Parkinson's Link to Gut Bacteria Hints at Unexpectedly Simple Treatment

18 Aug. 2026, By F. MacDonald

https://www.sciencealert.com/parkinsons-tie-to-gut-bacteria-hints-at-unexpectedly-simple-treatment

Illustration of bacteria on the colon epithelium. (Nanoclustering/Science Photo Library/Getty Images)



Years before a Parkinson's diagnosis – sometimes as many as two decades before – the disease is already making itself known in the body.

Not through tremors or anything outwardly visible, but through something less dramatic: constipation and trouble sleeping.

It's a strange, quiet early warning system, and for a long time scientists weren't sure why gut problems would show up so early for a neurodegenerative disease.

But scientists have increasingly come to suspect that the answer lies not only in the gut itself, but in what's living there.

In 2024, a team led by medical researcher Hiroshi Nishiwaki at Nagoya University in Japan added some of the most compelling evidence yet for the link between gut bacteria and Parkinson's.

After comparing fecal samples of 94 people with Parkinson's disease to those of 73 people without it, they checked the results against data from China, Taiwan, Germany, and the US.


Different countries have different mixes of gut bacteria. But the same pathways appeared to be disrupted in Parkinson's: the ones responsible for making B vitamins, specifically riboflavin (B2) and biotin (B7).

This led the researchers to suggest that supplementing B vitamins could potentially be a future treatment investigation for Parkinson's.

"Supplementation therapy targeting riboflavin and biotin holds promise as a potential therapeutic avenue for alleviating Parkinson's symptoms and slowing disease progression," said Nishiwaki when the study was published in May 2024.

In a similar vein, a small 2003 study found that high doses of riboflavin could help restore some motor functions in Parkinson's patients who also eliminated red meat from their diets, though its design could not establish whether riboflavin itself caused the improvements.

Nishiwaki and team showed the lack of B vitamins was linked to a decrease in short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and polyamines: molecules that help create a healthy mucus layer in the intestines.

"Deficiencies in polyamines and SCFAs could lead to thinning of the intestinal mucus layer, increasing intestinal permeability, both of which have been observed in [Parkinson's disease]," Nishiwaki explained.

Summary of findings from the study and speculations from previous research. 

(Nishiwaki et al., npj Parkinson's Dis., 2024)

The researchers proposed that lower levels of these metabolites could weaken the intestinal mucus barrier and increase gut permeability. This could mean more exposure to everyday toxins – cleaning chemicals, pesticides, herbicides.

"This higher permeability exposes nerves to toxins, contributing to abnormal aggregation of alpha-synuclein, activating the immune cells in the brain, and leading to long-term inflammation," Nishiwaki said.

Alpha-synuclein is a protein that clumps together in the dopamine-producing brain cells of people with Parkinson's, and its build-up is thought to contribute to the disease's slow progression toward tremors, muscle rigidity, and dementia.

In Parkinson's disease, a reduction in the gut bacteria of genes responsible for synthesizing the essential B vitamins B2 and B7 was found. 

(Reiko Matsushita)



Over the past two years, two separate teams have conducted trials on fecal microbiota transplants (or poop transplants) in people with Parkinson's.

That means exactly what it sounds like: transplanting processed stool from a carefully screened donor into a patient's gut, delivered using several methods, including via a tube during colonoscopy.

It sounds like an unlikely medical treatment but the therapy has already shown potential to alleviate depression, type 2 diabetes, and has demonstrated promising early signs against food allergies.

And in two randomized, placebo-controlled trials run in Belgium and China, there's evidence it may also help Parkinson's.

The first, a Belgian trial called GUT-PARFECT, gave 46 people with mild-to-moderate Parkinson's either a donor transplant or their own stool as a placebo.

After a year, the donor group's motor symptom score had improved by 5.8 points, compared to 2.7 points in the placebo group – with the biggest gains showing up between six and twelve months.

"After 12 months, participants who received the healthy donor stool transplant showed a significant improvement in their motor score," said gastroenterologist Arnout Bruggeman, part of the University Hospital Ghent team behind the trial, in 2024 when the results were published.

"Our study provides promising hints that [fecal microbiota transplants] can be a valuable new treatment for Parkinson's disease," said team member Roosmarijn Vandenbroucke.

"More research is needed, but it offers a potentially safe, effective, and cost-effective way to improve symptoms and quality of life for millions of people with Parkinson's disease worldwide."

Then, in March this year, a much larger trial out of Zhengzhou University in China pushed the evidence further.

Researchers gave 72 newly diagnosed, treatment-naive Parkinson's patients either repeated donor transplants or their own stool, across three rounds over several months.

After 35 weeks, motor scores improved by an average of 3.8 points in the donor group, while they changed little in the control group, worsening by 0.1 points on average. Constipation scores improved sharply too.

Nearly half the donor group saw a clinically meaningful improvement in motor function, compared to about a fifth of the control group.

In the donor group, potentially harmful bacteria like E. coli and Shigella became less abundant, the gut lining grew more robust, stool dopamine levels rose, and – notably – alpha-synuclein levels in the gut went down.

That's the same molecule Nishiwaki's team flagged two years earlier as the link between a leaky gut and a damaged brain.

"These findings demonstrate that repeated donor FMT is safe, well tolerated, and yields clinically meaningful motor and gastrointestinal improvements," the researchers behind the Chinese study wrote in Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy – adding that the results "reinforce the growing body of evidence supporting gut microbiota modulation as a viable disease-modifying avenue" in Parkinson's disease.

Both trials are still small, and both come with the usual caveat attached to any phase 2 results: further verification of their results is needed.

Fecal transplants aren't necessarily the end result of the studies, either. But they provide another proof of concept that changes to gut bacteria can impact Parkinson's symptoms.

"Using these findings, we could identify individuals with specific deficiencies and administer oral riboflavin and biotin supplements to those with decreased levels, potentially creating an effective treatment," said Nishiwaki back in 2024.

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Scientists Discover a New Organ Hiding in The Skull

20 Aug. 2026, By M. Irving

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-discover-a-new-organ-hiding-in-the-skull

The newly discovered structures in skull bone marrow. 

(Jang Hyun Park)



After centuries of medical science, it's reasonable to assume that we have a complete tally of all the organs in the human body by now.

But scientists just keep discovering new ones working thanklessly in the background, performing vital functions like sensing pain or producing saliva.

The latest is all in your head. In a new study published in Nature, biologists at Washington University (WashU) School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a new immune organ inside the skull.

From that crucial post, it seems to act like a 'security station' to fight brain cancer at the early stages.

So far this organ has only been found in mice, but the researchers say there are signs that humans have them, too. And if we can supercharge these structures, we might have a new weapon against deadly brain cancers.

"This study reveals that the skull bone marrow is far more than just a structural framework – it harbors previously unrecognized hubs for brain-specific immune responses," says Jonathan Kipnis, a brain immunologist at WashU and senior author of the new study.

"Uncovering this localized immune niche changes how we view neuroimmune interactions and opens exciting new avenues for treating brain tumors and other neurological diseases."

Immunohistochemistry images of different parts of the mouse skull bone marrow (left),

 highlighting clusters of immune cells that were more pronounced than in the bone marrow of the sternum (breastbone; right).

 (Hyun Park et al., Nature, 2026)

The human body is patrolled by not one, but two distinct immune systems – one for the central nervous system, including the brain and spinal cord, and one for the rest of the body.


It's long been thought that the two systems were completely separate, and in fact, immune cells from the peripheral system can cause all sorts of trouble if they get into the brain. Some are known to contribute to neurodegenerative diseases because the sensitive tissues in the nervous system can be harmed by the 'reckless' techniques that work elsewhere in the body.

But a growing body of research suggests there's a bit more crossover than previously thought. In previous work, the team behind the new study identified tiny channels running from brain tissue, through the dura mater (the outermost protective membrane around the brain) and into the skull itself.

This time, the researchers used fluorescent tracer proteins to observe how molecules moved along these channels, following them from neurons into the bone marrow of the skull.

Eventually they tracked them into what looked suspiciously like germinal centers – structures that form in lymph nodes and act like training camps for immune cells.

Basically, naive B cells enter these structures, multiply to great numbers, get armed, are handed 'Wanted' posters for particular pathogens by other immune cells, and are sent out into battle.

Schematic of a germinal center in a lymph node showing proliferation and development of a B cell. (Billy10drs/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY SA 3.0)



In this case, these training camps are strategically located near the brain, so they can fight on the front lines without having to recruit soldiers from further afield in the body.

"We have never seen such structures in healthy bone marrow before," says Jang Hyun Park, cell biologist at WashU and first author of the study.

"It is an exciting discovery that points out that a complex brain requires its own specialized immune structures to defend it."

The researchers tested that idea in mouse models of glioma, a particularly nasty form of brain cancer. They altered the activity of these lymphoid structures by applying a hydrogel laced with either immune-promoting or immune-suppressing compounds under the scalp.

Mice with disrupted skull lymphoid structures had much more aggressive tumors and lower survival rates than control mice.

However, mice given a mix of three immune-boosting proteins showed stronger immune responses from their skull lymphoids, fighting off their cancer more effectively and significantly increasing their survival.

Of course, findings in mice don't necessarily translate to humans, but the researchers say that follicular T cells have previously been detected in the bone marrow of human skulls, which could be a clue that these structures are also hiding in our own heads.

If so, it could eventually mark a major improvement in how we fight brain cancer: A hydrogel injected under the scalp is far less invasive than full brain surgery to remove tumors.

"The finding fundamentally changes our current understanding of neuroimmunology," says Kipnis.

"Knowing that the brain relies on first responders in the surrounding skull for defense has the potential to change how we think about developing therapies for many neurological conditions, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, long COVID, and many others that have an immune component to them.

"Such therapies could access these immune hubs directly through the skull, without major peripheral side effects."

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Scientists Find Just 3 Minutes of Sprinting Can Transform Blood Chemistry

By Rockefeller U., Aug. 19, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-find-just-3-minutes-of-sprinting-can-transform-blood-chemistry/

Exercise intensity may shape the body’s chemical response as much as exercise duration. Many proteins that reacted strongly to sprinting were also linked in large population data to lower risks of metabolic and cardiovascular disease.

 Credit: SciTechDaily.com

A few minutes of sprinting triggered a much larger immediate molecular response than prolonged moderate exercise and altered proteins linked to better metabolic health.

Just three minutes of intense sprinting can produce molecular changes in the bloodstream that look very different from those seen after much longer periods of moderate exercise.

Researchers at Rockefeller compared several exercise intensities and found that six 30-second, all-out sprints changed nearly one quarter of the proteins they measured immediately after exercise. By comparison, 90 minutes of continuous moderate cycling affected fewer than one quarter of one percent. Moderate treadmill running altered more proteins than cycling, but still far fewer than sprinting.

Sprinting rapidly reshapes blood chemistry

The effects extended well beyond proteins. Sprinting changed more than 200 metabolites and produced an immediate rise in proteins involved in blood vessel growth, tissue remodeling, and hormonal signaling.

Some appeared to reach the bloodstream through ectodomain shedding, a rapid signaling process in which portions of proteins already positioned on cell surfaces are cut away and released into circulation rather than being newly produced. Human fat cells exposed to blood collected after the sprints also showed widespread shifts in gene activity affecting fuel processing, hormone responses, and nutrient sensing.

Moderate exercise produced a smaller and slower molecular response. A substantial wave of fatty acids and proteins originating from the liver, which commonly appear as the body responds to the demands of endurance exercise, did not emerge in the blood until three hours later. Human fat cells exposed to blood taken after moderate cycling showed only modest changes in gene activity.

Sprint-responsive proteins track better health

The researchers next compared proteins affected by exercise with health information from more than 53,000 participants in the UK Biobank. Many of those proteins were associated with lower risks of cardiovascular and metabolic disease. The pattern was especially strong for obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other metabolic disorders. Of 33 proteins associated with lower risk, sprinting altered 32, while moderate exercise changed only three. More than one quarter of the proteins were also associated with slower biological aging.

“What’s exciting here is that just a few minutes of intense exercise can trigger a significant molecular response,” says Paul Cohen. “And we still see it after eight weeks of training, which tells us this response isn’t simply a product of the body struggling to keep up with unfamiliar stress. It may be that the responses we observed are intrinsic to intense exercise.”

“It’s well appreciated that different intensities of exercise stimulate distinct body-wide adaptations,” notes Luke Olsen, the postdoctoral fellow who conducted the studies. “However, the molecular mechanisms linking these intensity-dependent adaptations have remained largely elusive. Our work suggests that exerkines–proteins and metabolites released into the bloodstream following exercise–are highly sensitive to exercise intensity and may be the key mediators of the health-promoting effects of short bursts of vigorous exercise.”

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Neuroscientist Challenges the Idea That Your Brain “Makes” Decisions

By L. Rosdeitcher, Indiana U., Aug. 19, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/neuroscientist-challenges-the-idea-that-your-brain-makes-decisions/

Even simple systems can produce behavior that appears deliberate without anything resembling a central decision-maker. That possibility could force cognitive neuroscience to rethink how purposeful human actions arise. 

Credit: Shutterstock

A professor proposes that behavior emerges through continuous interactions among sensory, sensorimotor, and motor processes rather than a dedicated decision-making mechanism.

There may be a gap between how people believe decisions are made and what actually happens inside the brain, according to Indiana University professor Tom James.

For decades, both scientific theories and everyday thinking have treated decision-making as a separate step between perception and action. Under this traditional view, information moves through a linear sequence from sensing to thinking to acting, with each stage linked to a distinct brain function.

Many research methods, especially those used in model-based cognitive neuroscience, are built around this idea and reinforce it. It also matches our everyday experience. As James puts it, “Our actions feel like they are caused by decisions based on desires, beliefs, and intentions.”

However, James argues that this linear framework, often called the “sandwich model,” does not fit what scientists know about the brain. While researchers have identified neural systems for sensing and movement, there is no comparable brain mechanism that clearly serves as a dedicated decision-making stage.

From Decision-Making to Action Selection

Instead of proposing a separate decision-making center that directs behavior, James argues that actions emerge from the combined activity of sensory, sensorimotor, and motor processes. He prefers the term “action selection,” which reflects an ongoing interaction among the brain, body, and environment rather than a simple step-by-step process. He says this view also requires research methods that can better capture these dynamic interactions.

That does not mean decisions are unreal.

Indiana University Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences Professor Tom James.

 Credit: Indiana University



As James explains, “Of course they do. We use this language all the time, and it’s very helpful in terms of describing behavior. The leap, I think, is to say that the brain works by having decision-making or control processes. It produces behavior that is well described in that way. But it doesn’t need a process that does that to make it look that way.”

James, a professor in Indiana University’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, presents these ideas in a study published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

Why Decisions May Be Abstract Concepts

To support his argument, James draws on a “physicalist” framework associated with philosophers such as Daniel Dennett. Under this view, only physical processes, including sensory and motor activity, can directly cause physical events. Because decisions are nonphysical concepts, they cannot themselves produce actions or other physical effects.

To illustrate the idea, James offers several analogies.

One compares decisions to Dennett’s description of the self as a center of mass (CoM) or center of gravity. A center of mass is a mathematical concept rather than a physical object. You cannot move an object’s center of mass without moving the object itself. James argues that decisions are similarly abstract and cannot directly influence the physical world.

How Everyday Concepts Can Mislead Science

James also points to the difference between everyday language and detailed scientific explanations. For example, people often say “the university” when describing what happens within an institution. The phrase is a convenient shorthand for the people, buildings, and organizations that make up the university.

Likewise, saying “the university took certain actions during a campus protest” does not explain what actually happened. It leaves out the meetings, phone calls, and individual decisions that produced those actions.

James argues that the same problem applies to decisions. “As mental phenomena, they are defined on too abstract a level for the goals of cognitive neuroscience.” In other words, they do not reveal the specific brain activity responsible for behavior.

What a Simple Robot Reveals About Human Behavior

James extends the argument with an example from robotics.

He describes a robot built with only simple sensory, motor, and sensorimotor components. Even without any ability to make decisions or develop strategies, the robot displays “wall-following” behavior that appears purposeful and goal-directed.

“The robot does not have decisions built into it,” James explains. “It just senses its environment and moves around accordingly. And based on the environment, wall-following turns out to be a good thing. It looks intentional. It looks strategic. It looks like the robot is making decisions. And yet, it is not. The reason we know it is not is that there are no systems built into it to do that.”

Challenging the Central Controller Theory

If a robot without decision-making abilities can still appear to make decisions, James argues it is reasonable to ask whether humans might create the same impression. He believes this explanation is more parsimonious than one based on what he calls “a higher-level, central controller that monitors and regulates sensory and motor processes.”

James also argues that the idea of a central controller creates a philosophical problem that dates back to Descartes.

“Explaining that the brain works by way of a central controller suggests that you haven’t figured out how the brain works, because you’ve just put a person inside your brain,” says James. “Dennett called this idea the Cartesian Theatre. That person inside your brain would need another person inside its brain, which would need a person inside its brain, and so on, in an infinite regress. So the problem is never solved. It’s just passed on.”

The Future of Decision-Making Research

James concludes that testing this alternative view will require new experimental approaches capable of capturing the complex, ongoing interactions among the brain, body, and environment that give rise to what people describe as decision-making.

His own lab has already begun exploring these questions using theories of embodied cognition and ecological psychology. James believes this approach could help cognitive neuroscience better understand not only how behavior emerges but also many other mental and cognitive processes.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Mysterious “Golden Tree” Coral Discovered in Costa Rica’s Deep Pacific

By Pensoft Publishers. Aug. 19, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/mysterious-golden-tree-coral-discovered-in-costa-ricas-deep-pacific/

In situ colony of Laurinque elenya gen. et sp. nov. in Las Gemelas II, taken during the 2023 expedition. 

Credit: ROV SuBastian

The coral was found thriving in large numbers on rocky outcrops almost completely covered by brittle stars.

Hundreds of meters below the Pacific off Costa Rica, bright yellow coral colonies rise from rocky seamounts covered with brittle stars. The coral is so different in its anatomy and genetics from known relatives that scientists created an entirely new family to classify it. Found at depths of about 360 to 529 meters, the species is described in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Some colonies grow more than a meter tall. Researchers collected specimens with the remotely operated vehicle SuBastian during expeditions in 2019 and 2023 aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute research vessels Falkor and Falkor (too). The expeditions explored seamounts near Isla del Coco and along Costa Rica’s Pacific margin.

The coral was abundant on rocky outcrops almost completely covered by brittle stars, with its golden branches extending above the densely populated seafloor.

Map showing the geographic location of the collected samples within the Pacific Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Costa Rica.

 Credit: Beatriz Naranjo (UCR)



The seafloor inspired its unusual name

That distinctive setting helped determine the coral’s name. The new genus, Laurinque, is derived from “Laurinquë“, the Quenya word for “golden tree.” Quenya is the Elvish language created by J.R.R. Tolkien for The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, and the name refers to the coral’s bright yellow color and tree-like shape.

Its species name, elenya, means “stellar” or “of the stars” in Quenya, referring to the brittle stars surrounding the colonies. Together, the names reflect a deep seafloor scene that reminded the researchers of a mystical elvish landscape.

Laurinque elenya gen. et sp. nov., morphology of the holotype, in situ. 

Credit: ROV SuBastian

Genetics revealed an entirely new lineage

Determining the coral’s position on the evolutionary tree proved unexpectedly complicated. When researchers sequenced three genes commonly used for coral classification, each gene placed the species in a different, unrelated family, producing an unusually strong conflict among the results.

The researchers therefore used phylogenomics, which compares hundreds of genes simultaneously, to resolve its ancestry. The broader analysis showed that the coral belongs to no previously recognized family. Although its closest known relatives belong to Eunicellidae, its genetics and anatomy were different enough to justify both a new family, Laurinqueidae, and the new genus Laurinque.

Holotype (ethanol preserved fragment) detail of anthocodiae and polyp arrangement of Laurinque elenya. Credit: Fiorella Vásquez (UCR)


“I saw the octocoral garden for the first time in 2019 and I was impressed by the beauty of the landscape, which inspired, later, the elvish name of the taxa. I thought the species could belong to a known family and genera, but after the preliminary morphological analysis I realized that it was something very different that I could not match with the known taxa.

In 2023, we collected more samples and thanks to the exhaustive molecular analyses made by my colleagues, Cathy McFadden, Catalina Murillo and Andrea Quattrini, we were able to determine the taxonomic placement of the stunning species, in one of the most enigmatic sites,” said Dr. Odalisca Breedy of Universidad de Costa Rica, lead researcher on the study.
Costa Rica’s seamounts remain underexplored

Dr Breedy led the research with an international group of collaborators. The Schmidt Ocean Institute supported the expeditions, along with a research grant from the National Geographic Society.

Laurinque elenya gen. et sp. nov., in situ colonies in Las Gemelas II. 

Credit: ROV SuBastian

The finding joins a growing number of previously undocumented species discovered on Costa Rica’s seamounts and underscores how much of the deep ocean remains unexplored. The deep ocean covers roughly two-thirds of Earth’s surface, while coral gardens like this one are considered vulnerable marine ecosystems because their complex structures provide habitat for many forms of deep-sea life.

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Paying Attention to Your Body Could Actually Change Your Immune Response

19 Aug. 2026, By M. Starr

(Yana Iskayeva/Moment/Getty Images)

"Mind over matter" is a popular mindset for overcoming hardship.

Tough it out. Ignore the discomfort. Override the pain, and you'll come out the other side stronger than before.

Well, it may surprise you to learn that ignoring discomfort may not always be the best approach to the physical signals sent to you by your own body.

According to a new paper, focusing attention on an inflammatory sensation seems to help the body regulate its immune response – and deliberately focusing attention elsewhere seems to have the opposite effect.

The findings, writes a team led by neuroscientist Liron Rozenkrantz of Bar-Ilan University in Israel, "establish a causal link between attention and immune regulation in vivo, suggesting that processes often considered autonomously regulated, such as inflammatory responses, are influenced by the voluntary allocation of attentional resources."

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

Inflammation is often the body's first line of defense against infection or injury. Your immune response kicks into gear, mobilizing around the affected site, producing heat and swelling, and recruiting immune cells to tackle the threat.

At the same time, your nervous system sends signals to your brain, letting you know that something is awry. This can feel like itching or burning.

Previous human studies have shown that directing your attention away from that sensation can reduce how unpleasant it feels on a subjective level.

But nobody had tested whether that redirection had an effect on the immune response itself.

To find out, the researchers turned to the standard histamine skin-prick test used to identify allergies.

Histamine produces a small allergic-type reaction: a raised, swollen area called a wheal, surrounded by redness called a flare. Both can be measured as the reaction develops over about 20 minutes.

In the first experiment, the researchers gave 37 healthy volunteers the prick test on two separate occasions.

A diagram of the histamine skin-prick test. 

(Mizrachi et al., Nat. Hum. Behav., 2026)



In one session, participants were instructed to pay close attention to the sensations coming from the inflamed patch of skin, and in the other, they were told to direct their attention elsewhere, using engaging videos.

A second experiment involving 20 participants was conducted the same way, but changed the focus – an important variable that allowed the researchers to test whether it was the attention, rather than the specific thing that they were focusing on, that affected the outcome.

Here's where things got really interesting.

The intensity of the discomfort participants experienced was consistent with those earlier studies. Participants reported stronger inflammation-related sensations when they focused on the inflammation than when they were distracted.

But the important part – the actual immune response – appeared to be better regulated when participants focused on the sensation.

In the first experiment, the average size of the wheal in the focus condition was just 3.5 millimeters, compared with 5.0 millimeters for the distraction condition – and the surrounding flare was also smaller, 10.6 millimeters compared to 14.0 millimeters.

Roughly 90 percent of participants showed more inflammation when distracted, and the wheal and flare responses were about 1.5 times larger on average in the distraction condition.

In the focus condition, the wheal also showed signs of settling sooner. After 20 minutes, nearly 90 percent of participants in the focus condition had a wheal that was stable or shrinking, compared to 46 percent in the distraction condition.

Then, in the second experiment, participants were shown abstract shapes. In one session, they were instructed to use the shapes as reminders to focus on the irritated skin. In another, they focused on the shapes themselves, pondering whether they could exist in the real world.

How attention to inflammatory sensations influenced the size and resolution of the skin's inflammatory response. 

(Mizrachi et al., Nat. Hum. Behav., 2026)



The effects were pretty much the same. Inflammation was about 1.6 times smaller with internal attention, and again, around 90 percent of participants showed the larger inflammatory response during distraction.

So the next question is – why, though?

And that's where the reported differences in discomfort proved useful.

The researchers hypothesized that paying attention to the sensation increases the importance of the signal to your brain, while supplying it with information about the irritation. In turn, this allows the body to regulate the immune response with greater precision.

To test this, the researchers repeated the test while using lidocaine to numb the area – and, indeed, the effect associated with attention became weaker.

However, it didn't disappear entirely. The swelling was larger than when people paid attention with intact sensation, but it was still smaller than when they were distracted.

This suggests something else was going on. After monitoring the autonomic nervous system in the participants, the researchers found no differences in measures including heart rate, skin conductance, and skin temperature. But they did find a difference in heart-rate variability.

Heart-rate variability is an indirect indicator of parasympathetic, or vagal, activity, and the vagal system helps regulate inflammation. Crucially, the increase in heart-rate variability associated with internal attention persisted even when sensation was dulled with lidocaine.

So the researchers think that paying attention does two things. It says to the brain, "Hey! Listen!" But it also may engage some neural pathways involved in inflammation regulation.Now, this is very far from meaning that we can think our way out of serious illness. The experiment only involved 57 people, and a tiny, relatively insignificant, and temporary immune test.

The researchers don't yet know whether the effect applies to infection, chronic inflammation, autoimmune disease, or anything beyond this particular experimental skin reaction.

But it does suggest something interesting about attention. What we pay attention to may change how we experience the world, but the study suggests that it may also play a hidden role in how the body responds to that sensory information.

And that could be something scientists can work with to understand how the body works, and how to treat its ailments.

"Together," the researchers write, "these findings implicate subjective sensory experience as an active contributor of immune regulation and extend predictive and allostatic models of brain-body interaction to include attention as an active regulatory component."

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Textbooks May Be Wrong: Satellite Data Challenge the Two-Bulge Tide Model

By Science China Press, Aug. 17, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/textbooks-may-be-wrong-satellite-data-challenge-the-two-bulge-tide-model/

A global analysis of satellite and tide-gauge measurements found that high and low tides often occurred where the familiar two-bulge model predicts the opposite. 

Credit: Shutterstock

Large-scale tidal observations challenge the textbook idea that two symmetric water bulges physically form on opposite sides of Earth.

For generations, students have learned to picture Earth’s oceans forming two broad bulges on opposite sides of the planet under the Moon’s gravitational influence. Researchers led by Yongfeng Yang of the Water Resources Comprehensive Development Center of Shandong Province, Jiajia Yuan of the School of Geomatics at Anhui University of Science and Technology, and Mingyuan Fan of the Water Resources Research Institute of Shandong Province have now tested whether those proposed bulges actually appear on Earth’s surface.

The question reaches back to the 18th century and concerns the double water bulge model, a familiar explanation of tides in physics, oceanography, and geography textbooks.

According to the classical model, the Moon’s gravity produces two symmetric water bulges on opposite sides of Earth. As Earth rotates, a location is expected to move through these raised regions and experience high tide, then through lower regions and experience low tide. Versions of this explanation also appear on websites maintained by institutions including NOAA, National Geographic, and NASA.

Satellite data challenge the bulge model

To test the prediction directly, the researchers analyzed tidal observations from 362,370 ocean locations measured by the Jason-3 satellite of AVISO throughout 2021. They compared occurrences of high and low tide with lunar angle, defined as the angle between a given location and the Moon relative to Earth’s center.

Among 175,402 locations falling within lunar angles of 0°–60° and 120°–180°, the regions where the model predicts water bulges, 56.84% experienced low tides and 43.16% experienced high tides. The opposite pattern appeared among 186,968 locations in the 60°–120° range, corresponding to the model’s depressed water region, where 56.38% experienced high tides.

(A1) Global pattern derived from satellite altimetry. 

(A2) Pacific Ocean pattern. 

(A3) Atlantic Ocean pattern. 

(B) Pattern derived from 166 tide-gauge stations. 

In the polar plot, the radial axis denotes the number of observed high- or low-tide events, and the radial sectors indicate the lunar angle in degrees.

 Credit: Science China Press

“The findings directly contradict the physical existence of two water bulges on the Earth’s surface,” the authors state. The researchers also examined observations from 166 tide-gauge stations during August 2014 and found the same overall pattern: low tides occurred predominantly at lunar angles of 0°–60° and 120°–180°, while high tides were more common between 60° and 120°.

Tide gauges show the same pattern

Researchers studying tides have long questioned whether two physical water bulges can actually form because real oceans are strongly affected by landmasses, the shape of ocean basins, the Coriolis force, and friction with the seafloor. According to the study authors, however, that skepticism had remained largely theoretical (oral), without direct observational evidence demonstrating the discrepancy.

The study also discusses a recently proposed alternative in which tides arise from oscillations of ocean basins rather than from seawater simply being pulled into two bulges. Under this view, the Moon’s gravity deforms the solid Earth, and as the elongated Earth rotates, ocean basins are repeatedly raised and lowered, driving water movement that produces daily cycles of high and low tides.

This “solid Earth deformation drives seawater to move” mechanism is consistent with the reported observations: low tides occur more often where the solid Earth rises upward (creating shallower water), while high tides occur more often where it is compressed (creating deeper water).

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A Molecule Found in Citrus Fruits Could Be a Secret Weapon to Rejuvenate The Liver

18 Aug. 2026, By P. Dockrill

https://www.sciencealert.com/a-molecule-found-in-citrus-fruits-could-be-a-secret-weapon-to-rejuvenate-the-liver

(Manu Vega/Moment/Getty Images)

The liver is one of the most remarkable organs in the human body.

This multitasking dynamo performs around 500 vital functions, including processing nutrients and filtering out harmful substances in our blood.

Despite the chemical toxins it has to contend with on a daily basis, the liver is preternaturally youthful, thanks to its unique ability to regenerate itself.

Even the trusty liver isn't immortal, though.

As the body starts to age, so too does the liver. And as it declines, it becomes susceptible to various forms of fatty liver disease.

But what if there were a way to help restore an aged liver to its youthful state?

In a new study published in npj Aging, scientists got a step closer to that very thing, using a compound found in citrus fruits to slow and even reverse signs of liver aging in mice.

Your liver, pictured at three years of age. (SciePro/Getty Images)

In an experiment, a team led by first author and molecular biologist Zhao-Qing Shen from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taiwan investigated hesperetin – a natural flavonoid found in lemons, limes, oranges, and other citruses – which has shown promise for a range of potential pharmacological effects, including various anti-inflammatory, anti-aging, and neuroprotective properties.

Hesperetin has previously been identified as an activator of a longevity-associated gene called CISD2 (or Cisd2 in mice), which is known to support liver and metabolic health.

"In the liver, Cisd2 deficiency promotes steatohepatitis [fatty liver disease] and hepatocellular carcinoma [liver cancer], whereas increased Cisd2 expression preserves youthful metabolic profiles and attenuates age-related hepatic dysfunction," the researchers explain in their paper.

"Notably, Cisd2 expression declines during aging, suggesting that restoring its expression may represent a promising strategy for delaying liver aging and preventing age-associated liver diseases."

To test their hypothesis, the researchers gave naturally old mice (21 months of age) a daily dose of hesperetin for five months, while a control group received an inactive substitute.

Mouse livers compared, showing young mice (three months of age, left), 

control mice (26 months, center),

 and hesperetin mice (26 months, right). 

(Shen et al., npj Aging, 2026)

At the end of the regimen, Cisd2 levels were significantly decreased in the livers of control animals (26 months old), but the old mice that had received daily hesperetin had liver Cisd2 levels comparable to those of young mice only three months old. Several other markers of liver aging and decline were also reduced, including fatty deposits, damaged liver cells, and inflammation.

"Collectively, these results demonstrate that hesperetin consumption alleviates hepatic pathological damage and delays liver aging in aged mice, an effect that closely correlates with the upregulation of Cisd2 expression," the researchers write.

An RNA sequencing analysis to compare gene activity showed the citrus compound had shifted gene expression in the treated animals towards a more youthful state, reversing a number of age-associated gene expression changes that were seen in the control animals.

A separate experiment showed that mice genetically engineered to lack Cisd2 in the main functional cells of their livers – which as a result already exhibited signs of poor liver health at just three months of age – did not respond to hesperetin treatment.

This supports the idea that in mouse liver cells, the citrus compound largely depends upon Cisd2 to work and is mostly ineffective in its absence, though the researchers also found some Cisd2-independent changes.

According to the researchers, hesperetin appears to work through a signaling pathway involving two different proteins, called Hmgcs2 and Pparα, which together increase Cisd2 activity.

While a lot more work will be needed to see whether hesperetin can safely produce similar effects to boost human liver health, the beginnings of the pathway might exist.

In the study, the research team analyzed non-tumor liver samples from 80 patients who had undergone surgery for liver cancer or benign tumors, and found that PPARα and CISD2 expression declined with age in the human liver tissues.

By itself, that doesn't prove anything, but it suggests that the reduced Cisd2 activity seen in mice might also be happening in older people. And if that's the case, maybe boosting that pathway with hesperetin could help rejuvenate human livers too.

Given everything the liver does for us, we owe it to the guy to find out.

"These findings taken together, provide strong evidence for hesperetin being a potent liver anti-aging treatment and form the groundwork for future clinical interventions using hesperetin as a potent Cisd2 activator and as a functional food derived from the peels of citrus fruits," the researchers write.

"Hesperetin from citrus peel and other sources has the ability potentially to slow down liver aging (or to rejuvenate an aging liver) as well as helping to ameliorate age-associated fatty liver disease."

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Review of Over 120 Trials Challenges The Advice to Always Finish Antibiotics

18 Aug. 2026, By J. Cockerill

https://www.sciencealert.com/always-finish-your-antibiotics-is-not-always-best-practice-surprised-youre-not-alone

This medical mantra may have been too successful. 

(Tanja Ivanova/Getty Images)

You've probably heard that taking a full course of antibiotics is essential for clearing bacterial infections and preventing antibiotic resistance.

That advice has been around ever since the discovery of penicillin in the 1940s.

But mounting evidence suggests that for certain common bacterial infections, shorter antibiotic durations may actually be a better approach.

There is no one-size-fits-all prescription for antibiotics; nuanced communication between patient and doctor is essential.

But a new study from public health experts in the United States, published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases, suggests that nuance is getting lost.

"Historically, there was very strong guidance by major health organizations and clinicians that you must always finish the course," says population health researcher Alistair Thorpe, of the University of Utah.

"Now, we're seeing a growing body of evidence saying that that is not always the case. And oftentimes, shorter durations of antibiotics are as effective and safe as longer alternatives."

But that information has been difficult to get across to patients, who have been hearing for decades that longer courses are required to stamp out bacterial infections, lest the microbes regain a foothold.

In recent decades, however, more than 120 randomized controlled trials have demonstrated that shorter courses of antibiotics for common infections can be just as effective, safer, and no more likely to promote antibiotic resistance than longer courses.

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

Antibiotic resistance is an urgent, global threat, with drug-resistant bacteria (aka 'superbugs') killing more than 1 million people each year.

Antibiotic use in agriculture has been flagged as a major issue, with contaminated wastewater carrying microbes downstream.

Superbugs also spread quickly in hospitals, and parched soils may be creating breeding grounds for drug-resistant microbes that can sail through the air.

But there's little evidence that failing to complete a prescribed course of antibiotics actually promotes antibiotic resistance.

Some experts even say that unnecessary exposure to antibiotics from excessively lengthy courses could be contributing to the problem.

In cases of pneumonia, for instance, shorter antibiotic courses appear effective in reducing infection recurrence and the spread of antibiotic resistance.

"Developing effective strategies for communicating updated guidance on antibiotic use requires understanding how patients' beliefs and preferences differ from current guidance," Thorpe and his colleagues write.

To better understand those beliefs and preferences, the researchers surveyed 1,475 US respondents, asking them: "Which antibiotic course length would you feel most comfortable taking for a bacterial respiratory infection (eg, pneumonia)?"

The majority of respondents (892) said they preferred a long course of 7 days or more to a short course of just 3-5 days.

"This preference was related to several factors, including having been told by a medical professional to 'always finish a course of antibiotics' and a general belief that longer treatments are inherently better," the researchers note.

"Although very few respondents (17.5 percent) had ever been told to stop taking antibiotics when they feel better, many (58.4 percent) said that they would be at least somewhat comfortable hearing it from their clinician."

That's an important point: stopping your antibiotics earlier than the doctor prescribes is risky business.

 This is a news article, not medical advice.

The takeaway here is to follow the treatment advised by your prescriber, even if it's shorter than you might have thought necessary.

But that doesn't mean you should make your own call on the duration.

Many serious bacterial infections do require longer courses of antibiotics: for example, tuberculosis and certain staph infections.

"Acknowledging uncertainty and the evolving nature of scientific evidence can foster trust, understanding, and acceptance of changes," the authors suggest.

"Framing updates to antibiotic use as routine scientific progress may help patients adapt to changes."

The good news is that more than 90 percent of respondents trusted their doctor's advice, which the authors say is an encouraging sign, given trends of declining trust in science and healthcare.

"Discuss with your clinician what the right duration is for you and when the right time is to stop your course," Thorpe says.

"Getting advice directly from a clinician on a one-to-one basis about what is most appropriate for you in that situation is the right way to go."

The Life of Earth

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Earth's Chemistry Did Something Strange Right Before Its Biggest Mass Extinctions

16 Aug. 2026, ByD. Robitzski

https://www.sciencealert.com/critical-transition-earths-chemistry-wobbled-during-its-5-biggest-mass-extinctions

(Anton Petrus/Moment/Getty Images)

Life on Earth, beginning with simple microorganisms that evolved and diversified into the incredible breadth of species living today, has always been turbulent.

Mass extinction events happen seemingly without warning, wiping out countless species and allowing others to take their place.

But it's not just disasters like supervolcanos and asteroid impacts that cause mass extinction.

New research suggests that around the time of five of the biggest mass extinction events on record, Earth's chemistry 'wobbled'.

In hindsight, a warning sign of the change to come.

The new study, published in Nature Communications, shows that Earth's climate occupied five distinct climate regimes separated by sharp transition periods of rapid environmental changes over the past 539 million years.

During these transition periods, the scientists found, life on Earth was particularly vulnerable to mass extinction, offering a new historical explanation for why some time periods were marked by such extreme loss of biodiversity.

Two ocean-chemistry signals (oxygen and carbon isotopes) tracked across 500 million years, with skull icons marking the 'Big 5' mass extinctions and orange highlights showing where the chemistry gave early warning signs of a coming shift.

  (Livina et al., Nature, 2026)

The research describes a metric for overall 'biosphere vulnerability' – combining rates of origination and extinction with standing biodiversity – indicating whether or not Earth is in a period where mass extinctions are more likely.

This measure for biotic stress "increases when we have increases in extinction rates and origination rates which also represent a drive to adapt to new and challenging conditions," study co-author Andrej Spiridonov, a paleontologist and Earth systems scientist at Vilnius University in Lithuania, told ScienceAlert.

"It also increases when diversity decreases, thus also reflecting the contraction of biotic possibilities. It should be noted that vulnerability is an ensemble metric, and when the biospheric state is vulnerable, it doesn't mean that every single species or even region of the world is 'stressed'."

It's not just disasters like supervolcanos and asteroid impacts that cause mass extinction.

 (Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library/Getty Images)



If you want to get into the math, the biosphere vulnerability index itself is a simple formula calculated from the natural logarithm of the total intensity of total turnover – the combined rates at which taxa originate and go extinct, relative to standardized standing diversity.

In short, it compares the rate of ecological change to the overall biodiversity to indicate whether or not an ecosystem is unstable and therefore vulnerable to even more drastic change.

Putting the index to the test, the researchers found that overall vulnerability varied across the five time periods they identified, each lasting 10 to more than 100 million years.

During these time periods – the researchers called them 'Haggis bins' because some of their graphs reminded them of the Scottish dish – heightened vulnerability to extinction and biodiversity loss largely correlated with increased temperatures.

Eras with higher temperatures, they found, tended to coincide with greater background biosphere vulnerability.

But biosphere vulnerability skyrocketed whenever one period was ending and another beginning – while the 'Big Five' mass extinctions were also associated with vulnerability peaks.

That doesn't mean that environmental turbulence causes mass extinction, Spiridonov said. For instance, we know that in some of these cases, another event like a massive asteroid impact was involved.

But it shows that these transitions can serve as a warning sign that life on Earth will temporarily be more fragile than normal, and more susceptible to another disaster coming along.

Vulnerability mapped against the 'Big 5' mass extinctions.

 (Livina et al., Nature, 2026)

"When the system approaches a critical transition," he said, that offers information "on possible future impending great change, such as a mass extinction or even a series of them."

What does that mean for today?

The study offers a historical analysis – it cannot predict what will happen to humanity or other species currently navigating an ongoing climate crisis and period of accelerated extinction.

"Our study suggests that the current geological era – the Cenozoic – is exceptionally stable having low vulnerability," he explained.

"It doesn't mean that the external impact by geophysical forces or the human impact wouldn't have any significant effects on the evolution of the biosphere. It just means, that under different background conditions, which prevailed in other geological eras, such a disturbance would have had much higher effect."

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Rewriting History: Researchers Uncover a Forgotten Amazon Civilization That May Have Housed 3 Million People

By U. of Helsinki, Aug. 16, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/rewriting-history-researchers-uncover-a-forgotten-amazon-civilization-that-may-have-housed-3-million-people/

LiDAR image of the Fazenda Atlântica archaeological site in Acre, Brazil. 

Credit: M. Pärssinen and F. de Novaes

For nearly 1,500 years, the Aquiry civilization shaped southwestern Amazonia, and new research suggests it supported a much larger population than previously believed.

Beneath the dense forests of southwestern Amazonia, airborne lasers revealed a landscape covered with geometric earthworks, straight roads, and large ceremonial centers. The remains point to the Aquiry civilization, a multicultural society that occupied about 183,000 square kilometers between 600 BCE and 850 CE and may have supported millions of people.

Researchers examined a representative portion of this territory and documented more than 400 well-preserved examples of monumental ceremonial architecture, along with several sites from later settlements.

When the results were projected across the civilization’s entire range, the researchers produced a cautious estimate of more than 20,000 ancient ceremonial centers built from earth. The largest known complex extends across 50 hectares.

Millions may have lived there

Detailed archaeological surveys and radiocarbon dating indicate that between 1.25 million and 3 million people lived within Aquirian territory by the beginning of the first millennium.

That region represents less than 3 percent of Greater Amazonia. Its estimated population alone challenges earlier calculations placing the entire Amazon population between 1 million and 10 million people. The broader region may instead have supported tens of millions.

“Our findings overturn our understanding of the Amazon region’s past,” says Martti Pärssinen, emeritus professor at the University of Helsinki who led the study.

Plants shaped by human hands

The Aquiry transformed the surrounding forest as they built communities and produced food. They burned areas dominated by bamboo to create fields for maize, squash and manioc, as well as space for ceremonial centers and the broad roads connecting them.

They also cultivated gardens and actively managed useful tree species.

“The research shows that the human impact on the Amazon’s environment has been far greater than previously believed,” Pärssinen notes.

LiDAR image of the Fazenda Cipoal archaeological site in Acre, Brazil. 

Credit: University of Helsinki



Several nutrient-rich trees now common in the region reflect prolonged human management. These include Brazil nut trees, peach palms, which also produce edible palm hearts, and other fruit-bearing species.

By favoring trees with cultural and practical value, Aquiry communities helped some species spread while reducing the presence of others.

“This has direct implications for our understanding of the region’s biocultural history. The civilization also affected ancient Amazonia’s carbon production and carbon balance, which should be better accounted for in future climate models,” Pärssinen adds.

LiDAR reveals a hidden landscape

The investigation relied on airborne laser scanning known as LiDAR, a technology capable of mapping the shape of the land through thick vegetation. It exposed thousands of signs of ancient construction in rainforest areas that had received little previous study.

The flights scanned approximately 4,500 square kilometers. Researchers used more than half of that area for a systematic assessment of Aquiry earthworks.

“We flew long, roughly 450-kilometer straight transects, mapping a strip about one kilometer wide every ten kilometers. This allowed us to cover as large a continuous area as possible,” says Professor Juha Hyyppä of the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (National Land Survey of Finland), who was responsible for the study’s technical execution.

Among the detected structures were large geometric formations and long, straight roads.

Aerial view of the Tequinho archaeological site in Acre, Brazil.

 Credit: University of Helsinki

“Their varying dimensions, shapes, construction methods, and locations reflect the distinct geographical and cultural characteristics of the region,” notes Risto Kalliola, emeritus professor at the University of Turku.

Indigenous oral traditions describe the centers as places where communities maintained relationships with one another and with other significant beings. They also hosted gatherings, political decisions and demonstrations of generosity by leaders.

Activities held there included ritual dancing, music, shared meals, athletic competitions and ball games.

A vast civilization remains mysterious

Much about the Aquiry civilization is still unknown. Its territory covered an area roughly comparable to modern Syria.

Because suitable stone is scarce in this part of Amazonia, the civilization left no stone ruins. Its monumental earthworks, now known as Amazonian geoglyphs, nevertheless show the enormous scale of construction.

The name Aquiry derives from an Indigenous name for the Acre River. “This was not a single realm but a network of many different communities,” notes Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen, professor of Indigenous studies at the University of Helsinki.

Researchers do not know which languages these communities spoke or what names they used for themselves.

The cause of the civilization’s apparently sudden decline around 850 CE also remains uncertain. The classic Maya civilization in Central America underwent a similarly abrupt collapse at roughly the same time.

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