Jonathan Wells’s review was important, but it only scratches the surface of information in biology outside of the DNA.

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Cities may soon be able to identify their hottest walking routes with the same precision used to map traffic or public transport. HeiGIT, the Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology, has added a tree-shade indicator to its free Climate Action Navigator, a digital platform designed to help municipalities and civil society organizations understand how urban environments affect everyday life. The new tool provides a street-level view of where pedestrian paths are protected by tree canopies and where people are exposed to direct sunlight, offering planners a detailed basis for decisions about urban greening, heat adaptation and safer walking routes.

The need for such information is becoming increasingly urgent as cities experience more frequent and intense heat waves. A citywide estimate of tree cover can suggest that an urban area is relatively green while concealing major differences between neighborhoods. In one district, a large park or wooded hillside may raise the average, even though the streets used daily by residents remain almost entirely unshaded. The Climate Action Navigator is designed to reveal these local contrasts by measuring shade along pedestrian routes rather than relying only on broad land-cover statistics.

In Innsbruck, Austria, tree cover extends across approximately 30 percent of the city’s relevant areas, but the distribution is far from even. Much of the shaded pedestrian network lies outside the central urban area, while heavily used streets in the city center can remain exposed to full sun. This distinction matters because people experience heat at the scale of individual journeys: walking to school, commuting to work, visiting shops or reaching public transport. Two routes separated by only a few streets may therefore offer very different levels of thermal comfort and protection from solar radiation.

The indicator is also intended to connect physical infrastructure with human behavior and well-being. Shaded paths can make walking more attractive during hot weather, potentially influencing whether people choose to travel on foot, wait for public transport or avoid certain destinations altogether. Claudia Schmiedeberg of the GLEN Study said that understanding the social effects of climate change requires examining how local surroundings shape daily decisions over time. Combining the tree-shade data with longitudinal survey information could help researchers investigate whether residents in greener neighborhoods adapt differently to heat, and whether unequal access to shade contributes to wider social disparities.

Technically, the tool identifies pedestrian walkways that directly overlap with tree canopies at least two meters high. The height threshold is designed to distinguish trees capable of producing meaningful overhead shade from low shrubs, grass and ground vegetation. The analysis uses high-resolution global canopy datasets and applies the same processing method across different cities. This allows a small town, a regional center and a major capital to be compared using a consistent measure rather than relying on incompatible local mapping systems.

The calculation also models a high-noon scenario, when the sun is strongest and shadows are generally shortest. By estimating shade under these demanding conditions, the indicator focuses on a daily period when heat exposure may be especially severe. It measures the availability of shade at what the developers describe as the weakest point of the day, creating a conservative benchmark for planning. The result is not a complete simulation of human thermal comfort, which also depends on air temperature, humidity, wind, pavement materials and building geometry, but it provides a clear spatial signal of where tree canopy is present above pedestrian infrastructure.

Early comparisons show how sharply shade levels can differ between cities. In the historic city of Maribor, Slovenia, approximately 35 percent of the pedestrian network is covered by trees. In Tempe, Arizona, a university city located in a hot and generally arid region, the corresponding figure is just above 7 percent. Such numbers do not by themselves determine whether a city is comfortable or unsafe, but they provide a comparable starting point for identifying exposure. When combined with information about schools, care facilities, public transport stops or tourist destinations, the data can show which groups and routes may require priority attention.

Urban planners could use the indicator to decide where new trees would provide the greatest benefit, while also recognizing streets where existing canopy already supports walking during hot periods. Linking shade maps with school catchment areas, for example, could reveal whether children have protected routes to school or must travel through long stretches of direct sunlight. Tourism agencies and local authorities could also use the information to recommend cooler walking routes to major attractions. In this way, the platform is intended not only to document an environmental problem but also to support targeted interventions, from tree planting and maintenance to short-term route guidance.

Jim Walker of the Walk21 Foundation said the indicator offers comparable, street-by-street evidence that can help administrations prioritize infrastructure investment during the hottest months. Its developers argue that global canopy datasets make it possible to overcome the local data shortages that often prevent smaller municipalities from conducting detailed climate assessments. Dr. Kirsten von Elverfeldt, community engagement manager at HeiGIT, said the goal was to make granular diagnostic information freely available so that greening initiatives can be directed toward the places where they are most needed.

The Climate Action Navigator is open to the public, allowing users to explore how their municipality performs and compare different urban areas. The platform’s tree-shade indicator does not replace on-the-ground assessments, but it can help transform an abstract climate challenge into a visible pattern of shaded and exposed streets. As heat increasingly shapes how people move through cities, that ability to see the difference at walking level could make urban climate planning more precise, more equitable and more immediately actionable.

Subject of Research: Not applicable

Article Title: New Global Tool Maps Tree Shade Street by Street to Reveal Cities’ Heat Exposure

News Publication Date: August 11, 2026

Web References: Climate Action Navigator: https://heigit.org/ ; Tree shade indicator video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAQxEnAgM44 ; Innsbruck example: plugin/hiwalk?share-id=f50386c3-4ea6-45b8-946a-6fedfae38dc8 ; Maribor example: plugin/hiwalk?share-id=f675a5bd-f15f-429c-81f4-80cac6c7051a ; Tempe example: plugin/hiwalk?share-id=31880ebb-1c6d-40e1-89cf-ffac9bceb607

Image Credits: Climate Action Navigator

Keywords: urban heat, tree shade, climate adaptation, pedestrian routes, urban planning, tree canopy, heat exposure, Climate Action Navigator, HeiGIT, sustainable cities

Third Way and EES thinking shows that mainstream science is moving on a compass heading that is right in the direction of intelligent design.

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What has changed dramatically is the nature, volume, and depth of the scientific evidence that supports ID.

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It makes sense to think that the T3SS didn’t evolve into the bacterial flagellum, but that the bacterial flagellum shed some protein parts to become a T3SS. 

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We’re asleep an average of about 26 years of our life! Most people have a sense that sleep is important.

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Here is yet another clue about how we are both spiritual and physical beings. The two realms are connected in mysterious and remarkable ways.

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Kenny still appreciated a good church service and even did readings from the breviary. Unusually, he argued there was no reason why an agnostic shouldn't pray.

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The cover artist was working on a bit of extra creativity, showing Behe playing poker with Charles Darwin, and holding the winning cards.

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Sometimes the smartest way to make a medical device smaller isn't to shrink it—it's to fold it.

What has always stirred me with a deep set of conflicting emotions is his reference to the “elephant in the room.” 

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The sheer amount of research that has gone into trying to find alternative explanations to what Behe has proposed is mind-boggling.

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In Nolan's supposal, the mad scientist takes on the mystique of a wizard. Perhaps this is fitting, given that he sees science and wizardry as the same thing.

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The options have grown to the point that it’s hard to imagine there’s anyone with Internet access who can’t find it.

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You’re heading to that beach vacation. Or maybe like us in Washington State, you’re sneezing and coughing from the sunbaked wildfire smoke.

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These organelles, protruding from the cell into the environment, could not be built by a Darwinian mechanism.

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Macrobiological features have been cited as irreducibly complex, including animal joints and the trap mechanisms of carnivorous plants, even the cell itself.

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A new study is challenging one of the most comforting assumptions in urban climate design: that adding vegetation to dense cities always makes hot weather safer. Research published in npj Urban Sustainability reports that compact, high-rise urban forms can amplify humid heat risks associated with vegetation transpiration—a process usually considered an essential cooling service. The finding does not suggest that trees and plants should be removed from cities. Instead, it reveals that the success of green infrastructure depends heavily on building geometry, airflow, humidity, and the way heat and moisture move through the urban atmosphere.

Vegetation transpiration occurs when plants release water vapor through microscopic openings in their leaves. This process consumes energy and can lower leaf and surrounding air temperatures, much like evaporation from human skin. In a well-ventilated environment, the added moisture may be dispersed efficiently, allowing evaporative cooling to provide a net thermal benefit. But in tightly packed high-rise districts, the same moisture can become trapped between buildings. The result is a more humid microclimate in which the body’s ability to cool itself through sweating is weakened.

That distinction matters because humid heat is more dangerous than air temperature alone suggests. The human body relies on evaporation to transfer heat away from the skin. When atmospheric moisture is already high, sweat evaporates more slowly, forcing the body to work harder to maintain a stable internal temperature. Heat-stress indicators such as wet-bulb temperature and the Wet-Bulb Globe Temperature account for this interaction between heat and humidity. A neighborhood with slightly lower temperatures but substantially higher humidity can therefore feel more oppressive—and pose greater health risks—than a drier location with hotter air.

The study focuses on the urban “canyon” effect created by tall buildings arranged close together. These structures can obstruct wind, reduce the exchange of air with the atmosphere above, and alter the amount of sunlight reaching streets and façades. When vegetation in such spaces transpires, the released water vapor may accumulate rather than disperse. The compact geometry can also create complex circulation patterns, with warm and moist air repeatedly moving through pedestrian-level spaces. In this setting, greenery may cool surfaces while simultaneously increasing the moisture burden experienced by people outdoors.

This is a crucial refinement of the popular idea that urban greening is universally beneficial. Plants perform several valuable functions: they provide shade, intercept solar radiation, reduce surface temperatures, store carbon, and improve the visual and psychological quality of public space. Yet their cooling performance is not fixed. It changes with species, soil moisture, canopy density, irrigation, wind conditions, building height, street width, and background humidity. The new research emphasizes that these factors must be evaluated together rather than treating vegetation as an isolated solution to urban heat.

The implications are particularly significant for rapidly growing cities where vertical development is being used to accommodate rising populations. High-rise construction can reduce land consumption, but dense towers may produce localized atmospheric conditions that differ dramatically from those in surrounding neighborhoods. A cooling strategy designed for an open suburban street may behave differently in a narrow urban canyon surrounded by tall façades. Planners could therefore face a difficult balancing act: maximizing shade and ecological benefits without creating stagnant pockets where moisture and heat combine into dangerous conditions.

The findings also raise questions about how cities measure the success of climate adaptation projects. A street may record a lower surface temperature after trees are planted, yet still expose pedestrians to greater physiological stress if humidity increases and air movement declines. This means future assessments should include multiple variables, including air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, radiant heat, and human thermal response. Satellite observations and conventional weather stations may not fully capture conditions at street level, where building walls, tree canopies, pavement, and human activity interact within a few meters.

The research is likely to intensify debate over “smart” urban greening rather than green infrastructure in general. Possible responses include selecting vegetation according to local humidity and wind conditions, designing wider or better-connected ventilation corridors, combining trees with reflective or permeable surfaces, and ensuring that shaded areas do not become poorly ventilated enclosures. Building orientation and spacing may be as important as the number of trees planted. Irrigation practices could also matter, since additional water supplied to vegetation may increase transpiration during precisely the periods when atmospheric moisture is already high.

For residents, the message is both cautionary and practical. A leafy street can still be healthier than an exposed one, particularly when shade reduces direct solar radiation. But during extreme heat, people should not assume that every green space offers the same level of protection. Dense, humid, windless areas may require additional measures such as cooling centers, drinking-water access, timed outdoor activities, and heat alerts that account for humidity. The study’s central contribution is to show that urban climate risk is not determined by temperature alone—or by the presence of greenery alone—but by the interaction between city form, plant physiology, and human vulnerability.

As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of heat extremes, these interactions could become more consequential. The research presents cities with a deceptively simple lesson: cooling the urban environment is not just a matter of adding more plants. It requires understanding where the water released by vegetation goes, how buildings control its movement, and how the resulting air feels to a human body. In the race to make cities greener, the next generation of design may need to be equally focused on keeping them breathable.

Subject of Research: The relationship between compact high-rise urban form, vegetation transpiration, humidity, and humid heat risk.

Article Title: Urban high-rise compact form amplifies humid heat risk from vegetation transpiration.

Article References: Zhang, Y., Yang, K., Zhu, Y. et al. “Urban high-rise compact form amplifies humid heat risk from vegetation transpiration.” npj Urban Sustainability (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-026-00459-1

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1038/s42949-026-00459-1

I continue to have problems with Contacts in Tahoe. The latest issue is that the Messages app constantly displays a banner showing that one of my contacts has updated her poster. I don’t want to use it; I want to keep the photo that I chose. But clicking the × button does not dismiss the New poster available from [Person] banner. It remains anchored atop that conversation.

Sidenote: I hate that it wants me to click Update Contact but that the image shown is the old photo. How can I commit to the new photo without even knowing what it looks like? How can I undo if I don’t like it?

Sidenote 2: I’m also getting repeated Siri found an event banners in Messages, but they go away after about three clicks. They’re extra annoying because (unlike above) they animate in again each time I dismiss them, and they’re for events that are already on my calendar.

I thought maybe I could fix things by going into the Contacts app. Unfortunately, the Contact Photo & Poster button there is inoperative. Sometimes it flickers when I click it. Sometimes nothing happens at all. Sometimes after clicking the button it will open the photo chooser sheet for the next contact that I view.

I just want a single setting to let me choose my own photos. I never want to use a poster or be notified that one has changed.

Ben Lovejoy:

Ternus, said he was committed to building on the company’s momentum in the entertainment business when he takes the helm of the iPhone maker in September […]

“I think we have such tremendous momentum right now in ​Apple TV,” Ternus told Reuters on the red carpet at the premiere of the fourth season of Ted ​Lasso. “There’s so many amazing shows, so many amazing characters and stories, and so we’re just going to keep building on the momentum.”

Have we seen any indication yet that he cares about software?

Previously:

• Apple Financial Statements: Products vs. Services
• Contacts in Tahoe
• Turning Off iOS 17 Contact Posters