Number 402
How high-intensity interval training alters inflammatory responses
To date, the effect of exercise on the immune system has not been well studied using the popular HIIT format, despite extensive research on the immune response following long-duration exercise and elite events, such as marathons.
Think DEET keeps mosquitoes away? They may be learning to love it
Every summer, millions of people spray themselves with DEET to keep mosquitoes away. But new research suggests mosquitoes may be able to learn to associate the repellent with food—and even become attracted to it.
Electrical pulses reverse aging in sea squirts, offering clues for extending human longevity
Researchers commonly study sea squirts to answer questions about human immune systems and stem cells for several reasons. They rebuild all their body tissue about every week, making stem cell activity easy to observe. They naturally form fusions with related colonies, creating a living laboratory for studying how the immune system distinguishes self from non-self.
Mathematicians are challenging the idea that dark energy is responsible for the accelerating expansion of the universe. In a new paper mathematicians provide mathematical proof that instabilities inherent in the Einstein-Euler equations imply that the current model of the expanding universe is not viable.
How bean plants call on wasps for help when hungry caterpillars attack
Some plants are not the sitting ducks they appear to be when they come under attack. If a hungry caterpillar starts to chomp on the succulent leaves of a common bean plant, a highly sophisticated defense system kicks into action. The plant sends out a chemical distress signal that summons predatory wasps to its aid.
As climate change redraws rainfall maps, some regions face a far greater flood risk than others
As the climate warms, heavy downpours are covering more ground—but where exactly? A new study puts the big-picture changes in context, and suddenly, it matters what region you live in.
Bare supercontinent may have tipped ancient Earth into ‘Snowball’ phase
About a billion years ago, Earth started to come into its own. It was past the awkwardness of its younger years full of growing pains and turmoil: comet strikes and slimy water, including the Great Oxidation Event that flipped the world upside down. Roughly a billion years ago, the planet began to advance and mature, with plant life developing about 700 million years ago, but still with the occasional wild climate parties to keep things interesting.
Unprecedented view inside live stem cells reveals aging process and loss of regenerative capacity
Scientists have developed a powerful new technique that allows them to observe how individual cells manufacture proteins during aging, offering an unprecedented glimpse into the hidden molecular activity of stem cells in living tissue. As a result of the research scientists were able to observe aging unfold inside individual epidermal stem cells.
MIT researchers develop a low-cost technique to get lithium out of rocks
The low-temperature process could unlock cleaner lithium from America’s abundant hard rock while minimizing waste.
Waves of higher, warmer water move eastward across the Pacific Ocean a few months before an El Niño emerges. Several have shown up in 2026 satellite data.
AI maps brain waste-clearing flow, revealing two speeds tied to deep sleep
When a person goes into deep sleep, waterlike fluid circulates around the brain, washing away metabolic waste that is linked to diseases such as Alzheimer’s. This process, known as the glymphatic system, was first described in 2012 by Maiken Nedergaard.
The mental cost of skipping meals may run higher than most people realize
Skipping a few meals here and there, or eating whenever one can make time in their schedule, might seem like a benign act. Research, however, shows that these habits are far from being harmless.
Outdoor lights may keep mosquitoes biting and breeding deeper into autumn
In some parts of the world, autumn brings welcome relief from mosquitoes, such as the Northern house mosquito (Culex pipiens). As the days grow shorter, the waning light is a signal for them to enter a winter state of dormancy called diapause.
A severed piece of sea cucumber refused to die, and what happened next could transform medicine
From the revived corpse of Frankenstein’s monster to the disembodied hand, “Thing,” in the Addams Family, reanimated tissue is one of the most enduring images in science fiction. It turns out, that image has some basis in nature.
== yjc
The £5 coffee that tells a story of global economic turmoil
Coffee is not just a morning ritual, repeated worldwide: in fact, it’s an insight into the modern global economy. The latte sheds light on everything from commodity inflation to trade chaos; from geopolitical strife and climate change to Gen Z cultural tastes. It teaches us about rampant new demand from the Chinese middle class, and the long-hanging economic effects of the Vietnam War.
NASA plans for up to three more lunar missions before the end of 2026
The missions will deliver payloads to the lunar surface and test equipment from Blue Origin and Astrolab.
Just five posts may be enough to shape what people believe online, study finds
If people form opinions online before they fully evaluate whether information is true, then the fight against misinformation may begin far earlier than most platforms are designed to address.
CO2 scrubbing microbes discovered in underground laboratory
A multidisciplinary team of researchers discovered a set of microbes living 4,100-feet underground that essentially eat carbon dioxide gas (CO2) and turn it into rock at an incredibly fast rate.
Ancient anesthetic reveals Ming China’s sophisticated medicine
Microscopic analysis of residues on surgical scissors and tweezers from a 1348–1411 CE tomb in Jiangyin, China, finds the first evidence for the controlled application of a highly toxic chemical as anesthetic, highlighting the sophisticated medicine of the Ming dynasty.
James Webb telescope spots supermassive black hole that formed before its galaxy
For decades, it has been conventional scientific wisdom that large stars within an existing galaxy eventually collapse, gobbling up nearby materials in the process. This leads to a black hole. Now we have evidence of a black hole that’s millions of times larger than our sun that grew relatively quickly without going all Galactus on the surrounding environs.
Tech CEOs are apparently suffering from AI psychosis
There is a certain wildness in the tech industry these days that both mimics previous eras of large changes, like cloud computing (runaway costs in the early days), and is like nothing we’ve ever seen before (record revenues accompanied by mass layoffs).
Erin Brockovich launches a crowdsourced AI data center map
Brockovich’s map overlays major operational and planned hyperscale AI data centers with community submitted reports of concerns.
A Fundamental Principle of Aeronautical Engineering Has Been Overturned
It’s long been accepted that the smoother the surface, the lower the aerodynamic drag. That turns out not always to be the case.
Doing puzzles and joining clubs could help you age well
Growing old is a fact of life. But thanks to improved health care and innovative technology, more of us are living longer and healthier lives. However, aging isn’t always easy.
Jade for you: https://www.tohoku.ac.jp/japanese/2026/05/press20260512-02-DMR.html
Could one prenatal vitamin reshape how your child remembers words, patterns and places?
Prenatal supplements nourish both mother and baby, helping fill vitamin and mineral deficiencies in the mother while supporting a healthy pregnancy and strong fetal development throughout every stage of pregnancy.
Psychologists have long known that forgiveness is crucial for healing rifts and keeping social bonds strong. Folk wisdom even advises us to “forgive and forget” after a wrong, implying that saying you forgive someone should make the bad memory vanish.
Ancient woodworking technique could save modern electronics from overheating
Electronic devices and electric vehicles are often made up of several materials and components. The regions where different materials meet play a key role in ensuring that electricity and heat are safely and reliably transferred between underlying materials.
Mathematicians solve decades-old mystery about the hidden order in high-dimensional randomness
In 1995, Michel Talagrand came up with his famous mathematical problem, which asks whether convexity can be “created” in a fixed, uniform number of steps (using operations called Minkowski sums) in any number of dimensions. In mathematics, convexity means that a shape or function bends outward, ensuring no gaps or inward dents exist.
== yjc, too my untrained eye, makes me think of a tesla??
Ferrari Luce unveiled: Here’s the first car from Jony Ive’s design house
Our first look at the entire luxury EV designed by LoveFrom.
== yjc
A new slinky is in the world record books. This Connecticut family made it happen
New record for stairs descended by a slinky: 53
China’s Huawei reveals chip design breakthrough amid US sanctions
Huawei unveiled on Monday ?a new principle for improving chips, noting the industry can no longer rely on shrinking transistors for computing breakthroughs, a pattern known as Moore’s Law, as they ?have become so small that their dimensions are measured in only a few atoms. The Tau Scaling Law, as the principle is called, instead focuses on cutting the time it takes signals and data to move through chips ?and computing systems
== yjc, I carried boxes of punch cards around for most of my last year, 1972-73, at Queen’s
== I don’t recall dropping any of those boxes, but plenty of people did and some hadn’t
== printed the code/data on the cards–no sorting those back into order
Bits of history…
Punched cards were once a ubiquitous part of accounting, data collection and early computing. At their peak of use, in the 1950s and 60s, hundreds of companies around the world printed millions of punch cards every month. Yet within a few years of their obsolescence they all but disappeared from the public consciousness.
Bees get distracted just like us, hinting at their own awareness
Even tiny insects need to focus. In a recent study, honey bees—usually quick to learn which scent means sugar—completely flubbed the task when a flashing light joined the party. This surprisingly human-like breakdown suggests that these little buzzers might engage something like awareness when connecting cause and effect.
NASA shares Psyche spacecraft’s photos of Mars
Psyche did a Martian flyby to get gravity assist from the red planet.
Lost elephant calf reunites with family after researchers track herd across Samburu reserve
A research team reunited a 4-month-old elephant calf with her family after she wandered into a tourist camp alone. The orphaned elephant calf was disoriented from a bumpy truck ride and didn’t immediately move toward the other elephants.
How the gut rewires the brain to drive cravings for essential nutrients
Eating is not only about getting enough calories. Animals also need to choose the right nutrients. When the body lacks protein, it must seek essential amino acids—the protein building blocks that cannot be made internally and must come from food.
AI makes a major breakthrough in a math problem that had stumped experts for decades
If you take a piece of paper and add some dots, how many pairs can be exactly the same distance apart? Erdos proposed that the maximum number grows only slightly faster than the number of dots. Although many mathematicians agreed with him, no one could find a way to mathematically prove it.
Earth’s outer core beneath Pacific reversed direction in 2010, satellite data reveal
The molten core, which swirls about 2200 km beneath our feet, generates Earth’s geomagnetic field as it moves. By measuring small changes in the magnetic field, scientists have historically inferred the core flowing mainly westwards.
The regular solar cycle is a mere climate murmur, but sudden geomagnetic jolts are a different story. These high-altitude outbursts appear to be hijacking the polar vortex to rewrite weather on the ground.
Your brain’s inner AI has a wild side, explaining every trippy vision you could imagine
Imagine what would happen if the enigmas of the human brain could be unraveled through technologies developed to replicate its workings. Consider an experience involving spiraling fractal shapes, forming a kaleidoscope of impossible figures. Next, think of meeting an illusory loved one in the flesh, or being menaced by a phantom animal in your midst.
“Technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate, and use it.”
- Pope Leo issues a warning about AI in his first encyclical letter, entitled 'Magnifica humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.