Male respondents had higher self-efficacy than female respondents, a finding that agrees with other research showing that women are less likely to participate in recreational activities in nature despite showing a preference for doing so.

Development of the scales is just the first step of what the researchers hope will be a series of studies with the ultimate goal of finding ways to improve health and well-being through increased TSN.

“We’re working on developing a whole suite of measures,” Maddock said. “Once those are done, we’re going to be looking to develop theory-based interventions to increase time spent in nature.”

The discovery that the oldest life on Earth may have formed so early is exciting for a number of reasons. First, it shows that life was finding a way even back when the Earth wasn’t as habitable as it is now. Second, the scientists involved believe that these types of microfossils could also exist as signs of life on alien planets.