As you listen to these words, you’re using energy. The radio in your car is powered by gasoline. Your EV, phone or computer runs on electricity.

We rarely stop to think about the massive amounts of energy we use, 24-7-365. And we rarely think about where it comes from. But I can tell you in one word. Because all energy comes from one place: Earth.

Oil, gas and coal are fossil fuels, made of ancient plants, algae and plankton, that were covered in sediment, compressed, heated and turned into hydrocarbons through time. They’re essentially solar energy converted through photosynthesis and geologic processes into … Earth resources.

As long as we have a sun, sunlight is renewable. But the solar panels to collect it are rebuildable. They too are made from Earth materials—glass, silica and aluminum—then after a couple decades need to be built again, of more materials.

Hydroelectric dams are powered by rainfall, from Earth’s water cycle, but built of giant volumes of concrete and steel.

Drilling, mining and manufacturing, for all these energy systems, consume huge amounts of Earth materials, water and land.

Even the energy that powers our bodies comes from Earth; plants of course, but also fertilizer, farm equipment, transport trucks and grocery stores that are made of, or powered by, Earth resources.

We live on a generous planet that takes care of us. Let’s make sure to return the favor.

Cow manure. Garlic breath. Asparagus pee. What do they have in common?

They all stink. And that stink comes from sulfur.

Hydrogen sulfide is a very pungent gas that forms when plant matter decomposes, and gives its telltale fragrance to sewage, rotting garbage, and swamps.

Sulfur dioxide – the smell of burned matches – is a gas produced when fossil fuels burn, metals are smelted, volcanoes erupt or hot springs bubble up.

Organosulfur compounds -- there are millions in nature -- create some of its most repellent aromas. Like a skunk’s spray or the eye-watering fumes of freshly chopped onions.

The ancient Greeks burned sulfur as a fumigating pesticide to kill insects and rodents. When combined with water, sulfur fumes become acid rain.

But sulfur is not all bad news. In fact, it’s essential to life on Earth.

Sulfur is a key component of two essential amino acids, cysteine and methionine, which are building blocks for proteins.

Cysteine helps produce collagen and beta-keratin, proteins found in skin, hair and nails. Methionine protects cells from damage.

Plants too require sulfur, to make chlorophyll and fix nitrogen, which is why it’s used as fertilizer.

Legumes use sulfur to make their protein. Cruciferous plants, like cabbage and broccoli, get from sulfur their signature flavor – and of course, their stinky aroma.

Rabies is almost 100% fatal. It can affect any warm-blooded creature and is transferred by any bodily fluid – though most commonly by a bite that passes saliva from the infected animal to the blood of another.

It takes days or even months for the virus to incubate. But once active, it attacks the nervous system causing paralysis, coma and eventually death.

Rabies kills 60,000 people annually worldwide, mostly in Africa and Asia. Before the 19th century, it was far more deadly, because there was no treatment.

Then came Louis Pasteur. First, he invented the process to sterilize milk and other liquids, by heating them near boiling to kill bacteria.

Next, he focused on diseases, beginning with cholera. He cultured it in a lab, then discovered that chickens injected with older strains weren’t affected by the disease – and were immunized against new strains.

He developed a similar treatment for anthrax, which often infected livestock, then moved on to rabies.

He found that the dried spinal cords of animals killed by the disease contained a weak version that could be injected to immunize against the live virus.

Thanks to Pasteur, rabies has been almost completely eradicated in the US, with several organizations aiming for zero cases worldwide by 2030.

Do your part by vaccinating your pets, and yourself, if bitten, or traveling to areas where rabies is still endemic.

The dark side of the moon isn’t really dark. It has a lunar day just like the near side. The far side just seems dark to us, because it faces away from Earth and we never see it.

US space missions never landed there, but China was determined to explore it. So, they began a multi-decade, unmanned lunar program, named after the Chinese moon goddess, Chang’e.

In 2007 and 2010, Chang’e 1 and 2 spacecrafts orbited and mapped the moon, to determine a landing spot on the near side for Chang’e 3, which successfully touched down in 2013.

But to put a craft on the far side, where radio signals could not reach to control it, took a monumental feat of engineering.

The Chinese first had to build and launch a radio relay satellite, a huge dish orbiting 40,000 miles beyond the moon, that could bounce signals from Earth.

With this in place, they launched Chang’e 4, which became the first spacecraft ever to land on the far side of the moon, in 2019.

The Chinese then launched a more robust Chang’e 6, which contained a large rover.

In 2024, it successfully explored the far side and returned with several pounds of moon rocks.

China’s moon missions have produced important new findings about the moon’s geologic history and magnetic fields, and discovered a new mineral not found on Earth -- which they named of course, Changesite.

Water bears are so hardy that researchers are studying them to try to advance human medicine.

Scientifically they’re called tardigrades. There are over a thousand species living in wet environments, from the deep sea to moss beds in the Himalayas.

They may look like bears, but there’s no relation. To begin, they’re microscopic, usually less than a millimeter in length.

They have a digestive tract, but no bones, lungs or circulatory system. Their bodies keep their shape by holding fluid within – like a water balloon.

If the tardigrade’s watery home dries up, it dries up too. It curls up in a ball, shrinks to a third its normal size, and goes into suspended animation…where it can stay for decades until there’s enough water to rehydrate.

If the water freezes, the tardigrade produces proteins to protect itself from ice crystals forming inside its body. It withstands UV exposure by producing its own bioluminescence. It endures high levels of radiation with genes that regenerate cells.

Qualities like these have made tardigrades successful for over 500 million years.

And today, scientists hope to learn from them: how to repair human cells after cancer therapy. How to freeze then thaw organs for transplant. How to make vaccines last without refrigeration.

Many big ideas may come from the tiny, nearly indestructible water bear.

Imagine taking a photo of a speeding car.

A fast shutter freezes the car in position but gives no idea of its speed. A slow shutter produces a blurred streak, suggesting speed but not much about position.

This analogy applies to electrons. In the 1920s, German physicist Werner Heisenberg was studying them. The closer he came to measuring their positions, the less he could measure their speed. And vice versa.

He realized that speed and position are simply uncertain on the atomic scale. He called this the Uncertainty Principle, and it launched the field of quantum physics.

In the decades to come, things got weirder, as physicists recognized atomic particles could be in several places at once, called superposition, and entangled across space -- and time.

Computer scientists have now applied these concepts to experiment with quantum computing.

Normal computers use binary bits – which are either 0 or 1. In quantum computers, bits can be 0 and 1 … at the same time.

While expensive and complicated, quantum computers can process millions of times faster and will likely change what’s possible in data modeling and complex problem solving.

If you find all this confusing, you’re not alone. Even the renowned physicist Richard Feynman said: If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics.

I think I understand…

Scientists studying Ponderosa pines in a Colorado forest were interrupted by a wildfire – which led them to a surprising discovery.

The researchers were investigating the trees’ photosynthesis, during which they take in CO2 through pores in their needles, called stoma.

When heavy smoke from the wildfire filled the forest, the scientists had their equipment in place and operating, and witnessed something unexpected: the trees held their breath. They closed their stoma, apparently to stop the smoke from entering.

The scientists combed past research for something similar, and found a study from 100 years earlier, that showed coal smoke caused a different species of pine to produce a semi-permeable pitch blocking their stoma, to exclude the smoke while still allowing some CO2 to enter.

In both cases, reduced CO2 meant reduced photosynthesis…which meant the trees produced less glucose.

Glucose powers the growth of new wood -- and new needles to conduct more photosynthesis. So, when the trees close their stoma, it slows growth.

Other scientists estimated that the trees’ growth rate during these smoky conditions fell by up to 15% -- as they traded growth for protection from smoke.

Clearly, over millions of years of evolution, this has proven a successful strategy. Understanding it will help scientists better predict how forests may be shaped by wildfires in the future.

A million Americans listen to this show each week. Some at Earthdate.org. But the huge majority on the radio.

That’s because, in our increasingly online world, radio is still the leading way people consume media.

It began when an engineer named Reginald Fessenden improved on early transmitters to create a continuous stream of radio waves.

In 1906, he made the first broadcast, of himself playing the violin and singing – a one-man talent show … that almost no one had a receiver to hear.

That quickly changed.

In 1920, the first commercial station went on air in Detroit. Within four years there were 600 stations across the country, as sales of home radios boomed.

In 1927, the government created the FCC to parcel out different wavelengths to radio stations.

In the 100 years since, those grew to 15,000 stations in the US, among 44,000 worldwide, delivering some famous radio moments that united us all.

FDR guided America through the Depression with his radio fireside chats. Rock and roll was born, largely as a radio phenomenon. Millions listened to Neil Armstrong’s first words from the moon.

Today, 92% of Americans listen to radio weekly. Worldwide, people average 104 minutes a day! And you just enjoyed two of them.

In the 1970s, Roger Payne had a multi-platinum record, a surprise hit for two big reasons: Payne was a marine biologist, not a musician. And the singers on the album… were whales.

Payne’s “Songs of the Humpback Whale” revealed that other creatures may have complex language. It raised interest in whale intelligence, and led to the passage of laws protecting them.

It also encouraged scientists from many different fields to try to figure out what the whales are saying.

Project CETI has been studying the dialogue of a clan of sperm whales in the Caribbean for many years.

Sperm whales communicate with rapid clicks, produced by blowing pressurized air through their nasal cavities, which is then amplified by a resonating organ in their heads.

They can vary the number and tempo of the clicks to form complex streams.

Scientists recorded thousands of click streams, then used machine learning to uncover 156 patterns shared by individuals in the clan – like a vocabulary of whale words.

However, they still have no idea what these words could mean. So, the next step is to attach cameras to the whales to try to connect actions to the words.

If they can understand this whale clan’s vocabulary, they may be able to communicate with them…

And perhaps decipher the language of other whales, other lifeforms on Earth, maybe even signals from beyond our planet.

Earth may once have had rings, like Saturn – and all the more distant planets of our solar system. Saturn’s are just the most visible, and therefore the most famous.

Rings are made of debris – from asteroids, moons, or from the formation of the planets themselves.

Scientists think the rings around Saturn are the remains of one of its moons that was torn apart by the giant planet’s gravity.

They think the rings around Jupiter are likely dust from micrometeor impacts with its moons.

New findings suggest that Earth may once have had rings too, around 460 million years ago.

Scientists found a ring of meteorite impact craters that date to this period, circling Earth’s equator.

They theorized that an asteroid passed too close to Earth, was trapped then broken up by gravity. The debris scattered into a ring, which eventually fell to Earth around the equator.

Rings around Earth may also have formed our moon.

The leading hypothesis of the moon’s formation has been that a single large asteroid or other planet crashed into Earth and knocked off a chunk that became the moon, as described on another EarthDate.

A new hypothesis is that multiple large collisions produced debris rings, which coalesced into moonlets. As these drifted farther from Earth, they merged into a single moon.

Or it could be something else entirely. It’s amazing how much we still don’t know about the moon and our planet itself.