New Study Challenges the Idea That We Stop Psychologically Growing After 30

By Heidelberg U., March 31, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/new-study-challenges-the-idea-that-we-stop-psychologically-growing-after-30/

A new study challenges long-held assumptions about aging, showing that both younger and older adults can meaningfully improve their social and emotional skills through targeted training. 

Credit: Shutterstock



Personality intervention with social and emotional skills training benefits older adults just as much as younger adults.

The idea that personal change is limited to youth is being challenged by new research. Both younger and older adults are capable of developing new socio-emotional skills, including better ways of managing stress and navigating difficult social situations.

A study led by Prof. Dr Cornelia Wrzus (Heidelberg University) and Prof. Dr Corina Aguilar-Raab (University of Mannheim), involving researchers from Germany and Switzerland, examined how people of different ages respond to a structured personality intervention. The results show that social and emotional skills training is effective across the lifespan.
Socio-emotional skills remain changeable across age

In psychology, socio-emotional abilities refer to how people identify, express, and regulate emotions, as well as how they manage relationships with others. These abilities are closely tied to personality traits that shape how individuals think, feel, and behave in everyday situations.

Earlier studies have suggested that personality development slows after young adulthood, as Prof. Wrzus notes. However, the mechanisms behind this pattern are still not well understood, and most intervention research has focused on younger participants. “Investigations frequently focus on young adults between the ages of 18 and 30.”

To explore this further, participants in the study took part in weekly sessions designed to build practical skills for handling stress and challenging interactions. A total of 165 individuals joined the eight-week in-person program, including younger adults mostly in their twenties and older adults between 60 and 80 years old.

Researchers from Heidelberg, Mannheim, Hamburg, and Zurich (Switzerland) used multiple methods to track changes over time. They assessed emotional stability and extraversion before, during, and after the training, and continued monitoring participants for up to a year using questionnaires and a computer-based test.

Older adults show comparable improvement

The findings revealed that both age groups improved to a similar degree. Changes in socio-emotional behavior and personality traits were nearly identical between younger and older participants. Prof. Wrzus described this as a “striking and unexpected result, since it seems more difficult for older adults to learn something new, like a foreign language or a musical instrument.”

The study also explored why this might be the case. Participants reported how much effort they put into practicing the exercises, and older adults showed slightly higher levels of engagement, spending more time working through the training materials and assignments.

“Our study results somewhat contradict the adage that ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.’ That is good news for aging populations. When people are sufficiently motivated, they maintain the ability to change and learn new things,” stresses Cornelia Wrzus, who researches socio-emotional development and personality development in adulthood and old age at Heidelberg University.

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Physicists Discover Magnetic Mechanism That Challenges a 300-Year-Old Law of Friction

By U. of Konstanz, March 30, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/physicists-discover-magnetic-mechanism-that-challenges-a-300-year-old-law-of-friction/

Schematic of two magnetic layers composed of permanent magnets. The magnets in the upper layer are free to rotate, while those in the lower layer are fixed. When the layers move relative to each other, the upper magnets periodically reorient, dissipating energy and giving rise to contactless friction. By decreasing the distance between the layers, which controls the effective load, the friction does not increase monotonically, in contrast to the prediction of Amontons’ law. 

Credit: Hongri Gu

Researchers found friction can occur without contact, driven by magnetic dynamics, and does not always increase with load. The effect could enable controllable, wear-free technologies.

Researchers at the University of Konstanz have identified a new type of sliding friction that occurs without any physical contact. Instead of surfaces rubbing together, the resistance to motion comes entirely from collective magnetic behavior. Their results indicate that friction does not always rise steadily with increasing load, as predicted by Amontons’ law—one of the oldest and most widely used empirical laws in physics—but can reach a clear peak when magnetic order inside the system becomes frustrated.

For over 300 years, Amontons’ law has connected friction directly to load, reflecting the familiar idea that heavier objects are harder to move. For instance, pushing a heavy couch requires much more effort than sliding a lightweight chair.

This effect is usually explained by tiny surface deformations under load, which increase the number of microscopic contact points and therefore boost friction. In most everyday situations, these changes are minor and do not alter the internal structure of the materials. However, it remains uncertain whether the same law applies when motion causes major internal rearrangements, such as in magnetic materials, where sliding can change the magnetic order itself.

To investigate this question, the researchers designed a tabletop experiment with a two-dimensional array of freely rotating magnetic elements positioned above a second magnetic layer. The two layers never touch, yet their magnetic interaction still produces a measurable friction force. By adjusting the distance between them, the team was able to control the effective load while observing how the magnetic structure evolved during motion.

Magnetic Coupling and Dynamic Reconfiguration

“By changing the distance between the magnetic layers, we could drive the system into a regime of competing interactions where the rotors constantly reorganize as they slide,” says Hongri Gu, who carried out the experiments.

The results revealed that friction is lowest when the layers are either very close or far apart. At intermediate distances, however, competing magnetic forces become dominant. The upper layer favors an antiparallel alignment of magnetic moments (parallel, but pointing in opposite directions), while the lower layer prefers a parallel arrangement. This mismatch creates an unstable state.

As the layers move past each other, the magnets repeatedly switch between these opposing configurations in a hysteretic manner (that means the current state depends on its history). This repeated switching increases energy loss and leads to a strong peak in friction.

“From a theoretical perspective, this system is remarkable because friction does not originate from a physical surface contact but from the collective dynamics of magnetic moments,” explains Anton Lüders, who developed the theoretical description. The competing magnetic interactions naturally lead to hysteretic reorientations during motion and, as a result, to a friction force that varies non monotonically with load. In this sense, the breakdown of Amontons’ law is not an anomaly but a direct consequence of magnetization dynamics during sliding.

Friction Without Contact or Wear

“What is remarkable is that friction here arises entirely from internal reorganization,” adds Clemens Bechinger, who supervised the project. “There is no wear, no surface roughness, and no direct contact. Dissipation is generated solely by collective magnetic rearrangements.”

Because the physics behind this effect does not depend on scale, the findings extend beyond the large experimental setup. Similar behavior could appear in atomically thin magnetic materials, where even small movements can alter magnetic order. This opens new possibilities for studying and controlling magnetism through friction measurements.

Over time, this research could lead to frictional systems that can be tuned without causing wear. By using magnetic hysteresis, friction might be adjusted remotely and reversibly, supporting ideas such as friction-based metamaterials, adaptive damping systems, and contactless control devices.

Potential uses include micro and nanoelectromechanical systems, where wear limits performance, as well as magnetic bearings, vibration control technologies, and ultrathin magnetic materials. More broadly, magnetic friction provides a new way to study collective spin behavior through mechanical measurements, linking the fields of tribology and magnetism in a novel way.

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Scientists Discover Plants Can “Count” – and May Be Smarter Than We Thought

By C. Tyson, William & Mary, March 31, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-discover-plants-can-count-and-may-be-smarter-than-we-thought/

Plants may be able to count events and learn patterns without a brain, indicating non-neuronal intelligence and expanding our understanding of cognition. 

Credit: Shutterstock

New research challenges the long-held assumption that brains are required for learning, suggesting plants may process information in unexpected ways.

For decades, scientists have assumed that learning, memory, and decision-making require a brain. However, growing evidence, including a recent study published in Cognitive Science, challenges that idea and suggests that complex information processing may not depend on neurons.

The study, led by William & Mary psychology professor Peter Vishton and his former student Paige Bartosh, suggests that plants may be able to count. Not in the human sense, but Mimosa pudica appear to be able to “keep track of the number of events in their environment,” said Vishton.

According to the researchers, this is the first evidence that plants can enumerate, meaning they can distinguish and track separate events.

Mimosa pudica, often called the shy plant or touch-me-not, has delicate, frond-like leaves that fold inward when touched or shaken. The leaves also close at night and reopen with daylight, a movement known as nyctinasty.

Vishton’s work contributes to growing evidence that plants may be “smarter” than people may think. 

Credit: Stephen Salpukas



Experimental Setup and Plant Behavior Observations

In a humid tent inside a windowless room at William & Mary’s Integrated Science Center, the researchers exposed the plants to repeating cycles of light and darkness and monitored their responses.

“In the first phase of our experiment, we used a 24-hour cycle. On days one and two, the plants were exposed to 12 hours of darkness and 12 hours of light. On day three, the lights remained off,” Vishton explained.

After about five repetitions, the plants began showing increased movement during the “pre-dawn” period on days when light was expected, but not on the third day when darkness continued.

Evidence of Learning and Pattern Recognition

“This seems to suggest that the plants were able to ‘learn,’ for lack of a better word, this three-day cycle and shift their movement in response,” said Vishton.

Modeling this shift yielded a logarithmic curve, meaning the plants’ movement changed rapidly at first before gradually stabilizing into a consistent pattern.

Vishton explaining the change in plant movement outside the 12 to 24-hour days. 

Credit: Stephen Salpukas



“This is the same pattern we see all the time in animal learning,” said Vishton. “For example, if you are teaching a rat to perform a series of actions in a certain order, you would expect to see a period of time when they’re figuring out the sequence and then a gradual increase in their ability to predict the pattern.”

Time Tracking vs Event Counting Hypothesis

To rule out another explanation, the team tested whether the plants were tracking time instead of counting events.

“It’s well established that many plants move in alignment with a 24-hour circadian rhythm, opening up in anticipation of the sun,” said Vishton. “While no evidence suggests plants can track a 72-hour cycle — the duration of the three-day pattern in our study — we wanted to test that possibility.”

When the researchers shortened the daily cycle from 24 hours to 20 hours, the plants quickly adjusted their movement to match the new pattern. To further test their hypothesis, they ran a final experiment in which each three-day cycle varied randomly, ranging from 10 hours (five hours of light and five of dark) to 32 hours.

Testing Limits of Plant Memory and Patterns

They found that the pattern broke down when the cycles were shorter than 12 hours or longer than 24 hours. This suggests there may be both a minimum time needed for plants to process light and dark signals and a limit to how long they can retain that information.

Vishton points to a Mimosa pudica plant inside his research tent. 

Credit: Stephen Salpukas



Within the 12-24 hour range, however, the plants consistently showed more movement on days when light was expected compared to days of continued darkness.

“The simplest explanation for this result is that these plants are tracking the number of events that take place,” said Vishton. “Not simply responding to time.”

Implications for Non-Neuronal Intelligence

If confirmed by future studies, these findings point to a form of information processing that does not rely on neurons.

“Every theory I’ve ever read on memory and decision making always involves neurons,” said Vishton. “Big surprise, plants don’t have those. And yet it looks like they can perform cognitive-like functions. Just not cognitively, per se.”

The results raise the possibility that other non-neuronal cells may also be capable of learning.

“There are lots of cells in animals and humans that aren’t neurons. And we just assume they’re not involved in learning,” said Vishton. “But maybe they could be. Maybe learning is present in every cell. We’ve just never really studied it before.”

A developmental psychologist, Peter Vishton started his current project on Mimosa pudica plants during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Credit: Stephen Salpukas



Future Research and Broader Impact

How this type of intelligence works at a biological level remains unclear and will require further research.

“As a developmental psychologist, I’m interested in characterizing behavior,” said Vishton. “I’m hoping the chemists and biologists of this world can ask more mechanistic questions to understand how this is actually happening. With more research on both fronts, I’m very excited to see where this field of study is headed.”

Potential applications could include biological computing systems, plant-based sensors, and even approaches to help people “unlearn” addictive behaviors at the cellular level.

Blurring the Line Between Plant and Animal Intelligence

By pointing to a new kind of intelligence, the findings add to growing evidence that the boundary between plants and animals may not be as clear as once believed.

“Typically, we don’t conceptualize plants as thinking, behaving creatures, right? We think of them as reflexive objects that are responding to stimuli in a simple way,” said Vishton. “But, at least to me, our results suggest that there might not be this boundary between the animal and the plant kingdom — or it might be a lot more porous than we think.”

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Mysterious Ancient Culture Forged a Weapon From a Fallen Star

30 March 2026, By, M. Starr

https://www.sciencealert.com/mysterious-ancient-culture-forged-a-weapon-from-a-fallen-star

(Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library/Getty Images)

A strange chunk of metal that lay hidden in the soil for thousands of years may shed new light on one of the most mysterious cultures in ancient China.

The approximately 3,000-year-old Sanxingdui artifact appears to be an axe-like object made of iron – which likely came to Earth from space in the form of a meteorite.

It's an extraordinary discovery that sheds light both on the Sanxingdui culture and the use of iron for crafting precious objects long before iron smelting became widespread.

"As the earliest Bronze Age meteoritic iron artefact found in Southwest China," writes a team led by archaeologist Haichao Li of Sichuan University in China, "it fills a critical gap in the region's metallurgical records and provides new insights into early iron use both regionally and globally."

Three fragments that crumbled off the dilapidated artifact. 

(Li et al., Archaeol. Res. Asia, 2026)



Sanxingdui is a major archaeological site in Southwest China, dating back to 2800 to 600 BCE. It reached its peak during the Shang Dynasty between around 1600 and 1050 BCE, and left in its wake iconic, eerie art and evidence of a strong emphasis on ritual.

One type of deposit made by the Sanxingdui people is what archaeologists refer to as "sacrificial pits" in the ritual precinct of the walled city. These are eight pits from which archaeologists excavated some 17,000 extraordinary ritual objects, including bronze masks, figurines, ivory, and jade tools.

The precise purpose of these pits is unknown, but the presence of ash, charcoal, and evidence of burning on some objects suggests the sites may have been used for ritual offerings.

Whatever their purpose, they have provided an invaluable source of artifacts that help us understand the aesthetic and material principles prized by the people of Sanxingdui.

One sacrificial pit, however, yielded a treasure of a kind unlike anything else in the assemblage.

"Among the many artifacts recovered in Sanxingdui, an unusual iron artifact (K7QW-TIE-1) was unearthed from Pit No. 7," the researchers write.

"This artifact was found vertically embedded at the bottom of the eastern wall's southern section. It is elongated in the form of an axe-like tool or weapon."

The object measures about 20 centimeters (8 inches) in length and 5 to 8 centimeters (2 to 3 inches) in width. It was in poor condition, so the researchers carefully extracted the part of the pit wall in which it was embedded and took the whole block back to the laboratory for testing.

A metallographic micrograph of a sample of the artifact. 

(Li et al., Archaeol. Res. Asia, 2026)



The chronology of the surrounding artifacts dates the object to the Shang Dynasty, before iron smelting spread across China. However, X-ray fluorescence revealed that the object is at least 90 percent iron by weight, with 7.41 percent nickel, and the rest trace elements.

That composition, the researchers say, would have been difficult to achieve with the metal-processing techniques of the Late Shang period,

Bronze was the metal of choice for tools, weapons, and jewellery during the Bronze Age – hence the era's name – which in China began around 2000 BCE. The alloy was durable and easily available, made by smelting copper and mixing it with tin and other metals.

Cast iron smelting only took off in China around 800 BCE, when the technology to smelt iron from its ore became widespread, after people discovered how to reach the very high temperatures required for the process.

So the use of iron is unusual for the Bronze Age – but not without precedent. In other places around the world, including other parts of China, some rare and precious artifacts appear to have been made from iron not dug from beneath our feet, but that fell blazing from the sky.

However, the Sanxingdui find suggests this rare material may have been used differently here. Unlike objects from China's Central Plains, which often combined meteoritic iron with bronze, the Sanxingdui artifact appears to have been made entirely from iron.

"The presence of meteoritic iron at Sanxingdui further highlights the distinctive metallurgical practice in Southwest China, in contrast to contemporaneous practices in the Central Plains," the researchers write.

Combined with its discovery in a ritual pit, the find raises the intriguing possibility that the meteoritic iron wasn't just a run-of-the-mill material to the Sanxingdui people, but was precious enough to be included in whatever activity involved accumulating treasure in a pit and setting it ablaze.

"The artifact's fragile state poses significant conservation challenges for further cleaning," the researchers write.

"Future work needs to be undertaken focusing on high-resolution characterization to refine the artifact classification and clarify the relevant functional and ritual roles."

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Scientists Track Bees in 3D and Discover Remarkable Secret Navigation Skills

By U. of Freiburg, March 29, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-track-bees-in-3d-and-discover-remarkable-secret-navigation-skills/

Researchers tracked honey bees in a natural agricultural landscape using a high-speed drone-based system, revealing remarkably precise and individualized flight paths between hive and food source. The findings suggest that bees rely heavily on visual landmarks to navigate, maintaining consistent routes with minimal deviation even across repeated trips. 

Credit: Shutterstock

Honeybees fly consistent, landmark-guided routes with remarkable precision, revealing better navigation than their waggle dance suggests.

A research team at the University of Freiburg, led by neurobiologist and behavioral biologist Prof. Dr. Andrew Straw, investigated how honey bees fly between their hive and a nearby food source. Using a drone, the scientists tracked bees traveling through an agricultural landscape over a distance of about 120 meters (394 feet).

To follow each bee’s route, the team used the “Fast Lock-On (FLO) Tracking” method developed in Straw’s lab. This technique involves placing a tiny reflective marker on the insect. A computer mounted on the drone then analyzes reflected light to detect the bee within milliseconds and continuously monitor its position.

Colored flight paths show the individual routes taken by honeybees in an agricultural landscape: The insects orient themselves using landmarks such as groups of trees and fly to familiar destinations with great precision. 

Credit: Andrew Straw

The findings reveal that every honeybee follows its own distinct path and repeats it with remarkable precision on both outbound and return trips. The bees rely on visual features in the environment to guide their navigation.

“Our tracking system makes it possible for the first time to record high-resolution 3D flight paths of honey bees in natural landscapes,” explains Straw. “Our recordings show that each bee has its own preferred route and flies it very precisely. You could almost say that each bee has its own personality.”

A team from the University of Freiburg shows that honeybees fly individually chosen routes with high precision. 

Credit: Andrew Straw
Precision Navigation and the Role of Landmarks



The researchers analyzed 255 flight paths near the Kaiserstuhl region in Germany. This agricultural area includes hedges, a cornfield, and a tree that blocks the direct line between the hive and the food source. “We found a high degree of precision in the flight paths. Individual bees repeated their individual flight paths nearly exactly on several flights. They often fly just a few centimeters away from their previous paths,” Straw emphasizes.

Prof. Dr. Andrew Straw. Credit: University of Freiburg



The smallest deviations occurred near prominent features such as the tree. In contrast, the greatest variation appeared over the cornfield, where the scenery is visually uniform.

“Our results suggest that visual landmarks aid the bees’ navigation and increase the precision of their flight paths,” explains Straw. In contrast, the bees’ uncertainty increases in visually monotonous environments.

The study also sheds new light on the waggle dance, the behavior bees use to communicate the location of food sources. “It was previously known that the directional information in the waggle dance is not entirely accurate,” explains Straw. For food sources approximately 100 metres away, the directional information in the waggle dance can deviate by around 30 degrees.

Honeybees equipped with small reflector markers enable precise tracking of their flight paths—the results show that individual bees navigate to known destinations much more accurately than the directional information provided by the waggle dance would suggest.

 Credit: Andrew Straw



Rethinking the Accuracy of the Waggle Dance

“Our research has shown that individual bees navigate much more accurately to destinations they are familiar with. Even where their flight paths vary most, they deviate from their individual route by only a few degrees,” says Straw.

“Our results allow us to conclude that the inaccuracy of the waggle dance is not due to the bees’ limited navigational abilities. Rather, individual animals are spatially much more accurately oriented than their dance communication would suggest,” he concludes.

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This Spice Combo Could Slash Inflammation Hundreds of Times More Effectively

By Tokyo U. of Science, March 31, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/this-spice-combo-could-slash-inflammation-hundreds-of-times-more-effectively/

Chronic inflammation quietly contributes to serious diseases, but new research suggests that specific combinations of plant compounds, such as those found in mint, eucalyptus, and chili peppers, may work together to suppress it far more effectively than single ingredients.

 Credit: Shutterstock

Researchers have found that common food ingredients can interact inside immune cells in ways that significantly enhance each other’s anti-inflammatory effects.

Chronic inflammation often develops quietly, without obvious symptoms in its early stages. Over time, however, this persistent immune activity can contribute to serious health conditions, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, arthritis, and certain cancers. At its core, inflammation is driven by immune cells that release signaling molecules to respond to injury or infection.

Diet plays an important role in shaping this process. Common foods and seasonings such as herbs, spices, and aromatic plants contain natural compounds known as phytochemicals that can influence inflammatory pathways. These ingredients have been combined in traditional diets and remedies for centuries, long before their biological effects were understood.

Despite this long history, scientists have struggled to explain exactly how plant-based ingredients reduce inflammation. Individual compounds often show anti-inflammatory activity in laboratory experiments, but typically only at concentrations far higher than what people consume through everyday diets.

This gap has led to uncertainty about whether “anti-inflammatory foods” can meaningfully affect the body. Another unresolved question is how different compounds might interact inside cells. It has been hypothesized that combinations of ingredients could produce stronger effects together than individually, but these interactions have rarely been tested or explained at the molecular level.

Testing plant compound synergy in immune cells

To investigate this, a research team led by Professor Gen-ichiro Arimura from the Department of Biological Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, Japan, examined how combinations of plant-derived compounds influence inflammation in immune cells. Their study, published in the journal Nutrients, focused on compounds commonly found in mint, eucalyptus, and chili peppers, testing whether pairing them could suppress inflammatory responses more effectively than using each one alone.

This plot shows the measured TNF-α protein concentration released by macrophages as an indicator of inflammation. 

Combining capsaicin (CA) with either menthol (ME) or 1,8-cineole (CI) drastically reduced inflammation levels induced by bacterial lipopolysaccharide protein.

 Credit: Gen-ichiro Arimura/Tokyo University of Science

The team studied macrophages, immune cells that play a central role in inflammation by producing signaling proteins called cytokines. To simulate an inflammatory response, murine macrophages were exposed to lipopolysaccharide, a bacterial component frequently used in laboratory models. The researchers then treated the cells with menthol (from mint), 1,8-cineole (from eucalyptus), capsaicin (from chili peppers), and β-eudesmol (from hops and gingers), both individually and in specific combinations.

They evaluated the effects using gene expression analysis, protein measurements, and calcium imaging. The team also investigated whether these compounds acted through transient receptor potential (TRP) channels, which are proteins in the cell membrane that respond to chemical and physical signals and regulate calcium activity, a key factor in immune cell behavior.

Synergistic effects amplify anti-inflammatory response

On its own, capsaicin showed the strongest anti-inflammatory effect among the compounds tested. However, the most notable results emerged when compounds were combined. “When capsaicin and menthol or 1,8-cineole were used together, their anti-inflammatory effect increased several hundred-fold compared to when each compound was used alone,” highlights Prof. Arimura.

Further analysis helped clarify why this happens. Menthol and 1,8-cineole influenced inflammation through TRP channels and calcium signaling, while capsaicin appeared to act through a separate pathway that does not depend on TRP. “We demonstrated that this synergistic effect is not a coincidence, but is based on a novel mode of action resulting from the simultaneous activation of different intracellular signaling pathways,” says Prof. Arimura. “This provides clear molecular-level evidence for the empirically known effects of combining food ingredients.”

Implications for diet and functional foods

These findings offer insight into how combinations of plant compounds may produce measurable biological effects even at the relatively low levels typically found in food. They also point to new possibilities for developing functional foods, supplements, seasonings, or fragrances designed to deliver stronger effects using smaller amounts of active ingredients.

More broadly, the results support the idea that the benefits of plant-rich diets may arise from interactions among many compounds working together, rather than from any single “super” ingredient. Although further research in animal models and humans is needed, this study provides a clearer framework for understanding how everyday foods and natural compounds may help regulate chronic inflammation and support long-term health.

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Scientists Identify Biological Pathway That Could Reverse Memory Loss

By Arc Institute, March 29, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-identify-biological-pathway-that-could-reverse-memory-loss/

Age-related memory decline may not originate solely in the brain, but instead reflect changes elsewhere in the body. New research suggests signals from the gut can interfere with brain circuits involved in memory. 

Credit: Shutterstock

Gut microbiome changes may drive age-related memory loss via inflammation and disrupted brain signaling, but interventions in mice show this process can be reversed.

Memory tends to decline with age, but this pattern is not the same for everyone. Some individuals remain mentally sharp even at 100, while others begin experiencing noticeable memory issues much earlier in life.

Although it is often assumed that cognitive decline is caused by aging and deterioration within the brain itself, growing evidence suggests that other parts of the body also play a role. Signals from organs throughout the body can influence how the brain processes and stores information. Research has also shown that the gut microbiome can affect learning, behavior, and memory. However, the exact mechanisms behind these connections remain unclear, including which molecules, microbes, and signaling pathways are involved, and whether they could be targeted to prevent or reverse memory loss.

A recent study published in Nature found that changes in the aging gastrointestinal system produce molecules that interfere with a key gut-brain signaling pathway, contributing to cognitive decline in mice.

Interoception and the Gut-Brain Connection

The body’s five senses, known as exteroception, include sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch, and tend to weaken with age. Less understood is interoception, which refers to how the brain monitors internal bodily states to maintain balance and function. The vagus nerve plays a central role in this process, carrying information from organs such as the heart, intestines, lungs, and liver to the brain.

The researchers found that signals traveling from the intestine to the brain through the vagus nerve help protect against cognitive decline in mice. Activating specific sensory neurons in the gut that connect to this nerve restored more youthful cognitive performance in older mice. These findings, thus, suggest that internal sensory systems, like external senses, may deteriorate with age. This raises important questions about what drives this decline and how it might be reversed.

The composition of the gut microbiome changes over time, including shifts in microbial species and their metabolic activity. To test whether these changes influence memory, the researchers transferred microbiomes from older mice into younger ones and evaluated their cognitive performance.

Young mice receiving older microbiomes showed impaired memory, similar to older animals. However, removing the microbiome with antibiotics restored cognitive function. Interestingly, mice raised without any microbiome showed slower cognitive decline as they aged compared to normal mice. These findings indicate that factors produced by aging gut microbes may contribute to memory loss.

Microbiome Changes and Cognitive Decline

The researchers identified a likely contributor: a bacterium called Parabacteroides goldsteinii. This microbe produces medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs), which increase with age. Elevated MCFA levels activate immune cells in the gut, triggering the release of inflammatory molecules. One such molecule, IL-1β, was found to disrupt the function of vagal sensory neurons. The study traced this chain of events from microbial activity in the gut, through immune signaling, into the vagus nerve, and ultimately to the hippocampus, a brain region essential for memory.

In this figure, an intestinal immune cell detects medium-chain fatty acids produced by aging gut bacteria through the GPR84 receptor, releasing inflammatory molecules that block signaling along the vagus nerve to the hippocampus. Disruption of this gut-brain pathway drives age-associated cognitive decline. Credit: Thaiss Lab




Several interventions were able to restore cognitive function in mice already experiencing decline. While antibiotic treatment improved memory, it is not a practical long-term solution. A more targeted method involved using a bacteriophage, a virus that specifically affects P. goldsteinii. This approach reduced MCFA levels and improved memory performance.

Another promising strategy focused on directly stimulating the vagus nerve. Treatments using the gut hormone CCK or GLP-1 receptor agonists, similar to drugs like Ozempic, successfully reversed memory deficits in older mice.

Reframing Brain Aging Through the Body

These findings challenge the traditional view that cognitive decline is driven solely by changes in the brain. Instead, they suggest that processes in other parts of the body can influence and potentially reverse age-related memory loss using treatments that are already available or under development.

Because the research was conducted in mice, it is not yet clear whether the same mechanisms apply to humans. Further studies are underway to explore this possibility and determine how these findings might translate to clinical use.

There is some early evidence supporting the idea in humans. Vagus nerve stimulation is already used to treat conditions such as severe epilepsy and recovery after stroke. Patients receiving this treatment have reported improvements in cognitive function, suggesting that enhancing vagus nerve activity may also help counter memory loss.

Future Research and Clinical Implications

Other factors, including chronic inflammation or infection, may also impair vagus nerve function through similar pathways. Future research will be needed to determine whether stimulating this nerve can improve cognitive outcomes in these cases, as well as in more severe conditions such as neurodegeneration and dementia.

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3,500-Year-Old Loom Discovery Reveals Secrets of Bronze Age Weaving

By Antiquity, March 29, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/3500-year-old-loom-discovery-reveals-secrets-of-bronze-age-weaving/

Reconstruction of a Bronze Age loom, which the example from Cabezo Redondo may have looked like. 

Credit: Antiquity

A reconstructed Bronze Age loom from Cabezo Redondo reveals advanced textile production, including potential early twill weaving, suggesting a shift toward more complex fabrics and wool use.

Researchers have analyzed and partially rebuilt a warp-weighted loom from the second millennium BC site of Cabezo Redondo in Spain, offering a rare look at how textile technology developed in the western Mediterranean during the Bronze Age.

Warp-weighted looms were widely used across prehistoric Europe and the Mediterranean to make fabrics. In this type of loom, threads hang vertically and are kept tight by clay or stone weights attached at the bottom.

Because these looms were made from wood and plant-based materials, they seldom survive in the archaeological record. As a result, most knowledge of early textile production has come from studying loom weights rather than the looms themselves.

Limits of Archaeological Evidence

“The existence of textile production in Bronze Age southeastern Iberia was well established, particularly through the study of loom weights and spindle whorls,” states lead author of the research, Dr. Ricardo E. Basso Rial from the University of Granada. “However, the wooden components of looms themselves are rarely preserved, which has severely limited our ability to reconstruct loom morphology, spatial organization, and weaving practices in detail.”

At Cabezo Redondo, researchers uncovered charred wooden beams and plant fiber ropes alongside clay loom weights at a Bronze Age settlement in southern Spain. These remains have been identified as parts of a warp-weighted loom.

This find is one of the best-preserved examples of its kind in the western Mediterranean and offers an unusual chance to better understand how textiles were made in Bronze Age Iberia.

Reconstructing the Ancient Loom

By studying the preserved wood and weights, the team was able to partially reconstruct how the loom was built and used.

The wooden elements were made from Aleppo pine, a tree native to the area. The loom weights stand out because they are much lighter than others found across Mediterranean Iberia, which may indicate they were designed for producing finer or more varied fabrics.

“The characteristics of the loom weights suggest that this loom was capable not only of producing open tabby fabrics but also potentially denser and more technically complex textiles, probably including early twill weaves,” says Dr. Basso Rial. “This represents a notable advance in our understanding of Bronze Age textile technology in Iberia.”

Advances in Textile Technology

Tabby weaving, often done with plant fibers like flax, was the dominant technique from the Neolithic through the Bronze Age. Twill weaving, on the other hand, did not become common until the early 1st millennium BC.

Twill fabrics were usually made from wool, which suggests that Cabezo Redondo may have played a role in a broader “textile revolution” marked by increased use of wool and more diverse fabric production.

“This discovery allows us to see not just the partial tools that are usually preserved, but the loom itself—frozen at the moment it was in use nearly 3,500 years ago—offering a rare glimpse into the everyday craft of Bronze Age weaving,” concludes Dr. Basso Rial.

The birth of modern Man

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Ancient Whale Hunters of Brazil Challenge Long-Held Scientific Assumptions

By U. Autonoma de Barcelona, March 29, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/ancient-whale-hunters-of-brazil-challenge-long-held-scientific-assumptions/

Indigenous communities hunting cetaceans 5,000 years ago. 

Credit: Patricia del Amo Martín. ICTA-UAB

Ancient Brazilian communities hunted whales earlier than previously thought, using advanced technologies. The discovery reshapes views of early maritime societies and provides new ecological insights.

Whaling dates back much deeper in history than previously recognized. A new study by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) and the university’s Department of Prehistory shows that Indigenous groups in southern Brazil were hunting large whales 5,000 years ago, about 1,000 years before similar practices are documented in Arctic and North Pacific cultures.

Published in Nature Communications, the research focuses on communities around Babitonga Bay (Santa Catarina) that built sambaquis, large shell mounds created by coastal societies during the Holocene.

These groups developed specialized methods for hunting whales much earlier than earlier archaeological interpretations suggested. The findings challenge long-held assumptions that large-scale whaling began in Northern Hemisphere societies between 3,500 and 2,500 years ago.

Harpoons foreshaft found in a human burial in Morro do Ouro. 

Credit: ERC-TRADITION

The study, led by ICTA-UAB researchers Krista McGrath and André Colonese with an international team, examined hundreds of whale bones and bone tools recovered from sambaqui sites in Babitonga Bay. These materials are now preserved at the Museu Arqueológico de Sambaqui de Joinville in Brazil. Since many original sites have disappeared, the collection offers a rare and valuable record that would otherwise be lost.

Advanced Tools and Scientific Analysis of Cetacean Remains

Researchers used a combination of zooarcheology, typological study, and advanced molecular techniques (ZooMS) to analyze the remains. They identified species including southern right whales, humpback whales, blue whales, sei whales, sperm whales, and dolphins. Many of the bones show cut marks linked to butchering.

The team also documented large whalebone harpoons, among the biggest found in South America. Together, this evidence, including whale remains found in burial contexts and the presence of coastal species, strongly supports active hunting rather than reliance on stranded animals.

Krista McGrath (first author) analyzing one of the harpoons.

 Credit: ERC-TRADITION

“The data reveals that these communities had the knowledge, tools, and specialized strategies to hunt large whales thousands of years earlier than we had previously assumed,” says Krista McGrath, lead author of the study.

Harpoons foreshaft found in a human burial in Morro do Ouro. 

Credit: ERC- TRADITION

The findings also offer insight into past ecosystems. The large number of humpback whale remains suggests that these whales once ranged much farther south than their current main breeding grounds off Brazil. “The recent increase in sightings in Southern Brazil may therefore reflect a historical recolonization process, with implications for conservation. Reconstructing whale distributions before the impact of industrial whaling is essential to understanding their recovery dynamics,” says Marta Cremer, co-author of the paper.
Rethinking Sambaqui Societies and Maritime Culture

In addition to redefining the timeline of whale hunting, the study provides a more in-depth look at the economies, technologies, and daily life of postglacial societies along South America’s Atlantic coast. According to André Colonese, senior author of the study, “This research opens a new perspective on the social organization of the Sambaqui peoples. It represents a paradigm shift – we can now view these groups not only as shellfish collectors and fishers, but also as whalers.”

Dione Bandeira, a Brazilian archaeologist with more than 20 years of experience studying sambaquis, adds that “the results reveal a practice that made a significant contribution to the long-term and dense presence of these societies along the Brazilian coast.”

Remains of the shell mound Morro do Ouro (in Joinville, Santa Catarina state – dated to 4500 cal BP). Credit: ERC-TRADITION

The Sambaqui peoples incorporated marine resources into their cultural systems and built a complex maritime way of life. Their society relied on specialized tools, coordinated group efforts, and rituals connected to hunting large marine animals. This Indigenous history, not recorded in written form, has been preserved through museum collections and ongoing efforts to protect remaining sambaqui sites from the effects of urban growth in Brazil.

Ana Paula, director of the Museu Arqueológico de Sambaqui de Joinville, notes that “the collections safeguarded at the Sambaqui Archaeological Museum in Joinville, especially the Guilherme Tibúrtius Collection, highlight the richness and vast potential of information on ancestral peoples that can still be explored in depth.”

The birth of modern Man

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Chuck's picture corner to March 29, 2026

The week has warmed up here in Cardinal and the snow has mostly melted away. But for the first time since I've lived here the basement has flooded inches a day. I'm still having to pump water off of the lowest floor twice a day to keep the furnace dry and working . It's on a higher section of floor by about 8".

Outside a south facing window this morning.

The ginkgo is coming along.

the summer garden begins (plum tomatoes)

This year's collection of tomatoes, plum, celebrity, bonny best 

Peppers are popping, these are the first seeded, they are hot pepper varieties.

the peppers get topped with plastic for extra humidity till they sprout.

last nights sunset. The landscape turned white overnight with about an inch of snow.

earlier in the week out the office window, facing west.

out great grand ma's bedroom window facing east before 7 am 

starlings enjoy some lawn bugs

morning at Rachelle's

A little more work done on Rachelle's fireplace. Now ready for grouting. The grout will be black. Then it's on to brick tiles up to at least the mantel.

Cheers

enjoy the day.

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/