Climate Models May Be Wrong About How Trees Store Carbon

By Columbia Climate School, June 17, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/climate-models-may-be-wrong-about-how-trees-store-carbon/

Scientists found that a significant share of the carbon oak trees absorb arrives after wood production has already ended. Where that carbon ultimately goes could reshape expectations for forests in a warming world. 

Credit: Shutterstock

A new study reveals that oak trees can keep photosynthesizing for months after growth ends, challenging assumptions about how effectively forests convert absorbed carbon into long-term storage.

A tree can look busy long after it has stopped building itself. Its leaves may still be absorbing sunlight and pulling carbon dioxide from the air, but deep inside the trunk, the season’s wood production may already be over.

That surprising split is the focus of a new study of oak trees published in Science Advances. The researchers found that oaks can keep photosynthesizing late into the year even after their growth has shut down by mid-summer. The finding challenges a common assumption in climate models: that more photosynthesis usually means more tree growth.

A Carbon Sink With a Complication

Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) has often been expected to boost plant photosynthesis, a response sometimes called the carbon fertilization effect. In theory, more CO2 could allow trees to absorb more carbon and grow larger, locking away some of that planet-warming gas in wood.

The new findings complicate that picture. The study suggests that carbon uptake and wood production can become separated, especially when environmental conditions are not favorable for growth. Some of the carbon absorbed after growth stops may go into leaves, roots, temporary starch reserves, soil compounds, or basic cellular maintenance rather than long-term wood storage.

That does not mean the carbon is wasted. Trees use carbon for many essential functions. But from a climate perspective, not all carbon use is equal. Carbon stored in leaves, sugars, or short-lived tissues can return to the atmosphere much faster than carbon stored in wood.

Why Climate Models May Need a Rethink

The results have important implications for how scientists estimate the future role of forests in the carbon cycle.

“Right now, most models assume that if you have photosynthesis, you have growth. We find that’s not the case,” says lead author Mukund Palat Rao, an ecoclimatologist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, which is part of the Columbia Climate School. “Just because there is more photosynthesis might not necessarily mean more tree growth in the future.”

During photosynthesis, plants use sunlight to convert CO2 and water into sugars, releasing oxygen as a byproduct. In trees, some of that carbon becomes wood in trunks, branches, and roots. Some is used to grow leaves and fruits. Some is stored temporarily as starch. Some is sent belowground in compounds that feed microbes, help trees access nutrients, or defend against pathogens.

Only a portion of that carbon ends up in woody biomass, which is the part most important for long-lasting carbon storage. That makes it essential to understand when photosynthesis actually leads to growth, and when it does not.

“Understanding how photosynthesis and growth are linked is very important from the perspective of understanding how forests will store carbon over long time scales,” says Rao.

Measuring Trees Day by Day

Scientists have suspected for years that carbon uptake and tree growth do not always move in step, but the relationship has been difficult to measure clearly. Tree growth is not a smooth, constant process. A trunk can swell overnight as roots take up water, then shrink during the day as leaves lose water through transpiration. Actual growth emerges from those tiny daily changes over time.

To capture that process, Rao and his colleagues combined several kinds of observations. They used satellite data sensitive to photosynthetic activity at 137 sites across the eastern United States and California. They also analyzed instruments that measured CO2 exchange near treetops hour by hour, along with trunk-mounted sensors that tracked minute changes in tree size in real time. (Trees tend to expand at night as roots take up water, then shrink slightly in daytime as they transpire water, with the long-term trajectory adding up to growth.) The team also used tree ring records and temperature data from 1950 to the present.

Photosynthesis Continued After Growth Ended

At the eastern U.S. sites, oak trees generally added new growth from May through July. Yet their photosynthetic activity continued well into October. About 36% of their annual carbon assimilation through photosynthesis occurred after late-summer growth had already stopped.

The same general pattern appeared in California, although the seasonal timing was different. There, oak trees grew mainly from December through April. Growth slowed in mid-summer and had stopped by August, but photosynthesis continued. About 26% of annual carbon uptake at those sites occurred after growth had ceased.

The result shows that a tree’s leaves can remain active even after the tissues responsible for expanding wood have largely shut down for the year.

Water Stress May Help Explain the Split

The pattern makes biological sense. Tree growth depends on internal water pressure, which helps cells expand and allows new wood to form. When conditions become hot and dry, that pressure drops. Growth can stop quickly, even if the leaves continue photosynthesizing at a reduced rate.

“The moment you have dry and hot conditions, growth activity stops pretty instantly while photosynthesis seems to continue at a slightly decreased rate,” says Rao.

Where Does the Carbon Go?

Some of the carbon absorbed after growth stops may be stored and used to help trees restart growth the following year, according to Rao. Other portions may support new leaves and roots or be oxidized to keep cells alive through winter.

The researchers also found that the disconnect between photosynthesis and growth was strongest in years when local weather swung sharply between wet and dry extremes. Those kinds of unstable conditions are expected to become more common as the climate changes.

Rao and his colleagues are now investigating whether the same pattern appears in other tree species, ecosystems, and regions. He expects the strength of the disconnect to vary depending on forest type and climate, but the broader question remains open.

“I don’t really have answers yet,” he says. “There are many questions still left to address.”

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

This Copper Drug Clears Alzheimer’s Brain Toxins and Boosts Memory

By Monash U., June 17, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/this-copper-drug-clears-alzheimers-brain-toxins-and-boosts-memory/

Researchers found that a copper-based drug restored the brain’s ability to clear toxic Alzheimer’s proteins, dramatically reducing amyloid buildup and improving memory in laboratory tests. 

Credit: Shutterstock

A copper-based drug helped the brain flush out Alzheimer’s toxins, cutting plaque buildup and improving memory in a promising new study.

Scientists at Monash University have identified a promising new approach to tackling Alzheimer’s disease. In laboratory studies, a copper-delivering drug significantly lowered levels of toxic proteins linked to the disease while also improving long-term spatial memory.

The findings, published in ACS Chemical Neuroscience, suggest the compound Cu(ATSM) may help restore an important brain cleanup process that breaks down in Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers say the treatment repairs a key waste removal pump at the blood-brain barrier, opening the door to a potential new strategy for addressing neurovascular dysfunction associated with the condition.

Repairing the Brain’s Waste Removal System

Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by the accumulation of amyloid-beta, a toxic protein that builds up in the brain. Under normal conditions, these proteins are transported out of the brain and into the bloodstream through the blood-brain barrier.

A major part of that process relies on specialized transport proteins known as P-glycoprotein (P-gp) pumps. In people with Alzheimer’s disease, these pumps become less effective, allowing harmful proteins to accumulate inside the brain.

Lead author Dr. Jae Pyun from the Drug Delivery, Disposition and Dynamics theme at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS) said the treatment works by engaging the brain’s blood vessels to help reduce toxic protein levels, leading to measurable benefits in behavior and cognition.

“This is the first study to show that Cu(ATSM) can increase the abundance of P-gp clearance pumps in an Alzheimer’s model, by 24.1 percent, effectively linking the repair of the blood-brain barrier to a reduction in toxic proteins and improved cognitive function,” Dr. Pyun said.

“By improving the pumps, the brain can finally clear out the trapped waste. Over 56 days, the treatment reduced toxic amyloid-beta by 42 percent and improved spatial learning by nearly 44 percent.”

Lead author Dr Jae Pyun (left) and senior author Professor Joseph Nicolazzo (right). 

Credit: Monash University



Potential Path Toward Human Trials

Senior author Professor Joseph Nicolazzo, Director of the Centre for Drug Candidate Optimisation at MIPS, said the drug could move relatively quickly toward clinical testing for Alzheimer’s because it has already undergone safety assessments for other neurological conditions.

“Cu(ATSM) is a copper compound with anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties that has already progressed to clinical testing for conditions like Parkinson’s and ALS,” Professor Nicolazzo said.

“Because reducing amyloid burden is clinically proven to improve functional outcomes, these preclinical results strongly support the rationale for testing this drug in early symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease.”

How Does the Brain Clear the Proteins?

Although the researchers observed a substantial reduction in amyloid buildup, they are still investigating the exact pathways that allow these proteins to leave the brain.

In addition to repairing the blood-brain barrier, the team believes the copper treatment may also stimulate microglia, the brain’s resident immune cells. These cells could help break down and remove the toxic plaques that contribute to Alzheimer’s disease.

Future research will focus on identifying the precise mechanisms responsible for clearing amyloid-beta from the brain into the bloodstream. The current results provide strong support for further investigation of biometal therapies such as Cu(ATSM) as potential treatments for blood vessel dysfunction and memory decline associated with Alzheimer’s.

Growing Need for New Alzheimer’s Treatments

Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia continue to pose a major global health challenge. In Australia, dementia recently became the nation’s leading cause of death, surpassing coronary heart disease.

With populations aging and dementia related deaths continuing to rise, researchers emphasize the urgent need for therapies that can slow or prevent cognitive decline.

The study was led by Dr. Jae Pyun and included co-authors Pranav Runwal, Oliver Fuller, Casey Egan, Professor Mark Febbraio, Associate Professor Jennifer Short, and Professor Joseph Nicolazzo from the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Collaborators also included Dr Asif Noor, Celeste Mawal, Professor Paul Donnelly, and Professor Ashley Bush from the University of Melbourne.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Dangerous Fault Lines in California at Highest Pressure in 1,000 Years, Scientists Warn

18 June 2026, By C Cassella

https://www.sciencealert.com/dangerous-fault-lines-in-california-at-highest-pressure-in-1000-years-scientists-warn

Stress accumulating in the southern San Andreas fault.

 (Burkhard et. al., J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth, 2026)

It's called California's Big One for a reason.

For more than a century, tectonic pressure has steadily and silently been building within the San Andreas fault line and the nearby San Jacinto fault line.

Now, a new computer model designed by researchers from the US and Europe suggests that tectonic pressures in this area are "unusually high".

"Our results show that stress levels on multiple fault segments are now at or above the highest values seen in the past millennium," says lead author Liliane Burkhard, a geophysicist from the University of Bern, Switzerland.

"Right now, with stress at historically high levels across the region and more than 160 years elapsed since the last major rupture, the system is in a critically loaded state."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSz9dH99i_E

Elevated pressure doesn't guarantee an earthquake in the near future, but it has scientists like Burkhard concerned.

The San Andreas and San Jacinto fault lines meet at Cajon Pass, just northeast of Los Angeles. Together, these two fault systems are responsible for 90 percent of the tectonic slipping that occurs between the North American plate and the Pacific plate in Southern California.

That's creating an immense amount of pressure – estimated to be 2.8 MPa on the Mojave South segment and 3.6 MPa on the San Jacinto Bernardino segment.

In the past 160 years, both of these fault lines have been scarily silent.

If something doesn't give, geophysicists fear an imminent, large earthquake that could cause major damage to Southern California.

The stress accumulating in some parts of the southern San Andreas fault is greater than it has ever been in the past 1,000 years, according to new modeling. 

(Burkhard et. al., J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth, 2026)



That includes densely populated areas like Los Angeles County, Ventura County, Orange County, San Diego County, the Palm Springs–Indio metropolitan area, and even as far south as Tijuana.

It's a disaster waiting to happen, but when it will happen is the pressing question.

"This is not a prediction of when an earthquake will happen," Burkhard says.

"However, studies like this are important contributions to national and global earthquake hazard research in that we are using rigorous, quantitative science to better understand the risk facing millions of people."

The fault lines modeled in Southern California. The main San Andreas Fault System (SAF) is traced in purple and the San Jacinto Fault is traced in blue. They meet at Cajon Pass. 

(Burkhard et. al.,J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth, 2026)

The point where the two fault lines meet is called Cajon Pass, home to highways, railways, and energy corridors that serve the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area.

What happens here, between the San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains, could foretell the future of the region.

Scientists think of it like an "earthquake gate". If it opens during a 'slip' event, it could include both fault line systems, causing a larger and more complex disaster.

To investigate further, Burkhard and colleagues joined up with researchers from Northern Arizona University, the University of Bern, the US Geological Survey, and the University of California, San Diego.

They designed a physics-based computer model to better understand the history of fault lines in the region, and how we got to where we are today.

The international team fed 1,000 years of earthquake history data from the region into their model, and then ran simulations.

In some past earthquakes in this region, the 'gate' appeared to be closed, which meant ruptures stopped at Cajon Pass and were contained to one fault line. In other scenarios, it was open. When it was open, there was a joint rupture that typically resulted in a larger and more complex earthquake.

"The conditions that determine whether the 'earthquake gate' at Cajon Pass opens or stays closed appear to be related to how closely the stress levels on the two fault systems are aligned with each other at the time of rupture," explains Burkhard.

Of course, these computer models aren't perfect reflections of reality.

However, they help provide information that can be critical for hazard assessments, infrastructure planning, and emergency preparedness, says Burkhard.

At this point, that's really all we can do. Gather as much information on the region as we can, so we are best prepared when the fault lines rupture.

"What we can say is that the system is critically stressed, and that physics-based models like this one give us a clearer picture of the range of scenarios we should be prepared for," concludes Burkhard.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Your Gut Microbes May Decide How Many Calories You Really Absorb

By R. Harth, Arizona State U., June 13, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/your-gut-microbes-may-decide-how-many-calories-you-really-absorb/

The DAMM model combines human digestion and gut microbiome activity to better estimate how many calories people actually absorb from food. It performed better than traditional methods and revealed important differences between high-fiber and Western diets. 

Credit: Shutterstock

Researchers have created a model that follows food beyond traditional calorie calculations, incorporating the role of gut microbes in digestion.

Food labels make calorie counts look straightforward. The number listed per serving is calculated from the food’s fat, carbohydrate, and protein content.

In reality, the digestive process is much more complex. As food moves through the body, it interacts with trillions of microbes in the gut that can affect how many calories are ultimately absorbed.

Researchers at Arizona State University have developed a mathematical model called DAMM, short for digestion, absorption, and microbial metabolism, to better capture this process. The model tracks food as it moves through the digestive system, estimating what is absorbed by the body, what reaches the colon, and how gut microbes transform the remaining material into substances that are either absorbed or eliminated.

The researchers say the model could improve understanding of obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic disorders by revealing how different diets influence both the body and the microbial communities living in the colon.
Gut Microbes Change the Calorie Equation

With further development, DAMM could help health care providers create more personalized nutrition plans.

“Digestion is not just a human process—it is a collaboration between our bodies and trillions of microbes living in the gut,” said Professor Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown. “DAMM gives us a powerful new way to quantify how those microbial partners contribute to human health and energy balance and also points at the importance of properly feeding our gut microbes.”

Taylor Davis is an ASU graduate research assistant. 

Credit: The Biodesign Institute at ASU



Krajmalnik-Brown directs the Biodesign Center for Health Through Microbiomes and is a professor in ASU’s School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment.

The research team also included Professor Bruce Rittmann, director of the Biodesign Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology and a Regents Professor of environmental engineering at ASU, along with lead author Taylor Davis, a graduate research assistant. The project was conducted in collaboration with the AdventHealth Translational Research Institute in Orlando, Florida.

Introducing DAMM: A New Digestive Modeling Tool

For more than 100 years, scientists have used Atwater factors to estimate how much energy people obtain from food. This method calculates calories by multiplying the amounts of protein, carbohydrates, and fat by their average metabolizable energy values.

While widely used, the approach does not account for the role of gut microbes. It cannot capture how different diets influence microbial activity or how microbes convert fiber and other undigested material into compounds such as short-chain fatty acids in the colon.

The new work builds on a controlled feeding study that explored the role of the gut microbiome in human energy balance. The gut microbiome consists of the bacteria and other microorganisms that live throughout the digestive tract.

Why Fiber-Rich Diets Affect Energy Absorption

In that study, healthy adults followed one of two carefully designed diets. One was a microbiome-enhancer diet rich in fiber and resistant starch (less processed foods and foods with larger particle size). The other reflected a more typical Western diet with lower levels of those components (more processed foods and smaller particle size). Participants eating the Western diet absorbed about 116 more calories per day than those on the high-fiber diet, despite reporting no increase in hunger among the high-fiber group.

Bruce Rittmann directs the Biodesign Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology. 

Credit: The Biodesign Institute at ASU



“What is truly unique about the DAMM model is that it quantitatively links human metabolism to the metabolism of the microorganisms in the colon in a way that matches the results from the clinical study and provides fundamental insight into how the microbial community works in partnership with the human host,” Rittmann said.

The model begins by breaking a diet into its protein, carbohydrate, and fat components. It then estimates how much usable energy from those nutrients is absorbed in the upper digestive tract.

DAMM next tracks the remaining material into the colon, where gut microbes break down food that escaped earlier digestion. This process generates short-chain fatty acids that can be absorbed and used as an additional energy source. The model also includes methane production by microbes known as methanogens.

How DAMM Tracks Human and Microbial Metabolism

Microbial activity contributed a meaningful share of total energy. According to the model, short-chain fatty acids absorbed from the colon provided about 140 calories per day on average, representing roughly 7.4% of total usable energy. About 85% of usable energy came from the upper gastrointestinal tract, while the remaining 15% came from the lower gastrointestinal tract, where microbes play a major role.

When the researchers compared DAMM with data from the controlled diet study, the model estimated calorie absorption more accurately than the traditional Atwater method. The standard approach tended to underestimate absorbed calories, while DAMM more closely matched the measured results.

The model also identified important differences between the high-fiber and lower-fiber diets. The microbiome-enhancer diet delivered more fermentable material to the colon, giving microbes additional fuel to produce short-chain fatty acids.

Short-Chain Fatty Acids and Calorie Absorption

DAMM projected greater short-chain fatty acid production on the microbiome-enhancer diet, matching the pattern observed in the clinical study, where higher levels of these compounds were detected in blood serum and fecal samples.

Short-chain fatty acids are not simply byproducts of digestion. They are produced when gut microbes ferment fiber and other food components that escape earlier absorption. Some of these fatty acids are then absorbed by the body and contribute to its energy supply. Even so, they represent only one part of the overall calorie equation. Although the microbiome-enhancer diet increased microbial activity and short-chain fatty acid production, it still resulted in fewer calories being absorbed overall.

DAMM allows researchers to separate these processes, distinguishing what the body absorbs directly, what gut microbes produce, and what is ultimately absorbed or excreted.

“The DAMM model is more than just a tool for characterizing diet,” Davis said. “It’s a framework designed to evolve. As we discover more on how diet, metabolism, and the microbes interact, the new insights can be incorporated into the model, allowing it to grow with us as we learn.”

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

This Surprising Hair Type Could Hold the Key to Chronic Itch Relief

By U. of Michigan, June 16, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/this-surprising-hair-type-could-hold-the-key-to-chronic-itch-relief/

Researchers at the University of Michigan have uncovered a previously hidden biological pathway that appears to play a key role in how certain touch-sensitive hairs trigger itch sensations. 

Credit: Shutterstock

A newly identified sensory pathway links fine hairs to itch sensations, revealing an unexpected biological system that may contribute to chronic itching disorders and provide new targets for treatment.

An itch can seem simple, but scientists are finding that the sensation is far more complex than it appears. Researchers at the University of Michigan have now uncovered a previously unknown sensory pathway in mice that links tiny touch-sensitive hairs to the urge to scratch. The discovery sheds light on a form of itch that has remained largely mysterious and could eventually help researchers tackle chronic itching disorders that affect millions of people.

“Itch is one of the major symptoms in most chronic skin inflammation patients,” said Bo Duan, associate professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. “What we’ve discovered is a pathway that we believe plays a very important role for both acute and chronic itch sensation.”

The study identified a previously unrecognized type of hair in mice, called vellus-like hairs, along with a specialized group of sensory neurons that detect movement of those hairs and relay itch signals to the nervous system. The findings were published in Neuron and supported in part by the National Institutes of Health.

Scientists have long understood how chemical irritants such as mosquito bites, poison ivy, and allergens can trigger itching. Mechanical itch is different. Instead of being caused by chemicals, it arises from physical stimulation of the skin or hair.

A Hidden Sensory System

The newly identified hairs resemble human vellus hairs, the fine, lightly pigmented hairs commonly known as peach fuzz. While these hairs cover much of the human body, researchers have known surprisingly little about their role in sensation.

To investigate, the team studied mice with chronic skin inflammation, a condition similar to eczema in humans. Mice with functioning sensory neurons connected to the vellus-like hairs scratched normally. However, animals lacking those neurons, or those in which the neurons had been disabled, showed a dramatic reduction in scratching behavior.

The results suggest that these neurons are a key part of a dedicated pathway that drives mechanical itch.

“We need a new pathway to target if we want to treat chronic itch,” Duan said. “And our research suggests that this population of neurons could be a target in the future. We have ongoing projects looking at this.”

Clues That Humans May Share the Same Mechanism

The researchers cannot directly test the pathway in people, but several findings suggest a similar system may exist in humans.

Humans possess the genes needed to produce these touch-sensitive neurons. The team also identified proteins in mice that help carry itch signals from hairs to the spinal cord. When the researchers exposed human neurons grown in culture to those same proteins, the cells responded.

“Our study indicates that humans may have this same kind of mechanism to transmit mechanical itch,” Duan said. “It also reveals that the body has a dedicated system for this type of sensation.”

The Simple Experiment Anyone Can Try

One of Duan’s favorite demonstrations highlights just how sensitive these tiny hairs can be.

Take a tissue and twist one corner into a fine point. Then gently brush it across the small hairs around your lips. Avoid the thicker terminal hairs and focus on the fine peach fuzz. Under the right conditions, the sensation can trigger an unmistakable itch.

“Humans and animals experience this kind of itch, but no one knew the molecular and cellular mechanisms behind it,” Duan said.

The new study helps explain why that happens. It identifies a pathway that links movement of specialized hairs to neural activity that can ultimately produce the urge to scratch.

Solving a Century-Old Mystery

The story of these hairs actually began more than 100 years ago.

Scientists had previously noted that certain vellus-like hairs in mice, particularly those found behind the ears, beneath the lips, and near the paws, appeared unusual. Yet despite those early observations, the hairs remained largely overlooked by sensory researchers.

Part of the challenge was methodological. Researchers had no established way to measure mechanical itch in mice.

“A mouse can’t say that it’s itchy,” Duan said. “But it will scratch.”

To overcome that problem, the team developed its own testing approach. Researchers gently stroked the animals’ vellus-like hairs using a small loop of thread and monitored their responses.

After identifying the neurons involved, the scientists genetically modified those cells so they could be activated by blue light. When the researchers shined blue light onto the animals’ skin, the mice scratched in much the same way they did during physical stimulation. The experiment provided strong evidence that the neurons were directly responsible for generating the itch response.

Why We Are Not Constantly Scratching

The discovery also raises an obvious question. If fine hairs are capable of triggering itch, why do humans not spend all day scratching?

The answer appears to lie deeper within the nervous system.

Although vellus hairs cover most of the body (with some notable exceptions like the palms of our hands), the spinal cord contains specialized “gating” circuits that filter incoming sensory information. These neural circuits help suppress mechanical itch signals before they reach conscious awareness.

Without those built-in filters, ordinary sensations such as clothing brushing against the skin, a breeze across the face, or a strand of hair moving out of place could become overwhelming sources of irritation.

Researchers suspect the system may have evolved as a defense mechanism. Vellus hairs are particularly concentrated around the mouth and ears in both mice and humans, locations where insects, parasites, and other small pests could pose a threat. Detecting subtle movements in those areas may have helped mammals identify unwanted intruders before they could cause harm.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Bumble Bees Solve an Insect Version of a Famous Primate Intelligence Test

By U. of Oulu, Finland, June 16, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/bumble-bees-solve-an-insect-version-of-a-famous-primate-intelligence-test/

A bumble bee standing on a ball beneath the artificial flower containing a reward, illustrating the experimental solution. 

Credit: Mikko Törmänen / University of Oulu

Bumble bees demonstrated an unexpected ability to solve a novel object-based challenge without training.

A bee’s brain is smaller than a sesame seed, yet in a new experiment, some bumble bees appeared to solve a problem that required more than simple instinct. They had to move an object into position, climb onto it, and use it to reach a reward, even though they had never been taught that solution.

More than 100 years ago, psychologist Wolfgang Köhler became famous for experiments showing that chimpanzees could solve unfamiliar problems by using objects in new ways. In one classic setup, chimps stacked boxes to reach a banana that was otherwise out of reach. Those studies helped shape the idea that insight, the sudden linking of separate pieces of information into a useful solution, was mainly a feature of large-brained animals.

Now, researchers from the University of Oulu, the University of Helsinki, and the University of Turku in Finland report that bumble bees can show a strikingly similar kind of flexibility.

Solving a Problem Without Training

In the study, published in Science, bumble bees (Bombus terrestris) were presented with a task they had never encountered before. The insects first learned that a blue artificial flower contained a reward. During testing, the flower was placed on the ceiling of a transparent arena, making it inaccessible.

To reach the reward, the bees had to come up with a new solution. They needed to move a ball beneath the flower and then climb onto it to reach the target. The bees had never been trained to perform this sequence of actions.

“This is essentially an insect version of the classic ‘box-and-banana’ problem,” says senior author Olli Loukola, Docent at the University of Oulu. “The animal must realize that an object can be repositioned and then used as a tool to reach an otherwise inaccessible goal. What stands out about the result is that this kind of spontaneous problem-solving is now demonstrated in an insect.”

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

This movie shows a bee solving the task in Experiment 3. The beginning of the video (habituation phase, without the ball present) is shown at accelerated speed. Following habituation, the arena is briefly illuminated with red light (not visible to bees) while the ball is placed between two visually occluding compartments. During the test phase, the bee moves the ball toward the side behind which the flower is located, positions it beneath the flower, climbs onto the ball, and contacts the flower on the arena ceiling. Video: Olli Loukola / University of Oulu. 

Credit: Video: Olli Loukola / University of Oulu

“What makes this behavior especially remarkable is that the bees had never been trained to roll the ball. This was a completely new challenge. Their behavior appeared goal-directed with successful individuals showing more directed movement patterns,” says lead author Akshaye Bhambore from the University of Oulu.

The bees were never taught to place the ball beneath the flower. Instead, they learned only two separate facts: that the blue flower contained a reward and that the ball was a movable, harmless object.

When confronted with the new task, many bees combined those previous experiences in a way that went beyond anything they had been trained to do.

“Another important aspect is that our bees were fully naïve,” Loukola adds. “In many previous studies of insight-like problem-solving, the animals have had extensive experience with objects, test environments, or other problem-solving tasks. Here, the bees had never been trained to use the ball to reach the flower, and they had no previous experience with this kind of solution. We also designed the experiments to rule out simpler explanations such as accidental success, play behavior, trial-and-error learning, or direct visual guidance.”

Ruling Out Simpler Explanations

The researchers also carried out a series of control experiments designed to eliminate simpler explanations for the bees’ success.

In some of the more challenging tests, the flower was hidden while the bees moved the ball. This prevented them from simply guiding the ball toward a visible target. Even so, the bees were still able to move the ball to the correct location.

“By analyzing the bees’ behavior across unusually stringent control experiments, we could show that they were not simply reacting to visual stimuli or moving the ball randomly,” says lead author Bhambore.

“One moment the animal is exploring seemingly without direction, and the next it performs a highly efficient sequence of actions leading directly to the solution,” says co-author Ece Nur Akmeşe from the University of Helsinki. “Watching the bees solving the task was genuinely fascinating.”

What the Findings Mean

The findings add to a growing body of evidence that bees possess more advanced cognitive abilities than their small brains might suggest. Previous studies have shown that bees can learn tool use from one another, solve puzzle-like challenges, cooperate, and adapt their behavior to changing situations.

The researchers stress, however, that the results do not mean bees possess human-like reasoning or consciousness.

“We are not claiming that bees think like humans,” says Loukola, who is currently a Senior Researcher at the University of Turku. “But our findings show that miniature brains can generate flexible solutions to novel problems in ways we are only beginning to understand.”

The study suggests that spontaneous, goal-directed problem-solving can arise in animals with brains far smaller than those of the vertebrates that have traditionally been the focus of insight research.

“For over a century, spontaneous object-based problem-solving has mostly been studied in vertebrates,” says Loukola. “Our study suggests insects may belong in that conversation too.”

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Watch The Moon Cover Venus in a Rare Daytime Sky Event This Week

16 June 2026, By D. Dickinson, Universe Today

https://www.sciencealert.com/watch-the-moon-cover-venus-in-a-rare-daytime-sky-event-this-week

The Moon and Venus seen in 2023 from Kuwait City.

 (YASSER AL-ZAYYAT/AFP/Getty Images)

If you're like us, you've been following the close conjunction of Jupiter and Venus in the June dusk sky.

Next week, the Moon enters the evening scene, and actually occults (passes in front of) the planet Venus in what promises to be one of the top skywatching events for 2026.

It's rare to see the two brightest natural objects in the sky (after the Sun) meet up in the daytime sky.

It's also rare to see the Moon greet Venus a good distance from the Sun. Venus never strays farther than 47 degrees from the Sun as seen from the Earth.

The Moon approaches Venus on the 17th. 

(Stellarium)



This month's occultation sees Venus 38 degrees from the Sun, just under two months from greatest eastern (dusk) elongation on August 15th.

The event occurs on the afternoon of Wednesday, June 17th, centered on 16:40 EDT (20:40 UTC).

The occultation transpires over northeastern South America under dark skies after sunset, and over the Caribbean, the contiguous United States (CONUS), northern Mexico, and southern Canada under daytime skies before sunset.

The Moon is an 11 percent illuminated, waxing crescent as it approaches Venus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtiKxO8xIbY&t=68s

The Moon will take 29 seconds to cover the 74 percent illuminated, 15″ disk of Venus. Venus shines at about -4th magnitude during the event.

The Moon passes New phase on June 15th, and slides 2.5 degrees north northeast of Mercury on the evening of the 16th. Mercury also reaches greatest elongation 24.5 degrees east of the Sun just one day prior.

If you've never seen Mercury for yourself, this coming week is a good time to try and cross the innermost world off of your skywatching life-list.

The phases of the Moon for June.

 (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

This is actually the first of three lunar occultations of Venus for 2026. The other two occur on September 14th in Southeast Asia and on November 7th at the southern tip of South America.

Venus is the one planet that's prominent enough to see during a daytime occultation.

Here's a strange fact: the Moon actually has a much lower albedo than Venus, with a reflectivity of less than 14 percent, versus 70 percent for the Venusian cloud tops. Up close, the lunar surface resembles worn asphalt.

Concentrating what little reflected light the Moon does return into a small patch of sky translates its dull gray into pearly white in the eye's view.

But wait until dusk, and you'll see an encore performance, as the slender waxing crescent Moon also occults the open star cluster Messier 44 (Praesepe) in the heart of the constellation Cancer.

This occurs just scant hours after the Venus event. This favors the southeastern US at dusk. Venus follows suit, transiting just north of the cluster on June 19th.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCXZeE9_K6s

This is one of the final favorable lunar occultations of Venus for the CONUS until 2029-2031.

Seeing Venus in the daytime requires persistence. A deep blue high-contrast sky will help.

The event will be well-suited to video capture, but beware of autofocus mode, which often stubbornly refuses to lock onto the daytime Moon. A wide-field view of the Moon paired with Venus should display the two nicely, as the planet slips behind the dark limb of the Moon.

The International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA) has a list of ingress/egress times for select locations in the path, and Stellarium can help you zero in on exact times for your site.

Don't miss the 'Great American Occultation,' as a great opportunity to do a little daytime sidewalk astronomy with friends.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

A 'Useless' Organ That Doctors Often Remove May Actually Fight Cancer

16 June 2026, By C. Cassella

https://www.sciencealert.com/a-useless-organ-that-doctors-often-remove-may-actually-fight-cancer

(janulla/Getty Images)

There's a small fatty gland that sits behind your sternum and is often said to be 'useless' in adulthood.

Research, however, suggests the thymus gland is not nearly as expendable as experts once thought.

Although not all scientists agree on this.

In a study in 2023, US researchers found that those who get their thymus removed face an increased risk of death from any cause in the five years following the surgery.

They also face an increased risk of developing cancer during that time.

"We discovered that the thymus is absolutely required for health. If it isn't there, people's risk of dying and risk of cancer is at least double," Harvard University oncologist David Scadden said when the research was published.

The study is purely observational, which means it cannot show that removing the thymus directly causes cancer or other fatal illnesses.

But the researchers are concerned by their findings. Until we know more, they argue that preserving the thymus "should be a clinical priority" where possible.

In childhood, the thymus is known to play a critical role in developing the immune system. When the gland is removed at a young age, patients show long-term reductions in T cells, which are a type of white blood cell that combats germs and disease.

Kids without a thymus also tend to have an impaired immune response to vaccines.

By the time a person hits puberty, however, the thymus shrivels up and produces far fewer T cells for the body. It can seemingly be removed without immediate harm, and because it sits in front of the heart, it is often taken out during cardiothoracic surgery.

Kids without a thymus tend to have an impaired immune response to vaccines.

 (Peopleimages.com-YuriArcurs/Canva)



But while some patients with thymus cancer or chronic autoimmune diseases, like myasthenia gravis, require a thymectomy, in which the thymus is surgically removed, the gland isn't always a hindrance.

It could even be a big help.

Using patient data from a state healthcare system, researchers in Boston compared the outcomes of patients who had undergone cardiothoracic surgery: more than 6,000 people (controls) who did not have their thymus removed and 1,146 people who did have their thymus removed.

Those who underwent a thymectomy were almost twice as likely as controls to die within five years, even after accounting for sex, age, race, and those with cancer of the thymus, myasthenia gravis, or postoperative infections.

Patients who had their thymus removed were also twice as likely to develop cancer within five years of surgery.

Illustration of a cancer cell being attacked by a T cell. 

(Science Photo Library/Canva)



What's more, this cancer was generally more aggressive and often recurred after treatment compared to the control group.

"This indicates that the consequences of thymus removal should be carefully considered when contemplating thymectomy, " said Scadden.

Why these associations exist is unknown, but researchers suspect a lack of thymus is somehow messing with the healthy function of the adult immune system.

A subset of patients in the study who had undergone a thymectomy showed fewer diverse T-cell receptors in their bloodwork, which could possibly contribute to the development of cancer or autoimmune diseases after surgery.

"Together, these findings support a role for the thymus contributing to new T-cell production in adulthood and to the maintenance of adult human health," the authors of the study conclude.

Their results, they say, strongly suggest that the thymus plays a functionally important role in our continued health, right up to the bitter end.

However, that's not the end of the story.

A subsequent study published in 2025 by researchers from the Yale School of Medicine sought to corroborate Scadden's team's findings, analyzing patient records in the National Cancer Database (NCDB) and the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database from 2004 to 2022.

Ultimately, the Yale study could not find any evidence in their data that removing the thymus had a negative effect on patient health.

This suggests there's more we still need to unpack, to definitively understand what the consequences of thymus removal really are.

"Thymectomy in adults with small or localized thymomas was not associated with increased five-year mortality or cancer death," the team wrote in their paper.

"Longer-term outcomes and specific immunologic end points deserve further study."

The birth of modern Man

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

The Link Between Vitamin C And Brain Health Just Got Even Clearer

16 June 2026, By D. Nield

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-link-between-vitamin-c-and-brain-health-just-got-even-clearer

(d3sign/Moment/Getty Images)

We can't make our own vitamin C, so we need to imbibe enough of this essential nutrient through our diets.

Through our bodies it flows, from the stomach, into the blood, and up to the brain.

Past studies have hinted at how important vitamin C is to brain function. It concentrates in brain tissue, with the cerebrospinal fluid that bathes the brain containing twice as much vitamin C as blood.

A decent vitamin C intake has also been linked to a lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

Now, new research tells us something more about how vitamin C may lead to better brain health in later years.

We know that vitamin C is an antioxidant and is involved in a flurry of chemical reactions in our bodies. But we don't know much about how levels of vitamin C in the blood (which is more easily sampled) might relate to brain health.

To get some more clarity, researchers at Hirosaki University in Japan took blood samples from 2,044 volunteers with a median age of 69, and studied how levels of vitamin C in those samples matched up to certain features on brain scans.

They were particularly interested in a key brain circuit called the default mode network (DMN) that ticks away quietly, connecting many parts of the brain, even when you think you're doing nothing.

A loosening of the DMN has also been linked to cognitive decline, so the researchers wanted to see how tight those connections were among elderly Japanese people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yESSv7OgCv0

There was a clear relationship across the participants in the study: More vitamin C in the blood was associated with a higher volume of gray matter, the brain tissue that handles memory, movement and emotion.

Higher vitamin C levels also correlated with stronger connectivity in the DMN.

This was just a one-time assessment though, so it doesn't prove that vitamin C directly affected those brain connections. Rather, it suggests that vitamin C may have a role in keeping brains healthy – and maybe, at a stretch, help ward off dementia.

"This finding generates the exciting hypothesis that a diet rich in vitamin C might play a supportive role in maintaining brain health and mitigating age-related cognitive decline in older adults," says radiologist Tomohiro Shintaku, from Hirosaki University.

The DMN links several important brain regions, including the ventromedial prefrontal cortex near the front of our brain (linked to processing risk, fear, and emotions), and the posterior cingulate cortex at the center (involved with memory and motor control).

The default mode network links several crucial processing regions of the brain. (Menon, Neuron, 2023)



As a whole, the DMN has been associated with a host of different cognitive functions, covering what we remember about ourselves and how we refer to ourselves, thinking about the future, and controlling our attention.

Past studies have found that people with Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and depression tend to have weaker, less well-connected DMN.

There's a lot more research required to look into these relationships in more detail, but the implication is that a healthy amount of vitamin C could help keep the DMN running more smoothly, and ward off some of these brain health disorders.

"To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate the association between plasma vitamin C levels and DMN connectivity," write the researchers in their published paper.

The researchers looked at three regions of gray matter that make up the default mode network, and related this to levels of vitamin C in blood samples.

 (Nagaya et al., PLOS One, 2026)



In their analysis, the researchers adjusted for several factors that may also impact brain health, including age, sex, and health conditions such as high blood pressure.

But they want to see whether they can replicate their findings in longitudinal studies that track people over several years, and in more diverse groups. That will help us understand if the associations found here, in relatively elderly people living in Japan, apply to other populations or age groups.

Even so, it's another reason to think about getting more vitamin C into your diet. It's found not just in oranges, the best-known source, but in many other fruits and vegetables.

Previous studies have linked optimal levels of vitamin C to a stronger immune system – but it doesn't do much for the common cold.

Suggestions that it may also protect against air pollution, be the secret to younger-looking skin – or boost brain health – may not be so clear-cut.

These associations are certainly worth exploring, and in the meantime, are a reminder of the benefits of eating a well-rounded diet while scientists dig into the details.

"What I found most fascinating about this research is that we were able to detect these subtle but significant associations between a single nutritional factor and large-scale brain networks by utilizing a robust, community-based cohort of over 2,000 older adults," says Shintaku.

"It truly highlights the potential impact of our everyday dietary habits on our brain structures."

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Scientists Finally Discover How Venus Flytraps Snap Shut So Fast

15 June 2026, By M. Starr

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-finally-discover-how-venus-flytraps-snap-shut-so-fast

Venus flytraps can act fast enough to catch flies. 

(marcouliana/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

To succeed in a hunt, a predator often needs to be faster than its prey.

Plants are not known for their speed.

Even so, one plant has evolved a snappy survival strategy that lets it feast on insects and arachnids that, by most measures, should be safe from its clutches.

We're talking, of course, about the famous Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) – a plant that lures prey into a leafy trap, then snaps shut around the unfortunate victim, holding it fast while the plant digests at its leisure.

Scientists have long puzzled over the mechanism that allows this plant to move faster than plants should be able to.

Now, a team of researchers led by physicist Jeongeun Ryu of the French National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) say they have identified the trigger.

To activate its jaws, the plant rapidly softens the cell walls in the trap's outer skin.

That change lets the outer surface expand more easily than the inner surface, bending the leaf until it reaches a tipping point and snaps shut.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7eQKSf0LmY

"This represents the fastest modulation of wall mechanics reported in plants," the researchers write.

"Our finding reveals a mode of plant motility based on dynamic tuning of material properties, suggesting principles for muscle-free, bioinspired actuation."

Many plants can achieve relatively timely and precise movement. One of the more famous examples is seen in Mimosa pudica, or touch-me-not, whose symmetrical leaflets fold shut when touched, a delicate maneuver thought to help the plant evade predation or minimize damage from passers-by.

For a lot of plants, these movements are powered by the flow of fluid – simple hydraulics that change internal pressure and thus the shape of the plant.

Previously, scientists had supposed that the mechanism behind the flytrap's movements was similarly hydraulic, but that posed a problem.

The traditional hydraulic idea was that the trap closes because water moves from one side of the leaf to the other, causing one side to expand more than the other and bend the trap shut.

The 'traps' of a Venus flytrap are the tips of its leaves.

 (Paul Starosta/Stone/Getty Images)



The researchers identified two main flaws with this model.

The first is that water moves relatively slowly through plant tissue. The researchers measured how quickly water moves through a Venus flytrap and estimated that transporting water across the thickness of the trap would take between 30 and 150 seconds.

That's far too slow for the speed at which a flytrap needs to operate in order to grab its prey.

Sure enough, the movements that initiate closure occur on a timescale of about a second, much faster than water could move through the trap.

The other problem is that a water-driven mechanism should produce a delayed wave of motion across the trap as water gradually diffuses through the tissue. But the researchers found no sign of such a pattern.

Well, the next question naturally is: If not hydraulics, then what is it?

In their new study, the researchers described the two-stage process of a snap.

The first is the active bending phase, in which the trap begins to bend inward toward a critical tipping point. The second is the snap-closure itself, which takes just 0.2 seconds.

How the trap snapped under different experimental conditions. 

(Ryu et al., Science, 2026)

To isolate what kicks off the active phase, the researchers devised two tests. In the first, traps were cut into thin strips to hinder the snapping mechanism. Under this condition, the traps were still able to bend, but much more slowly.

In the second test, traps were clamped open and equipped with a force sensor to measure the force required to maintain separation between the two lobes. This produced a similar result, revealing a gradual bending motion that precedes the rapid snap-buckling stage.

The final piece of the puzzle was observing what the plant is actually doing during that active bending phase. The researchers used a tiny probe to measure the stiff, cellulosic walls of the cells inside and outside the trap before and after closure.

Cell walls on the inner surface barely changed – but those on the outer surface softened, losing about 40 percent of their rigidity.

A diagram illustrating the stages of the Venus flytrap trap closure.

 (A. Fisher/Science)

So, here's how it works.

Before triggering, turgor pressure – the force inside a cell that pushes the cell membrane against the cell wall – is evenly distributed across the inner and outer walls of the trap.

When a crawling critter triggers the trap by touching one of the sensitive filaments inside it twice in quick succession, the outer wall softens.

That allows the outer surface to expand more readily than the inner surface, creating a mismatch that bends the leaf.

In a relatively short space of time, this bending passes the snap-instability threshold, and the lobes slam shut, allowing the plant to respond quickly enough to a trigger to snap up a lovely dinner.

Here's the wild bit, though.

That cell-wall softening is essentially how plants grow. Venus flytraps essentially dialed up a tool they already had in their genetic kit so they could take a more proactive approach to securing nutrients.

"These fine-tuned adaptations that allow plants to have the upper hand when interacting with animals raise another question – how can they arise from a trial-and-error evolutionary process?" writes bioengineer Jacques Dumais of the Adolfo Ibáñez University in Chile in a related editorial.

We now know how the Venus flytrap works its magic, but it hasn't lost its allure, not while those bigger evolutionary questions remain to be answered.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/