There's a Volcano in Antarctica Spewing Gold Crystals Into The Atmosphere

29 June 2026, By M. Starr

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-worlds-southernmost-active-volcano-is-spewing-out-gold-every-day

Mount Erebus in Antarctica. 

(Doug Allan/ Photodisc/Getty Images)

Lava. Ash. Horrifying death.

All are known and expected outputs from an active volcano.

But one volcano deep in the farthest, frozen reaches of our planet marches to the beat of a slightly different drum.

On Ross Island in the Ross Sea, a deep bay in Antarctica, Mount Erebus fumes about 1,350 kilometers (840 miles) from the Geographic South Pole. The world's southernmost active volcano, it bubbles with a permanent lake of blazing lava.

And in the gas constantly pouring forth from this gate to the underworld, scientists found microscopic particles of crystalline, elemental gold.

According to a 1991 research paper, published in Geophysical Research Letters, Erebus belches out about 80 grams (2.8 ounces) of microscopic gold dust per day, scattering it as far as 1,000 kilometers away – maybe even farther.

A satellite image of Mount Erebus showing its permanent lake of lava.

 (European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery)



To date, it's the only volcano in the world known to spew forth crystalline elemental gold particles.

The real mystery, though, is how the gold escapes the magma in the first place.

Actually, gold in volcanic emissions isn't all that unusual.

Trace gold has been detected chemically in samples from Kīlauea in Hawai'i, Etna in Italy, Augustine in Alaska, and El Chichón in Mexico.

Later theoretical work has suggested that gold can be transported in hot volcanic fluids, and likely gases too.

It makes sense. A volcano is basically a hole in Earth's crust, through which molten material from deep below the ground seethes upward.

Many elements, such as copper, silver, mercury, arsenic, selenium, and sulfur, as well as gold, are all thrown together in a glorious, literal melting pot, where they can join with other elements to form compounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vcsei-Jq6U

From there, the gold isn't evaporating like water from a kettle – the boiling point of pure gold is far hotter than volcanic temperatures. Instead, it is thought to hitch a ride in volatile chlorine- or sulfur-bearing compounds that can exist in the hot volcanic gases.

But according to a team led by geochemist Kimberly Meeker of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in the US, the Erebus gold is doing something not seen in any other volcano.

As part of their investigation of Mount Erebus's emissions, the researchers collected samples from the snow around the volcanic crater, from the plume of gas coming from the lava lake, and from the Antarctic troposphere up to 1,000 kilometers from the volcano.

In all three sample sets, they found micron-scale particles of pure gold.

Under an electron microscope, the particles appeared as intricate, faceted, almost perfectly geometric crystals rather than irregular specks, some measuring up to about 60 micrometers across.

Particles of gold found in snow from Fang Glacier, 4 kilometers from the volcano (a and b),

 and in an air sample from the volcano's plume (c). 

A typical X-ray spectrum from the sampled particles is shown in the bottom right (d).

 (Meeker et al., Geophys. Res. Lett., 1991)



The estimated daily output of 80 grams was actually somewhat smaller than that reported for some other volcanoes. Based on measurements available at the time, Kīlauea emitted an estimated 500 to 800 grams of gold per day, while estimates for Etna reached as high as 2.4 kilograms.

But there's something unique about Erebus that allows the gold to separate from the compounds that held it in the volcanic emissions.

One model the researchers proposed is that gold is carried out of the lava in volatile chlorine-bearing compounds. As the gases cool, the gold crystallizes out of these compounds before eventually coming to rest on the Antarctic ice.

One difficulty with that model is that the gas contains very little gold; under those conditions, the spontaneous nucleation of beautifully formed crystals in the air is very difficult.

Another scenario later proposed by volcanologist Philip Kyle of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, a member of the research team, is that the gold forms more gradually in a crust on the surface of the lava lake before being borne aloft by rising gases.

It's been more than 30 years since the discovery, however, and we still don't have a concrete answer.

Something about Mount Erebus – whether it's the chemistry, the ambient temperature, the geology, or something else – appears to give it a unique ability to sprinkle the snow with gold dust like a mischievous pixie.

Lenticular clouds over Mount Erebus in Antarctica. 

(Cavan Images/Alasdair Turner/Cavan/Getty)

Any geochemists up for a trip?

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

17-Million-Year-Old Ape Fossil in Egypt Could Change What We Know About Human Origins

By Mansoura U. Vertebrate Paleontology Center (MUVP), June 30, 2026
https://scitechdaily.com/17-million-year-old-ape-fossil-in-egypt-could-change-what-we-know-about-human-origins/

Reconstruction of Masripithecus moghraensis by Mauricio Antón. 

Credit: Professor Hesham Sallam

Researchers have identified a previously unknown fossil ape from Egypt that could alter long-held ideas about the origins of modern apes.

The evolutionary story of apes has long contained a major geographic gap. While fossil discoveries from East Africa, Europe, and Asia have helped trace the rise of modern apes, North Africa has remained conspicuously absent from the record. A newly discovered fossil from Egypt may finally help fill that void.

In a study published in Science, researchers from the Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center and the University of Southern California describe Masripithecus moghraensis, a previously unknown ape species that lived roughly 17 to 18 million years ago during the Early Miocene.

Unearthed at the Wadi Moghra fossil site in northern Egypt, the remains represent the first definitive fossil ape from North Africa and provide new evidence that the region may have been a crucial crossroads in the early evolution and dispersal of apes.

Hesham Sallam, a paleontologist at Mansoura University, Egypt, and senior author of the study, said, “We spent five years searching for this kind of fossil because, when we look closely at the early ape family tree, it becomes clear that something is missing—and North Africa holds that missing piece.”
Fossils fill a northern gap

Earlier Early Miocene fossil sites in North Africa had produced monkey remains, but no confirmed ape fossils. Because of that gap, early apes and their close relatives were generally thought to have lived mainly farther south in Africa during this period.

Masripithecus moghraensis mandibular fragment with right M3 at the moment of discovery. 

Credit: Professor Hesham Sallam



Younger ape fossils have been found in Africa, Asia, and Europe, but scientists continue to debate how those fossils are related and where their geographic roots lie. The uneven fossil record may therefore have distorted our understanding of the origins of crown Hominoidea, the group that includes all living apes, from gibbons and orangutans to gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans, as well as their last common ancestor.

The discovery of Masripithecus shows that apes were living in North Africa during this period. It also indicates that the new species differed clearly from East African apes of roughly the same age. The genus name Masripithecus combines Masr (مصر), the Arabic word for Egypt, with the Greek píthēkos, meaning ape. The species name refers to Wadi Moghra, the well-known fossil locality in northern Egypt where the Sallam Lab team recovered the remains during fieldwork in 2023 and 2024.

Teeth reveal flexible feeding

The known fossils are limited to a lower jaw, but that jaw preserves a distinctive set of traits not seen in any other known ape from the same time. These include unusually large canine and premolar teeth, molars with rounded and heavily textured chewing surfaces, and a particularly robust jaw.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpKpsdNm6Dg

Masripithecus sculpting video, sculpting by Mohammed Hebeish. 

Credit: Professor Hesham Sallam

“Together, they suggest that Masripithecus was adapted for versatility. The study interprets its chewing anatomy as evidence of a flexible, mainly fruit-based diet, with the ability to process harder foods such as nuts or seeds when needed. This flexibility would have helped Masripithecus to thrive at a time when climatic changes were leading to more pronounced seasonality in northern Africa and Arabia,” said Shorouq Al-Ashqar, a researcher at the Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center, Egypt, who was a first author of the study.

Analyses shift ape origins

The anatomy is only one part of the evidence. Masripithecus also holds an important position in the ape family tree. Using advanced Bayesian methods, the team brought together anatomical data from living and extinct apes, DNA from living apes, and the geological ages of fossil species to estimate how living and extinct forms are related and when their lineages diverged. Their analysis found that Masripithecus is more closely related to living apes than any known Early Miocene ape from East Africa.

The team’s biogeographic analyses also suggest that northern Africa and the Middle East were the most likely home of the common ancestor of all living apes, which is estimated to have lived during the Early Miocene.

At that time, the region sat in a crucial position as the African and Arabian plates moved north during the final stage of their collision with Asia. Periodic sea level shifts reduced marine barriers, making the area a natural corridor for animals moving between regions.

Sallam Lab team from Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center. 

Credit: Copyrights belong to Professor Hesham Sallam



Within that setting, Masripithecus helps bridge a major gap between African and Eurasian ape fossil records that had previously seemed disconnected. Its presence suggests that apes were already diversifying in this region and were well positioned to spread into Europe and Asia once land connections opened.

More evidence may be hidden

Erik Seiffert, a paleontologist at the University of Southern California who was a co-author of the study, said that his perspective on ape origins has changed. “For my entire career, I considered it probable that the common ancestor of all living apes lived in or around East Africa. But this new discovery, and our new and novel analyses of hominoid phylogeny and biogeography, now strongly challenge that idea. And, importantly, the likelihood of this scenario doesn’t depend on Masripithecus — but it is very much consistent with it.”

The researchers expect that more fieldwork in the region could uncover additional fossils that are essential for understanding how modern apes originated and began to diversify. As Masripithecus moghraensis demonstrates, important parts of our evolutionary story may still be waiting in places that have not yet been fully explored.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

The Surprising Therapy That Helps People Stop Fearing Failure

By SWPS U., June 29, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/the-surprising-therapy-that-helps-people-stop-fearing-failure/

A new study suggests that changing how people mentally revisit painful childhood memories can ease fear of failure and related distress. 

Credit: Shutterstock

Imagery-based therapy may help people respond differently to painful childhood memories and reduce the fear of failure they carry into adulthood.

Why do some people treat every mistake as a personal catastrophe while others brush failures aside and move on? Psychologists suggest the answer may often lie in childhood experiences, where criticism, neglect, or harsh reactions from caregivers can leave lasting emotional scars.

New research from SWPS University and the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology indicates that specialized imagery-based therapy techniques may help weaken these old patterns, reducing fear of failure and changing how people respond to painful memories years later. The findings were published in Frontiers in Psychology.

Difficult childhood experiences, including criticism, neglect, or harsh reactions from caregivers, can affect mental well-being and quality of life later in adulthood. Caregivers’ responses to a child’s mistakes may help shape emotional and thinking patterns that persist over time. One possible outcome is fear of failure, rooted in the belief that mistakes make a person seem less worthy.

A team from the Poznań-based Laboratory of Affective Neuroscience at the Institute of Psychology, SWPS University, and the Laboratory of Brain Imaging at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology in Warsaw studied whether imagery-based psychotherapy could reduce the effect of these negative memories on everyday life in a lasting way.

Does working with memories offer the possibility of lasting change?

The randomized, controlled clinical trial included 180 young adults (between 18 and 35 years of age) who experienced fear of failure. During a two-week period, participants took part in four therapy sessions focused on painful childhood memories involving criticism.

One group received the Imagery Exposure (IE) technique, in which participants were asked to recall situations that brought up fear or anxiety (the active control group). A second group received Imagery Rescripting (ImRs), a method designed to change the story attached to a memory.

In this approach, a person recalls a distressing event and then imagines a “defender” (e.g., a therapist) entering the scene to challenge the critic and support the child. A third group used the same technique with a 10-minute delay procedure (ImRs-DSR), intended to interfere with the memory trace of the critical memory and strengthen the intervention’s effect.

Participants filled out questionnaires and took part in interviews. The scientists also measured their physiological responses. Follow-up observations took place three and six months later.

Rescripting memories really works

All of the imagery-based techniques tested in the study produced a significant and lasting decrease in fear of failure. Participants also reported less sadness and guilt. Their physiological reactions to memories of criticism declined as well, suggesting they no longer responded with intense stress when thinking back to distressing situations. The improvements remained stable at both the three-month and six-month follow-ups.

Study coauthor Julia Bączek, a psychologist from the Laboratory of Affective Neuroscience at the Institute of Psychology, SWPS University, said the results show that emotions and arousal tied to childhood criticism can be reduced. Carefully chosen techniques can change the way these memories are experienced, making them less painful and disruptive.

Imagery rescripting worked best when participants experienced surprise. This effect came from prediction error, which occurs when there is a mismatch between what someone expects and what actually happens. That mismatch can help replace older, painful patterns.

Study coauthor Stanisław Karkosz, a cognitive scientist from the Laboratory of Affective Neuroscience at the Institute of Psychology, SWPS University, said the work showed that a key element of imagery-based therapy is creating a gap between the patient’s expectations and what takes place in the revised memory. That moment of surprise can open the door to lasting therapeutic change.

Past experiences do not have to rule us

The researchers show that imagery-based techniques can help people “write” safer new endings to old stories, changing how they respond to present-day challenges.

The findings suggest that difficult memories (including those related to failure) do not have to be experienced in the same fixed way forever. Past experiences are not necessarily emotionally processed in an unchanging form, Julia Bączek emphasizes.

The Life of Earth

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Chuck's photo corner to June 29, 2026 😎🌕🌄

Summer has arrived. 

Temps have finally become seasonal, with highs reaching the mid 20s c. The gardens are planted , and shrub shearing begun. I spent some time in the mountains, and the black flies have scaled back big time with plenty of dragon flies about. It's dear and horse fly season there now so bites are bigger but people have a fighting chance of swatting them first.

This flower spike is almost 2 feet tall

one of the many mushroom varieties in the mountains

the violet hews on these guys are amazing, only seen at certain sun angles.

berries on the way

roadside flowers

I helped this guy out of the garage , it was 5 min. before it would stay on my hand long enough for me to carry it out. Next time I came out of the house one exactly like it was on my boots at the door. I felt like it was now following me, lol

a very populous variety around Ottawa these days.

at my pee stop on the long drive to the mountains

morning out the front door

on the north side of the house

it's no wonder this is the last variety of peony to open. The first rain and it was lying on the ground.

even more full of bloom today.

Enjoy your day

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Scientists Unlock Hidden DNA From 1,300-Year-Old Manuscripts

By M. Shipman, North Carolina State U., June 29, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-unlock-hidden-dna-from-1300-year-old-manuscripts/

Researchers have demonstrated a nondestructive way to collect cellular material from historical parchment manuscripts, allowing them to conduct genetic analyses that offer new insights into everything from trade routes to agricultural practices dating back 1,300 years – without harming the valuable manuscripts. 

Credit: Nash Dunn, NC State University

Historic parchments may hold genetic clues that can be studied without harming the manuscripts.

Scientists have shown that it is possible to collect cellular material from historic parchment manuscripts without damaging them. The method allows genetic analysis of documents as old as 1,300 years, potentially revealing new details about trade routes, farming practices, and the animals used to make the manuscripts.

Parchment is produced from animal skins and was used for thousands of years across Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Africa. It appears in many types of records, including legal texts and maps.
Parchment preserves hidden DNA

“Because they are made from animal skins, it is often possible to extract genetic information from parchments,” says Tim Stinson, corresponding author of a paper on this research and an associate professor of English at North Carolina State University. “That genetic information, in turn, offers us a window into the past, answering questions about things such as when and where a manuscript was made.”

Photo of Tim Stinson using the new, nondestructive sampling technique to conduct genetic analyses of parchment manuscripts. 

Credit: Nash Dunn, NC State University



“Because parchments have been in use for so long, and often record detailed historical information, the genetic information they contain can also shed light on the evolution of domesticated farm species, how breeds developed over time, livestock diseases and so on,” says Matthew Breen, coauthor of the paper and the Oscar J. Fletcher Distinguished Professor of Comparative Oncology Genetics in NC State’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

“This paper is particularly important because one of the biggest challenges for this emerging field of genetic analysis has been gaining access to historic parchments, due to concerns that collecting samples would damage these culturally significant artifacts,” says Stinson. “Our work shows that we can collect samples without harming the parchments, which is a big step forward.”
Brushes protect fragile manuscripts

For the study, the scientists used the nondestructive approach to gather cellular samples from 91 manuscripts in Duke University’s Rubenstein Library. The manuscripts came from places ranging from England to Ethiopia and were written between the late eighth century and the early 20th century.

The technique involves gently rubbing the parchment with a cytology brush, the same type of brush used for Pap smears.

“Cytology brushes can be used when dry and do an excellent job of harvesting cellular material without damaging the integrity of the artifact being sampled,” says Breen.

A new nondestructive DNA sampling method lets scientists analyze ancient parchment manuscripts. 

Credit: Nash Dunn, NC State University

Genetics opens a new archive

After collecting the material from the brushes, the scientists extract the cells and use forensic-level, next-generation sequencing tools to recover and amplify genetic sequences.

“We’re essentially using state-of-the-art technologies and genetic analytical techniques to get new, empirical information regarding historical, cultural, and agricultural practices,” says Stinson.

“We’ve shown that we’re able to extract a tremendous amount of new information from these parchments without harming them,” says Breen. “This will hopefully engender trust with those organizations that are responsible for preserving these historic documents.”

“We’re excited about the potential of this field and are seeking funding that will allow us to explore that potential,” says Stinson. “We’ve demonstrated that this is a vast, untapped source of historical information, and we want to continue this pioneering work.”

“We have a remarkable opportunity here,” says Breen. “It is essentially a whole new field, bringing together a truly interdisciplinary range of expertise spanning fields from genetics to medieval history.”

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Scientists Discover the Brain Can Rewire Itself To Truly Multitask

By K. Teber, Georgetown U. Medical Center, June 28, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-discover-the-brain-can-rewire-itself-to-truly-multitask/

Researchers found that extensive practice can reshape how the brain processes learned tasks, freeing up mental resources for other activities. 

Credit: Shutterstock

Extensive practice can rewire the brain so a learned skill runs more automatically, making some forms of true multitasking possible.

Why does driving eventually feel effortless, while learning to drive demands total concentration? A new study from Georgetown University suggests the answer lies in the brain’s ability to rewire itself, shifting well-practiced skills into different neural circuits so they can be performed with less conscious effort.

The findings challenge a longstanding view of human learning by indicating that, under the right conditions, people may be capable of genuine multitasking rather than simply switching attention rapidly between tasks.

The research could also have implications far beyond everyday life. By revealing how the brain builds new skills on top of old ones, the work may help guide the development of artificial intelligence systems that learn and adapt more like humans.

“We have another stepping stone in our understanding of how the brain learns,” said senior author Maximilian Riesenhuber, PhD, a professor of neuroscience at Georgetown University School of Medicine, and one of the directors of the Center for Neuroengineering. “The encouraging part is that you really can learn to multitask. There is actually a way to remodel your brain architecture and use other parts of your brain.”

Maximilian Riesenhuber, PhD. 

Credit: Georgetown University



Practice changes brain pathways

The study builds on many years of research into how learning changes the brain.

Georgetown scientists wanted to examine what happens as a skill becomes automatic, especially how the brain moves from actively learning a task to carrying it out with far less conscious effort after extensive practice.

Riesenhuber pointed to driving as a familiar example. At first, learning to drive demands close attention to every action. After years of experience, many drivers can hold a conversation, listen to music, or think through another issue while still operating the car.

“The question is: how does your brain do that?” Riesenhuber said.

Earlier studies have mostly examined the beginning of the learning process. The longer-term brain changes that come with deep practice have been more difficult to study and remain less well understood.

Training offloads mental work

For the new study, participants learned to sort morphed images of cars into two groups by noticing small visual differences. Over 5 to 10 weeks, they completed more than 30,000 trials through a phone app that turned the sorting task into a game. Before and after training, the researchers scanned participants’ brains using fMRI and EEG.

At first, once participants had learned the sorting task, it activated the prefrontal cortex. That brain region supports executive function and deliberate thinking, but it is generally limited in how many tasks it can manage at once.

After weeks of practice, however, brain scans showed a shift. The sorting process had moved into the temporal cortex, a region involved in memory encoding and the recognition of complex objects.

“Previous studies have shown that parts of the temporal cortex can be activated by particular object categories in experienced observers, birds, cars, even Pokémon, but a limitation of all of those studies is that they only looked after people became experts. The strength of this study is that it is longitudinal; we measure before and after training, so we can see that extensive training essentially put a category-selective area in the temporal lobe that was not there before,” said first author Patrick Cox, PhD, who began the study as a graduate student in Riesenhuber’s lab and is now an assistant professor of psychology at Lehigh University.

“This has implications for critical real-world scenarios, like when a radiologist can accurately classify masses on an X-ray as benign or malignant fairly automatically, often without extensive deliberation, thanks to years of training,” Cox said.

Patrick Cox, PhD.

 Credit: Georgetown University



True multitasking gains evidence

Information from the car selective area in the temporal cortex skipped the prefrontal cortex and linked directly with output regions of the brain. “Experience remodels the brain to bypass that frontal bottleneck. The prefrontal cortex then stays free for whatever else you want to do, increasing your capacity,” Riesenhuber explained. The researchers also found that participants became better at doing another task at the same time as the car task when more of the car sorting process had been “offloaded” from the prefrontal cortex.

That result runs counter to a long-standing view that people cannot truly multitask. According to that older view, the brain does not handle two tasks at the same time, but instead switches rapidly between them.

“What we show is that the circuitry actually changes so the brain can do two things at once,” Riesenhuber said. “This really is true multitasking.”

Learned habits become harder to reach

The findings may also help explain compulsive behaviors. They show that learned actions can shift into brain circuits that are less available to conscious control and executive decision-making.

“The first step to unlearning something is understanding where it is actually happening in the brain,” Riesenhuber said. “This shows why strategies like telling someone to think of something else don’t really help, because they don’t really have the behavior under conscious control.”

The results may also shed light on why people are so capable of continuous learning, meaning the ability to build new skills on top of older ones, a challenge that remains difficult for AI.

Riesenhuber said that moving a learned skill into the temporal cortex, while freeing the prefrontal cortex, may allow the brain to use established knowledge as a base for learning something new. He noted that current AI models do not yet work in the same way.

The next step is to investigate the signals or mechanisms that allow learning to move from one brain region to another. The researchers also want to understand the boundaries of multitasking and which kinds of tasks can truly be performed in parallel.

“Another really interesting question is what kinds of tasks can be learned well enough to do in parallel,” Cox said. “We can walk and chew gum at the same time, but looking at our phones to text while driving will never be safe, because we take our eyes away from the road. It comes down to being able to train fully separate neural circuits for two tasks to become compatible.”

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

The Best Diet For Brain Health Is Probably Not What You Think

27 June 2026, By C. Cassella

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-best-diet-for-brain-health-is-probably-not-what-you-think

(Creativ Studio Heinemann/Westend61/Getty Images)

Dietary fads come and go, but one particular healthy food plan may be here to stay.

Researchers at Harvard University have now led a study to compare six dietary patterns and their long-term associations with brain health.

While every single one of these diets was associated with health benefits, there was one clear, standout winner.

Spoiler: It was not a Mediterranean-like diet.

Instead, the winner was a lesser-known food plan called DASH, which is short for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension.

As the name indicates, this dietary plan was originally designed to help lower blood pressure. Today, it is endorsed by the American Heart Association for those with hypertension or a family history of heart disease.

But it may achieve much more than that.

In recent observational studies, the DASH diet has emerged as a potential way of improving cardiovascular health.

Now, it also shows promise in protecting the aging brain.

Compared to the Mediterranean diet, which places an emphasis on healthy fats, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, while still allowing for low amounts of sugar and alcohol, the DASH diet is not quite as flexible.

It was first developed in the 1990s, and while it also emphasizes fruits, vegetables, nuts, and berries, it requires low-salt intake and low-fat dairy options. Added sugars, red meat, and alcohol are to be limited.

In a long-term study of 159,347 participants, led by Harvard researchers, the DASH diet was consistently associated with the best brain health scores.

Every four years or so for three decades, participants reported their food intake. They were then scored on how well their diets aligned with six broad dietary plans.

The DASH diet emphasizes fruits, vegetables, nuts, and berries, and requires low-salt intake and low-fat dairy options.

 (Creativ Studio Heinemann/  Westend61/ Getty Images)



While every diet examined showed beneficial brain associations, those who strictly adhered to the DASH diet reaped nearly twice as many benefits as those who strictly adhered to other diets.

Participants who adhered most closely to the DASH diet had a 41 percent lower chance of subjective cognitive decline compared to those who were the least faithful to the DASH diet.

The food plans that came in second and third – the healthful plant-based index and the hyperinsulinemia index – were each associated with a 24 percent lower risk of subjective cognitive decline.

Meanwhile, the Planetary Health Index, which is similar to the Mediterranean diet, but with stricter rules on red meat, was associated with a 20 percent lower risk of subjective cognitive decline.

What's more, those who stuck most faithfully to a Mediterranean-like diet plan, called AHEI-2010, had a 16 percent lower risk of subjective cognitive decline.

The DASH diet outperformed all these other options.

Compared with the bottom 10 percent of DASH dieters, the top 10 percent scored 0.76 years younger on objective cognitive aging tests.

These participants were also 1.37 years younger, on average, on working memory tests.

"The DASH diet was consistently associated with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) risk even when measured up to 26 years before… assessments," the international team of authors write, "and had robust protective associations at various ages, particularly in midlife (45–54 years)."

In other words, the more a person sticks to a healthy diet from mid-adulthood, the better the health of their brain as they age.

That's just an association, but it keeps popping up in study after study.

Recently, scientists in the US found that a mix of the Mediterranean and DASH diet, known as the MIND diet, shows neurological perks later in life.

Those who stick mostly closely to the MIND diet show healthier brain tissue when they die in a part of the central nervous system closely involved in memory.

These findings add weight to the idea that food choices may lower our risk of neurological disease, potentially protecting against Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia.

That idea is still speculative and will require larger population studies and randomized controlled trials to confirm.

But diet and dementia seem to be closely linked in observational studies. Processed red meat, for instance, is identified as a potential risk factor for dementia.

The DASH diet may not be the best food plan for everybody, but broad, population-based studies like these can help researchers hone in on which foods may be most important for our overall health.

Lead author of the current study, Harvard epidemiologist Kjetil Bjornevik, told Everyday Health that if someone wants to improve the healthiness of their diet, they should make slow and gradual changes, as those are more likely to stick.

"What was encouraging was the consistency across different dietary patterns, which suggests that there is not just one right approach and that different dietary strategies can have beneficial effects on cognitive health," Bjornevik said.

"More broadly, any dietary pattern that emphasizes vegetables, fish, and whole grains while limiting red and processed meats, fried foods, and sugary beverages aligns with what our findings suggest may be beneficial."

What's good for the heart may be good for the brain as well.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Slow Breathing Can Rewire Your Brain and Change the Choices You Make

By German Inst. of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke, June 28, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/slow-breathing-can-rewire-your-brain-and-change-the-choices-you-make/

Researchers found that controlled breathing may subtly shape how people make decisions. The findings reveal a surprising link between bodily signals, brain activity, and the choices we make. 

Credit: Shutterstock

Extended exhalation increases reward sensitivity and heart rate variability, leading to bolder decision-making through measurable changes in brain activity.

Researchers from the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke (DIfE) and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin have shown for the first time that consciously controlling breathing patterns can influence decision-making by affecting both heart and brain activity.

Led by Prof. Soyoung Q Park, the team found that extending the exhalation phase of breathing increases heart rate variability and enhances the brain’s response to rewards, making people more likely to choose bolder options. The findings were published in the journal Neuron.

Fast breathing and an elevated heart rate are often associated with rapid decisions. In these situations, people may become more cautious in an effort to avoid losses, whether they are making a financial choice under pressure, navigating an important workplace discussion, or quickly deciding what to eat. Slower breathing and a calmer cardiovascular state, on the other hand, may encourage a more positive assessment of potential outcomes and greater willingness to take risks.

While decision-making is traditionally viewed as a process that originates in the brain, this study examined how signals from different parts of the body can shape brain activity and influence choices. The research was led by Prof. Soyoung Q Park in collaboration with the Neuroscience Research Center at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, and the German Naval Institute of Maritime Medicine.

Analysis of brain scans obtained using fMRI (representative image).

 Credit: David Ausserhofer/DIfE



“Our decisions are rarely determined solely by external information. Rather, our judgment emerges from the interplay between cognitive processes and our current bodily state. It was previously unknown how the conscious regulation of our body, for example, through targeted breathing, could actively control our decision–making process. We wanted to create a physiological shift using a slow breathing pattern to change the quality of our decisions,” said Soyoung Q Park, head of the Department of Decision Neuroscience and Nutrition at DIfE.

Prof. Soyoung Q Park, Head of the Department of Decision Neuroscience and Nutrition. 

Credit: Michael Reinhardt/DIfE

Testing Slow Breathing During Risk Decisions

The study involved 41 healthy volunteers who completed risk-based decision tasks while following specific breathing instructions in an advanced research environment. Participants either breathed at their normal pace or followed a slower pattern with a prolonged exhalation (2:8 inhale-exhale ratio). During both breathing conditions, they were asked to make a series of decisions involving risk.

At the same time, researchers measured brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging while also tracking breathing, heart function, skin conductance, and pupil responses. Combining these data allowed the team to determine whether longer exhalations not only reduced heart rate but also directly influenced reward-related processing in the brain.

The results showed that extended exhalation increased the likelihood of riskier choices by slowing the heart rate. Importantly, participants became more responsive to potential rewards, while their sensitivity to possible losses did not change. The researchers also observed increased activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the precuneus.

Brain Regions Link Breathing, Heart Function, and Reward Sensitivity

These brain regions are involved in regulating both heart rate variability, which reflects changes in the time between heartbeats, and sensitivity to rewards. “Our study thus underscores the transformative role of breath-based interventions. The interplay between breathing and cardiac dynamics makes the brain more receptive to rewards,” said lead author Wenhao Huang.

Wenhao Huang, PhD student in the Department of Decision Neuroscience and Nutrition. 

Credit: Carolin Schrandt/DIfE



The findings add to growing evidence on body-brain interactions and support neurovisceral models, which suggest that physical states can strongly shape cognitive function. Park said, “Breathing techniques have accompanied humanity for millennia across various religions and cultures. With this study, we provide scientific proof that it is a reliable and targeted method capable of controlling our decisions.”

Because breathing exercises are simple, inexpensive, and easy to learn, they may offer a practical tool for daily self-regulation. They could also have clinical value as a nonpharmacological approach for conditions such as anxiety and depression, which are often linked to disruptions in autonomic regulation and reward processing.

Graphical abstract. 

Credit: DIfE

Future research will examine whether these effects extend to broader patient populations, including people who are overweight. “Since dietary decisions are strongly influenced by reward assessment and physical state, targeted breath regulation could also play a role in consciously perceiving and more effectively managing eating behavior,” Park said.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

NASA Moon Base Could Become Earth’s First Defense Against Alien Microbes

By McGill U., June 27, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/nasa-moon-base-could-become-earths-first-defense-against-alien-microbes/

Scientists say the Moon could serve as Earth’s first biological shield by housing a secure facility for quarantining samples returned from space.

 Credit: Shutterstock

Researchers propose turning a future NASA moon base into a quarantine station that would screen space samples before they ever reach Earth.

A policy paper argues that NASA’s planned moon base should include a biocontainment facility to help protect Earth from potentially hazardous biological contaminants brought back from space.

“Humanity is entering a new era of space exploration, but our planetary protection strategies have not kept pace with the risks associated with returning extraterrestrial samples to Earth,” said paper coauthor Frederick I. Moxley, Director of Strategic Threat Analysis and Research Laboratories, an Idaho-based consultancy.

“The proposed facility would essentially act as a firewall between Earth and any potentially hazardous live organisms that could accompany returning future space missions,” said Moxley, whose coauthor is Anthony Ricciardi, a James McGill Professor of Biology and the Director of the Bieler School of Environment at McGill University.

Samples would stop on the moon

In their paper, published in Ambio, Moxley and Ricciardi argue that material gathered from the moon, Mars or farther destinations should not be sent straight to Earth. Instead, they say extraterrestrial samples should first go to a secure quarantine and research facility on the moon.

Moxley and Ricciardi recommend that all incoming space samples be handled only by advanced robotic systems inside the lunar facility. That approach would reduce the chances of human exposure or an accidental release.

Invasive species offer a warning

Although no extraterrestrial life has been confirmed, Moxley and Ricciardi warn that any unfamiliar form of life entering Earth’s biosphere could have unpredictable ecological effects. They point to Earth’s long history of invasive species as a cautionary example.

“Decades of research on invasive species have demonstrated how an organism introduced to the wrong place at the wrong time can spread uncontrollably with potentially devastating and irreversible long-term impacts on ecosystems,” said Ricciardi, an expert on biological invasions. “This research justifies a strong precautionary approach against introductions of extraterrestrial origin.”

Space missions raise containment stakes

The paper comes as government space agencies and private aerospace companies move more quickly into missions beyond Earth orbit. Moxley and Ricciardi argue that this busier and more competitive space environment makes strict biosafety standards increasingly important.

The study raises concerns about worst-case scenarios, including a spacecraft carrying contaminated material crashing or malfunctioning, or astronauts being exposed to extraterrestrial environments. Moxley and Ricciardi contend that no facility currently on Earth can absolutely guarantee containment, elimination or control of an unknown alien microorganism if an accident occurs.

The moon becomes a barrier

Moxley and Ricciardi conclude that the search for life beyond Earth could become one of humanity’s most important scientific milestones, but that its risks need to be managed before they become emergencies.

“The moon,” they argue, “may become humanity’s first line of biological defense.”

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Stress Can Physically Alter Your Blood's Structure, Study Reveals

26 June 2026, ByL. Fall, The Conversation

https://www.sciencealert.com/stress-can-physically-alter-your-bloods-structure-study-reveals

Scanning electron micrograph of red and white human blood cells.

 (Steve Gschmeissner/Science Photo Library/Getty Images)

We have all heard it: "It's just in your head."

When work deadlines pile up, financial worries linger or an unexpected public speaking obligation looms, we often treat anxiety as a purely psychological challenge – something to be overcome with a bit of willpower.

But our bodies don't separate the psychological from the physical. Your brain is not an island, and anxiety does not stay trapped between your ears.

It triggers a rapid cascade of biochemical changes that travel through the bloodstream and affect the body in measurable ways.

New research from my colleagues and I captured this mind-body connection in real time. By putting healthy volunteers through a laboratory stress test, we discovered that acute mental stress acts as a direct chemical catalyst.

Within minutes, it increases the production of highly reactive molecules known as free radicals. These molecules then alter the way blood clots form.

In other words, psychological stress can physically remodel your blood, making it more prone to clotting.

Scientists have known for decades that chronic stress is bad for the heart. Large population studies have repeatedly identified emotional stress as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. What has been less clear is exactly how an emotion translates into a biological change that could increase cardiovascular risk.

When we experience psychological stress, the body's finely balanced haemostasis – the system which keeps blood flowing normally while remaining ready to prevent bleeding when needed – becomes disrupted. The blood moves into what scientists call a hypercoagulable state, meaning it becomes more likely to clot.

But the mechanism behind this process has remained a subject of scientific debate.

Some experts suggested that stress activates the immune system, causing widespread inflammation. Others proposed that stress causes blood to become more concentrated as blood pressure rises. That's an idea known as the haemoconcentration hypothesis.

My colleagues and I suspected something different, that the true instigator was oxidative stress. This is an explosion of free radicals triggered by the body's fundamental stress response acting as an upstream master switch that directly changes the blood's structural properties.

Putting stress to the test

To investigate this idea, we conducted a randomised controlled crossover study involving eight healthy young men between the ages of 18 and 30.

That may seem like a surprisingly small group, but experiments that examine biological changes in real people under tightly controlled laboratory conditions are complex, labour-intensive and expensive.

Rather than looking for broad population trends, studies like this are designed to uncover the underlying mechanisms at work inside the body.

Stress increases the production of highly reactive molecules known as free radicals. These molecules then alter the way blood clots form.

 (Science Photo Library/Canva)



Each participant visited our laboratory twice, one week apart. During one visit they sat quietly and rested. During the other, they completed the Trier social stress test, the gold standard in research for inducing acute psychological stress. The order in which they did the visits was completely random.

The test is deliberately uncomfortable because it mirrors everyday social pressures. Participants were given five minutes to prepare a speech before delivering it to a camera and a panel of expressionless judges. Just before they began speaking, their notes were taken away.

Immediately afterwards, they were asked to complete a mental arithmetic challenge, counting backwards from 2003 in intervals of 17. Whenever they made a mistake, they had to start again.

We collected blood samples immediately before and after both sessions. To measure free radicals, we used a highly sensitive technique called electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. We also analysed the structure of blood clots as they formed, allowing us to examine how stress was affecting blood at a microscopic level.

Biological changes

The results were stark. During the quiet resting session, participants' blood chemistry remained stable. After the stress test, however, two things happened at the same time: free radical levels increased and the structure of blood clots completely transformed.

We observed a rise in the ascorbate free radical, our marker of oxidative stress, indicating that emotional stress rapidly increased oxidative stress within the body.

At the same time, the forming blood clots became larger, denser and more tightly packed with fibrin, which are the protein fibres that provide a clot's structural framework. We also found evidence that stress activated part of the body's coagulation system known as the intrinsic pathway.

Perhaps just as importantly, we found no evidence that stress changed blood viscosity or thickness. This challenges the idea that stress primarily works by concentrating the blood.

Instead, our findings suggest that stress alters the quality and architecture of the clot itself. This provides new evidence that even brief periods of psychological stress can trigger rapid biological changes associated with increased clotting potential.

Of course, our study does not mean that a stressful presentation or difficult day at work will immediately cause a heart attack or stroke. Cardiovascular disease is far more complex than that.

Our findings provide important clues about how psychological stress affects the body, but they should be interpreted with appropriate caution. Because the study involved only eight healthy young men, larger studies involving women, older adults and people with cardiovascular disease will be needed to determine how widely the findings apply.

The findings may also point towards new approaches for reducing cardiovascular risk. Rather than focusing solely on the psychological experience of stress, future research could explore whether targeting the underlying biochemical pathways can help protect the cardiovascular system from some of stress's physical effects.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/