The Sunlight on Your Face Took 8 Minutes to Reach Earth. But First, It Spent 170,000 Years Escaping The Sun.

21 July 2026, By M. Starr

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-sunlight-on-your-face-took-8-minutes-to-reach-earth-but-first-it-spent-170000-years-escaping-the-sun

(ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI Team)

Imagine you're at a party.

All your friends are crammed into a room, you're having a blast – but it's time to head home.

You start to make your way to the door, but every few steps you have to stop for just one more goodbye chat. One friend wants a hug. Another needs to tell you about a band she's discovered. By the time you're free, it's taken you an hour to get from the couch to the door.

Welcome to the life of energy inside the Sun.

It famously takes sunlight just over 8 minutes to travel the 150 million kilometers (93 million miles) from the Sun to Earth.

Before it can get there, though, the energy produced in the Sun's core has to fight its way through the Sun's densely packed interior.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a9cmyY-qZ8

It's repeatedly passed from particle to particle so many times that traveling the 695,700-kilometer distance from the Sun's center to its surface can take around 170,000 years.

That's according to a 1992 paper by astrophysicists Romas Mitalas and Kenneth R. Sills of the University of Western Ontario.

The pair had noticed that an assumption used to calculate the travel time of energy out of the Sun was incorrect.

It would be easy to imagine the energy simply streaming straight out from the core, but that would also be very wrong. A photon traveling in a straight line would take about 2.3 seconds to travel from the core to the surface.

Instead, it takes something physicists delightfully refer to as a "random walk".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stgYW6M5o4k

In the dense plasma in the solar interior, a gamma-ray photon can only travel a short distance before interacting with a charged particle. It may be absorbed and re-emitted, or scattered off in a new, random direction.

That short distance – known as the step length – is the key ingredient in calculating how long sunlight takes to escape the Sun.

Previously, scientists assumed that the step length was roughly constant throughout the Sun's interior, and based their calculations on an estimated value of 0.5 to 1 centimeter. That gives a diffusion time of 3,000 to 30,000 years.

The problem with that, according to Mitalas and Sills, was that it did not accurately account for the much higher density of the star's inner layers.

OK, so we're back at the party.

You've left the house and walk to your car parked on the street.

A scientist sees only that final part of your journey. Watching from across the street, they measure how long it takes you to walk from the front door to your car, then use that speed to estimate how long it must have taken you to get from the couch to the door.

That scientist has not accounted for all the friends who stopped you along the way.

When the researchers recalculated the step length using a realistic model of the Sun's changing density, they discovered that it would be less than 0.1 centimeters for more than 50 percent of the Sun's radius.

That tiny correction stretched the Sun's photon diffusion time from tens of thousands of years to around 170,000 years.

Once you've finally reached your car, getting home is easy. You simply drive away.

That's kind of like what happens to sunlight.

Once the energy finally reaches the Sun's surface, it no longer has billions of particles blocking its path. It races across the vacuum of space, covering the remaining 150 million kilometers to Earth in just over 8 minutes.

So, next time you raise your face to the warmth of the Sun, spare a thought for how long that energy has spent getting to you.

It likely began its journey before the ancient Egyptians began building the pyramids – and maybe even before the start of the last Ice Age.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Ancient Dog Skulls Rewrite the Story of Canine Evolution

By K. M. Cairns, UNSW Sydney & M. Fillios, U. of New England, July 20, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/ancient-dog-skulls-rewrite-the-story-of-canine-evolution/

Photograph of an archaeological canid skull used for the photogrammetric reconstruction of 3D models in the study. 

Credit: C. Ameen (University of Exeter)

Ancient bones and DNA reveal that dog diversity and their close relationship with migrating humans developed thousands of years ago.

Place a village dog beside a toy poodle and a mastiff, and the extraordinary physical range of a single species becomes obvious. An estimated 700 million dogs now live alongside or near humans worldwide.

Dogs serve as companions, working animals, and members of the family – and their history is closely bound to our own. Yet the origins of their remarkable variety, and the true age of their relationship with people, have remained difficult to trace.

Two studies published today in Science approach those questions from different directions. Allowen Evin of the University of Montpelier led an investigation of ancient skeletal remains, while Shao-Jie Zhang of the Kunming Institute of Zoology examined DNA from ancient dogs across Eastern Eurasia.

Taken together, the findings indicate that canine diversity and the connection between dogs and humans reach farther into the past, and developed through a more complicated history, than researchers once understood.

Photograph of a modern dog skull used for the photogrammetric reconstruction of 3D models in the study.

 Credit: C. Ameen (University of Exeter)



Dog diversity began thousands of years ago

Evin and her colleagues examined 643 dog and wolf skulls covering a period of 50,000 years to investigate when the physical diversity seen in modern dogs began to emerge.

Their results indicate that the characteristic “dog-like” skull first appeared about 11,000 years ago during the Holocene epoch, the period following the most recent ice age. Dog skulls from that same era already displayed considerable variation in form.

This means the wide range of shapes and sizes dogs have today isn’t solely a product of the intense selective breeding programs that became popular in the last few centuries. Some of that variation emerged millennia earlier.

Early dogs still looked like wolves

The team reanalyzed the skull shapes of all 17 known dog or wolf skulls from the Late Pleistocene, a geological period from 129,000 to 11,700 years ago. Some skulls were 50,000 years old.

They found all of these Pleistocene skulls were essentially wolf-like in shape, including some previously identified as early dogs.

Importantly, this suggests that while the split between wolves and dogs likely occurred during the Pleistocene, the skull shape of early dogs didn’t start to change until closer to the Holocene – that is, 11,000 years ago. However, some Holocene dog skulls still retained wolf-like features.

This research suggests early dogs were much more diverse than previously thought. This diversity may have laid the groundwork for the extreme variations in size and shape of the dogs we have today.

Earlier genomic studies have uncovered four major dog lineages that likely originated about 20,000 years ago: Eastern (East Asian and Arctic) and Western (Europe and Near East) dogs.

The origins of these ancient dog lineages are still being untangled. However, studying shifts in the ancestry of dogs through time and between different regions can help us better understand both the origins of dogs and the movement of Neolithic (new stone-age) humans.

Dog DNA traces human migrations

The new study by Zhang and his colleagues used 73 ancient dog genomes spanning the last 10,000 years to explore how humans and dogs moved across Eastern Eurasia through time.

Analysis of these ancient dogs identified multiple shifts in the ancestry of dogs in Eastern Eurasia at times that correlate with the movement of specific human groups (hunter-gatherers, farmers, and pastoralists). This suggests that as different human cultural groups moved across Eurasia, their dogs often moved with them, carrying their unique genetic signatures.

There was some discrepancy between human and dog population ancestry in some parts of Asia. For example, Eastern hunter-gatherers from Veretye and Botai, who were more closely related to Western Eurasian humans, had largely Eastern (Arctic) dogs rather than the Western dogs observed with other Western Eurasian cultures at the time.

This means dogs may have been a key part of cultural exchange or trade between different human cultures or communities. It may also illustrate complexities in the evolution of dogs that we are yet to understand.

The work by Zhang and his team presents compelling evidence that in Eastern Eurasia thousands of years ago dogs played an indispensable role in human societies as crucial “biocultural packages” that moved with humans. In other words, humans took their companions with them on their journeys (and perhaps traded them), rather than simply acquiring new dogs after moving.

Dogs preserve a shared human history

These findings highlight the long-term, complex, and intertwined relationship between dogs and humans that spans more than 10,000 years.

The genetic ancestry of dogs can act as a living record of ancient human migrations, trade networks, and cultural exchanges. Studies on ancient dogs may also help us understand the environmental factors that contributed to the evolution of dogs, and their relationship with humans.

Together, these new studies profoundly reshape our understanding of how dogs became so diverse and how they have related to humans along the way.

Both studies underscore that the incredible diversity in modern dogs is not an entirely recent phenomenon. The genetic and morphological foundations for this variation were laid thousands of years ago, shaped by natural selection, human selection, and diverse environments, long before the structured breeding of the past few centuries.

Future studies investigating the physical diversity and ancestry of dogs through time could deepen our understanding of the complex origins and spread of dogs across the globe. Whatever their origins, this research deepens our appreciation for the unique and ancient bond between humans and dogs that was almost as diverse as canines themselves.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Why Are Bees Struggling To Survive This Summer?

By A. Dittrich, Nottingham Trent U., July 21, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/why-are-bees-struggling-to-survive-this-summer/

Dead bumblebees on summer pavements may reflect more than their naturally short lives. Extreme heat, disrupted foraging, and colony hygiene can all contribute, while wider environmental pressures make the pattern more concerning. 

Credit: Shutterstock

Multiple environmental pressures are harming bees whose pollination supports crops and flowering plants worldwide.

You may be spotting bodies of dead bumblebees lying across pavements near you in the summer months.

There are several reasons for this, some to do with the weather and some very much due to humans.

Bumblebees live in social colonies supported by highly active worker bees, which typically survive for only 4-6 weeks. As older workers die, younger bees carry their bodies away from the nest to reduce the risk of disease spreading through the colony.
Extreme heat pushes bees beyond limits

Weather can add another source of danger. June 2026 was the warmest June recorded in England (and the second hottest across the whole UK), with more high temperatures expected during the summer.

Such extreme conditions can cause thermal stress in bees. Extended exposure to heat can interfere with their development and threaten the long-term stability of their populations.

Heatwaves can also impair reproduction, flight, and the ability to find food. Bees and other social insects try to cool their colonies by behaviors such as fanning their wings, but these defenses can only provide limited protection when temperatures become extreme.

As it gets hotter bee foraging activity may increase, and they may cover greater distances. Bees can thermoregulate themselves by moving heat around their body while in flight, but extremes of temperature can affect their health.

Chemicals and habitat loss compound deaths

Other elements play a part in bee deaths. Pesticide and herbicide use is commonplace, and these chemicals affect the fitness of bees, causing them to die off. However, not only do these chemicals affect the bees directly, but they can also remove important plants that they rely on for food, causing them to starve. Dandelions, for example, are a massively important nectar source for bees, but also a plant commonly controlled with herbicides. So don’t weed your garden and pull them out.

Pesticide use is one of the historical key causes for the loss of bees. Pesticides applied to reduce the insects feeding on crops – is some what ironically – responsible for harming a group of animals responsible for their pollination.

The EU and the UK have banned the use of the most harmful neonicotinoids; however, pesticides are still routinely used, with harmful knock-on effects on pollinators. Insecticides such as organophosphates, synthetic pyrethroids and phenylpyrazoles cause paralysis and death of these insects, as well as disrupting the bees’ ability to navigate.

Habitat loss is another key issue for bees, with land use changing for housing developments, intensive agriculture and other human structures such as roads. Without these habitats to support the bees, their populations suffer.

Climate change is causing other problems.

Phenological mismatch is when two organisms that are dependent upon each other appear at the wrong time. With a changing climate, this is happening. An example of this is that plants that the bees are dependent upon are in flower when the bees aren’t around. Essentially, they are flowering at a time of year when the bees aren’t there. They could come out of hibernation too early and not have any nectar to feed on, or conversely, the flowers could come out before the bees appear. This, of course, is a disaster for both flowers and the bees.
Bee declines threaten food security

Insects are the most diverse and abundant group of animals on the planet, but in spite of this dominance, they are the most threatened.

We are losing our bees at an alarming rate. In Europe, the number of wild bee species considered at risk of extinction has more than doubled from 77 in 2014 to at least 172 today (around 10% of assessed species).

But we really need them. They provide so much support for our planet, as decomposers, pest controllers, food for other animals and generally for keeping our systems clean and tidy. Scientists call these roles ecosystem services. However, one such service they provide is directly very important for us, and disproportionately carried out by one group of insects, the bees, and that is pollination of our crops.

Bees are one of the most diverse insect groups. They support an estimated 75% of global crop pollination, and nearly 90% of all flowering plants. The rest can be pollinated by other animals, or by the wind and weather.

If we lose that food security afforded by our pollinators we could have a global food crisis on our hands.

Everyday choices can support bees

When it comes to pesticide use, be a thoughtful and informed consumer. Support local, sustainably produced food where possible and, if feasible, buy from farmers who use nature-friendly practices. This does not necessarily mean choosing organic products, but rather considering how food is produced and the environmental impact of different farming systems. As a homeowner, explore non-chemical alternatives first, and apply any treatments sparingly and responsibly to minimize harm to beneficial insects and other wildlife.

One of the simplest ways to address habitat loss for bees is to make room for native species. Plant a diverse range of native flowering species, and leave some areas of lawn unmown. This can help create safe havens for bees.

In the short term, there is one thing that people can do to help bees in distress. Providing sugary water to a bee you see struggling on the pavement on a hot summer’s day can help revive it. A mixture of sugar and water will do the trick at a two-to-one ratio of sugar to water..

Moving the bee, if safe to do so, to a flower or a shady spot too is also advised. But please do not do this if you have allergies, or are likely to get stung.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

39 Sweeteners Put to the Test Produced Surprising Gut Changes

By U. of Cambridge, July 19, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/39-sweeteners-put-to-the-test-produced-surprising-gut-changes/

Cambridge scientists found that many widely used sweeteners can directly change how gut bacteria grow, especially when mixed with other substances found in foods, drinks, and medications. 

Credit: Shutterstock



Scientists found that sweeteners can behave unexpectedly inside a simulated gut, especially when combined with common medications.

Cambridge researchers have found that many widely used sweeteners can directly slow or alter the growth of bacteria found in the human gut. The strongest effect appeared when isosteviol, a sweetener used in foods and beverages, was combined with the antidepressant duloxetine.

In laboratory experiments, that combination sharply reduced two important bacterial species associated with digestive health and blood sugar regulation. It also produced changes that could influence inflammation and immune activity.

The researchers caution that the findings come from controlled laboratory tests, not studies involving people. More work will be needed to determine whether the same interactions occur inside the human body and whether they have meaningful health consequences.

Sweeteners May Not Be Biologically Inactive

Sweeteners are found in a wide range of everyday products, including soft drinks, candy, desserts, snacks, cereals, and some medications. They are often promoted as alternatives that provide sweetness with less sugar or fewer calories.

However, growing evidence has linked the consumption of some sweeteners with conditions including type 2 diabetes, obesity, and cancer. These associations do not necessarily prove that sweeteners directly cause those diseases, but they have raised questions about how the compounds behave inside the body.

One possible link is the gut microbiome, the enormous community of bacteria and other microorganisms living throughout the digestive tract. These microbes help break down food, produce useful compounds, support the intestinal barrier, and communicate with the immune system.

Despite the widespread use of sweeteners, relatively few studies have examined whether they interact directly with individual gut bacteria.

Professor Kiran Patil from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Toxicology Unit at the University of Cambridge said: “Most of what we know about the potential impact of sweeteners on our health comes from animal research or from population studies. While these studies have indicated involvement of the microbiome in mediating the effect of sweeteners, it’s difficult to know how sweeteners act in the body – is it through direct interactions with our gut bacteria?”

“Answering this is further complicated by the fact that we rarely ever take sweeteners by themselves – we take them with drinks, in snacks, or even in medication to mask bitterness,” added Dr. Sonja Blasche, a lead author of the study, also the MRC Toxicology Unit.

Researchers Tested 39 Common Sweeteners

For the study, published in Molecular Systems Biology, Dr. Blasche and her colleagues investigated how artificial and low-calorie sweeteners affect gut bacteria under laboratory conditions. They also examined whether those effects changed when the sweeteners were mixed with other substances commonly consumed at the same time.

The team grew 25 bacterial species individually. The collection included microbes considered beneficial, neutral, or potentially harmful.

Each bacterial culture was then exposed to 39 commercially used sweeteners, including both natural and artificial varieties. The researchers measured whether the bacteria continued multiplying normally, grew more slowly, or stopped growing.

About three-quarters of the sweeteners altered the growth of at least one bacterial species. Some significantly slowed or completely halted the growth of microbes associated with a healthy gut.

More Than 100 Hidden Interactions

People rarely consume sweeteners in isolation, so the scientists next combined them with other common compounds. These included caffeine, vanillin (vanilla extract), advantame (an artificial sweetener), and eight widely used medications.

The results revealed more than 100 interactions in which a sweetener affected bacteria differently when another compound was present. In 34 cases, the second substance strengthened the sweetener’s effect. In 68 cases, it weakened the effect.

This suggests that the biological impact of a sweetener may depend partly on what is eaten, drunk, or taken with it.

One Sweetener and Antidepressant Stood Out

The most dramatic response involved isosteviol and duloxetine. Isosteviol is used in the food and beverage industry, while duloxetine is prescribed for depression and several other conditions.

Together, the two compounds strongly suppressed Roseburia intestinalis and Parabacteroides merdae. Both bacteria are associated with functions that help maintain digestive and metabolic health.

Duloxetine is also widely prescribed. In the US in 2023, more than 4.2 million patients received the medication.

Studying bacteria individually can reveal direct effects, but the gut is a crowded ecosystem in which many species constantly interact. A change affecting one organism may therefore spread through the wider microbial community.

To better approximate those conditions, the researchers built a synthetic community containing all 25 bacterial species. They allowed the community to develop and then exposed it to different combinations of sweeteners and medications.

The scientists tracked which species became more or less abundant and whether the diversity of the community changed.

Gut Microbial Diversity Declined

The combination of isosteviol and duloxetine reduced microbial diversity in the simplified gut community. Greater microbiome diversity is generally considered a feature of a healthy and resilient digestive system, although the precise meaning of diversity can vary from person to person.

The combination also changed the balance of the community, allowing some bacterial species to thrive while others declined.

Additional experiments found that the altered microbial community became more toxic to certain host cells. It also interfered with cells involved in inflammation and immune responses.

These findings suggest that interactions between sweeteners and medications may influence more than bacterial growth alone. They could potentially affect how microbial communities communicate with the body.

Dr. Blasche said: “Sweeteners are often marketed as metabolically neutral, but our study challenges this idea. We found that they can directly affect gut bacteria, particularly when mixed with other compounds such as medication and food additives. These common combinations could have unintended effects on our gut microbiome.”

Human Health Effects Remain Unclear

The researchers emphasize that the experiments were conducted in laboratory cultures rather than in people. The human digestive system is much more complex and includes hundreds of microbial species, changing chemical conditions, food components, and interactions with organs and immune cells.

The concentrations of sweeteners and medications reaching the gut may also differ from those used in laboratory testing. As a result, the study cannot show that consuming a particular sweetener while taking duloxetine will cause harm.

Instead, the findings identify combinations that deserve closer investigation in animals and humans.

Professor Patil, the study’s senior author, added: “Our study suggests that artificial sweeteners don’t just pass through the body passively — they can interact with gut microbes, and these effects can be amplified or altered by other substances like medications. These findings can help guide new studies towards understanding how sweeteners might influence health in unexpected ways.”

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

A Sea Worm’s Incredible “Bio-Metal” Jaws May Belong to an Entirely New Class of Material

By American Institute of Physics, July 19, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/a-sea-worms-incredible-bio-metal-jaws-may-belong-to-an-entirely-new-class-of-material/

A cross-section of a bristle worm jaw sample with the indentation testing sites labeled 1 to 11. 

Credit: Zelaya-Lainez et al.

A sea worm’s metal-like jaws may represent an entirely new class of natural material.

In the classic guessing game “20 Questions,” imagine asking “animal, vegetable, or mineral?” to help narrow down the answer.

For the ancient sea worm Perinereis cultrifera (which is still around to this day), the answer is surprisingly complicated. This species and other predatory bristle worms have powerful jaws made from structural proteins combined with ions. They use these jaws to bite, crush, and consume food.

The jaws are so unusual in both composition and performance that some scientists have proposed a new name for materials like them: bio-metals. Their study is becoming an emerging area of biophysics.

What Makes a Material a Bio-Metal?

The term “bio-metal” describes more than a biological material that simply resembles metal. Scientific literature has previously used phrases such as “metallike biomaterials” or “biomaterials with metallike properties” for natural substances that approach metals in strength or electrical conductivity.

Bio-metals, however, are defined through a broader combination of characteristics. These include hardness, the way the material responds to strain, and its internal structure of proteins and ions.

Researchers from TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology) and the University of Vienna examined the metal-like behavior of the worm’s jaws in an effort to more clearly define this proposed category. Their findings were published in Biophysics Reviews, by AIP Publishing.

Metal Ions Strengthen the Jaw Tips

The team first measured the jaws’ hardness using nanoindentation, a technique that presses a microscopic probe into a material to determine how easily it can be dented. They combined these tests with chemical analysis and detailed imaging.

The results supported previous research showing that metal ions are more concentrated at the tips of the jaws than in their central regions. This greater concentration likely helps make the tips especially hard, which would be useful for biting and crushing prey.

The scientists then tested the jaws at several indentation depths. They found a surprising effect also observed in metals such as copper and silver, known as the Nix-Gao nanoindentation size effect.

At smaller scales, sections of the worm’s jaw became more difficult to dent. This occurs because strain changes more sharply across a smaller area, creating greater interlocking among disruptions in the material’s atomic structure. That behavior is a defining feature of the size effect.

A Property Ordinary Metals Do Not Share

Although the jaws resemble metals in several ways, they also possess mechanical qualities that make bio-metals distinct.

“Bristle worm jaws also showed size-dependent elasticity — this is a distinguishing feature of bio-metals when compared to standard crystalline metals like copper or silver,” said author Christian Hellmich.

In other words, the jaw’s ability to bend and return to its original shape also changes depending on the scale being examined. Conventional crystalline metals do not show the same behavior.

The researchers used mathematical models to explain how these unusual elastic effects could emerge from processes occurring at the atomic level. Hellmich said they are only scratching the surface of this research — pun intended.

Nature Could Inspire New Materials

The team now plans to examine more species, expand the available experimental evidence, and refine the theoretical framework behind bio-metals. The researchers are also interested in whether genetic changes could alter the structure and performance of these natural materials.

“We plan to extend the experimental database by investigating additional species to refine the theoretical concept and perform dedicated computations, and — perhaps most interestingly — to explore the link between genetic interventions and the corresponding material design space,” he said. “All this comes with true excitement about the beauty, elegance, and refinement found in and produced by nature.”

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

It's Not Just You: Scientists Say Modern Life Is Pushing The Human Mind Beyond Its Limits

20 July 2026, By D. Nield

https://www.sciencealert.com/modern-life-may-be-pushing-human-minds-beyond-their-limits-reflecting-an-evolutionary-mismatch

(Tero Vesalainen/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

Try to think back to the last day you remember that wasn't packed full of things to do, people to see, and places to go. Was it yesterday? Within the last week? Outside of recent memory?

For a lot of us, modern life can be one hectic day after another.

In a new paper published in Behavioral Sciences, social scientists from institutions in Singapore have examined previous studies and theories to put together an argument: Our rapid progress as a species has left our individual bodies and minds unable to keep up.

The crux of the proposal is this: Humans evolved to fit small groups of familiar people and to respond to immediate, recognizable threats.

What we live with now are vast communities, constant connection, and a multitude of overlapping pressures that create a heightened sense of competition.

The researchers argue we're not built for so much social interaction and competition. 

(Jakob Owens/Unsplash)



This "evolutionary mismatch" is then leading to significant problems in physical and mental health, the new study suggests, everything from obesity to anxiety.

"Stress, loneliness and anxiety are often treated as personal or lifestyle problems, but they may also reflect a mismatch between the environments people live in and the conditions our minds and bodies evolved to navigate," says environmental psychologist Sarah Chan, from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD).

"That means we should think not only about individual resilience, but also about how cities and communities are designed."

The researchers suggest that our instinctive responses have been fine-tuned by hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, but that they don't work as well in the modern environment that's developed over the past couple of centuries.

For example, it was easier to understand our standing in a group before the age of the internet. Now we're continually comparing ourselves against long lists of friends, relatives, celebrities, and strangers.

What we evolved to handle (left) versus what we live with now (right). 

(Singapore University of Technology and Design)



"Competition is not new, but modern life can make it feel constant," says research psychologist Jose Yong, from James Cook University in Singapore.

"An evolutionary perspective may help explain why people respond so strongly to comparison and the fear of falling behind, even when those signals come from strangers or screens rather than a small social group."

Then we have the compounding effects of issues like climate change, global pandemics, economic instability, and technological disruptions such as the advance of AI – something the researchers describe as a "polycrisis".

"These incidents – from major global shocks to their psychosocial impacts – are increasingly recognized as connected in a manner that mutually reinforces their occurrence," write the researchers in their published paper.

"For instance, rising costs of living and widening economic inequality – worsened by financial crises and events like the COVID-19 pandemic – heighten people's financial and status insecurities, in turn motivating actions that lead to burnout, reduced prosociality, and further insecurities, creating feedback loops that intensify societal competitiveness and contribute to economic stagnation or contraction."

Past studies have picked up on these ideas too, suggesting that crowded urban living makes our bodies feel like we're constantly under attack, and that modern culture is in fact trouncing environmental factors when it comes to influencing our species through evolution.

The researchers call their concept the Social Evolutionary Mismatch and Competition Hypothesis (SEMCH), and suggest that a better understanding of it could help in dealing with some of the psychological ills of our times.

There are also implications for the design of cities and urban environments. Places can be engineered to feel less crowded and less overwhelming – with the use of natural spaces and greener surroundings an obvious starting point.

That applies to digital spaces too. The researchers don't argue that we should roll back digital advancements, but that they should be designed to reduce feelings of competition rather than encourage them.

Next, the researchers want to see some of these ideas tested with further studies: real-world tests of how our environment contributes to our well-being.

"We need to design interventions that work with rather than against our evolved human nature," says Yong.

The Birth of modern Man

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Chuck's photo corner to July 19, 2026

It's been a hot and muggy week with smoke from fires in the north clouding the atmosphere. Some nights in the last few days have been quite cool however. July often is the beginning of a late summer drought, but not this year, so far. Still plenty of rain and no need for garden watering. Rabbits and squirrels abound in plenty. It seems the robins are feeding a second brood of the year. Mosquitos, are plentiful enough 

my favorite day lily

bee balm, it took me years to find this colour

another daylily

the small bed around the street number sign is coming along.

peachy, lol

One of the few plants I bought, this one from Holland years ago.

Astilbe

St. John's wort, at Rachelle's used in herbal remedies.

Blueberries soon ready to pick

cosmos and friend

Rachelle's front yard planter

Morning on the front porch.

Enjoy the day

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

'Footprint of Death': Entirely New Way Viruses Spread Has Been Discovered

17 July 2026, By D. Nield

https://www.sciencealert.com/newly-discovered-footprint-of-death-may-help-viruses-spread

Dead cells after self-destructing, with the small green circles showing the F-ApoEVs left behind.

  (La Trobe University)

The cell churn that goes on inside our bodies is vast, with hundreds of billions of cells dying off and being replaced every day. Keeping that constant biological overhaul running smoothly is crucial in maintaining good health.

Researchers have now identified a new 'footprint of death' that cells leave behind as they die to guide the immune system in its waste-removal role.

It seems this process can also be hijacked by viruses to spread themselves further.

The discoveries, published in a recent study in Nature Communications led by a team from La Trobe University in Australia, have implications for understanding how programmed cell death and renewal keep us healthy.

Illustration showing how the 'footprints of death' (smaller pink blobs) are left behind by dying cells. 

(Rutter et al., Nat. Commun., 2026)



Further down the line, it may also be possible to develop drug treatments that make use of these death footprints – and prevent them from being infiltrated by viruses.

"Billions of cells are programmed to die each day as a part of normal turnover and disease progression, and until now, it was believed that the cell fragmentation process during cell death was random and fairly simple," says biochemist Ivan Poon, from the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science (LIMS).

"Our findings demonstrate the complexity of this process and highlight how each step in the process is actually critical to help the dying cell break down efficiently and to be cleared away by the immune system."

A process called apoptosis is often used to schedule cell death in the body, taking out cells that are no longer needed, damaged, or potentially harmful. It was this process that the new study took a closer look at.

Using 3D timelapse imagery to analyze different types of cells as they died, the researchers identified the proteins left behind by apoptosis, and the way the immune system subsequently interacted with them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft-2LCqmdQY

As expected, the death debris included extracellular vesicles (EVs), small pockets of proteins, DNA, and RNA that cells shed to signal to each other.

In this case, the researchers spotted a previously unknown type of EV, which they're naming F-ApoEVs: footprint of death-derived, apoptosis-triggered EVs.

These F-ApoEVs act a little like a trail of breadcrumbs that the immune system can follow to clean up cells that have perished.

"We know that the body clears away dead cell fragments to prevent them lingering and causing inflammation and autoimmune diseases such as Systemic Lupus Erythematosis, and we saw F-ApoEVs are readily cleared from the site of cell death," says lead researcher Stephanie Rutter, a biochemist from LIMS.

"What we didn't expect was how viruses can also take advantage of this process and cause infection by hiding in F-ApoEVs."

When the researchers infected dying cells with influenza, the virus hid some of its particles inside the F-ApoEVs. As the immune system cleans up after the cell, these pathogen fragments get spread to neighboring, healthy cells.

It's a new way for viruses to spread that we haven't seen before.

These mechanisms still need testing and analyzing outside of a lab, but potential treatments could improve F-ApoEVs function to better protect against autoimmune diseases and to stop viral spread.

"This study has revealed that dying cells can continue to communicate from the grave and may impact immune function," says cell biologist Georgia Atkin-Smith, from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Australia.

Fundamentally, these processes are all about communication: cells talking to each other and all staying on the same page in terms of biological maintenance.

There's now another element to that communication that can both support and potentially damage health. Future research could help scientists get more clarity on exactly how F-ApoEVs work and how they might be manipulated.

"Understanding this basic biological process could open new avenues of research to develop new treatments that harness these steps and help the immune system better fight disease," says Poon.

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“Weird Clams” Reveal a New Invasion Along the U.S. Northeast Coast

By U. of Massachusetts Amherst, July 18, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/weird-clams-reveal-a-new-invasion-along-the-u-s-northeast-coast/

Empty Manila clam shells blanketing the intertidal zone in Boston Harbor’s Spectacle Island. 

Credit: Aly Putnam

A research team found reproducing populations of Manila clams in Cape Cod and Boston Harbor.

A stretch of Atlantic shoreline that had remained free of Manila clams now appears to support reproducing populations of the invasive shellfish.

Biologists led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, MIT Sea Grant at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Center for Coastal Studies confirmed that Ruditapes philippinarum has established itself along the northwestern Atlantic coast. Published in Biological Invasions, the findings capture a rarely documented stage of biological invasion, when a species is first becoming established and beginning to spread through a new region.

Manila clams are native to waters extending from Russia’s Sakhalin Islands through Japan and southern China. Since at least the early 20th century, however, people have introduced them both intentionally and accidentally to the Pacific coast of North America and to Europe, allowing the species to spread across much of the Northern Hemisphere.

The clams are widely valued as food and support an industry worth about $7 billion annually. At the same time, dense populations can compete with native shellfish, hybridize with related species, and alter surrounding ecological communities.

Co-author Bastidas in Squantum, Massachusetts, holding a native quahog clam. Mussels and Manila clams are visible in the tray. 

Credit: Carolina Bastidas



Their arrival may also bring some benefits. Manila clams can provide abundant food for seabirds, crabs, raccoons, and other animals that prey on shellfish.

“Given that Manila clams are everywhere else in the northern hemisphere, it was only a matter of time before they showed up here, and we’ve been keeping an eye out for them,” says marine scientist Aly Putnam, who is a postdoctoral researcher at UMass Amherst and lecturer at Smith College, as well as the paper’s lead author.

A text message starts the search

The Northeastern U.S. had represented the last major gap in the Manila clam’s Northern Hemisphere range. Evidence that the species had reached this coastline emerged from something remarkably ordinary: a text message.

During the summer of 2025, Putnam was leading a small workshop on intertidal biodiversity at Spectacle Island in Boston Harbor when El Fernekees Hartshorn sent her a photograph of an unfamiliar clam. Fernekees Hartshorn, a recent University of Rhode Island graduate who had worked with Putnam on regional Rapid Assessment Surveys for marine invasive species, suggested that the shellfish might be a Manila clam. Fernekees Hartshorn is also a co-author of the paper.

Aly Putnam holding a baby Manila clam, much smaller than a thumbnail. Newly born clams are evidence that the species has established itself. 

Credit: Aly Putnam



Carolina Bastidas, a research scientist with MIT Sea Grant and Putnam’s co-investigator, was also participating in the Spectacle Island trip. The two began searching the shoreline for Manila clam shells and soon found them in large numbers.

At the same time, another group led by Owen Nichols of the Center for Coastal Studies had been following separate reports. Beginning in 2023, local clammers had described finding “weird clams” around Provincetown at the northern end of Cape Cod and at other locations across the Cape.

The Boston Harbor and Cape Cod investigations might have continued independently if James T. Carlton had not connected them. Carlton, an emeritus professor of marine sciences at Williams College and a leading authority on invasive marine species, learned about the shells found on Spectacle Island and urged Putnam and Bastidas to determine whether they represented an established population rather than discarded food or bait.

“Find me living clams,” he told the group—especially baby clams and clams that showed evidence of having reproduced.

Co-author Owen Nichols (l), from the Center for Coastal Studies, conducting field research along with Jess Mateik (center) and fisherman Dave Seitler, one of the first to report “weird clams” in Cape Cod. 

Credit: Owen Nichols



Young clams confirm a new population

Putnam and Bastidas soon found the evidence Carlton requested. After spending hours digging at Squantum in Quincy and Calf Pasture Park in Boston, the researchers used sieve-based sampling to recover dozens of small living clams. The juvenile specimens showed that Manila clams had recently reproduced and that young clams were joining the population.

Nichols’s group then investigated the unusual clams reported around Cape Cod. They found female Manila clams that also showed evidence of reproduction, strengthening the case that the species was established at multiple locations rather than appearing only as isolated individuals.

Co-author El Fernekees Hartshorn with a baby Manila Clam. Their text message to Putnam launched this investigation. 

Credit: El Fernekees Hartshorn



“When I learned about what each group was working on,” Carlton says, “I realized that this was a golden opportunity to not only combine forces but also to catch a detailed snapshot of the moment a new invasive species establishes itself.”

“As a marine biologist, I have worked with invasive species and with Rapid Assessment Surveys from the Northeast Aquatic Nuisance Species (NEANS) Panel for 11 years now,” says Bastidas. “Collaboration is invaluable for these sorts of efforts, and the fact we had already a network of people looking into Manila clams, means that we could catch them at the moment they established themselves.”

The ecological consequences remain uncertain

Researchers do not yet know how Manila clams reached the northwestern Atlantic or what their establishment could mean for coastal waters in the Northeastern U.S. Their presence could affect commercial shellfishing, native species and broader ecological relationships, but the direction and scale of those effects remain unclear.

Putnam (l) and Bastidas (r) conducting a winter sample. 

Credit: Aly Putnam



Bastidas says, “We do need more research to understand the Manila clam’s potential effects on the shellfishing industry and ecological communities. On the positive side, because Manila clams can become a source of food for other animals, they can relieve pressure on native species—for example, the predatory pressure of green crabs on softshell clams. So, there could also be positive impacts.”

“Discoveries like this remind us how much there is still a lot to learn about our coastal ecosystems,” said Putnam. “Finding the species is only the beginning. Now we are working to understand its distribution, if these populations are expanding and how these clams interact with other species in New England coastal systems. This research will help us determine whether this newcomer becomes a minor addition to the ecosystem or a more influential player in the years ahead.”

The Lie of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Common Mouth Bacteria May Trigger Dangerous Calcium Buildup in the Heart

By American Heart Association, July 16, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/common-mouth-bacteria-may-trigger-dangerous-calcium-buildup-in-the-heart/

Human Chest Cavity illustration: Right lung, left lung, heart. 

Credit: American Heart Association

A gum disease bacterium may contribute to aortic valve calcification through inflammation, according to preliminary human tissue and mouse research.

A bacterium best known for damaging gums may also be involved in the hardening of the heart’s aortic valve. Preliminary research presented at the American Heart Association’s Basic Cardiovascular Sciences Scientific Sessions 2026 points to a possible biological connection between chronic periodontal disease and a serious heart valve disorder.

The condition, called calcific aortic valve stenosis (CAVS), develops when calcium accumulates in the aortic valve, causing it to thicken and narrow. Because this valve controls blood leaving the heart, the narrowing can restrict circulation throughout the body.

CAVS may cause no noticeable problems at first. As it advances, however, patients can develop fatigue, chest pain, shortness of breath, fainting, heart failure, and premature death. Severe cases are generally treated by replacing the damaged valve because no medication has been proven to stop or slow the disease.

The researchers identified a possible pathway through which long-term gum infection could contribute to valve calcification.

4 chambers of the heart: right atrium, right ventricle, left atrium, left ventricle.

 Credit: American Heart Association



“There are currently no medications proven to prevent or slow the progression of CAVS. We hope our findings demonstrating the link between periodontal disease and CAVS will stimulate further research into new preventive and therapeutic approaches for this condition,” said co-lead author of the study, Chenyang Li, M.D., a Ph.D. candidate in the department of cardiology at the State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease of Fuwai Hospital’s National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College all in Beijing.

A gum bacterium emerges as a suspect

The investigation centered on Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis), a bacterium that plays an unusually influential role in gum inflammation and the breakdown of tissue supporting the teeth.

Chenyang Li, M.D., a Ph.D. candidate in the department of cardiology at the State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease of Fuwai Hospital’s National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College in Beijing. 

Credit: Chenyang Li



Previous research has also connected P. gingivalis with inflammation beyond the mouth and with cardiovascular problems, including plaque buildup inside arteries and coronary artery disease. That history made it a plausible candidate for examining the possible link between periodontal disease and damaged heart valves.

Diseased valves contained more bacteria

The researchers first turned to human tissue for evidence. They measured bacterial levels in heart valves removed during replacement surgery, comparing samples from patients with CAVS with samples from people who had other valve disorders.

The goal was to determine whether particular microbes appeared more often in calcified valves. P. gingivalis was not the most common bacterium detected, but its presence differed sharply between valves affected by CAVS and those without the condition.

“We were surprised by how much P. gingivalis was present in the calcified aortic valves,” Li said. “Although it was not one of the most abundant bacteria overall, it showed one of the largest differences between valves with CAVS and valves without CAVS. This unexpected finding led us to investigate its potential role in the development of CAVS.”

The human tissue findings could show an association, but they could not establish whether the bacterium contributed to calcification. To explore that question more directly, the researchers moved to experiments in mice.

Inflammation drove calcification in mice

The researchers exposed mice to either live P. gingivalis or bacteria that had been inactivated by heat. They then examined whether the microbe accumulated in the aortic valve, increased calcium deposits, and produced signs resembling aortic stenosis.

Some animals received antibiotics to test whether reducing the bacteria would change the outcome. In another group, the researchers genetically removed or disabled the inflammatory pathway involving interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β).

Interleukin-1 beta is a signaling protein produced mainly by immune cells. It helps trigger inflammation, the body’s response to infection or injury, but excessive or persistent activity can also damage tissues.

Repeated exposure to live P. gingivalis caused the bacterium to build up in the aortic valves of the mice. The animals also developed more valve calcification and stronger signs of aortic stenosis. Preventive antibiotic treatment reduced those effects.

Inside mouse valve cells, P. gingivalis activated interleukin 1 beta (IL-1b), providing a possible explanation for how infection could encourage calcium buildup.

The researchers then removed IL-1b genetically. Even when P. gingivalis remained present, the mice developed substantially less valve calcification and fewer symptoms, suggesting that the inflammatory pathway played an important role in the damage.

The human link still needs testing

The results do not yet show that P. gingivalis causes CAVS in people. The human tissue analysis identified an association, while the experiments demonstrating a possible mechanism were performed in mice.

“The key message is simple: take good care of your oral health,” Li said. ”Good oral hygiene and treatment of periodontal disease are important for overall health and may also have benefits for cardiovascular health. While it is still too early to recommend specific treatments for preventing CAVS, our findings suggest that periodontal health could be an important piece of the puzzle.”

“This study adds to the growing evidence that oral health and heart health are closely connected,” said Eduardo Sanchez, M.D., M.P.H., FAHA, chief medical officer for prevention for the American Heart Association. “For many people, regular visits to the dentist are their only connection to the healthcare system. That makes dental professionals important partners in spotting health conditions, including periodontal disease early — which can lead to quicker healthcare referrals and results, better health and lives saved.”

Because the findings have not been confirmed in people, they remain preliminary. The researchers have begun a clinical study to investigate whether gum disease and P. gingivalis are linked to CAVS in human patients.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/