Scientists Discover Surprising Similarities Between Freud’s Ideas and Modern Neuroscience

By U. of Oslo, June 1, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-discover-surprising-similarities-between-freuds-ideas-and-modern-neuroscience/

A new article explores surprising links between psychoanalysis and modern neuroscience, suggesting that Freud’s ideas may overlap with today’s view of the brain as a prediction-making system.

 Credit: Shutterstock

Researchers suggest that old psychoanalytic ideas and modern brain science may be describing the same mental processes from different angles.

More than a century after Sigmund Freud developed his influential theories of the mind, some researchers believe modern neuroscience may be arriving at surprisingly similar conclusions.

A new paper published in the neurocognitive journal Entropy suggests that his ideas about the mind, along with later psychoanalytic theories, share important similarities with one of today’s leading neuroscience frameworks known as the prediction paradigm.

This neuropsychological theory describes the brain as a system that constantly generates predictions about what will happen next. At the same time, it works to reduce the gap between those expectations and incoming sensory information. Researchers consider this predictive process essential for perception, behavior, and emotional regulation.

Erik Stänicke, Bendik Hovet, and Line Indrevoll Stänicke from the Department of Psychology, along with their colleagues, argue that these ideas closely resemble the way psychoanalysis has described inner mental life for more than a century.

“For over 130 years, psychoanalysis has developed psychological theories about how predictions take place at a subjective level, which cognitive neuropsychology is now studying at a physiological level.”

Erik Stänicke believes that rigid and persistent symptoms, such as paranoid ideas or an internalized critical voice, may be stable but not very flexible prediction models. 

Credit: UiO



Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience Describe Similar Processes

According to the researchers, psychoanalysis and neuroscience are examining many of the same underlying processes, but from different perspectives. Neuroscience focuses on mathematical and biological explanations of brain activity, while psychoanalysis explores how these experiences are felt and understood internally.

The team points to the psychoanalytic concept of projection as a close parallel to predictive processing in neuroscience.

“When we attribute qualities, intentions, or feelings to other people, our brain shapes our experience of the world in line with established expectations,” says Stänicke.

He explains that earlier experiences with other people gradually influence how we approach new relationships and situations.

Projection, Prediction, and Psychological Stability

“This corresponds to the neuroscientific distinction between changing one’s own predictions, perceptual inference, and the attempt to make the world conform to them, namely active inference.”

The researchers also emphasize that both psychoanalysis and neuroscience describe the mind as striving for stability and predictability, also known as homeostasis, or psychological balance.

Understanding the human mind: 

Both psychoanalysts and neuropsychologists today describe the same fundamental phenomena in the human mind, according to the authors of the article, but at different levels. They believe that bringing the two fields together may lead to our understanding subjectivity in a more scientific way. 

Credit: Terje Heiestad / UiO


Within the prediction model, the brain reduces uncertainty by relying on established expectations to make the world feel more understandable and predictable.

“Psychoanalysts refer to the tendency in the mind to recreate familiar relational patterns, even when these are poorly adapted,” says Stänicke.

Mental Disorders as Rigid Prediction Models

Stänicke believes this overlap between the two fields could provide valuable insight into mental disorders.

“Rigid and persistent symptoms, such as paranoid ideas or an internalized critical voice, may be stable but not very flexible prediction models,” says Stänicke.

“For example, there may be people who automatically expect criticism, rejection, or hostility from others, and therefore interpret situations through this filter despite the fact that reality does not warrant it.”

According to Stänicke, these mental patterns persist because they reduce uncertainty, even if they distort reality. Both psychoanalysis and predictive neuroscience may therefore help explain why mental health conditions can be difficult to change.

Relational Memory and Psychotherapy Insights

“In addition, both models give us insight into how parts of our expectations of the outside world are not only anchored cognitively, but in procedural memory that is expressed in relational ways of being,” he says. Stänicke explains that experiences and expectations are stored not only as conscious thoughts but also through habitual ways of reacting to and interacting with others.

“Therefore, psychotherapy sometimes has to work relationally. For example, new experiences in the relationship between therapist and patient can gradually help to change entrenched relational patterns.”

The researchers suggest that predictive neuroscience could provide a neurological foundation for psychoanalysis, while psychoanalytic theory may offer neuroscience a more detailed understanding of how predictions are experienced, interpreted, and expressed in relationships.

“Bringing these two fields together can open up for a more holistic psychology, in which both neurological mechanisms and subjective experience are included. In this way, we can understand subjectivity in a more scientific manner,” he concludes.

The birth of modern Man

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Scientists Made Older Mice Biologically Younger Using Gut Microbes

By Digestive Disease Week, June 1, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-made-older-mice-biologically-younger-using-gut-microbes/

A simple gut microbiome “reset” may have dramatically slowed aging and prevented liver cancer in a new mouse study.

 Credit: Shutterstock



Scientists restored young gut bacteria in aging mice and saw signs of rejuvenation along with complete protection from liver cancer.

Returning the gut microbiome to a more youthful state could help slow aging and lower the risk of liver cancer, according to research entitled “Restoration of a youthful gut microbiome reduces liver aging and suppresses tumorigenesis in older mice” presented at Digestive Disease Week (DDW) 2026.

Liver cancer is among the fastest-growing cancers worldwide, and the new findings suggest that age-related changes in gut bacteria may play a more important role in its development than previously recognized.

To investigate, researchers collected fecal samples from eight young mice and stored them for later use. As the mice aged, the scientists reintroduced each animal’s own preserved microbiome through a procedure known as fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT). Another eight mice served as controls and received a sterilized fecal slurry instead. A separate group of young mice provided baseline measurements for comparison.

Restored Gut Bacteria Reduced Cancer Risk

The differences between the groups were striking.

By the end of the study, none of the mice that received their youthful microbiome developed liver cancer. In contrast, liver cancer was detected in 2 of the 8 aging mice in the control group.

The treated mice also experienced lower levels of inflammation and showed less liver damage than untreated animals.

“We’re learning from this work that the aging microbiome actively contributes to liver dysfunction and cancer risk rather than simply reflecting the aging process,” said Qingjie Li, PhD, associate professor in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at The University of Texas Medical Branch, and lead researcher on the study. “The microbiome has a broader influence on the body’s cancer defenses than previously understood.”

Key Liver Cancer Gene Changed by Treatment

After completing the in vivo study, the research team performed a detailed examination of liver tissue samples.

Their analysis revealed differences involving MDM2, a gene already associated with liver cancer. MDM2 protein levels were low in young mice, elevated in untreated older mice, and reduced in older mice that received the microbiome treatment. This pattern made the treated animals resemble younger mice more closely at the molecular level.

“Restoring a more youthful microbiome can reverse several core features of aging at both the molecular and functional level, including inflammation, fibrosis, mitochondrial decline, telomere attrition, and DNA damage,” Dr. Li said.

From Heart Research to Liver Aging

The study originated from earlier research examining the heart. In that work, scientists found that altering the microbiome could improve cardiac function.

When the team later analyzed tissue samples from those experiments, they observed an even stronger effect in the liver. That unexpected finding led them to investigate the connection between the microbiome, aging, and liver disease in greater depth.

To reduce the risk of immune reactions and infection, the researchers used each mouse’s own preserved microbiome rather than bacteria from a donor. They also said this approach provides a cleaner proof-of-concept for future studies involving people.

Human Studies Still Needed

Dr. Li stressed that the findings come from animal research and should not be applied directly to humans.

However, he said he hopes the results will pave the way for first-in-human clinical trials in the near future, helping researchers determine whether restoring a youthful microbiome could one day become a strategy for combating aging-related liver disease and cancer.

The Life of Earth

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Scientists Discover a Hidden Cause of Cellular Aging That Can Be Reversed

By K. Wagner, Leibniz Inst. on Aging - Fritz Lipmann Inst., June 2, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-discover-a-hidden-cause-of-cellular-aging-that-can-be-reversed/

Scientists have uncovered a surprising link between aging cells and a membrane lipid that helps mitochondria stay flexible and connected.

Credit: Shutterstock



Scientists identified phosphatidylcholine loss as a key driver of mitochondrial aging and showed that restoring it can rejuvenate cellular energy networks.

Why do cells age, and why do people gradually lose energy and vitality over time? Scientists have long focused on mitochondria, the tiny structures inside cells responsible for producing energy. Researchers now understand that mitochondria do much more than power cells. They also help regulate communication, adaptation, and many processes essential for survival.

Mitochondria provide the energy needed for movement, growth, and tissue repair. However, their performance declines with age. While scientists have known this for years, the reasons behind the slowdown have remained unclear.

For decades, researchers believed damage to mitochondrial DNA was the main cause. But a new study published in Nature Communications by an international team led by Dr. Maria Ermolaeva of the Leibniz Institute on Aging – Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI) in Jena points to another major factor: disruptions in the mitochondrial network caused by the loss of an important membrane lipid.

The lipid, called phosphatidylcholine, is a key building block of biological membranes. It helps membranes stay flexible so they can constantly reorganize. This flexibility is essential for “mitochondrial fusion,” a process where separate mitochondria join together into networks. These connected networks allow cells to share energy molecules, metabolic products, DNA, and signaling molecules while replacing damaged components and preventing imbalances.
Declining Phosphatidylcholine Weakens Mitochondrial Energy Networks

The researchers found that phosphatidylcholine production decreases with age, causing mitochondrial membranes to become fragmented and less functional. When genes responsible for producing phosphatidylcholine were switched off in young worms, their mitochondria quickly developed characteristics typically seen in older organisms. The team was surprised by how closely these changes matched naturally aged mitochondria.

The effects also appeared reversible. Within just two days, worms fed phosphatidylcholine or its precursor, choline, showed mitochondria with a much younger structure. “We were surprised ourselves by how strongly this molecule influences the structure, connectivity, and function of mitochondria,” said Dr. Tetiana Poliezhaieva, the study’s first author.

Phosphatidylcholine is important for mitochondrial function. Its production declines with age, which impairs cellular energy production. Getting it through your diet can restore mitochondrial function and may support healthy aging. 

Credit: FLI / Maria Ermolaeva; AI-generated with ChatGPT

Although the change may seem minor, the consequences are significant (Butterfly effect). Under normal conditions, mitochondria form adaptable networks that respond to the cell’s changing energy demands. As aging progresses, however, these networks become unstable. “You can imagine the whole system as a finely branched power grid that becomes increasingly damaged with age: connections break down and currents stall,” explained Dr. Ermolaeva.

“Although energy production continues, it becomes less efficient and sustainable, and energy can no longer be distributed flexibly.” Over time, cells lose what scientists call “metabolic plasticity,” or the ability to quickly adapt to changing energy needs. This flexibility is critical for maintaining healthy cells, tissues, and body systems, and its decline is increasingly linked to aging and diseases such as diabetes.

Human Data and Model Organisms Reveal Aging Mechanisms

To investigate the underlying biology, the researchers combined several approaches using the worm Caenorhabditis elegans, human cell cultures, and large clinical datasets. They analyzed information on proteins, lipids, genetic variation, gene activity, and metabolism across different stages of aging in humans.

This broad strategy allowed the team to connect molecular changes seen in model organisms with patterns observed in people. By combining experimental validation with whole-body studies in worms, they uncovered a direct connection between gradual molecular shifts and systemic aging.

The findings showed that mitochondrial decline is influenced not only by genetic damage but also by age-related changes in lipid production. This expands scientists’ understanding of mitochondrial aging by highlighting the importance of membrane lipid dynamics.

The team also found evidence that aging occurs in distinct biological phases rather than as one continuous process. Cells first lose their ability to handle stress, along with disruptions in protein homeostasis, the system responsible for maintaining stable proteins. Metabolic changes follow, with epigenetic alterations appearing later.

Menopause, Metabolism, and Reversing Mitochondrial Aging

The study also identified sex-specific differences in lipid metabolism. Human metabolome data showed the sharpest drop in phosphatidylcholine levels in women around menopause. “This observation is particularly noteworthy, as it coincides with a time when many women report a significant decline in energy levels and the onset of persistent fatigue,” said Dr. Ermolaeva.

One of the study’s most important findings was that some aging-related damage may be reversible. Increasing phosphatidylcholine levels, including through diet, stabilized mitochondrial networks in older C. elegans worms and improved cellular energy production. The results suggest that targeted metabolic interventions could help extend healthy aging.

“Our work shows that both mitochondrial aging and broader systemic aging are, at least in part, modifiable. If we understand the underlying processes, we may be able to take targeted countermeasures,” Dr. Ermolaeva said. More research will be needed to determine whether these findings can lead to treatments for people. Scientists are especially interested in whether nutritional supplements could help support cell function in older age.

The researchers concluded that phosphatidylcholine supplementation may work as an anti-aging intervention even when started in middle or later life. Overall, the study shifts the focus of aging research away from irreversible decline and toward biological processes that may be altered to support healthier aging.

The Life of Earth

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US Homes Shake as Meteor Explodes With Force of 300 Tons of TNT

01 June 2026, By AFP

https://www.sciencealert.com/us-homes-shake-as-meteor-explodes-with-force-of-300-tons-of-tnt

Satellite image of the explosion high in Earth’s atmosphere. 

(CSU/CIRA and NOAA)

A meteor crashing toward Earth exploded over the northeastern United States on Saturday, NASA said, setting off booms that echoed over the region with a blast equivalent to 300 tons of TNT.

The fireball broke up over northeastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire at 2:06 pm (18:06 GMT), the US space agency's deputy news chief Jennifer Dooren told AFP in a statement.

"This fireball was not associated with any currently active meteor shower, but it was a natural object and not a re-entry of space debris or a satellite," she said.

"The energy released at breakup is estimated to be equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT, which accounts for the loud booms."

The meteor was traveling at 75,000 mph (more than 120,000 kph) at an altitude of 40 miles when it broke apart, Dooren said.

Area residents were alarmed by the unexpected loud booms, with social media users reporting they were so powerful that houses were shaking.

In 2013, a fireball streaked above Chelyabinsk, Russia.

The tail of a meteor that streaked across the sky above Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013. 

(Alex Alishevskikh/Wikimedia Commons)



The house-sized space rock blew apart 14 miles above the ground, releasing a blast equivalent to 440,000 tons of TNT, NASA said.

The explosion blew out windows over 200 square miles (518 square kilometers), injuring more than 1,600 people, mostly due to broken glass.

The Life of Earth

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Scientists Discover a Sea Slug Smaller Than a Sesame Seed in Taiwan

By Pensoft Publishers, May 31, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-discover-a-sea-slug-smaller-than-a-sesame-seed-in-taiwan/

Two individuals of Thecacera sesama sp. nov. feeding on a bryozoan. 

Credit: Ho-Yeung Chan et al., 2026

A sesame-seed-sized sea slug discovered in Taiwan is revealing a hidden world of tiny ocean life.

A newly identified species of sea slug, so small that it is barely larger than a sesame seed, has been discovered in the coastal waters of Keelung, Taiwan. The tiny marine animal, named Thecacera sesama, features a translucent body decorated with distinctive black and yellow markings.

Researchers from National Taiwan Ocean University, the National Museum of Natural Science, and National Taipei University of Education chose the name after the creature’s resemblance to a sesame seed. According to the team, “Taiwanese divers call it ‘sesame’ in Chinese, and it is also small like a sesame seed, hence the name.”

Measuring less than three millimeters long, the nudibranch was first encountered in 2019 by lead author Ho-Yeung Chan during a recreational dive.

Thecacera sesama sp. nov. Details of appearance and morphological features, hand-drawn on a tablet by Chen-Lu Lee. 

Credit: Chen-Lu Lee
A Chance Discovery Leads to a New Species



The discovery began unexpectedly while Chan was still an undergraduate student.

“During a recreational dive in the summer during the undergraduate study of HY Chan in 2019, he accidentally discovered Thecacera sesama sp. nov. in northern Taiwan waters,” the researchers explained.

At the time, Chan did not realize he had found a species unknown to science. The significance of the sighting only became clear after he sought advice online. According to the team, he “never realized Thecacera sesama was a new species until he consulted the sea slug expert ‘Hsini Lin teacher’ on Facebook.”

Living specimens of Thecacera sesama sp. nov. 

Credit: Ho-Yeung Chan et al., 2026

Challenges of Studying Tiny Marine Life

Recording and studying the species was far from easy. The coastline around Keelung presents difficult conditions for marine research throughout much of the year.
Taiwan regularly experiences typhoons during the summer months, while strong winter monsoons generate large waves. Water temperatures can also fall below 16 degrees Celsius. As a result, researchers have only a limited window of roughly four months each year when diving conditions are suitable for studying nudibranchs.

Because of these restrictions, spotting an animal as small as T. sesama often comes down to luck.

A Life Centered on Bryozoans

Researchers observed that the tiny sea slug spends its life engaged in four primary activities: feeding, searching, mating, and laying eggs.

All of these behaviors take place on bryozoans, small aquatic invertebrates commonly known as “moss animals.” Interestingly, the particular bryozoan species used by T. sesama may itself represent a species that has not yet been formally described by science.

Living specimens of bryozoan with Thecacera species. 

Credit: Ho-Yeung Chan et al., 2026

Why Nudibranch Discoveries Matter

Although small, nudibranchs play an important role in marine ecosystems.

“Nudibranchs are one of the key players in the marine food web,” the researchers noted. “They are extremely colorful and can be spotted on coral reef ecosystems. However, many nudibranchs are very small in size and are extremely difficult to spot underwater with the naked eye.”

The team believes the discovery of Thecacera sesama may be only the beginning. Given the tiny size of many marine organisms, Taiwan’s waters likely contain numerous species that have yet to be discovered, documented, and studied.

The research describing Thecacera sesama was published in the open access journal ZooKeys on May 11, 2026.

The Life of Earth

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A Hidden Arctic Ocean Crisis Is Unfolding Beneath the Melting Ice

By U. of Edinburgh, May 31, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/a-hidden-arctic-ocean-crisis-is-unfolding-beneath-the-melting-ice/

The polar research vessel RV Kronprins Haakon in Fram Strait, Arctic Ocean. 

Credit: Lawrence Hislop/Norwegian Polar Institute

Scientists say melting sea ice may have pushed the Arctic Ocean past a tipping point, triggering changes that could reshape marine life for decades.

Scientists have identified what appears to be a major and potentially irreversible change in the Arctic Ocean. According to a new study, climate-driven sea ice loss has altered the region’s chemistry in a way that is disrupting the marine food web and could have long-lasting consequences for ecosystems across the North Atlantic.

Researchers found that levels of nitrate, a nutrient essential for the growth of microscopic plankton, have been steadily declining in Arctic waters. Because plankton form the foundation of the Arctic food chain, the loss of this key nutrient could affect everything from fish and seabirds to marine mammals.

The study also suggests the changes may reduce the Arctic Ocean’s ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere. Plankton play an important role in removing carbon dioxide through photosynthesis, meaning lower plankton productivity could weaken this natural carbon storage system.
Two Decades of Arctic Ocean Data Reveal a Shift

While scientists have observed changes in Arctic wildlife populations in recent years, the underlying causes have remained difficult to pinpoint due to limited long-term data on ocean chemistry.

To investigate, researchers from the University of Edinburgh analyzed more than 20 years of measurements collected from the Fram Strait, the primary passage where Arctic waters flow into the Atlantic Ocean.

Their findings showed a clear turning point beginning around 2009. From that period onward, nitrate concentrations in water leaving the Arctic declined consistently. The timing closely matched a dramatic reduction in Arctic sea ice that also accelerated around the same time.
How Melting Sea Ice Is Removing Nitrate

The team concluded that widespread sea ice loss exposed vast shallow regions of the Arctic Ocean to sunlight. This increased a natural process known as benthic denitrification, which converts nitrate into nitrogen gas and removes it from seawater.

These shallow continental shelf areas cover nearly half of the Arctic Ocean. As more sunlight reaches these regions, nitrate removal accelerates, leaving less of the nutrient available to support plankton growth.

For many years, scientists expected shrinking sea ice to boost plankton production because greater sunlight exposure would encourage photosynthesis. However, the new findings indicate that nutrient availability is now becoming the limiting factor.

Impacts on the Arctic Food Chain

According to the researchers, the Arctic Ocean appears to be shifting toward conditions that favor smaller plankton species. Because these organisms provide less food for larger animals, the change could reduce the amount of energy moving through the food web.

The result could affect a wide range of Arctic species, with consequences extending beyond the polar region. Scientists say further study is needed to determine how changes in Arctic waters may influence marine ecosystems elsewhere, including the North Atlantic and commercially important fisheries.

Because the nutrient decline is linked to ongoing sea ice loss, researchers believe the Arctic Ocean is unlikely to return to its previous state.

Marta Santos-García, a PhD student in the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences, who co-led the study, said: “For years, sea-ice loss in the Arctic Ocean was expected to increase phytoplankton growth because more sunlight could reach surface waters. Our findings suggest that this relationship has changed: the Arctic Ocean appears to have shifted from a system mainly limited by light to one increasingly limited by nitrate availability, with far-reaching consequences for marine ecosystems, food chains and the role of the Arctic in the Earth’s climate.”

Professor Raja Ganeshram, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences, who has led the study over the last two decades, said: “The changes we report suggest that the Arctic Ocean ecosystem passed a tipping point around 2009. How this change cascades through the food chain needs to closely monitored as this has profound implications for us, including on commercial fishing in the North Atlantic Ocean.”


The research also included scientists from the Norwegian Polar Institute, Scottish Association for Marine Science, Technical University of Denmark, and Alfred-Wegener-Institut in Germany.

The Life of Earth

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Chuck's picture corner to May 31, 2026

It's been another cooler than average week for this time of year. At least no frost but close to it. The big thing has been the wind, and the second full moon in May. As per usual the full moon brought clear cool nights.

Spirea in front of the house almost at it's fullest

the smell all these flowers put out is quite noticeable, for most.

The wild phlox has opened up this week.

liloc

Jane philips bearded iris

Korean honey suckle

The yellow bearded iris have started, I have lots about they will be prime time this week

spring weather

The local farmers have started.

out the office window.

out the office window a different direction

looking south east from the front porch

another variety of spirea

forget me nots still going strong, could be their last week

another day is done in gold

sunset

Up north at Rachelle's

Enjoy

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Earth May Be Seeding Venus With Life, According to New Research

By M. Williams, Universe Today, May 30, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/earth-may-be-seeding-venus-with-life-according-to-new-research/

Photographed in ultraviolet light and rendered in false color, this view reveals the complexities of the clouds that coat Venus. 

Credit: JAXA/ISIS/DARTS/Damia Bouic

Models suggest that impact-ejected material from Earth could reach Venus’ clouds and potentially survive there briefly.

Panspermia is the idea that life, or the ingredients needed for life, can move through space on asteroids, comets, and other objects. If life’s building blocks appear on one planet, a powerful impact could blast material from its surface into space and send it toward another world.

For decades, researchers have discussed whether this kind of exchange might have happened between Earth and Mars (in both directions). More recently, debate over possible microbial life in the thick clouds of Venus has renewed interest in whether material could also move among Venus, Earth, and Mars.

A recent study presented at the 2026 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) examined that possibility in detail. The work was carried out by a team from The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL) and Sandia National Laboratories. Using the “Venus Life Equation” (VLE), a framework developed by Noam Izenberg et al. in 2021, the researchers modeled whether material launched from Earth could allow life to survive in Venus’ clouds for at least a few days per century.

A framework weighs Venus life

Like the Drake Equation, the VLE estimates the chance of life by separating the question into several factors that are multiplied together. In mathematical form, the VLE is written as follows: ### L = O x R x C

Where L is the likelihood of Extant Life (0 to 1, where 0 is no chance and 1 is certainty), O is origination (the chance life began and established itself on Venus), R is Robustness (the potential for a biosphere to exist and withstand changes), and C is Continuity (The chance that habitable conditions persisted until today). Using this framework, the team first considered how any organic material, regardless of its origin, must survive the journey through space.

Space travel tests survival

Along with the shock and trauma caused by an impact, there’s also the heat generated in the process, as well as the extreme temperatures, radiation, and vacuum of space. However, computer modeling and studies of meteorites recovered on Earth have shown that organic material can survive ejection and interplanetary transfer. Upon arriving at Venus, any organic material will also need to be dispersed in or above the clouds if it is to survive.

Some layers of Venus’ clouds support surprisingly hospitable temperatures and pressures. Researchers have proposed that microbes could survive within those clouds. 

Credit: ESA



With this in mind, the team’s computations focused on how fireball meteorites (bolides) would fare in Venus’ atmosphere, taking into account its ablation, explosion, and fragmentation into pieces that can float in the clouds. They used the “pancake model” for this, a popular semi-analytic method that describes a bolide’s fragmentation as it passes through an atmosphere.

Once the bolide explodes in the atmosphere (an “airburst”), aerodynamic drag spreads the fragments horizontally, forming a “pancake” of dispersed material (which the team refers to as “cells”).
Earth material could seed clouds

Using the pancake model and prior studies to obtain values for the first two parameters, the team calculated the total number of bolides delivered from Earth or Mars to the clouds of Venus. From this, they found that hundreds of billions of cells may have been transferred from Earth to the clouds of Venus, while hundreds of billions could remain potentially viable. However, the best estimate their model produced was that about 100 cells dispersed in Venus’ clouds per Earth year, while 20 billion cells could have been transferred from Earth over the past 1 billion years.

While the team acknowledges that their model doesn’t capture every detail of bolide-atmosphere interactions, and that each parameter of the VLE is subject to profound uncertainties (just like the Drake Equation), it does demonstrate that panspermia between Earth and Venus is possible. Ergo, if a future astrobiology mission finds life in the clouds of Venus, there is a chance that it originated from Earth.

The Life of Earth

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What Scientists Found Inside a 117-Year-Old Woman Reveals New Clues to Long Life

By J. Carreras Leukaemia Research Inst., May 30, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/what-scientists-found-inside-a-117-year-old-woman-reveals-new-clues-to-long-life/

1925 portrait of Maria Branyas. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

A remarkable new study of the world’s oldest verified living person reveals a surprising picture of extreme longevity.

Maria Branyas lived through two world wars, the 1918 flu pandemic, the Spanish Civil War, and COVID-19. When she died in 2024 at age 117 years and 168 days, she was the oldest verified living person in the world. Now, scientists have examined her biology in unusual detail, and the results suggest that extreme aging and poor health are not always inseparable.

A team led by Dr. Manel Esteller, head of the Cancer Epigenetics Group at the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute, has published the final peer-reviewed results from what researchers describe as the most comprehensive study ever performed on a supercentenarian. Using minimally invasive samples from blood, saliva, urine, and stool, the team analyzed Branyas’s genome, proteome, epigenome, metabolome, transcriptome, and microbiome.

The study, published in Cell Reports Medicine, was coordinated by Esteller and led by Eloy Santos. Its key finding is not that Branyas avoided aging. Instead, her biology showed two opposing patterns at once. As Esteller put it, she displayed a “fascinating duality: the simultaneous presence of signals of extreme aging and of healthy longevity.”
Clear Signs of Advanced Aging

The signs of advanced age were unmistakable. Branyas had very short telomeres (the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes), an immune system with pro-inflammatory features, an aged population of B lymphocytes, and clonal hematopoiesis, an age-related condition in which blood stem cells acquire mutations. These changes are often associated with higher risks of leukemia, myelodysplastic syndromes, cardiovascular disease, and other serious conditions.

Maria Branyas, the longest-lived person ever recorded, together with Dr Manel Esteller, from the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute 

Credit: Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute



Yet Branyas did not develop cancer, dementia, or major cardiovascular disease. That contrast may be the study’s most important message: aging and disease can sometimes be separated at the molecular level.
Protective Biological Features

Alongside the markers of aging, Branyas exhibited several traits associated with resilience and healthy longevity.

The researchers found rare genetic variants linked to immune fitness, brain health, heart protection, and mitochondrial function. Her blood profile suggested unusually efficient lipid metabolism, with very low VLDL cholesterol and triglycerides and high HDL cholesterol, often called “good” cholesterol. She also had exceptionally low inflammation, a key factor because chronic inflammation is widely viewed as a driver of age-related disease.

Branyas’s gut microbiome also stood out.

Branyas had high levels of beneficial Bifidobacterium, bacteria associated with anti-inflammatory effects and healthy metabolism. This is notable because these bacteria usually decline with age, although they have also been found at higher levels in some centenarians and supercentenarians. The researchers noted that Branyas ate about three yogurts per day during the last 20 years of her life, a habit that may have helped support her gut microbiome, although the study cannot prove cause and effect.

Younger Than Expected at the Molecular Level

Perhaps the most surprising result came from her epigenome, the chemical layer that helps regulate gene activity. Epigenetic clocks use DNA methylation patterns to estimate biological age, which can differ from chronological age. Across multiple tissues and several clock methods, Branyas’s biological age appeared younger than her actual age. One analysis found a gap of more than 23 years.

As the authors write, the findings suggest that one reason she reached such an extreme age was that her cells “felt” or “behaved” as younger cells.

Youthful and age-related traits identified in Maria Branyas. Credit: Santos-Pujol et al., 

Cell Reports, 2025

The researchers caution that one person’s biology cannot provide a universal formula for living past 110. Extreme longevity likely depends on a rare mix of genetics, lifestyle, environment, and chance.

Still, Branyas provides an unusually clear example of a body that carried the marks of extreme aging while avoiding many of aging’s most damaging consequences. The authors conclude: “These findings provide a fresh look at human aging biology, suggesting biomarkers for healthy aging, and potential strategies to increase life expectancy.”

The birth of modern Man

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Scientists Challenge a 70-Year-Old Theory of Language With a Surprising Discovery

By J. Brown, U. of Vermont, May 30, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-challenge-a-70-year-old-theory-of-language-with-a-surprising-discovery/

Researchers have identified a previously overlooked structure underlying human language, revealing patterns that extend beyond traditional measures of emotion. 

Credit: Shutterstock

A new study challenges the widely accepted idea that word meanings are organized around emotion. After analyzing billions of words, scientists found that language may be shaped by something more basic: the need for safety.

Researchers at the University of Vermont have found a new way to understand language, challenging a major assumption in psychology, linguistics, and artificial intelligence that has guided research for more than 70 years.

Their study, published in Science Advances, presents “ousiometrics,” a quantitative approach to studying essential meaning. The work suggests that language is not organized mainly around emotion, but around a deeper pattern shaped by power, danger, and order.

The central finding is striking: across language, humans consistently lean toward safety.

A Hidden Bias in Language

For decades, many researchers have described meaning through three emotional dimensions: valence (positive vs. negative), arousal (excited vs. calm), and dominance (controlling vs. submissive), a model known as the VAD framework. The approach grew from influential work in the 1950s by Charles Osgood and others, and it has been widely used in psychology, linguistics, and artificial intelligence systems that analyze sentiment.

The new analysis, based on billions of uses of more than 20,000 words across varied real-world texts, shows that this long-used framework has major weaknesses. With support from the US National Science Foundation, Google, MassMutual, and other funders, the researchers used modern computational methods to identify a different set of basic meaning dimensions. They found that the VAD dimensions are not truly independent and can hide a more fundamental structure in language.

The researchers argue that meaning is better captured by three independent dimensions: power (weak vs. powerful), danger (safe vs. dangerous), and structure (ordered vs. chaotic).

University of Vermont researchers developed an “ousiometer,” a tool for measuring meaning in large texts, and identified three key dimensions of meaning: power, danger, and structure. Using Les Misérables as an example, they showed how a story’s language shifts across these dimensions over time, demonstrating the tool’s ability to map meaning in large-scale texts.

 Credit: University of Vermont

This matters now because language technologies are increasingly shaping how people communicate, from large language models to automated content moderation. Understanding the structure of meaning has become more urgent. The new framework explains more than 90% of the variation in meaning, compared with about 72% for the traditional VAD model.

When the researchers studied word use across books, news, social media, and spoken language, one pattern appeared again and again. Language strongly favors words linked with safety over words linked with danger.

This safety bias offers a new interpretation of the Pollyanna principle, a long-known idea in linguistics that language tends to skew positive. The new work suggests that the pattern is not simply about positive emotion. Instead, it reflects a deeper bias toward safety. “The Pollyanna principle’s positivity bias,” the study concludes, “is, in fact, a one-dimensional projection of an underlying safety bias.”

“This is a big observation that comes out of this work,” said Peter Dodds, director of the UVM’s Complex Systems Institute and senior author of the study. “Expressions of safety are crucial to all language.”

Beyond Positivity: Language as a Survival System

The findings carry broad implications. If language is tilted toward safety, then communication may have been shaped by evolutionary pressures connected to survival. Words do more than express emotions. They help people judge risk, identify threats, and coordinate behavior when the world is uncertain.

This view helps explain why people so often communicate whether something feels safe or dangerous. Across cultures and situations, humans regularly signal the risk level of places, actions, people, and events. The study suggests that this safety dimension is not secondary to emotion. It may be one of the foundations of meaning.

From this perspective, positivity in language is not only about happiness, approval, or optimism. It can also signal predictability and safety in a shared environment. Julia Zimmerman, a postdoctoral researcher in UVM’s Computational Story Lab and study coauthor, says the framework points to a basic feature of human experience. “Power, danger, and structure,” she said, “are relevant to every person that’s ever lived.”

Linguists have also long noted that language favors expressions of goodness and low aggression. “We now understand,” the team writes, that these are “shadows of an underlying linguistic safety bias.”
Rethinking Meaning Across Disciplines

The results challenge assumptions in several fields.

For artificial intelligence, the implications are direct. Many natural language processing systems depend on sentiment analysis shaped by frameworks similar to VAD. If those models do not capture the deeper structure of meaning, AI systems may be misreading human language in systematic ways. Adding power, danger, and structure to these systems could make them more accurate and easier to interpret, especially in tasks involving risk, trust, and decisions.

For linguistics, the study changes how researchers might think about the basic organization of meaning. Instead of treating emotional tone as the main structure behind words, the work points to survival-related distinctions, including what is powerful, what is dangerous, and what is orderly.

For psychology, the findings raise questions about decades of research built around the VAD model. If the core dimensions of meaning are different from what many researchers assumed, then some interpretations of emotion, perception, and behavior may need to be reconsidered.

For neurobiology, the results connect with what is already known about the brain’s strong sensitivity to threat and safety. A safety bias in language may reflect biological priorities in symbolic communication, helping link neural processes with the way humans use words.

A New Scientific Framework: Ousiometrics

To identify these patterns, the researchers built new tools for measuring meaning at large scale. One key tool is the “ousiometer,” an instrument designed to quickly measure the essential meaning of large bodies of text and produce an average meaning score. (The word “ouisa” comes from Ancient Greek and is a root for the English word “essence.”) Building on the team’s earlier “hedonometer” (a happiness meter), the new tool can detect broad meaning patterns in texts ranging from Jane Austen novels and Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories to the New York Times, Wikipedia, talk radio transcripts, and Twitter.

One example in the study follows the “ousiometric trajectory” of an English translation of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. Like a multicolored protein, the book’s tangled path winds its way over a grid defined by four opposing pairs: dangerous and safe, weak and powerful, gentle and aggressive, and bad and good. This approach condenses the essential meaning of different sections of the novel as the story unfolds.

The study also makes an important distinction between words as categories, known as “types,” and words as they are actually used, known as “tokens.” (For example, as a category, “apple” is a type, and every time the word “apple” is used in a sentence is a token.) Earlier work often treated words as if they mattered equally, no matter how often they appeared.

By accounting for frequency of use, the 10 scientist team, led by Peter Dodds and Chris Danforth, professors in UVM’s College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, along with colleagues from the Santa Fe Institute, the Complexity Science Hub in Austria, Howard Hughes Medical Center, University of California, Berkeley, University of Adelaide, and MassMutual Data Science, was able to uncover patterns that appear only in real language use, including the safety bias.

Why This Matters Now

If language consistently leans toward safety, the finding may affect how researchers understand the spread of information, the building of narratives, and the way people interpret the world. It could matter for political discourse, mental health communication, and the design of AI systems that respond to human language.

More broadly, the study suggests a shift in how meaning should be understood. Meaning is not only a matter of emotion or sentiment. It is also rooted in the need to navigate risks, relationships, and social order. By revealing a deeper geometry of meaning, the team offers a new way to see language, not only as a system of symbols, but as a record of what humans need to survive in a social and dangerous world.

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Brain Study Overturns Long-Held Beliefs About How Humans Learn Speech

By McGill U., May 29, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/brain-study-overturns-long-held-beliefs-about-how-humans-learn-speech/

A composite, false-coloured image of the human vocal tract showing the lip and tongue position during the production of different vowels.

Credit: David Ostry

Scientists have discovered that the brain’s sensory systems play a much larger role in speech learning than previously believed.

New research suggests that learning to speak a new language, or recovering speech after injury, relies more heavily on the brain’s sensory systems than on regions responsible for controlling movement. The findings, from researchers at McGill University and the Yale School of Medicine, could influence future theories of speech learning and help improve speech recognition and brain-speech technologies.

Scientists have long believed that learning and remembering the movements involved in speaking depended mainly on motor regions of the brain that control the face and mouth. The new study challenges that view, pointing instead to the importance of auditory and somatosensory regions that process sound and physical sensation.

“Sensorimotor neuroscience has traditionally focused on frontal motor areas as the principal drivers of movement. This study changes that understanding by showing that human speech learning is extensively sensory in nature,” said David Ostry, Professor of Psychology at McGill University.

The findings may also guide the development of technologies designed to restore speech after conditions such as stroke by incorporating sensory processing to improve performance and usability.

Retention tested through brain stimulation

To investigate how sensory brain regions contribute to learning and retaining speech movements, researchers altered participants’ speech in real time and played the modified sounds back through headphones. This forced participants to adapt their speech patterns, triggering speech motor learning.

The team then used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a noninvasive brain stimulation method, to temporarily disrupt activity in three areas linked to speech: the auditory cortex, the somatosensory cortex, and the motor cortex. Researchers tested participants again 24 hours later to measure retention.

The scientists predicted that interfering with a brain region essential for speech learning would weaken retention, while disrupting a less important region would have little effect.

The results showed that disrupting either the auditory or somatosensory cortex significantly reduced participants’ ability to retain newly learned speech movements. Disrupting the motor cortex, however, had no measurable effect.

“Our study challenges the assumption that new speech memories are solely reliant on changes in motor areas of the brain. Instead, it underscores the importance of changes in auditory and somatosensory brain areas in shaping how we learn to speak,” said study co-author Nishant Rao, Associate Research Scientist at Yale University.

The role of brain plasticity

The research is part of a larger effort to understand how plasticity in the brain’s sensory systems supports movement learning and memory. It builds on earlier studies of upper limb movement showing that disrupting the sensory cortex can interfere with learning and retaining new motions.

Future studies will focus on identifying the brain circuits involved in learning and testing sensory-based therapies for movement disorders, especially stroke rehabilitation.

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