welfare and cognitive rights, the authors note.



And it may reshape how humans see ourselves. If elephants currently need a translator, perhaps conservation must consider not just where animals live. It should also account for how they live - their languages, crafts, and customs forged over millennia.



For now, the Animal Culture Database offers anyone with an internet connection a front-row seat to those hidden worlds. The database preserves animal-taught traditions and reminds us that culture extends beyond just the human species.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-025-05315-y">Nature Scientific Data</a>.



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From rumbles to rituals: Scientists map the cultures of the animal kingdom

Relocating elephants to fresh herds can boost genetics and social...

Bird species add color, movement, and sound to our world. They pollinate plants, control pests, and spread seeds. But their future is in danger.



A new study from the <a href="https://www.reading.ac.uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Reading</a> warns that climate change and habitat destruction threaten global bird diversity. 



The loss of unique birds like the bare-necked umbrellabird, helmeted hornbill, and yellow-bellied sunbird-asity would shrink the variety of bird forms that support <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/big-brains-and-wide-ranges-cant-save-birds-from-climate-change/">ecosystems</a>.



This projection triples all recorded bird extinctions since 1500 CE. Even with protection from hunting, habitat loss, and climate change, 250 species may still disappear. Some birds are now too fragile to survive without direct help.



“Many birds are already so threatened that reducing human impacts alone won't save them. These species need special recovery programs, like breeding projects and habitat restoration, to survive,” explained Kerry Stewart, lead author of the study.



“We face a bird extinction <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/birds-are-struggling-to-keep-pace-with-a-warming-climate/">crisis</a> unprecedented in modern times. We need immediate action to reduce human threats across habitats and targeted rescue programs for the most unique and endangered species.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-large-bird-species-are-most-at-risk">Large bird species are most at risk</h2>



The researchers studied nearly 10,000 bird species using IUCN Red List data and advanced models. 



The results showed that large-bodied birds are especially at risk. These birds struggle more with hunting pressure and climate stress. Birds with broad wings face severe danger from habitat destruction, especially in forests.



The study went beyond just species counts. It measured the expected loss of “functional diversity,” a term describing the variety of bird shapes, diets, and behaviors. 



Under current trends, global bird functional diversity could fall by about 3.2% in the next 100 years. This drop may sound small, but it would seriously damage ecosystems. 



Large, distinct <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bird-evolution-timeline-pushed-back-20-million-years-by-baminornis-zhenghensis-discovery/">species</a> often provide unique services. Their disappearance would leave functional gaps that smaller or similar birds cannot fill.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-limits-of-protection-alone">Limits of protection alone</h2>



The researchers tested three future scenarios: complete, partial, and minimal threat abatement. In the best case, where all human threats were removed across species ranges, around 250 species would still go extinct. That is nearly half of all projected losses, even with ideal conservation.



Some birds, like the Cebu flowerpecker, remain highly vulnerable despite facing few listed threats. With fewer than 70 individuals left, they may vanish without specific recovery steps like habitat restoration or captive breeding.



The study shows that reducing threats is not enough. Many species are already too close to the brink. Past damage, small populations, and isolated habitats all contribute to ongoing <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/birds-are-molting-earlier-in-the-fall-as-seasons-shift/">risks</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-threats-to-rare-bird-species">Threats to rare bird species</h2>



The research evaluated six main threats: habitat loss, hunting, climate change, invasive species, disturbance, and pollution. 



Habitat loss contributed the most to species decline, affecting over 1,600 species. Yet when it comes to preserving unique bird traits, other threats matter more.



Driver-specific results showed that reducing hunting or accidental deaths helped conserve rare bird features more effectively, even if fewer total species were saved. That means some threats disproportionately affect birds with uncommon traits.



Birds with long tails and short beaks, for example, benefited more from reduced hunting. Birds with broad wings responded better to protection from habitat destruction. These patterns help tailor conservation actions to bird traits most at risk.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-strategic-recovery-of-unique-species">Strategic recovery of unique species</h2>



One solution stood out: target the most unique birds for rescue. The researchers created a list of 200 functionally unique species. Protecting just the top 100 could conserve over two-thirds of global bird functional diversity.



These birds include nectar-feeders, scavengers, and seed dispersers. From the Sulu hornbill to the southern royal albatross, many are island-dwelling, wide-ranging, or limited to one location. They carry traits that help regulate temperature, shape ecosystems, and fill rare ecological roles.



Preventing the extinction of around 37 of these birds could achieve this 68% protection goal. Since past efforts have already saved 21 to 32 bird species since 1993, this new goal appears feasible with commitment.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-must-be-done-now">What must be done now</h2>



Even in optimistic futures, threats cannot be erased quickly or completely. Species recovery programmes, including in-situ and ex-situ measures, are needed for the most vulnerable.



“Stopping threats is not enough,” said Professor Manuela Gonzalez-Suarez. “Prioritizing conservation programs for just 100 of the most unusual threatened birds could save 68% of the variety in bird shapes and sizes. This approach could help to keep ecosystems healthy.”



Habitat protection remains key. But to safeguard ecosystem resilience, conservationists must also think about functional diversity, not just species counts.



The coming century will test humanity’s will to preserve Earth's avian legacy. Without sharp decisions and bold action, we risk losing many birds and the ecological balance they help maintain.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-025-02746-z" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution</a>.



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Hundreds of bird species could vanish in the next century

Bird species add color, movement, and sound to our world....

Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States, but the specific types causing death have shifted.



From 1970 to 2022, deaths from heart attacks dropped by 89 percent - a major shift. In the same time period, deaths from other heart problems like heart failure, arrhythmias, and high blood pressure-related conditions rose by 81 percent.



Dr. Sara King is a second-year resident in the Department of Medicine at the <a href="https://med.stanford.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Stanford School of Medicine</a> in California.



“This distribution shift in the types of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/changing-one-thing-about-this-everyday-task-cuts-heart-disease-risk-in-half/">heart</a> disease people were dying from the most was very interesting to us,” said Dr. King. “This evolution over the past 50 years reflects incredible successes in the way <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/drinking-this-amount-of-coffee-helps-prevent-heart-disease-and-diabetes/">heart</a> attacks and other types of ischemic heart disease are managed.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-treatment-reduced-heart-attack-deaths">Treatment reduced heart attack deaths</h2>



In 1970, most people who died from heart disease had a heart attack. By 2022, only 29% of ischemic heart disease deaths were from heart attacks, while the rest were from chronic ischemic disease. 



Emergency response and hospital care has improved in the United States. CPR, defibrillators, and coronary care units have helped. Imaging tools like angiography arrived in the 1970s, and angioplasty followed in 1977. Stents and thrombolytics came in the 1980s and 1990s.



Medications like statins, beta blockers, and blood thinners have become common. After 2009, doctors got access to PCSK9 inhibitors and better tests to detect <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/heart-disease-remains-the-leading-cause-of-death-worldwide/">heart</a> attacks.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-habits-and-policies-supported-heart-health">Habits and policies supported heart health</h2>



Smoking rates dropped. In 1970, 40% of adults smoked. In 2019, that fell to 14 percent. People moved more. Cholesterol and blood pressure guidelines improved, and more patients took medication.



Dr. Keith Churchwell, the 2024-2025 <a href="https://www.heart.org" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">American Heart Association</a> volunteer president, is an associate clinical professor at the <a href="https://medicine.yale.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Yale School of Medicine</a> and an adjunct associate professor at the <a href="https://medschool.vanderbilt.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Vanderbilt School of Medicine</a>.



“Through the nearly $6 billion dollars the Association has invested in scientific research since 1948, we have enhanced the knowledge of how we diagnose and treat heart disease in almost all forms,” noted Dr. Churchwell.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-risk-factors-are-rising-again">Risk factors are rising again</h2>



Obesity rose from 15% to 40% between 1970 and 2022. Diabetes, including prediabetes, now affects half of all adults. Almost 50% of adults live with <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/heart-cells-grown-in-space-may-help-heal-damaged-hearts/">hypertension</a>.



People also live longer. In 1970, life expectancy was 70.9 years. In 2022, it reached 77.5. Older adults face higher risks for heart failure, atrial fibrillation, and other lasting heart problems.



The total heart disease death rate dropped by 66 percent, but the type of heart disease causing death shifted. Ischemic deaths fell, while deaths from other heart conditions rose. Today, chronic problems cause more cases.



“We’ve won major battles against heart attacks, however, the war against heart disease isn’t over,” said Dr. King.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-healthy-habits-prevent-heart-disease">Healthy habits prevent heart disease</h2>



“Now that people are surviving heart attacks, we are seeing a rise in other forms of heart disease like heart failure,” noted Dr. Latha Palaniappan, associate dean for research at Stanford University School of Medicine.



“The focus now must be on helping people age with strong, healthy hearts by preventing events, and prevention can start as early as childhood.”



The American Heart Association highlights eight important goals to protect heart and brain health. A healthy diet comes first. Choosing fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins can lower bad cholesterol and support heart function. 



It's not just about food, though. Regular physical activity keeps the heart strong, improves circulation, and helps manage body weight. This could mean a structured workout or simply walking more each day.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-steps-to-protect-heart-health">Further steps to protect heart health</h2>



Smoking damages blood vessels, raises blood pressure, and increases the risk of both stroke and heart attack. Once someone stops smoking, the body starts to heal. The risk of cardiovascular complications begins to drop. 



Sleep matters, too. People who get enough quality rest give their hearts time to recover and maintain a steady rhythm.



Managing key health markers is just as critical. Keeping a healthy weight takes pressure off the heart and reduces the risk of chronic disease. Controlling cholesterol keeps arteries clear and lowers the chance of a blockage. 



Blood sugar control helps avoid complications tied to diabetes, which often worsens heart problems. And stable blood pressure can prevent stroke, heart failure, and kidney damage.



When combined, these eight steps offer more than protection. They lay the groundwork for a healthier, longer life with fewer heart-related problems.



The study is published in the <a href="https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.124.038644" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Journal of the American Heart Association</a>. 



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Heart disease kills differently now than five decades ago

Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the...

Anyone who has watched a cat sleep knows they do so with remarkable consistency. From curled tails to neatly tucked paws, their resting positions often seem almost ritual-like. But new research suggests the sleeping positions of cats are not just habits.



A global research team has found that most <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cats-can-tell-people-apart-by-sniffing-them/">cats</a> prefer to sleep on their left side. By analyzing 408 YouTube videos, the researchers confirmed a significant bias toward this sleeping position. 



About 65% of the cats were seen resting with their left shoulder down, while only 35% chose the right side. "Sleeping on the left side can therefore be a survival strategy,” noted the researchers.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cats-sleep-left-to-react-faster">Cats sleep left to react faster</h2>



When a cat sleeps on its left, it wakes up using its left visual field. This field is processed in the brain’s right hemisphere, which handles spatial awareness, fear response, and fast movement coordination. 



“Asymmetries in behavior can have advantages because both hemispheres of the brain specialize in different tasks,” explained study co-author Onur Güntürkün.



Left-side sleeping allows cats to respond faster to threats from below or from the left. This sleep posture aligns with <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/international-lynx-day-2025-protecting-the-silent-hunters/">cats</a>’ tendency to rest in high places. 



Elevated locations limit predator access and provide better visibility. Combined with leftward sleeping, this may give cats a stronger edge when suddenly waking.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-strong-left-side-bias">A strong left-side bias</h2>



The team examined only clear, unaltered videos showing single <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-and-why-do-cats-purr-scientists-finally-found-the-answers-genetic-dna/">cats</a> lying fully visible on one side for at least 10 seconds. Videos that were mirrored, low-resolution, or cropped were excluded. 



The results were statistically significant (χ² = 37.7, df = 1, p &lt; 0.001), showing a clear left-side preference.



This bias may not be random. It fits well with patterns seen in many species, where the right brain hemisphere plays a major role in detecting danger. 



Animals generally react faster to threats coming from their left side, suggesting an adaptive benefit to this positioning.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-right-brain-helps-detect-danger">The right brain helps detect danger</h2>



“By specializing on one limb or one side of its sensory system, the contralateral hemisphere goes through life-long cycles of motor and perceptual learning,” wrote the study authors.



This helps speed up brain processing, cut down reaction times, and enhance accuracy. Sleeping with the left shoulder down lets the brain’s stronger threat-response side engage instantly when the cat awakens.



The right amygdala, which helps process fear, is more active in the right side of the brain. Since the right side also handles things like noticing space and spotting danger, this supports the idea that sleeping on one side may be linked to fear.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-other-causes-for-cat-sleep-bias">Other causes for cat sleep bias</h2>



Could other factors influence sleep position? Maybe, but they are unlikely to change the overall pattern. For instance, pregnant cows lie on their left with moderate frequency. However, pregnancy rates alone cannot explain the strong leftward bias in this cat sample.



Another possible explanation is “pawedness,” preference for using one paw over the other. Around 78% of cats show some degree of paw preference. But left- and right-pawed cats occur in equal numbers. So paw dominance does not match the 65% left-sleeping pattern seen here.



Still, researchers caution that more studies are needed. The team had no access to sex or pregnancy data for the cats in the videos. But the strong population-level trend remains clear.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cats-sleep-habits-reveal-brain-evolution">Cats sleep habits reveal brain evolution</h2>



This finding adds to the growing evidence that cats, like many <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cats-have-become-one-of-the-worlds-most-invasive-predators/">animals</a>, use subtle behavioral traits to stay safe. It also supports broader patterns of brain lateralization seen across mammals and birds.



The researchers believe these insights can help researchers understand how such asymmetries emerge. 



“Although this finding is subject to debate, it could provide an excellent opportunity to study the emergence of asymmetries at the population level,” they wrote.



For pet owners and scientists alike, this sleepy behavior may offer surprising clues about how brains and bodies work together to enhance survival and adaptation.



The study was led by researchers from the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.uniba.it/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Bari Aldo Moro</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ruhr University Bochum</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.medicalschool-hamburg.de/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Medical School Hamburg</a>, and other international partners.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(25)00507-X" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Current Biology</a>.



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Cats clearly prefer sleeping on their left side, here's why

Anyone who has watched a cat sleep knows they do...

For over a century, scientists have debated how mammals shifted from sprawling like reptiles to walking upright. This transition marked one of the most significant events in vertebrate evolution. It shaped how mammals, from bats to humans, move through their world.



While earlier views suggested a simple step-by-step progression, new research suggests a very different path. 



A study led by Dr. Robert Brocklehurst of the <a href="https://www.reading.ac.uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Reading</a> shows that upright posture evolved through a complex branching <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/pet-dogs-severely-harm-wildlife-even-when-leashed/">process</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-evolution-of-upright-posture-in-mammals">Evolution of upright posture in mammals </h2>



“The evolution of mammals has previously been characterized as a series of steps from sprawling, to semi-sprawling, to upright,” said Dr. Brocklehurst. “However, what we discovered was a more nonlinear evolutionary progression throughout mammalian <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dog-nose-shapes-could-help-explain-human-birth-defects/">history</a>.”



The researchers analyzed over 200 species of tetrapods. They compared humerus bones across fossilized synapsids and modern animals like salamanders, reptiles, monotremes, and upright mammals. 



The team examined traits such as bone length, torsion, bending strength, and muscle leverage.



Rather than showing a clear ladder of progress, the data revealed bursts of change. Different mammalian ancestors experimented with varying forelimb functions. These experiments shaped the eventual rise of upright walking.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mapping-the-mechanics-of-movement">Mapping the mechanics of movement</h2>



The researchers used a computational model to connect bone shape with function and posture. They created adaptive landscapes that linked bone mechanics to different walking <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dogs-can-recognize-familiar-human-voices-even-in-recordings/">styles</a> - sprawled or upright.



“By correlating bone shape and limb biomechanics with posture, we could test how well the fossil bones were optimized for specific functional tasks, like upright walking versus sprawled walking,” said Dr. Brocklehurst.



“We expected to see a neat progression - from sprawling pelycosaurs to a bit more upright therapsids, then cynodonts, then fully upright mammals. Instead, we found bursts of innovation.”



The team discovered that while early synapsids did have sprawling limbs, they didn’t function like modern reptiles. 



“They’re not just copies of reptiles, but distinctive animals in their own right that are a little different from anything that’s alive today," said said Dr. Kenneth Angielczyk of the University of Chicago.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mammals-tried-many-movement-styles">Mammals tried many movement styles</h2>



This research challenges the idea of direct, staged transitions. Instead of rigid postural categories, the ancestors of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/why-do-cats-outlive-dogs-clues-found-in-their-genes/">mammals</a> explored many forms of limb use.



“Previous hypotheses posit the synapsid ‘sprawling-parasagittal’ transition as a series of discrete postural shifts; our study supports the view of synapsid evolution as a series of successive radiations, with major clades exhibiting considerable functional (and postural) variation,” the researchers wrote.



“While the ancestors of mammals did generally get more upright as time went on, there was a lot of variation in each major group of mammalian ancestors.”



Professor Stephanie Pierce of <a href="https://www.harvard.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Harvard University</a> noted that the path to upright posture wasn’t a straight line. "The ancestors of mammals weren’t steps on a ladder with modern mammals at the top."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-muscles-behind-mammalian-motion">Muscles behind mammalian motion</h2>



The upright posture of modern mammals required deep musculoskeletal changes. This included shifts in bone shape and how muscles interacted with the skeleton. 



The study showed that parasagittal posture - the fully upright limb arrangement - appeared relatively late in mammal history.



“Our work challenges the idea that posture changed gradually and early on,” said Professor Pierce. “Instead, it shows that upright posture and locomotion were a late evolutionary innovation, not an early defining trait of the mammalian lineage.”



“Understanding how mammals came to walk upright isn’t just about bones. It’s about uncovering the dynamic history of life on Earth," said Dr. Brocklehurst.



The researchers acknowledge some limitations in their study. These include uncertainties in evolutionary timelines and divergence dates. However, the large dataset and mechanical modeling provide a strong framework for future research.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tracing-upright-posture-in-mammals">Tracing upright posture in mammals</h2>



To compare hundreds of bones from vastly different animals, the team had to innovate. Traditional shape analysis tools failed. So, they retooled an R software package into a “slice-based” landmarking system.



This approach allowed for precise measurement of traits even across species separated by millions of years. Former undergraduate Magdalen Mercado helped assemble the dataset, contributing to the massive scope of the project.



Professor Pierce reflected on the legacy of Harvard researchers who tackled similar questions decades ago. “Now, with new tools and data, we can revisit those ideas and see the story more clearly.”



“This delayed acquisition [of upright posture] ultimately laid the foundation for the extraordinary ecological success of mammals,” said Pierce.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-new-chapter-in-mammalian-evolution">New chapter in mammalian evolution</h2>



This study is the first of its kind to use large-scale biomechanics to trace mammalian posture. It reveals that upright walking didn’t come early, but evolved after numerous experiments in movement.



As the team continues modeling limb function in fossil species, they aim to unlock more details about how ancient creatures lived and moved.



“The origin of upright mammalian posture is a key part of their evolutionary story,” said Dr. Brocklehurst. 



“People have been working on this problem for over 100 years. We knew we needed to see as many fossils as possible, and really get to grips with bone function and mechanics, not just shape.”



With this broader view, scientists now see evolution not as a tidy path, but as a dynamic landscape full of surprises.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003188" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">PLOS Biology</a>.



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Mammals tried different ways to move before walking upright

For over a century, scientists have debated how mammals shifted...

Stars can throw high‑energy tantrums. Their sudden bursts of X‑ray and ultraviolet light, known as solar flares if they come from the Sun and stellar flares when they happen on other stars, pump out streams of charged particles that race across space. 



A new study shows that a single <a href="https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024LRSP...21....1K/abstract" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stellar flare</a> can rearrange the atmosphere of an Earth‑size exoplanet within days, warming some layers, cooling others, and kicking up winds strong enough to redraw cloud belts.



The work suggests that a similar, if weaker, tug may also show up in regional weather on Earth. 



“This study highlights an underexplored but important solar‑climate link,” said <a href="https://en.earth.huji.ac.il/people/assaf-hochman" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dr. Assaf Hochman</a> of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, lead author of the modeling effort.



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



Stellar flares are explosive bursts of energy released from the atmospheres of stars, caused by the sudden reconfiguration of magnetic field lines. 



Much like solar flares on our own Sun, these eruptions emit high-energy radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, including ultraviolet, X-rays, and sometimes radio waves. 



However, stellar flares often dwarf their solar counterparts in both intensity and frequency - especially on young, magnetically active stars. 



These outbursts result from the build-up and sudden release of magnetic energy in the star’s outer atmosphere, typically in regions where intense magnetic loops twist and reconnect.



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/planets-orbiting-red-dwarf-stars-may-not-be-habitable-ultraviolet-uv-radiation/">Red dwarf</a> stars, in particular, display some of the most violent stellar flares observed to date. Because these stars are smaller and cooler than the Sun, they compensate by having stronger and more chaotic magnetic fields, which frequently trigger energetic flares. 



These events can dramatically increase the star’s brightness in a matter of minutes and pose significant challenges to the habitability of surrounding exoplanets by stripping away atmospheres or flooding surfaces with harmful radiation.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-solar-flares-and-exoplanet-weather">Solar flares and exoplanet weather</h2>



A space weather event begins when magnetic knots on a star snap and accelerate plasma into space. 



Flares on small <a href="https://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/r/red+dwarf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">red dwarfs</a> often pack a punch: <a href="https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016ApJ...829...23D%2F/abstract" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kepler</a> observations show average energies around 10³⁵ erg, orders of magnitude above a typical solar flare.



The new study used a three‑dimensional <a href="https://www.ipcc-data.org/guidelines/pages/gcm_guide.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">general circulation model</a> to simulate <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/exoplanet-catalog/trappist-1-e/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">TRAPPIST‑1e</a>, a tidally locked world that keeps one face toward its star. 



After each simulated <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-next-big-solar-storm-could-plunge-us-into-darkness/">flare</a>, the model tracked minute‑by‑minute changes in temperature, chemistry, and wind.



Upper atmospheric nitrogen oxides radiated heat away, dropping the thermospheric temperature by up to 180 °F, while water vapor and nitrous oxide trapped infrared light below.



This event also lifted the temperature in the lower mesosphere by 50 °F. Night‑side winds roared past 90 mph, well above the calm baseline.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-flares-shift-winds-on-exoplanets">Flares shift winds on exoplanets</h2>



The <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23215581/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">chain reaction</a> starts high above the planet. Incoming protons split molecular nitrogen, spawning odd‑nitrogen species that trigger ozone loss.



Ozone erosion opens a window for ultraviolet light to reach deeper layers, altering heating rates and shifting pressure patterns. 



In the model runs, the most active flare sequence stripped 80 percent of stratospheric ozone within eight simulated years, echoing earlier one‑dimensional results that predicted near‑total depletion under repeated <a href="https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019AsBio..19...64T%2F/abstract" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">M‑dwarf flares</a>.



With its ultraviolet shield thinned, the planet’s mesosphere warmed and expanded, accelerating east‑west jets. 



Such flare‑induced wind bursts of roughly 40 m/s match gravity‑wave‑driven surges seen in high‑resolution Earth <a href="https://www.iap-kborn.de/en/research/modelling-of-atmospheric-processes/models/kmcm/publications/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">models</a> following strong <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/strong-geomagnetic-solar-storm-alert-issued-auroras-expected-farther-south/">solar</a> proton events.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-earth-also-reacts-to-flare-events">Earth also reacts to flare events</h2>



Earth has a robust magnetic field and a thicker ozone layer than most modeled exoplanets, yet violent space weather, like <a href="https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/phenomena/solar-flares-radio-blackouts" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">solar flares</a> from the Sun, already <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/noaa-issues-a-severe-solar-storm-alert-with-auroras-expected-across-most-of-us/">leaves fingerprints</a> here. 



Geomagnetic storms in <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jgrd.50236" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2003</a> cooled the middle stratosphere by 0.9 °F over the tropics and nearly 4 °F over Antarctica.



During the <a href="https://acd-ext.gsfc.nasa.gov/People/Jackman/Jackman_2008b.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Halloween solar proton event</a> of the same year, nitric oxide injections heated the polar mesosphere by up to 18 °F. 



Dr. Hochman’s team argues that similar, shorter‑lived anomalies could surface in modern reanalysis once forecasters fold real‑time proton data into weather models.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-solar-flares-shape-exoplanet-habitability">Solar flares shape exoplanet habitability</h2>



<a href="https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016NatGe...9..452A/abstract" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Habitability</a> is more than an average surface temperature. Steady access to liquid water, stable chemistry, and tolerable ultraviolet doses all hinge on how often, and how violently, a host star erupts.



The new simulations show that even if a planet sits in the classical habitable zone, a busy flare schedule can shove it into a “moist greenhouse” state, with stratospheric water vapor levels exceeding 0.1 percent by volume. 



<a href="https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/pdf/2016/01/aa25602-14.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Analyses</a> suggest that such moisture would accelerate hydrogen loss and could desiccate a world in a few hundred million years.



Still, solar flares are not universally bad. High-energy particles from <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/flickering-loops-solar-storm-warning-signs-appear-on-sun-before-it-erupts/">solar</a> flares can fix atmospheric nitrogen into nitrates on exoplanets and may drive prebiotic chemistry on young planets, as proposed for the early Earth.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-better-models-and-new-missions">Better models and new missions </h2>



Modeling limitations remain. <a href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19740013348" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Flare spectra</a> were assumed to radiate like 9,000 K blackbodies, yet recent Hubble data place some M‑dwarf events above 14,000 K, which would alter photolysis rates.



<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/temporal-resolution" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Temporal resolution</a> is another hurdle. Real flares unfold in minutes, but daily time steps smooth peak particle fluxes; resolving sub‑hour pulses could sharpen predicted ozone losses.



Finally, upper atmospheric coupling was cut at about 90 miles. 



Extending <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2008JD011415" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">models</a> into the thermosphere and magnetosphere will clarify how exoplanet magnetic fields modulate particle deposition, a factor shown to be decisive in long‑term ozone recovery.



Astronomers will soon test these ideas. The <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">James Webb Space Telescope</a> already hints at weather‑scale variability in exoplanet transit spectra, and future direct‑imaging missions such as <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/programs/habitable-worlds-observatory/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory</a> aim to watch entire planetary disks for day‑to‑day changes.



If solar flares can stir exoplanet skies this quickly, forecasters may need to add real‑time stellar monitoring to the checklist for life‑friendly worlds.



The study is published in <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/add33e" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Astronomical Journal</a>.



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Stellar flares can rearrange the atmospheres of planets within days, including Earth

Stars can throw high‑energy tantrums. Their sudden bursts of X‑ray...

Stone Age people were already slow cooking - but not just for the food. They used heat and time to loosen animal teeth from skulls, removing them cleanly to turn into jewelry and ornaments. 



New research shows they didn’t just scavenge what they could find. They had a method, and it helped preserve the parts they needed.



The study comes from scientists at the <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/">University of York</a> and the University of Helsinki, who examined more than 2,000 animal teeth excavated from graves at Zvejnieki cemetery in Latvia. 



This burial ground, used between 7500 and 2500 BC, is one of the largest known from the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/stone-age-hunter-gatherers-had-a-very-organized-domestic-life/">Mesolithic period</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-pulling-teeth-the-ancient-way">Pulling teeth, the ancient way</h2>



Archaeologists have long known that people in the Mesolithic Stone Age wore animal teeth on their bodies or clothing. What hadn’t been studied closely was how they got the teeth out in the first place.



“Much of the research focus has been on how and why the animal teeth were used as ornaments, but relatively little is known about how they were extracted,” said Dr. Andrew Needham from the University of York.



"Recent theories have suggested they may have been cut from the skull or possibly scavenged from carcasses."



To find out what really happened, the team turned to experimental archaeology. They tested different methods of removing teeth from <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/feeding-habits-shaped-the-skulls-of-humans-and-dinosaurs/">animal skulls</a> to see which techniques left the teeth intact.



“By testing different methods, it became clear that methods like cutting, hammering or pulling the teeth out of a fresh jaw is extremely difficult and often damages the teeth in the process,” Needham said.



“But what we see in these thousands of animal teeth at grave sites is that they are usually complete and undamaged by any extraction method.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-stone-age-methods-tested">Stone Age methods tested</h2>



To simulate Stone Age techniques, the researchers ran year-long studies and tested techniques that involved heat and moisture.



Results from year-long experiments at the Īdeņa Experimental Centre in eastern Latvia showed that pit steaming and wet cooking were the most effective methods, allowing teeth to be extracted easily and without damage.



“This also meant that the meat could be eaten and the bones remained suitable for tool-making,” Needham said.



Pit steaming was basically a prehistoric version of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wine-drinking-in-the-americas-traced-back-to-the-15th-century/">slow cooking</a>. The process used hot stones, coals, water, and a covering of skins and plants to slowly cook animal heads and jaws. Left overnight, the teeth could be removed easily the next day.



“Our experiments show that tooth extraction was a deliberate, time-sensitive process embedded in daily life, especially <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/eat-like-neanderthal-unpacking-ancient-cooking-methods-birds/">cooking practices</a>," said Dr. Aija Macāne from the University of Helsinki. 



"This challenges the assumption that teeth used for ornaments were simply scavenged or easily available.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-animal-teeth-as-adornment">Animal teeth as adornment</h2>



Most of the teeth came from elk, wild boar, and red deer. Others were from dogs, and in a few cases, humans. 



These were turned into pendants worn by people of all ages and genders. Teeth were usually placed around the head, torso, and arms of the buried individuals.



Over time, preferences changed. Early graves favored <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/forest-biodiversity-benefits-from-large-herbivores-like-elephants-and-moose/">large herbivores</a>. Later burials included more carnivores like dogs. This shift could reflect changing relationships with animals or evolving cultural meanings behind the ornaments.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-nothing-went-to-waste">Nothing went to waste</h2>



This method of careful tooth extraction suggests a deeper respect for the animals these people hunted. It wasn’t just about using the meat. They made sure every part of the animal served a purpose.



“This practice shows that Stone Age people were aware that there was a ‘right way’ to treat the animal remains in order to get everything they needed - from food to tools and ornaments,” said Dr. Aimée Little, Director of the York Experimental Archaeological Research (YEAR) Centre.



“Making personal ornaments from teeth was likely to have been a social activity linked to everyday cooking activities,” she added. 



“It is easy to imagine that different members of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/kids-in-hunter-gatherer-stone-age-societies-had-better-parenting-than-modern-children/">Stone Age societies</a>, including small children, were involved in their making, with the first stage of extracting teeth from mandibles happening as meals were being prepared. Such insights help break down the idea that prehistoric craft was highly specialized.”



This research offers a new look at what daily life might have been like thousands of years ago. It wasn’t just about survival. It was about community, creativity, and making use of everything the natural world provided.



The full study was published in the journal Archaeological and<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12520-025-02260-0">https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12520-025-02260-0</a> Anthropological Sciences.



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Ancient cooking method helped preserve animal teeth for jewelry

Stone Age people were already slow cooking - but not...

In raw processing power, a large language model will outclass toddlers. Yet when a team of researchers did the math, they found a startling gap: if humans learned language at the same rate as ChatGPT, it would take them 92,000 years.



The calculation highlights a long-standing mystery. Children master speech and grammar after only a few years of everyday experience, whereas state-of-the-art <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ai-generated-birdsongs-may-shed-new-light-on-human-language/">AI</a>, trained on billions of words, still trips over basic nuance.



A new study conducted at the <a href="https://www.mpi.nl/">Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics</a> offers the most comprehensive explanation to date. 



Led by developmental psychologist Caroline Rowland and colleagues at the UK-based <a href="https://www.lucid.ac.uk/">ESRC LuCiD Center</a>, the research proposes that the decisive advantage is not the amount of data children receive, but the way they interact with it.



Their active, embodied, and socially embedded learning engine may also hold lessons for the next generation of artificial intelligence.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-toddlers-power-research">How toddlers power research</h2>



The past decade has produced a multitude of tools - head-mounted eye trackers, wearable microphones, machine-vision scene analyzers - that let scientists capture moment-by-moment snapshots of childhood.



A typical modern dataset might include everything a two-year-old sees, hears, grasps, and babbles during an ordinary afternoon. 



What has been missing, Rowland and her co-authors argue, is an integrated theory of how these multisensory streams translate into grammar and vocabulary.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-senses-shape-speech">How senses shape speech</h2>



The framework they propose rests on several mutually reinforcing principles. 



First is multisensory integration. Unlike text-bound chatbots, babies process language against a rich backdrop of sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and textures. 



A spoonful of mashed banana, for instance, comes with a color, a smell, a shape, a temperature, and a spoken label from a caregiver.



Over time, these correlated cues help infants crack linguistic codes that would baffle a purely textual learner.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-moving-bodies-active-minds">Moving bodies, active minds</h2>



Second is embodiment. Children’s bodies are constantly in motion - rolling, crawling, pointing, mouthing objects. 



Each action changes the incoming data stream, generating fresh correlations between words and physical experiences, like associating the word cup with the feel of a plastic rim.



This kind of “closed-loop” activity allows children to test hypotheses on the fly, using movement as part of the learning process.



Social immersion plays a third critical role. Caregivers instinctively tailor their speech in real time, repeating words, exaggerating intonation, or shifting topics based on the child’s attention. 



Whereas AI systems read from static datasets, children receive a dynamic, personalized curriculum designed by human minds evolved for teaching.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-curiosity-powers-toddlers-learning">Curiosity powers toddlers’ learning</h2>



A fourth principle is incremental plasticity. The young brain reorganizes rapidly, strengthening and pruning neural connections in response to experience. 



This adaptability allows children to shift their learning priorities as they grow- starting with mastering sounds, then words, then grammar - without needing to discard earlier knowledge.



Finally, there is motivation and curiosity. Perhaps most crucially, toddlers want to decode the world around them. They actively seek novelty, request clarification, and show visible delight when they succeed, sustaining hours of daily language practice without explicit instruction.



“AI systems process data... but children really live it,” Rowland explained. “Their learning is embodied, interactive, and deeply embedded in social and sensory contexts.”



“They seek out experiences and dynamically adapt their learning in response - exploring objects with their hands and mouths, crawling toward new and exciting toys, or pointing at objects they find interesting. That’s what enables them to master language so quickly.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-children-can-teach-ai">What children can teach AI</h2>



The authors believe these insights could reshape machine-learning strategy. Current large language models ingest terabytes of written text, a modality children barely encounter until school age.



To narrow the performance gap, engineers might endow <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/robots-can-now-learn-from-humans-by-watching-how-to-videos/">robots</a> with multisensory inputs, motor exploration, and real-time social feedback loops - essentially giving silicon learners a simulated childhood.



“AI researchers could learn a lot from babies,” Rowland said. “If we want machines to learn language as well as humans, perhaps we need to rethink how we design them - from the ground up.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-helping-language-thrive-again">Helping language thrive again</h2>



Beyond technology, the framework could illuminate adult second-language acquisition, evolutionary linguistics, and educational practice. 



For example, it suggests that immersive, interactive classrooms may outperform rote drills, and that endangered languages could be revitalized by recreating full sensory contexts for young speakers.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-simulated-toddlers-in-labs">Simulated toddlers in labs</h2>



Rowland’s group is already testing the model with longitudinal recordings from <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/children-with-autism-benefit-from-learning-multiple-languages/">multilingual</a> families. Meanwhile, cognitive neuroscientists plan brain-imaging studies to chart how sensory–motor loops sculpt language circuits.



On the AI front, several labs are experimenting with embodied agents that crawl through virtual nurseries, manipulating objects while linking words to experience.



Whether those synthetic toddlers can close a 92,000-year deficit remains to be seen. What is clear is that humanity’s smallest linguists still wield secrets that even the largest neural networks have yet to crack.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1364661325001421">Trends in Cognitive Sciences</a>.



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Children are much better at learning language than AI

In raw processing power, a large language model will outclass...

Tiny clusters of drifting debris called "marine snow" shower through the ocean every day, ferrying food and carbon from the bright surface to the dark seafloor.



New <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2505085122" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">experiments</a> now show that the smallest flakes plunge more quickly than their larger cousins, overturning a century of textbook fluid dynamics and hinting at fresh twists in the planet’s carbon budget.



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



This “snow” consists of dead and decaying animals, plankton, fecal matter, mucus, and other tiny detritus that clump together into slow-sinking flakes. 



Despite the whimsical name, marine snow plays a serious role in the ocean's ecosystem - it serves as a crucial source of food for many deep-sea organisms that live far below sunlight’s reach. 



Without this steady rain of carbon-rich material, life in the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/human-trash-debris-now-found-in-deepest-parts-of-earths-seas-and-oceans-mediterranean/">ocean’s abyss</a> would be severely limited.



Beyond its ecological function, marine snow also influences Earth’s climate system. As it sinks, it transports carbon from the surface to the ocean floor, effectively removing it from the atmosphere for centuries or even longer. 



This process, known as the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/marine-robots-are-exploring-the-oceans-role-in-climate-control/">biological carbon pump</a>, helps regulate global carbon dioxide levels and mitigate climate change.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-smallest-marine-snow-sinks-faster">Smallest marine snow sinks faster</h2>



“It basically means that smaller particles can sink faster than bigger ones,” said Robert Hunt and colleagues at <a href="https://www.brown.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Brown University</a> and the <a href="https://www.unc.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of North Carolina</a> at Chapel Hill, who led the study. 



That counterintuitive sprint happens only in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/stratified-fluid" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stratified fluids</a> such as the ocean, where density increases with depth.



When a porous flake soaks up salt from the layers it crosses, the added mass beats the drag that normally slows tiny objects. 



Because surface‐to‐depth density changes are gentle yet persistent, salt diffusion keeps boosting the <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/marinesnow.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">flake’s weight</a> all the way down.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-is-this-important">Why is this important?</h2>



Speed matters. The ocean’s <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2021GB007083" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">carbon biological pump</a> moves about 10.2  billion tons of carbon a year from sunlit waters toward long‑term storage below the <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/thermocline.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">thermocline</a>. 



Faster‑than‑expected settling of small fragments may revise estimates of how much carbon actually reaches the deep, especially during spring plankton blooms when the ocean teems with fine detritus.



The same physics could alter the journey of <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/microplastics.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">microplastics</a>. A recent global <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08818-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">survey</a> found that smaller plastic bits, under 0.004 inch, linger longer at mid‑depths than bigger shards. 



If porosity or biofilm growth changes their salt uptake, these particles might fall sooner than models predict and redistribute pollution hotspots on the seafloor.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-marine-snow-sinks-through-layers">How marine snow sinks through layers</h2>



Hunt’s team built a four‑foot‑long tank whose density changed smoothly from fresh water at the top to salty water below, mimicking the open ocean’s gradient. Carefully controlled pumps dripped the two end‑member waters to create a stable linear stratification.



The researchers then 3D‑printed molds and cast agar shapes (spheres, disks, and rods) with diameters from 0.04 to 0.4 inch. 



Like gelatin desserts, the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/immunology-and-microbiology/agar" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">agar particles</a> were riddled with pores that quickly exchanged water and salt with their surroundings.



High‑speed cameras tracked each particle’s plunge through the tank. “We ended up with a pretty simple formula where you can plug in estimates for different parameters and get reasonable estimates of the sinking speed,” said <a href="https://engineering.brown.edu/people/daniel-m-harris" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Daniel Harris</a>, an associate professor of engineering at Brown who oversaw the work.



The observations matched the new equation: among spheres, a one‑millimeter bead beat a four‑millimeter bead to the bottom. 



For flat or rod‑shaped bodies, the thinnest dimension set the pace, allowing needle‑like fragments to blitz past bulkier shapes of the same mass.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-salt-makes-porous-marine-snow-fall-faster">Salt makes porous marine snow fall faster</h2>



Classical drag calculations assume an object’s density stays fixed as it falls. Porous bodies break that rule because water flows through them, letting dissolved salt accumulate inside.



The model hinges on <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/porosity" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">porosity</a>, solute <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-and-molecular-biology/diffusivity" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">diffusivity</a>, and the <a href="https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/lom3.10316" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">vertical density gradient</a>. If salt absorption boosts density faster than drag slows descent, size becomes a liability and small wins the race.



This diffusion‑limited regime likely dominates for fluffier aggregates made of <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/phyto.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">phytoplankton</a> remains, fecal pellets, or dust‑laden snow. Less porous grains of sand or shell should still follow the familiar bigger‑falls‑faster script.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fast-sinking-marine-snow-changes-estimates">Fast-sinking marine snow changes estimates</h2>



Biogeochemical models track how quickly carbon sinks, gets eaten, or dissolves on the way down. Underestimating the speed of fine aggregates could inflate estimates of mid‑water remineralization and shortchange deep‑sea sequestration.



<a href="https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/ocean-coasts/ocean-acidification" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NOAA</a> notes that the ocean absorbs about 30 percent of the carbon dioxide humans emit each year, buffering climate change. Tweaking particle speeds could shift where, and how long, that captured carbon stays locked away.



Some climate engineers are exploring methods that encourage fast‑sinking flakes, from adding minerals that ballast algae to growing kelp for deep burial. 



Knowing exactly which sizes and shapes drop quickest will sharpen those interventions and gauge possible ecological side effects.



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



Plastic fragments often pick up biofilms, turning them into tiny sponges that absorb salts and organic goo, much like marine snow. 



If that boosts density, millimeter‑scale fibers might leave surface waters sooner than remote sensing suggests.



A plastic snowfall could ferry toxins to bottom feeders and alter food webs once thought safe from floating litter. Policy aimed at surface cleanup alone may miss this hidden pathway.



Researchers also found that elongated pieces settle according to their thinnest axis. That means synthetic fibers shed from clothing, typically long and narrow, may descend even faster than spheres of equal volume.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-testing-in-real-ocean-and-improving-models">Testing in real ocean and improving models</h2>



Hunt and Harris plan to partner with oceanographers to drop custom particles over deep moorings and compare lab predictions with real‑world drifts. They also aim to explore how temperature gradients, common near polar ice and hydrothermal vents, tweak the balance between drag and diffusion.



Back on land, modelers are already folding the new equation into regional carbon budgets and microplastic fate simulations. Small marine snow flakes, once dismissed as slow movers, are entering the spotlight, reminding scientists that size is only skin deep when salt can seep inside.



The study is published in <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2505085122" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.



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Tiny "marine snow" particles in the oceans defy the laws of physics

Tiny clusters of drifting debris called "marine snow" shower through...

Back,View,Of,Dog,Talking,To,Dog,Friends,In,Video

Spending time with dogs brings comfort. But can watching them virtually help too? A new study says yes. The researchers found that a five-minute video of a therapy dog can ease stress almost as much as an in-person visit.



Led by Dr. John-Tyler Binfet from&nbsp;<a href="https://ok.ubc.ca" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">UBC Okanagan</a>&nbsp;and Dr. Christine Tardif-Williams from&nbsp;<a class="" href="https://brocku.ca/">Brock University</a>, the study tested the impact of virtual <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/therapy-dogs-on-campus-help-students-manage-stress-and-anxiety/">dog</a> videos on both students and non-students. Over 1,000 people took part, showing clear stress relief across groups.



“Our findings demonstrate that even with a virtual session, there was a significant reduction in stress among both the student population and the general public, regardless of age,” said Dr. Binfet.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-therapy-dog-videos-created-calm">How therapy dog videos created calm</h2>



The virtual canine comfort modules were brief, calming, and thoughtfully made. They featured therapy dogs and handlers from the B.A.R.K. program, a known student well-being initiative.



Each video included a welcome message, land acknowledgment, gentle narration, and sensory prompts. Participants were asked to imagine petting the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/therapy-dogs-reduce-emotional-exhaustion-and-work-burnout/">dog</a> and were guided to reflect on their emotions.



This method mimicked real therapy dog sessions without needing in-person attendance. It also gave viewers flexibility to watch from anywhere and at any time.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-therapy-dog-videos-lowered-stress">Therapy dog videos lowered stress</h2>



This study included two phases: student participants (N = 963) and community members (N = 122). Both groups reported lower stress levels after the session. 



For students, average stress dropped from 3.33 to 2.53 on a five-point scale. For community members, the reduction was from 3.07 to 2.43.



Interestingly, women in the student group experienced more stress relief than men. Before watching, women reported higher stress. After viewing, their stress dropped to levels similar to male participants. Age, however, had no major influence on results.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-beyond-the-pandemic-context">Beyond the pandemic context</h2>



This isn’t the first time virtual therapy <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/petting-a-dog-might-be-the-easiest-way-to-reduce-stress/">dog</a> sessions were studied. But this research took place after COVID-19 restrictions ended. That makes it more relevant today, as it reflects everyday conditions.



The findings confirm that people continue to benefit from virtual canine modules even when in-person options are available. 



The simplicity and low commitment of the videos help reduce stress without needing a formal setting.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-who-benefits-most-from-virtual-sessions">Who benefits most from virtual sessions?</h2>



This method works for students, busy adults, or anyone avoiding therapy due to stigma. 



For example, one participant said: “I have thought about attending an in-person session on campus before since I love dogs but the interacting with humans made me anxious."



"No offense to anyone but this virtual <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/interacting-with-dogs-can-ease-physical-pain/">dog</a> session removes the unknown human interaction that may make people nervous."



The videos can serve as an easy first step toward mental health care. Researchers believe this “foot in the door” model could help people eventually seek further support.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-short-and-effective-videos">Short and effective videos</h2>



The virtual modules were just five minutes long. Despite the short length, they led to measurable improvements in stress. 



Participants viewed videos on YouTube without scheduling anything. That made it very convenient and widely accessible.



This short duration also helped protect the welfare of therapy dogs. In virtual settings, dogs avoid the stress of busy live events. It’s better for them and still works for humans.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-inclusive-and-accessible-therapy-sessions">Inclusive and accessible therapy sessions </h2>



The sessions were inclusive in design. People from different age groups, ethnicities, and life situations took part. 



Virtual delivery helps reach rural residents, people with social anxiety, or those who simply prefer solitude.



Modules could be tailored further to suit marginalized or neurodiverse audiences. Researchers recommend more collaboration between mental health professionals and human-animal interaction experts to design targeted content.



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



The study had some limitations. It lacked a control group watching non-dog videos, so other calming factors weren’t ruled out. 



Also, long-term effects weren’t measured. Researchers want future work to track how long the stress relief lasts.



The gender imbalance in the sample also raises questions. Most participants were women, which matches past studies. Still, future research should explore how different genders experience virtual dog sessions.



Another future step could be combining these modules with mindfulness techniques. That might boost their calming impact even more.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-feeling-better-with-little-effort">Feeling better with little effort</h2>



Virtual canine comfort videos offer a short, calming break with meaningful benefits. They help reduce stress, particularly for women and those who avoid traditional therapy settings. 



The videos are easy to access, require no special tools, and can reach people from all backgrounds.



In a time when stress and mental health challenges are rising, a simple dog video may be more powerful than we thought.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/10.1079/hai.2025.0015" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Human-Animal Interactions</a>.



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Scientists prove that simply watching dogs on video can reduce stress and anxiety, no contact required

Spending time with dogs brings comfort. But can watching them...

In the watery world of fish evolution, feeding is everything. Success depends on catching food efficiently, whether it's darting prey or algae stuck to rocks. 



A recent study published in the journal PLOS Biology&nbsp;shows that fish face a basic anatomical choice: grow big teeth or evolve mobile jaws - they can’t do both.



Nick Peoples and colleagues at <a href="https://www.ucdavis.edu/">UC Davis</a> used high-speed videography and evolutionary models to investigate this trade-off across 161 ray-finned fish species.



Ray-finned fishes dominate the aquatic world, forming about half of all vertebrate species. Their feeding success hinges on two traits: long teeth that help damage or grip prey, and extendable jaws that produce suction for capturing elusive prey. Yet both features rarely appear in the same species.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-bigger-teeth-less-mobile-jaws">Bigger teeth, less mobile jaws</h2>



The researchers analyzed videos to track how fish approached prey using three techniques: swimming forward (body ram), extending the jaws (jaw ram), or sucking prey in (suction). Most species (76%) relied on body ram, while suction rarely played a primary role.



The team found that tooth size closely matched feeding strategy. Fish with big teeth nearly always relied on body ram. Those with small teeth used jaw protrusion more effectively. 



There was no strong link between tooth size and suction use. The results support a simple pattern: the bigger the teeth, the less mobile the jaws.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tooth-size-limits-feeding-flexibility">Tooth size limits feeding flexibility</h2>



To explore the evolutionary basis of this mismatch, the team ran statistical models comparing species with different feeding behaviors. 



The results confirmed a tight trade-off: <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/small-fish-species-are-the-big-catch-of-the-future/">species</a> that use jaw ram evolved to have teeth four times smaller than species that rely on swimming strikes.



The study also showed that as teeth get larger, the diversity of feeding strategies drops sharply. Species with smaller teeth had more flexibility, combining jaw movement and suction in various ways. This flexibility was lost in fish with bigger teeth.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-jaw-structure-shapes-fish-evolution">Jaw structure shapes fish evolution</h2>



Most <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/319-million-year-old-fish-holds-clues-about-brain-evolution/">ray-finned fish</a> grow replacement teeth inside the jawbone. This requires extra space, especially if the teeth are big. But extendable jaws are slim and fast-moving, with little room for large internal replacements.



The result? Fish with mobile jaws can’t support very large teeth. “This presents a dilemma for species with high jaw protrusion," noted the researchers.



Slim jaws that allow fast strikes limit space for growing new, large teeth. To make things harder, large teeth could slow a suction strike by creating drag or interfering with water flow. Fish that use suction likely keep their teeth small on purpose.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fish-adapt-to-keep-big-teeth">Fish adapt to keep big teeth</h2>



Some species sidestep this problem using special modifications. These include fused teeth in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/what-grazing-halos-and-parrotfish-reveal-about-coral-reef-health/">parrotfish</a>, which form a beak, and stacked tooth structures in pufferfish that become dense cutting tools. 



Triggerfish attach teeth using soft tissue for more support, while butterflyfish evolved flexible tooth shafts.



These adaptations allow large-toothed species to exploit unique diets - like coral scraping, detritus collection, or even wood eating.



“When we looked into which species had exceptionally large teeth, we were surprised to find that they also have interesting modifications to the dental system, like the beak of parrotfish," said Peoples.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-feeding-success-has-limits">Feeding success has limits</h2>



Fish evolution illustrates a simple but powerful rule: you can't always have it all. Both big teeth and mobile jaws help fish survive, but trying to evolve both seems to backfire.



“Many feeding innovations have evolved in fishes, and our results show that it is important to consider the interactions between these traits as some may actually be incompatible with each other," noted Peoples.



“High-speed videography really provides a unique view into fish feeding. IIt often reveals subtle movements and behaviors that you would not notice if only observing the fish in the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-hidden-environmental-impacts-of-tropical-fish-aquariums/">aquarium</a>.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-bite-hard-or-strike-fast">Bite hard or strike fast</h2>



Fish species that evolved big teeth gave up jaw mobility but gained new dietary options. Species that evolved flexible jaws gained versatility but lost the power to grip or damage prey.



This study highlights how physical constraints can shape evolution. Even in a group as diverse as ray-finned fishes, nature imposes limits. 



Those limits may explain why fish face a fork in their evolutionary path: bite hard or strike fast - but never both.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003225" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">PLOS Biology</a>.



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Why fish can’t evolve both powerful jaws and big teeth

In the watery world of fish evolution, feeding is everything....

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E0mn5mTvhQ
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">'Death Star' moon Mimas conceals a 15-million-year-old ocean that scientists never expected.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-hidden-waters-beneath-ancient-craters">Hidden waters beneath ancient craters</h2>



Scientists have made a startling discovery that challenges everything we thought we knew about <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/saturn-moon-mimas-has-remarkably-young-ocean/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Saturn's moon Mimas</a>. Beneath the heavily cratered surface that earned it the nickname "Death Star" lies a global ocean that formed just 5 to 15 million years ago—a remarkably young age by cosmic standards.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cassini-data-reveals-orbital-secrets">Cassini data reveals orbital secrets</h2>



The discovery, led by Dr. Valéry Lainey of the <a href="https://observatoiredeparis.psl.eu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Observatoire de Paris</a>, emerged from careful analysis of <a href="https://www.nasa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NASA</a>'s Cassini spacecraft data. By studying subtle irregularities in Mimas's orbit around Saturn, researchers detected the gravitational signature of liquid water hidden 20 to 30 kilometers beneath the moon's icy shell.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-an-unlikely-ocean-world">An unlikely ocean world</h2>



At only 400 kilometers in diameter, Mimas seemed like the least likely candidate to harbor a subsurface ocean. Unlike other ocean moons such as Europa and Enceladus, which show clear surface signs of internal activity, Mimas displays no obvious hints of the liquid water beneath its ancient, crater-scarred exterior.



"Mimas is a small moon, and its heavily cratered surface gave no hint of the hidden ocean beneath," explained Dr. Nick Cooper from <a href="https://www.qmul.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Queen Mary University of London</a>, a study co-author.



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



The ocean's recent formation makes Mimas a prime target for studying how oceans develop and potentially support life. This discovery adds another member to the exclusive club of ocean worlds in our solar system, each offering unique insights into the conditions necessary for habitability.



The research, published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature</a> journal, demonstrates how advanced orbital analysis can reveal hidden features of celestial bodies, opening new possibilities for understanding ocean formation throughout the cosmos.



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Scientists discover unexpected young ocean on Saturn's cratered moon Mimas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E0mn5mTvhQ 'Death Star' moon Mimas conceals a 15-million-year-old ocean that...

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



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



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



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



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



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



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Worms dominated seas before dinosaurs

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



The full study was published in the journal Current Biology.



-----



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Earth's oldest forest found in the United States

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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The environmental problem we actually solved

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

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

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







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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



-----



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What to plant in your garden in mid-July

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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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Wildlife tunnels save millions of amphibians

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

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



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



<figure class="wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://youtu.be/Ug657J67iEo?si=w96YjGMsg939LD_3
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Probiotics - beneficial microbes that balance gut bacteria and aid digestion - are typically fragile and can be destroyed by stomach acid or processing. 



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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