Wildfires leave behind loss and ruin - charred homes, scorched forests, communities upended. Yet even in those blackened remnants, Professor Pei Chiu sees an overlooked resource with climate potential.&nbsp;



In his lab at the<a href="https://www.udel.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> University of Delaware</a>, Professor Chiu studies “char,” the carbon-rich residue produced when biomass burns without much oxygen. His team has probed both naturally produced <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wildfire-risk-is-rapidly-rising-across-the-southern-u-s/">wildfire</a> char and its artificial cousin, biochar.



The researchers uncovered a surprising role of chars: they can help starve methane-producing microbes and tilt microbial communities toward pathways that generate far less climate damage.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-wildfire-char-is-everywhere">Why wildfire char is everywhere</h2>



Char forms whenever organic matter is heated at high temperatures with limited <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dark-oxygen-discovery-deep-ocean-rocks-upends-centuries-of-scientific-beliefs/">oxygen</a>. In nature, that’s wildfires; in industry, it’s pyrolysis, the controlled heating of leftover biomass such as wood chips, corn stalks, rice husks, and other agricultural residues.&nbsp;



Commercial “biochar” is already used to improve soils, blend into compost, and filter stormwater. 



Wildfire char, by contrast, is scattered by the ton across burned landscapes and gradually worked into soils by wind, rain, and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plant-roots-could-be-key-to-fighting-climate-change/">roots</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-chars-that-behave-like-batteries">Chars that behave like batteries</h2>



Several years ago, Chiu’s group noticed something striking: chars made by pyrolysis behaved like tiny rechargeable batteries. They could store and release electrons - a property the team calls electron storage capacity (ESC).&nbsp;



That matters because <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/microbes-aquificales-discovered-in-hot-springs-breathe-oxygen-and-sulfur-at-same-time/">microbes</a> make a living moving electrons around. In oxygen-rich settings, they “breathe” oxygen to accept electrons as they break down sugars. In oxygen-poor places - think landfills, manure pits, waterlogged soils, rice paddies, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wetlands-are-a-hidden-source-of-rising-methane-emissions/">wetlands</a>, or the guts of anaerobic digesters - other organisms take over.&nbsp;



Among the most consequential are methanogens, microbes that churn out <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/microbes-have-emerged-as-major-source-of-methane-emissions/">methane</a>, a heat-trapping gas roughly 85 times more potent than CO₂ over the short term and responsible for about a third of current warming.



Chiu’s team showed that char gives many common soil microbes an alternative “breath.” In essence, char can stand in for oxygen as an electron sink, letting beneficial microbes keep metabolizing without ceding the field to methanogens. When that happens, methane production drops.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-wildfires-have-to-do-with-it">What wildfires have to do with it</h2>



Wildfire char has been part of Earth’s carbon cycle for millions of years. That longevity led Chiu to a simple hypothesis: if char has been embedded in soils for eons, microbes likely evolved ways to use it.&nbsp;



Across a range of chars - those born in wildfires and those made in kilns - the team measured substantial ESC, enough to change who thrives in oxygen-limited environments.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-much-charge-are-we-talking-about">How much “charge” are we talking about?</h2>



The numbers are eye-opening. In lab tests, a single gram of char - about a quarter teaspoon - could hold on the order of 10²¹ electrons. Scale that to real-world biomass and the potential grows fast.&nbsp;



U.S. agriculture alone generates roughly 140 million dry tons of crop residues each year (with corn stover and wheat straw leading the way), while forestry adds 60–70 million dry tons more.&nbsp;



Collectively, Chiu noted, chars represent an immense rechargeable, bioavailable reservoir of electrons - he likens it to a “trillion-trillion-trillion” (10³⁶) electrons injected into the global biogeochemical cycle annually.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-turning-down-methane-naturally">Turning down methane - naturally</h2>



In controlled experiments, all wildfire chars and plant-based biochars tested suppressed methane formation.&nbsp;



The mechanism is elegant: by giving char-“breathing” microbes a competitive edge, the material helps outcompete methanogens, which still produce more than 50% of global methane today.&nbsp;



Unlike a chemical additive that’s used once and gone, char can be reused by microbes repeatedly, serving as a long-lived electron buffer in soils, sediments, and engineered systems.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cleaner-water-healthier-soils">Cleaner water, healthier soils</h2>



Steering electrons through char doesn’t only curb methane. The same microbial pathways can keep arsenic from mobilizing into drinking water or crops and can remove nitrate and perchlorate from stormwater and groundwater.&nbsp;



That dovetails with biochar’s existing uses in filtration and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/planting-diverse-crops-traps-carbon-and-boosts-soil-health/">soil health</a>, suggesting one material can deliver multiple environmental services at once.



None of this minimizes the devastation of wildfires, which destroy ecosystems, businesses, and lives. But Chiu argues there’s value in learning from what’s left behind.&nbsp;



Wildfire char’s electron-trading ability points to a sustainable lever for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-mitigation-strategies-may-be-endangering-biodiversity/">climate mitigation</a> and pollution control - one built on microbes already common in nature and on carbon materials produced at massive scales, whether by accident (fires) or design (pyrolysis).



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-the-urgency-and-the-hope">Why the urgency - and the hope</h2>



CO₂ rightly dominates climate discussions, but it lingers for 50 to 200 years. Methane is different: far stronger in the near term and with an atmospheric lifetime of about 12 years. That makes near-term methane cuts an unusually fast-acting climate lever.&nbsp;



“If we can find ways to reduce methane, we could see the impact within our lifetimes,” said Professor Chiu.



That promise keeps his team pushing on the basic science: How exactly do microbes “breathe” a solid? How do different chars - from different fires, feedstocks, or kiln settings - shift ESC and microbial behavior?&nbsp;



And how can this knowledge be scaled into landfill covers, livestock waste systems, wetlands restoration, or post-fire land management so that nature’s own electron economy helps dial down a powerful greenhouse gas?



Char, in other words, may be the rare wildfire remnant that points forward.



Study co-authors include doctoral student Jiwon Choi and former graduate student Danhui Xin (now at the <a href="https://www.sccwrp.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Southern California Coastal Water Research Project</a>).



The research is published in the journal <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.5c05709" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Environmental Science &amp; Technology</a>.



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From ashes to action: Wildfire char holds a hidden climate solution

Wildfires leave behind loss and ruin - charred homes, scorched forests, communities upended. Yet even in those blackened remnants, Professor Pei Chiu sees an overlooked resource with climate potential.&nbsp; In his lab at the University of Delaware, Professor Chiu studies “char,” the carbon-rich residue produced when biomass burns without much oxygen. His team has probed both naturally produced wildfire char and its artificial cousin, biochar. The researchers uncovered a surprising role of chars: they can help starve methane-producing microbes and tilt microbial communities toward pathways that generate...

Tiny bits of organic matter bobbing at the ocean’s surface appear to help clouds freeze in some of the most pristine air on Earth.



New research shows that complex sugar molecules shed by <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/marine-microbes-can-tell-us-about-global-changes-in-the-ocean/">marine microbes</a> can trigger ice formation in cloud droplets across the vast Southern Ocean. This happens right in the temperature range that governs how long bright, cooling clouds survive and how much sunlight they bounce back to space.



The work draws on years of field campaigns, lab tests, and computer modeling led by scientists at the <a href="https://www.tropos.de/en/">Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research</a> (TROPOS) and its partners.



It helps explain why climate models have struggled to match observed cloud brightness over remote southern seas. In these regions, dust is scarce and human-made pollution is low.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-clouds-need-help-to-freeze">Clouds need help to freeze</h2>



Clouds do not freeze on their own; they need ice-nucleating particles (INPs). These microscopic seeds coax liquid droplets into ice. The kind of particle that dominates changes with temperature.



In the cleaner air around Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, INP levels are tiny. Even small shifts can strongly affect cloud reflectivity, precipitation, and lifetime.



Getting the mix right in climate models is essential for predicting <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/global-warming-is-accelerating-beyond-control-as-co2-levels-rise/">global warming</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-sugar-spike-reveals-a-clue">A sugar spike reveals a clue</h2>



Scientists have long suspected marine biology as a source of INPs, but the actual substances remained mysterious. A turning point came during the 2017 Polarstern expedition PS106.



“During the Polarstern expedition PS106 in 2017, we observed increased glucose concentrations in Arctic samples and concluded this glucose could be an indicator of ice nuclei in seawater,” said senior author Sebastian Zeppenfeld from TROPOS.



“The monosaccharide glucose is a degradation product of polysaccharides. It was therefore obvious to us that polysaccharides could be the missing piece of the puzzle.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ocean-sugars-and-freezing-clouds">Ocean sugars and freezing clouds</h2>



To test the idea, researchers collected material from the ocean’s surface microlayer. This living film teems with bacteria, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/algae-revived-after-7000-years-beneath-the-baltic-sea/">algae</a>, diatoms, fungi, protists, viruses, and more. Researchers had largely overlooked marine fungi as possible ice starters.



Study co-author Susan Hartmann from TROPOS examined ice nucleation in the laboratory using the INDA (Ice Nucleation Droplet Array) droplet freezing test.



“We investigated the ice nucleation of marine polysaccharides derived from <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/marine-fungi-can-be-trained-to-degrade-plastic-faster/">marine fungi</a> and protist, as well as commercially available standard polysaccharides,” she said.



Those droplet-freezing experiments produced the first temperature‑resolved data showing how many ice nuclei these marine polysaccharides generate. 



The results fill a key gap: between roughly -15°C (5°F) and -20°C (-4°F), the ocean sugars could account for nearly all biologically driven ice formation in cloud droplets.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cloud-models-get-missing-ice-link">Cloud models get missing ice link</h2>



Earlier work had shown that proteins tend to initiate freezing in relatively “warm” clouds (above about 28°F), while mineral dust dominates in very cold clouds (below -4°F).



But the Southern Hemisphere offers limited dust sources. Many mixed-phase clouds linger in the middle range - exactly where the new study shows marine polysaccharides are most potent.



Study lead author Roland Schrödner from TROPOS analyzed the data using the TM5 global atmospheric chemistry transport model.



“In our simulations, we were able to show that at -15 to -16 degrees Celsius (5 to 3°F), the polysaccharides over the gigantic areas of the oceans in the clean Southern Hemisphere are probably the most important ice nuclei," said Schrödner.



"They contribute more to ice formation than mineral <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dust-storms-are-a-surprising-source-of-deadly-air-pollution/">dust</a> emitted from the deserts, which is the main type of ice nuclei in climate models. This is a new and important finding for climate models.” 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-years-of-data-point-to-sugars">Years of data point to sugars</h2>



The study knits together aerosol microphysics, atmospheric chemistry, and global modeling groups at TROPOS.



Polysaccharide concentrations had been sampled during multiple expeditions: the Spanish Antarctic PI‑ICE mission, the German Arctic PASCAL/PS106 cruises, the tropical Atlantic MarParCloud campaign, and long‑term measurements on Spitsbergen.



Only by combining those datasets with lab freezing tests and model simulations could the team quantify the climatic punch of marine sugars.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-next-steps-for-cloud-ice-research">Next steps for cloud ice research</h2>



If nations succeed in cutting man‑made emissions, natural aerosol particles will matter even more for cloud behavior. Clean‑air regions respond sharply to even small aerosol changes, making the Southern Hemisphere a prime natural laboratory.



Beginning July 2025, the HALO‑South aircraft mission - led by TROPOS - will probe clouds, aerosols, and radiation over the Southern Ocean near New Zealand. 



A coordinated ground campaign, goSouth‑2, will deploy advanced remote‑sensing gear near Invercargill from September 2025 to March 2027. The goal is to watch clouds evolve in this pristine environment.



Life at the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-is-draining-nutrients-from-the-oceans-surface/">ocean’s surface</a> shapes cloud brightness, revealing deep links between biology and the atmosphere.



The new evidence that marine polysaccharides help seed ice over huge swaths of the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/carbon-storage-mystery-emerges-in-the-southern-ocean/">Southern Ocean</a> is a vivid reminder: what grows in the water below can change the sky above - and, through clouds, influence Earth’s climate itself.



The study was presented at the <a href="https://www.egu25.eu/">EGU General Assembly 2025</a> in Vienna, Austria. An abstract of the article can be found <a href="https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU25/EGU25-15357.html">here</a>.



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How tiny sugars in the Southern Ocean help clouds freeze

Tiny bits of organic matter bobbing at the ocean’s surface...

Rivers shape life on Earth. They deliver water, sediment, and nutrients from mountains to oceans, cutting paths that feed ecosystems and human communities alike. 



For over a century, scientists have tried to understand why some rivers form a single, meandering channel, while other rivers split into multiple, crisscrossing streams. New research finally offers an answer.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-causes-a-river-to-split">What causes a river to split?</h2>



In a study by geographers at the <a href="https://www.ucsb.edu/">University of California, Santa Barbara</a>, scientists analyzed 36 years of satellite data from 84 rivers around the world. The goal was to determine what causes a river to split into many channels rather than stick to one.



Study lead author Austin Chadwick conducted the investigation as a postdoctoral researcher at UCSB.



“We found that rivers will develop multiple channels if they erode their banks faster than they deposit sediment on their opposing banks. This causes a channel to widen and divide over time,” said Chadwick. 



The study settles a long-standing debate in Earth science and provides new insight for understanding <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/flood-fatalities-experts-reveal-the-hidden-health-impacts/">flood</a> risks and how to restore waterways to their natural states.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-studying-two-types-of-rivers">Studying two types of rivers</h2>



Rivers are typically sorted into two categories: single-threaded and multi-threaded. While both are common, most of the world’s largest rivers have multiple channels. 



A notable exception is the <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/the-mississippi-river-in-the-united-states/">Mississippi River</a> in the U.S., which has been heavily studied and remains single-threaded.



Historically, single-threaded rivers got more attention from field researchers because they are easier to study. Lab researchers, on the other hand, often focused on multi-threaded rivers since they were easier to recreate in tank experiments.



The idea for this study started in a lab tank at the University of Minnesota’s St. Anthony Falls Laboratory. While observing multi-threaded rivers, Chadwick noticed something strange. The river channels kept widening and splitting, and <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthpedia-articles/erosion/">erosion</a> outpaced deposition.



“I was banging my head on the wall because I kept measuring more erosion than deposition. And that was not what we’re taught in school,” said Chadwick. 



“That led me to read some old books from the Army Corps and other sources about examples where there’s more bank erosion than deposition.”



This curiosity led to a broader question: was the odd river behavior just a fluke in the lab - or did it happen in nature too?



“You generate a hypothesis in a laboratory setting and then you’re able to test it in nature,” said co-author Evan Greenberg, a former doctoral student at UCSB.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-rivers-choose-their-path">How rivers choose their path</h2>



To test their hypothesis, the team turned to satellite imagery, specifically Landsat data available through Google Earth Engine. 



They studied erosion and deposition patterns across dozens of rivers using a technique called particle image velocimetry.



Originally designed to track particles in lab fluids, they adapted it to track <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-is-transforming-arctic-rivers-in-unexpected-ways/">riverbanks</a> in satellite photos. 



The results were clear. Single-threaded rivers show a balance between erosion and deposition. This balance allows them to stay narrow and meander across the landscape.



Multi-threaded systems behave differently. In these rivers, erosion wins out. Banks erode faster than sediment can build up on the opposite side. The result? The channel keeps widening until it eventually splits.



“It is not like multi-threaded rivers are gaining water on average. They are still conveying the same amount of water through time, but they are doing that by constantly shuffling the size of the individual threads,” explained senior author Vamsi Ganti, an associate professor of geography at UCSB.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-new-insights-into-why-rivers-split">New insights into why rivers split</h2>



The key difference isn’t how much water flows - it’s how that flow reshapes the banks and moves sediment.



Most of the sediment in multi-threaded rivers ends up on the riverbed, not the banks. This eventually forms the islands and bars that separate each thread.



There were a few exceptions. For example, Brazil’s São Francisco didn’t follow the pattern, but the team traced that back to external changes. The river has been shrinking due to upstream <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dams-release-twice-as-much-carbon-as-they-store/">dams</a> and irrigation, pulling it out of its usual behavior.



“The question of what causes a river to be single-threaded or multi-threaded is pretty much as old as the field of geomorphology,” said Ganti.



Now, thanks to this work, there’s a clearer explanation: it comes down to the balance between erosion and deposition. 



Environmental conditions - like slope, flow, sediment type, and bank strength - still matter. But they influence the river by tipping that balance one way or the other.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-rivers-cut-off-from-their-floodplains">Rivers cut off from their floodplains</h2>



In the 20th century, many rivers were confined to narrow channels to make space for cities and agriculture. While that reduced flooding risks in some areas, it came with a cost.



Cutting rivers off from their floodplains disrupts ecosystems. It also raises the riverbed, making floods worse when they happen.



“Consider Hurricane Katrina,” Chadwick said. “When the levee broke, there was widespread flooding in part because the floodplain had been cut off from the Mississippi for so long that it had sunk relative to the river, allowing the floodwaters to pond there.”



Today, there’s a push to reconnect waterways with their floodplains. But to do that effectively, planners need to know how much space is required - and how long restoration will take.



This study offers a solution. The team developed a formula that calculates corridor width and recovery time for a channel returning to its natural state. 



It accounts for how quickly a river can abandon an old channel and whether it tends to be single- or multi-threaded.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-rethinking-restoration-projects">Rethinking restoration projects</h2>



The researchers found that single-threaded rivers need about ten times more space and time to re-establish themselves than multi-threaded ones, assuming equal stream power. That changes the equation for restoration - and may make some projects more feasible.



Photos from the 1930s show the Los Angeles River once had multiple channels before it was confined to concrete. 



Many rivers we now think of as single-threaded may have originally been multi-threaded. That could mean restoration won’t require as much effort - or money - as previously believed.



“A project currently considered prohibitively large or expensive may actually be affordable if a river was misclassified,” Chadwick explained.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-following-the-flow-into-the-future">Following the flow into the future</h2>



Ganti’s team is now studying how river behaviors change over time - whether these speed up, slow down, or change how many threads they have. These trends could reflect the effects of climate change and human development.



Chadwick, now continuing his research at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, is still exploring why erosion dominates and what drives the variety among multi-threaded systems.



Meanwhile, Greenberg is using satellite data at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to study how sediment moves through rivers. He’s also examining how dams influence river shapes over decades.



Rivers do more than flow. They feed farms, shape cities, and carry goods across continents. But they also flood, shift, and surprise us. 



This new research brings us closer to understanding how these forces shape our world - and how we can better live alongside them.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ads6567" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Science</a>.



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Why rivers split: A century-old mystery has finally been solved

Rivers shape life on Earth. They deliver water, sediment, and...

Diseño sin título - 1

Scientists analyzing sediment scraped from a rugged ridge nearly three miles under the Central Pacific Ocean expected calm, predictable chemistry. Instead they found a dense band of the radioactive isotope beryllium‑10 (10Be) packed into the layer that formed about 10 million years ago.



This enough extra atoms to raise the normal background by roughly seventy‑three percent. 



<a href="https://physics.anu.edu.au/contact/people/profile.php?ID=2472" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dr. Dominik Koll</a> of the Australian National University (<a href="https://www.anu.edu.au/">ANU</a>) and Helmholtz‑Zentrum Dresden‑Rossendorf (<a href="https://www.helmholtz.de/ueber-uns/helmholtz-zentren/zentren-a-z/zentrum/helmholtz-zentrum-dresden-rossendorf-hzdr/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HZDR</a>) led the international crew that pulled the samples and ran the accelerator mass‑spectrometry tests for the study.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-10-be-signals-from-the-ocean-floor">10Be signals from the ocean floor</h2>



The <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33321302/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">long‑lived radionuclide</a> 10Be forms high in the atmosphere when energetic cosmic rays shatter nitrogen and oxygen nuclei. 



Those new atoms float with aerosols for about one to two years before rain or snow carries them to the surface. Most wash into the ocean, where they mix with stable Beryllium-9 (9Be) that rivers deliver from eroding rocks. 



Levels of 10Be in modern sea water differ by more than a factor of two between polar and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/tropical-forests-are-struggling-to-keep-pace-with-climate-change/">tropical</a> basins because production, scavenging, and circulation of the element vary by latitude.



When the isotope finally sticks to an iron‑manganese ridge on the seafloor it starts an atomic clock that ticks for 1.39 million years, the half‑life of 10Be.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-10-be-fascinates-geologists">Why 10Be fascinates geologists</h2>



Because the element decays so slowly, researchers use it to date marine sediments, ice cores, and even meteorites across spans up to 15 million years.



A typical cosmogenic nuclide profile in a growing crust drops smoothly with depth as older layers lose 10Be; any bump therefore signals either faster supply or slower loss.



The crusts grow at speeds of mere millimeters per million years, so a handheld drill producing two‑millimeter slices can resolve history in 400,000‑year steps.



Such precision lets scientists spot subtle environmental swings that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/prehistoric-sea-monster-shark-fossils-found-in-worlds-largest-cave-325-million-years/">fossils</a> or chemical ratios may miss.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-buried-in-ferromanganese-crusts">Buried in ferromanganese crusts</h2>



“The floor of the major oceans on Earth exhibits one of the most pristine geological archives recording millions of years of environmental conditions and changes - <a href="https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/edu/lessonplans/ferrocrust.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ferromanganese crusts</a>,” said Dr. Koll.



Core after core from the Pacific showed the same pronounced swell centered on 10.1 million years. Accumulation persisted for at least 1.4 million years and boosted the integrated 10Be ocean inventory by 25 percent.



The discovery held across three independent ferromanganese crust samples that were hauled from sites thousands of miles apart, ruling out drilling artifacts or local pollution.



No comparable spike appears in younger sediments, showing that the event was unique within the last 15 million years of record.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-late-miocene-climate-shifts">Late Miocene climate shifts</h2>



The <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-023-01356-3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Late Miocene</a> saw the modern <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-023-01356-3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC)</a> strengthen as gateways south of Australia and South America widened, reorganizing global circulation. 



If swift new currents swept 10Be‑rich southern water into the central Pacific they could have flooded the region with extra isotope for centuries.



A reconfigured ACC would also explain why stable 9Be in the same layers declined, a hint that ocean mixing rather than land erosion controlled the signal.



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/arctic-fjords-show-signs-of-struggle-in-a-warming-world/">Meltwater</a> pulses from shrinking <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/antarctic-ice-sheet-patterns-point-to-rapid-melting-risks/">Antarctic ice</a> sheets are another possibility, yet sea‑level reconstructions place the largest rises earlier than the 10Be spike and model runs suggest they would dilute rather than concentrate the isotope.



Geochemical markers of carbonate dissolution track the beryllium layer, strengthening the argument that deep‑<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/water-might-have-formed-long-before-galaxies/">water</a> flow, not surface runoff, brought the anomaly. 



This pattern aligns with known disruptions in deep-ocean chemistry during the Miocene, including a sharp drop in calcium carbonate that was linked to shifting current regimes.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-10-be-settles-in-the-ocean">How 10Be settles in the ocean</h2>



Cosmic factors linger in the debate about how and why 10Be accumulates on the ocean floor.



An unusual lull in <a href="https://geomag.bgs.ac.uk/education/earthmag.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Earth’s magnetic field</a> or an extended solar grand minimum lets more galactic particles penetrate the atmosphere, but known episodes boost production for thousands, not hundreds of thousands, of years.



Another proposal invokes a dense interstellar cloud compressing the heliosphere so that Earth lost its protective bubble and endured a sustained cosmic ray barrage. 



Though speculative, the timing sits within astrophysical uncertainty windows and remains on the table pending stellar‑motion models.



Any celestial trigger must still mesh with the clear oceanographic fingerprint, so researchers increasingly suspect a two‑step story in which circulation changes amplified a modest atmospheric surge.



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



Teams are now targeting their search for 10Be to low‑sedimentation South Pacific ocean muds that offer finer time resolution than crusts. If the anomaly sharpens to a narrow peak it favors a cosmic origin, whereas a broad plateau supports current‑driven delivery.



They are also testing <a href="https://inis.iaea.org/records/tgyvc-9d306" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">53Mn</a>, another long‑lived isotope, with new laser‑assisted mass spectrometers to cross‑check the clock.



If future cores confirm the layer worldwide, stratigraphers could assign it as a global “golden spike,” simplifying the correlation of marine archives and sharpening models of Miocene climate evolution. 



Oceanographers, in turn, would gain a benchmark for tracing how the ACC matured and began ventilating the deep Pacific, a key step toward the ice‑dominated Earth we inhabit.



Astrophysicists might even glean constraints on past supernova rates or cloud encounters, linking galactic events to earthly sediments in a way that is rarely possible.



Either way, a thin ribbon of beryllium in the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/pacific-sea-levels-are-rising-faster-than-anywhere-in-the-world/">Pacific</a> reminds us that the ocean floor is more than a record of water: it is a cosmic diary written in radioactive ink.



The study is published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-55662-4">Nature Comm</a><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-55662-4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">un</a><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-55662-4">ications</a>.



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Scientists report an unexpected accumulation of radioactive material in the ocean

Scientists analyzing sediment scraped from a rugged ridge nearly three...

A new study shows how everyday waste - like ropes and plastic bags - is silently killing baby birds, not just in the oceans, but on land too.



Researchers spent four years tracking white storks in southern Portugal. What they found was brutal: plastic-filled nests, chicks caught in rope, and many young birds that didn’t survive.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-bird-nests-built-with-trash">Bird nests built with trash</h2>



The research was led by scientists at the <a href="https://www.uea.ac.uk/">University of East Anglia</a>, along with teams from the University of Montpellier and the University of Lisbon. 



The team focused on <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/white-storks-and-humans-have-a-long-intertwined-history/">white storks</a> - large, land-dwelling birds that often build their nests near people. And those nests? They were filled with trash.



The researchers inspected 568 nests from 32 colonies in Portugal’s Alentejo and Algarve regions. Of those nests, 91 percent contained human-made debris - mostly plastic. 



Soft plastic like shopping bags was found in 65 percent of nests. But the bigger danger was rope. Nearly half the nests had it, and it was the top cause of fatal entanglement.



In one especially detailed year of the study, scientists visited 93 nests weekly. They found that 12 percent of the chicks became tangled in debris - many fatally.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-chicks-caught-in-cords">Chicks caught in cords</h2>



Most of the ropes came from agriculture - specifically, baler twine made of polypropylene. 



This tough plastic rope is used to bind hay bales, but it doesn’t break down easily. Once it ends up in the environment, birds collect it for their nests. The consequences are often deadly.



In 63 percent of cases, entanglements were caused by ropes. Some nests contained as many as 22 separate ropes. Baler wrap, another plastic material used in farming, showed up in 13 percent of nests and entangled six nestlings.



White stork chicks in nests with more rope were more likely to get stuck. And once entangled, their chances of survival dropped dramatically.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-plastic-nest-problem">The plastic nest problem</h2>



“This is a serious issue,” said Professor Aldina Franco of the University of East Anglia. “These chicks get entangled in synthetic ropes when they are very young and the ropes slowly strangle their limbs as they grow - mostly legs and feet - leading to necrosis and amputations, they suffer a horrible death.”



It’s not just happening in Portugal. According to Franco, birds across Europe are weaving plastic waste into their nests. 



In Ukraine, soldiers have reported nests containing drone wiring. In the UK, small birds like <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/goldfinches-are-moving-to-new-homes-in-unusual-places/">goldfinches</a> and wrens are building nests with colored plastic threads.



“We show that the impact of plastic in the nests can be underestimated, because the negative effects of the ropes and other human-produced materials tend to happen in the early life of the chicks, at an average age of two weeks, and the deaths can go unnoticed," said Professor Franco. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-storks-signal-wider-threat">Storks signal wider threat</h2>



White storks are what scientists call an “indicator species” - meaning they can signal a wider environmental problem. If this many of them are getting trapped in plastic, other birds likely are too.



“This study suggests that the threat posed by human-derived materials to terrestrial birds may be far more severe than previously recognized,” said lead author Ursula Heinze of the University of East Anglia.



“Our findings offer new insights into the extent of nestling deaths caused by entanglement, and highlights the urgent need to remove and replace hazardous materials such as <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/hotspots-of-microplastic-pollution-found-in-the-north-sea/">polypropylene</a> baler twine from both agricultural use and the environment, given its harmful impacts on nestlings.”



While past research has looked at the presence of plastic in nests, this study went a step further. It tracked chicks from hatching to fledging, allowing scientists to see exactly when the entanglements occurred.



“Our main goal has been to identify the nesting materials that may pose significant risks to terrestrial bird species and pinpoint their origins, in order to develop effective strategies to mitigate these risks to wildlife,” noted Professor Franco.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mistaking-trash-for-twigs">Mistaking trash for twigs</h2>



Why do birds use plastic in the first place? According to Dr. Inês Catry from the University of Lisbon, white storks are known to incorporate discarded human-made materials into their <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/tangled-twigs-the-secrets-of-sturdy-bird-nests/">nests</a>, frequently nest near or within human settlements and often forage on organic waste at landfill sites.



“The reasons for using these materials in nest-building are not fully understood but may relate to their availability and the scarcity of natural ones, while some might also be mistaken for food, being inadvertently incorporated in the nests," said Dr. Catry.



“This study highlights that plastic pollution in terrestrial environments needs to be addressed and solutions to replace or safely discard of hazardous materials are urgently needed.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-land-birds-face-plastic-threat">Land birds face plastic threat</h2>



The study’s message is clear: plastic pollution isn’t just a marine problem. It’s affecting life on land in painful, visible ways. And even common farming tools like baler twine are part of the problem.



If these findings are ignored, more birds will suffer. However, if people and industries take responsibility - by <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/surprise-study-some-scientists-call-for-halting-ocean-plastic-cleanup-efforts/">cleaning up</a>, switching materials, and being more aware - there’s a chance to stop these deaths before they happen. 



The full study was published in the journal Ecological Indicators.



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Birds are building nests with plastic, and the consequences are deadly

A new study shows how everyday waste - like ropes...

A fast belt of westerly winds that helps shape summer weather across South America, southern Africa, Australia, and Oceania is now sliding toward the South Pole and blowing harder.



New research shows that about half of this shift in the Southern Hemisphere’s eddy‑driven jet (EDJ) comes straight from global warming, while the other half traces to a cluster of interacting climate drivers.



By sorting those influences and testing models against real‑world data, scientists have sharpened near‑term forecasts for the next decade. 



The work was led by Julia Mindlin and colleagues at the <a href="https://www.physes.uni-leipzig.de/en/institute-for-meteorology">Institute for Meteorology at Leipzig University</a>, within the university’s <a href="https://www.physes.uni-leipzig.de/en/institute-for-meteorology/research/arbeitsgruppe-klimakausalitaet">Climate Causality working group</a>, headed by Professor Marlene Kretschmer.



“The aim of our research is to better understand climate risks and reduce the uncertainties of regional predictions and projections when it comes to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/extreme-weather-is-pushing-nature-toward-a-breaking-point/">extreme weather</a> and climate events,” Kretschmer said.



The researchers focused on the summertime EDJ, which steers storms and controls heat and rainfall across the Southern Hemisphere.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tracking-decades-of-wind-shifts">Tracking decades of wind shifts</h2>



Prompted by recent changes seen in Southern Hemisphere wind patterns, the researchers began by examining historical climate observations back to 1950.



They confirmed two clear trends: summer EDJ wind speeds have increased, and the jet’s core latitude has crept steadily poleward.



To untangle why, they turned to a statistical framework known as causal inference, which helps isolate the influence of individual drivers - even when those drivers co‑vary in the climate system.



They then linked the causal results to a “storyline” approach - a way of tracing climate changes as chains of cause and effect. Storylines help explain why different climate models can yield different futures and give researchers a structured way to explore uncertainty.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-forces-behind-the-jet-stream-shift">Forces behind the jet stream shift</h2>



Combining the two approaches produced a clean attribution. Roughly 50 percent of the observed poleward shift in the Southern Hemisphere summer jet is directly attributable to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earths-volcanic-past-reveals-the-shocking-reality-of-global-warming/">global warming</a>.



The remaining half reflects the combined push of several other climate‑related changes: warming of the upper tropical atmosphere, strengthening winds in the stratosphere, and warming in the tropical Pacific.



Some of these influences are themselves partly driven by human‑caused climate change; others are harder to pin down. The same mix of factors also explains the measured acceleration of the jet, with global warming contributing to the rise in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-method-developed-to-measure-the-wind/">wind speeds</a>.



“The findings show how complex the jet stream’s reaction to climate change is, especially in terms of how rapidly the winds are strengthening,” Mindlin said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-forecasting-the-next-decade">Forecasting the next decade</h2>



Because climate models often disagree - especially over short horizons - the team next asked which models best mirrored the real atmosphere.



The researchers compared simulations to observed EDJ behavior to see which captured core features such as latitude, variability, and sensitivity to the identified drivers.



By giving more weight to models that get those pieces right, they narrowed the plausible range of jet changes expected over the coming ten years. That tighter range is critical for planners in agriculture, water management, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wildfires-are-changing-the-quality-of-our-air/">wildfire</a> preparedness, energy, and infrastructure.



“In the past, research primarily focused on long-term climate developments. Recently, however, short-term developments have taken center stage, as they are increasingly relevant for decision-makers. The methods we suggest can be used to improve climate predictions for the next ten years,” Mindlin said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-a-shifting-jet-stream-means">What a shifting jet stream means</h2>



When the EDJ edges poleward, the storm tracks it helps steer often shift with it. Regions on the jet’s equatorward side can see fewer frontal systems, bringing a tendency toward drier summers and greater <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-is-now-the-driving-force-behind-droughts/">drought</a> risk.



Farther south, where the jet now spends more time, stronger winds can intensify <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-soil-moisture-can-predict-severe-storms/">storms</a>, enhance ocean mixing, and reshape sea ice and marine ecosystems. 



These downstream changes matter for crop yields in southern Australia and reservoir inflows in Chile and Argentina. They also affect fire weather in South Africa and coastal infrastructure exposed to more frequent wind-driven extremes.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-causal-tools-reveal-the-truth">Causal tools reveal the truth</h2>



Many large‑scale climate drivers occur together: greenhouse warming, tropical Pacific sea surface shifts, and stratospheric circulation changes often overlap in time. Traditional correlations blur their separate roles.



Causal inference lets researchers ask counterfactual questions - what would the jet have done without the tropical Pacific warming, for instance? - and assign shares of responsibility.



Coupling those answers to storylines makes the science more usable, because decision‑makers can follow the chain from driver to local impact.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-matching-models-to-history">Matching models to history</h2>



No single climate model is perfect, but each gets some features right. By comparing existing models to observed EDJ behavior, Mindlin’s team effectively filtered out poor performers and leaned on those that reproduce the jet’s history.



These findings will help water agencies, grid operators, and insurers work with narrower, more actionable climate windows for the coming decade.



The team is extending this framework to related wind belts over the Pacific and the coupled Atlantic‑Indian sector. The researchers want to see how shifts in these jet streams link to regional heatwaves and multi‑year droughts - events that strain societies and ecosystems. 



As causal‑storyline methods mature, they could become standard practice for translating global climate signals into the local risk information that communities need.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2500697122">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.



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Why the Southern jet stream is shifting - and what it means

A fast belt of westerly winds that helps shape summer...

Around 201 million years ago, acidification turned Earth’s oceans from cradles of life into harbingers of extinction.



New research from the <a href="https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of St Andrews</a> and the <a href="https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&amp;rls=en&amp;q=University+of+Birmingham&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;oe=UTF-8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Birmingham</a> has confirmed for the first time that a sharp and rapid drop in ocean pH directly contributed to a major extinction event. The cause? A massive surge in atmospheric carbon dioxide.



The study represents the first full reconstruction of ancient ocean pH using boron isotopes in fossil oysters. It shows that the acidification during the Triassic-Jurassic boundary was not only severe but prolonged.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-earth-s-oceans-thrived-before-the-fall">Earth's oceans thrived before the fall</h2>



In the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earths-oceans-are-rapidly-changing-colors-matching-climate-predictions/">seas</a>, early modern corals, ichthyosaurs, ammonites, and bivalves thrived. Coral reefs flourished until the acidification triggered a "reef gap" - a period of reef absence that lasted hundreds of thousands of years. This collapse wasn’t subtle.



It reshaped marine ecosystems, reducing carbonate sedimentation and leaving many marine organisms unable to form shells or skeletons.



Using oysters from Lavernock Point, Wales, researchers detected a 0.29 unit or greater drop in ocean pH. It may have exceeded 0.41 units. This translates to more than a doubling of atmospheric CO₂, with levels climbing over 1300 ppm. For context, today’s CO₂ levels hover near 420 ppm.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-drastic-changes-fast-consequences">Drastic changes, fast consequences</h2>



The pH drop happened in tandem with a sharp decline in the carbon isotope ratio (δ¹³C), known as the "main carbon isotope excursion (CIE)."



This points to an enormous carbon release event. The study’s authors estimate that over 10,000 gigatons of carbon may have entered the system, mainly from Earth’s mantle. These emissions likely came from volcanic activity as the supercontinent Pangaea began breaking apart.



“The geological record tells us that major CO₂ release transforms the face of our planet, acidifying the ocean, and causing mass extinction. We have to act fast to avoid these outcomes in our future,” said study co-author Dr. James Rae.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-volcanoes-linked-to-ocean-acidification">Volcanoes linked to ocean acidification</h2>



Using the cGENIE Earth system model, the researchers tested scenarios with different carbon sources. The model confirmed that the likely carbon input was mantle-derived. 



The size and speed of the event eliminated methane clathrates as the dominant cause, although they may have contributed. The data also ruled out biomass burning and indicated that volcanic CO₂ and contact metamorphism played the lead roles.



Carbonate saturation dropped drastically. Marine organisms used to high-saturation <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-ocean-animals-connect-countries-and-continents/">seas</a> struggled as saturation levels fell below safe thresholds.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-initial-drop-hit-harder">Initial drop hit harder</h2>



Interestingly, the more catastrophic acidification may have happened earlier, during the “initial CIE”. Though no oyster samples span that exact interval, the data suggest that the initial event was faster and possibly two to three times more intense in terms of pH drop.



This would align with the wider collapse of carbonate sedimentation and widespread death of shell-building marine life.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-earth-s-oceans-slowly-bounce-back">Earth's oceans slowly bounce back</h2>



Despite the devastation, ocean pH eventually recovered. Around 201.28 million years ago, pH levels began to rise again. 



This rebound may have resulted from the emergence of silica-producing organisms. These organisms disrupted a process called reverse weathering.



This process had previously prolonged the high-CO₂, low-pH conditions by locking alkalinity away in clays. Its sudden stop helped restore ocean chemistry.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-history-warns-of-a-repeat">History warns of a repeat</h2>



“The mass extinction event during the Triassic-Jurassic period was over a much longer timeframe, whereas modern ocean <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-acidity-crosses-dangerous-threshold-threatening-marine-life/">acidification</a> is happening at a much quicker rate," said study co-author Dr. Sarah Greene. 



"This warning from the past should give us fresh cause to step up efforts to reduce human greenhouse gas emissions that could otherwise see acidification reach or exceed levels seen during these mass extinction events."



The data show this is not an isolated case. Ocean acidification has now been confirmed in at least three of Earth’s five mass extinctions. These include the Permian–Triassic, Toarcian, and now the Triassic–Jurassic. 



According to the study, the observed pH drops in these events are strikingly similar in size to worst-case predictions for 2100 under IPCC’s RCP8.5 scenario.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-acid-oceans-could-return-to-earth">Acid oceans could return to Earth</h2>



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/what-fossils-tell-us-about-life-after-mass-extinction/">Mass extinctions</a> don't just come from space rocks or ice ages. Earth can end its own chapters when the carbon cycle breaks down.



The Triassic–Jurassic event tells us that prolonged CO₂ release, even from natural sources, can tip the balance. It can turn oceans hostile and trigger a global loss of life.



Today, the same process is unfolding, only much faster. The past offers no comfort. It offers a clear call to action.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-61344-6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Communications</a>.



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Earth's last ocean crisis wiped out coral reefs - will it happen again?

Around 201 million years ago, acidification turned Earth’s oceans from...

From space exploration to mapping minerals from the skies, NASA’s technology doesn’t just look out toward the stars - it’s also helping scientists understand the land beneath our feet.



A new mapping effort aims to uncover critical minerals here on Earth, using the same instruments that were once pointed at Mars, the Moon, and beyond.



The search is happening right here in the American West. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey and NASA’s <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a> (JPL) are leading the effort.



Their partnership is called the Geological Earth Mapping Experiment - or GEMx. It’s possibly the largest airborne spectroscopic survey ever conducted in the U.S., and it’s fueled by decades of NASA technology that was originally built for space missions.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mapping-nevada-s-mars-look-alike">Mapping Nevada’s Mars look-alike</h2>



Cuprite, Nevada, looks like another planet. The hills are dry, pale, and scarred by water that once bubbled up from deep underground. Aside from a few Joshua trees, the land could pass for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/detecting-life-on-mars-a-breakthrough-in-space-research/">Mars</a>. It’s no coincidence NASA picked this spot to test its sensors.



For over 100 years, prospectors have been drawn to Cuprite’s mineral-rich terrain. More recently, scientists have been using it as a test site for technology designed to analyze minerals in rocky surfaces across the solar system.



“Sensors that&nbsp;discovered lunar water,&nbsp;charted <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/saturn-has-128-new-moons-with-odd-orbits-and-mysterious-origins/">Saturn’s moons</a>, even investigated ground zero in New York City were all tested and calibrated at Cuprite,” said Robert Green, a senior research scientist at NASA’s JPL in Southern California.



Green has been fine-tuning NASA’s instruments in this part of Nevada for decades. His latest mission? Using high-altitude <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cooling-earths-climate-with-commercial-aircraft-may-be-possible/">aircraft</a> and advanced sensors for mapping minerals in huge areas of the U.S. In particular, the search is on for mineral deposits that are vital to national security and modern technology.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mapping-minerals-from-60-000-feet">Mapping minerals from 60,000 feet</h2>



The U.S. relies on imports for 50 different critical minerals - materials like <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/volcanic-white-gold-a-lithium-deposit-valued-at-1-5-trillion-has-been-discovered-in-the-u-s/">lithium</a> and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/water-and-ice-may-reveal-where-rare-earth-elements-are-hiding/">rare earth elements</a> that are used in smartphones, medical devices, and electric vehicle batteries. 



To reduce that dependency, the U.S. Geological Survey is trying to locate reliable domestic sources.



NASA’s role is in the air. Flying at 60,000 feet (18,200 meters), its aircraft carry sensors that can detect the molecular makeup of rocks on the ground. These sensors read light patterns far beyond what human eyes can see.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/e1-cuprite-spectroscopy-diptych.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/mineral-mapping_nasa-teams_cuprite-nevada-mountains_NASA_1s.webp" alt="The hills of Cuprite, Nevada, appear pink and tan to the eye (top image) but they shine with mica, gypsum, and alunite among other types of minerals when imaged spectroscopically (lower image). NASA sensors used to study Earth and other rocky worlds have been tested there. Credit: USGS/Ray Kokaly" class="wp-image-1978195"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The hills of Cuprite, Nevada, appear pink and tan to the eye (top image) but they shine with mica, gypsum, and alunite among other types of minerals when imaged spectroscopically (lower image). NASA sensors used to study Earth and other rocky worlds have been tested there. Click image to enlarge. Credit: USGS/Ray Kokaly</figcaption></figure>



Since 2023, the <a href="https://airbornescience.nasa.gov/content/Geological_Earth_Mapping_Experiment_GEMx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">GEMx</a> campaign has mapped over 190,000 square miles (492,000 square kilometers) of terrain across North America. That’s roughly the size of Spain.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-long-partnership-with-deep-roots">Long partnership with deep roots</h2>



This kind of collaboration isn’t new. NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey have worked together since the Apollo era. In the 1960s, USGS geologists created maps of the Moon to help NASA pick safe landing spots for <a href="https://www.earth.com/image/moon-landing-of-apollo-11-in-1969/">Apollo</a> astronauts.



Before astronauts ever set foot on the <a href="https://airbornescience.nasa.gov/content/Geological_Earth_Mapping_Experiment_GEMx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Moon</a>, they trained with scientists at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona. 



That legacy continues today, with training for the next generation of astronauts heading to the Moon through NASA’s Artemis program.



On the ground today, USGS geophysicist Todd Hoefen and his team collect mineral samples to match with data captured from the air. 



Their fieldwork helps confirm that what NASA’s sensors see from the sky matches the reality on the ground.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tech-behind-the-mineral-mapping">Tech behind the mineral mapping</h2>



At the heart of GEMx is a technology called imaging spectroscopy. NASA’s JPL started developing it back in the 1980s. 



The principle is simple but powerful: every molecule reflects and absorbs light in a unique way, like a fingerprint. Imaging <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/physics-and-astronomy/spectrometer" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">spectrometers</a> can detect those patterns.



The key instrument in GEMx is AVIRIS-Classic - the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer. It’s about the size of a mini fridge and flies in planes. 



Unlike a regular camera that sees just red, green, and blue, AVIRIS sees over 200 different wavelengths, including many in the infrared spectrum.



NASA has used this technology all over the solar system. These spectrometers have studied methane lakes on Saturn’s moon Titan, scanned Pluto’s thin atmosphere, and are now on their way to Jupiter’s moon Europa to search for the building blocks of life.



“One of the cool things about NASA is that we develop technology to look out at the solar system and beyond, but we also turn around and look back down,” said Ben Phillips, a longtime NASA program manager who led GEMx until he retired in 2025.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-old-tech-meets-new">Old tech meets new</h2>



AVIRIS-<a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/airborne-visible-infrared-imaging-spectrometer-aviris/">Classic</a> has flown for more than 30 years. Now, it’s flying alongside its replacement: AVIRIS-5. The new instrument began service in 2025 and is expected to continue the legacy - only with sharper eyes and more power.



Packed into a <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/armstrong/er-2-aircraft/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NASA ER-2 aircraft</a>, which is essentially a high-altitude science lab in the sky, the two instruments are flying over the Western U.S. through fall 2025. 



The plane cruises at double the height of commercial jets. The pilot, Dean Neeley, wears a spacesuit due to the thin air at those altitudes.



AVIRIS-5 can zoom in on areas as small as one foot (30 centimeters) across, offering ten times the resolution and data quality of its predecessor.



“The newest generation of AVIRIS will more than live up to the original,” Green said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mineral-maps-on-the-way">Mineral maps on the way</h2>



Once the data from these flights is processed and validated, the U.S. Geological Survey will release detailed mineral maps. 



These maps could help guide future mining efforts - and reduce U.S. reliance on imported materials.



But for now, the skies over the American West are filled with quiet planes carrying space-age sensors, scanning the rocks below for a better understanding of what we’ve got - and where we still need to go.



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NASA's flying science labs are mapping minerals and deposits from high in the sky

From space exploration to mapping minerals from the skies, NASA’s...

Some of the most familiar atoms in the air above our heads appear to vanish when scientists audit Earth’s interior. Geochemists have spent decades tracing nitrogen’s trail yet always come up billions of tons short.



Earth’s rocky shell, the <a href="https://link.springer.com/rwe/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_5237-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bulk silicate Earth (BSE)</a>, holds only one to five parts per million of nitrogen, a tally wildly below the cargo delivered by meteorites, say planetary physicists <a href="https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=56709030300" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Shengxuan Huang</a> and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Taku-Tsuchiya-2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Taku Tsuchiya</a> of <a href="https://jpcup.niad.ac.jp/institute/0352.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ehime University</a> in a recent study.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-earth-has-a-nitrogen-gap">Earth has a nitrogen gap</h2>



The nitrogen gap also skews the ratios between carbon, nitrogen, and argon, leaving Earth with a super‑chondritic chemical fingerprint that standard accretion models cannot match. 



Solving the puzzle matters because those ratios control everything from mantle redox to atmospheric pressure.



Earlier <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-023-02102-w" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">studies</a> blamed violent impacts that might have blasted nitrogen into space or suggested the planet formed from odd, nitrogen‑poor building blocks. 



Neither idea fit every observation, especially the tight link between carbon and argon abundances.



Huang and colleagues wondered whether the answer lay not in the sky but in the metal heart of the planet. 



Their hunch turned on how elements swap partners when molten rock and liquid iron separate during core‑mantle differentiation.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-supercomputers-inside-a-magma-ocean">Supercomputers inside a magma ocean</h2>



To test it, the team recreated a primordial magma ocean, a globe‑spanning sea of lava that blanketed early Earth. 



They used quantum‑level simulations to push virtual samples to 135 gigapascals and 9,000°F, conditions matching depths well below today’s mantle.



The code tracked each nitrogen atom as it chose between silicate melt and liquid iron, tallying a mathematical <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/partition-coefficient" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">partition coefficient</a> for every depth. 



At 60 gigapascals (GPa), extreme pressure found deep inside the Earth, nitrogen was over 100 times more likely to bond with iron than with rock.



“Under the intense heat and pressure of a deep magma ocean, nitrogen became a ‘metal lover’,” said Huang. 



The strong preference rose even higher at core‑forming depths, then leveled off, revealing a curved, not linear, relationship with pressure.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-pressure-as-matchmaker">Pressure as matchmaker</h2>



The curvature solves a long‑standing lab conflict in which some high‑pressure experiments saw <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/nitrogen-was-plentiful-for-early-life-on-earth/">nitrogen</a> favor metal while others did not. Those tests straddled the inflection point on the curve, so each captured a different slice of the trend.



Because the effect strengthens rapidly between 20 and 60 GPa, only a deep magma ocean can drain enough nitrogen into the core to match today’s <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earth-has-ghost-plume-rising-from-deep-within-the-planets-mantle-up-to-the-surface/">mantle measurements</a>. 



Shallow oceans, by contrast, would leave too much nitrogen behind and pull Earth’s volatile ratios in the wrong direction.



Calculations show that a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/evidence-magma-ocean-molten-rock-found-moons-surface-south-pole-chandrayaan-3/">magma ocean</a> reaching 60 GPa would lock roughly eighty percent of the planet’s nitrogen inside the core before the first crust ever solidified. The residual mantle concentration lands squarely in the observed one‑to‑five‑ppm window.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-earth-s-nitrogen-loves-metal">Earth's nitrogen loves metal</h2>



The simulations explain the atomic gymnastics behind the preference. Rising pressure breaks nitrogen’s bonds with itself and hydrogen, allowing single atoms to slip into gaps between iron atoms where they behave almost neutrally.



Inside <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/silicate-melt" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">silicate melt</a>, however, high pressure forces nitrogen to bond with silicon as nitride ions, making it act like a charged outsider in an oxygen‑rich network. The contrasting chemical states tip the energetic scales decisively toward the core.



Adding <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sulfur-may-have-played-key-role-origin-of-life-on-earth/">sulfur</a> or silicon to the metal cuts nitrogen’s affinity roughly in half, yet even an alloy doped with light elements still grabs the lion’s share. That robustness makes the core a dependable nitrogen vault throughout Earth history.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-carbon-and-argon-tag-along">Carbon and argon tag along</h2>



Carbon shows subtler metal attraction. Laboratory experiments find metal‑silicate partition coefficients for carbon that swing from tens to above a thousand depending on temperature and oxygen fugacity. 



Nitrogen’s coefficient, by contrast, rockets to several hundred under the same conditions.



Argon cares little for iron, preferring to stay either in silicate melt or in an atmosphere if one exists. This hierarchy (nitrogen &gt; carbon &gt; argon) naturally inflates <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X20305185" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Earth’s atmospheric 36Ar/N ratio</a> while boosting its mantle C/N figure, without invoking exotic loss processes.



The model therefore reproduces two independent geochemical puzzles with one physical mechanism: deep core segregation in a thick magma ocean.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-clues-from-mantle-chemistry">Clues from mantle chemistry</h2>



Modern basalts <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-discover-why-stealthy-volcanoes-erupt-without-warning/">erupting</a> at mid‑ocean ridges still record the aftermath. Their nitrogen‑to‑argon ratios hover near chondritic values, a hint that the upper mantle has stayed nitrogen‑poor and argon‑moderate since the Hadean.



Diamonds mined from cratonic roots occasionally trap tiny blebs of iron nitride, mineralogical breadcrumbs that support a deep nitrogen transfer early in Earth’s life. Each inclusion whispers that some nitrogen did indeed ride metal downward.



Geochemists reached a similar <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1505.03813" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">conclusion</a> back in 2015 by tallying global isotope budgets. Scientists have confirmed that the majority of the planetary budget of Nitrogen is in the solid Earth.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-earth-s-nitrogen-and-exoplanets">Earth's nitrogen and exoplanets</h2>



Keeping just a sliver of nitrogen in the mantle turned out to be a sweet spot. Too much core sequestration would starve the atmosphere, while too little would upset carbon balance and maybe climate stability.



The work therefore tightens the range of interior conditions that can yield a clement surface, a useful guide as astronomers weigh <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/white-dwarf-planets-are-more-habitable-than-we-thought/">exoplanet habitability</a>. 



Planets that form quickly and differentiate deeply may need later recycling to deliver enough nitrogen for life’s molecules.



Earth pulled off that tightrope act, but only just. Understanding how it happened helps scientists decode not only our own planet’s past but the prospects of rocky worlds scattered across the galaxy.



The study is published in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X25000901?via%3Dihub" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Earth and Planetary Science Letters</a>.



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Scientists think they found Earth's 'missing nitrogen' in a very unexpected place

Some of the most familiar atoms in the air above...

For most of the 2000s, climate scientists could draw a fairly straight line through Earth’s rising temperature curve. The world was warming, yes, but the pace was predictable - until it wasn’t.



Sometime around 2010, the slope steepened, and over the past 15 years, the thermometer has shot up faster than many forecasts had anticipated. 



After back-to-back record-shattering years in 2023 and 2024, researchers began hunting for a hidden driver of warming and found an unexpected culprit: smog over East Asia had cleared too quickly, removing a key layer of atmospheric protection.



“When something like the anomalous, record‑breaking warmth of 2023 and 2024 happens, climate scientists start to wonder if there’s a factor we’re missing,” said co-author Robert Allen, a climatologist at the <a href="https://www.ucr.edu/">University of California, Riverside</a>. “This study was our effort to figure out what that might be.”



Allen teamed up with Bjørn Samset from <a href="https://cicero.oslo.no/en">Norway’s Center for International Climate and Environmental Research</a> and dozens of colleagues worldwide to run eight state‑of‑the‑art climate models through thousands of simulated futures. All roads pointed back to tiny, sun‑scattering particles called <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-tiny-aerosols-in-sea-spray-influence-earths-climate/">aerosols</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-from-choking-smog-to-clear-skies"><a></a>From choking smog to clear skies</h2>



Aerosols - think sulfate haze from coal smokestacks or the soot in diesel exhaust - cool the planet by reflecting sunlight and seeding bright, reflective clouds. 



East Asia, and China in particular, pumped vast quantities of these particles into the atmosphere during its early‑2000s industrial boom.



Then, in response to dire health statistics, Beijing launched an aggressive clean‑air campaign. Between 2010 and 2020, sulfur dioxide emissions, a major source of sulfate aerosols, fell by roughly 75 percent.



In human terms, the smog cleanup is an unambiguous win; <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/understanding-how-air-pollution-forms-may-help-us-prevent-it/">air pollution</a> once killed more than a million Chinese citizens each year. In climate terms, though, it removed a temporary sunshade. 



Fewer reflective particles meant more solar energy reached Earth’s surface, especially over the Northern Hemisphere. "The spike in warming aligns with a dramatic drop in aerosol pollution from China’s skies,” Samset said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-smog-reduction-drives-warming-surge">Smog reduction drives warming surge</h2>



The models suggest that East Asia’s reduced smog and clearer air added about 0.05 °C of extra warming per decade - enough to account for most of the acceleration since 2010, even after natural swings like <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/el-nino-climate-shifts-date-back-250-million-years/">El Niño</a> are removed.



That figure might feel small, but in a world already teetering near 1.5 °C above pre‑industrial averages, every hundredth of a degree matters. Extreme heat waves become more frequent, glaciers melt faster, and coral reefs suffer additional <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-worlds-largest-coral-bleaching-event-is-now-underway/">bleaching</a>.



And the effects are not confined to East Asia. Atmospheric circulation spreads heat anomalies around the globe. The United States and Europe, for example, endured record‑breaking summers in 2023 partly because the planet as a whole was running warmer than usual.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cleaning-air-isn-t-enough">Cleaning air isn't enough</h2>



Allen calls the situation a cautionary tale. “Reducing air pollution has clear health benefits, but without also cutting CO2, you’re removing a layer of protection against climate change.”



In other words, focusing on smog particles while ignoring greenhouse gases is like taking off a pair of sunglasses and stepping into brighter light. The glare returns instantly because aerosols live only about a week in the lower atmosphere.



“Sulfur dioxide and sulfate aerosols have lifetimes of about a week. Once they’re removed, we’ll eventually settle back into a warming rate that’s more consistent with the long‑term trend,” Allen explained. Yet the planet must first absorb that short‑term pulse of extra heat.



Samset stresses that carbon dioxide and methane remain the main villains. “Our study focused on the recent, dramatic speedup in global warming, which is very concerning but still small compared to the overall, long‑term amount of warming from increased CO2 and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rising-methane-emissions-threaten-earths-habitability/">methane</a>.” 



Both gases linger for decades or centuries, meaning their warming power is cumulative and relentless.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-more-smog-cleanups-more-warming">More smog cleanups, more warming</h2>



China is not alone. India, parts of Africa, and even the United States continue to tighten air‑pollution rules.



RAMIP - the <a href="https://ramip.ncas.ac.uk/">Regional Aerosol Model Intercomparison Project</a> that supplied data for the current paper - plans to test how simultaneous clean‑ups might rewrite near‑term climate projections. Early hints suggest the global thermometer could tick upward even faster unless greenhouse‑gas cuts accelerate in parallel.



The dilemma has revived interest in geoengineering schemes that would mimic the cooling effect of aerosols by spraying reflective particles high into the stratosphere.



Allen urges extreme caution: “It’s a card we might have to play if we’re pushed into a corner,” he acknowledged, “but it comes with a host of risks, including disrupted rainfall patterns, food insecurity, and political tensions.”



Unlike accidental pollution, engineered aerosols could be difficult to govern and almost impossible to stop quickly without triggering a sudden rebound in temperatures.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-both-battles-must-be-fought">Both battles must be fought</h2>



For now, the lesson is clear. “<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/global-air-quality-trends-revealed-in-new-images/">Air quality</a> improvements are a no‑brainer for public health,” Allen said. “But if we want to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, we have to cut CO2 and methane too. The two must go hand in hand.”



Cleaner skies have bought East Asia healthier lungs and bluer horizons. They have also revealed, in stark relief, the heat still trapped by our greenhouse gas emissions. 



Ultimately, as the world works to end one environmental crisis, it cannot afford to ignore the other.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-02527-3">Communications Earth &amp; Environment</a>.



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China’s fight against smog has actually sped up global warming

For most of the 2000s, climate scientists could draw a...

Calcium,Carbonate,Lime,For,Treat,(soil,Or,Water),With,Lime

Carbon dioxide usually floats away into the sky, but a tiny soil bacterium has a different plan. Under the right <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-system-captures-carbon-dioxide-directly-from-air/">conditions</a>, it converts the gas into solid limestone.



The trick belongs to Bacillus megaterium, and a new study shows how the microbe locks away carbon with remarkable efficiency.



Lead author <a href="https://people.epfl.ch/dimitrios.terzis?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dimitrios Terzis</a> of <a href="https://www.epfl.ch/labs/lms/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">EPFL’s Soil Mechanics Laboratory</a> reports the results.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-bacteria-turn-carbon-into-limestone-fast">Bacteria turn carbon into limestone fast</h2>



Inside sealed flasks pressurized with <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earth-day-2025-innovation-takes-the-lead-in-environmental-action/">carbon</a> dioxide at more than 470 times atmospheric levels, the bacteria precipitated calcium carbonate with 94 percent of its carbon coming directly from the gas. Such efficiency dwarfs that of most engineered sorbents.



“We know that dozens of bacteria have the potential to mineralize crystals,” says Dimitrios Terzis. He argues that harnessing one that eats carbon directly will simplify industrial roll‑out.



That performance matters because the most polluting industries need options at the smokestack, not halfway around the world. 



A biological process that makes rock on demand could fit into cement plants, steel mills, or even soil stabilization rigs.



Isotope tracing showed that only six percent of the crystal carbon came from urea, confirming that the cells bypassed the older, ammonia‑producing route. 



The carbonate lattice even matched the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Scanning-electron-microscope-images-of-calcium-carbonate-crystals-a-Rhombohedral-calcite_fig1_342184846" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">rhombohedral morphology</a> of geologic calcite in electron‑microscope images.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-soil-microbe-traps-carbon-as-limestone">Soil microbe traps carbon as limestone</h2>



Bacillus megaterium is an aerobic, rod‑shaped organism about 4 micrometers long, known to <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00253-021-11424-6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">biotech</a> engineers for vitamin B12 production, enzyme synthesis, and plant growth <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earth-faces-hidden-mechanical-stress-from-carbon-emissions/">promotion</a>. Few people, however, picture it as a mason.



The Swiss group exploited a less famous trait, the cell’s knack for <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969722075416" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">microbially induced calcite precipitation</a> when calcium ions are present. In lab culture that reaction can bind sand grains into a single block in hours.



The species earned its name, “mega‑bacterium,” in 1884 because its cells were considered giant for bacteria of the day. Modern genetic work has since moved it to the genus <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?mode=info&amp;id=1404" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Priestia</a>, yet its mineral talents remain intact.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-making-calcite-from-co₂">Making calcite from CO₂</h2>



The classic pathway, <a href="https://www.eeer.org/journal/view.php?doi=10.4491/eer.2020.379" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ureolysis</a>, uses the enzyme urease to split urea, raise the pH, and trigger calcite formation, but it leaves behind ammonia that needs costly cleanup. That waste stream limits large‑scale use.



The alternative relies on <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/carbonic-anhydrase" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">carbonic anhydrase</a>, an enzyme that hydrates carbon dioxide to bicarbonate, which then reacts with calcium to form rock without toxic residues. Because the reaction consumes acid, it can even run in slightly acidic flue gases.



The new study confirmed that CO₂ concentrations above the 470‑fold threshold switch the microbe from urease to carbonic anhydrase, accounting for the 94 percent mineralization observed. That metabolic flip is as close to a shut‑off valve for ammonia as biology offers.



Both enzymes sit in the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/periplasm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">periplasm</a>, so CO₂ or urea never needs to cross internal membranes. That localization speeds precipitation and gives engineers a handle on reaction rates through gas flow or nutrient dosing.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-cleaner-path-for-cement">A cleaner path for cement</h2>



<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-024-04234-8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cement production</a> is responsible for roughly eight percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, almost three billion tons a year. Cutting that share is one of the toughest problems in climate policy.



Replacing a slice of cement with bacteria‑grown calcite could shave millions of tons off that footprint while also storing carbon for centuries. Because the mineral is stable over geological timescales, the risk of re‑release is low.



Pilot <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0009250921001755" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">studies</a> in Denmark found that concrete blocks fortified with bio‑calcite lost less than two percent of their compressive strength after 300 freeze‑thaw cycles. 



Durability metrics matter because building codes reward long service life as much as low embodied <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-mangroves-could-store-more-carbon-as-oceans-rise/">carbon</a>.



Regulators from California to the European Union are drafting <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590123024017729" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">performance‑based rules</a> that allow novel binders, provided safety tests match conventional materials. 



<a href="https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2014/ta/c4ta03235g" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bio‑calcite</a> supporters say those rules open doors for microbes where prescriptive cement standards once blocked change.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-scaling-limestone-carbon-capture-for-industry">Scaling limestone carbon capture for industry</h2>



“This study shows how environmental microbiology, when combined with advanced laboratory techniques, can reveal mechanisms that would otherwise remain hidden,” says <a href="https://www.supsi.ch/en/pamela-principi" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pamela Principi</a>, researcher at <a href="https://www.supsi.ch/en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SUPSI</a>. She credits <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6034115/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">isotope tracing</a> with proving where the carbon ended up.



Medusoil already operates pilot bioreactors and plans field trials that inject the culture into aggregate to make load‑bearing blocks. 



The company claims its prototype units capture several pounds of CO₂ per cubic foot of material treated.



<a href="https://microbialcellfactories.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12934-024-02437-7" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Researchers at Newcastle University</a> recently engineered Bacillus subtilis with a carbonic anhydrase from <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/bacillus-megaterium" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">B megaterium</a> and cut flue‑gas CO₂ by nearly 80 percent in bench tests. The result hints at plug‑and‑play biology for existing industrial streams.



Economic models suggest that, if run on renewable electricity, the microbial units could deliver capture costs below $50 per metric ton, competitive with amine scrubbing at small scale. 



Calcium feedstocks could come from desalination brines, mine tailings, or recycled concrete fines, reducing mining impacts.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-boosting-limestone-growth-from-carbon">Boosting limestone growth from carbon</h2>



Challenges remain, including piping sterile media, balancing pH in large reactors, and sourcing calcium without extra emissions. 



None of those hurdles look insurmountable compared with the kilns that currently heat limestone to 2,642 °F.



Still, the twin‑enzyme strategy demonstrated by B megaterium offers a rare chance to turn an industrial liability into literal building material overnight. If it scales, future walls could double as carbon vaults.



Future research will probe whether gene editing can push the carbonic anhydrase pathway to work at normal atmospheric CO₂, eliminating the need for pressurization. 



Teams are also exploring how organic polymers secreted by the cells might tailor crystal shapes for specific mechanical properties.



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This research was completed by scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (<a href="https://www.epfl.ch/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">EPFL</a>), the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (<a href="https://www.supsi.ch/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SUPSI</a>), and start‑up <a href="https://medusoil.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Medusoil</a>



The study is published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-07323-9" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Scientific Reports</a>.



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Bacteria discovered that turns CO2 gas into stone, which could then be used for buildings

Carbon dioxide usually floats away into the sky, but a...

Close-up,Of,Antarctic,Moss,At,Fort,Point,,Antarctica

Hidden beneath East Antarctica’s thick ice lie secrets from a warmer, ancient world. For decades, scientists have speculated about what lies under this frozen continent.&nbsp;



Researchers have uncovered remnants of vast prehistoric river landscapes buried beneath East Antarctica. These hidden features could help refine predictions about the future of our planet’s <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/antarctic-sea-ice-extremes-disrupt-global-climate-systems/">ice</a> and oceans.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-plains-found-under-east-antarctica-s-ice">Plains found under East Antarctica’s ice</h2>



A team led by researchers from <a href="https://www.durham.ac.uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Durham University</a> studied radar data across a 3,500 km (2,175 mile) stretch of Antarctica, from Princess Elizabeth Land to George V Land. 



They discovered 31 flat surfaces beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS). These surfaces, preserved under ice as thick as 2,500 meters (8,200 feet), appear as coherent, low-relief plains. 



The study showed that they were once part of a single fluvial landscape that formed after East Antarctica separated from Australia.



The researchers used data from four major airborne surveys. Their detailed analysis revealed gently sloping surfaces with consistent elevations, now separated by deep glacial troughs. 



These plains dip coastward and cluster around 200 to 450 meters (656 to 1,476 feet) above present sea level, once adjusted for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/antarctic-sea-ice-collapse-linked-to-a-sudden-surge-in-ocean-salt/">ice</a> unloading.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-origins-in-ancient-river-systems">Origins in ancient river systems</h2>



The scientists interpret the surfaces as remnants of ancient river plains. After the continents split, rivers eroded the land to a base level, creating a vast, seaward-sloping plain. 



These features closely resemble those along the Australian coast, which formed through similar processes.



According to the team, the plains likely developed between 80 and 34 million years ago, after the breakup and before widespread glaciation.



“Information such as the shape and geology of the newly mapped surfaces will help improve our understanding of how ice flows at the edge of East <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/what-lies-beneath-16000-feet-of-antarctic-ice-a-world-never-before-seen-by-humans/">Antarctica</a>,” said Dr. Guy Paxman.



“This, in turn, will help make it easier to predict how the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/antarctic-ice-sheet-past-present-and-future/">East Antarctic Ice Sheet</a> could affect sea levels under different levels of climate warming in the future.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-surfaces-in-east-antarctica-survived-ice">Surfaces in East Antarctica survived ice</h2>



Remarkably, these river-carved surfaces have survived beneath the ice for over 30 million years. 



They were not destroyed by glacial erosion. Instead, fast-moving ice carved deep troughs between them, leaving the flat surfaces mostly intact. These areas likely remained frozen at the base, which reduced erosion.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/antarctic-ice-sheet_underneath_topography_credit-S-Ink_1m.jpg"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/antarctic-ice-sheet_underneath_topography_credit-S-Ink_1s.webp" alt="The topography beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Credit: Open-access s-ink.org repository" class="wp-image-1978129"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The topography beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Click image to enlarge. Credit: Open-access s-ink.org repository</figcaption></figure>



Research shows that today's fast-flowing glaciers, such as Totten and Denman, move through these deeper troughs. 



Meanwhile, the ice above the flat surfaces is slow-moving and cold-based, further preserving the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/antarcticas-waters-are-getting-saltier-and-it-could-transform-earths-climate/">landscape</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-bedrock-confirms-river-not-ice-origins">Bedrock confirms river, not ice origins</h2>



The researchers found that the surfaces cross different geological provinces, including crystalline gneisses and sedimentary rocks. 



This confirms that the surfaces did not form due to rock boundaries. They formed from river erosion, not through ice or marine processes. Their consistency in elevation and slope supports this.



Some of these surfaces now align with exposed regions like the Bunger and Vestfold Hills. These exposed features show signs of glacial scouring, but not enough to erase the original fluvial structure. 



The research suggests limited modification by ice, mostly during the Oligocene or early Miocene periods.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-influence-on-future-ice-sheet-retreat">Influence on future ice sheet retreat</h2>



These buried plains are not just ancient relics. They still shape the modern flow of the EAIS. Ice moves fastest through the troughs, not over the flat surfaces. 



The researchers argue that these plains could anchor ice during future warming events, potentially forming grounded ice rises.



“This study brings the jigsaw pieces of data together, to reveal the big picture: how these ancient surfaces formed, their role in determining the present-day flow of the ice, and their possible influence on how the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/antarctic-ice-sheet-patterns-point-to-rapid-melting-risks/">East Antarctic Ice Sheet</a> will evolve in a warming world,” noted Professor Neil Ross.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-slowing-east-antarctica-s-ice-loss">Slowing East Antarctica’s ice loss</h2>



The presence of these elevated plains buried under the ice could slow the retreat of grounding lines.



If ice shelves collapse during warming, some grounded ice might remain over these surfaces. This would reduce ice loss into the ocean. In regions like Law Dome, some surfaces already host ice rises, which help anchor and stabilize the inland ice.



However, current large-scale ice sheet models often overlook these features. Their resolution is too low to capture how these plains affect grounding-line behavior. 



The authors urge more drilling and high-resolution modeling to better understand the role of these features.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-this-could-change-sea-level-predictions">This could change sea level predictions</h2>



East Antarctica holds about 90 percent of Antarctica’s ice. If this ice sheet melted, it would raise sea levels by 52 meters (171 feet). Improving how we model its behavior is essential. 



These hidden landscapes offer a new constraint on where ice will likely remain stable.



The study's detailed data on elevation, slope, and bedrock composition provide critical insights. They help scientists to project more accurately the responses of the EAIS to future climate change.



The findings highlight the value of geophysical surveys in revealing what lies beneath the ice and how it might shape our future.



The research appears in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-025-01734-z" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Geoscience</a> and is supported by institutions in the U.K., Germany, China, and Australia. 



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Vast river landscapes discovered beneath Antarctica's thick ice sheet

Hidden beneath East Antarctica’s thick ice lie secrets from a...

The presence of algal toxins in bowhead whales, a key food source for Native Alaskan communities, points to a disturbing shift in the Arctic. As the Arctic Ocean warms, harmful algae are spreading and moving up the food chain.



A new study confirms what many in northern Alaska have long suspected: the marine life they depend on is changing in ways that threaten their health and food security.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-toxic-threat-to-arctic-communities">Toxic threat to Arctic communities </h2>



Researchers from the <a href="https://www.whoi.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution</a> were part of a major, multi-institutional study on algal toxins in Arctic ecosystems. 



The findings suggest that warming waters create ideal conditions for these toxins to spread. This threatens the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/giant-clams-have-vanished-from-places-where-they-used-to-thrive/">clams</a>, fish, whales, and other sea life that many subsistence-based communities depend on.



“These are new risks that were previously unknown,” said Kathi Lefebvre, a research scientist at NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center, and lead author of the study. 



“The people in remote communities in northern and western Alaska rely on marine resources for nutritional and cultural well-being. Now we’re finding that these resources are at risk.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-recognizing-the-effects-of-warming">Recognizing the effects of warming</h2>



Many Native Alaskan communities - some of the most remote in the state - have been noticing these shifts for years.



Raphaela Stimmelmayr, a wildlife veterinarian with the North Slope Borough in Barrow, Alaska, is a co-author on the study.



“Native communities know intimately the ecosystems they rely on and were among the first to recognize the effects of warming,” said Stimmelmayr. 



“It is very difficult to walk away from resources that they need and have relied on since time immemorial."



Stimmelmayr emphasized the need for real-time field tests that can detect toxins in traditional foods before they are consumed. 



Monitoring equipment and fast diagnostics would allow local communities to make informed choices about what’s safe to eat.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-life-cycle-of-arctic-algae">The life cycle of Arctic algae</h2>



Scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, including Don Anderson, Bob Pickart, and graduate student Evie Fachon, have been tracking the movement and life cycle of the Arctic <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/green-algae-in-lake-erie-may-be-hiding-toxic-deadly-compounds/">algae</a> responsible for the rising toxic threat.



Their work sheds light on how <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fish-foraging-behavior-changing-climate-warming-waters/">warming waters</a> are unlocking new threats from their hiding places in Arctic seafloor sediments.



“I have shifted a significant portion of my lab’s research focus to the Alaskan Arctic in recent years,” said Anderson. “It is a new frontier in HAB (harmful algal bloom) research, given the rapid warming of waters in the region and the massive scale of the <a href="https://hab.whoi.edu/species/species-by-name/alexandrium/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Alexandrium</a> populations we have documented.”



These populations, specifically the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/dinoflagellate" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dinoflagellate</a> Alexandrium, are known to produce potent neurotoxins. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-algae-in-the-alaskan-arctic">Algae in the Alaskan Arctic</h2>



The problem is twofold: some blooms arrive from the south, drifting north with <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/nasa-satellite-is-rewriting-what-we-know-about-ocean-currents/">ocean currents</a>, while others form locally when dormant cysts on the seafloor begin to germinate. That’s where the warming comes in.



“For years, these cysts have remained inactive, essentially preserved by the cold,” Anderson explained. “But as bottom water temperatures periodically warm, we see conditions that allow germination, and that changes the risk landscape dramatically.”



His team found that the world’s largest beds of Alexandrium cysts lie in sediments across the Alaskan Arctic. These build up when blooms from the Bering Sea drift north and settle in places like the Chukchi Sea. 



For years, the icy seafloor kept them dormant. Now, rising temperatures are allowing them to activate and grow.



This local germination is creating a second, homegrown source of toxic algal blooms - intensifying the threat already posed by southern blooms. That dual pressure is putting more strain on marine life and the communities that depend on it.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-entire-systems-are-shifting">Entire systems are shifting</h2>



Bob Pickart and his former postdoctoral researcher Peigen Lin studied how ocean circulation and water temperature are contributing to the problem of toxic Arctic algae. Their work shows a clear link between <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-temperatures-are-rising-faster-than-expected-and-likely-to-accelerate/">rising temperatures</a> and the presence of toxins in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bowhead-whales-have-changed-their-migration-patterns/">bowhead whales</a>.



“My Arctic research has become increasingly interdisciplinary over the years, including exploring the role of circulation patterns, atmospheric forcing, and water properties in HAB dynamics,” Pickart said.



In other words, this isn’t just about one algae or one animal. It’s about how entire systems - currents, climate, and biology - are shifting, with real-world consequences for the people living closest to the ocean.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fighting-arctic-algae-with-science">Fighting Arctic algae with science</h2>



Experts at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution aren't just observing these changes. They are actively involved in finding solutions. 



Don Anderson also leads the U.S. National Office for <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/dinoflagellate" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Harmful Algal Blooms</a>, which helps coordinate national strategies and responses to HABs. That includes research efforts, outreach, and communication with coastal communities across the country.



This isn’t a challenge with a quick fix. But with scientific insight and direct collaboration with Native Alaskan communities, there’s a growing push to better monitor, understand, and manage the risks of algal toxins in a warming Arctic.



The message is clear: warming oceans aren't a future threat - they are already unleashing toxic risks in the Arctic that are reshaping what coastal populations can safely eat.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09230-5">Nature</a>.



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Whales reveal a toxic threat to Arctic food webs

The presence of algal toxins in bowhead whales, a key...

<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=WXXGGiynIjs
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Greenland is not sinking. In fact, it is the opposite.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-contrasting-climate-response">A contrasting climate response</h2>



Most coastal towns are <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sinking-land-will-intensify-the-effects-of-rising-sea-levels/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">preparing for higher sea levels</a>, but <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/greenland-no-longer-has-to-worry-about-rising-sea-levels/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Greenland presents</a> a different scenario during climate change. The ground there is rising at a remarkable rate. Over the past decade, some areas have lifted about 20 centimeters, which translates to roughly 2 meters per century. This rate significantly exceeds current projections for sea level rise.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-geological-rebound-process-through-climate-change">Geological rebound process through climate change</h2>



The mechanism behind this phenomenon is straightforward. As the ice sheet melts, the immense weight is removed from the bedrock, causing the land to rebound upward. This process resembles the way compressed material springs back when pressure is released.



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



Researchers at the <a href="https://www.dtu.dk/english/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Technical University of Denmark</a> are documenting this uplift using the GNET network, consisting of 61 GPS stations positioned around Greenland's coast. These sensors can detect movement with millimeter precision, providing detailed measurements of the ongoing changes.



The data reveal that current uplift rates exceed the gradual rebound occurring since the last ice age ended approximately 12,000 years ago. This acceleration corresponds directly with increased ice sheet melting rates.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-coastal-transformation">Coastal Transformation</h2>



This uplift is actively reshaping Greenland's coastline. New islands and rocky formations, called "skerries," are emerging as previously submerged land surfaces rise above the water level. This represents a notable contrast to global concerns about rising seas.



The study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, demonstrates the varied regional impacts of climate change. While many locations face rising water levels, Greenland's bedrock is literally rising above the surrounding seas.



The full study was recently published in <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2023GL104851" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Geophysical Research Letters</a>.



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Greenland's ground rises while coasts worldwide face higher seas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXXGGiynIjs Greenland is not sinking. In fact, it is the...

<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=DSM3EVeGHJU
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Companies like MindStudio help companies train their employees to implement the latest AI Agent building platform.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ai-agent-training-transforms-the-workplace-fear-factor-into-a-competitive-advantage">AI agent training transforms the workplace 'fear factor' into a competitive advantage</h2>



Organizations that offer comprehensive artificial intelligence training to their workers find remarkable value that extends well beyond basic <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mind-wandering-might-be-more-productive-than-you-think/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">productivity improvements</a>. Emerging research demonstrates that carefully crafted AI training programs <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ai-does-not-replace-human-creativity-but-enhances-it/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">enhance</a> corporate performance, lower operational costs, and dramatically improve employee psychological well-being by turning workplace uncertainty into professional empowerment.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-addressing-the-widespread-ai-anxiety-crisis-among-us">Addressing the widespread 'AI anxiety' crisis among us</h2>



A staggering 53% of employees expressed concern that the use of AI tools to automate work tasks could make them appear disposable to their employers, according to <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Microsoft</a>'s 2024 workplace survey. Such pervasive worry about being substituted by machines has caused what researchers have termed "AI technostress" – a psychological state that can result in occupational burnout and poorer mental well-being.



Data published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/palcomms/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Humanities and Social Sciences Communications</a> showed that belief in AI learning ability was a moderator in the link between technology adoption and work pressure, and higher confidence significantly lowered negative psychological responses. Workers provided ample training to become competent with AI software have significantly lower stress.



Companies like <a href="https://www.mindstudio.ai/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MindStudio</a> have platforms for building what are known as "AI Agents". In essence, AI Agents are simply tools that employees can build for themselves or their teams quickly and inexpensively. MindStudio will even train entire companies, from the CEO on down, at no cost. By letting MindStudio empower employees, companies avoid hiring more IT staff, buying more software, and implementing solutions to problems that do not exist.



MindStudio even has partners locally for companies, like <a href="http://www.dominnus.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dominnus</a> with offices in the Carolinas, California, and Denver, to help build AI Agents and support employees as they become resident AI experts for their organization. The training provided by MindStudio is applicable across other AI Agent building platforms as well.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-revolutionary-productivity-through-focused-learning">Revolutionary productivity through focused learning</h2>



Organizations that implement large-scale AI training programs achieve dramatic outcomes. Employees performed tasks significantly better when they utilized AI support compared to when they didn't, according to <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nielsen Norman Group</a> research findings. Their study documented productivity increases of 66% for a variety of professional tasks.



Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis research finds workers record 33% higher productivity in time working with generative AI tools. The benefit is equivalent to 5.4% of work time savings for AI users – around 2.2 hours per week for full-time workers.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-psychological-well-being-benefits-through-ai-competence">Psychological well-being benefits through AI competence</h2>



The emotional transformation when employees are provided with proper technology training is a fundamental transformation from fear to professional confidence. A survey of 600 employees across industries, carried out by ScienceDirect, proved that AI capabilities strengthen work environment commitment and improve job satisfaction.



A <a href="https://www.lut.fi/en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LUT University</a> study discovered that AI adoption has no direct effect on workers' well-being but does so indirectly through working conditions like task optimization and safety protocols. Strategically deployed AI that involves correct training can actually increase workplace mental well-being.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-from-replacement-anxiety-to-partnership-confidence">From 'replacement anxiety' to 'partnership confidence'</h2>



Although 35% of those interviewed in recent McKinsey studies were concerned about workforce displacement, firms with large-scale training initiatives witness such fears dissipate quickly. The World Economic Forum found that two out of three respondents believe AI competencies will enhance their career prospects and job marketability.



This shift from fear to trust has measurable implications for job satisfaction. Applied Sciences research indicates AI can create tailored wellness programs based on individual employee requirements.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-financial-benefits-of-increased-retention">Financial benefits of increased retention</h2>



The mental health advantages of AI learning have a direct impact on organizational bottom lines in the form of a positive feedback cycle with high retention of employees. Recent ROI research validates that artificial intelligence learning has a beneficial impact on employee turnover and satisfaction levels.



PriceWaterhouseCoopers' research documents 20% to 30% improvements in productivity, market speed, and revenue in organizations that attempt systematic AI adoption through comprehensive training.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-environmental-advantages-of-ai-enabled-teams">Environmental advantages of AI-enabled teams</h2>



AI training has unforeseen environmental benefits as it makes the work environment more efficient. According to a study in Scientific Reports, the carbon footprint in writing and illustrating work is significantly lower when AI performs it compared to humans. AI software produces 130 to 1,500 times less CO2 equivalent per page of text created than human authors.



In addition, AI-driven remote work functionality significantly reduces environmental impact. Research by Cornell University and Microsoft indicates that remote workers reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 54% by not commuting daily to offices. Hybrid workers working remotely two to four days a week can reduce their carbon footprint by 11% to 29%.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cumulative-organizational-advantages">Cumulative organizational advantages</h2>



The compounding gains of better mental well-being, reduced turnover, increased productivity, and environmental benefits flow to enterprises from the pairing. McKinsey analysis estimates the long-term AI potential at $4.4 trillion in incremental productivity growth opportunity from business use cases.



As of now, 75% of knowledge workers globally utilize generative AI, mirroring widespread adoption patterns. Organizations that provide organized training and assistance see the most favorable results in productivity, worker satisfaction, and ecological sustainability.



The research overwhelmingly indicates that companies that invest in proper AI education, like that offered through <a href="https://www.mindstudio.ai" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MindStudio</a>, establish win-win scenarios where employees are both more empowered and less stressed, and companies enjoy the gains of increased productivity, reduced turnover, and improved mental health outcomes throughout their workforce.



For more on MindStudio's free AI training for companies, visit the website's of MindStudio and Dominnus from the links below.



The research was published across a variety of peer-reviewed journals, including <a href="https://www.nature.com/palcomms/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Humanities and Social Sciences Communications</a>, <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/artificial-intelligence" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence</a>, and <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci">Applied Sciences</a>.



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MindStudio.AI: <a href="https://www.mindstudio.ai" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.mindstudio.ai</a>



Dominnus: <a href="https://www.dominnus.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.dominnus.com</a>

AI agent training boosts mental health and profits

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSM3EVeGHJU Companies like MindStudio help companies train their employees to...

<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=0HDXqTGEmi4
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Scientists give plants superpowers against bacterial disease</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-natural-solution-to-disease-through-crop-modification">A natural solution to disease through crop modification.</h2>



The agricultural industry stands at a crossroads between productivity and environmental responsibility, and crop modification often carries a negative connotation. While chemical pesticides have long been the go-to solution for crop protection, their harmful effects on ecosystems and human health have prompted scientists to seek alternatives. The recent breakthrough by <a href="https://www.southampton.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Southampton</a> researchers offers a promising path forward through the precise manipulation of plant-associated microbial communities.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-science-behind-microbial-partnerships">The science behind microbial partnerships</h2>



Plants naturally harbor diverse ecosystems of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms that function as biological allies. These microscopic partners contribute to disease resistance, nutrient absorption, and stress tolerance. However, until now, scientists lacked the tools to deliberately reshape these communities to enhance crop protection.



The Southampton team's approach centered on <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/engineered-plant-microbiomes-the-future-of-crop-protection/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">modifying lignin biosynthesis genes in rice plants</a>. This strategic intervention altered the plant's metabolic output, creating conditions that favored beneficial bacterial populations while suppressing harmful ones. The result was a living defense system embedded within the plant itself.



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



The successful demonstration against Xanthomonas oryzae, the pathogen responsible for bacterial blight in rice, represents more than a laboratory achievement. Rice feeds nearly half the world's population, and bacterial blight causes devastating crop losses annually. Traditional control methods rely heavily on pesticides that contaminate soil and water systems.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-looking-beyond-disease-resistance">Looking Beyond Disease Resistance</h2>



While disease protection represents the immediate application, the research framework opens doors to broader agricultural improvements. Future developments could engineer microbiomes to enhance nutrient uptake, reducing dependence on synthetic fertilizers. This dual benefit addresses both crop productivity and environmental sustainability.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-path-forward">The path forward</h2>



As this technology advances from laboratory to field applications, it promises to reshape sustainable agriculture. The ability to program plants with their own biological defense systems could herald a new era where crops protect themselves naturally, reducing chemical inputs while maintaining yields necessary for global food security.



The study is published in the journal&nbsp;<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-44335-3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Communications</a>.



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Revolutionizing agriculture through microbiome engineering

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HDXqTGEmi4 Scientists give plants superpowers against bacterial disease A natural...

<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...

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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Wildlife tunnels save millions of amphibians

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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



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Designing crops that can beat the heat

[sendtonews key="QGPzYnXEtN-1712599-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from Carl...

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

[sendtonews key="EjmSP20gQK-2593093-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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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 



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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> features a visual dataset of.methane emissions from wetlands across the globe. Atmospheric methane levels have reached record highs in recent years, and wetlands are a major source of these emissions.&nbsp;



"Methane is an important greenhouse gas that contributes substantially to global warming. On a molecule by molecule basis, methane is much more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the main driver of warming," says NASA.



"Though human activities, including agriculture, oil and natural gas production and use, and waste disposal, collectively contribute the majority of methane to the atmosphere, about a third of total methane emissions comes from wetlands."&nbsp;



According to NASA, understanding methane emissions from wetlands and other natural sources is critically important for scientists and policymakers who are working to combat climate change by reducing emissions from human activities.



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

[sendtonews key="f8fukm28Vz-2491833-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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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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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes how record-breaking heat expressed itself around the world in 2022.



Scientists have determined that 2022 was the 5th warmest year since 1880. Furthermore, the last nine consecutive years have been the warmest on record.



From devastating floods and wildfires to natural disasters like Hurricane Ian, 2022 showed us yet again how a warming climate affects people across the globe.&nbsp;



"As we look back at 20:22 and years past, we see that each year we better understand the challenges we face and how important it is to meet them," says NASA.



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

[sendtonews key="3UUsNkFOuS-2487333-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

[sendtonews key="JbW4VsY53O-1632195-12187" type="single"] Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected...

Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://welcome.miami.edu/">University of Miami</a> Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science explores how changes in water temperatures have affected tiger shark habitats and movements in the North Atlantic Ocean. The study reveals that rising temperatures have caused the sharks to shift toward the poles over the past 40 years.



“Tiger shark annual migrations have expanded poleward, paralleling rising water temperatures,” explained study lead author Neil Hammerschlag. “These results have consequences for tiger shark conservation, since shifts in their movements outside of marine protected areas may leave them more vulnerable to commercial fishing.”



The researchers analyzed nine years of tracking data from satellite-tagged tiger sharks, combined with four decades of conventional tag and recapture data provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Shark Tagging Program.



The experts found that during the last decade of record heat, for every one-degree Celsius increase in water temperatures, tiger sharks migrated further poleward by over 400 kilometers. They also migrated two weeks earlier than usual to waters off the northeastern coast of the United States.



“Given their role as apex predators, these changes to tiger shark movements may alter predator-prey interactions, leading to ecological imbalances, and more frequent encounters with humans,” concluded Professor Hammerschlag.



Video Credit: University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science



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



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Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

Today’s Video of the Day from the University of Miami...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> is focused on the melt ponds that emerge during the spring and summer on the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is the largest ice mass in the northern hemisphere.



"Melt ponds are vast pools of open water that form on both sea ice and ice sheets and are visible as turquoise-blue pools of water in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image," says ESA.



"When snow and ice melts atop glaciers, water flows in channels and streams and collects in depressions on the surface. These melt ponds can speed up the melting of the surrounding ice since they greatly reduce the ice’s ability to reflect sunlight."



"This can create a positive feedback where an increasing number of melt ponds absorb more heat which causes ice cover to melt even faster."



According to ESA, Greenland has been hit with a late-season heatwave that began in early September. This caused the type of melt event that usually occurs in the middle of summer.



"In a recent paper published in Nature Climate Change, scientists found that major sea-level rise from the melting of the Greenland ice cap is now ‘inevitable’ even if the burning of fossil fuels were to halt overnight," says ESA. "Using satellite observations of Greenland ice loss and ice cap from 2000 to 2019, the team found the losses will lead to a minimum rise of 27 cm regardless of climate change."



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



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Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

[sendtonews key="qARzJPSabQ-2270617-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes how Earth is unique in our solar system for its ability to sustain liquid water on its surface. But now, the water cycle is shifting as the climate warms, and scientists must find ways to predict how these changes will affect water availability.



Overall, 96 percent of Earth's water is saltwater, and nearly all of freshwater is found in ice and groundwater. These sources of water are linked as it passes through solid, liquid and gas phases.



In a warmer climate, the water cycle will be transformed. It will be easier for water to evaporate and form clouds, and storms will become more frequent and intense. Some regions will get too much water, while others will be left without enough water. In addition, soil moisture will be lost - which threatens food security.



Scientists are using satellite data from over the last 40 years to track changes that are happening in the water cycle. This will ultimately help us prepare for extreme events and better manage our water resources, according to ESA.



Video Credit: ESA



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



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Tracking changes in Earth's water cycle

[sendtonews key="fxH3eJHEkQ-2010196-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

Saturn,-,High,Resolution,3d,Images,Presents,Planets,Of,The

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a> features images of Saturn from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The photographs capture the start of the mysterious "spoke season" on Saturn - when unexplained features appear on its rings. 



According to NASA, both the cause of the spokes and their seasonal variability have yet to be fully explained by planetary scientists.



"Like Earth, Saturn is tilted on its axis and therefore has four seasons, though because of Saturn's much larger orbit, each season lasts approximately seven Earth years. Equinox occurs when the rings are tilted edge-on to the Sun," explains NASA.



"The spokes disappear when it is near summer or winter solstice on Saturn. (When the Sun appears to reach either its highest or lowest latitude in the northern or southern hemisphere of a planet.) As the autumnal equinox of Saturn's northern hemisphere on May 6, 2025, draws near, the spokes are expected to become increasingly prominent and observable."



Experts believe that the spokes may be a product of the planet's variable magnetic field. When magnetic fields interact with solar wind, an electrically charged environment is created. This phenomenon is visible on Earth as the northern lights.&nbsp;



"Scientists think that the smallest, dust-sized icy ring particles can become charged as well, which temporarily levitates those particles above the rest of the larger icy particles and boulders in the rings," says NASA.



The spokes were first observed in the early 1980s by NASA's Voyager mission. Depending on the angle of the rings, the spokes can appear dark or light.



"Thanks to Hubble's OPAL program, which is building an archive of data on the outer solar system planets, we will have longer dedicated time to study Saturn’s spokes this season than ever before," said NASA senior planetary scientist Amy Simon, head of the Hubble Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program.



"Despite years of excellent observations by the Cassini mission, the precise beginning and duration of the spoke season is still unpredictable, rather like predicting the first storm during hurricane season."



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Mysterious "spoke season" captured on Saturn

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Closeup,Of,Fresh,Green,The,Napier,Bush,Grass,As,Animal

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="http://www.ntu.edu.sg/">NTU Singapore</a> reveals that some plants can remove toxic heavy metals from soil.&nbsp;



The researchers analyzed samples of various tropical plant species to test for levels of heavy metals and metalloids. The study showed that there are existing plants with high levels of these contaminants, which means that these species are great candidates for drawing pollutants out of the soil.&nbsp;



Among the plants examined in the study, 12 species had accumulated several types of heavy metals and metalloids. These plants are widely available, including species that are native to Singapore.



“In a small nation like Singapore, land may be repurposed to support new development plans, so it is important that we have a green and sustainable way to remediate land that is contaminated," said Professor Lam Yeng Ming.



"We set out to uncover how to better make use of tropical plants to do phytoremediation and through advanced characterization techniques, we showed how some of these tropical plant species can be an environmentally friendly and literally a 'green' way to remove contaminants in soil."&nbsp;



"Phytoremediation also has benefits of cost effectiveness, simplicity of management, aesthetic advantages, and long-term applicability and sustainability. The strategy prevents erosion and metal leaching by stabilizing or accumulating heavy metals, so that helps reduce the risk of contaminant spread.”



Video Credit: NTU Singapore



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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.

Plants help remove heavy metals from contaminated soil

[sendtonews key="6SdlLLbt0t-1988946-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from NTU...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> describes why herbicides are not as effective in killing weeds anymore. In the 20th century, chemical companies developed thousands of herbicides. The most commonly used herbicide was glyphosate, which was introduced in 1974.



Over the past few decades, dozens of species of weeds have evolved resistance to glyphosate. Depending on the site of action, the part of the plant that an herbicide interacts with, weeds may even be resistant to herbicides that have not been developed yet.&nbsp;



With increasing resistance to glyphosate and other herbicides, weeds are - once again - becoming a major concern for farmers.&nbsp;



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.

Weeds are becoming increasingly resistant to herbicides

[sendtonews key="gRpsplpwpe-2251464-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/">NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a> (JPL) describes a dust storm on Mars that was nearly twice the size of the United States. As the storm covered the southern hemisphere of the planet, some of NASA’s explorers had to delay their normal activities.



NASA’s Insight lander put itself in a "safe mode" for 11 days to conserve battery power because solar power was disrupted by the dust. The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter postponed flights until conditions improved.



"A fleet of NASA orbiters monitor Martian dust storms like this one and serve as lifelines to Earth by relaying data from the rovers and lander on the ground back to the team. This includes the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MAVEN, and Odyssey," reports JPL.



"Dust storms like this recent one start close to the ground and are spread by wind as they rise – warming the cold Martian atmosphere."



The images in the video were captured by NASA’s Curiosity as the dust rolled in. A fleet of orbiters monitored the dust storm from above, relaying data from Mars’ explorers back to scientists on Earth.



Video &amp; Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS



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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.

NASA monitors giant dust storms on Mars

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