Chuck's picture corner to March 29, 2026

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

Outside a south facing window this morning.

The ginkgo is coming along.

the summer garden begins (plum tomatoes)

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

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

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

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

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

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

starlings enjoy some lawn bugs

morning at Rachelle's

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

Cheers

enjoy the day.

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Couples Share a Surprising Percentage of Gut Bacteria That May Impact Health

29 March 2026, ByC. Meehan and J. Mwerinde, The Conversation

https://www.sciencealert.com/couples-share-a-surprising-percentage-of-gut-bacteria-that-may-impact-health

(Eric Cahan/The Image Bank/Getty Images)

When living with a partner, you might be sharing more than just the same home, lifestyle and interests. You might also share various microscopic organisms residing on and in you.

This community of microorganisms, which consists of mainly bacteria, viruses and fungi, is known collectively as the human microbiome. The various microbiomes found throughout the body all play an important role in health.

From birth, the human microbiome is shaped by our interactions with our mother, who introduces diverse microorganisms that build our immune and digestive systems. As we get older, social interactions with our close community continue influencing this delicate ecosystem.

The people we live with have huge influence on what microbes we have in our microbiome. In fact, it's thought that partners share around 30% of their resident microbes in the gut alone.

But it isn't just the microbes in your gut that may be similar to your partner. The microbes in many other parts of the body may also be shared with your loved one – and this could potentially affect your health.

Gut microbiome

Diet and lifestyle are thought to have the greatest influence on the gut microbiome's make-up. But studies on couples have found that living with your partner can also influence the microbiome.

Couples living together may share 13% to 30%of their gut bacteria. This was true even when diet (which many couples share) was factored out.
Research also shows that couples who live together have greater microbial diversity compared to people who live alone.

This is good news for couples who co-habitate, as a more diverse gut microbiome is correlated with lower risk of irritable bowel syndrome, cardiovascular diseases and potentially high blood sugar.

But it might not all be good news. Research shows that some of the bacterial species couples share can have varying effects on health.

Take the bacteria from the Ruminococcus family. While some species of Ruminoccocus benefit health, others have been linked to negative health outcomes, including diabetes and irritable bowel syndrome.

So these bacteria may not always offer the same benefits in different demographics. This highlights the complexity of resident gut bacteria and their health impacts.

Oral microbiome

Sharing an oral microbiome with our partners might seem obvious considering we regularly exchange saliva when we kiss. A ten-second kiss alone can exchange up to 80 million bacteria. The more kisses a couple shares, the more shared salivary bacteria they will have.

Although most of these bacteria will quickly pass through our mouth and into our gut when we swallow saliva, research show that couples actually share many of the same longer-term tongue microbes that form the foundation of the oral microbiome. Research even suggests that 38% of the oral microbiome is shared in couples living together – compared to only 3% in couples who don't live together.

Sharing this proportion of your oral microbiome could have many potential health effects.

A healthy oral microbiome is important for protecting against tooth decay and it has anti-inflammatory properties. Some researchers also suggest the oral microbiome's health effects may extend as far as the gut and nervous system.

But some of the bacteria that couples tend to share may also have potentially harmful health effects.

Couples are more likely to have similar numbers of the bacteria Neisseria in their gut compared to single people. Neisseria can reside in the mouth for long periods of without causing disease.

Some Neisseria bacteria can be harmful and may cause meningitis. Yet some Neisseria bacteria actually fight against these meningitis-causing species, stopping them from overgrowing and causing harm.

So while you may want to avoid kissing someone when they're poorly for obvious reasons, it turns out that a kiss even when you're healthy can transfer all sorts of bacteria between the two of you.

More research is needed to really understand what overall effect sharing these bacteria with your partner has on health.

Skin microbiome

The skin microbiome is the most unique and personalised microbiome, tailored to each person. It's even sometimes referred to as our microbial fingerprint.

Being the most exposed microbiome, the skin microbiome has evolved to be adaptable to external factors such as the climate and cosmetic products. No matter what, these bacteria work hard to remain at an equilibrium.

Close contact with our partners – and even pets – has a huge influence on what bacteria live on our skin. After comparing the gut and oral microbiome, researchers found the skin microbiome to be the most similar among couples.

(Halfpoint Images/Moment/Getty Images)



It isn't just the bacteria on your arms or hands that are shared, either. Research shows that couples shared 35% of the bacteria living on their feet, and around 17.5% of the bacteria on their eyelids.

You may not even need to touch your partner to have the same skin bacteria as them. Factors such as sleeping in the same bed and walking on similar surfaces are thought to explain why such a large proportion of our skin microbiome is similar.

This is because humans naturally shed bacteria in a similar way as dogs shed fur. We leave traces of our bacteria on everything we touch – and we also easily pick up bacteria from our environments.

The shared effect of living together on the skin microbiome is so great that researchers were able to use computer models to accurately predict 86% of cohabiting couples based off of their individual bacterial samples alone.

But while it's clear that couples share much of the same skin microbiome, the health effect that this has is not currently known.

While sharing bacteria with your partner may sound alarming, there's often no cause for concern. Bacteria teach our bodies how to fight infections, they help us digest foods and even produce key nutrients. The bacteria we share with our partners are often harmless and sometimes benefit our health rather than hindering it.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

“Super Bizarre” – Neuroscientists Discover That Adult Brain Is Filled With Millions of “Silent Synapses”

By SciTechDaily.com, March 29, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/super-bizarre-neuroscientists-discover-that-adult-brain-is-filled-with-millions-of-silent-synapses/

Using advanced imaging techniques, researchers discovered that many of these dormant connections reside on tiny structures called filopodia, far more abundant in the adult brain than previously believed. Credit: Stock

Scientists have uncovered a surprisingly large reserve of “silent synapses” in the adult brain—unused neural connections that can be rapidly activated to store new memories.

Learning something new without erasing what you already know is one of the brain’s hardest balancing acts. Now, MIT neuroscientists have uncovered a hidden feature that may make this possible: a vast reserve of “silent synapses” in the adult brain that can be switched on to store new memories.

These synapses are real physical connections between neurons, but they remain inactive until they are needed. In adult mice, the researchers found that about 30 percent of synapses in the brain’s cortex fall into this silent category, far more than scientists once expected.

For years, silent synapses were thought to exist only in infancy, when the brain is rapidly wiring itself in response to new experiences. They were believed to largely disappear early in life. The new findings challenge that view and suggest the adult brain keeps a large запас of these unused connections on standby.

“This lets the brain create new memories without overwriting the important memories stored in mature synapses, which are harder to change,” says Dimitra Vardalaki, an MIT graduate student and lead author of the study.

A built-in workaround for memory overload

The human brain is estimated to contain hundreds of trillions of synapses, forming a dense and constantly shifting network. Every new memory depends on adjusting this network. But constantly modifying existing connections risks corrupting older, important information.

Caption:MIT researchers have discovered that the adult mouse brain contains millions of silent synapses, located on tiny structures called filopodia.

 Credit: Dimitra Vardalaki and Mark Harnett



The new research points to a different strategy. Instead of reshaping established circuits, the brain can recruit silent synapses and convert them into active ones. This preserves older memories while still allowing new learning.

This idea aligns with long-standing theories that the brain must strike a balance between stability and flexibility. Some connections need to remain stable to protect long-term knowledge, while others must stay adaptable to encode new experiences.

An accidental discovery

The MIT team did not set out to find silent synapses in adults. They were studying how dendrites, the branching extensions of neurons, process incoming signals. To do this, they used a technique called eMAP (epitope-preserving Magnified Analysis of the Proteome), which physically expands brain tissue so proteins can be mapped with extremely high resolution.

What they saw surprised them.

“The first thing we saw, which was super bizarre and we didn’t expect, was that there were filopodia everywhere,” says senior author Mark Harnett.

Filopodia are tiny, finger-like protrusions extending from dendrites. Because they are so small, they have been difficult to study and their function has remained unclear. Using eMAP, the researchers found them spread widely across the adult mouse brain, including the visual cortex, at levels about 10 times higher than previously reported.

When the team examined these structures more closely, they found a key clue. The synapses on filopodia had NMDA receptors but lacked AMPA receptors.

In normal synapses, both receptor types are needed to pass electrical signals triggered by the neurotransmitter glutamate. Without AMPA receptors, NMDA receptors remain blocked under typical conditions, leaving the synapse functionally silent.

Switching them on

To confirm that these structures were truly silent synapses, the researchers measured their electrical activity using a refined patch clamp technique. They delivered controlled bursts of glutamate to individual filopodia.

Nothing happened, at least at first.

Only when the researchers experimentally removed the block on NMDA receptors did the synapses respond, confirming that they were inactive under normal conditions.

The next question was whether these silent connections could be activated in a realistic way. The answer was yes.

When glutamate release was paired with a brief electrical signal inside the neuron, AMPA receptors quickly accumulated at the synapse. Within minutes, the once silent connection became fully functional.

This process did not work on mature synapses.

“If you start with an already functional synapse, that plasticity protocol doesn’t work,” Harnett says. “The synapses in the adult brain have a much higher threshold, presumably because you want those memories to be pretty resilient.”

Filopodia, by contrast, act like ready-to-use slots for new information.

Why this matters for learning and aging

The discovery suggests the adult brain maintains a large pool of flexible connections that can be recruited on demand. This could help explain how people continue learning throughout life without constantly disrupting older memories.

It also raises new questions about what happens as the brain ages.

“It’s entirely possible that by changing the amount of flexibility you’ve got in a memory system, it could become much harder to change your behaviors and habits or incorporate new information,” Harnett says.

If silent synapses decline with age or disease, that could help explain why learning new skills or adapting to change becomes more difficult over time.

The findings also hint at future possibilities. If scientists can identify the molecular mechanisms that control filopodia and silent synapses, they may be able to develop ways to restore learning capacity in aging brains or in conditions that affect memory.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Scientists Identify “Good” Bacteria That May Prevent Long COVID

By U. of Louvain, March 21, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-identify-good-bacteria-that-may-prevent-long-covid/

Long COVID continues to affect millions of people worldwide, and scientists are still trying to understand why some patients recover while others experience lingering symptoms. A new study points to an intriguing player within the respiratory microbiome — a naturally occurring bacterium that may influence how the body responds long after infection has passed.

 Credit: Shutterstock

A small microbe in the respiratory tract may hold important clues about why long COVID persists.

According to the WHO, about 6% of people worldwide who get COVID-19, roughly 400 million people, later develop a long-lasting form of the illness. That shows the condition remains a significant public health challenge.

In 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Louvain (UCLouvain, Belgium) and its hospital, the Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc, launched a large-scale study to see whether long-term symptoms could be predicted during the acute phase of infection. The goal was to better understand the biological mechanisms involved and potentially identify a preventive treatment.

A Bacterium Linked to Recovery

After five years of research, scientists identified an important role for Dolosigranulum pigrum, a bacterium that naturally lives in the respiratory microbiome. Higher levels of this bacterium were associated with a lower likelihood that long Covid symptoms would persist.

Jean Cyr Yombi, Leïla Belkir, and Julien De Greef, UCLouvain professors and infectious disease specialists at the Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc, examined the severity of long Covid symptoms in 156 patients. They focused mainly on severe fatigue, cognitive problems, and respiratory issues (shortness of breath).

Laure Elens and Patrice Cani, also UCLouvain professors, along with Bradley Ward, a postdoctoral researcher at the UCLouvain Louvain Drug Research Institute, then analyzed blood samples and nasopharyngeal swabs for molecular signatures linked to this more severe form of the disease. These signatures may help explain why symptoms persist in some patients but not in others.

Clues From the Respiratory Microbiome

UCLouvain and Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc researchers stated, “This study suggests that certain so-called protective bacteria in the respiratory microbiome may be associated with improved recovery following viral respiratory infections (such as long Covid or influenza), and that their alteration (particularly in the context of severe infection or non-targeted antibiotic therapy) may influence longer-term clinical outcomes.”

In simpler terms, when this bacterium is present in higher amounts, it appears to help protect against long Covid or severe influenza (through a mechanism that has yet to be elucidated). When it is present at low levels, researchers found a greater tendency toward developing a persistent form of the disease.

Implications for Future Treatments

Researchers already knew this bacterium had a protective effect in infectious influenza. The new findings, published in Microbiology Spectrum, add to the evidence that Dolosigranulum pigrum may be beneficial.

Scientists hope the discovery will speed up research and support new treatment strategies, including the possible development of a probiotic, for example, in the form of a nasal spray, that could be used before winter to help protect people from severe infectious diseases such as Covid-19 or influenza.

The study also found that non-targeted antibiotics can affect the respiratory microbiome’s ability to defend against severe infections. That is another reason careful antibiotic use remains important.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Parkinson's Link to Gut Bacteria Hints at Unexpectedly Simple Treatment

28 March 2026, By T. Koumoundouros

https://www.sciencealert.com/parkinsons-link-to-gut-bacteria-hints-at-unexpectedly-simple-treatment

Illustration of bacteria on the colon epithelium. 

(Nanoclustering/Science Photo Library/Getty Images)



Scientists have suspected for some time that the link between our gut and brain plays a role in the onset of Parkinson's disease.

Recent research adds further evidence to the link, identifying gut microbes likely to be involved and linking them with decreased riboflavin ( vitamin B2) and biotin (vitamin B7).

The discovery suggests an unexpectedly simple treatment that may help: B vitamins.

"Supplementation therapy targeting riboflavin and biotin holds promise as a potential therapeutic avenue for alleviating Parkinson's symptoms and slowing disease progression," said medical researcher Hiroshi Nishiwaki from Nagoya University in Japan, when the study was published in May 2024.

The neurodegenerative disease impacts around 10 million people globally, who at best can hope for therapies that slow and alleviate symptoms.

Symptoms typically begin with constipation and sleep problems, up to 20 years before progressing into dementia and the debilitating loss of muscle control.

Watch the video below for a summary of the research:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wuwZbPf0Vs&t=1s

Previous research found people with Parkinson's disease also experience changes in their microbiome long before other signs appear.

Analyzing fecal samples from 94 patients with Parkinson's disease and 73 relatively healthy controls in Japan, Nishiwaki and colleagues compared their results with data from China, Taiwan, Germany, and the US.

While different groups of bacteria were involved in the different countries examined, they all influenced pathways that synthesize B vitamins in the body.

The team found that the changes in gut bacteria communities were associated with a decrease in riboflavin and biotin in people with Parkinson's disease.

The researchers then showed the lack of B vitamins was linked to a decrease in short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and polyamines: molecules that help create a healthy mucus layer in the intestines.

"Deficiencies in polyamines and SCFAs could lead to thinning of the intestinal mucus layer, increasing intestinal permeability, both of which have been observed in Parkinson's disease," Nishiwaki explained.

Summary of findings from the study and speculations from previous research. 

(Nishiwaki et al., npj Parkinson's Dis., 2024)

They suspect the weakened protective layer exposes the intestinal nervous system to more of the toxins we now encounter more regularly.

These include cleaning chemicals, pesticides, and herbicides.

Such toxins lead to the overproduction of α-synuclein fibrils – molecules known to amass in dopamine-producing cells in the substantia nigra part of our brains – and increased nervous system inflammation, eventually leading to the more debilitating motor and dementia symptoms of Parkinson's.

A 2003 study found high doses of riboflavin can assist in recovering some motor functions in patients who also eliminated red meat from their diets.

So it's possible that high doses of vitamin B may prevent some of the damage, Nishiwaki and team propose.

This all suggests healthy gut microbiomes may also prove protective, and reducing the toxic pollutants in our environment may help too.

In Parkinson's disease, a reduction in the gut bacteria of genes responsible for synthesizing the essential B vitamins B2 and B7 was found.

 (Reiko Matsushita)



Researchers are constantly discovering more ways the makeup of our gut bacteria affects our health. The composition is not fixed: It varies depending on many factors, such as what you eat, your age, and your sleep quality.

We don't all respond to the same diets in the same way either, and a recent discovery helps explain why: Gut microbes that naturally produce more methane are also able to squeeze more energy and calories out of high-fiber foods.

In 2025, scientists in China and the US found that being unable to sleep at night could be at least partly down to the mix of microbes in our digestive system.

Also this year, researchers found that some bacteria in our guts can absorb and store perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), often called 'forever chemicals' for how long they linger in the environment.

"We found that certain species of human gut bacteria have a remarkably high capacity to soak up PFAS from their environment at a range of concentrations, and store these in clumps inside their cells," reports University of Cambridge molecular biologist Kiran Patil.

In theory, boosting these microbes could help reduce PFAS's harmful effects on our health.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Penguins in Zoos Age Faster Than Their Wild Counterparts

By U. of Helsinki, March 28, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/penguins-in-zoos-age-faster-than-their-wild-counterparts/

King penguins in Zoo Zurich. Credit: Zoo Zurich, Fabio Süess

Zoo penguins live longer but age faster, suggesting that comfort and abundance can harm long-term health despite increasing lifespan.

In many Western countries, longer life expectancy is often assumed to mean better health in later years. In reality, aging is influenced by a wide range of factors, including medical care, diet, poverty, alcohol use, and exposure to violence, making it difficult to fully understand in modern populations.

Penguins offer a useful way to study aging because they typically live between 20 and 40 years, a span that allows meaningful comparisons to humans. Unlike people, they have not experienced the same major socio-economic shifts over recent centuries, making them a more controlled model.

King penguins in Zoo Zurich.

 Credit: Zoo Zurich, Fabio Süess



“We wanted to investigate whether turning these penguins into nonchalant, well-fed, and well-cared-for individuals would alter their aging trajectory. Since this lifestyle already occurs in zoos, the setup was ideal,” says Robin Cristofari from the University of Helsinki, first author of the new research paper published in Nature Communications.

Zoo Living Accelerates Aging Despite Longer Lifespans

King penguins living at Zoo Zurich (Switzerland) and Loro Parque (Tenerife/Spain) experience stable, protected conditions that resemble many aspects of modern human life. The findings are clear. Penguins in zoos age faster than those in the wild.

“A 15-year-old penguin in the zoo has the body of a 20-year-old penguin in the wild. However, the interesting part is that zoo penguins also live longer, overall. They may be less physically fit, but with no natural predators or Antarctic storms to contend with and with access to veterinary care, they can survive long past the age at which they would typically die in the Southern Ocean”, explains co-researcher Céline Le Bohec, from the French CNRS, who has studied king penguins in the wild for over two decades.

King penguins in the indoor area of Zoo Zurich. 

Credit: Zoo Zurich, Albert Schmidmeister



Scientists traced these effects to biological processes related to metabolism, cell growth, and maintenance. Conditions in zoos, such as constant access to food, reduced activity, and disrupted natural rhythms, appear to drive faster aging.

Longevity vs. Health: Lessons for Humans

Both penguins and humans benefit from longer lifespans in environments with advanced medical care. However, living longer does not always mean staying healthier. Cristofari and colleagues are working to identify lifestyle patterns that support both longevity and good health.

“We are currently conducting a study in which we induce penguins to eat less and exercise more. It is important to find a moderate lifestyle in a world of abundance – for us humans as well,” concludes research curator Leyla Davis from Zoo Zurich.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

The Oldest Mummies In Egypt Have DNA That Doesn't Match Any Living Human

Origin Decoder, Mar 21, 2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kJC6EW-Q5A


The oldest mummies in Egypt have been sitting in museum rooms for over a century with their faces, hair and features still completely intact, and for all that time scholars argued loudly about who these people were based entirely on what they could see. 

Nobody thought to ask what the biology actually said. When they finally sequenced the DNA the answer came back as something nobody had predicted and that no existing theory could cleanly account for. Not modern Egyptians. Not sub-Saharan Africans. Not any population that current genetic databases can properly explain. 

The mummies of Yuya, Queen Tiye, Ramses the Great, people who sat at the absolute centre of ancient Egyptian power, are carrying a genetic signature that has effectively forced researchers to tear up a century's worth of assumptions about who the ancient Egyptians actually were and where they came from. 

This is one of those topics that has generated enormous amounts of heat and very little light for decades, and what the DNA revealed is considerably stranger and more interesting than any side in that argument was prepared for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kJC6EW-Q5A

The birth of modern Man

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

This Ancient Ape Fossil Could Change Where Humans Came From

By W. Beckwith, American Ass. for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), March 26, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/this-ancient-ape-fossil-could-change-where-humans-came-from/

Reconstruction of Masripithecus moghraensis by Mauricio Antón.

 Credit: Professor Hesham Sallam

A fossil from Egypt hints we’ve been searching for humanity’s ape ancestors in the wrong place.

Researchers say a newly uncovered fossil ape from northern Egypt is changing how scientists think about early hominoid evolution. The discovery points to northern Africa, rather than the more commonly studied regions of East Africa, as a possible birthplace for the ancestors of modern apes. “[The] findings […] confirm that paleontologists might have been looking for crown-hominoid ancestors in the wrong place,” write David Alba and Júlia Arias-Martorell in a related Perspective.

The fossil dates to roughly 17-18 million years ago and belongs to a newly identified species called Masripithecus. It is considered the closest known hominoid relative to the lineage that eventually led to all living apes, including humans. Scientists widely agree that the earliest apes (stem hominoids) first appeared in Afro-Arabia during the Oligocene Epoch more than 25 million years ago. These early apes later spread into Eurasia between about 14 and 16 million years ago during the Miocene. Still, the exact origin of modern apes, which include all living species and their last common ancestor, remains unclear due to limited and scattered fossil evidence. Much of Africa’s fossil record is uneven, with discoveries concentrated in a few areas, leaving large regions from this time period largely unexplored.

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

 Credit: Professor Hesham Sallam
Masripithecus Discovery in Northern Egypt



In the new study, Shorouq Al-Ashqar and colleagues describe the fossil, which was found in the Wadi Moghra region of northern Egypt and dates to about 17-18 million years ago. The species, named Masripithecus moghraensis, provides new insight into ape diversity during a critical period when land connections between Afro-Arabia and Eurasia allowed animals to move between continents.

To understand where this species fits in the evolutionary tree, the researchers used a Bayesian “tip-dating” method that combines physical characteristics with fossil ages to estimate evolutionary relationships and timing. Their results indicate that Masripithecus is a stem hominoid closely related to the lineage that produced all modern apes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMrV6em66mc

A New Possible Origin for Modern Apes

Based on these findings, the researchers suggest that modern apes may have originated in northern Afro-Arabia, the Levant, or the eastern Mediterranean. This challenges long-standing assumptions and highlights how much remains to be discovered about the early evolution of apes and humans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlIAzObBwW4&t=2s

The birth of modern Man

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Chernobyl Fungus Seems to Have Evolved an Incredible Ability

27 March 2026, By M. Starr

https://www.sciencealert.com/chernobyl-fungus-seems-to-have-evolved-an-incredible-ability

Cladosporium sphaerospermum, cultured at the Coimbra University Hospital Centre in Portugal. 

(Rui Tomé/Atlas of Mycology, used with permission)

The Chernobyl exclusion zone may be off-limits to humans, but not to every form of life.

Ever since the Unit Four reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded nearly 40 years ago, other kinds of life-forms have not only moved in but survived, adapted, and appeared to thrive.

Part of that may be the lack of humans… but for one organism, at least, the ionizing radiation lingering inside the reactor's surrounding structures may be an advantage.

There, clinging to the interior walls of one of the most radioactive buildings on Earth, scientists have found a strange black fungus curiously living its best life.

That fungus is called Cladosporium sphaerospermum, and some scientists think its dark pigment – melanin – may allow it to harness ionizing radiation through a process similar to the way plants harness light for photosynthesis. This proposed mechanism is even referred to as radiosynthesis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRk_Q_g3Ysc&t=2s

But here's the really funky thing about C. sphaerospermum: Although scientists have shown that the fungus flourishes in the presence of ionizing radiation, no one has been able to pin down how or why. 

Radiosynthesis is a theory, one that's difficult to prove.

The mystery began back in the late 1990s, when a team led by microbiologist Nelli Zhdanova of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences embarked on a field survey in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone to find out what life, if any, could be found in the shelter surrounding the ruined reactor.

There, they were stunned to find a whole community of fungi, documenting an astonishing 37 species. Notably, these organisms tended to be dark-hued to black, rich with the pigment melanin.

C. sphaerospermum dominated the samples, while also demonstrating some of the highest levels of radioactive contamination.

As surprising as the discovery was, what happened next deepened the intrigue.

Radiopharmacologist Ekaterina Dadachova and immunologist Arturo Casadevall – both with posts at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the US – led a team of scientists that found exposing C. sphaerospermum to ionizing radiation doesn't harm the fungus the way it would other organisms.

Melanized C. sphaerospermum.

 (Rui Tomé/Atlas of Mycology, used with permission)



Ionizing radiation describes emissions of particles powerful enough to knock electrons from their atoms, turning them into their ionic forms.

That sounds pretty benign on paper, but in practice, ionization can break apart molecules, interfering with biochemical reactions and even shredding DNA. None of that is a good time for a human, although it can be exploited to destroy cancer cells, which are particularly vulnerable to its effects.

However, C. sphaerospermum seemed strangely resistant and even grew better when bathed in ionizing radiation. Other experiments showed ionizing radiation changed the behavior of fungal melanin – an intriguing observation that warranted further investigation.

The follow-up paper by Dadachova and Casadevall in 2008 is where they first proposed a biological pathway similar to photosynthesis.

The fungus – and others like it – appeared to be harvesting ionizing radiation and converting it into energy, with melanin performing a similar function to the light-absorbing pigment chlorophyll.

At the same time, the melanin behaves as a protective shield against the more harmful effects of that radiation.

C. sphaerospermum under the microscope. 

(Rui Tomé/Atlas of Mycology, used with permission)



This appears to be supported by the findings of a 2022 paper, in which scientists describe the results of taking C. sphaerospermum into space and strapping it to the exterior of the ISS, exposing it to the full brunt of cosmic radiation.

There, sensors placed beneath the petri dish showed that a smaller amount of radiation penetrated through the fungi than through an agar-only control.

The aim of that paper was not to demonstrate or investigate radiosynthesis, but to explore the fungus's potential as a radiation shield for space missions, which is a cool idea. But, as of that paper, we still don't know what the fungus is actually doing.

Scientists have been unable to demonstrate carbon fixation dependent on ionizing radiation, metabolic gain from ionizing radiation, or a defined energy-harvesting pathway.

"Actual radiosynthesis, however, remains to be shown, let alone the reduction of carbon compounds into forms with higher energy content or fixation of inorganic carbon driven by ionizing radiation," wrote a team led by engineer Nils Averesch of Stanford University.

The idea of radiosynthesis is so cool – like something out of science fiction. But it's maybe even cooler that this weird fungus is doing something we don't understand to neutralize something so dangerous to humans.

It's not the only one, either. A black yeast, Wangiella dermatitidis, demonstrates enhanced growth under ionizing radiation. Meanwhile, another fungus species, Cladosporium cladosporioides, exhibits enhanced melanin production but not growth under gamma or UV radiation.

So the behavior observed in C. sphaerospermum is not universal to melanized fungi.

Does that suggest that it's an adaptation allowing the fungus to feast on powerful light that can kill other organisms? Or is it a stress response that enhances survival under extenuating, but not ideal, conditions?

At this point, it's impossible to tell.

What we do know is that this humble, velvety black fungus is doing something clever with ionizing radiation to survive and maybe even proliferate in a place too dangerous for humans to safely tread; that life does, indeed, find a way.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Even Single Cells and Molecules Have Memories? This Changes Everything!

 Anton Petrov,  Mar 23, 2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQa0DowQ_oE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQa0DowQ_oE

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

The Truth About Collagen Supplements: Scientists Reveal What Actually Works

By Anglia Ruskin U., March 25, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/the-truth-about-collagen-supplements-scientists-reveal-what-actually-works/

A sweeping analysis of global research suggests collagen supplements may offer measurable benefits for skin health and joint conditions, particularly with consistent, long-term use. 

Credit: Shutterstock

New research indicates collagen may support certain aspects of healthy aging, but its broader health and fitness claims remain uncertain.

Collagen supplements are often marketed as a way to support everything from glowing skin to better workouts. But the strongest evidence so far points to a narrower reality. The most comprehensive review to date found that collagen can benefit skin health and help relieve osteoarthritis symptoms, while offering little evidence of any real advantage for sports performance.

That conclusion comes from a new umbrella review published in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal Open Forum. It combines results from 16 systematic reviews, 113 randomized controlled trials, and nearly 8,000 participants worldwide.

Researchers from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) conducted the first comprehensive meta-analysis and meta-regression covering the full range of health outcomes linked to collagen use.

Their approach made it possible to examine how dosage and duration influence results. The findings indicate that longer use is associated with greater gains in skin elasticity and hydration, along with improvements in osteoarthritis symptoms such as pain and stiffness.

Benefits for Aging, But Limits for Performance

The analysis also found small but measurable improvements in muscle mass, muscle structure, and tendon composition, supporting collagen’s potential role in healthy aging.

At the same time, the data showed no meaningful benefits for post-exercise recovery, muscle soreness, or tendon strength. This suggests collagen is not effective as a quick performance-enhancing supplement.

The researchers also reviewed evidence related to oral health and cardiometabolic factors, including cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels. Results in these areas were inconsistent or inconclusive, with limited evidence that collagen significantly improves metabolic health, gum disease, or dental appearance.

The study notes that more recent trials tend to report stronger outcomes in some areas, likely due to advances in supplement formulations and improved research methods.

Expert Perspective and Future Research

Lee Smith, Professor of Public Health at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and co-author of the study, said: “This study brings together the strongest evidence to date on collagen supplementation.

“Collagen is not a cure-all, but it does have credible benefits when used consistently over time, particularly for skin and osteoarthritis. Our findings show clear benefits in key areas of healthy ageing, while also dispelling some of the myths surrounding its use.

“This study marks an important step towards more informed public guidance and better-designed future research. We need more high-quality clinical trials, including research examining long-term health outcomes, optimal dosing, and differences between collagen sources.”

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Scientists Just Broke the Solar Power Limit Everyone Thought Was Absolute

By Kyushu U. March 25, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-just-broke-the-solar-power-limit-everyone-thought-was-absolute/

Scientists may have found a way to squeeze more energy out of sunlight than ever thought possible—breaking a long-standing “efficiency ceiling” in solar technology.

 Credit: Stock

A new “energy-multiplying” solar breakthrough could push efficiency beyond 100% and transform how we capture sunlight.

Solar energy is widely seen as a key tool in reducing reliance on fossil fuels and slowing climate change. The Sun delivers a vast amount of energy to Earth every second, but today’s solar cells can only capture a small portion of it. This limitation comes from a so-called “physical ceiling” that has long been considered unavoidable.

Breakthrough Spin-Flip Technology Boosts Solar Efficiency

In a study published today (March 25) in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, researchers from Kyushu University in Japan, working with collaborators at Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU) Mainz in Germany, introduced a new approach to overcome this barrier. They used a molybdenum-based metal complex known as a “spin-flip” emitter to capture extra energy through singlet fission (SF), often described as a “dream technology” for improving light conversion.

This method achieved an energy conversion efficiency of about 130%, exceeding the traditional 100% limit and pointing toward more powerful future solar cells.

How Solar Cells Work and Why Energy Is Lost

Solar cells generate electricity when photons from sunlight strike a semiconductor and transfer their energy to electrons, setting them in motion and producing an electric current. This process can be visualized as a relay, where energy is passed along particle by particle.

However, not all sunlight contributes equally. Low-energy infrared photons lack the power to excite electrons, while high-energy photons, such as blue light, lose excess energy as heat. Because of this imbalance, solar cells can only utilize roughly one-third of incoming sunlight. This restriction is known as the Shockley–Queisser limit and has posed a major challenge for decades.

Using Singlet Fission To Multiply Energy

“We have two main strategies to break through this limit,” says Yoichi Sasaki, Associate Professor at Kyushu University’s Faculty of Engineering. “One is to convert lower-energy infrared photons into higher-energy visible photons. The other, what we explore here, is to use SF to generate two excitons from a single exciton photon.”

Under typical conditions, one photon produces just one spin-singlet exciton after excitation. With SF, that single high-energy exciton can split into two lower-energy spin-triplet excitons, potentially doubling the usable energy. While materials like tetracene can support this process, efficiently capturing the resulting excitons has remained difficult.

Overcoming Energy Loss From FRET

“The energy can be easily ‘stolen’ by a mechanism called Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) before multiplication occurs,” Sasaki explains. “We therefore needed an energy acceptor that selectively captures the multiplied triplet excitons after fission.”

To solve this problem, the researchers turned to metal complexes, which can be precisely engineered at the molecular level. They identified a molybdenum-based “spin-flip” emitter that can effectively collect the energy produced during SF. In these molecules, an electron changes its spin during interactions with near-infrared light, allowing the system to absorb triplet energy efficiently.

By carefully adjusting energy levels, the team reduced losses from FRET and enabled selective extraction of the multiplied excitons.

Collaboration and Experimental Results

“We could not have reached this point without the Heinze group from JGU Mainz,” Sasaki says. Adrian Sauer, a graduate student from the group visiting Kyushu University on exchange and the paper’s second author, brought the team’s attention to a material that has long been studied there, leading to the collaboration.

When combined with tetracene-based materials in solution, the system successfully harvested energy with quantum yields of around 130%. In practical terms, this means about 1.3 molybdenum-based metal complexes were activated for every photon absorbed, surpassing the conventional limit and demonstrating that more energy carriers were generated than incoming photons.

Future Applications in Solar and Quantum Technologies

This research introduces a new strategy for amplifying excitons, although it is still at an early proof-of-concept stage. The team plans to integrate the materials into solid-state systems to improve energy transfer and move closer to real-world solar cell applications.

The findings may also inspire further work combining singlet fission with metal complexes, with potential uses not only in solar energy but also in LEDs and emerging quantum technologies.

The birth of modern Man

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Your Poop Schedule Says a Lot About Your Overall Health, Study Reveals

25 March 2026, By M. IRVING

https://www.sciencealert.com/your-poop-schedule-says-a-lot-about-your-overall-health-study-reveals

(Ake Ngiamsanguan/Canva)

"How often do you poop?" might sound like a very personal question, but your answer could reveal quite a lot about your overall health.

A study published in 2024 investigated how often people had bowel movements and compared those stats to their demographic, genetic, and health data.

The healthiest people among the 1,425 participants reported pooping once or twice a day – a 'Goldilocks zone' of bowel movement frequency.

Pooping too often or too rarely was associated with different underlying health issues, the team led by researchers at the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) found.

"This study shows how bowel movement frequency can influence all body systems, and how aberrant bowel movement frequency may be an important risk factor in the development of chronic diseases," said ISB microbiologist Sean Gibbons, the corresponding author of the report.

"These insights could inform strategies for managing bowel movement frequency, even in healthy populations, to optimize health and wellness."

Watch the video below for a summary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBJLOrcliNA&t=2s

The study investigated the bathroom habits of people who were "generally healthy" – that is, with no history of kidney or gut issues like kidney disease, irritable bowel syndrome, or Crohn's disease.

Participants self-reported how often they had bowel movements, and the researchers organized them into four categories: constipation for those reporting one or two bowel movements per week; low-normal for three to six movements per week; high-normal for one to three movements per day; and diarrhea for four or more watery stools per day.

The researchers also analyzed patients' blood metabolites and chemistry, their genetics, and the gut microbes present in their stool samples.

Participants provided samples of blood plasma and stool, in addition to filling out extensive diet, health, and lifestyle questionnaires. 

(Johnson-Martínez et al., Cell Reports, 2024)

The team looked for possible associations between bowel movement frequency and these health markers, as well as other factors like their age and sex.

In general, those who reported less frequent bowel movements tended to be women, younger, and with a lower body mass index (BMI). But even accounting for these factors, people with constipation or diarrhea showed clear links to underlying health issues.

Bacteria usually found in the upper gastrointestinal tract were more common in stool samples from participants with diarrhea. Their blood samples, meanwhile, showed biomarkers associated with liver damage.

The liver usually recycles bile acid to dissolve and absorb dietary fats.

 (Eraxion/Canva)



Stool samples from people with less frequent bowel movements had higher levels of bacteria associated with protein fermentation. This is a known hazard from constipation.

"If stool sticks around too long in the gut, microbes use up all of the available dietary fiber, which they ferment into beneficial short-chain fatty acids," said Johannes Johnson-Martinez, a bioengineer at ISB.

"After that, the ecosystem switches to fermentation of proteins, which produces several toxins that can make their way into the bloodstream."

Sure enough, some of these byproducts were found in these patients' blood samples. Particularly enriched was a metabolite called indoxyl-sulfate, a known product of protein fermentation that can damage the kidneys.

The team suggests the finding is potential evidence of a causal link between bowel movement frequency and overall health.

There is some hope that people can change their habits and, as a result, their health. Recent research suggests your gut microbiome can shift a lot faster than you might think.

For instance, a 2025 study from Germany tracked inactive adults who began resistance training twice or three times a week. Those who gained the most strength showed changes in the makeup of their gut bacteria in just eight weeks.

These kinds of changes might help some people move out of the constipation or diarrhea categories and into a healthier bowel-movement range.


Those in the Goldilocks zone of pooping reported eating more fiber, drinking more water, and exercising more often. Their stool samples also showed high levels of bacteria associated with fermenting fiber.

A more plant-dominant diet can have health benefits. 

(Prostock-studio/Canva)



A clinical trial published in 2025 by US researchers found that people with a lot of methane-producing microbes in their guts are especially efficient at turning dietary fiber into short-chain fatty acids.

This suggests that both the amount of fiber and the specific mix of microbes in an individual's gut are important, which explains why two people eating the same diet can experience different health outcomes.

Of course, everybody has found themselves at one extreme or the other at some point in their lives, after catching a stomach bug or eating too much cheese.

But this study was looking at people's everyday routine, and it reveals how our own version of 'normal' could hint at health issues we weren't aware of.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/