This Gut Microbe Could Be the Secret to Staying Strong as You Age

By BMJ Group, July 6, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/this-gut-microbe-could-be-the-secret-to-staying-strong-as-you-age/

Researchers say the compound converts muscle fibers into fast-twitch type II fibers, which support short bursts of intense movement, and may hold promise as a nutraceutical for treating age-related muscle wasting. 

Credit: Stock

Scientists have identified a gut microbe that appears to be associated with stronger muscles and better fitness, with levels declining as people age.

What if some of the microbes living in your gut could help determine how strong your muscles are? New research suggests that one bacterial species, Roseburia inulinivorans, may play an important role in muscle strength, raising the possibility that the gut microbiome could one day become a target for preserving physical function as people age.

In a study published online in the journal Gut, researchers found that R. inulinivorans was associated with greater muscle strength in people and improved muscle performance in mice. The bacterium also appeared to alter muscle metabolism and promote a higher proportion of fast-twitch (type II) muscle fibers, which are specialized for short bursts of powerful movement such as sprinting, jumping, and weightlifting.

The findings are particularly significant because age-related loss of muscle mass and strength, known as sarcopenia, is a leading contributor to frailty, disability, and loss of independence in older adults. With few effective treatments currently available, the Dutch and Spanish researchers suggest that R. inulinivorans could represent a promising probiotic candidate for helping maintain muscle health.

Scientists have increasingly recognized that gut microbes influence far more than digestion, affecting processes linked to metabolism, immunity, brain health, and cardiovascular disease. Emerging evidence also points to a “gut-muscle axis,” prompting researchers to investigate whether specific bacterial species might contribute to muscle strength and performance—and how they might do so.

One bacterium tracks strength

To investigate this, they analyzed stool samples from 90 healthy young adults (18-25 year olds) and 33 older adults (65+) to identify the bacteria present.

Physical fitness was assessed using hand grip strength, leg press and bench press performance, and VO2 max (maximal oxygen consumption during exertion), which is an indicator of cardiorespiratory fitness.

Of all the bacteria detected in the stool samples, only the Roseburia group (genus) showed a positive association with muscle mass and strength.

The species R faecis and R intestinalis were not significantly linked to hand grip strength or VO₂ max in either age group.

Among older adults, however, those with detectable R inulinivorans in their stool had 29% higher handgrip strength than those without the bacterium. This increase occurred without a corresponding rise in peak oxygen uptake, suggesting better fitness.

In younger adults, higher levels of R inulinivorans were positively linked to both handgrip strength and VO₂ max. The relative abundance of both R inulinivorans and R intestinalis was also positively associated with leg press and bench press strength.

By contrast, the relative abundance of R faecis and R hominis was not associated with any muscle strength measure. The researchers say this suggests that different Roseburia species may affect different aspects of muscle strength.

Roseburia was also more common in young adults. In this group, the proportion of R faecis ranged from 0% to 3.3%; R intestinalis ranged from 0% to 5.5%; and R inulinivorans ranged from 0% to 6.6%.

Among older adults, the proportion of R faecis ranged from 0% to 2.2%; R intestinalis ranged from 0%-0.7%, while R inulinivorans ranged from 0% to 1.3%.

Mouse tests suggest causality

To explore whether Roseburia might play a causal role in muscle strength, the researchers gave Roseburia species once a week for 8 weeks to 32 mice whose gut microbiomes had first been depleted with a cocktail of antibiotics for two weeks.

The mice were randomly divided into one of 4 groups. Three groups received a different Roseburia strain, while one group received no Roseburia (control group).

None of the Roseburia species improved how long the mice could run before exhaustion. Compared with the control group, however, R inulinivorans produced a clear increase of about 30% in forelimb grip strength, a proxy for muscle function, after 4, 6, and 8 weeks of treatment.

Mice treated with R inulinivorans also had larger muscle fiber size and a significantly higher proportion of type II (‘fast twitch’) fibers in the soleus muscle located in the calf, compared with the other groups. This difference was not significant when compared with mice treated with R intestinalis.

A closer look at fiber size distribution showed that fibers were distributed relatively evenly in the control group. In mice treated with R inulinivorans, larger fibers were more common than in mice treated with the other Roseburia species or in control mice.

These muscle changes were accompanied by shifts in proteins and enzymes that are important for muscle energy production.

Probiotic promise remains early

The researchers note several limitations. In the animal study, none of the human Roseburia species colonized the mouse gut. The researchers also did not directly assess specific pathways related to inflammation or neuromuscular signaling, even though these may have played a role.

Long-term studies are needed to determine whether changes in R inulinivorans abundance cause changes in muscle function or occur as a result of them, the researchers emphasize.

Nevertheless, they suggest: “Collectively, our findings provide robust evidence supporting a gut-muscle axis in which R inulinivorans positively modulates muscle metabolism and muscle strength.”

And they conclude: “Additionally, we observed that the relative abundance of R inulinivorans is lower in older adults than in young adults. Its abundance appears to decline with advancing age, a period during which the prevalence of sarcopenia [muscle loss] increases, suggesting a potential role for R inulinivorans as a probiotic candidate for preserving muscle strength.”

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

You're Not Imagining It: A Sound Moving Toward You Can Literally Warp Your Sense of Time

07 July 2026, By I. Farkas

https://www.sciencealert.com/youre-not-imagining-it-a-sound-moving-toward-you-can-literally-warp-your-sense-of-time

The world-famous Prague Astronomical Clock. 

(Jorge Royan/CC BY-SA 3.0)

Albert Einstein taught us that time is relative in a physical sense, but personal experiences teach us that time is also perceptually relative.

As evidenced by dental appointments, traffic jams, or enigmatic bouts of explosive diarrhea (not mutually exclusive, unfortunately), our perception of time is constantly changing based on external and internal factors.

Furthermore, the fundamental nature of time remains a conceptual conundrum.

Physicists and experimental psychologists have proposed various definitions of time, including a thermodynamic view of ever-increasing entropy, or a self-ordering series of quantum effects.

Psycho-physiologically, the human sense of time may rely on pulsating internal 'clocks,' such as neuronal oscillations. Alternatively, the brain may base time on a weighted sum of current perception and past experience.

So, in a unique, recent study, human sciences researchers Achille Pasqualotto and Hiroto Kawarada from the University of Tsukuba in Japan conducted a sensory substitution experiment and used a computational model to explore how auditory stimuli (sounds) can alter participants' perception of time.

"This study investigated the effect of background moving sounds on the estimation of time durations, and we discovered that an approaching background sound significantly accelerated the perceived time when compared to a receding sound," the researchers write in their paper.

Approaching sounds lead to an overestimation of time, the research suggests. 

(geralt/Pixabay/Canva)



In the experiment, the scientists split 48 blindfolded participants, aged 22 years on average, into three groups, each assigned to a different auditory test.

Equipped with headphones, one group heard background sounds that seemed to be approaching them. Another group heard background sounds that seemed to be receding. The third group, the control group, heard scrambled background sounds.

The researchers subjected all three groups to an additional, foreground sound, a short-duration sine-wave tone, meaning it was clear and markedly distinct from the background sounds.

Immediately after hearing these foreground tones, the participants pressed and held down the spacebar for as long as they felt the foreground tones lasted, estimating their total duration.

The researchers then applied a computational model to analyze these experimental effects.

The experimental data and modeling results seem to generally agree, suggesting that approaching sounds lead to an overestimation of time.

In other words, when we hear something approaching us, it increases our alertness and arousal, therefore accelerating our sense of internal time – a process possibly facilitated by factors such as dopamine activity.

Receding sounds, conversely, seem to produce the opposite effect, leading to underestimations of duration.

"Our general explanation is supported by the studies on the detection of moving targets; they reported that detection is faster for targets closer to the observers, thus supporting the engagement of the attention," the researchers explain.

"Additionally, we found evidence for the Vierordt effect, with a significant difference between estimations of shorter and longer time durations where the former are overestimated and the latter underestimated."

Future research may focus on asking participants to 'produce' time: Instead of estimating the duration of a noise, they could be explicitly asked to hold down a button for several seconds, or other specified period of time.

The researchers also surmise that an approaching background noise that increases in tempo may produce an even more pronounced acceleration of internal time, as it would require more focused, immediate attention.

Yet overall, the results of this work appear to be in general accordance with previous temporal perception studies as well as theories like the scalar expectancy theory, which posits that animals and humans have internal clocks composed of three main components: an internal pulsating pacemaker that 'ticks,' our ongoing decision-making processes, and our memories.

The evolutionary explanation seems clear. Throughout the history of life, individuals who were able to react appropriately to approaching objects – be they a stalking leopard, visiting friend, or an oncoming automobile – exhibited a survival advantage.

And although we no longer face rampaging mammoths, our precise timing and subsequent motion prediction abilities still dictate daily life, whether we're enjoying a leisurely game of catch at a cookout or piloting 4,000 pounds of steel through a busy intersection.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

People Who Live to 100 Have One Thing in Common – And It Has Nothing to Do With Diet

07 July 2026, By M. Starr

https://www.sciencealert.com/one-personality-trait-stands-out-among-people-who-live-to-100

(PeopleImages/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

When it comes to aging well, diet, exercise, and social interaction may get most of the attention – but researchers are increasingly finding there's more to the story.

A study of people living in Sardinia, Italy – one of the world's so-called 'Blue Zones', where people may be more likely to celebrate their 100th birthday – found that an overlooked factor might be just as important.

The missing piece may be your personality.

That's because personality influences the way we respond to challenges and engage with the world around us, helping shape the habits and behaviors that keep us active as we age, according to a team led by psychologist Maria Chiara Fastame of the University of Cagliari in Italy.

"These findings suggest that the combination of adaptive personality traits and coping resources promotes a more active lifestyle," the researchers write in a paper published in the International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology, "providing insights into the mechanisms of successful aging."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGEEHb6gTy8

Untangling the role of personality isn't easy. Healthy aging is shaped by everything from our genes to our environment, making it difficult to isolate the influence of any single factor.

That's one reason researchers are so interested in the world's handful of Blue Zones, where people supposedly outlive the global average, and disease rates are reportedly lower.

Fastame and her colleagues focused their efforts on the Sardinian Blue Zone.

They wanted to know whether personality traits were linked to psychological well-being and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) – a measure that captures both physical and mental health.

Previous studies, including those led by Fastame, had found that people living in Blue Zones scored higher on traits such as resilience, psychological well-being, and optimism, but a more detailed investigation into personality had not been conducted.

The researchers predicted that more adaptive personality traits would be associated with better health-related quality of life.

They also expected that people with these traits would have greater psychological well-being and spend more time engaging in hobbies, compared with people not living in the Blue Zone.

Diet, exercise, and social connection are the most commonly linked factors to healthy aging. 

(David Sacks/The Image Bank/Getty Images)



They conducted their research on 125 adults aged 71 to 101 – 55 living in the Blue Zone and 70 from a nearby community outside the Blue Zone.

These communities were chosen because their socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds are very similar, and they have access to the same free healthcare provided by the Italian government.

Each participant underwent a series of tests, questionnaires, and interviews to assess their mental and physical health, their lifestyle (including leisure and hobbies), and their Big Five personality traits – openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

One result stood out: people in the Blue Zone did not score significantly higher on health-related quality of life.

What they did have was a much higher level of openness, one of the big five personality traits. That means they showed a higher level of curiosity and interest in learning, as well as a willingness to engage intellectually with new ideas and try new things.

Blue Zone residents also had better coping skills, higher emotional competence, and spent more time engaged in mentally or physically stimulating leisure activities.

Looking at the group as a whole, rather than separating them into Blue Zone and non-Blue Zone groups, some interesting patterns emerged.

People with higher openness tended to have better psychological well-being and spend more time on hobbies.

People with higher conscientiousness tended to report greater life satisfaction and had better coping skills.

People with higher neuroticism, conversely, tended to report lower health-related quality of life.

The researchers don't think personality plays a direct role in longevity; rather, it might influence how you live your life.

For example, someone who is curious and intellectually engaged with the world might be more likely to seek new experiences, maintain social connections, take up hobbies, stay active, and keep learning.

Rather than acting independently of diet or exercise, personality may help shape the behaviors that make healthy aging more likely in the first place.

The study was relatively small and observational, so it cannot show that personality causes healthy aging. Further studies will be needed to ascertain the directionality of these associations, the researchers say.

One of the longest centenarian studies, for instance, has found that intergenerational parenting or personality factors, including a strong sense of purpose, could be a factor in longevity.

But it adds to growing evidence that psychological traits may play a role alongside more familiar factors such as diet, exercise, and social connection.

The Birth of Modern Man

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Leave This Fruit Out of Your Next Berry Smoothie, Experiments Suggest

05 July 2026, By C. Cassella

https://www.sciencealert.com/you-might-want-to-leave-this-fruit-out-of-your-next-smoothie-experiments-suggest

(Xsandra/Getty Images)

Next time you're making yourself a berry smoothie, you might want to hold off on the banana.

Sure, it's full of potassium and makes a drink deliciously thick and creamy, but it could actually be impacting the nutritional benefit of your fruity drink.

According to research from the University of California, Davis (UCD), there's something in bananas that might overpower the antioxidants in berries.

The antioxidants in this case are called flavonols.

They are found in plant-based foods like berries, tea, cocoa, apples, pears, and peaches, and many of us do not get enough of them in our diet.

When a person eats food rich in flavonols, the compounds are rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream, where they are processed.

The resulting metabolites have been associated with benefits like improved cardiovascular health and cognitive function.

But experiments suggest that when just a single banana is added to a berry mix, these metabolites are not nearly as abundant.

In a controlled, blinded study published in the journal Food and Function in 2023, researchers at UCD gave a small group of eight participants either a flavonol-rich berry smoothie or a simple flavonol capsule.

Tests later showed an increase in levels of the flavonol metabolites in their blood.

(Anjana Sharma/500px/Getty Images)



When volunteers consumed a banana-berry smoothie, however, the metabolites in their blood were 84 percent lower than after a pure dose of flavonol.

"We were really surprised to see how quickly adding a single banana decreased the level of flavonols in the smoothie and the levels of flavanol absorbed in the body," said nutritionist Javier Ottaviani from UCD at the time.

"This highlights how food preparation and combinations can affect the absorption of dietary compounds in foods."

The reason why bananas have this effect on flavonols probably has to do with an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase (PPO), which is involved in the oxidation process that turns bananas brown when they're peeled.

Exposed to the banana, the PPO 'mops up' the antioxidants, preventing them from doing all that good work inside our bodies.

When a banana-berry smoothie with high PPO was left at room temperature in experiments, researchers found it contained fewer flavonols than a pure berry smoothie after an hour of sitting.

When PPO in the bananas was inhibited, however, the flavonols persisted.

This suggests that PPO can limit the availability of flavonols before they enter the human body.

To see if bananas can 'disarm' antioxidants in the stomach, too, researchers had 11 participants consume two separate drinks at the same time: a banana drink and a berry drink.

This prevented PPO from interacting with the flavonols before ingestion. Even still, researchers found that flavonol metabolites were not as present in participants' bloodstreams after drinking the two smoothies separately, compared to when they drank none of the banana drink.

The research was only conducted among a small number of male participants; however, researchers at UCD think that their initial findings deserve further scientific attention.

"This study highlights that consideration needs to be given not only to the types of fruits and vegetables and plant-based products to recommend to increase intake, but also how they are prepared, stored, and consumed as part of a regular meal in order to maximize their potential to support health," the researchers conclude.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

This Strange Sea Creature Can Survive Five Years Without Food – Scientists Finally Know Why

By Chinese Academy of Sciences Hq., July 5, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/this-strange-sea-creature-can-survive-five-years-without-food-scientists-finally-know-why/

Deep-sea supergiant isopod.

 Credit: Prof. LI Xinzheng

Supergiant deep-sea isopods endure years without food by pairing an enlarged stomach with cold-adapted metabolic control.

Going without food for a day is difficult. Going without food for five years seems impossible. Yet the supergiant bathynomid, a giant deep-sea isopod that can grow larger than a football, routinely survives for years between meals in one of the most food-starved environments on Earth.

This apparent contradiction has long puzzled scientists. How can an animal that reaches such impressive sizes thrive in the deep ocean, where nutrients are scarce, and feeding opportunities are unpredictable?

A research team from the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS) set out to answer that question. Using multiomics analyses and functional experiments, they discovered that deep-sea isopods combine an enormous food-storage stomach with an exceptionally low basal metabolic rate (BMR), allowing them to endure prolonged periods of starvation.

The findings were published in the journal Cell.

Survival depends on restraint

For the study, the researchers examined two isopod species living at different depths: Bathynomus jamesi from approximately 898 meters and Bathynomus doederleini from around 300 meters. By combining comparative genomics with analyses of anatomy, physiology, behavior, and associated microbes, they identified a survival pattern described as “increasing revenue and reducing expenditure” in response to limited food.

In deep-sea isopods, the stomach takes up about two-thirds of the body, making it much larger than the stomachs of related species from shallower water or intertidal habitats. When packed with food, the stomach holds a finely ground, heavily digested, mud-like mixture with relatively few digestive bacteria, such as Firmicutes.

This simulated image shows deep-sea isopods and their living environment. 

Credit: Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences/Handout via Xinhua



It is instead rich in Chlamydiae, which are linked to lipid storage. Together, these traits suggest that deep-sea isopods may eat large meals whenever food becomes available and then sharply lower their BMR, allowing stored reserves to be digested and used slowly over long periods.

A borrowed gene changes metabolism

The researchers also found a horizontally transferred gene, ND1, that came from an outside symbiotic bacterium and later became part of the isopod genome. The gene is homologous to a component of Complex I in the electron transport chain and is thought to have an important role in energy metabolism.

Although horizontally transferred genes can face limits after entering a new genome, ND1 appears to have overcome some of those barriers by duplicating after transfer and reaching extremely high expression levels.

The researchers also identified a mechanism controlling gene expression in deep-sea isopods through epigenetic changes to histones, achieving “high efficiency, energy conservation, and precise control.” The extremely high expression of ND1 is specifically controlled by histone acetylation.

Mechanism diagram showing the survival strategy and horizontally acquired energy metabolism-related gene in reprogramming energy allocation in deep-sea isopods. 

Credit: YUAN Jianbo, et al.

To examine what ND1 does, the researchers inserted it into zebrafish, nematodes, and human 293T cells. At normal temperatures, ND1 increased energy metabolism and made the organisms less able to tolerate starvation. Under low temperature conditions (which simulate the deep-sea environment), however, ND1 knock-in suppressed energy metabolism and lowered mitochondrial activity. In zebrafish, this raised starvation tolerance by 37%.
Deep-sea giants balance trade-offs

The results suggest that ND1 helps adjust the mitochondrial metabolic network by fine-tuning metabolic depression. This appears to help solve the central tradeoff between the high energy needs of gigantism and the need to conserve energy in extreme environments.

This study is the first to show a new evolutionary strategy in which deep-sea megafauna reshape energy allocation through horizontal gene transfer combined with epigenetic optimization.

“Our work not only deciphers the mystery of ultra-long starvation tolerance in deep-sea isopods,” said Jianbo Yuan, first author of the study, “but also provides an important paradigm for understanding how life balances growth and survival in extreme environments.”

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Scientists Baffled by a Sudden Reversal Deep Inside Earth’s Core

By European Space Agency, July 6, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-baffled-by-a-sudden-reversal-deep-inside-earths-core/

Earth’s magnetic field is mainly generated by swirling liquid iron in the outer core, about 3,000 km beneath the surface. Like a bicycle dynamo, this moving metal generates electrical currents that produce the planet’s magnetic field. Additional magnetic signals come from Earth’s mantle, crust, oceans, ionosphere, and magnetosphere. ESA’s three Swarm satellites measure these different signals to improve our understanding of Earth’s interior and space weather driven by solar activity.

 Credit: ESA/ATG Medialab

A surprising reversal in molten iron flow beneath the Pacific is giving scientists a sharper view of how Earth’s magnetic field evolves.

Earth’s magnetic field, the invisible shield that protects the planet from charged particles streaming from the Sun, is powered by a churning ocean of molten iron hidden thousands of kilometers beneath our feet.

Although this deep interior is inaccessible, its slow-moving currents leave subtle fingerprints in the magnetic field above the surface. A new study has now revealed that one of those currents behaved in a way scientists did not expect, abruptly reversing direction beneath the Pacific Ocean and providing fresh clues about the hidden engine driving Earth’s magnetic field.

The discovery challenges the long-standing view that large-scale flow in the outer core changes only gradually over decades. By combining nearly 30 years of ground-based measurements with satellite observations, researchers reconstructed how a vast region of liquid iron suddenly changed course, offering one of the clearest views yet of the dynamic processes unfolding roughly 2,200 km (1,370 miles) beneath Earth’s surface.

A reversal beneath the Pacific

In 2010, a broad region of iron-rich fluid deep beneath the equatorial Pacific switched from moving weakly westward to flowing strongly eastward. Scientists still do not know what triggered the reversal, but newly analyzed data from ESA’s Swarm and CryoSat missions, together with observations from the German CHAMP and Danish Ørsted satellites, allowed researchers to examine the event in unprecedented detail.

Published in the Journal of Studies of Earth’s Deep Interior, the study combines satellite observations with ground-based magnetic measurements spanning 1997 to 2025. The findings suggest that Earth’s outer core may be considerably more dynamic than previously thought, raising new questions about how the planet’s deepest layers interact and how the magnetic field evolves over time.

Earth’s magnetic field is thought to be generated largely by an ocean of superheated, swirling liquid iron that makes up Earth’s outer core 3000 km under our feet. Acting like the spinning conductor in a bicycle dynamo, it generates electric currents and thus the continuously changing electromagnetic field. 

Credit: ESA/AOES Medialab



Scientists had previously viewed the outer core as a system with relatively stable movement. This major shift suggests its circulation can change much more abruptly than expected. The study offers new clues about the turbulent processes that create Earth’s magnetic field and may point to connections between motion in the outer core and changes taking place even deeper inside Earth.

Lead author of the study, Frederik Dahl Madsen, of the University of Edinburgh, School of Geosciences, said, “The large-scale flow reversal beneath the Pacific raises new questions about the behavior of Earth’s deep interior. Scientists now want to understand whether the reversal represents a short-lived fluctuation, part of a repeating oscillation, or a new stable equilibrium for core circulation. Continued monitoring will be essential to determine how the flow evolves over the coming years.”

Frederik also explained that the model used in the research suggests that the Pacific eastward flow has weakened since 2020, adding, “The rise of the strong eastward flow in the Pacific is contemporary with a change in behaviour in the inner core, as inferred from geodesy and seismology, and we hypothesize that these changes in the deep interior are associated with the changes in flow beneath the Pacific.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq0jLsuMXDs

Change in Earth’s molten core flow 1997–2025. Credit: ESA (data source: Madsen et al, 2026)

Earth’s molten core detected from space

Earth’s magnetic field comes from motion in the liquid outer core, where electrically conducting molten iron moves around the solid inner core. This process, known as the geodynamo, is always changing, although many of its larger flow patterns have seemed fairly persistent across decades of observation.

ESA launched the three Swarm satellites in 2013. Each carries highly sensitive magnetometers that can map Earth’s magnetic field with exceptional precision. Because the satellites fly in carefully coordinated orbits, they can help separate magnetic signals from the core from those produced by the crust, oceans, ionosphere and magnetosphere.

Those measurements allowed researchers to reconstruct changing flow patterns at the boundary between the core and mantle. They also helped identify the sudden changes linked to the Pacific reversal and the 2017 geomagnetic jerk.

According to ESA’s Swarm Mission Manager, Anja Stromme, the long-term dataset from Swarm was important to the study. She noted, “Although Swarm was launched after the dramatic reversal event of 2010, it has provided high-precision data that tells us about Earth’s inner core in the period that followed.

“Importantly, Swarm provides continuous global coverage over many years, allowing scientists to track how core dynamics evolve over time rather than relying only on ground-based magnetic observatories. Long-duration satellite magnetic measurements allow researchers to follow changes in the geodynamo in near-real time and improve models of Earth’s magnetic field evolution. Future observations from missions such as Swarm will play a crucial role.”

Satellite observations also helped researchers spot wave-like accelerations and rapidly shifting flow structures that could have been lost in noisier datasets. The study further indicates that the eastward flow may now be weakening after reaching a peak several years ago, which raises the possibility that the reversal was a temporary oscillation or part of a longer natural cycle in core dynamics.

Understanding our Earth system

These processes happen far beneath Earth’s surface and do not threaten people or the climate. Even so, they are essential to understanding how the planet functions. Motion in the liquid iron outer core generates Earth’s magnetic field, which helps protect the planet from charged particles streaming from the Sun. Without that shield, Earth’s atmosphere and technological systems would face much greater exposure to harmful solar radiation.

Earth’s magnetic field is constantly evolving. As flow in the core changes, the field slowly shifts as well, with effects that matter for navigation systems, spacecraft operations, and models of near Earth space weather. For that reason, understanding changes in the core is important both for basic science and for practical applications.

According to Elisabetta Iorfida, ESA’s Swarm Mission Scientist, the Pacific reversal challenges the idea that the outer core is mainly controlled by stable westward circulation. She noted, “This study shows that regional changes can emerge rapidly within just a decade. The findings may also help scientists investigate possible interactions between Earth’s outer core, inner core, lower mantle, and, therefore, give more insights into the core-mantle boundary, which is a critical region for deep Earth dynamics.

“This research raises intriguing questions about how Earth’s deepest layers are dynamically connected. As the magnetic field continues to evolve, satellite missions are providing an increasingly detailed view of the dynamic processes unfolding deep inside our planet, revealing that Earth’s core may be far more variable and complex than once believed.”

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Chuck's photo corner to July 5th, 2026, 😅🍐🍓⛈🌞

It's been a hot week with many thunder and lightning storms in the afternoons. Plants have grown like crazy. A great start to summer.

Hosta, I can grow them as no deer are around, the big hyway, and the railroad block them from coming this way.

daisys, a natural part of this area

looks like the green peppers are coming along. The after noon storms have been hard on them.

This guy is so bright even from the office window.

Time to harvest and dry for this years chamomile tea.

the black raspberry season has started, they will turn black as they ripen.

I planted a variety of colours of these flowering peas years ago , only this colour has lived on.

This garden has grown beyond my time and ability to weed, sigh.

pretty enough.

one of many spirea shrubs about.

The basic daylily, I call them ditch lilies because that is where they enjoy to grow. Wet in spring, dry in summer.

commonly called gold drops

Monks hood, a poisonous plant

These daylilies are often grown in commercial landscapes as they bloom all summer and are very tolerant to the dry conditions of parking lot planters.

Catalpa tree flowers, a great shade tree, this one just appeared in the yard decades ago, now it shades guests during our summer social.

The catalpa tree has large leaves as well.

currents almost ready to harvest, a weird strain from a garden center.

The norfolk pine in the morning.

Cardinal, at dusk.

Enjoy your day

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Scientists Say Intermittent Fasting Could Make Weight Loss Easier

By Adelaide U., July 3, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-say-intermittent-fasting-could-make-weight-loss-easier/

Intermittent fasting may offer a more sustainable path to weight loss for people who struggle with traditional dieting, according to a new 18-month study from the University of Adelaide. 

Credit: Shutterstock

Intermittent fasting may help some people lose weight without relying as heavily on constant food restriction.

People who repeatedly lose weight and regain it may do better with intermittent fasting than with traditional calorie counting, according to new findings.

A study from Adelaide University examined the psychological effects of intermittent fasting and calorie restriction, comparing how each approach affected eating behaviors, mood, sleep and quality of life.

Both diets produced similar weight loss, but participants following intermittent fasting did not feel they had to make major changes to their eating behaviors, such as closely watching for overeating or counting calories, to lose weight.

The calorie restriction group had a different experience. Those participants said they had to consciously focus on limiting how much they ate and avoiding overeating. That increased sense of control explained 15% of their weight loss.

Fasting may feel less restrictive

“While many diets can result in weight loss, they may be difficult to stick to, and this makes keeping that weight off long-term more challenging,” said Professor Leonie Heilbronn from Adelaide University’s School of Medicine and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute.

“The results of our study indicate intermittent fasting could offer an alternative pathway for people who find conventional dieting challenging.”

Trial compared three approaches

The 18-month trial included more than 200 people with obesity. Participants were assigned to one of three groups: intermittent fasting, continuous calorie restriction or standard care.

Those in the intermittent fasting group ate 30% of their energy needs between 8 am and 12 pm on three nonconsecutive days each week, followed by a 20-hour fast. On days when they were not fasting, they could eat their usual diet.

Participants in the calorie-restricted group ate 70% of their usual diet. Those in the standard care group continued with standard diets but received healthy eating guidelines.

After six months, people in both the intermittent fasting and calorie-restricted groups had lost about seven kilograms, compared with about two kilograms in the standard diet group. Participants also reported improvements in depression and wellbeing, including on fasting days.

Weight loss may follow different paths

The findings, published in Clinical Nutrition, suggest that calorie restriction and intermittent fasting may support weight loss through different psychological and behavioral routes.

“Psychological and behavioral effects have a major influence on people’s abilities to adhere to diets. Intermittent fasting may help people achieve weight loss through ways that are less dependent on consciously restricting intake,” said Professor Heilbronn.

Although intermittent fasting has grown in popularity, its long-term psychological and behavioral effects are still not well understood compared with more traditional dieting methods.

“Future trials should be designed to identify individuals who struggle to improve eating behaviors, as they may do better with intermittent fasting diets, enabling more personalized weight management,” said Professor Heilbronn.

The birth of modern Man

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Stanford Scientists Reverse Age-Related Memory Loss by Targeting the Gut

By K. Conger, Stanford Medicine, July 5, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/stanford-scientists-reverse-age-related-memory-loss-by-targeting-the-gut/

A new mouse study suggests that age-related memory decline may be influenced by signals traveling from the gut to the brain rather than by brain aging alone.

 Credit: Shutterstock

Aging changes gut bacteria in mice, weakening communication between the intestines and the brain. Restoring that connection helped older mice form memories as effectively as young mice.

For decades, age-related memory loss has largely been viewed as a problem that begins in the brain. But growing evidence suggests that some of the processes shaping cognition may start much farther south — in the gut, home to trillions of microbes that help regulate everything from digestion to immunity.

A new mouse study from researchers at Stanford Medicine and the Arc Institute in Palo Alto, California, points to a surprising gut-brain connection behind cognitive aging.

The team found that age-related changes in gut bacteria can interfere with signals traveling along the vagus nerve, a major communication highway linking the gastrointestinal tract and the brain. Their findings suggest that memory decline may be influenced by changes outside the brain itself, opening new possibilities for preserving cognitive function later in life.

“Although memory loss is common with age, it affects people differently and at different ages,” said Christoph Thaiss, PhD, assistant professor of pathology. “We wanted to understand why some very old people remain cognitively sharp while other people see significant declines beginning in their 50s or 60s. What we learned is that the timeline of memory decline is not hardwired; it’s actively modulated in the body, and the gastrointestinal tract is a critical regulator of this process.”

Christoph Thaiss. 

Credit: Stanford Medicine



The study found that the gut microbiome, the natural community of bacteria living in the intestine, changes as mice grow older. Some bacterial species become more common while others decline. Immune cells in the gastrointestinal tract detect these changes and trigger inflammation that weakens signaling through the vagus nerve to the hippocampus, the brain region involved in memory formation and spatial navigation. When researchers stimulated vagus nerve activity in older mice, the animals regained the ability to remember unfamiliar objects and escape mazes as well as younger mice.

“The degree of reversibility of age-related cognitive decline in the animals just by altering gut-brain communication was a surprise,” Thaiss said. “We tend to think of memory decline as a brain-intrinsic process. But this study indicates that we can enhance memory formation and brain activity by changing the composition of the gastrointestinal tract — a kind of remote control for the brain.”

Thaiss, who is also a core investigator at Palo Alto-based Arc Institute, is a senior author of the study, which was published in Nature. Maayan Levy, PhD, an assistant professor of pathology and Arc Institute innovation investigator, is the other senior author. Timothy Cox, a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, is the lead author of the research.

“Our study emphasizes that processes in the brain can be modulated through peripheral intervention,” Levy said. “Since the gastrointestinal tract is easily accessible orally, modulating the abundance of gut microbiome metabolites is a very appealing strategy to control brain function.”

The call is coming from inside the body

The idea that hundreds of bacterial species live in the intestines once seemed surprising. Today, the gut microbiome receives broad attention because it is understood to influence not only digestion, but also wider health. More than 10 years ago, scientists showed that changing the gut microbiomes of rodents could alter their social and cognitive behavior. Thaiss and Levy wanted to know whether a related mechanism might help explain the memory loss and cognitive difficulties often linked to aging.

Signals that travel from inside the body to the brain, including messages sent from the intestines through the vagus nerve, are part of a process called interoception. By contrast, signals that come from outside the body through taste, touch, smell, vision, and hearing are called exteroception.

“Exteroception is basically how we perceive the outside,” Thaiss said. “We have a lot of detailed knowledge about how this works. But we know much less about how the brain senses what is going on inside the body. We don’t know how many internal senses there are, or even all of what they are sensing. It’s clear that our exteroception capabilities decline with age — we grow to need eyeglasses and hearing aids, for example. And this study shows that aging also affects interoception.”

Maayan Levy. 

Credit: Stanford Medicine



To test whether the gut microbiome contributes to the senior moments many people experience, the researchers housed young (2-month-old) mice with old (18-month-old) mice. Because the animals lived and defecated near one another, the young mice were exposed to the gut microbiomes of the older mice, and the older mice were exposed to those of the younger mice. After one month, the researchers analyzed the animals’ microbiomes.

They found that shared housing caused the microbiomes of young mice to become more similar to those of older animals. When the researchers tested whether the mice could recognize a new object or find the exit of a maze, the young mice with old microbiomes performed much worse than other young mice. They showed less interest in unfamiliar objects and moved through the maze in a way that resembled old animals.

The researchers also compared young and old mice raised from birth in a germ-free environment, meaning neither group had gut bacteria. Young mice kept their ability to form memories. But when young germ-free mice received microbiomes from old mice, they again performed like older animals on memory and cognition tests. Notably, old germ-free mice did not lose memory and cognition as they aged and performed as well as 2-month-old mice.

The results were especially striking when young mice carrying old microbiomes, and therefore showing weaker cognition, were treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics for two weeks. Their cognitive abilities returned, and they explored unfamiliar objects and navigated mazes as well as control mice.

“The object recognition test is like cognitive recognition tests in humans, where you are shown a series of images, then have to remember which ones you’ve seen before after some time passes,” Thaiss said. “And the maze test is like people trying to recall where they parked their car at a large shopping center. What these tasks have in common, in mice and in people, is that they are very strongly dependent on activity in the hippocampus, because that is where memories are encoded.”

What’s different in their guts?

The researchers then looked more closely at how the gut microbiome changes with age in mice. They found that one bacterium, Parabacteroides goldsteinii, becomes relatively more abundant in old mice and is directly linked to cognitive decline in the animals. When young mice were colonized with this bacterial species, they performed worse on the object recognition and maze tests, and that decline was associated with reduced activity in the hippocampus.

When old mice were treated with a molecule that activates the vagus nerve, however, their cognitive performance became indistinguishable from that of young mice.

Additional experiments showed that the rise in Parabacteroides goldsteinii was associated with higher levels of metabolites called medium-chain fatty acids. These metabolites caused myeloid cells, a type of immune cell in the gut, to launch an inflammatory response. That inflammation reduced activity in the vagus nerve, lowered activity in the hippocampus, and weakened the animals’ ability to form lasting memories.

“The GI tract is arguably the first organ system to evolve during human evolutionary history, so the evolution of cognitive processes in the brain has undoubtedly been shaped by signals coming from the intestine,” Levy said. “It’s likely that signals from the GI tract play an important role in contextualizing memory formation.”

Thaiss added, “Basically, we’ve identified a three-step pathway toward cognitive decline that starts with gastrointestinal aging and the subsequent microbial and metabolic changes that occur. The myeloid cells in the GI tract sense these changes, and their inflammatory response impairs the connection between the gut and the brain via the vagus nerve. This is a direct driver of memory decline. And if we restore the activity of the vagus nerve, we can restore an old animal’s memory function to that of a young animal.”

The researchers are now studying whether a similar pathway involving the gut microbiome and brain activity exists in people, and whether it also contributes to age-related cognitive decline. Vagus nerve stimulation is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat depression or epilepsy and to support recovery after stroke. The researchers also hope to develop noninvasive ways to monitor, and possibly control, the activity of peripheral neurons that influence memory formation and cognition.

“Our hope is that ultimately these findings can be translated into the clinic to combat age-related cognitive decline in people,” Thaiss said.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Neanderthals Were Absolute Freaks of Nature

Edmund Extinction and Dr. Edmund Hale,  Jul 1, 2026 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq6CA6Q3Vyg

We've all seen the cartoon — the dim, hunched caveman, the evolutionary runner-up. 

It's one of the most persistent myths in all of science, and it's completely wrong. The real Neanderthal was something closer to a superhuman. 

In this episode we get into the astonishing biology of our closest extinct relative: bones sometimes twice as dense as ours, a build strong enough to wrestle prey to the ground, lungs up to 40% larger, a brain bigger than a modern human's, and eyes built for the dark. These were people engineered for an Ice Age world that would have destroyed us — and they carried that world on their backs for hundreds of thousands of years. Oh, and if you're of European or Asian descent, a piece of them is still inside you right now. 

Let me show you just how extraordinary the Neanderthals really were.

The birth of modern Man

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Scientists Discover the First-Ever Molecules Preserved Inside a 113-Million-Year-Old Pterosaur Fossil

By L. Wilkinson, Curtin U., July 3, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-discover-the-first-ever-molecules-preserved-inside-a-113-million-year-old-pterosaur-fossil/

A pterosaur in flight. 

Credit: UnexpectedDinoLesson, Wikimedia Commons

Ancient microbes may have helped preserve a pterosaur fossil and its chemical clues for more than 100 million years.

An international study led by Curtin University has shed new light on how a prehistoric flying reptile fossil remained exceptionally well preserved for 113 million years, offering scientists a rare view into a long-vanished world.

The fossilized wing phalanx of a pterosaur from northeastern Brazil was preserved in three dimensions and even retained chemical traces that may point to what the animal ate. Kliti Grice and her colleagues link that unusual survival to specialized bacteria and the conditions of an ancient marine environment.

Lead author Kliti Grice, a John Curtin Distinguished Professor and founding Director of the Western Australian Organic and Isotope Geochemistry Centre at Curtin, said the findings reveal a new way to understand how some fossils form.

Molecules reveal ancient diet

“This fossil is a true time capsule — not only is it beautifully preserved, but for the first time we’ve detected traces of steroids in a pterosaur, providing further evidence that these creatures likely fed on fish or squid,” Professor Grice said.

“It also marks the first time molecules have been recovered from a pterosaur fossil, revealing new clues about its diet and highlighting the growing potential of molecular paleontology to unlock secrets from deep time.

Microscope view of a pterosaur fossil section showing carbon coating and mineral layers.

 Credit: Grice et al., iScience (2026)



“Steroid preservation in fossils is exceptionally rare, but what’s even more fascinating is that our findings challenge long-held ideas about fossil preservation itself. Rather than being destroyed by oxygen, some fossils are preserved because of it, through oxidative processes carried out by ancient microbiomes.

“After this pterosaur died and sank to the seabed, a perfect storm of chemistry, biology, and the environment worked to seal its story in stone. Microbes, including sulfur-oxidizing bacteria, began breaking down the soft tissue and fats and triggered mineralization around the body – a process that, over time, helped preserve its structure in incredible detail for more than 100 million years.”

Microbes shaped fossil survival

Pterosaurs were flying reptiles that lived alongside dinosaurs and were the first vertebrates known to achieve powered flight. Some species had wingspans reaching up to 12 meters. Like birds today, they had hollow bones, a feature that can improve the chances of exceptional preservation under the right environmental conditions.

Professor Grice said the work points to a new pathway for unusual fossil preservation, while also offering fresh insight into ancient life and the environmental conditions that can protect fragile remains for immense spans of time.

It adds to the growing evidence that tiny microbes played a major role in fossil survival, a process now being identified at other fossil sites. Professor Grice said this may represent a new global Lagerstätten mechanism, meaning the special conditions that make exceptional preservation possible.

The Life of Earth

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