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

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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/

This Sodium Battery From China Matched Tesla in a Surprising Head-to-Head Test

By Cell Press, June 26, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/this-sodium-battery-from-china-matched-tesla-in-a-surprising-head-to-head-test/

A new study found that a commercial sodium-ion battery from China rivals Tesla’s batteries in manufacturing quality and several key performance benchmarks.

With improvements to cold-weather charging and energy density, sodium-ion batteries could become a more affordable alternative for electric vehicles and grid-scale energy storage.

Sodium-Ion Battery Shows Tesla-Like Quality in New Study

A commercially available sodium-ion battery already being used in cars and large-scale energy storage systems in China has achieved manufacturing quality and performance levels comparable to Tesla’s lithium-ion batteries, according to research published in the Cell Press journal Cell Reports Physical Science.

The findings suggest sodium-ion technology is advancing faster than many expected. Although the battery still needs improvements in cold-weather charging and energy density, researchers believe it could become a lower-cost alternative for future electric vehicles by replacing lithium with sodium, an abundant and widely available material.

“The combination of good uniformity, high power capability, and strong low‑temperature performance makes these cells attractive for stationary storage, grid services, and shorter‑range or commercial vehicles where potential lower cost and resource availability matter more than maximum driving range,” says Moritz Schütte, a battery researcher at RWTH Aachen University in Germany.

Comparing Sodium-Ion Batteries to Tesla Cells

To evaluate how Hina’s sodium-ion batteries stack up against Tesla’s more advanced lithium-ion cells, Schütte and his colleagues analyzed 120 battery cells using a non-destructive method known as impedance spectroscopy to measure manufacturing consistency.

The team also tested each battery under realistic operating conditions, measuring power and energy performance across a range of charging currents and temperatures from −20 °C to 45 °C. X-ray imaging allowed the researchers to examine the batteries’ internal structures before they disassembled the cells to study electrode dimensions, material composition, and microscopic features.

Their analysis revealed a sophisticated design that includes a tabless, double-aluminum current collector. This layout lowers electrical resistance, promotes more even temperature distribution, and closely resembles the architecture used in current Tesla batteries.

“We were positively surprised by how uniform the cells are,” says Schütte.

Strengths and Remaining Challenges

Despite its impressive performance, the sodium-ion battery still falls short of the best lithium-ion batteries in several important areas. The researchers found that while the battery delivers better high-power performance than expected for an early commercial sodium-ion product, charging at low temperatures remains a significant challenge.

“The high-power performance was better than one might expect from an early commercial sodium-ion product,” says Schütte. “However, for applications that require frequent charging at low ambient temperatures, appropriate thermal management or operating strategies will be important because low-temperature charging remains a clear weakness.”

The team also detected unexpectedly high and uneven concentrations of copper in parts of the battery’s cathode.

According to Schütte, this “raises interesting questions about its role in performance and aging,” adding, “It will be exciting to see future sodium-ion technologies that are free of nickel and copper, as well, while achieving competitive energy density.”

Why Sodium Could Become an Important Battery Material

Sodium offers several potential advantages over lithium because it is far more abundant and easier to source worldwide. That could lower raw material costs for battery manufacturers while reducing long-term supply chain concerns.

The study also found that sodium-ion batteries maintain strong performance under heavy loads in cold conditions, making them promising candidates for stationary energy storage as well as vehicles operating in colder climates.

“However, today’s commercial sodium-ion cells generally have lower energy density than the best lithium-ion cells, and the technology is less mature overall,” said Schütte.

Next Steps for Sodium-Ion Technology

The researchers now plan to improve how sodium-ion batteries charge at temperatures below 0°C, with the goal of making charging both safer and more efficient in freezing conditions.

Future work will also focus on refining the materials used inside the batteries.

“Advances in hard-carbon anodes and electrolyte formulations may be especially promising,” he said.

The birth of modern Man

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The Terrifying Theory That Consciousness Isn't Human

ThinkLab Science,  5 Jun 2026

Description: What if consciousness was never truly human to begin with?

 For decades, science has treated the mind as a biological machine—a product of neurons, chemistry, and computation. But Nobel Prize-winning physicist Roger Penrose believes there may be something deeper hiding beneath awareness itself.

 In this video, we explore the strange connection between John von Neumann, quantum mechanics, Gödel's incompleteness theorem, the measurement problem, and the controversial Orch-OR theory developed by Penrose and Stuart Hameroff.

 Could consciousness be more than computation? Could the brain be accessing a deeper layer of reality? And if awareness is fundamental to the universe itself, what does that mean for humanity, artificial intelligence, and the nature of existence? 

This is one of the most fascinating and unsettling ideas in modern science. Watch until the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6p8tGkE_-8

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Younger Generations Are Aging Faster – and It May Be Fueling a Surge in Cancer

By Washington U. School of Medicine in St. Louis, June 25, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/younger-generations-are-aging-faster-and-it-may-be-fueling-a-surge-in-cancer/

By analyzing health data from more than 160,000 people in the U.K. and U.S., researchers found that people born more recently tend to show signs of older biological age than earlier generations at the same chronological age.

 Credit: Shutterstock

Younger generations may be aging biologically faster than those before them, and that shift could help explain rising rates of cancer at younger ages.

For decades, cancer was viewed largely as a disease of older age. Yet around the world, doctors are seeing a troubling shift: more cancers are being diagnosed in people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and early 50s. Researchers have linked this rise to factors ranging from obesity and diet to environmental exposures, but no single explanation has fully accounted for the trend.

Now, a major new study suggests that a broader process may be unfolding beneath the surface. According to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, younger generations appear to be aging biologically faster than previous generations. Their findings indicate that this accelerated aging may be increasing the risk of developing cancer decades earlier than expected.

The research adds to growing evidence that the body’s biological age, not just the number of birthdays a person has celebrated, may play an important role in determining disease risk.

A Growing Gap Between Biological and Chronological Age

Scientists distinguish between chronological age, which is how long a person has been alive, and biological age, which reflects the condition of the body’s tissues, organs, and systems. Two people of the same chronological age can have very different biological ages depending on genetics, lifestyle, environmental exposures, and other factors.

The new study found that people born more recently tend to show signs of being biologically older than previous generations at the same age. In other words, a 40-year-old today may have a biological profile that appears older than that of a 40-year-old from decades ago.

Researchers believe this widening gap could help explain why early-onset cancers, generally defined as cancers diagnosed before age 55, have become increasingly common.

Published June 22 in Nature Medicine, the study also found that faster biological aging was linked to a greater risk of developing several types of cancer, particularly lung, gastrointestinal, and uterine cancers.

“Our ultimate goal is to decode how modern environments become biologically embedded to drive cancer risk, transforming prevention from broad recommendations to personalized interventions,” said Yin Cao, ScD, a molecular epidemiologist and associate professor of surgery and medicine at WashU Medicine. “This brings us closer to identifying risk earlier and developing prevention strategies that are tailored to an individual’s biology.”

Looking Beyond Individual Risk Factors

For years, scientists have searched for specific causes behind the rise in cancer among younger adults. Obesity, poor diet, alcohol use, sedentary lifestyles, metabolic disorders, and other factors have all been implicated.

While each may contribute, their individual effects are often relatively small. Increasingly, researchers suspect that the combined impact of multiple exposures over time may be more important than any single risk factor.

That idea has led scientists to focus on biological aging itself. Rather than studying one exposure at a time, biological aging can capture the cumulative effects of many influences acting across a person’s lifetime.

Acelerated biological aging has also been associated with heart disease, diabetes, cognitive decline, and other chronic conditions, suggesting it may serve as a broad indicator of long-term health.

Tracking Aging Across the Entire Body

To investigate the connection, Cao and colleagues analyzed health data from more than 154,000 participants in the UK Biobank and more than 10,000 people enrolled in the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) All of Us Research Program.

The researchers measured aging in two ways. First, they evaluated systemic aging, which reflects the body’s overall biological condition. They also examined organ-specific aging to determine whether certain tissues or organ systems were aging faster than others.

The analysis relied on established biological age measurements, including PhenoAge, the Klemera-Doubal Method, and metabolomic age scores. These tools use blood markers and other biological data to estimate how old a person’s body appears biologically.

For organ-specific aging, the researchers analyzed proteins circulating in the blood that are linked to different organ systems. This allowed them to estimate the biological age of tissues throughout the body without invasive procedures.

Younger Generations Show Clear Signs of Accelerated Aging

The results revealed a clear generational pattern.

In the United Kingdom, people born between 1965 and 1974 showed higher levels of systemic aging than those born between 1950 and 1954 when compared at the same chronological age.

The difference was even larger in the United States. Participants born between 1990 and 1999 displayed substantially higher levels of biological aging than those born between 1965 and 1969.

These findings align with other recent research suggesting that younger generations are experiencing higher rates of obesity, metabolic dysfunction, fatty liver disease, and other conditions traditionally associated with aging.

Although the study cannot determine exactly why this is happening, researchers suspect that changes in diet, physical activity, sleep patterns, environmental exposures, stress, and other aspects of modern life may all contribute.

Faster Aging Was Linked to Higher Cancer Risk

The study found that greater systemic aging was associated with an 8% increase in the risk of early-onset solid cancers.

Participants with the highest levels of biological aging faced a 15% greater risk of developing early-onset solid cancers than those with the lowest levels.

Importantly, these associations remained even after researchers accounted for inherited genetic cancer risk and genetic factors related to accelerated aging.

The findings suggest that biological aging may provide information about cancer risk that cannot be explained by genetics alone.

Some Organs May Matter More Than Others

The study also uncovered intriguing links between specific organ systems and certain cancers.

People whose immune systems appeared biologically older than expected were more likely to develop early-onset lung cancer. Meanwhile, accelerated aging in adipose (fat) tissue was associated with a higher risk of early-onset colorectal cancer.

“If we can identify younger people with the highest cancer risk when they are still healthy, we can focus on prevention and early-detection strategies for the individuals who will benefit most from early interventions,” Cao said.

A New Way to Think About Cancer Prevention

The findings do not mean that accelerated aging directly causes cancer, nor do they prove why younger generations appear to be aging faster. However, they point toward a promising new framework for understanding one of the most puzzling trends in modern medicine.

Instead of focusing solely on individual risk factors, researchers may be able to monitor how the body responds to those factors collectively through biological aging measures.

In the future, blood tests that estimate biological age could potentially help identify people whose cancer risk is rising long before symptoms appear. Such tools might allow doctors to recommend earlier screenings, lifestyle interventions, or other preventive measures tailored to an individual’s biology.

“Right now, we don’t have a definitive answer to what’s driving the rise of early-onset cancers around the world, but studies like this are helping us piece together the bigger picture, showing that cancer may be influenced not just by changes inside individual cells, but by wider changes happening across the body as a whole,” said David Scott, PhD, director of Cancer Grand Challenges.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Scientists Discover How the Gut May Trigger Multiple Sclerosis

By Keio U. Global Research Inst., June 25, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-discover-how-the-gut-may-trigger-multiple-sclerosis/

Researchers identified gut-derived cells involved in antigen presentation as a key trigger of autoimmune inflammation in the nervous system. 

Credit: Shutterstock



Scientists have uncovered new evidence that the gut may play a far more active role in multiple sclerosis than previously recognized.

For decades, multiple sclerosis (MS) has been viewed primarily as a disease of the brain and spinal cord. But growing evidence suggests its origins may begin much farther away: in the gut.

Scientists have increasingly linked changes in the gut microbiome to MS, yet exactly how intestinal microbes influence immune cells that attack the central nervous system has remained one of the field’s biggest unanswered questions.

MS is a debilitating autoimmune disease in which the immune system mistakenly attacks myelin, the protective sheath surrounding nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord. This damage disrupts communication between neurons, leading to symptoms ranging from numbness and muscle weakness to vision problems and cognitive impairment. While genetic and environmental factors contribute to disease risk, researchers are now uncovering a surprising role for the gut in shaping the immune responses that drive MS.

Gut link comes into focus

A study published in Science Immunology identifies gut immune responses as important early drivers of neuroinflammation. The work was led by Dr. Shohei Suzuki, Assistant Professor, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, and Dr. Tomohisa Sujino, Associate Professor, School of Medicine, at Keio University, Japan.

In this study, patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and the experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) mouse model of MS exhibited an accumulation of Th17 cells in the small intestine. Intestinal epithelial cells upregulate major histocompatibility complex class II (MHC II) in response to neuroinflammatory signals, enabling direct antigen presentation to CD4+ T cells and generation of pathogenic Th17 cells that home to the central nervous system (CNS). 

Created in BioRender. Suzuki, S. (2026) https://BioRender.com/x6ih9pc.

 Credit: Associate Professor Tomohisa Sujino from Keio University, Japan

“Increasing evidence shows that the gut microbiota influences neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and MS. However, the mechanisms linking gut microbes, intestinal immunity, and brain inflammation remain unclear. We were keen to identify how gut immune responses contribute to neuroinflammatory diseases,” said Dr. Sujino, explaining their motivation for the study.

Intestinal cells present antigens

Dr. Suzuki, Dr. Sujino and colleagues built on earlier evidence that mild intestinal (ileal) inflammation appears in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a mouse model of MS. They then examined whether similar inflammation is also found in people with MS. Using single cell RNA sequencing on intestinal biopsies, the analysis showed that inflammatory Th17 cells accumulate both in the EAE mouse model and in the intestines of patients with MS, pointing to a conserved gut CNS axis that may operate in human disease.

In EAE mice and in patients with MS, intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) showed increased activity in antigen presentation pathways. Epithelial cells in the ileum had especially high expression of major histocompatibility complex class II (MHC II), which presents antigens to CD4+ T cells. When MHC II was selectively deleted in IECs, pathogenic Th17 cell generation and disease severity were reduced.

IECs usually do not present antigens to immune cells. To test whether they could perform this function, Dr. Suzuki, Dr. Sujino, and colleagues carried out co-culture assays. The findings showed that IECs can directly present antigens through an MHC II-dependent process and prime CD4+ T cells in the gut. In those assays, IECs also pushed activated CD4+ T cells toward Th17 polarization. The results made clear that the gut can serve as an important site where pathogenic CD4+ T cells are activated and become pro-inflammatory Th17 cells.

Gut cells reach the spine

To find out whether these Th17 cells directly add to the autoreactive cell population in the CNS, Dr. Suzuki, Dr. Sujino, and colleagues used transgenic mice that express the Kaede protein, which undergoes photoconversion from green to red fluorescence upon exposure to violet light. This system made it possible to precisely follow pathogenic Th17 cells that were induced in the intestinal lamina propria and then moved to the spinal cord, where they drove neuroinflammation.

Together, the study shows that MHC II expressed by IECs plays a critical role in expanding pathogenic Th17 cells that later migrate to the CNS during EAE. The findings provide a cellular mechanism linking gut immune responses to autoimmune neuroinflammatory disease. The work also shows that although systemic circulation allows T cells to move among immune tissues, interactions between epithelial and immune cells in the gut mucosa can strongly influence effector T cell responses in the brain.

“While current therapies for MS often target B cells, our study highlights the gut as an important therapeutic site. Modulating intestinal microbiota or antigen-presenting activity of IECs represents new approaches to treating autoimmune neurological diseases,” explained Dr. Suzuki, emphasizing the therapeutic implications of their findings.

A deeper understanding of immune activity in the gut mucosa could support the development of better treatments for disabling neurological diseases such as MS.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/