Earthquake Faults Can Suddenly Become Almost As Fluid as Water, Study Finds

BY OSAKA METROPOLITAN U., NOV. 6, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/earthquake-faults-can-suddenly-become-almost-as-fluid-as-water-study-finds/

Earthquakes occur when built-up stress in Earth’s crust is suddenly released, causing the ground to shake. Driven largely by the movement of tectonic plates, these powerful geological events can reshape landscapes, trigger tsunamis, and reveal the dynamic forces constantly changing our planet.

 Credit: SciTechDaily.com

Scientists have uncovered evidence of an unexpected process that may allow earthquake faults to slip enormous distances.

Rocks along Japan’s Boso Peninsula have preserved evidence of an extraordinary process that may occur during powerful earthquakes. Researchers discovered ancient fault structures suggesting that clay trapped between moving rock surfaces became nearly as fluid as water, potentially allowing the fault to slip enormous distances with little resistance.

The findings, from a research team led by Professor Tetsuro Hirono of Osaka Metropolitan University, could help explain how some earthquakes produce the massive seafloor movements capable of triggering devastating tsunamis.

Ancient Rocks Reveal Evidence of Fluid-Like Movement

The researchers examined exposed rocks that formed in an ancient seafloor environment approximately 15 million years ago. Within an old earthquake fault, they identified unusual wavy and curved layers, along with swirling structures resembling vortices formed by moving fluids.

The team described these formations as “turbulent-flow-like.” Using fluid dynamics to analyze their shapes, the scientists found evidence that a process called thermal pressurization had caused clay within the fault to become fluidized.

Traces of turbulent flow generated during an earthquake are visible as swirls within the rock.

 Credit: Osaka Metropolitan University

Thermal pressurization occurs when rapid movement along a fault generates intense frictional heat. As water trapped in microscopic spaces within the rock heats up, pressure increases, reducing the frictional resistance that normally keeps the fault surfaces locked together. This weakening can allow much greater movement during an earthquake.

How a Weakening Fault Could Trigger a Tsunami

“Our analysis suggests that the viscosity approached that of water,” Professor Hirono explained. “This would have been a dramatic reduction. The fluidized state would have acted as a form of dynamic lubrication, causing the fault to weaken dramatically. The resulting large-scale slip would have produced a large displacement on the fault near the seafloor, potentially causing a tsunami.”

The mechanism could help explain the extreme seafloor displacement associated with some major earthquakes. In 2011, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake struck eastern Japan, with shaking and fault rupture lasting nearly six minutes. The earthquake shifted the ocean floor enough to generate a devastating tsunami. Although the ancient rocks do not establish whether the same weakening process occurred in 2011, they provide physical evidence of how faults may undergo dramatic changes during seismic events.

Ancient Faults Could Improve Tsunami Risk Assessments

The researchers hope to apply their analytical methods to modern faults, using changes in the viscosity of fault materials to better estimate how far those faults might slip during an earthquake. More accurate assessments of fault movement could improve estimates of potential seafloor displacement and associated tsunami hazards.

“Understanding the change in viscosity in fault-slips may allow us to more accurately recognize the magnitude of fault slips, which would support tsunami mitigation efforts,” Professor Hirono concluded.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Human-Elephant Conflict Could Explode Across Southern Africa As Scientists Warn of a Growing Crisis

By PNAS Nexus, Nov. 3, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/human-elephant-conflict-could-explode-across-southern-africa-as-scientists-warn-of-a-growing-crisis/

Human-elephant conflict occurs when elephants and people compete for space and resources, particularly in regions where farmland overlaps with elephant habitats. 

Credit: Shutterstock

Human-elephant conflict could intensify across Southern Africa as expanding farmland and increasingly dry conditions reshape the landscape.

By 2085, the area of Southern Africa facing a high risk of elephant crop raids could expand by 33% to 100%, according to a new study. Researchers predict that growing human populations, expanding farmland, and increasingly dry conditions will intensify encounters between elephants and farmers, with human land use playing the largest role.

Southern Africa is home to more than 290,000 African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana), representing roughly 70% of the continent’s savanna elephant population. As agricultural communities expand into elephant habitat, crop raids can destroy valuable harvests, threaten household incomes, and undermine local support for wildlife conservation.

Expanding Farmland Is Driving Elephant Conflict

To understand what causes these encounters, Evan Patrick and colleagues analyzed reported elephant crop raids from 2004 to 2020 across 38 communal conservancies in Namibia. They combined statistical methods designed to identify causal relationships with machine learning models that predict where conflicts are most likely to occur. Their analysis extended across a larger landscape encompassing northern Botswana and parts of Angola and Zambia.

“We find that human population growth, cropland expansion, and climate-driven aridity in core elephant-protected areas drive conflict risk,” the authors write.

Population growth was linked to higher crop-raiding rates during both wet and dry seasons, while expanding cropland and developed areas were associated with increased incidents during the wet season. Drier conditions within protected elephant habitats also predicted more wet-season raids in neighboring communities, suggesting that shortages of natural resources may push elephants toward agricultural land.

Where Elephant Crop Raids Are Most Likely

The researchers mapped potential conflict hotspots by examining vegetation cover, proximity to rivers, roads and wildlife fences, population density, and vegetation productivity. Tree cover and vegetation greenness were particularly influential predictors, while roads and fences appeared to shape where elephants encounter human settlements.

High-risk areas included regions north of Namibia’s Etosha National Park, the northeastern Zambezi Region, and parts of northern Botswana surrounding the Okavango Delta and Moremi Wildlife Reserve. Many of these landscapes connect important elephant habitats with areas used for farming.

Crop raids also showed pronounced seasonal differences. Historical records revealed that average incidents per mapped grid cell were more than ten times higher during the wet season than during the dry season, when agricultural activity and vegetation conditions differ.

Conflict Could Increase Under Every Future Scenario

Using projections of climate, population growth, and land use, the team modeled potential changes through 2085. All four scenarios predicted increasing crop-raiding activity and a wider distribution of high-risk areas, although the magnitude depended on future development patterns.

The greatest increases occurred under a scenario involving substantial population growth and land conversion, known as “regional rivalry.” Under this pathway, projected wet-season crop raiding was approximately twice as high as under the more sustainable development scenario. Even the scenario with the most severe climate impacts did not produce the highest conflict levels.

“Aggressive human land-use expansion leads to the most dramatic increases in conflict, with climate impacts playing a significant but smaller role,” the researchers explain.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

2,800-Year-Old Siberian Sacrificial Tomb Reveals Earliest Known Evidence of Cannabis Intoxication

06 Nov. 2026, By M. Starr

https://www.sciencealert.com/2800-year-old-siberian-sacrificial-tomb-reveals-earliest-known-evidence-of-cannabis-intoxication

(Nathan Griffith/The Image Bank/Getty Images)

Thousands of years ago, in what is now Siberia, a mysterious ancient culture laid some of their dead to rest in an enormous burial mound.

The kurgan, now known as Tunnug 1, was richly appointed – and its contents possibly gruesome.

The royal tomb contained elaborate grave goods, as well as the remains of dozens of sacrificed horses, many placed with human bones in arrangements that evoke ancient accounts of ghostly riders standing guard over Scythian kings.

Now, a new discovery suggests that a very familiar substance may have played a role in these funerary rites – cannabis.

And not just the seeds buried with the dead. Analysis of human hair from the Arzhan Scythians interred in the kurgan has revealed compounds associated with the plant's intoxicating effects.

The findings, reported by an international study led by archaeologist Gino Caspari of the University of Bern in Switzerland, provide the earliest securely dated direct evidence yet of psychoactive cannabis use.

And it may have been used as part of the sacrificial rites.

"In this princely tomb, the burials were accompanied by extensive horse sacrifices and, most likely, human sacrifices as well," Caspari says.

Archaeologists opening the central burial chamber of Tunnug 1. 

(Frozen Corpses Golden Treasures, T.Wallace & G. Caspari)



Tunnug 1 lies in the Uyuk Valley of southern Siberia, a region sometimes called the Valley of the Kings for the huge number of ancient Scythian burial mounds that can be found there.

Dating to around the early eighth century BCE, the monument is among the earliest known royal tombs associated with the Scythians, the horse-riding peoples whose cultures eventually spread across much of the Eurasian steppes – the Arzhan culture at the very onset of the Scythian period.

It was discovered in the 2010s, and archaeologists rapidly realized they had found something special – one of the oldest known Scythian royal tombs. And what a tomb it was.

A braid of preserved human hair. 

(Frozen Corpses Golden Treasures, T.Wallace & G. Caspari)



Measuring roughly 140 meters (460 feet) across, the enormous mound concealed an elaborate arrangement of wooden burial chambers, along with bronze ornaments, beads, weapons, and horse-riding equipment.

Its scale and intricate construction suggest that the people who built it commanded considerable resources.

The new investigation focused on six individuals interred in four wooden burial structures within the mound – and something rather more humble than you might usually expect of a 'princely burial'.

In and around the human burials, archaeologists discovered an extraordinary quantity of cannabis seeds – more than 1,000, many still intact after nearly three millennia.

The seeds were small, resembling those of wild cannabis rather than modern domesticated varieties. And although cannabis is often associated with warmer climates, the plant grows naturally across temperate Central Asia, so it may have been gathered locally.

The small, dark cannabis seeds would have been easy to miss. 

(Frozen Corpses Golden Treasures, T.Wallace & G. Caspari)



Their presence raised questions. Plant seeds don't tend to be included in elaborate burials unless they are culturally important in some way. So what was so important about these seeds?

To find out, the researchers needed to dig a little deeper – chemically, anyway.

Cannabis plants vary in their production of intoxicating compounds, and the seeds alone couldn't reveal whether these ancient plants had been used for their psychoactive effects.

But the researchers had another clue. Unlike many other soft tissues, hair is remarkably resistant to decomposition – and, as hair grows, traces of substances circulating through the body can become trapped within its keratin structure, creating a chemical record that remains long after death.

Human hair the tomb certainly had, too – preserved so perfectly it looks like it could have been taken from a living head yesterday, still bound up in braids.

Braids of human hair recovered from Tunnug 1. 

(Caspari et al. Science, 2026)



It was too good an opportunity.

The researchers took samples of the hair and subjected them to mass spectrometry, looking for the telltale chemical signatures of cannabinoids preserved within.

In every one of the hair samples they tested, the results revealed clear chemical signals matching cannabinol (CBN), a compound that forms when tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – the main intoxicating ingredient in cannabis – breaks down over time.

The researchers also detected much weaker signals consistent with THC itself.

Together, the findings provide compelling evidence that these ancient people had been exposed to psychoactive cannabis – likely on purpose.

"The molecular traces in the hair and the cannabis seeds come from the same grave and suggest that cannabis was used for its intoxicating properties," Caspari says.

That's a tantalizing result – because it raises more questions than it answers.

While it seems pretty clear that the deceased had been exposed to cannabis, we don't know how – whether it was eaten, smoked, inhaled from passive exposure, or infused into a nice pot of tea.

Small beads and gold objects found in a female burial. 

(Frozen Corpses Golden Treasures, T.Wallace & G. Caspari)



We also don't know what they had used it for… although the paper offers an intriguing possibility.

"The likely involvement of human sacrifice leading to the creation of a spectral cavalcade would have potentially made the plant a useful agent to calm individuals who were to be included in the rituals," the researchers write.

The researchers are now sequencing the ancient cannabis remains, hoping to learn more about whether the plants were cultivated and how cannabis spread across the ancient world.

In the meantime, it serves to mark a new chapter in the long history of humanity's relationship with psychoactive substances.

"Early cannabis use thus emerges not simply as a pharmacological curiosity but as an indication of how ancient societies experimented with and ritualized the psychoactive qualities of the botanical world," the researchers write.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

At 91, Julie Andrews Swears by One Habit Linked to 18% Lower Dementia Risk

06 Nov. 2026, By C. Cassella

https://www.sciencealert.com/at-91-julie-andrews-swears-by-one-habit-linked-to-18-lower-dementia-risk

(Kevin Winter/Getty Images North America/Getty Images for TNT)

Julie Andrews is one of the most famous actresses in the world, and at age 91, she is still working creatively.

The long-celebrated star of Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music may no longer be in front of the screen, but she continues voice acting for Bridgerton, and she just published a new children's book with her daughter.

In a recent interview with InStyle, Andrews said she mostly keeps working and creating to keep her brain alive.

Emerging evidence suggests she's on to something.

In 2021, an international team of researchers examined the association between cognitively stimulating work and the subsequent risk of dementia.

They brought together data from more than 100,000 people in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States.

After adjusting for other risk factors, they found that those participants with cognitively stimulating jobs had an 18 percent lower risk of dementia.

The findings are supported by a string of other studies, which suggest that staying cognitively stimulated in later life may be important for the aging brain.

In 2023, for instance, scientists found that immediately after retirement, cognitive function declines at an accelerated rate.

That isn't to say that the decline is due to retirement; it's just an association. But the timing is suspicious.

It could be that people more cognitively capable are working into later age, or it may be that mentally stimulating work can help keep the brain fit and healthy.

Learning is, after all, known to support brain function in our younger years. Why not in our later years as well?

Rachel Wu is a psychologist at the University of California, Riverside, who is researching how learning can boost cognition even in older age.

In an interview with the American Psychological Association earlier this year, she said that "there seems to be a societal expectation that adults are not supposed to be learning as much as children are."

She wondered: "What if adulthood is one very long summer slide, similar to what students experience during summer break?"

She and her colleagues published a study in 2023 that had older adults learn at least three new skills, such as Spanish, drawing, or music composition, over the course of three months.

At the end of the trial, participants showed improved cognitive performance. In fact, their scores were on par with a separate cohort of much younger adults.

"Our multiskill intervention may provide broad cognitive gains, akin to the benefits experienced earlier in the life span," the study authors concluded.

The findings suggest that challenging yourself cognitively in older age, as Julie Andrews does, could help keep the brain young.

"I probably feel like in my 50s, honest to God," Andrews told Julia Louis-Dreyfus on her podcast Wiser Than Me at age 88.

"As long as the brain holds out, I'm doing okay."

During the podcast, Andrews explained that her father also was a lifelong learner. She got her love of books and writing from him.

He studied a whole new language at age 76.

Alexandra Touroutoglou is a neurologist at Harvard University who studies super-agers, or those who remain cognitively sprightly even into very old age.

"Anecdotally, talking with our participants, the super-agers say they really enjoy challenging themselves," she said in an interview with the Harvard Gazette earlier this year.

"They don't want to sit in the background; they want to learn new things."

Growing older is inevitable, but that isn't to say a person has no control.

The 2024 Lancet Commission estimates that around 45 percent of dementia cases worldwide can be prevented or delayed with changes to certain lifestyle habits, medical conditions, or environmental factors.

Working with language, like reading or writing books, seems to be particularly worthwhile for the aging brain.

A recent study, published in Neurology earlier this year, followed nearly 2,000 older individuals from Illinois in the United States who did not have dementia at baseline.

After nearly eight years, 551 had developed Alzheimer's disease.

Those who reported more frequent engagement in cognitive activities throughout their lifespan, like reading books, visiting libraries and museums, learning foreign languages, or using dictionaries, showed better cognitive outcomes in later life.

In fact, a higher lifetime score for cognitive enrichment was associated with a 38 percent lower risk of Alzheimer's, a 36 percent lower risk of mild cognitive impairment, and a delayed onset of cognitive decline by up to 7 years.

It also led to greater cognitive function later in life.

"Our findings are encouraging, suggesting that consistently engaging in a variety of mentally stimulating activities throughout life may make a difference in cognition," said co-author and neuropsychologist Andrea Zammit in February.

These findings support the idea of a 'cognitive reserve', which is sort of like a muscle reserve.

According to this concept, as a person ages, the more they have exercised their brain in the decades before, the more protected it is from decline.

In 2024, for instance, a study from Norway found that those with a history of cognitively stimulating occupations in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s had a lower risk of mild cognitive impairment and dementia when they reached their 70s.

Julie Andrews has spent her whole life stimulating her brain and pushing herself creatively.

Even in her 90s, she chooses to keep learning to keep her brain fit and healthy.

In exploring her passion for writing, Julie Andrews swallows her medicine with a spoonful of sugar.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Scientists Recovered 22,000-Year-Old Human DNA From Cave Dirt

01 Nov. 2026,m By C. Cassella

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-recovered-22000-year-old-human-dna-from-cave-dirt

(Jordi Salas/Moment RF/Getty Images)

Scientists are getting astonishingly good at extracting ancient human DNA from mere dirt and dust, even when there are no physical remains left…

No bones, no teeth, no fossils.

A small scoop of sediment from a cave in Spain has now offered up ancient DNA from several individuals who lived roughly 22,000 years ago.

No human remains exist in this layer of the El Mirón Cave, but that hasn't stopped scientists.

The sediment taken from the El Mirón Cave weighed no more than a few grains of rice and had to be sequenced 100 times to yield enough usable data.

The team had to sift through more than a billion DNA fragments in the sample to find any human traces.

Plus, modern contamination had to be accounted for as well.

The findings from the study, led by researchers at the University of Vienna in Austria, are published in Science Advances.

What little genetic information the team found was probably shed long, long ago, possibly from the skin, hair, or blood of ancient humans sheltering in the cave during the coldest time of Europe's last ice age.

Skeletons from this period are extremely rare.

In fact, there are only a few human remains that have been found from this time and culture, and two are of very poor quality.

This new research at El Mirón adds crucial genetic information to the picture.

This ancient human DNA suggests that the people who once inhabited this cave probably belonged to a western ancestry group with dark skin, hair, and eyes.

The DNA seems to have come from a mix of individuals, including more males than females.

"This result highlights the capacity of sedaDNA (sedimentary DNA) for uncovering previously inaccessible genetic dynamics in absence of human remains," the authors conclude, "and decisively connects archeological records with human genetic identities."

El Mirón Cave. 

(Gabinete de Prensa del Gobierno de Cantabria/CC BY 3.0)



As you can imagine, SedaDNA is on track to revolutionize the field of archaeology.

Without the need for physical human remains, experts may no longer be limited by a fossil record in the same way.

The challenges of this technology still need to be ironed out, but with work, a 2025 review argues that sedaDNA could lead to a much deeper understanding of human dispersal dynamics, hunter-gatherer interactions, early agriculture, domestication, and disease.

"This takes archaeology to a whole new level of processual research in some of the most exciting areas of modern archaeology, including mobility, diet, and family stories," the review argued.

"The application of sedaDNA to a wide variety of archaeological sites and questions will increase rapidly in the next few years," the authors predicted.

Already, the results are starting to roll in.

In 2021, for instance, researchers pulled mitochondrial DNA from the mud floor of a cave in Georgia.

The genetic information once belonged to a woman who lived 25,000 years ago.

Just this year, another sample of ancient human DNA was found preserved on the wall of a cave in Argentina decorated with rock art.

"Although we cannot directly connect the traces of ancient human DNA we have found to the creation of rock art," explained Alba Bossoms Mesa, an evolutionary anthropologist at the Max Planck Institute.

"This is the first evidence for human DNA preservation on cave walls for thousands of years."

This isn't even the first DNA to be found at El Mirón, either.

In 2025, researchers discovered both animal and human mitochondrial DNA in dirt samples that were dated between 46,000 and 21,000 years ago.

The animals and humans seem to have inhabited the cave at different times.

This new research goes even further and extracts nuclear DNA from the cave's sediment.

Mitochondrial DNA is only passed down through maternal lines, but nuclear DNA comes from both parents and contains more information on an individual's lineage.

This data can help scientists better understand whether or not Western and Eastern populations in Europe during the last ice age mixed, or if they stuck to their respective corners of the continent.

Where the new Ice Age DNA samples came from in southwestern Europe. 

(Gelabert et al., Science Advances, 2026)



To find out more about human migration at this time, lead author Pere Gelabert and colleagues compared the nuclear DNA found at El Mirón to the remains of an ancient woman in France, who lived roughly 31,000 years ago, and a tooth from northern Spain dated to around 25,000 years ago.

Both individuals appear to have had some Eastern ancestry, suggesting that human populations at both ends of Europe were interbreeding before the last glacial maximum.

But perhaps that mixing didn't last.

Human DNA from the El Mirón cave, which is roughly 22,000 years old, only shows signs of western ancestry.

"Crucially," the authors conclude, "… our genomic data argue against a major population replacement or discontinuity at this juncture."

Instead, the population in southwest Europe between 30,000 and 20,000 years ago seems to have remained relatively continuous.

The samples of ancient human DNA that scientists are working with from this time and place are still scarce, but sedaDNA techniques have already contributed greatly, practically doubling the evidence at hand.

"Future work integrating additional skeletal genomes and sedaDNA datasets will be essential to further resolve the processes that shaped the genetic landscape of Upper Paleolithic populations in Europe," conclude Gelabert and colleagues.

Our ancestors might have gone from ashes to dust, but they are still here with us after all.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Discovers Something Unexpected Hidden in the Chaos of Space

By U. of Tokyo, Nov. 4, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/nasas-parker-solar-probe-discovers-something-unexpected-hidden-in-the-chaos-of-space/

Artist’s illustration of NASA’s “Parker Solar Probe” mission. 

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has uncovered hidden order in space turbulence, a finding that could help scientists understand magnetic storms on Earth.

Smoke rising from an incense stick can begin as a thin, steady stream before curling and spreading unpredictably. The smoke makes turbulence in the air visible. Turbulence also occurs in space, where the moving material is plasma, an ionized gas containing electrically charged particles. Electric and magnetic fields strongly influence how those particles move, making this turbulence different from the movements of ordinary air.

Space plasma is also so dilute that its particles rarely collide, making it effectively collisionless. Physicists are still working to understand how turbulence develops under these conditions and how its energy is distributed. Measurements from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe have now revealed an organized pattern within that irregular activity.

Magnetic fields reverse rotation at smaller scales

At large scales, plasma behaves like a fluid, and turbulence develops through swirling motions called vortices and through electromagnetic waves. The fluctuations become random. At smaller scales, the dynamics of individual particles become important. These are different ways the same material behaves depending on the size of the disturbances being examined.

Using high-precision magnetic field and particle data from Parker Solar Probe, an international research team directly demonstrated, for the first time, that turbulent magnetic fields reverse their preferred direction of rotation across this transition. Picture the magnetic field’s direction as an arrow that can turn as the field fluctuates. Viewed looking radially away from the Sun, the fields preferentially rotate counterclockwise at larger scales. At smaller scales, they rotate clockwise.

Reversal of the field rotation from left-handed rotation (blue) to right-handed rotation (red), plotted on the frequency spectrum (y axis) against distance from the Sun x axis). Analysis based on the data from the Parker Solar Probe. A low frequency corresponds to a long wavelength in the spectrum. 

Credit: Iizawa et al., Astrophys. J. Lett., 2026



The reversal occurs at the wavelength, or spatial scale, where fluid-like behavior gives way to particle-like dynamics. Farther from the Sun, the reversal becomes more pronounced and shifts toward longer wavelengths, corresponding to larger spatial scales.

“We see a clear structure in the spectrum, even though the turbulence represents unstructured motions,” says Dr. Masatomi Iizawa of Technische Universität Braunschweig (TU Braunschweig), the article’s first author.

The study brought together researchers from the Institute of Theoretical Physics at TU Braunschweig and the University of Tokyo, in cooperation with Tohoku University, Kyushu University, Osaka University, and other research institutes. The collaboration spanned ten countries, and the results are published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Turbulence shapes space weather

Dr. Yokoi of the University of Tokyo says, “The results are of great significance for both plasma physics and astrophysics.”

Plasma turbulence plays an important role in the solar wind, solar eruptions, and interplanetary space, as well as in Earth’s magnetosphere, the region dominated by our planet’s magnetic field. It also matters in accretion disks, where material orbits and moves inward toward a central object. In interplanetary space, turbulence can influence the shock waves and magnetic clouds produced by solar eruptions, making it an important factor in predicting geomagnetic storms.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Researchers Discover Earth May Have Made Its Own Water 4.5 Billion Years Ago

By U. of New Mexico, Nov. 4, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/researchers-discover-earth-may-have-made-its-own-water-4-5-billion-years-ago/

Artist’s illustration of early Earth, showing rocky debris raining through a scorching atmosphere onto a molten surface.

 Credit: University of New Mexico

Laboratory experiments suggest that rocky planets could generate their own water as they form, potentially giving distant worlds an essential ingredient for life.

Rocks, hydrogen gas, and intense heat might sound like an unlikely recipe for an ocean. Yet experiments suggest that these ingredients could have produced much of Earth’s water while the planet was still taking shape.

One leading explanation for Earth’s water involves small particles containing ice, known as icy pebbles. These formed in colder regions of the early solar system, where water could remain frozen, and may have carried that water to the growing Earth. Questions remain about how the particles traveled such long distances and whether those deliveries can fully explain Earth’s chemical composition.
Water in minutes from rock and hydrogen

Graduate student Susmita Garai led the new research with Zachary Sharp, professor and director of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and Peter Olson at the University of New Mexico. Their study, published in Nature Geoscience, investigated whether iron-bearing silicate rocks could react with atmospheric hydrogen under conditions resembling those of early planetary formation.

Experimental apparatus heating silicate rock samples. Credit: University of New Mexico



“In order to evaluate the possibility of ‘pebble’ rain’ being a source of water, we needed to construct and execute some very challenging high-temperature experiments. Dr. Garai’s efforts paid off mightily, as she found that water is produced in just minutes in the high-temperature environment of the Early Earth’s atmosphere,” Sharp said.

The researchers heated silicate rock samples to between 1,200 and 1,400 degrees Celsius, or about 2,192 to 2,552 degrees Fahrenheit, in experiments lasting from 15 minutes to three hours. Some samples were exposed to streams of hydrogen. Others were heated in helium for comparison, allowing the team to test hydrogen’s role in the reaction.

In the hydrogen experiments, nearly 80% of the iron oxide in the samples was converted into metallic iron, producing water vapor in the process. Hydrogen reacted with oxygen bound to iron in the rocks, leaving the iron as metal and forming water. The same reaction did not occur in helium.
Pebble rain could supply Earth’s oceans

“Previous ideas about the source of water to Earth rely on an external source, such as comets or meteorites. Here we show that virtually any Earth-sized planet should have water by this newly identified mechanism,” Sharp explained.

Results from the experiment. Left showcases the molten iron in silicate melt. Right shows the solid iron crystals in silicate melt.

 Credit: University of New Mexico



For this chemistry to supply a growing planet with water, rocky material, and hydrogen would need to meet under suitable conditions. That could happen during pebble accretion, a process in which small rocky particles accumulate to build a larger planetary body. Once the growing planet became sufficiently massive, it could develop a hot, high-pressure atmosphere rich in hydrogen. Silicate pebbles falling through that atmosphere could then undergo the water-producing reaction tested in the laboratory.

“We had suspected and hoped that we would produce iron metal and water in our reduction experiments, but we really had no way of knowing how fast and how much. We were quite surprised to find that extrapolation of our work suggests that hundreds of oceans worth of water were likely produced in this way. Looking out over a large body of water, it is hard to imagine that that water may have been produced 4 ½ billion years ago in a hell-like atmosphere, but it very well may have,” said Sharp.

AI generated illustration of pebble rain. 

Credit: University of New Mexico



Earth-sized worlds could make their own water

If comparable conditions developed around other rocky planets during their formation, the reaction could provide a widespread route to water on Earth-sized worlds beyond our solar system.

“The idea of pebble accretion is still relatively new. It’s only been around for the last decade. But it seems to solve many problems that exist with the existing paradigm for planet formation,” Sharp said. “And now we see that it also can explain why our planet is habitable. By extension, it is reasonable to expect that other Earth-sized bodies circling other stars would also have water and possibly life.”

The experiments demonstrate a potential mechanism for producing water during planetary formation. Determining how much of Earth’s water actually originated this way will require further research.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Mosquitoes Are Picky Eaters – and Scientists Just Figured Out Why They Prefer Certain People

By Florida International U., Nov. 3, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/mosquitoes-are-picky-eaters-and-scientists-just-figured-out-why-they-prefer-certain-people/

Few things are more annoying than mosquitoes. Their relentless buzzing, itchy bites, and knack for finding exposed skin can ruin an otherwise perfect evening outdoors. Worse still, these tiny pests can carry dangerous diseases, making them far more than just a nuisance. 

Credit: Shutterstock

Scientists have discovered that different mosquito species are attracted to distinct human scent signatures.

A person who attracts one mosquito species may be far less appealing to another. In a study involving 119 volunteers, researchers at Florida International University (FIU) found that three major disease-carrying mosquito species consistently preferred different people. Not a single participant was attractive to all three.

The findings, published in iScience, challenge the idea that some people are universally irresistible to mosquitoes. Instead, attraction appears to depend on how individual species detect the chemicals and microorganisms associated with human skin.

Different Mosquito Species Prefer Different Human Scents

The researchers examined three species responsible for spreading diseases such as dengue, Zika, yellow fever, and West Nile virus. Each responded to a different combination of biological signals.

Aedes aegypti, a mosquito that typically bites during the day, preferred people who wore no added fragrance and whose skin lacked certain volatile compounds. It also showed a slight preference for men. Another daytime feeder, Aedes albopictus (Asian tiger mosquito), was more attracted to people with elevated levels of ketones and plant-like chemicals naturally released by the skin.

Culex quinquefasciatus (southern house mosquito), which feeds after dark, responded more strongly to differences in the skin microbiome. This community of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms varies from person to person. Certain bacterial families were associated with increased mosquito attraction, while others appeared to discourage feeding.

A mosquito is examined under a microscope in the lab of FIU professor Matthew DeGennaro.

 Credit: Christopher Necuze/Florida International University



Human Body Chemistry Helps Explain Mosquito Preferences

Human scent contains more than 1,000 volatile organic compounds, many of which remain poorly understood. To investigate which biological characteristics influence mosquito attraction, the scientists collected odor and skin microbiome samples alongside their preference tests.

Led by Ph.D. student Kaylee Marrero, the study was the first to directly compare how multiple mosquito species respond to the same individuals. The researchers had not anticipated such clear differences between species.

“We didn’t expect the species to prefer different people when we started the study,” Marrero said. “Each species having a distinct microbial signature that they use as a cue was so surprising to me.”

The results suggest that mosquitoes have evolved different ways of detecting and interpreting the complex chemical signals produced by human skin.

“This connected so well with the differences in skin bacteria and odors,” said Matthew DeGennaro, a neurogeneticist who leads the research team and directs the Biomolecular Sciences Institute at FIU. “It is clear to me now that our skin microbiomes define our human odor signature. Each species found its own way to decode that signature.”

Toward More Targeted Mosquito Repellents

Understanding which chemicals attract or discourage individual mosquito species could help researchers develop repellents designed to interfere with specific scent signals rather than relying on a universal approach.

“Isolating the components of human odor that attract or repel mosquitoes could lead to novel strategies to combat vector-borne diseases,” DeGennaro said.

By identifying the chemical compounds and microbial signatures associated with each species, the researchers are establishing a foundation for more targeted mosquito control. Future repellents could potentially be tailored to the species responsible for transmitting diseases in particular regions, although further research will be needed to translate these findings into effective protection.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

120 Million Years Ago, Something Extraordinary Was Happening in Earth’s Oceans

By McGill U., Nov. 4, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/120-million-years-ago-something-extraordinary-was-happening-in-earths-oceans/

Giant marine reptiles like long-necked plesiosaurs and marine crocodile relatives, as well as turtles, sharks, crustaceans and others, formed the Paja Biota, “one of the most ecologically complex marine communities found to date,” says researcher Dirley Cortés. 

Credit: Juan Giraldo

Colombia’s ancient seas supported an extraordinary diversity of top predators, offering clues to how life may undergo major evolutionary changes without a mass extinction.

Mass extinctions have reshaped life on Earth, but they may not be the only way ecosystems undergo dramatic evolutionary change.

Roughly 120 million years ago, the seas covering what is now central Colombia were home to an extraordinary mix of ancient Jurassic survivors and emerging Cretaceous predators. Fossils from this remarkably complex ecosystem suggest that some of evolution’s biggest turning points may unfold without a catastrophic mass extinction.

The Paja Biota’s predator-rich food web

The evidence comes from the Early Cretaceous Paja Formation near Villa de Leyva, Colombia, where the Centro de Investigaciones Paleontológicas (CIP) houses most of the formation’s fossils. The research at McGill University and CIP was conducted by PhD graduate Dirley Cortés and Professor Hans Larsson of McGill’s Department of Biology.

“This geological formation has produced an exceptionally rich fossil record that includes giant marine reptiles like long-necked plesiosaurs and marine crocodile relatives, as well as turtles, sharks, crustaceans and others,” Cortés explained. “Together, these animals formed the Paja Biota, one of the most ecologically complex marine communities found to date.”

Researcher Dirley Cortés at the CIP.

 Credit: Center for Paleontological Research



In a previous study, the researchers estimated the Paja Biota’s food web, the network of feeding relationships among its animals. They found it was among the most complex ever to have evolved, with a high diversity of apex predators, animals at the top of the food chain.

Ocean conditions may explain rare coexistence

“The Paja Formation records an extraordinary process in the history of life, when a ‘perfect storm’ of environmental factors we know to promote ecological complexity coincided with ancient lineages that were about to disappear. At the same time, new groups were beginning to flourish,” Larsson said.

The researchers suspect that greenhouse temperatures, high sea levels, and nutrient-rich coastal waters helped support this exceptional biodiversity and biological transition. New marine connections between the eastern Pacific and early Atlantic oceans through what is now Colombia were probably also part of that rare convergence. Many of these same factors help drive biodiversity today, they noted.

The team identified the pattern in the Early Cretaceous Paja Formation near Villa de Leyva, Colombia, where the CIP houses most of its fossils.

 Credit: Center for Paleontological Research



Testing whether Biotic Inflections happened elsewhere

Cortés and Larsson propose calling the pattern a “Biotic Inflection,” a period when many evolutionary lineages nearing extinction coexist with newly emerging groups that later diversify.

“I think we’ve discovered a new model of global biodiversity change. Now we’ll need to see just how widespread this could be in Earth’s history and how we can quantify its impacts,” Larsson said.

Testing the proposal will require additional fossil sampling, more precise dating, and comparisons with deposits elsewhere in the world. Those investigations would help establish how widespread the Biotic Inflection pattern was and when similar events may have occurred in Earth’s history.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Earth’s Oceans Were Slowly Suffocating Millions of Years Before a Devastating Mass Extinction

By Virginia Tech, Nov. 2, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/earths-oceans-were-slowly-suffocating-millions-of-years-before-a-devastating-mass-extinction/

Fossilized shells from the sedimentary rock layer. 

Credit: Ben Gill

As today’s oceans lose oxygen, Alaskan rocks trace a similar decline that began millions of years before the end-Triassic mass extinction.

Dinosaurs survived the end-Triassic mass extinction 201 million years ago, but roughly 60 percent of Earth’s species did not. New evidence from Virginia Tech geologists suggests that the crisis in the oceans began about 8 million years earlier, when oxygen levels in shallow waters started to decline.

Scientists have long linked the extinction to enormous volcanic eruptions that tore apart landmasses, warmed the planet, and triggered widespread environmental changes. As temperatures rise, rocks break down faster, releasing nutrients that contribute to increasing ocean acidity. Warmer seawater also holds less dissolved oxygen, creating conditions that can lead to oxygen-depleted dead zones where marine organisms struggle to survive.

The combination of rising acidity and falling oxygen is “kind of like a one-two punch,” said geochemist Ben Gill. “It wouldn’t have been a very happy place to be.”

Although scientists had previously found evidence of widespread marine oxygen loss around the end-Triassic extinction, much of it came from a limited geographic area. Researchers still lacked a clear understanding of when the decline began and how extensively it affected the oceans. Recent studies had also raised the possibility that environmental conditions started deteriorating far earlier than previously believed.

“It’s a 200-million-year-old cold case,” said Kayla McCabe, a former Virginia Tech geosciences graduate student and first author of the study, published in Communications Earth & Environment.

Alaska’s rocks reveal a prolonged oxygen crisis

To investigate, McCabe and her colleagues turned to sedimentary rocks at Grotto Creek in Alaska’s Wrangell–St. Elias National Park. The remote location is accessible only by small aircraft, and the team traveled there in 2017, 2019, and 2022 to collect evidence of ancient ocean conditions.

Sedimentary rocks form as layers of material accumulate over time, preserving chemical traces of the environments in which they were deposited. By comparing layers formed before, during, and after the extinction, the researchers could reconstruct how oxygen conditions changed across millions of years.

Members of a field team examine an outcrop of rock layers in Grotto Creek in Alaska’s Wrangell–St. Elias National Park in 2019. 

Credit: Ben Gill



The geochemical analyses revealed a prolonged deterioration rather than a sudden collapse. The earlier decline likely placed marine ecosystems under stress long before the main extinction event. Conditions then worsened considerably during the extinction itself, with the rock record showing a much more severe loss of oxygen. The findings indicate that oxygen starvation became a major contributor to the disappearance of marine species.

The earliest oxygen loss remains unexplained

What triggered the initial decline remains uncertain. The massive volcanic eruptions associated with the end-Triassic extinction have long been considered a major cause of the environmental catastrophe, but the newly identified timeline raises questions about what was happening millions of years beforehand.

“There’s evidence of another volcanic province that roughly lines up with this time interval,” Gill said. “But we’re in the very beginning of trying to understand what happened.”

Ancient oxygen losses echo in modern oceans

The ancient rock record also offers a way to examine the potential consequences of environmental changes unfolding today. Modern oceans are experiencing rising temperatures, acidification, and declining oxygen levels. Ocean deoxygenation is an ongoing concern, including in coastal environments such as the Chesapeake Bay.

Although the ancient and modern circumstances are different, understanding how warming and oxygen depletion affected marine life in the past could help scientists anticipate the combined pressures facing ocean ecosystems today.

“Earth has run this experiment in the past. We have evidence that the climate gets warmer, and then all these other knock-on effects come afterwards,” Gill said. “It gives us some sense of what we can expect to happen.”

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Scientists Witness a Mysterious Sexual Bond Between a Bull And a Male Donkey

03 Nov. 2026, By P. Dockrill

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-witness-a-mysterious-sexual-bond-between-a-bull-and-a-male-donkey

Achille with Patroclo. 

(André B. da Cruz)

The heart wants what the heart wants.

At least, that's one way of looking at an extraordinary relationship scientists discovered by chance during fieldwork in Ethiopia.

Over a series of observations, researchers documented an unusual sexual bond between a male donkey and a bull.

The observations, reported in Current Biology, show animal sexual behavior can be a more complex social phenomenon than we might realize, the team says.

"Nature does not always respect the boundaries we draw around it," ethologist Elisabetta Palagi from the University of Pisa in Italy told ScienceAlert.

"Animal behavior is not a picture painted in black and white: It uses the whole palette, with all the colors of the rainbow."

While same-sex sexual behavior (SSSB) is a widespread behavior among animals, observations of sex between animals of different species are much rarer.

Editor's note: The video below shows footage of the bull mounting the donkey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmusyMW6zis

Yet the interactions observed by Palagi's team between Achille (a bull) and Patroclo (a male donkey) might be something even rarer still – a bond that possibly transcended the sexual encounters they shared.

"Both animals had access to other potential partners, including individuals of their own species and of both sexes," Palagi said.

"Yet they repeatedly sought each other out."

The research team had traveled to the Ethiopian highlands to study gelada monkeys when they noticed by accident the interactions between Achille and Patroclo in a nearby grazing area.

Over a number of days, Achille was seen mounting Patroclo. Mounting was documented 51 times, with 34 of the events resulting in intromission (penile penetration).

Editor's note: Graphic image below of the bull mounting the donkey.

When Achille tried the same thing with another male donkey in the pasture, the donkey showed clear avoidance behaviors, including a display of threatening facial expressions (ear flattening).

In contrast, Patroclo never avoided or kicked away Achille, but instead appeared to present his hindquarters to the bull, and both animals engaged in other acts that caught the researchers' attention.

Achille mounting Patroclo.

 (Martina Francesconi, University of Pisa)



"Achille and Patroclo were more likely to exchange affiliative behaviors, such as licking, rubbing and nuzzling, with each other than with other animals, and these interactions lasted longer. They also spent most of their observed time close together," Palagi said.

"The sexual interactions were one component of a much broader, selective relationship."

According to the researchers, pre-mounting behaviors (involving acts such as licking and nuzzling) are not unexpected between animals, as they may help facilitate mounting.

But Patroclo and Achille's behavior was perhaps unusual, in that they engaged in post-mounting interactions much more often than any foreplay, suggesting there was more to their relationship than sex alone.

"Although interpreting this behavior is challenging, the interactions observed between Achille and Patroclo, embedded in repeated, reciprocal, and mutual affiliative interactions, may also function as a signal of relationship quality," the researchers write in their paper.

"Rather than being solely attributable to sexual arousal, these interactions appear to play a role in prolonging the social interaction beyond the sexual act."

On another occasion, when Achille mounted another donkey, Patroclo moved in close, as if to prevent further interactions between them, and Achille ended up interacting with Patroclo instead, including body licking.


According to Palagi, this apparent selectivity and the consistency of their association were the most surprising part of the research, especially since the animals belonged to different owners and spent their nights apart, only encountering each other during daily grazing.

"The mounting initially attracted our attention, but their repeated preference for each other's company became the most compelling part of the story," Palagi told ScienceAlert.

"Patroclo's behavior was particularly striking… His participation made the relationship especially intriguing."

According to the researchers, Achille and Patroclo's interactions appear to be the first documented case of a sustained same-sex sexual relationship between a bull and a donkey.

While we can't know exactly what the relationship meant to them – and need to be careful not to interpret their interactions through an anthropomorphic lens – it's clear something was going on here, suggestive of a social bond that crossed a boundary between species.

Whether that bond still exists is uncertain. After the study, Achille and Patroclo were moved to different grazing areas.

The researchers hope to return to see if the animals resume their activities, and to investigate whether similar relationships are occurring between species more often than we realize.

"Unusual behavior can remain anecdotal simply because nobody has the opportunity to document it systematically," Palagi said.

"Nature's full palette becomes visible only when we are willing to notice the unexpected."

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/