The Sun’s Fiery Secret Waves Discovered After 80 Years of Searching

BY NORTHUMBRIA U., OCT. 30, 2025

https://scitechdaily.com/the-suns-fiery-secret-waves-discovered-after-80-years-of-searching/

An artist’s representation of twisting magnetic waves (inset), revealed for the first time by the NSF Inouye Solar Telescope. These upward-traveling torsional waves coexist with other wave types and may be an essential ingredient in solving the mystery of why the Sun’s atmosphere is so hot. 

Credit: NSF/NSO/AURA/J. Williams

Scientists have finally observed long-sought twisting magnetic waves, known as torsional Alfvén waves, in the Sun’s corona—ending an eight-decade search that began in the 1940s.

Using the powerful Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii, researchers captured the first direct evidence of these small, constant waves, which may be responsible for heating the Sun’s outer atmosphere to millions of degrees.

Hidden Solar Magnetic Waves Revealed

Researchers have made a major advance in solar physics by capturing the first direct evidence of small-scale torsional Alfvén waves in the Sun’s outer atmosphere, known as the corona.

The discovery, published in Nature Astronomy, was achieved using the most detailed solar observations ever captured by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii, currently the most powerful solar telescope in the world.

The results may help solve one of the Sun’s most enduring puzzles: why its outer atmosphere, called the corona, burns at millions of degrees while the surface below remains comparatively cool at about 5,500°C.

Alfvén waves, first proposed in 1942 by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Hannes Alfvén, are magnetic fluctuations that transfer energy through plasma—the superheated, electrically charged gas that makes up much of the Sun.

Exterior of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope near the summit of Maui’s Haleakalā in Hawaii.

 Credit: NSF/NSO/AURA



The Twisting Power of the Sun

Scientists have previously detected larger, more sporadic versions of these waves, often connected to solar flares. However, this marks the first time that smaller, continuous twisting waves—believed to play a vital role in powering the Sun—have been directly observed.

The research was led by UKRI Future Leader Fellow Professor Richard Morton from Northumbria University’s School of Engineering, Physics and Mathematics. He explained, “This discovery ends a protracted search for these waves that has its origins in the 1940s. We’ve finally been able to directly observe these torsional motions twisting the magnetic field lines back and forth in the corona.”

Overview of observations and findings from the study. Clockwise from left, the panels show the Sun’s corona observed by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory using the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly in the extreme ultraviolet. This shows context for Cryo-NIRSP data—Inouye’s field of view is circled and the red dashed line shows spectrograph slit position. The upper right panel shows how the Cryo-NIRSP data evolve over time, and enhances extractions of the residual velocity signals on separate sides of thin coronal loops. 

The opposite signed velocities, colored blue and red in the figure, correspond to the twisting motions of the coronal feature, which is shown as well in the artist’s impression panel. 

Finally, these findings are corroborated using advanced 3D simulations of loops, which show the same type of signatures.

 Credit: Morton et al. (2025)

Inside the Inouye Solar Telescope: A Technological Marvel

The breakthrough was made possible by the unique capabilities of the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope’s Cryogenic Near Infrared Spectropolarimeter (Cryo-NIRSP), the most advanced coronal instrument of its kind.

This cutting-edge spectrometer can see incredibly fine details in the corona and is highly sensitive to changes in the movement of plasma.

With its four-meter-wide mirror – four times larger than previous solar telescopes – the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, built and operated by the NSF National Solar Observatory, represents two decades of international planning and development.

Northumbria University has played a crucial role in its development as part of a UK consortium that designed cameras for the telescope’s Visible Broadband Imager, building on the University’s established reputation in observations of the solar atmosphere.

Professor Morton won time to use the telescope while it was still being tested and used the instrument to track the movement of iron, heated to 1.6 million degrees Celsius, in the corona.

Cryo-NIRSP (right), the Inouye’s advanced coronal spectropolarimeter, used to track twisting plasma motions in the Sun’s corona. 

Credit: NSF/NSO/AURA



Untangling Solar Motions

The key breakthrough came from Professor Morton developing entirely new analytical techniques to separate different types of wave motion in the data. As he explains: “The movement of plasma in the sun’s corona is dominated by swaying motions. These mask the torsional motions, so I had to develop a way of removing the swaying to find the twisting.”

While the more familiar ‘kink’ waves cause entire magnetic structures to sway back and forth and are visible in film captured of the Sun, the newly detected torsional Alfvén waves cause a twisting motion that can only be detected through spectroscopic analysis – measuring how plasma moves toward and away from Earth, creating characteristic red and blue shifts on opposite sides of magnetic structures.

Professor Richard Morton of Northumbria University, UK. 

Credit: Northumbria University



Why This Changes Our Understanding of the Sun

The discovery has profound implications for understanding how the Sun works. The corona, the Sun’s outermost atmosphere visible during solar eclipses, is heated to temperatures exceeding one million degrees Celsius – hot enough to accelerate plasma away from the Sun as the solar wind that fills our entire solar system.

The research represents a major international collaboration, with co-authors from Peking University in China, KU Leuven in Belgium, Queen Mary University of London, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the NSF National Solar Observatory in Hawaii and Colorado.

Understanding these fundamental processes has practical importance for space weather prediction. The solar wind carries magnetic disturbances that can disrupt satellite communications, GPS systems, and power grids on Earth. Alfvén waves may also be the source of ‘magnetic switchbacks’ – significant carriers of energy in the solar wind that have been observed by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe.

Validating Solar Theories With Real Data

“This research provides essential validation for the range of theoretical models that describe how Alfvén wave turbulence powers the solar atmosphere,” added Professor Morton. “Having direct observations finally allows us to test these models against reality.”

The researchers expect this breakthrough to inspire new studies on how these twisting magnetic waves move through the Sun’s corona and release energy into the surrounding plasma. The exceptional spectral data produced by the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope’s Cryo-NIRSP instrument will allow scientists to explore the complex physics of wave motion in the Sun’s atmosphere with far greater precision than ever before.

This work was funded by UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the European Union’s Horizon Europe program.

It marks Professor Richard Morton’s third publication of 2025 focusing on Alfvén wave research. His earlier papers include an April 2025 paper High-frequency Coronal Alfvénic Waves Observed with DKIST/Cryo-NIRSP was published in The Astrophysical Journal, followed by the paper On the Origins of Coronal Alfvénic Waves, published in June 2025 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Boosted 'Natural Killer' Cells Could Lead to Off-The-Shelf Cancer Immunotherapy

29 October 2025, By D. NIELD

https://www.sciencealert.com/boosted-natural-killer-cells-could-lead-to-off-the-shelf-cancer-immunotherapy

Illustration showing natural killer cells attacking a cancer cell. 

(Luismmolina/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

Modifications to a type of immune cell programmed to recognize and kill cancerous tumors could make them even more effective assassins.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard Medical School have found a novel way to engineer chimeric antigen receptor natural killer (CAR-NK) cells to ensure they're not rejected by the body's immune system as foes rather than friends.

While the treatment is yet to be tested in humans, initial experiments in mice and human tissues in the lab suggest these new CAR-NK cells are well tolerated and effective at fighting cancer – a promising start for these next-gen upgrades.

Natural killer cells are produced in the body as a first-line defense against cancers or tissues infected with viruses. They don't need priming, reacting to suspect cells that don't seem to belong. By engineering chimeric antigen receptors onto NK cells taken from a patient's own blood, the tiny killers can better target specific proteins known to identify cancerous cells.

The process of engineering enough CAR-NK cells to return to a patient takes several weeks, prompting scientists to consider using blood from healthy donors instead. While it means an army of CAR-NK cells can be ready to go at all times, the process increases the risk of immune system rejection.

The engineered cells had a noticeable impact on tumors in mice (shown by the bright blotches). 

(Liu et al., Nat. Commun., 2025)

Identifying specific immune cells that could potentially attack the treatment, researchers have made precise molecular changes that alter CAR-NK's surface proteins, effectively hiding the transplanted cells.

These modifications, together with carefully engineered boosts to the cancer-fighting capabilities of the cells, can be included on a single DNA piece called a construct, simplifying the process.

"This enables us to do one-step engineering of CAR-NK cells that can avoid rejection by host T cells and other immune cells," says biologist Jianzhu Chen, from MIT.

"And, they kill cancer cells better and they're safer."

In mouse experiments, the differences between the tweaked CAR-NK cells and the standard versions were stark. The enhanced versions lasted at least three weeks, whereas the standard CAR-NK and NK cells were rejected by the immune systems of the mice, leaving the cancer to grow.

There was another benefit of the upgraded CAR-NK cells: a reduced likelihood of cytokine release syndrome – a potentially fatal side effect where the immune system triggers severe inflammation.

The study team thinks their approach may also improve CAR-T cell therapies, which use 'T' immune cells instead of natural killer cells. These therapies work well in some patients, but not in others.

One of the key next steps here will be clinical trials, so the researchers can see if these positive effects are seen in people as well. If those trials go well, there's plenty of potential for these allogeneic therapies (using immune cell fighters from healthy donors).

"We believe our approach could also be applied to other allogeneic cell-based products and can aid the design of 'off-the-shelf' allogeneic therapies," write the researchers in their published paper.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Scientists Discover Ocean Bacteria That Feast on Plastic

BY KING ABDULLAH U. OF SCI. TEC. (KAUST), OCT. 29, 2025

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-discover-ocean-bacteria-that-feast-on-plastic/

Bacteria armed with the M5 motif on their PETase enzyme can feast on plastic, a trait now seen thriving across the world’s oceans. 

Credit: 2025 KAUST

A newly discovered enzyme motif reveals how ocean microbes are evolving to digest plastic, potentially aiding future cleanup efforts.

Hidden in the depths of the ocean, scientists have discovered marine bacteria equipped with enzymes that can consume plastic, their evolution shaped by humanity’s discarded waste.

According to a global study by researchers at KAUST, these microscopic recyclers are not only abundant but also genetically adapted to break down polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the tough plastic used in products such as beverage bottles and fabrics.

The key to their ability lies in a distinctive structural feature of the PET-degrading enzyme, called PETase. This identifying mark, known as the M5 motif, serves as a molecular signature of the enzyme’s plastic-eating power.

“The M5 motif acts like a fingerprint that tells us when a PETase is likely to be functional, able to break down PET plastic,” explains Carlos Duarte, a marine ecologist and co-leader of the study. “Its discovery helps us understand how these enzymes evolved from other hydrocarbon-degrading enzymes,” he says. “In the ocean, where carbon is scarce, microbes seem to have fine-tuned these enzymes to make use of this new, human-made carbon source: plastic.”

From Indestructible Plastic to Microbial Feast

For years, scientists believed that PET could not be naturally broken down. That view began to change in 2016, when researchers identified a bacterium living in a Japanese recycling facility that was thriving on plastic waste. This organism had developed an enzyme, known as a PETase, that could dismantle PET into its basic building blocks.

However, scientists were still unsure whether ocean-dwelling microbes had evolved similar enzymes.

Through a combination of AI-driven structural modeling, extensive genetic analysis, and laboratory testing, Duarte and his team discovered that a specific feature called the M5 motif distinguishes genuine PET-degrading microbes from those that only resemble them. Marine bacteria possessing the complete motif were able to efficiently break down PET in the lab. Further gene expression studies showed that M5-PETase genes are highly active throughout the oceans, particularly in regions heavily polluted with plastic.

To chart the global spread of these enzymes, the team analyzed more than 400 ocean samples from across the seven seas, finding functional versions with the M5 motif in nearly 80 percent of the waters tested — from rubbish-rich surface gyres to nutrient-starved depths two kilometers down. In the latter, the ability to snack on synthetic carbon may confer a crucial survival advantage, according to Intikhab Alam, a senior bioinformatics researcher who co-led the study.

A Slow Natural Response to Human Pollution

Ecologically, the rise of these enzymes signals an early microbial response to humanity’s planetary littering.

Duarte warns that nature’s cleanup crew works far too slowly to rescue the seas. “By the time plastics reach the deep sea, the risks to marine life and human consumers have already been inflicted,” he says.

On land, however, the discovery could fast-track industrial enzyme design for closed-loop recycling. “The range of PET-degrading enzymes spontaneously evolved in the deep sea provides models to be optimized in the lab for use in efficiently degrading plastics in treatment plants and, eventually, at home,” Duarte notes.

To that end, the M5 motif now offers the blueprint, pinpointing the structural tweaks that matter in real-world conditions, not just in a test tube. If scientists can harness those tweaks, then — as the world gropes for ways to tidy its plastic mess — they may find unlikely allies in the abyss: bacteria that already turn waste into lunch.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Chuck's photo corner to Oct. 29, 2025

Another dry week mainly, with frosty nights. Not many flowers left, I did eat a ripe raspberry off the plant this week as their second crop of berries struggle with the cold.

Part of the large waterbird population that collects along the St. Lawrence R. this time of year.

Wild swans on the St. Lawrence

The silver maple is done while the crimson king maple is thinking about it.

lobelia still doing well hanging under the roof of the front porch

sunrise over the river, the cloud runs the length of the river this time of year as it's warm water condenses in the cold morning air.

finally with the grasses still wet with morning dew a fire is safe.

time for this last water bucket to be put away before it cracks up

frosty this morning

clouds rolling in while visiting down the road

waiting for these guys to drop their leaves so my front door vid cam can see the bird feeders.

last week

the sun beams from this cloud were cool

another season begins

Cheers

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Billions of Years Ago, Fire Forged the Continents That Made Life Possible

BY M. NAUMOVA, PENN STATE, OCT. 27, 2025

https://scitechdaily.com/billions-of-years-ago-fire-forged-the-continents-that-made-life-possible/

Extreme heat forged Earth’s continents billions of years ago, creating the stable foundation that made life possible. 

Credit: SciTechDaily.com

For billions of years, Earth’s continents have stood firm, but scientists have only now uncovered how they achieved such enduring stability.

A new study from Penn State and Columbia University shows that temperatures above 900 °C deep within the planet’s crust were essential for forging the continents. The intense heat caused radioactive elements like uranium and thorium to migrate upward, carrying heat away and allowing the lower crust to cool and solidify.

The Hidden Heat Behind Earth’s Stability

For billions of years, Earth’s continents have stood firm, forming the base for mountains, ecosystems, and human civilization. Yet, scientists have long puzzled over what makes them so enduring. Now, researchers from Penn State and Columbia University have uncovered the clearest explanation yet for this remarkable stability, and it all comes down to heat.

In findings published on October 13 in Nature Geoscience, the team showed that creating long-lasting continental crust required temperatures above 900 degrees Celsius in Earth’s lower crust. These extreme conditions caused radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium to move upward. As they decayed, these elements released heat, and by rising toward the surface, they helped carry that heat away, allowing the lower crust to cool and harden over time.

A new study of the chemical components of rocks led by researchers at Penn State and Columbia University provides the clearest evidence yet for how Earth’s continents became and remained so stable — and the key ingredient is heat.

 Credit: Jaydyn Isiminger / Penn State



Beyond Geology: Modern Implications and the Search for Life

According to the researchers, the discovery has far-reaching implications beyond understanding Earth’s deep past. It could help guide the search for critical minerals that power today’s technologies, including smartphones, electric vehicles, and renewable energy systems, and even aid the hunt for habitable planets beyond our solar system.

The same geologic processes that stabilized Earth’s crust also transported valuable rare earth elements such as lithium, tin, and tungsten. Understanding how these elements moved billions of years ago may help scientists locate new deposits today. The researchers also believe these heat-driven processes may occur on other rocky planets, offering new clues for identifying worlds that could support life.

To make their conclusions, the team sampled rocks from the Alps in Europe and the southwestern United States, as well as examined published data from the scientific literature. Here is a chemical analysis performed in Smye’s lab at Penn State.

 Credit: Jaydyn Isiminger / Penn State



The Recipe for a Habitable Planet

“Stable continents are a prerequisite for habitability, but in order for them to gain that stability, they have to cool down,” said Andrew Smye, ​​associate professor of geosciences at Penn State and lead author on the paper. “In order to cool down, they have to move all these elements that produce heat — uranium, thorium, and potassium — towards the surface, because if these elements stay deep, they create heat and melt the crust.”

Smye explained that Earth’s modern continental crust began forming about 3 billion years ago. Before that, the crust was quite different, lacking the silicon-rich composition seen today. Scientists had long suspected that the melting of older crust helped form stable continental plates, but this new research reveals that the process required far higher temperatures than previously believed.

“We basically found a new recipe for how to make continents: they need to get much hotter than was previously thought, 200 degrees or so hotter,” Smye said.

Forging Continents Like Steel

Smye compared the process to forging steel.

“The metal is heated up until it becomes just soft enough so that it can be shaped mechanically by hammer blows,” Smye said. “This process of deforming the metal under extreme temperatures realigns the structure of the metal and removes impurities — both of which strengthen the metal, culminating in the material toughness that defines forged steel. In the same way, tectonic forces applied during the creation of mountain belts forge the continents. We showed that this forging of the crust requires a furnace capable of ultra-high temperatures.”

The researchers analyzed whole-rock chemical data from hundreds of samples of metasedimentary and metaigneous rocks — the types of rocks that make up much of the lower crust — and then categorized the samples by their peak metamorphic temperatures, when rocks undergo physical and chemical changes while remaining mostly solid. Andrew Smye, left, associate professor of geosciences, is pictured analyzing a rock sample with his student research team.

 Credit: Jaydyn Isiminger / Penn State
Rock Clues from Around the World


To make their conclusions, the team sampled rocks from the Alps in Europe and the southwestern United States, as well as examined published data from the scientific literature. They analyzed whole-rock chemical data from hundreds of samples of metasedimentary and metaigneous rocks — the types of rocks that make up much of the lower crust — and then categorized the samples by their peak metamorphic temperatures, when rocks undergo physical and chemical changes while remaining mostly solid.

The researchers distinguished between high-temperature (HT) and ultrahigh-temperature (UHT) conditions. Smye and his co-author, Peter Kelemen, professor of earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University, noticed a striking consistency to the compositions of rocks that had melted at temperatures above 900 C: they had significantly lower concentrations of uranium and thorium compared to those in rocks that had undergone melting at lower temperatures.

“It’s rare to see a consistent signal in rocks from so many different places,” he said. “It’s one of those eureka moments that you think ‘nature is trying to tell us something here.’”

He explained that melting in most rock types occurs when the temperature gets above 650 °C, or a little over six times as hot as boiling water. Typically, the further into the crust you go, the temperature increases by about 20 °C for every kilometer of depth. Since the base of most stable continental plates is about 30 to 40 kilometers thick, temperatures of 900 °C are not typical and require them to rethink the temperature structure.

Earth’s Hot Past and Modern Treasure Maps

Smye explained that earlier in Earth’s history, the amount of heat produced from the radioactive elements that made up the crust — uranium, thorium, and potassium — was about double what it is today.

“There was more heat available in the system,” he said. “Today, we wouldn’t expect as much stable crust to be produced because there’s less heat available to forge it.”

He added that understanding how these ultra-high temperature reactions can mobilize elements in the Earth’s crust has wider implications for understanding the distribution and concentration of critical minerals, a highly sought-after group of metals that have proved challenging to mine and locate. If scientists can understand the reactions that first redistributed the valuable elements, theoretically, they could better locate new deposits of the materials today.

“If you destabilize the minerals that host uranium, thorium, and potassium, you’re also releasing a lot of rare earth elements,” he said.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

One Type of Activity Is Particularly Effective at Keeping Your Brain Young

29 October 2025, By C. CORONEL & A. IBÁÑEZ, THE CONVERSATION

https://www.sciencealert.com/one-type-of-activity-is-particularly-effective-at-keeping-your-brain-young

(Lighthouse Films/Getty Images)

Creative experience might enhance brain health, which could slow down the brain's ageing. That's according to a study by a group of international scientists across 13 countries.

They found that creative activities, like dance classes – the tango proved particularly effective – or art classes or music lessons or a hobby like gaming, had a positive impact on an artificial intelligence (AI) "brain clock".

And the more the participant practised their art form, the "younger" their brain clocks were.

We asked the lead researchers, neuroscientists Carlos Coronel and Agustín Ibáñez, to explain their study.

What is brain health?

Brain health is the state of cognitive, emotional and social functioning that allows people to realise their potential, maintain their wellbeing, and adapt to changes across the course of life.

It is not defined by the absence of disease but by the brain's ability to sustain efficient, resilient and integrated activity that supports everyday life.

Brain ageing is the biological and functional changes that happen in the brain over time. It includes changes in structure, connectivity and metabolism that may or may not impair performance.

Brain ageing includes changes in structure, connectivity, and metabolism.

 (Sumali Ibnu Chamid/Alemedia.id/Canva)



While some decline is natural, the rate and pattern of these changes vary greatly between individuals, reflecting both vulnerability and resilience.

"Brain clocks" are machine learning (AI) models designed to estimate how old a brain looks, based on brain scans or neural activity patterns. They compare neuroimaging, electrophysiological, or neuromolecular data to normal brain patterns across the lifespan.

So, by using a brain clock we can try to understand what makes a brain more resilient and what ages it faster.

What did you want to find out?

We wanted to know whether being creative isn't just fun or emotionally rewarding, but actually biologically good for the brain. There's growing evidence that arts engagement supports wellbeing, but we still lack a solid understanding of how creativity might shape brain health.

Many believe that art is too mysterious and intangible to study scientifically or to make a biological difference. We wanted to challenge both ideas.

Could creative experiences, something that feels joyful and deeply human, also be measured in the brain? Could they help delay brain ageing in the same way that physical exercise helps the body?

Our study tested whether creativity might influence the brain clock. If your brain clock says you're younger than your real age, it means your brain is functioning more efficiently than expected.

How did you go about it?

We collected data from almost 1,400 people across different countries. Some were expert tango dancers, musicians, visual artists or gamers. Others were non-experts matched for age, education and gender from the same countries. Non-experts had no previous experience in the different disciplines.

We recorded their brain activity using techniques called magnetoencephalography and electroencephalography. They can be used to measure brain activity in real time. Then we trained computer models (machine learning models) to create a brain clock for each participant.

The models can be trained in less than an hour. The challenge was to collect the data – from Argentina to Poland – of hundreds of participants. That would be impossible without the collaboration of many researchers and institutes worldwide.

So we used the brain clocks to predict each person's age from their data. If someone's predicted brain age was lower than their real age, it meant their brain was ageing more slowly.

Finally, we used something called biophysical modelling. These models are "digital brains", and we used these virtual brains to understand the biology behind creativity.

The problem with the machine learning models (the "brain clocks") is, although they can learn patterns in the data to make predictions, they can't reproduce real brain activity.

The biophysical models, on the other hand, are "real" brains in a digital world, that is, they are a mirrored copy of the brain inside a computer. These models use detailed biological and physical rules to simulate how a brain works. So, they aren't AI models. They're "generative models" that can, in fact, generate brain activity from mathematical equations.

While brain clocks can be used to measure brain health (accelerated or delayed brain ageing), the biophysical models can explain why creativity is associated with better brain health.

What did you find out?

Across every creative field, the pattern was strikingly consistent: creativity was linked to a younger-looking brain.

Tango dancers showed brains that appeared more than seven years younger than their chronological age. Musicians and visual artists had brains about five to six years younger. Gamers, about four years younger.

Gamers had brains four years younger, on average.

 (RyanKing999/Canva)



We also ran a smaller experiment where non-experts trained for just 30 hours in the strategy video game StarCraft II to see whether short-term creative learning could have similar effects.

Even in the short-term experiment, after only 30 hours of creative training, participants' brain clocks ticked backward, showing a reduction of brain age between two and three years.

The more people practised their art, the stronger the effect. And it didn't matter what kind of art it was. It could be dancing, painting, music, or gaming. All helped key brain areas work better together.

These areas, important for focus and learning, usually age first, but creativity seems to keep their connections stronger and more flexible.

Creativity, we found, protects brain areas that are vulnerable to ageing and makes brain communication more efficient (similar to building more, larger, and higher-quality roads to communicate between cities within a country).

Why is this important?

The arts and sciences, often seen as opposites, are in fact allies. Creativity shapes not only culture but biology. Our study reframes creativity as a biological pathway to brain health and resilience, not only a cultural or psychological phenomenon.

By showing that artistic engagement can delay brain ageing, this research helps us reimagine the role of creativity in education, public health, and ageing societies.

In the big picture, it expands our understanding of healthy ageing beyond disease prevention. It highlights creativity as a scalable, accessible and deeply human mechanism to sustain cognitive and emotional wellbeing across diverse populations and lifespans.

So if you're wondering whether being creative is "good for you", the answer seems to be "yes". Scientifically, measurably, and beautifully so. Your next dance step, brush stroke, or musical note might just help your brain stay a little younger.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Rare Fossils Reveal Surprisingly Gorilla-Like Features of Ancient Human Relative

By S. C. REYNOLDS, THE CONVERSATION, 28 Oct. 2025

https://www.sciencealert.com/rare-fossils-reveal-surprisingly-gorilla-like-features-of-ancient-human-relative

Artist's impression of a Paranthropus boisei head.

  (Cicero Moraes/Wikimedia Commons/CC-BY-SA 4.0)

Experts have been puzzled by recently discovered fossils from the hand of an extinct human relative, Paranthropus boisei. They have been surprised by a mix of human-like and gorilla-like traits in the fingers.

In the journal Nature, researchers describe the set of 1.5-million-year-old fossils from a site in Kenya that includes the first unambiguous Paranthropus hand bones identified in the fossil record. They are also a very rare example of a relatively complete set of hand bones from this time.

The first example of Paranthropus was discovered in South Africa by Dr Robert Broom in 1938. Its name means "beside man" and reflects the fact that it shared a direct ancestor (known as Australopithecus) with our own genus, Homo, but existed alongside the early human lineage. Broom's fossils belonged to the species Paranthropus robustus.

The species Paranthropus boisei, on the other hand, was first discovered in Olduvai Gorge, Kenya, by Mary and Louis Leakey in 1959. Its massive mandible and teeth led to its nickname: the Nutcracker Man.

The very molarised teeth (where a non-molar tooth takes on the appearance of a molar) indicated a possible diet of tough and fibrous foods – almost certainly consisting of vegetation – that required extensive chewing.

Paranthropus boisei skull and muscle reconstruction.

 (Cicero Moraes/Wikimedia commons/CC-BY-SA 4.0)



Paranthropus was a bipedal hominin, like representatives of our own lineage, with a similar body size. It also lived in similar habitats to early Homo. Yet it became extinct around 800,000 years ago.

Inevitably, these two hominin lineages have been compared in every possible manner to identify which traits ensured Homo's survival. Homo's persistence has been attributed to its large brain, small teeth, and meat-based diet.

Paranthropus, on the other hand, with its large teeth and a smaller brain, is often cast as an evolutionary "also-ran" – not quite clever or adaptable enough to persist in a changing world.

However, there was little real evidence for concrete differences in how Paranthropus used its body or its surroundings. Until now.

The new fossil set from Koobi Fora, on the eastern shores of Lake Turkana in Kenya, shows that Paranthropus boisei was not clumsy or poorly adapted to its lifestyle. The remains, dated to around 1.52 million years ago, include a partial skeleton with both hand and foot bones found alongside unmistakable P. boisei jaws and teeth.

Palm (left) and back (right) views of Paranthropus hand bones.

 (Mongle, Nature, 2025)



For the first time, we can connect this species' massive chewing apparatus with the limbs and hands that helped it function in the ancient landscape.

The fingers are, in many respects, more like gorillas than humans, but the feet are very similar to Homo feet. In fact, the foot shows that P. boisei was an efficient biped, walking on arched, rigid feet that resemble our own more closely than those of earlier species such as Australopithecus afarensis.

The big toe was aligned with the others, and the joints show the same upward tilt – called dorsal canting – that allows modern humans to push off powerfully when walking or running. A twisted third metatarsal bone formed a transverse arch, the architectural feature that stiffens the human foot and turns it into a spring for energy-efficient movement.

The new find suggests a mix of both advanced and primitive features. It paints a picture of a creature capable of traversing the mixed open habitats of East Africa on two legs, moving confidently between feeding areas and perhaps even carrying food or simple tools. The powerful hands may have been used to forage for food, which required a strong grip.

There may be an argument that Paranthropus was pulling itself into the trees. Until now, Paranthropus has not been thought of as a climber, nor an animal associated with particularly dense tree cover. It was thought that cooling climates and thinning forests led to bipedalism in both Homo and Paranthropus.

Yet there are clear differences with Homo. The big toe of P. boisei was shorter than ours, hinting at a slightly different gait – perhaps a slower, heavier stride. The smaller toes were straighter and stiffer than those of apes but not as refined as in Homo sapiens. This mosaic anatomy shows that upright walking had already been perfected in several human relatives, even if each did it in their own way.

The foot of P. boisei demonstrates that by 1.5 million years ago, bipedalism was a shared foundation rather than a unique advantage. Both Homo and Paranthropus walked tall; their evolutionary paths diverged not in locomotion but in lifestyle.

While Homo relied increasingly on brainpower, tools, and cooperation, Paranthropus doubled down on strength and chewing muscle. One lineage adapted to flexibility, the other to endurance – and in the end, only one survived.

But the discovery also softens the old story of triumph and failure. Paranthropus boisei wasn't a "failed" hominin relative. It was a successful species in its own right, perfectly adapted to its ecological niche for well over a million years.

The new fossils remind us that human evolution wasn't a straight march of progress but a branching bush of experiments – some favouring brains, others brawn, all walking upright beneath the same African sun.

The birth of modern Man

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Scientists Built a Working Computer Memory Out of Shiitake Mushrooms

28 Oct. 2025, By M. STARR

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-built-a-working-computer-memory-out-of-shiitake-mushrooms

Mycelium of the shiitake mushroom shows promise for biological memristors.

 (Mint Images/Getty Images)

A computer that relies on fungal mycelium to store information could one day be a low-cost alternative to the current generation of memory hardware.

Using plain old shiitake mushrooms (Lentinula edodes), scientists have built working memristors – circuitry elements that 'remember' their past electrical states – not from titanium dioxide or silicon, but the root-like (and somewhat neuron-like) part of a fungus called the mycelium.

The result is a memristor with performance comparable to that of a silicon-based chip, but potentially low-cost, scalable, and environmentally friendly in ways many computer components today are not.

"Being able to develop microchips that mimic actual neural activity means you don't need a lot of power for standby or when the machine isn't being used," says psychiatrist John LaRocco of Ohio State University. "That's something that can be a huge potential computational and economic advantage."

The mycelial memristors connected to a circuit.

 (LaRocco et al., PLOS One, 2025)

The development of a computer that behaves like a brain requires the development of components that also behave like parts of the brain. One of these requirements is memristors that can act like synapses – junctions between neurons that manage the flow of information.

Scientists have considered using mushrooms as computer parts, not least because mycelial networks behave in ways that are similar to neural networks. They are structured similarly and transmit information using electrical and chemical signals, just like a brain.

But the fact they aren't actually brains means some engineering is needed to make them do what scientists need them to do.

The team used shiitake mushrooms because this species is particularly robust, resilient, and resistant to stressors such as radiation. The researchers seeded nine samples in substrate-filled petri dishes with shiitake spores and grew them under controlled temperature and humidity conditions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-J1t0rAlOU&t=1s

When the mycelium had grown enough to cover the petri dish, the researchers dried out each sample in a well-ventilated area in direct sunlight to ensure its long-term viability. Thus prepared, each sample was ready to be put to work to test its computational chops, connected to a purpose-built circuit to be flooded with electrical currents.

"We would connect electrical wires and probes at different points on the mushrooms because distinct parts of it have different electrical properties," LaRocco says. "Depending on the voltage and connectivity, we were seeing different performances."

The researchers achieved a performance of 5,850 Hertz, with an accuracy of 90 percent from their 'mushristor' – that is, it switches signals at a speed of about 5,850 times per second, or one switch every 170 microseconds or so. The slowest commercially available memristors start at a little under twice that speed, so the experiment is extremely promising for the first baby steps.

The researchers also found that as the electrical voltage increased, the mushroom's performance decreased. They were able to compensate for this by adding more mushrooms to the circuit.

You're not going to have a mycelial computer powering your doomscrolling any time soon. Still, the findings do indicate that this is an auspicious avenue for future research and development toward accessible, low-cost, and biodegradable components, with potential applications ranging from personal devices to aerospace.

"Everything you'd need to start exploring fungi and computing could be as small as a compost heap and some homemade electronics, or as big as a culturing factory with pre-made templates," LaRocco says. "All of them are viable with the resources we have in front of us now."

As the researchers note in their paper, "The future of computing could be fungal."

The Life of Earth

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Why “Dimming the Sun” Might Be the Most Dangerous Climate Fix Yet

BY COLUMBIA CLIMATE SCHOOL, OCT. 27, 2025

https://scitechdaily.com/why-dimming-the-sun-might-be-the-most-dangerous-climate-fix-yet/

Researchers warn that efforts to reflect sunlight and cool the Earth could have unpredictable, far-reaching impacts.

 Credit: SciTechDaily.com

Scientists are questioning whether humanity can truly “dim the Sun” without causing chaos.

A new Columbia University study shows that stratospheric aerosol injection could trigger massive side effects depending on where, when, and what materials are used. From monsoon disruptions to supply-chain limits and uncertain chemistry, the obstacles are enormous.
The Rising Reality of Solar Geoengineering

An idea once dismissed as far-fetched, cooling the planet by spreading sunlight-reflecting particles through the upper atmosphere, has now become a serious topic in climate science. This approach, known as stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), aims to counter global warming by mimicking the natural cooling that follows volcanic eruptions. Hundreds of studies have modeled how such a system could work in theory. But researchers at Columbia University warn that supporters of the concept overlook just how uncertain, technically challenging, and risky it could be in practice.

“Even when simulations of SAI in climate models are sophisticated, they’re necessarily going to be idealized. Researchers model the perfect particles that are the perfect size. And in the simulation, they put exactly how much of them they want, where they want them. But when you start to consider where we actually are, compared to that idealized situation, it reveals a lot of the uncertainty in those predictions,” says V. Faye McNeill, an atmospheric chemist and aerosol scientist at Columbia’s Climate School and Columbia Engineering.

“There are a range of things that might happen if you try to do this—and we’re arguing that the range of possible outcomes is a lot wider than anybody has appreciated until now.”

An illustration of climate geoengineering techniques, including stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), cirrus cloud thinning (CCT), and marine cloud brightening (MCB), and their proposed delivery systems and potential impacts. Natural stratospheric aerosol release from a volcanic eruption is also shown for context. Surface albedo geoengineering (SAG), which is based on increasing the albedo of various surfaces, is also represented with two examples: installing white roofs on urban buildings and modifying plants and shrubs surface. 

Credit: Creative Commons

Reckoning With Real-World Limits

In a study published in Scientific Reports, McNeill and her coauthors explored the physical, political, and economic barriers that could complicate efforts to deploy SAI. They compiled findings from previous research to better understand how different design choices — such as timing, altitude, and injection location — could influence the planet’s climate response. Even small differences in how and where aerosols are released could drastically change the results.

Among the many variables, latitude stands out as one of the most important. For instance, injecting particles over the poles could disrupt tropical monsoon systems, while focusing efforts near the equator might interfere with the jet stream and alter the circulation of heat between hemispheres.

“It isn’t just a matter of getting five teragrams of sulfur into the atmosphere. It matters where and when you do it,” says McNeill. These variabilities suggest that, if SAI takes place, it should be done in a centralized, coordinated fashion. Given geopolitical realities, however, the researchers say that is unlikely.

Lessons From Volcanic Cooling

Model studies to date have focused almost entirely on SAI approaches that would use sulfate-rich gases analogous to those formed when volcanic plumes oxidize and condense in the stratosphere. Volcanic eruptions have cooled Earth in the past: When Mount Pinatubo erupted in 1991, for example, planetary temperatures dropped by nearly one degree Celsius for several years afterwards. That event is often cited as a proof-of-principle for how SAI could work.

Beside cooling at ground level, SAI also poses undesirable consequences, both expected and unexpected. For example, Pinatubo’s eruption also disrupted the Indian monsoon system, leading to decreased rainfall across South Asia, and caused warming in the stratosphere and depletion of the ozone layer. The use of sulfates for SAI could pose similar risks, or additional environmental concerns, including acid rain and soil pollution. These concerns have led to a search for other aerosol ingredients for SAI.

Searching for Safer Sunlight Shields

Proposed mineral alternatives include calcium carbonate, alpha alumina, rutile and anatase titania, cubic zirconia and diamond. Consideration of alternatives has focused on their optical qualities, but other factors have been neglected.

“Scientists have discussed the use of aerosol candidates with little consideration of how practical limitations might limit your ability to actually inject massive amounts of them yearly,” says Miranda Hack, an aerosol scientist at Columbia University and the new paper’s lead author. “A lot of the materials that have been proposed are not particularly abundant.”

The Harsh Economics of Aerosol Alternatives

Diamond is optically well-suited to the task, but there simply isn’t enough of it. As for cubic zirconia and rutile titania, supply might conceivably meet demand, but the Columbia team’s economic modeling suggests that increased demand would strain supply chains and make them much more expensive. Sufficient supplies of alpha alumina and calcium carbonate exist to absorb demand without driving prices to prohibitive levels—but, along with the other candidates, there are serious technical challenges involved with dispersing them.

At the minuscule, sub-micron particle size necessary for SAI, the mineral alternatives all tend to clump into larger aggregates. According to the researchers’ calculations, these aggregates are less effective at reducing sunlight than are particles, and their climate impacts are even less understood. “Instead of having these perfect optical properties, you have something much worse. In comparison to sulfate, I don’t think we would necessarily see the types of climate benefits that have been discussed,” says Hack.

Uncertain Futures and Risky Trade-Offs

According to the Columbia University researchers, every real-world challenge — from how SAI would be carried out to the types of particles used — adds new layers of uncertainty to an already unpredictable idea. They argue that these complications must be recognized before any serious consideration of deploying stratospheric aerosol injection takes place.

“It’s all about risk trade-offs when you look at solar geoengineering,” says Gernot Wagner, a climate economist at the Columbia Business School and a close collaborator with the Climate School. Given the messy realities of SAI, he says, “it isn’t going to happen the way that 99 percent of these papers model.”

The Life of Earth

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This Common Organism Could Survive on Mars

BY INDIAN INST. OF SCI. (IISC), OCT. 26, 2025

https://scitechdaily.com/this-common-organism-could-survive-on-mars/

Could an ordinary bread-making yeast hold the secret to surviving on Mars? In a groundbreaking experiment, scientists tested how this simple organism withstands violent shock waves and toxic Martian chemicals. 

Credit: Shutterstock

A team of Indian researchers has discovered that baker’s yeast can survive extreme Martian-like conditions involving high-intensity shock waves and toxic perchlorate salts.

Baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is best known for its essential role in baking, brewing, and biotechnology. Yet this unassuming microorganism may also help scientists understand something far greater: how life might endure in the extreme environments of other worlds.

In a recent study, researchers from the Department of Biochemistry (BC) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), together with colleagues from the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad, discovered that this common yeast can survive conditions similar to those found on Mars.

To test its resilience, the scientists exposed yeast cells to high-intensity shock waves comparable to the forces created by meteorite impacts on the Martian surface, as well as to perchlorate salts—chemicals known to be toxic and abundant in Martian soil.

Using a specialized High-Intensity Shock Tube for Astrochemistry (HISTA) developed in Bhalamurugan Sivaraman’s laboratory at PRL, they generated shock waves reaching speeds of Mach 5.6. The team then treated yeast cells with 100 mM sodium perchlorate, both separately and alongside the shock wave exposure, to evaluate how the organism responded to these combined stresses.

Assembly of cytoplasmic RNP condensates (yellow dots) in yeast cells in response to stress.

 Credit: Riya Dhage



“One of the biggest hurdles was setting up the HISTA tube to expose live yeast cells to shock waves – something that has not been attempted before – and then recovering yeast with minimum contamination for downstream experiments,” explains lead author Riya Dhage, a project assistant in the lab of Purusharth I Rajyaguru, Associate Professor in BC.

A Surprising Survival Mechanism

Remarkably, the yeast cells survived when treated with shock waves and perchlorate, individually and in combination, although the cells’ growth slowed down. The likely key to their resilience lies in their ability to produce ribonucleoprotein (RNP) condensates – tiny, membrane-less structures that help protect and reorganize mRNA when the cells are under stress.

Shock waves triggered the assembly of two types of RNPs called stress granules and P-bodies, while perchlorate exposure led to the generation of P-bodies alone. Yeast mutants that were unable to form these structures were far less likely to survive.

Left: Riya Dhage (first author), Right: Purusharth I Rajyaguru (corresponding author). Credit: Swati Lamba



The results show how RNP condensates may act as biomarkers for cellular stress under extraterrestrial conditions.

“What makes this work unique is the integration of shock wave physics and chemical biology with molecular cell biology to probe how life might cope with such Mars-like stressors,” says Dhage.

The findings underscore how baker’s yeast could serve as an excellent model for India’s efforts in astrobiology research. Understanding how such cells reorganize their RNA and proteins under mechanical and chemical stress can provide insights into the survival of lifeforms beyond Earth. Crucially, such insights could also guide the design of stress-resilient extraterrestrial biological systems.

“We were surprised to observe yeast surviving the Mars-like stress conditions that we used in our experiments,” says Rajyaguru, the corresponding author of the study. “We hope that this study will galvanize efforts to have yeast on board in future space explorations.”

The Life of Earth

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