Copper Could Be a Secret Weapon Against Antibiotic-Resistant UTIs

By Texas A&M U., Oct. 1, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/copper-could-be-a-secret-weapon-against-antibiotic-resistant-utis/

Bacterial colonies grown in Dr. Subash’s lab help researchers investigate how UTI-causing bacteria respond to the body’s natural defenses. 

Credit: Nadya Pichkasova/Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

The body turns copper into a weapon against urinary tract infections, and scientists hope to strengthen that defense against bacteria that resist antibiotics.

Researchers at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (VMBS) are investigating how the immune system deploys copper against urinary tract infections (UTIs) and how bacteria survive the assault. Their goal is to identify weaknesses that could help treat infections increasingly resistant to antibiotics.

The project, supported by a $1.48 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), builds on previous findings from Dr. Sarguru Subash, an associate professor in the VMBS Department of Veterinary Pathobiology. His laboratory showed that the body raises copper levels in the urinary tract during infection to help kill invading bacteria.

How Copper Becomes an Immune Weapon

Copper has two very different roles: people and animals need it in small amounts, but under the right conditions, it is toxic to bacteria. The immune system uses that toxicity as part of its early, or innate, response to infection.

Specialized immune cells can engulf bacteria and expose them to a mixture of antimicrobial substances that includes copper. During UTIs, copper levels also rise in urine, according to Subash’s earlier research.

Bacteria, however, have their own protective systems. Because copper occurs naturally in their surroundings, many have evolved ways to pump it out or limit its harmful effects. The new project will investigate the genetic mechanisms that allow bacteria causing UTIs to tolerate increased copper and continue growing.

“We know that copper plays an important role, but that also raises so many questions about how these pathogens adapt to the presence of increased copper,” Subash said. “If we better understand how the bacteria overcome the host-imposed copper resistance, then we can develop therapies that make the bacteria more susceptible to copper and, more broadly, to everything that the immune system throws at them.”

Stopping Bacteria From Gripping the Bladder

The team is also exploring preliminary evidence that copper may disrupt fimbriae, the hairlike structures bacteria use to attach to cells lining the bladder. Interfering with those structures could weaken an infection without relying solely on killing the bacteria.

Attachment is crucial because the urinary tract already has a simple physical defense: the flow of urine. Bacteria that cannot hold firmly to the bladder lining are more likely to be flushed out, Subash explained.

Dr. Sarguru Subash and Veerakit Vanitshavit study how the immune system uses copper to fight bacterial infections and how bacteria adapt to survive those defenses. 

Credit: Nadya Pichkasova/Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

Copper’s effectiveness also depends on the other defenses acting alongside it. “Bacteria do have adaptations, but when it’s presented in the context of this cocktail, the bacterial defense mechanisms are not as effective,” Subash said. “Sometimes the balance tips in favor of the host, so we can control the infections. Other times, the balance tips in favor of pathogens. As a result, we get clinical disease.”

Delivering Copper Without Damaging Cells

The researchers will examine the body’s side of the interaction as well, focusing on ceruloplasmin, a protein containing copper. Subash’s previous findings suggest it may help deliver copper during a UTI.

That delivery requires careful control. At high concentrations, copper can damage the body’s own cells, so its transport and storage are tightly regulated. The team will study how ceruloplasmin mobilizes copper during infection and how that process contributes to controlling bacteria.

Examining both copper delivery and bacterial resistance should give the researchers a fuller picture of the point where immune defenses meet an invading organism. It could also help them identify ways to strengthen those defenses through treatment.

Developing Treatments That Work With Immunity

The laboratory has already identified an experimental antimicrobial compound that becomes more effective when copper is present. The next step is to modify and test related compounds, looking for candidates that could work alongside the body’s existing defenses.

This strategy could offer another route for treating infections as bacteria become increasingly resistant to antibiotics. Rather than considering a drug’s effect on bacteria in isolation, the researchers want to understand how its activity combines with the immune response.

“We are very interested in understanding the basic aspects of how the immune system controls pathogens so we can develop next-generation antimicrobials that not only are focused on directly killing bacteria but also work synergistically with the immune system,” Subash said.

A copper-dependent treatment ready for clinical use is still probably years away, Subash cautioned. The current project is an early step toward identifying potential options for difficult-to-treat UTIs.

Potential Benefits Beyond Human UTIs

Some bacteria that cause UTIs can also infect other parts of the body. Discoveries about how they withstand copper could therefore help guide research into treatments for other bacterial infections.

The findings could also matter in veterinary medicine, where recurring UTIs affect animals such as dogs. Before pursuing those applications, the team is concentrating on how the body deploys copper and how bacteria counter it.

“The main innovative aspect of this project is looking comprehensively at how the pathogen responds and how the host uses copper and then tying together both of these basic science discoveries with a translational goal,” Subash said. “It’s a full circle.”

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Eating Alone Can Literally Change How Your Body Metabolizes Glucose

01 Oct. 2026, By C. Cassella

https://www.sciencealert.com/science-says-who-you-eat-dinner-with-matters-as-much-as-whats-on-your-plate

(urbazon/E+/Getty Images)



Dinner by yourself can be a lonely affair. The lack of social connection could change the way that your body processes your meal.

A new study published in Science Advances has now found evidence that eating with others could help your body balance your blood sugar levels.

In experiments, 108 participants consumed just over 100 grams of white-wheat bread. For the following two hours, researchers tracked their glycemic response.

In one scenario, participants ate the bread on their own. In another scenario, they were accompanied by a close companion.

In the social scenario, blood sugar levels spiked less and returned to baseline faster than in the alone scenario.

The authors argue that this aligns with a "robust phenomenon" in humans.

"Blood sugar regulation is not just about what we eat, but who we eat with," explains Shir Atzil from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel.

"Our relationships have an active biological role in our physical well-being."

After the same carbohydrate meal, participants' blood sugar rose less when they ate with a close companion (blue) than when they ate alone (red). The top graphs compare the same people in both settings; the bottom graphs compare separate groups. The plots on the right show the total blood sugar response over two hours.

 (Masalha et al., Science Advances, 2026)

Atzil and colleagues argue that their findings provide a proof of concept for the principle of 'social physiology'.

This is a biological framework for understanding how links between our inward and outward lives have evolved over time.

Social physiology could at least partly explain why we, as a species, are incentivized to cooperate: we are interdependent organisms who rely on each other for greater survival.

You can see that in our very blood, even when we aren't physically touching.

"We used to think of the body as an isolated system that regulates itself," explains Atzil.

"Our findings show that human physiology is inherently social. Being close to someone you love lowers the physical energy your body spends on regulating itself. This gives us a direct metabolic benefit to being together and reveals a core evolutionary reason why humans form bonds in the first place: our bodies run better together."

In other social animals, like fruit flies, rodents, pigs, and monkeys, studies suggest that isolation can shorten lifespans, suppress immune systems, or amplify stress reactions.

But for ethical reasons, these sorts of experiments are not conducted among humans.

Instead, researchers use small changes in how the body functions alone versus in social settings to better understand how we change in the presence of others.

Glucose responses are a clever way to do this.

When mice are kept in social isolation, studies have found it alters their insulin signaling and impairs their metabolic function, raising the risk of obesity.

In humans, by comparison, loneliness is associated with dysregulated glycemic control and predicts type 2 diabetes.

"While prior work has focused on the outcomes of social isolation, the present study identifies a direct, quantifiable benefit of social proximity in glucose metabolism," the authors explain.

The team's experiments compared how human bodies respond to the same carbohydrate meal when alone versus in company.

They also ran parallel experiments among 116 participants, testing how the body copes with cold exposure.

When a partner was present, the body's temperature regulation was more efficient, especially when the two people were touching.

But even when no one was touching, there were benefits.

In another set of experiments among 115 adults and 56 mother-infant pairs, participants underwent a stress challenge.

It produced a smaller arousal response, such as increased sweating, when another person was present, even if they weren't physically skin-to-skin.

This arousal response was also ameliorated faster when in company.

The findings suggest that having somebody close by, even if you aren't touching, could help your body run more efficiently.

During cold exposure and a stress test, participants showed smaller physiological responses when a companion was present (blue) than when they were alone (red). 

(Masalha et al., Science Advances, 2026)

What those effects are in the long run is an open question, but population studies generally suggest that loneliness is not good for our overall health.

Evidence suggests that individuals with stronger social ties tend to be healthier, happier, and live longer.

Conversely, social isolation is associated with increased metabolic disorders, cardiovascular disease, cancer, slower wound healing, reduced sleep efficiency, and mortality.

The world's largest study on happiness has been running for 88 years and counting.

After analyzing hundreds of peer-reviewed papers and countless questionnaires, medical check-ups, and in-person interviews with participants, researchers found that close relationships were one of the best predictors of a happy and meaningful life.

Surrounding ourselves with loved ones seems to be inherently good for us.

It could change how our bodies cope on a miniscule level, but with big repercussions.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Scientists predicted Friday 13 November 2026 will be ‘Doomsday.’ Should you be worried?

Published: Sept. 30, 2026, by A. MacEachern, Professor, History, Western U.
https://theconversation.com/scientists-predicted-friday-13-november-2026-will-be-doomsday-should-you-be-worried-290354

In 1960, the journal Science published an article predicting that on 13th November 2026 the human population would approach infinity. 

(Unsplash)

In 1960, Science, one of the world’s leading science journals, published an article with an unambiguous title: Doomsday: Friday, 13 November, A.D. 2026. It predicted that on this future date – just over a month from today – the human population would approach infinity and effectively annihilate itself.

The outlandishness of the claim landed the article widespread public attention. More surprisingly — because its underlying research and math seemed sound — it also received careful and sustained scientific attention.

The authors — Heinz von Foerster, an Austrian-American professor and cybernetics expert and two of his students, Patricia M. Mora and Lawrence W. Amiot — argued that human populations are exceptional and might grow beyond an exponential rate, at an ever-increasing one.

“Our great-great-grandchildren will not starve,” they argued. “They will be squeezed to death.”

The article was regularly cited, and its predictions appeared remarkably accurate — until around 1993, halfway to the predicted “Doomsday,” when the global population began falling behind its forecasts.

Today, the global birth rate is slightly less than half what it was in 1960. Hopefully, we will all wake up on 13 November to an ordinary day. Nonetheless, this article remains exemplary, for blending rigorous science with the art of stagecraft to staggering effect.

Written by academics, edited by journalists, backed by evidence.Get newsletter
Unique human capacities

The mid-20th century saw increasing societal concern about global population growth and its potential to lead to resource scarcity and geopolitical conflict. Underlying much of this concern was implicit or explicit acceptance of the Malthusian idea that whereas population has the potential to grow exponentially, it is kept constantly under check by its capacity to feed itself.

Heinz von Foerster in 1963. (University of Illinois),

  CC BY-SA



In their article, however, von Foerster and his co-authors argued that as far as populations go, humans may be exceptional.

Given our capacity to communicate and form “coalitions” that help us resolve problems, rising population density might simply mean more opportunities for collaboration, so that our numbers might grow not only beyond an exponential rate but at an ever-increasing one.

They then used 24 estimates of the world population stretching across the past 2,000 years to show that human numbers have in fact continually outpaced expectations. All this was presented in calm, scientific prose and aided by dense mathematical equations.

‘Squeezed to death’

Von Foerster and his co-authors then projected these historical figures into the future, calculating that thanks to ever-increasing growth, in the year 2026 our numbers would near infinity.

Thankfully, the same capacity for collaboration that assisted our species’ development throughout history could now avert this catastrophe. Since we are unlikely to want to reduce our life spans, they concluded, we should work together to reduce the global birth rate by half.

This publication caused an immediate stir. There were stories in Time and The New York Times. It became the subject of a series of Pogo comic strips and many commentators took the article as strictly a tongue-in-cheek comment on population fears.

A population explosion

Rather than the story dying out, a funny thing happened. When Science published letters to the editor from mathematicians and demographers attacking von Foerster and his colleagues’ work — calling it “ridiculous” and “manifestly absurd” — the authors responded with spirited defences that doubled down on the underlying math and its conclusions.

Only around 1993 did the accuracy of von Foerster and colleagues’ predictions begin to falter. (Unsplash/Rob Curran)



Throughout the 1960s through to the 1980s, the “Doomsday” equation became regularly cited — usually at face value — in textbooks on genetics, ecology and demography.

It appeared in stranger places, too. In a 1963 Canadian Parliamentary committee, for example, a witness from the chemical industry prominently cited it as reason chemical pesticides were required: to feed the approaching population explosion. In a 1971 U.S. Supreme Court abortion case leading up to Roe v. Wade, it was cited as why there was no compelling reason for the government to favour increased population.

The Doomsday idea persisted in part because its predictions for future populations turned out to be highly accurate — at least for a while. Its core equation yielded projections that were better than those of most demographers throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

Only around 1993 did that accuracy begin to falter and the global population began falling behind the forecasts — because the world began to do what von Foerster and his colleagues recommended it do. Today, the global birth rate is slightly less than half the 1960 rate.

Science and stagecraft

We will probably not all wake up on Friday, November 13 “squeezed to death.” But before simply moving on — prepping for the next doomsday scenario — it is worth asking what we can learn from this one.

For me, the lesson is in how we present our beliefs to the world. Heinz von Foerster was, at one point in his life, a stage magician. Borrowing the classic language of stagecraft, an effective illusion relies on three parts: the setup, the extraordinary turn and the final reveal that returns the situation to normal.

Heinz von Foerster trained as a stage magician. 

(Unsplash/Kyle Smith)

Von Foerster and his co-authors’ article gained attention because it was an ordinary scientific article wrapped in an extraordinary title and conclusion. It retained significance because it was firmly grounded in research and argument.

To draw the world’s attention to a serious matter by way of absurdity — that’s a good trick.

The birth of modern Man

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Could Advanced Aliens Be Living Nearby? Scientists Say It’s Unlikely

By Northern Arizona U., Sept. 30, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/could-advanced-aliens-be-living-nearby-scientists-say-its-unlikely/

Some nearby exoplanets may be far older than Earth yet still host only simple life. A new study suggests that the decisive factor may be how much photosynthetic energy a planet has accumulated over billions of years.

 Credit: Shutterstock

Even planets billions of years older than Earth may host only microbes if photosynthesis supplies too little energy.

Science fiction often imagines Earth’s galactic neighborhood teeming with hyper-advanced extraterrestrial civilizations, but the actual cosmos near us may be far quieter.

A study published in the International Journal of Astrobiology, led by Chris Doughty, a professor of ecoinformatics at Northern Arizona University, proposes that the evolution of complex life on exoplanets depends heavily on cumulative plant energy rather than just the passage of time. Although many of the planets orbiting Earth’s stellar neighbors are several billion years older than our world, worse conditions for cumulative photosynthesis mean life on those planets likely evolved much more slowly.

Among 29 nearby exoplanets, worlds outside our solar system that could potentially have liquid water, the team identified only two where life might have progressed beyond Earth’s evolutionary stage. Those planets, GJ 1061c and K2-3d, are larger, hotter, brighter, and older than most Earth-like planets in our stellar neighborhood. Three others could have reached a stage roughly comparable to Earth’s Mesozoic Era, the age of dinosaurs.

Photosynthesis as an evolutionary clock

Warm, wet regions on Earth generally support more plant growth and more species than cold, dry regions. Scientists believe that greater plant growth provides more energy and ecological space for animals, linking the conditions that favor photosynthesis to opportunities for life to diversify. Photosynthesis converts light into chemical energy, and the researchers hypothesize that the amount captured over a planet’s entire history could influence its evolutionary development. Under that relationship, a younger, warmer, wetter planet could support more evolutionary development than an older, colder, drier one.

During the 3.2 billion years before more efficient vascular plants evolved on Earth, photosynthesis fixed roughly 2.4 × 10²⁵ grams of carbon, incorporating it into organic matter. After the emergence of those plants, which have specialized tissues that transport water and nutrients, another 7 × 10²⁵ grams were fixed before humans evolved. Those quantities gave the researchers a way to compare Earth’s evolutionary history with the amount of photosynthesis other planets might have sustained.

The TRAPPIST-1 System. Credit: Northern Arizona University

Older worlds under dimmer stars

Planets orbiting red dwarfs, the most common stars in our galaxy, are considered among the likeliest places to find life, but their growing conditions differ from Earth’s. Many are tidally locked, meaning the same side always faces their star while the other faces away.

“If photosynthetic life evolved on these planets, that life has been photosynthesizing for potentially billions of years longer than on Earth,” said Michael Gowanlock, a study coauthor and associate professor of informatics at Northern Arizona University. “However, the total annual photosynthesis is likely lower because there is less light and half the planetary surface area available for photosynthesis. Who is ahead? That is the mystery we are quantitatively trying to solve.”

Because plant growth also depends on temperature and rainfall, estimating photosynthesis required more than knowing how much light a planet receives. Coauthor Denis Sergeev, a lecturer at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, had simulated possible exoplanet climates, producing maps of temperature, light, and precipitation. The team used those maps, which describe the main variables used to predict plant growth on Earth, to estimate potential growth over the planets’ lifetimes and infer how far evolution might have progressed.

For TRAPPIST-1e, a planet 40 light-years from Earth, the calculation yielded potential lifetime carbon fixation of just 21% of Earth’s total, despite the planet being several billion years older.

What would it be like to vacation in the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system? The poster invites you to “Take a planet-hopping excursion through the TRAPPIST-1 system.” The star system was revealed by the TRansiting Planets and PlanetIsmals Small Telescope, or TRAPPIST, and NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.

 Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“Since this is less than the Earth had fixed before the evolution of more efficient vascular plants, we estimated that TRAPPIST-1e may only be at the microbial stage of evolution,” said coauthor Cameron Hrabak, a Northern Arizona University alumnus. “That’s well behind Earth.”

The atmosphere surrounding TRAPPIST-1e or any of the other planets could profoundly change its climate and capacity for photosynthesis, altering the evolutionary stage predicted by the model. Future observations with the James Webb Space Telescope could provide atmospheric data to refine those estimates, which assume that life exists and develops much as it did on Earth. The calculations therefore leave open the possibility of advanced extraterrestrial life nearby while suggesting conditions that could make it less likely.

“Physicist Enrico Fermi famously asked, given the high likelihood of intelligent life in the galaxy, ‘Where are they?’” Doughty said. “This paper suggests that our exoplanet stellar neighborhood may be quiet because most Earth-like planets near us are likely to be evolutionarily behind us and still at the microbial stage. Which means we can sleep well, because if life on those exoplanets evolved just like on Earth, most of those planets will just be filled with microbes and not advanced aliens.”

Scarce rain could shape alien civilizations

Rainfall was generally the main constraint on plant growth among the worlds most likely to surpass Earth’s total carbon fixation and evolutionary stage. On Earth, growth can be limited by light, temperature, or precipitation, and a desert can receive abundant sunlight while supporting relatively little plant growth because water is scarce. Such restrictions also shape which organisms thrive, helping explain why desert life has little overlap with life in tropical forests.

If intelligent creatures evolved on those exoplanets, the researchers suggest, the ecosystems shaping them might therefore resemble deserts or temperate environments. Humans could offer a parallel, having likely evolved in savanna woodlands where rainfall limited plant growth.

“To use two pop culture references, the ecological characteristics that shape advanced life on those exoplanets might be more ‘Dune’ than ‘Avatar,’” Doughty said.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

When Your Eyes Mislead You, the Brain Finds Common Ground

By S. Bolakhe, Cold Spring Harbor Lab., Sept. 30, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/when-your-eyes-mislead-you-the-brain-finds-common-ground/

New research indicates that neighboring visual areas may settle on a common interpretation by reinforcing activity patterns they share. Conflicting patterns, by contrast, fade rapidly, hinting at a neural mechanism that could help the brain maintain a coherent view of the world. 

Credit: Shutterstock

A mouse study suggests that neighboring visual areas may build agreement by sustaining shared activity patterns while mismatches fade.

A shape in the dark might briefly resemble a face, or an orange might momentarily look like an apple. To make sense of what we see, the brain must coordinate information from regions with different specialties. A study in mice now suggests how two neighboring visual areas may reach a consistent interpretation, with shared activity persisting while mismatches quickly fade.

The research, published in Nature Neuroscience, examined the primary visual cortex, known as V1, and the lateromedial visual area, or LM. Both belong to the visual cortex, the part of the brain that processes sight. When activity patterns in the two areas agreed, they lasted longer. When the patterns disagreed, the mismatch dissipated within a fraction of a second.

The finding addresses a question that extends beyond vision for Mitra Javadzadeh, a Cynthia R. Stebbins Fellow at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, who conducted the research with collaborators at the University of Cambridge and University College London.

CSHL Cynthia R. Stebbins Fellow Mitra Javadzadeh and collaborators have developed circuit models of the primary visual cortex (V1) and lateromedial visual area (LM) in the brain’s neocortex. These models allowed the team to map and predict neural activity in response to different visual stimuli.

 Credit: Javadzadeh lab/CSHL



“While we understand individual building blocks of the brain, what is the glue that puts them together?” Javadzadeh asks. “Knowing that can finally help us understand how the brain works as a whole.”

Mitra Javadzadeh.

 Credit: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

How two visual areas build consensus

V1 and LM communicate in both directions, allowing each area to influence its neighbor rather than simply pass information along a one-way route. To investigate that relationship, the researchers trained mice to distinguish between two visual patterns tilted at opposite angles. The mice received a reward for only one orientation. During the task, the team briefly silenced either V1 or LM and recorded how the other area functioned without its partner’s input.

Using those recordings, the researchers built an artificial neural network model representing the V1-LM circuit. The model allowed them to simulate how the circuit would respond when specific neurons were manipulated and investigate how connections between the areas shaped the persistence of their activity.
“We find that over time, these types of connections between areas implement a mechanism we call consensus building,” Javadzadeh explains.

Such coordination could help explain how specialized groups of neurons, each receiving distinct streams of sensory information, contribute to a unified interpretation. “We are trying to understand how you can have such a high level of specialization between these different blocks, yet always have a consistent holistic outcome,” Javadzadeh says.

Javadzadeh and her collaborators measured the activity of a combined 194 V1 neurons and 228 LM neurons across seven mice to build accurate circuit models of each brain region. 

Credit: Javadzadeh lab/CSHL
When sight and sound disagree



The experiments tested mice distinguishing tilted patterns, rather than the everyday visual mix-ups that help illustrate the broader question. They also focused on just two visual areas. Javadzadeh’s team is now investigating whether similar principles apply throughout the neocortex, the larger brain structure that includes V1 and LM, and potentially help reconcile information from different senses.

“For example, when what you see contradicts with what you hear, do you still use the same kind of mechanisms to reconcile these two?” she wonders.

If consensus building operates more broadly, it could help researchers understand what happens when brain regions fail to reach a consistent interpretation of the world. The same principles could also inspire approaches to reconciling conflicting information in artificial intelligence systems.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Could Earth’s Magnetic Field Be Secretly Influencing How We Age?

By U. of Nottingham, Sept. 30, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/could-earths-magnetic-field-be-secretly-influencing-how-we-age/

Reducing Earth’s magnetic field to near zero changed how fruit flies aged, moved, and produced cellular energy. The effects depended on mitochondrial health, suggesting that this invisible environmental force may interact with metabolism in unexpected ways.

 Credit: Shutterstock

Shielded from most of Earth’s magnetic field, fruit flies with faulty mitochondria lived about 20% longer, but their physical performance declined.

Life on Earth has always operated within a constant, invisible background. The planet’s magnetic field continuously passes through every living cell, yet biologists still know very little about whether organisms actually need this environmental force to function.

When scientists nearly stripped away that magnetic background in an experiment with fruit flies, they found changes in how the insects’ cells generated energy, how well the flies moved, and how long they lived.

The effects centered on mitochondria, the tiny structures inside cells that produce much of the energy needed for life. Research led by Professor Lisa Chakrabarti and Jacob Reed at the University of Nottingham’s School of Veterinary Medicine & Science found that the flies’ responses depended on the health of this cellular machinery. Removing most of the magnetic field could improve one aspect of their lives while worsening another.

A longer life with a physical cost

For the study, published in Aging, the team used a specially designed shielding system to reduce the magnetic field surrounding the flies to near zero. They tested healthy flies alongside flies carrying a defect in Pink1, a gene associated with inherited early-onset Parkinson’s disease in humans. Comparing the two groups allowed them to investigate how flies with impaired mitochondrial function responded to the same environmental change.

The Pink1 flies lived about 20% longer under magnetic shielding, but their physical performance declined. Healthy flies showed improved movement along with changes in their health span, or the time spent in good health. The results suggest that an animal’s metabolic state helps determine its response to magnetic field strength, with longer survival and better physical function not necessarily going together.

Fruit flies in Earth’s magnetic field (replicated). 

Credit: University of Nottingham

Magnetic fields do more than guide migration

Doctoral candidate Reed said: “Research in this area is sparse, focusing mainly on how migrating animals sense magnetic fields, or on preparing humans for space travel. Yet we still know very little about why all living organisms need or don’t need a magnetic field to function normally in the first place.”

He continues, “This project brought expertise from physics, engineering, and biology to study fruit flies with novel, highly specialized techniques and equipment; to not only look at physiology but pathology too. It opens a potential new avenue for a non-invasive, mitochondria-targeted approaches that many diseases have been longing for. Hopefully, emphasizing that magnetic fields are fundamental to life beyond certain scientific niches.”

To investigate what was happening inside the cells, the team took high-resolution measurements of mitochondrial respiration, the process through which mitochondria use oxygen to help produce usable energy. They also used highly sensitive quantum sensors that exploit tiny defects within diamonds to detect changes associated with mitochondrial activity.

Reducing the magnetic field altered mitochondrial energy metabolism and levels of superoxide, a highly reactive molecule produced by mitochondria. These measurements linked the changes in the flies’ movement and lifespan to shifts in the cellular processes that supply their energy. They also showed why the effects of magnetic shielding could not be described as uniformly beneficial or harmful.

Has evolution made cells dependent on magnetism?

The findings raise questions about whether Earth’s magnetic field is part of the environment that cells have evolved to function within. Any use of magnetic fields to influence mitochondrial function in aging or neurodegenerative disease remains a prospect for further research.

Chakrabarti said: “We live our entire lives within the Earth’s magnetic field. It passes through our bodies, our cells and every living organism on the planet, yet we know surprisingly little about whether and how this invisible force affects the way our cells work.

“Our results raise the intriguing possibility that the Earth’s magnetic field forms part of the biological environment to which life has adapted throughout evolution. Understanding how cells sense and respond to magnetic fields could ultimately reveal new ways of manipulating mitochondrial function in aging and disease.”

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Arctic Landslide Triggers 1,580-Foot Tsunami in Alaska

By M. E. West, E. Karasözen, U, of Alaska Fairbanks, Sept. 30, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/arctic-landslide-triggers-1580-foot-tsunami-in-alaska/

Artist’s rendering of a massive landslide-generated tsunami surging through a steep Arctic fjord.

 Credit: SciTechDaily.com

As glaciers retreat, steep Arctic fjords may face rising landslide-tsunami risks that could be reduced through better monitoring and faster warnings.

On the evening of August 9, 2025, passengers aboard the Hanse Explorer had just finished photographing and filming South Sawyer Glacier before the vessel began its trip back through the fjord. About 12 hours later, part of a nearby mountain suddenly collapsed into the water, triggering the second-highest tsunami ever recorded.

We study earthquakes and tsunamis at the Alaska Earthquake Center, and one of us is Alaska state seismologist. In a new study with colleagues, we describe how the landslide drove water and debris 1,580 feet (481 meters) up the opposite wall of the fjord, higher than the top floor of the Taipei 101 skyscraper, before surging onward through Tracy Arm. The wave was powerful enough to scour the fjord walls down to bare rock.

The Tracy Arm landslide sent a tsunami wave far up the opposite side of the fjord near South Sawyer Glacier.

 Credit: John Lyons/U.S. Geological Survey

The collapse happened shortly after 5 o’clock in the morning on a gray, rainy day. Fortunately, no ships were in the area at the time. In the following months, some cruise lines began avoiding Tracy Arm. Still, the conditions that produced the disaster are not unique to this location.

Landslides are a regular hazard in Alaska’s coastal mountains, where fast uplift from tectonic forces and long-term ice loss meet the wearing effects of rain, snow, and moving glaciers. In recent years, however, a striking pattern has appeared: Several major landslides have occurred exactly where a retreating glacier ends.

Though the mechanics are still poorly understood, these mountains appear to become unstable when the ice disappears. When the landslide hits the water, the momentum of millions of tons of rock is transferred into tsunami waves.

The Tracy Arm landslide generated a tsunami that sent a wave so high up the opposite fjord wall that it would have overtopped some of the world’s tallest buildings. Here’s how it compares to other large tsunamis around the world.

 Credit: Steve Hicks/University College London

This same phenomenon is playing out from Alaska to Greenland and Norway, sometimes with deadly consequences. Across the Arctic, countries are trying to come to terms with this growing hazard. The options are not attractive: avoid vast swaths of coastline, or live with a poorly understood risk. We believe there is an obvious role for alert systems, but only if scientists have a better understanding of where and when landslides are likely to occur.

Signs that a landslide might be coming

The Tracy Arm landslide is a powerful example.

The landslide occurred in August, when warm ocean waters and heavier precipitation favor both glacier retreat and slope failure. The glacier below the landslide area had experienced rapid calving – large chunks of ice breaking off and falling into the water – and it had retreated more than a third of a mile in the two months prior. Heavy rain had been falling. Rain enters fractures in the mountain and pushes them closer to failure by increasing the water pressure in cracks.

Most provocative are the thousands of small seismic tremors that emanated from the area of the slide in the days prior to the mountainside collapsing.

We believe that this combination of signs would have been sufficient to issue progressive alerts to any ships in the vicinity and homes and businesses that could have been harmed by a tsunami at least a day prior to the failure – had a monitoring program existed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBgydzF6Ezw

The last view of Tracy Arm, taken from the Hanse Explorer motoring away from the South Sawyer glacier, before a landslide from a mountain just out of view on the left crashed into the fjord. The landslide generated a tsunami that sent a wave nearly 1,600 feet (about 490 meters) up the mountain on the right.

 Credit: Alaska Earthquake Center

Escalating alerts are used for everything from terrorism and nuclear plant safety to avalanches and volcanic unrest. They don’t remove the risk, but they do make it easier for people to safely coexist with hazards.

For example, though people are still killed in avalanches, alert systems have played an essential role in making winter backcountry travel safer for more people. The collapse at Tracy Arm demonstrates what could be possible for landslides.
What an alert system could look like

We believe that the combination of weather and rapid glacier retreat in early August 2025 was likely sufficient to issue an alert notifying people that the hazard may be temporarily elevated in a general area. On a yellow-orange-red scale, this would be a yellow alert.

Maps show how the glacier has retreated over the years, moving past the section of mountain that collapsed (outlined in white on the right) in the days prior to the slide. The map on the right shows the height the tsunami reached on the fjord walls. 

Credit: Planet Labs

In the hours prior to the landslide, the exponential increase in seismic events and telltale transition to what is known as seismic tremor – a continuous “hum” of seismic energy – were sufficient to communicate a time-sensitive warning for a specific region.

These observations, recorded as a byproduct of regional earthquake monitoring, warranted an “orange” alert noting immediate concern. The signs were arguably sufficient to recommend keeping boats and ships out of the fjord.

Our research over the past few years has demonstrated that once a large landslide has started, it is possible to detect and measure the event within a couple of minutes. In this amount of time, seismic waves in the surrounding area can indicate the rough size of the landslide and whether it occurred near open water.

A monitoring program that could quickly communicate this would be able to issue a red alert, signaling an event in progress.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s tsunami warning program has spent decades fine-tuning rapid message dissemination. A warning system would have offered little help for ships in the immediate vicinity, but it could have provided perhaps 10 minutes of warning for those who rode out the harrowing tsunami farther away.

There is no landslide monitoring system operating yet at this scale in the U.S. Building one will require cooperation across state and federal agencies, and strengthened monitoring and communication networks. Even then, it will not be fail-proof.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_DZqYrlp4A

Seismic data from the closest monitoring station to the landslide, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) away, shows the “hum” of seismic energy increasing just ahead of the landslide, indicated by the tall yellow spike shortly after 5 a.m. Credit: Alaska Earthquake Center.

Understanding risk, not removing it

Alert systems do not remove the risk entirely, but they are a better option than no warning at all. Over time, they also build awareness as communities and visitors get used to thinking about these hazards.

Many of the most alluring places on Earth come with significant hazards. Arctic fjords are among them. The same processes that create this hazard – glacier retreat, steep terrain, dynamic geology – are also what make these landscapes so compelling. The mix of glaciers, ice-choked waters and steep mountains is exactly what draws people to these places. People will continue to visit and experience them.

The view from the deck of the Hanse Explorer on Aug. 9, 2025, shows the mountain where the landslide occurred just 12 hours before it happened. 

Credit: Hanse Explorer

The question is not whether these places should be avoided altogether, but how to help people make more informed decisions. We believe that stronger geophysical and meteorological monitoring, coupled with new research and communication channels, is the first step.

On Aug. 9, visitors unknowingly passed through a landscape on the cusp of failure. An alert system might have given tour companies and people in the area the information they needed to make more informed choices and avoid being caught by surprise.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

“Crawzilla” – Scientists Just Found North America’s Biggest Known Crayfish

By U. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Sept. 29, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/crawzilla-scientists-just-found-north-americas-biggest-known-crayfish/

The Crawzilla crawdad specimen that inspired a competition among scientists to find the largest crayfish in North America. 

Credit: Caitlin Bloomer, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The search for North America’s biggest crayfish has turned a friendly rivalry into a scientific question about what limits their growth.

A Tennessee bottlebrush crayfish in a West Virginia university collection has taken the top spot in a new ranking of North America’s largest known crayfish. Its carapace, the hard shell covering its head and midsection, measures 86.6 millimeters, or about 3.4 inches, without counting the tail, claws, or antennae.

The specimen, housed at West Liberty University, led a list of 20 large individuals representing 18 species. The rankings, published in Ecology, grew out of a friendly disagreement that sent researchers searching through museum collections around the country.
Museum specimens settle a crayfish rivalry

Caitlin Bloomer had pulled a huge crayfish known as a Crawzilla crawdad from the muck during a biological survey in Kentucky. A teaching assistant professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences in the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, she brought the animal back to campus.

“I thought, ‘There’s no doubt I have caught the biggest crayfish anyone’s ever seen!’ I brought it back to campus to show my colleague, naturally bragging about having caught the biggest-ever crayfish. But, as all biologists and sport fisherman do, he took one look and said, ‘No way, I’ve caught bigger,’” Bloomer said.

To settle the question, Bloomer enlisted biologists and museum curators to find the largest specimens in their collections. The researchers used calipers, tools for taking precise measurements, to compare the animals and determine their places in the rankings.

Six of the top 20 came from the Illinois Natural History Survey, part of the university’s Prairie Research Institute. Another four belonged to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.

“I knew we had some massive crayfish in the West Liberty University Astacology Collection, but it was a surprise to learn we had the two largest specimens known from North America! Our record-holder, a Tennessee bottlebrush crayfish collected by Dr. Zac Loughman and West Liberty students back in 2011, shows just how amazing and diverse crayfish can be,” said Zackary Graham, an assistant professor of biology at West Liberty University. “Its carapace alone is about the length of a credit card, and with the tail and claws, it stretches nearly the width of a sheet of notebook paper. Both of these giants are now proudly displayed in my office, and I show them to just about everyone who walks in.”

“Mine was not the biggest, but it did make the top 20, so I’m super proud of it,” Bloomer said. “And it was also the only burrowing crayfish to make the list, so I’ll take the win.”

What keeps North American crayfish smaller?

Comparing specimens across collections provided some of the first estimates of maximum size for North American crayfish. Those measurements also allowed the researchers to investigate whether the largest animals shared environmental conditions that might help explain their growth.

“They all seemed to max out around that 80-millimeter mark, but we weren’t sure why, especially given that there are absolutely massive crayfish in other parts of the world,” Bloomer said. “We started looking at things like latitude, oxygen availability, and habitat type as possible correlates to explain why certain species and individuals were larger than others, but we weren’t seeing any patterns.”

Without a clear environmental explanation, the researchers suspect that the limits may come from the animals’ own bodies. The makeup of their exoskeletons, or outer coverings, and aspects of their muscles could constrain how large they become. Those possibilities remain to be tested.

“This was a case where we saw something unusual in the field, and it sparked a future research direction,” Bloomer said. “We think that it could really be worthwhile to look at the physiology of crayfish to see if something there is influencing their body size.”

Bloomer said the team could address this basic question only by drawing on museum collections, underscoring the scientific value of these public resources. Even for animals familiar to generations of creek explorers, those collections can help fill gaps in what researchers know.

“Anyone that goes to a stream as a kid knows what crayfish are — they’re almost a universal onboarding for people to care about aquatic life. I still go out with people who are in their 50s or 60s, who recall catching crawfish in the creek when they were seven,” Bloomer said. “It’s just amazing how much we still have to learn about them.”

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Scientist Reveals 7 of the Strangest Things Coffee Does to Your Body

By E. Beckett, Australian Catholic U., Sept. 29, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/scientist-reveals-7-of-the-strangest-things-coffee-does-to-your-body/

Coffee is a brewed drink made from roasted coffee beans, the seeds of the Coffea plant. It contains caffeine along with hundreds of other natural compounds that contribute to its flavor, aroma, and effects on the body.

 Credit: Shutterstock

Some of coffee’s most unusual effects have little to do with caffeine. Its other bioactive compounds can interact with the gut, medications, and nutrients in ways researchers are still trying to understand.

Coffee is best known, and perhaps most valued, for its caffeine and its ability to make us feel more awake and alert.

But coffee is much more than caffeine dissolved in hot water.

Coffee is a chemically complicated plant extract containing hundreds of bioactive compounds. These can have all kinds of weird and wonderful effects in your body, even when you’re drinking decaf.

Here are seven of the strangest.

1. Coffee can make you poo

One study shows about three in ten people say they get the urge to poo shortly after drinking coffee.

This happens quickly, and with both regular and decaf. So it’s down to more than just the caffeine. But it’s not clear exactly which coffee compounds cause this.

Your colon can also be more active in the morning, and this is when most people drink their first coffee.

What you add to your coffee can also affect your bowels. The lactose in milk or some sugar-free sweeteners can also get the bowels moving, particularly if you consume a lot.

2. Coffee can affect your reflux, eyes and ears

Coffee can worsen reflux symptoms for some people. Reflux, when your stomach acid flows back up into your food pipe, isn’t always just felt as heartburn. It can contribute to coughing, wheezing, and other respiratory symptoms when reflux affects the throat and airways.

Caffeine can temporarily increase pressure inside the eye in some people with glaucoma or ocular hypertension, where pressure in the eye can already be high. Controlling this pressure is an important part of protecting the major nerve of the eye from damage. So some people with these conditions might be advised to limit their coffee and caffeine intake.

There’s also an ear condition where the tube connecting the middle ear to the back of the nose stays abnormally open, which can make you hear your own voice, or your breathing, unusually loudly. People with this condition, known as patulous Eustachian tube dysfunction, are sometimes advised to drink fewer caffeinated drinks and stay well hydrated, because dehydration can worsen symptoms. However, there is little direct evidence that coffee itself causes the condition.

Caffeine’s relationship with migraine is complicated: caffeine can help relieve a migraine, but too much, or suddenly having less than usual, can trigger one in some people.

3. Coffee can interact with your medicines

Coffee can change the way some medicines behave in the body. For instance, it can reduce absorption of the thyroid medication levothyroxine and the osteoporosis drug alendronate.

Caffeine can slow the metabolism of the antipsychotic clozapine, increasing its concentration in the blood.

Sometimes medicines change the way your coffee behaves. For example, the antibiotic ciprofloxacin slows your breakdown of caffeine. So, your usual coffee may stay in your system for longer.

4. Coffee can affect your cholesterol

Coffee contains compounds called diterpenes. Two of these, cafestol and kahweol, can increase total and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol.

But in short-term trials, the same compounds lower lipoprotein(a), which may indicate a lower risk of a heart attack or stroke.

Other coffee compounds, including chlorogenic acids, may modestly lower blood pressure and improve blood vessel function.

So overall, it’s unclear what coffee means for markers of heart health.

5. Coffee may feed your gut microbes

You’re not the only one getting something from your coffee. Laboratory experiments suggest your gut microbes do too.

Some of coffee’s chlorogenic acids aren’t absorbed in the small intestine and reach the colon. There, microbes break them down into other compounds.

Coffee contains complex carbohydrates and roasting products called melanoidins that can reach the colon, where gut microbes can ferment them.

Small human studies suggest drinking coffee can also change the composition of the gut microbiome. But the evidence is still developing, so it’s too early to call coffee a prebiotic.

6. Coffee can influence your iron levels

Coffee can also limit how much iron you get from your food. Drinking coffee with a meal can substantially reduce the absorption of non-haem iron – the form found mainly in plant foods.

This isn’t primarily a caffeine effect. Polyphenols in coffee, including chlorogenic acids, can bind with iron in the digestive tract, making it harder to absorb.

This matters most for people who already have low iron stores or rely heavily on plant sources of iron, rather than being a reason for everyone to give up coffee with breakfast.

7. Coffee can kick-start the gut

Coffee can kick parts of your digestive system into action even when there’s no food to digest. It can stimulate the pancreas to release trypsin, an enzyme involved in digesting protein.

This happens with both regular and decaffeinated coffee, suggesting other compounds in your cup are talking to your digestive system.

Whether this digestive “heads-up” changes how hungry you feel isn’t clear.

Coffee can also affect gut hormones involved in appetite and fullness. But studies haven’t consistently shown whether this translates into eating more or less.

So, what does all this mean?

Caffeine and feeling more alert might be coffee’s most popular feature, but this is far from the whole story. Caffeine can do much more than that.

A cup of coffee contains hundreds of compounds that can interact with our digestive system, microbes, medicines, nutrients, and more—sometimes in confusing and unexpected ways.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Chuck's picture corner to Sept. 29, 2026

The great fall has begun, leaves have begun to cover the ground, night time temps are cool. We enjoyed entertainment from long ago society.

Heading to the airport as R. and B. are leaving on a jet plane.

The Ottawa River

Leaving the mountains.

Taking R. to vote before she leaves for Spain

We enjoyed a good Quebec meal here after an afternoon of entertainment.

Sticks and stones.

The shiny armour of the French knight.

The tournament lasted about an hour.

The Polish knight is on the left.

Sadly the local Montpellier knight was the looser.

even the wee folk were there.

This fellow was an excellent rider.

attendees wore their finest furs

lots of vendors

lol

on our way to the fair

Enjoy your day.

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/