Liberal Blogosphere

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 09:20:03 +0000

Turning invasive plants into powerful filters for fluoride-contaminated water

Nano-magnesium oxide combined with plant-derived pyro-hydrochar achieves high fluoride adsorption while offering a new route for invasive biomass utilization

Shenyang Agricultural University Collaborative Journals

image:

Nano-MgO/pyro-hydrochar for enhancing adsorption of fluoride ion from aqueous solution: performance, influencing factors, and mechanisms

Credit: Yao Tong, Donglin Wang, Lingqing Gu, Yujie Tai, Xianjie Tang, Xi Zhang, Rongdi An, Til Feike & Jiunian Guan

Excess fluoride in water is a persistent environmental and public health concern in many parts of the world. Now, researchers have developed a new plant-derived material that can capture fluoride efficiently while also creating value from invasive plant biomass.

A research team led by Jiunian Guan at Northeast Normal University has developed a nano-magnesium oxide modified pyro-hydrochar, or nMgO/Py-HyC, made from residues of the invasive plant Rhus typhina. The material achieved a maximum fluoride adsorption capacity of 469.64 milligrams per gram, outperforming the MgO-based adsorbents compared in the study.

“Our goal was to address two environmental challenges at the same time: fluoride contamination in water and the growing accumulation of invasive plant biomass,” said Jiunian Guan, corresponding author of the study. “By converting this biomass into a functional carbon material and combining it with nano-magnesium oxide, we created an adsorbent with strong fluoride-removal performance and promising environmental adaptability.”

Fluoride occurs naturally in groundwater, but industrial activities such as semiconductor manufacturing, glass production, electroplating, lithium refining, pesticide production and pharmaceutical manufacturing can also generate fluoride-containing wastewater. Excessive fluoride exposure can cause serious health problems, making effective treatment technologies important for both drinking water protection and industrial wastewater management.

The researchers first converted Rhus typhina biomass into hydrochar and then produced the magnesium-containing composite through a relatively simple pyrolysis process. The resulting porous carbon structure helped disperse nano-MgO particles and provided numerous sites where fluoride could be captured.

A major advantage was the material's ability to perform under different water conditions. Fluoride adsorption remained stable across a broad pH range from 5.0 to 11.0. Common coexisting ions such as nitrate and sulfate caused little interference, although high concentrations of bicarbonate reduced fluoride uptake.

Detailed material analyses revealed that fluoride was not captured through a single process. Instead, several mechanisms worked together, including electrostatic attraction, surface complexation, anion and ligand exchange, precipitation, and hydrogen bonding. Fluoride could interact directly with magnesium and form stable compounds such as MgF₂ and fluorine-containing magnesium hydroxide phases.

The researchers also observed a clear synergistic effect between the carbon support and nano-MgO. Under the same experimental conditions, the adsorption capacity of the combined material was substantially greater than the capacities of the two components considered separately. Its porous framework helped expose active magnesium sites and improved contact between fluoride ions and the adsorbent.

The study therefore points to a potential circular strategy: invasive plant residues can be transformed from an ecological management burden into a useful material for water remediation.

The authors note that further work is needed to evaluate the material under different real-world wastewater conditions and at engineering scale. Still, the findings provide a promising foundation for developing high-efficiency, low-carbon fluoride treatment technologies based on renewable biomass resources.

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Journal reference: Tong Y, Wang D, Gu L, Tai Y, Tang X, et al. 2026. Nano-MgO/pyro-hydrochar for enhancing adsorption of fluoride ion from aqueous solution: performance, influencing factors, and mechanisms. Biochar X 2: e023 doi: 10.48130/bchax-0026-0021

https://www.maxapress.com/article/doi/10.48130/bchax-0026-0021

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About the Journal:

Biochar X (e-ISSN: 3070-1686) is an open access, online-only journal aims to transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries by providing a multidisciplinary platform for the exchange of cutting-edge research in both fundamental and applied aspects of biochar. The journal is dedicated to supporting the global biochar research community by offering an innovative, efficient, and professional outlet for sharing new findings and perspectives. Its core focus lies in the discovery of novel insights and the development of emerging applications in the rapidly growing field of biochar science.

Journal

Biochar X

DOI

Sardinian village may be a new longevity hotspot, UIC research finds

University of Illinois Chicago

image:

Sunset over Bolotana, a village on the Italian island of Sardinia.

Credit: (Courtesy of S. Jay Olshansky and Marisa Montibeller)

A terracotta-tiled village in the mountains of Sardinia may offer researchers a rare opportunity to uncover the secrets of exceptional longevity.

A new study co-authored by S. Jay Olshansky, professor emeritus of epidemiology at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health, found that women in the village of Bolotana, on the Italian island of Sardinia, are nearly three times as likely to reach age 100 once having reached the age of 70, as women in the United States. The findings suggest the community could represent a newly identified “blue zone,” an area where people live unusually long lives.

The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Aging, examined demographic records from the village of about 2,300 residents and found a favorable pattern of survival among older adults, particularly women. Researchers estimated that 13.8% of women in Bolotana who reach age 70 will live to 100, compared with approximately 3.5% of women in Italy and 3.6% of women in the United States.

“What makes Bolotana extraordinary is that it has an incredible historical record that allows us to definitively evaluate ages at birth and death,” Olshansky said. “The municipal and baptismal records date back centuries and allowed us to independently verify ages.”

The project was supported by National Geographic and involved an international team of researchers.

Exceptional lifespans and record-keeping

The concept of blue zones originated from studies of communities where residents routinely outlive people in surrounding regions. Other blue zones that have been singled out and confirmed by researchers include Okinawa, Japan, and the Nicoya peninsula in Costa Rica.

To evaluate whether Bolotana meets that standard, researchers assessed two key measures: life expectancy at age 70 and the likelihood that someone who reaches age 70 will survive to age 100. Bolotana first attracted attention because of its unusual concentration of centenarians. In 2024, six people aged 100 or older were living in the village, a prevalence roughly 11 times higher than that of the United States, according to the researchers’ estimates.

The team then conducted a deeper analysis using civil records and church archives to reconstruct the life histories of residents across more than a century. The team’s age-validation process involved matching birth, death and baptismal records to ensure the accuracy of centenarian ages.

“Every single person that has made it past 100, we can validate,” Olshansky said. “There is no ambiguity.”

The study documented 38 centenarians among 3,060 people born in Bolotana between 1900 and 1925.

A different kind of Sardinian longevity

Sardinia is already famous among researchers who study aging. The island’s original blue zone, identified more than two decades ago, is known for unusually high male longevity. In Bolotana, women emerged as the standout group. Female residents who reached age 70 were estimated to have nearly 21 years of additional life expectancy. Among international longevity benchmarks, Bolotana women ranked second only to Hong Kong in both life expectancy at age 70 and the probability of surviving to age 100.

“Females almost always live longer than males anywhere in the world, but in Sardinia that wasn’t the case. It’s one of the things that made it so unusual,” Olshansky said. “We think this is the longest-lived female population in the world, or close to it.”

The findings are particularly notable because some critics have recently argued that reports of extreme longevity are driven by inaccurate records, Olshansky said. Bolotana’s extensive municipal and church archives allowed researchers to validate ages through multiple independent sources.

Diet, activity and social bonds

While the study confirms that something unusual is happening in Bolotana, it doesn’t explain why. However, the village offers several clues worth further investigation, Olshansky said. Residents live in a highly walkable community with steep streets and hills. Most food is grown locally, including olive oil rich in healthy fats. Families often live close together, and social isolation appears rare.

“You’ve got this close-knit community where people take care of each other,” Olshansky said. “Movement is largely done by walking, not by driving.”

Researchers believe factors such as diet, physical activity, family support, social connection and genetics likely all contribute.

For Olshansky, the broader significance extends beyond one Sardinian village.

“If we can identify the characteristics behind this longevity and help people adopt them, the rest of the world can benefit from understanding the values practiced by these communities.”

Written by Tess Joosse

Journal

Frontiers in Aging

DOI

10.3389/fragi.2026.1951042

UVM study reveals how lake trout embryos acquire thiamine in the wild

University of Vermont

image:

Dr. Matt Futia deploying egg bags for rearing lake trout in Lake Champlain

Credit: Provided by Matthew Futia

For decades, fisheries managers have struggled to restore wild populations of lake trout recruitment across the Great Lakes region, with limited success. Returning this species to its former abundance is hampered by overfishing, sea lamprey predation, invasive species, and habitat alterations.

A potential barrier to recovery is Thiamine Deficiency Complex (TDC), a disorder caused by insufficient vitamin B1, or thiamine. This syndrome is considered a major threat to conservation and restoration efforts widely.

TDC can cause severe behavioral and neurological abnormalities and extremely high mortality of newly hatched fish. It is typically observed in hatcheries that rear salmon and trout egg obtained from wild populations, and hatchery staff can mitigate its effects using thiamine treatments.

Now, scientists from SUNY Brockport, the University of Vermont (UVM), and Oregon State University have conducted the first study to examine whether embryos can acquire thiamine naturally in their wild environment. The study, published in Scientific Reports and funded by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, found that lake trout embryos developing in Lake Champlain accumulated substantial amounts of thiamine, while paired embryos reared under controlled laboratory conditions did not show the same increase.

The findings provide new insight into how the effects of thiamine deficiency may play out differently in the wild than in hatcheries.

Until now, all research on TDC-related mortality has taken place in hatcheries, leaving uncertainty about how the disorder functions in natural ecosystems. Thiamine must be acquired from the diet or environment – and is potentially highly available in water, where lake trout eggs incubate for over five months before hatching.

“Prior to this study, practically everything we knew about the effects of TDC on newly hatched fish was based on studies in labs and hatcheries”, says Matthew Futia, the study’s lead author. “Our findings suggest that what occurs in natural environments may actually be quite different, and thankfully, in a good way for the fish.”

Lake Champlain was selected as an experimental system because TDC has been documented in stocked populations of lake trout and Atlantic salmon, and spawning sites are well-studied. In field work led by UVM’s Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory and the Rinchard Lab at SUNY Brockport, fertilized eggs from Lake Champlain were split between natural incubation and controlled laboratory rearing. The team measured thiamine levels at four developmental stages and analyzed the lake water to learn how much thiamine is available in the surrounding environment.

The researchers found that lake-reared embryos experienced significant increases in thiamine concentrations at the time of hatching and in the following weeks, compared to the lab-reared embryos, which showed no increase at all.

The team also detected thiamine precursors and byproducts in Lake Champlain. Together, these findings indicate that developing embryos may be able to uptake sufficient concentrations of thiamine during development to offset problems due to thiamine deficiency.

By revealing a previously unknown pathway for thiamine acquisition in the wild, this study opens the door to improved restoration strategies, more accurate assessment of TDC, and better-informed management decisions for lake trout and other salmonines across the Great Lakes and beyond.

Journal

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-026-73008-6

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Thiamine availability and uptake in lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) eggs and embryos: contrasting natural and artificial environments

Article Publication Date

5-Oct-2026

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 09:23:40 +0000

Healthy reef sounds can boost coral and fish recovery efforts

Two Scripps-led studies show how underwater sound can play a role in restoring degraded coral reefs and rebuilding fish communities

University of California - San Diego

image:

Damselfish swim near a separately located artificial reef “Stack” structure which were also used in the acoustic enrichment studies.

Credit: Nina Schiettekatte

Coral reefs are renowned for their visual beauty, but for the marine life they support, their sounds may be just as enticing. Two new studies led by UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography reveal how underwater acoustic enrichment — the playback of sounds from healthy reefs — can help spur the recovery of degraded coral reefs and their fish communities.

These studies — one focusing on coral larvae, and the other focusing on fish larvae — are the first to field test the effects of underwater sound on fish and coral larvae simultaneously, alongside other restoration technologies including living materials and 3D-printed settlement surfaces. The research took place in Hawaii’s Kāne’ohe Bay, located off the island of O‘ahu, over several spawning events in 2023 and 2024.

“We have demonstrated in a single set of field studies that acoustic enrichment works in increasing the presence of both fish larvae and coral larvae on artificial reef structures,” said Scripps Oceanography researcher Aaron Thode, head of the Scripps Environmental Acoustics Lab and lead author of the coral larvae study.

Scripps Oceanography scientists led the studies in collaboration with the University of Hawai’i and other consortium partners of Rapid Resilient Reefs for Coastal Defense (R3D), a project focused on nature-based strategies to reduce wave energy, protect coastlines and improve coral resilience. The studies and broader R3D effort were funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Coral study

The newest study, published Oct. 8 in Communications Biology (part of the Nature Publishing Group), examines how acoustic enrichment affects coral larval settlement — the critical stage when free-drifting larvae search for a place to attach and begin building a reef. The research also demonstrates the potential of living materials and 3-D printed settlement surfaces to enhance coral settlement under natural spawning conditions.

“Our data indicate that when these drifting organisms detect a lot of sound from a reef, it signals to them that this is a good place to settle,” said Thode. “Our analysis also provided strong evidence that synthetic chemical cues attract these organisms to reefs.”

To start, the team collected sounds from a healthy reef environment off O‘ahu, Hawaii. Over the course of a lunar cycle, their recorder captured the sounds of fish and numerous other organisms, including shrimp and crustaceans that produce distinctive snapping noises. (Listen to the sounds of a healthy reef under the new moon, and the distinctive “purr” of a damselfish.)

The researchers then broadcast these recordings from an underwater speaker at the study site — a flat, sandy area off the small island of Moku o Loʻe. For two weeks, the speaker played the reef recordings from sunset to sunrise.

Around the speaker, the team placed 37 artificial structures on the seafloor, at a depth of 4.5 meters (15 feet) and distances between 1 to 42 meters (3 to 138 feet) away. The structures varied in design and surface properties, and included engineered microhabitats developed in Scripps researcher Daniel Wangpraseurt’s Coral Reef Ecophysiology and Engineering Lab.

These microhabitats were engineered in two ways: through their physical architecture, which created complex, protected settlement spaces, and through their living surface coating, made with BRINK — a bioactive “reef ink” containing living bacteria. BRINK was developed by former Scripps postdoctoral researcher Natalie Levy and colleagues in Wangpraseurt’s lab.

Across three experiments conducted over two years, scientific divers measured coral larval settlement one and two weeks after the new moon, when spawning occurs. Using a handheld blue light and yellow filter, they counted the individual larvae that had settled on each structure.

The experiments showed that the structures closest to the speaker had the highest levels of coral settlement. Among those, the structures treated with BRINK had the best results.

“The acoustics help, and with the living biofilm, it's a lot better,” said Thode. “When combined with structures that had crevices, acoustic enrichment worked very well for the coral larvae settlement.”

The study noted that specialized 3D-printed structures developed by colleagues at the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology also performed well, but those structures were only tested with sound alone and not BRINK. For future experiments, the team recommends combining acoustic enrichment with these more complex structures coated with BRINK for the best chance of coral settlement success.

“We now have evidence that several of these technologies can work in the field, which is a major step forward,” said Wangpraseurt, who is also UC San Diego’s lead principal investigator for the R3D project and a co-author of the study. “It brings us closer to the vision of hybrid reefs, a new class of living coastal infrastructure that combines engineering and biology to protect our shores while supporting the growth and recovery of reef ecosystems.”

Reef fish study

In a related study published recently in Scientific Reports, Scripps PhD candidate Océane Boulais and colleagues used custom-built autonomous cameras to document an increase in fish larvae during the same acoustic enrichment field deployments.

“Fish are important components of healthy coral reefs, because certain species feed on smothering microalgae that would otherwise make it difficult for coral larvae to settle and grow,” said Boulais, the lead author of the study.

Because fish are easily disturbed by humans, monitoring their activity while scuba diving presents a challenge, one Thode likened to “Godzilla trampling through a city and trying to get an accurate count of all the humans scurrying away.” As a solution to this problem, Boulais developed an array of low-power autonomous cameras capable of continuously detecting and counting fish larvae for up to three weeks.

Boulais positioned the cameras near the entrances of complex, 3D-printed structures that functioned as “fish hotels,” documenting fish as they entered and left while also tracking the presence of larvae.

“By developing these non-invasive cameras, we can essentially spy on the fish and observe a lot of their natural behavior,” said Boulais. “The autonomy and long-term monitoring design of these cameras enable us to ob

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 09:22:32 +0000

Twin study sheds new light on screen time and mental health

Karolinska Institutet

Shared family factors, such as genes and upbringing, are likely to explain a large part of the link between high screen use and mental health problems in young people. This is according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in Nature Human Behaviour.

“Our results suggest that the association may in some cases have been overestimated because it has not been possible to fully account for shared family factors,” says Tong Gong, research specialist at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, and the study’s corresponding author alongside Lu Yi, senior researcher at the same department.

The researchers have followed over 21,000 Swedish twins from the age of nine, through their teenage years and into adulthood. The aim was to investigate how leisure-time screen use is linked to symptoms of depression and anxiety over time. By comparing twins within the same family, where one twin used screens more than the other, they were able to study how the association was influenced by shared genetic and environmental factors.

Clear links during adolescence

The clearest associations between screen use and mental health problems were observed during adolescence and for interactive screen activities such as gaming, chatting and surfing the internet. In contrast, significantly weaker or no links were observed for passive activities such as watching TV or videos.

Fifteen-year-olds who spent more than six hours a day on interactive screen activities had more symptoms of depression or anxiety and were more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with such a condition later in life, compared with their peers who spent no more than two hours a day using screens. However, when the researchers compared twins within the same family, most of these links weakened, particularly among identical twins.

“The correlations did not disappear entirely, but they did become significantly weaker, suggesting that both genes and upbringing play an important role,” says Tong Gong.

The researchers emphasise that the results do not mean that screen time is irrelevant to mental health. Interactive screen activities during adolescence were still linked to an increased risk of mental health problems later in life, although the uncertainty increased when shared family factors were included in the analyses.

Examine different types of activities

The study is based on self-reported data on screen use and does not capture exactly what the young people were doing on their screens or why they were using them. Furthermore, the data was collected before social media and smartphones became as integral a part of young people’s everyday lives as they are today.

The next step is to examine different types of screen-based activities in greater detail, studying their content, the motivation behind their use, problematic use and the activities that screen time replaces. In this way, the researchers hope to gain a better understanding of how these complex relationships vary across different age groups and between girls and boys.

“Future recommendations should not focus solely on how much time children and young people spend in front of screens,” says Emma Frans, senior research specialist at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, and co-author of the study. “To be able to give good advice, we also need to understand what they are doing on their screens, why they are doing it, and which individual and family-related factors may affect their well-being.”

The study was conducted by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in collaboration with partners from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany and Australia. It was primarily funded by the Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation and the Swedish Brain Foundation. One of the co-authors, Henrik Larsson, has received research grants, honoraria, and consultancy fees from pharmaceutical companies outside the scope of this study. The other researchers declare no conflicts of interest.

Publication: “Recreational Screen Use and Internalising Problems from Preadolescence to Young Adulthood in a Longitudinal Twin Cohort with Co-Twin Comparison”, Tong Gong, Emma Frans, Anna Ohlis, Shuyang Yao, Ruyue Zhang, Anders Nilsson, Yasmina Molero, Miriam A Mosing, Isabell Brikell, Henrik Larsson, Paul Lichtenstein, Lisa B Thorell, Patrik KE Magnusson, Ralf Kuja-Halkola, Yi Lu, Nature Human Behaviour, online 8 October 2026, doi: 10.1038/s41562-026-02607-0.

Journal

Nature Human Behaviour

DOI

10.1038/s41562-026-02607-0

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Recreational Screen Use and Internalising Problems from Preadolescence to Young Adulthood in a Longitudinal Twin Cohort with Co-Twin Comparison

Article Publication Date

8-Oct-2026

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 09:21:34 +0000

Blue light could cut food poisoning from raw chicken

The low-cost technique is also a viable alternative to chlorination

University of Reading

A low-power blue light could be the key to significantly reducing food poisoning caused by raw chicken in the UK, scientists at the University of Reading have found.

Campylobacter is the most common cause of bacterial food poisoning worldwide. In the UK alone there are hundreds of thousands of cases each year, costing an estimated £700 million annually in healthcare and lost productivity.

In a study published today [6 October] in the journal Microbiology, researchers from Reading, working in collaboration with the Animal and Plant Health Agency, tested a new technique known as violet-blue photodynamic inactivation (VB-PDI) against 64 different strains of Campylobacter, which is found in around three quarters of all raw chicken sold in the UK. Every single strain was killed by the treatment, regardless of species or antibiotic resistance profile.

The findings build on previous research that showed blue light treatments could work more effectively than treating chicken with chlorine to kill off specific strains of bacteria. Chlorinated chicken is common in the US, but is not commonly found in Europe, and is a high-profile example of differing food standards and trade barriers between US and Europe.

While cooking kills Campylobacter, cross-contamination from handling raw meat is thought to be the main route of infection. Symptoms typically last about a week and include stomach cramps, fever, nausea and, in many cases, bloody diarrhoea.

VB-PDI works by shining a safe, visible violet-blue light onto bacteria, causing molecules naturally found inside their cells to produce lethal levels of destructive compounds called reactive oxygen species. Crucially, the method needs no physical contact with the food and no added chemicals, making it a promising option for use on poultry carcasses in processing plants after slaughter, before products reach consumers.

The researchers estimate that if the technique could reduce contamination on chicken carcasses by a factor of 100, the proportion of highly contaminated carcasses reaching retail could fall from around 1 in 10 to just 1 in 50.

The team also found no evidence that Campylobacter bacteria could develop resistance to the treatment. Strains that were already resistant to antibiotics were killed just as effectively as fully susceptible ones. When one strain was repeatedly exposed to the light over 15 rounds in the laboratory, in an attempt to force resistance to evolve, no increase in tolerance was seen.

Dr Aidan Taylor, from the University of Reading and lead author of the study, said: "Campylobacter is a genuinely nasty bug, and its sheer abundance in the food chain, combined with rising antibiotic resistance, makes it a really difficult problem to tackle.

“What's exciting about this light-based approach is that it doesn't rely on chemicals or antibiotics at all, so it sidesteps the resistance problem entirely. We've shown it works against a wide range of real-world strains taken directly from UK poultry, including the multi-drug resistant strains that worry us most, and we can't find any evidence that resistance could evolve. That combination of broad efficacy and durability is what makes this such a promising option for cutting contamination before chicken ever reaches someone's kitchen."

Because VB-PDI uses simple, low-power LEDs with a long lifespan and minimal running costs, the team also believe it could offer a low-cost option for poultry producers, including in low- and middle-income countries where food safety infrastructure is limited.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency surveillance programme provides a uniquely detailed picture of the Campylobacter strains circulating in UK poultry. This allowed scientists to test the technology against a real diversity of bacteria, rather than laboratory strains alone.

Dr Samuel Connelly, from the Animal and Plant Health Agency, who co-led the research, said: “The consistent results observed across multiple species and resistance profiles are highly encouraging. While further evaluation using contaminated meat samples is required, the simplicity and adaptability of this technology suggest that it could be implemented at various stages of the food production process. Such application has the potential to reduce the prevalence of Campylobacter within the food chain and, consequently, contribute to a reduction in the incidence of foodborne illness.”

Earlier work by the same team uncovered the molecular reasons why Campylobacter is so sensitive to violet-blue light. The researchers say further trials on naturally contaminated poultry carcasses in real processing settings are now needed before the technology could be rolled out commercially.

Journal

Microbiology

DOI

10.1099/mic.0.001769

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Cells

Article Title

One light to rule them all: photodynamic inactivation of diverse Campylobacter

Article Publication Date

6-Oct-2026

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 14:08:20 +0000

Top AI tools accurately identified validated home BP monitors only about 2/3 of the time

American Heart Association Hypertension Scientific Sessions 2026 – Moderated Poster #TH125

American Heart Association

Research Highlights:

Three of the top four popular artificial intelligence (AI) tools – OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot and Perplexity AI – could not consistently identify if a home blood pressure monitor had passed clinical validation testing, with accuracy only 63% to 83% of the time. Google Gemini performed better but still provided incorrect responses about 10% to 15% of the time.
All four tools misidentified various home blood pressure monitors as not meeting clinical standards even though the AI tool was verifying against the independent registries that list only validated blood pressure monitors.
Researchers advise healthcare professionals and the public to confirm validation of home blood pressure monitors according to recognized independent, free and publicly available registries.
Note: The studies featured in this news release are research abstracts. Abstracts presented at the American Heart Association’s scientific meetings are not peer-reviewed, and the findings are considered preliminary until published as a full manuscript in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

Embargoed until 8 a.m. ET/7 a.m. CT, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026

Arlington, Va., Oct. 8, 2026 — Three of four leading AI-powered search tools accurately identified home blood pressure monitors that met validated clinical standards only 63%-83% of the time, according to preliminary research being presented at the American Heart Association’s Hypertension Scientific Sessions 2026. The meeting is in Arlington, Virginia, October 7-11, 2026, and is the premier scientific exchange focused on recent advances in basic and clinical research on high blood pressure and its relationship to cardiac and kidney disease, stroke, obesity and genetics.

High blood pressure is the number one risk factor for cardiovascular disease, affecting more than 125 million adults in the U.S. – about 47% – according to the American Heart Association’s 2026 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics Update. Only about 1 in 4 of those adults have their blood pressure within the target range of less than 120 mm Hg/80 mm Hg, and high blood pressure.
The 2025 American Heart Association Guideline for the Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Management of High Blood Pressure in Adults recommends that people use a home blood pressure monitoring device that has been validated for accuracy. People can talk with their clinician and visit www.validatebp.org for more information.

Now that AI-powered search tools are integrated into all online platforms, people are increasingly asking AI tools for quick answers to health questions, including whether home health devices such as blood pressure monitors have been validated and meet clinical standards. A home blood pressure monitor is considered validated when independent, third-party testing has proven it gives consistently accurate blood pressure readings, and there are three primary registries that list these devices. In this analysis, researchers found AI-powered chatbots were not reliable at making this determination.

“We found that most AI tools performed only slightly better than if you had flipped a coin for each question. Even Google Gemini, which performed best, was often wrong and couldn’t find information that is easily located,” said Anna Soriano, M.D., a third-year internal medicine resident at the University of Montreal and the study’s presenting author.

“People may unknowingly think a device is validated based on the AI tool’s inaccurate responses. Using that device may result in inaccurate blood pressure readings, which could lead to an inappropriate diagnosis or treatment decisions,” she added.

What are the key findings of the study?

Researchers found that accuracy at identifying if a home blood pressure monitor meets clinical standards varied significantly depending on the AI-powered tool used.
Google Gemini scored the highest – answering correctly 86% to 91% of the time depending on how the questions were phrased.
Correct responses from ChatGPT, Copilot and Perplexity ranged from only about 63% to 83%.
All four AI tools were less accurate at identifying validated BP monitors vs. unvalidated monitors.
When researchers retested the AI tools’ responses for devices that had mixed accuracy results, asking the same AI tool the same questions – on a different day or from a different computer – the AI tools often produced a different answer.

Researchers also tested a wide range of devices, including lesser-known home blood pressure monitors, though researchers noted these still appear on the same official registries as more popular ones. The authors could not determine exactly why AI tools struggled with identifying devices that had already passed validation testing.

“It is surprising, and almost counterintuitive, that AI tools had so much difficulty specifically identifying validated devices, since those devices are the ones with clear listings on official registries,” Soriano said. “In many cases, the AI tools found the blood pressure monitor was listed within an official website, however, it seems AI was not able to interpret being listed on the registry as proof of validation.”

“Artificial intelligence holds great promise to help support clinicians in areas such as cardiac imaging, electrocardiography, mobile devices and other tools,” said Keith C. Ferdinand, M.D., FAHA, an American Heart Association volunteer expert and vice chair of the Association’s 2025 High Blood Pressure Guideline. “The potential shortcomings of AI demonstrated by this study’s results should remind clinicians and the public that the use of AI for clinical decision-making requires caution. In addition, home blood pressure devices need to be both validated [listed on the national registry validatebp.org and accurate. With the proper technique and regular monitoring, readings from home BP devices are a valuable component of integrated, individual treatment plans that can improve patient care and outcomes.” Ferdinand, who was not involved in this study, is the Gerald S. Berenson Endowed Chair in Preventative Cardiology and professor of medicine at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans.

A limitation of the study is that these results are likely to change as AI technology continues to improve with time. In addition, to limit each tool’s ability to learn from previous test searches, scientists used private internet browsing sessions; however, this technique could not fully prevent language model training of the AI tools.

What are the details, background and design of the study?

Researchers tested 324 home blood pressure monitors in Canada during April - May 2026 – 145 validated devices and 179 not-validated devices – drawn from 3 validation registries (StrideBP, ValidateBP and Hypertension Canada); a list of known non-validated devices; and the list of top-selling blood pressure cuff monitors sold via Amazon in Canada, Australia and the U.S.
The authors tested each device with four AI search tools: Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT and Perplexity.
Researchers asked each of the AI tools three types of questions about each of the 324 blood pressure devices: a general, public-style question about the device’s validation status; a more specific question directing it to check a named validation registry; and the same question asked with more details and requiring a one-word answer.
To test consistency, the researchers retested 20% of devices that had produced mixed results, using three different examiners on different computers and on different days primarily in May 2026.

Note: This abstract will be presented at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, October 8, 2026.

Co-authors, their disclosures and funding sources are listed in the abstract.

Statements and conclusions of studies that are presented at the American Heart Association’s scientific meetings are solely t

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 14:07:04 +0000

Novel device will help show how wildfire smoke impacts wildlife

Colorado State University

image:

The collar around this mule deer's neck holds sensors measuring air quality as well as physiological and location data, giving researchers insights into the animal's health and activity. Credit: Alexis Neukirch/U.S. Forest Service

Credit: Alexis Neukirch/U.S. Forest Service

When wildfire smoke fills the air, most people can go inside to avoid it. Wildlife does not have that option, and little is known about how animals living in remote areas respond to wildfires and smoke exposure.

Colorado State University researchers have developed an air quality monitoring device that can be paired with systems that track wildlife location and physiological data to learn how smoke impacts wildlife health and behavior. The smoke logger is an open-source tool that will allow wildlife researchers everywhere to answer questions that previously couldn’t be answered and gather data that can be used to better protect wildlife. The smoke logger design and programming are now freely available with publication of initial results in Methods in Ecology and Evolution.

“Wildfire is now a chronic problem in North America. We all are experiencing these massive smoke plumes that can negatively affect air quality for weeks at a time,” said CSU Professor George Wittemyer, who led the project with U.S. Forest Service wildlife ecologist Mark Ditmer and CSU postdoctoral researcher Adam Parlin. “We're interested in how wildlife adjusts its behavior relative to smoke exposure, and it wasn't possible to know until now.”

As wildfires increase in frequency, size and severity, smoke plumes that impact air quality for an extended time are a new stressor for wildlife, Wittemyer added, and air quality typically is not monitored in wilderness areas. The small, affordable smoke logger the team has developed can be attached to animal-borne collars to record the concentration of hazardous particles animals are breathing.

“We know relatively little about the impacts of wildfire smoke on the behavior of animals in the field, especially how free-roaming wildlife respond to severe smoke events,” said Parlin, who designed the smoke logger while he was a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology. “These units provide one avenue to better understand the consequences from wildlife’s perspective – such as identifying refugia during smoke events – that can provide actionable insights for conservation and management.”

Wildlife studies – especially those that capture, collar and recapture animals – are resource intensive, and many of them already track health data, like heart rate, in addition to GPS coordinates. These data combined with smoke logger data will reveal new information about wildlife welfare and activity.

The team is partnering with researchers across the western U.S. to piggyback on studies tracking cougars, deer and elk, and they stationed sensors in the habitat of the endangered Sierra Nevada fisher, a small mammal related to weasels, to better understand the air quality in their range. Those results will be published in future studies.

They encourage researchers with projects where wildlife collars are recovered to partner with them to add smoke loggers to their sensor packages. Or, for about $100 in materials per unit, researchers can assemble their own smoke loggers by downloading the free, open-source design and programming.

Initial deployment on mule deer revealed that air quality differed by an order of magnitude – 10 times either more or less – between the deer-borne sensors and the closest monitoring stations, indicating the highly localized nature of air quality and the need to monitor individual animals to understand their exposure and response. Deer monitored in Colorado and Utah this year were not exposed to unhealthy levels of wildfire smoke, but testing showed that the sensor is sensitive enough to register minimal air pollution spikes from traffic for urban-dwelling deer.

"That was eye-opening for us and shows how variable air quality is at a microscale,” said Wittemyer, a professor in the Warner College of Natural Resources.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency monitors air quality in populated areas across the country through the AirNow network. The wildlife-worn sensors will fill gaps in data and deliver further health insights for people exposed to smoke too.

To design an affordable tool, the team repurposed a low-cost, commercially available sensor similar to the ones used by the PurpleAir monitoring network. The sensors use a laser to measure microscopic particles known as particulate matter 2.5 because they have a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less. These particles are detrimental to cardiovascular and respiratory health.

The solar-powered smoke logger is designed to be worn on a collar by medium and large animals and must be recovered for the data to be downloaded. Transmitting data would be costly and would drain the device’s battery, limiting its lifespan, and there is no connectivity for transmission in wildlands. Instead, air quality data is recorded and stored every 30 minutes.

Ditmer said a stronger understanding of how smoke impacts wildlife health will improve conservation planning and allow prescribed burns to be timed to reduce risk to wildlife.

“Prescribed fire is an important tool for managing forests in the face of increasingly severe wildfires, and understanding when and where smoke actually reaches wildlife could help managers plan burns that meet forest-management goals while reducing exposure during sensitive periods or in important habitats,” he said.

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 14:01:06 +0000

The benefits of vaccination extend beyond protection from infection

A study in mice led by researchers at Pompeu Fabra University shows that vaccination can prevent long-term immune-related consequences derived from an acute viral infection

Universitat Pompeu Fabra - Barcelona
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Spleen of a healthy mouse (left) vs spleen of a mouse after recovering from an acute infection (right).
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Credit: Pompeu Fabra University

Vaccination not only prevents disease caused by acute infection but also protects against long-term immune-related sequelae that can follow an acute viral infection. This is the main conclusion of a study led by the Infection Biology Laboratory at Pompeu Fabra University. The study, carried out in mice, shows how after recovering from an acute viral infection, animals experienced a long period of impaired immune responsiveness which compromised their immune system's ability to effectively respond to future challenges. Prior vaccination prevented these detrimental consequences, preserving immune function, thus broadening our understanding of the benefits of vaccination.
We often think of acute viral infections - such as the common cold or a gastrointestinal virus - as simple sequential events: the virus expands and causes symptoms of illness, then the virus is controlled and, eventually, the subject recovers. This overall process also generates virus-specific immunity that helps protect against future encounters with the same pathogen. But what if recovering from an acute infection involves much more than this?
A study led by researchers from the Infection Biology Laboratory at Pompeu Fabra University, published in Cell Death & Disease, shows that recovering from an acute viral infection can come with long-term costs to the immune system. Using a mouse model of acute infection, the researchers found that although the animals controlled the virus and recovered from the acute phase of the infection, their immune system remained altered for much longer.
According to Andreas Meyerhans, an ICREA research professor at UPF, who led the research, “there is a general perception that an acute viral infection is a relatively minor and transient event: once the virus is controlled and the symptoms have resolved, the body has fully recovered and is back to normal. But this view may underestimate consequences that are not immediately visible and can persist long after the infection itself has resolved”.
As a collateral effect of the immune response generated to control and clear the virus, the researchers observed substantial disruption of the architecture of the spleen in recovered mice. The tissue developed fibrosis, while the organization and localization of immune cells were markedly altered. These changes impaired the cellular interactions required for the proper activation of T cells, key players in adaptive immunity that recognize and eliminate infected cells. Consequently, after recovering from the acute infection the specimens showed a prolonged impairment in their ability to mount new immune responses when exposed to subsequent challenges.
“The infection can be controlled, but that does not necessarily mean that the host has fully recovered”, says Dr. Paula Cebollada Rica, first author of the study. “Our findings show that the immune-related consequences of an acute viral infection can persist beyond the period in which the virus is detectable, leaving the animals in an immunocompromised state”.

Vaccination prevented the long-term consequences of infection
The next question was whether there was a way to prevent these long-term consequences. Vaccination was a natural candidate. In this mouse model, previously vaccinated animals showed none of the alterations observed after recovery from the acute infection: their splenic architecture remained intact, and their T-cell functionality was comparable to that of naive mice.
“Vaccinated animals did not experience T-cell dysfunction or splenic alterations after recovering from an acute viral infection. This means that vaccination not only prevented the disease resulting from the acute infection but also preserved the immune system's ability to cope with new challenges”, Cebollada Rica explains.

Implications for public health
These findings come at a time when decisions concerning vaccination and infectious disease prevention are increasingly shaped by public policy. Scientific evidence on the consequences of infections and the benefits of vaccination are particularly important at a time when political decisions can compromise collaborative disease prevention efforts. The results suggest that vaccination may have benefits that extend beyond preventing the immediate disease caused by an infection.
“The benefits of vaccination highlighted by this research are important not only for healthcare, but also for how we communicate the value of vaccination to the population at large”, Meyerhans states. “It is important that people are aware of the broader protection that vaccination can provide and continue to trust in vaccines as one of the most effective tools to prevent diseases. Put simply, vaccines provide strong health benefits at a relatively low cost to society”.
Journal
Cell Death and Disease
DOI
10.1038/s41419-026-09253-4
Electric vehicle batteries get a longer lifespan when weak cells are bypassed

Chalmers University of Technology
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Photo Ivan Radic licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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Credit: Photo Ivan Radic licensed under CC BY 2.0.

In today's electric vehicle batteries, a single weak cell can limit the life of the entire battery pack, even when the other cells are still working well. The goal is for future batteries to be able to bypass weak cells and make better use of the remaining capacity. A study, led by researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, in Sweden, now shows that a new ‘smart battery architecture’, under optimal conditions, can give electric vehicle batteries over 20 percent longer life in certain vehicles. At the same time, the total cost can be reduced over the battery's lifetime.
Battery packs in electric vehicles, or EVs, consist of many interconnected cells that do not age in the same way. In today's battery structure, the weakest cell can therefore set the limit for the entire package.
Albert Škegro, a doctoral student at the Department of Electrical Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, draws an analogy, describing the structure as the cells being connected by a rope, while they all try to move forward.
"Since they are bound to each other, everyone has to keep the same pace as the slowest cell and stop when that cell stops. With the solution in our study, the battery can instead bypass the cell that is causing problems and continue forward," says Albert Škegro, first author of the new study, which has been published in Nature Communications and conducted in collaboration with industry.
Previous research has shown how important differences between cells can be for the performance and lifespan of EV batteries. In a recently published study, co-authored by Chalmers researcher Changfu Zou, the researchers found that the weakest cells clearly limit the entire battery pack.
A battery that can adapt as cells age
In the new study, the researchers map the benefits of so-called reconfigurable battery packs, where switches and control systems can change the connections between the cells. These battery packs can bypass weaker cells so that more of the remaining capacity can be utilised.
In the researchers' models, the most advanced solution – where each cell can be controlled separately – can extend the lifespan by over 20 percent in some high-voltage vehicles, such as electric trucks and long-range electric cars. In practice, groups of cells are more likely to be controlled together, so the figure is a theoretical upper limit.
"Reconfiguration is not a question of 'on or off'. It is a spectrum, and where a manufacturer chooses to sit on that spectrum determines how much of the potential benefit can be realised," says Changfu Zou, Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering at Chalmers and co-author of the study.
Longer lifespan can outweigh higher cost
To illustrate what the results can mean in practice, the researchers analysed an example with a typical 80 kilowatt-hour car battery and 12,000 kilometres of annual mileage. The example assumes that a conventional battery pack is replaced after 10 years, in line with current industry practice. In the model, the reconfigurable pack reaches the same point after about 11 years, so roughly 14 months longer. It also had a higher residual value because it had deteriorated less through aging.
"For a private electric car owner, it is a great advantage that the car's battery lasts longer. For a fleet with hundreds of battery packs, extending the battery life can mean significant savings," says Albert Škegro.
The technology is not yet available in series- or mass- produced vehicles but has been tested in research and industrial prototypes. Since it requires additional electronics, the technology has a higher initial cost, but the researchers also show that a longer service life and higher residual value can outweigh the additional cost under many realistic conditions. The potential is greatest in high-voltage vehicles with a long range and many series-connected cells.
In addition to the increased battery life, the researchers also point to more sustainability gains. Today, considerable resources are spent on testing and matching cells with similar characteristics during manufacturing. The new technology allows greater variation between cells and could therefore reduce the need for such precise matching. A larger part of the battery packs can also be given a second life, for example, as stationary energy storage.
"A battery pack that is taken out of service prematurely means both wasted material and wasted energy. Keeping battery packs in use for longer is therefore a sustainability argument even before you take the economy into account," says Albert Škegro.
More about the research:
The study System-level assessment of dynamic reconfiguration for lifetime and cost outcomes in electric vehicle battery packs | Nature Communications, published in Nature Communications.
The authors are Albert Škegro, Torsten Wik and Changfu Zou at Chalmers University of Technology; Bo Bijlenga at PHINIA Inc, Åmål; and Alexander Bessman at Sc

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 13:56:46 +0000

Quicker deployment could save €110 million per offshore wind facility

IOP Publishing
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Long development timelines increase the cost of energy from offshore wind (OSW) farms, according to a new study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters. The research estimates that cutting approval timelines by just one year for a one-gigawatt (GW) OSW farm lowers its energy costs by around €1 per megawatt-hour; roughly €110m over the plant’s 25-year operational lifespan.
Deployment delays add costs that can be passed on to energy consumers. When regulatory obligations extend project timelines, developers face rising costs and financial risks while waiting for permissions or grid connections. Furthermore, extended timelines delay access to lower-cost renewable energy, slowing progress toward climate targets.
The study estimates the impact of longer timelines by looking at the full development timeline and adding the costs of delays to the overall cost of the project. This contrasts with conventional calculations, which treat projects as if they were built overnight—a common simplification used in project cost estimation.
The researchers applied this model to evaluate three energy transmission strategies from OSW facilities: high-voltage direct current subsea cables, offshore hydrogen electrolysis via pipelines, and offshore hydrogen delivered by ships. The analysis shows that while subsea cables are generally the most cost-effective option under identical timelines, severe grid connection or other development delays can shift the balance. In scenarios where power-to-hydrogen infrastructure faces shorter deployment timelines than electrical grid connections, hydrogen pathways can become less costly, and potentially more profitable, simply by avoiding grid queues and starting energy production earlier.
Total plant execution times can take seven to eleven years, according to one developer, with environmental approvals accounting for two to three years and grid approvals taking another two to four years. Despite global commitments to decarbonisation under the Paris Agreement, plant commissioning times have generally lengthened over the last two decades, exposing projects to market shifts and financial risks.
The authors note that their framework quantifies the financial cost of delay, rather than the overall social or environmental value of regulation. Regulatory obligations perform essential functions, including protecting marine ecosystems, fisheries, coastal communities, and indigenous rights. The study highlights that while addressing avoidable administrative delays yields economic and climate benefits, poorly designed acceleration measures risk imposing social or ecological costs.
Rudolph Santarromana, lead author of the Letter says: "Delays don't just make offshore wind projects more expensive; they also slow progress on tackling climate change. Our study suggests that when governments consider planning and grid reforms, it is important to consider both the financial and environmental cost of holding up offshore wind projects."

ENDS
About IOP Publishing  
IOP Publishing is a society-owned scientific publisher, delivering impact, recognition and value to the scientific community. Its purpose is to expand the world of physics, offering a portfolio of journals, ebooks, conference proceedings and science news resources globally.    
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Journal
Environmental Research Letters
Method of Research
Data/statistical analysis
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
The cost of regulatory delay: quantifying how permitting timelines affect offshore wind energy costs
Article Publication Date
8-Oct-2026

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 13:53:02 +0000

Solar Orbiter tracks origin of mysterious magnetic switchbacks

European Space Agency
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The switchback spotted by Solar Orbiter in 2022 (bright blue-white feature extending to the left). The observation confirmed them to be S-shaped.
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Credit: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI & Metis Teams and D. Telloni et al. (2022)

The European Space Agency-led Solar Orbiter spacecraft has flown through an S-shaped kink known as a ‘switchback’ in the solar wind’s magnetic field. By fingerprinting the elusive particles within the switchback, Solar Orbiter has traced its origin back to the Sun’s surface and revealed more about solar magnetism – the unruly instigator of dangerous solar storms.
The Sun has an intense and restless magnetic field. This field not only governs the star itself but is also dragged outwards along field lines by the solar wind, a stream of hot charged particles (plasma) that continuously pours out from the Sun into space. These lines can twist, snap, or fold back on themselves on their journey through the Solar System. Together, the solar wind and its dynamic field lines create all kinds of exciting activity that we can study to understand what’s happening on and around our star.
Back in 2022, ESA reported that Solar Orbiter had spotted a kink in the solar wind’s magnetic field known as a ‘switchback’. While switchbacks have been spotted often near the Sun, scientists are still debating how they form. By watching from afar, Solar Orbiter helped solve a piece of this puzzle, confirming the switchback to be S-shaped: something scientists had predicted but not seen directly.
The spacecraft has now added another crucial piece to this puzzle by tracing a switchback back to its source at the Sun. “Solar Orbiter flew through a very large switchback,” says Jesse Coburn of CNRS/LPP, France, lead author of the new paper. “Because of this, we were able to sample rarely observed particles there that have tell-tale fingerprints of their origin.”
Not either-or, but both
To make this connection, Jesse and colleagues used Solar Orbiter’s Solar Wind Analyser instrument (SWA) to sample the plasma making up the switchback. At the time, Solar Orbiter was roughly halfway between Earth and the Sun.
They found a mix of charged oxygen and carbon particles that could only have formed in one way: within hot magnetic field loops at the surface of the Sun.
“There are two main competing theories for how a switchback, and by extension the solar wind, forms,” adds Jesse. “The specific mix of particles detected by Solar Orbiter is the smoking gun for a formation process known as 'interchange reconnection’.”
This kind of reconnection takes place when parts of the Sun with different magnetic properties interact. In the Sun’s atmosphere, open regions have field lines that stretch away like highways, allowing material to zoom along them into space. Closed regions have lines that initially extend into space before curving back to the Sun, creating closed loops. When an open region engages with a closed one, the lines can crowd together, snap open, and reconnect in different ways, allowing plasma that was previously trapped in a loop to escape to space.
This is what happened with this switchback – but that’s not all. The alternative theory of switchback formation involves processes related to waves and turbulence (the kind of waves that Solar Orbiter has found to play a key role in heating and accelerating the solar wind).
“Excitingly, we also see signs of these, but likely only after the switchback heads out into space,” says co-author Stephanie Yardley of Northumbria University, UK. “Once the switchback has left the Sun, waves and turbulence take over and govern how it moves.
“Overall, it seems that both processes – interchange reconnection and waves and turbulence – are involved in how switchbacks form and move through space. Our finding reconciles the two, showing that they simply operate at different stages in a switchback’s lifetime.”
From switchbacks to storms
To make the discovery, the researchers studied in situ observations of the switchback’s particles from Solar Orbiter’s SWA, analysed images of the Sun’s disc, and modelled the magnetic fields of both the Sun and surrounding space. They created a new model to identify where the plasma came from; this model connected the measurements from Solar Orbiter to data from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory to reveal the switchback’s solar source in unprecedented detail.
Looking beyond switchbacks, the finding reveals how the Sun heats its atmosphere and accelerates solar wind particles into space. Furthermore, it shows that the Sun’s atmosphere imprints its signature onto the particles making up this wind, giving us a possible way to read the history of solar plasma even far from the Sun.
“As humans on Earth – and in space – our lives are entangled with what’s happening on our star. The solar wind ties the Earth to the Sun, and our understanding of its dynamics has key implications for

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 15:09:38 +0000

Vulnerability to heatwaves varies greatly from one area to another within cities

The SAREN group at the University of the Basque Country (EHU) has rolled out a methodology to measure the vulnerability of buildings and open public spaces to heatwaves

University of the Basque Country
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image caption: From left to right: members of the SAREN research group, Ane Larrinaga, Ane Villaverde, Olatz Ocerin, Laura Quesada, Ziortza Egiluz, Leire Garmendia, Joseba Gordo, Irantzu Alvarez, Maider Rekondo, Estibaliz Briz, and Estefania Jaramillo.
Photo: Fernando Gómez. EHU
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Credit: Photo: Fernando Gómez. EHU

Extreme weather events are getting increasingly more frequent and severe as a result of climate change. Heatwaves are a prime example, as they have direct effects on health, thermal comfort and the liveability of cities, which is why it is vital to conduct climate risk assessments to guide cities’ adaptation policies and prioritise action in the most vulnerable areas.
The SAREN (Sustainable And Resilient built ENvironment) research group at the University of the Basque Country (EHU), led by Leire Garmendia, is assessing the effectiveness of adaptation solutions that can be used to minimise the impact of heatwaves on buildings and outdoor spaces in cities. The research is being carried out as part of the OLADAPT project, funded by Spain’s Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, in collaboration with the Polytechnic University of Madrid, the University of Extremadura and the UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Development and Environmental Education at the EHU, in line with the guidelines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
“We are looking at how to conduct a multi-dimensional and multi-scale assessment of the risk posed by heatwaves in urban areas. The risk posed by heatwaves is not measured solely by temperature; it has multiple dimensions,” explains the group’s researcher, Irantzu Álvarez. Implementing more appropriate policies involves taking into account, firstly, how the city is built (both buildings and public spaces); secondly, the areas of the city hardest hit by high temperatures; and finally, the number of people affected by this situation and the degree of vulnerability or lack of protection of the people living there. “In this study, we have measured the vulnerability of each of the city’s buildings and open spaces in Bilbao, Madrid and Cáceres (all three located in different climate zones),” adds researcher Laura Quesada.
The methodology developed by the EHU’s SAREN research group makes it possible to produce urban vulnerability maps that clearly show where priority action should be taken to tackle heatwaves: “Adaptation measures can be implemented much more effectively with this type of study,” they say. Furthermore, applying the methodology in these three cities has shown that “the methodology is fully replicable; it can be used anywhere. This makes the methodology more robust. It is a genuinely useful tool for municipalities and cities.”
Buildings in lower socioeconomic areas are more vulnerable
In all three cities, the study has highlighted “the importance of socioeconomic variables when measuring vulnerability. People on low incomes, older people, etc. are far re vulnerable,” the research group states. Vulnerability is not the same throughout a city. It is therefore not enough to say that one city is more vulnerable than another, because there are different hotspots within the city. There may also be different situations within the same neighbourhood, which is why this type of detailed research is necessary.”
The research used a large amount of data drawn from a variety of sources. Socioeconomic variables, building characteristics and environmental variables were all taken into account. For example, “a building may be sensitive to heat, but its residents may have the financial means to protect their home from it,” they explain. Álvarez and Quesada explain that the fact that the unit of analysis is the building is what allows adaptation measures to be better targeted: “This methodology shows which buildings or types of buildings should be renovated or adapted first.” Furthermore, the impact of the surrounding environment on the building has also been measured, which has made it possible to link the building’s vulnerability to that of open public spaces: “Buildings may be highly vulnerable but have plenty of green areas and shade around them. Taking all of this into account means that adaptation measures can be implemented in different ways.”
Additional information
Laura Quesada is an architect specialising in the restoration and conservation of historic heritage, and works at the Vitoria-Gasteiz School of Engineering. Irantzu Álvarez is a Technical Engineer in Surveying and holds a degree in Geography, and works at the Bilbao School of Engineering. Both are lecturers on the Master’s Degree in Construction Engineering at the Bilbao School of Engineering.
Journal
Cities
DOI
10.1016/j.cities.2026.107514
Cost of Canadian wildfires could top $2 trillion over the 21st century: SFU study

Failure to curb global warming now could cost future generations of Canadians trillions of dollars in wildfire impacts alone, according to a new Simon Fraser University study.

Simon Fraser University
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Failure to curb global warming now could cost future generations of Canadians trillions of dollars in wildfire impacts alone, according to a new Simon Fraser University study.
A SFU researcher says the cost of climate change-driven wildfires in Canada could exceed $2 trillion cumulatively over the 21st century. The study is among the first to put a price tag on projected Canadian wildfire activity driven by climate change.
“Societal and economic costs of wildfire are highly dependent on the actions that we take to mitigate climate change right now,” says Sian Kou-Giesbrecht, assistant professor of resource and environmental management and the study’s lead author.
“If we keep global warming to 2 C or less, wildfire impacts and costs will be similar to what we've experienced over recent decades. But if we continue to rely on fossil fuels and move farther away from that target, we're going to end up with much, much higher costs.”
Published in the journal Environmental Research, the modeling study calculated the direct cost of wildfire suppression, net timber yield loss, and nature-based recreation loss in Canada, as well as global societal costs of wildfire carbon emissions — changes in crop loss, damages caused by sea level rise, and declines in human health worldwide.
Representing the influence of fire weather, vegetation growth dynamics, suppression, and lightning and human ignitions, the projection model calculated costs under three possible global warming scenarios: If global temperature rise stays at 2 C or less, increases to 3–4 C, or increases to 4–5 C.
“In somewhat good climate news, we don’t think we’ll hit a rise of 4 or 5 C, largely because of green energy developments happening primarily outside of Canada. A global temperature rise between 3 and 4 C is a more realistic worst-case scenario,” says Kou-Giesbrecht.
In that scenario, the study still tags the total annual cost of climate change-driven wildfire impacts at $43 billion at the end of the century and more than $2.1 trillion cumulatively over the 21st century.
Kou-Giesbrecht says these numbers are likely conservative, since the projection model did not include costs of wildfire-related health impacts, evacuations, infrastructure loss, or economic disruptions within Canada alone.
It also did not account for singular extreme events like Canada's record-breaking wildfires in 2023, which forced more than 200 communities to evacuate and exposed millions of Canadians to hazardous air pollutants.
Kou-Giesbrecht says immediate action to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and hold global temperature rise to 2 C is the only available path to mitigate economic and environmental consequences of wildfires in Canada.
Journal
Environmental Research
DOI
10.1088/2752-5295/aea637
Article Title
Canadian wildfire impacts and global societal costs attributed to climate change over the 21st century

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 15:06:33 +0000

700,000-year-old elephant tooth reveals a lost ecosystem shared by early humans in the levant

Ancient tooth reveals a lost world inhabited by giant elephants and early toolmakers

Tel-Hai University of Kiryat Shmona in the Galilee
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The study was conducted by PhD candidate Hannah Farrell of the University of Haifa at a site excavated by Prof. Gonen Sharon of Tel-Hai University of Kiryat Shmona in the Galilee.
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Credit: Photos and illustrations courtesy of Tel-Hai University of Kiryat Shmona in the Galilee and Hannah Farrell, University of Haifa

A remarkably preserved elephant tooth previously recovered from Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (GBY-NBA) — a prehistoric site in northern Israel, where early humans made stone tools some 700,000 years ago — has now enabled researchers to reconstruct a lush landscape of woodlands, wetlands, and waterways from the Pleistocene. The findings provide a rare glimpse into the environment shared by giant elephants and some of the region's earliest human populations.
The elephant remains were discovered alongside basalt handaxes and cleavers, hallmark tools of the Acheulian tradition, one of the earliest and most widespread stone-tool technologies in human history. Researchers combined multiple analytical techniques to reconstruct a resource-rich environment of woodlands, grasslands, wetlands, and waterways that helped sustain both large mammals and early humans along the Levantine land bridge connecting Africa and Eurasia.
Published in Quaternary Science Reviews, the study led by Hannah Farrell (a PhD candidate at Haifa University) focuses on findings from the excavation site of GBY-NBA by Prof. Gonen Sharon of Tel-Hai University of Kiryat Shmona in the Galilee and his colleagues. The research focuses on a giant elephant molar and tusk fragments discovered alongside Acheulian stone tools at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (Daughters of Jacob Bridge), located in the Jordan Rift Valley, south of today's Hula Valley in northern Israel. The remains belonged to Palaeoloxodon antiquus, the straight-tusked elephant, one of the largest land mammals of the Pleistocene. Rather than studying the elephant alone, researchers used the tooth as a biological archive to reconstruct the broader ecosystem shared by large mammals and early human toolmakers.

What an Ancient Ecosystem Reveals About Human Origins
According to Prof. Sharon, "understanding how humans and animals responded to environmental change hundreds of thousands of years ago helps us better understand the forces that shaped our species."
Using CT scanning, 3D reconstruction, microscopic wear analysis, isotope geochemistry, and pollen studies, the team found evidence for a long-lasting landscape of woodlands, grasslands, marshes, rivers, and shallow-water habitats. Carbon isotope values suggest the elephant lived in a consistently well-watered environment, while pollen recovered from sediments revealed abundant wetland vegetation, including reeds, sedges, willow, tamarisk, and aquatic plants.
The findings indicate that the Hula Valley region formed part of a stable ecological refuge within the Levantine Corridor, the land bridge connecting Africa and Eurasia. Such environments likely provided reliable water and biological resources for wildlife and human groups moving through the region during the Pleistocene.
"The availability of water, vegetation, and animal resources shaped where humans and wildlife could survive," Sharon says. "The wetlands, rivers, and woodlands of the Hula Valley helped sustain life along one of the world's earliest migration corridors, offering a rare opportunity to understand the ecological conditions that supported both animals and human populations nearly 700,000 years ago."
The study was conducted by PhD candidate Hannah Farrell of the University of Haifa at a site excavated by Prof. Gonen Sharon of Tel-Hai University of Kiryat Shmona in the Galilee, in collaboration with Cheryl A. Makarewicz (isotope studies) and Nimrod Marom (archaeozoology) from the University of Haifa, along with Minji Jin and Dafna Langgut (pollen studies) from Tel Aviv University.

About Tel-Hai University of Kiryat Shmona in the Galilee
Tel-Hai University of Kiryat Shmona in the Galilee is a rapidly growing research university addressing challenges in food security, sustainable agriculture, engineering, artificial intelligence (AI), and more.

Through interdisciplinary applied research, academic excellence in a host of disciplines - including humanities, social sciences, and education - as well as close collaboration with industry and communities, Tel-Hai University of Kiryat Shmona in the Galilee is tackling some of the most pressing challenges of the 21st century, while positioning the Galilee as a global hub for innovation.
Journal
Quaternary Science Reviews
DOI
Ancient origins of mammalian suckling and swallowing uncovered

Ohio University

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An international team of researchers has uncovered new evidence illuminating the evolutionary origins of one of the defining features of mammals: the ability to suckle and consume milk during infancy. Their findings, published in Nature, suggest that key anatomical structures required for mammalian suckling, swallowing and breastfeeding behaviors evolved nearly 165 million years ago, long before the appearance of modern mammals.
The findings describe a newly discovered species called Megacauda sungei, a large mammaliaform that lived during the Middle Jurassic Period in what is now Inner Mongolia, China. The research was led by scientists from the University of Chicago, Shenyang Normal University, Shandong University of Science and Technology, the University of Bonn and Ohio University.
Using high-resolution microCT imaging, the team reconstructed the skull and skeletal anatomy of the fossil. They discovered an unexpected combination of traits. Megacauda had specialized blade-like cheek teeth resembling those of modern seals, a platypus-like pelvis, and an otter-like tail, indicating it was likely a semiaquatic predator that hunted small vertebrates and invertebrates in freshwater environments.
More significantly, the researchers identified a pair of small bony projections on the roof of the mouth that closely resemble features found in living therian mammals, a group that includes marsupials (such as kangaroos and opossums) and placental mammals, (such as elephants and humans). In modern mammals, these structures help support the soft palate and muscles involved in suckling, swallowing and protecting the airway.
Because soft tissues are rarely preserved in fossils, scientists have long struggled to determine when these important feeding structures first evolved.
“The anatomy of Megacauda suggests that structures involved in coordinating swallowing and sucking had already begun to evolve by the Middle Jurassic. This discovery helps us better understand the biological foundations of one of the defining characteristics of mammals: feeding young with milk,” said Zhe-Xi Luo, Ph.D., professor of organismal biology and anatomy at the University of Chicago and senior author of the study.
The researchers also found highly specialized hyoid bones in the throat region. In living mammals, these bones help anchor muscles for swallowing. Together, the evidence suggests that Megacauda likely possessed an early version of the coordinated muscular system used by modern mammals to move milk and food safely from the mouth to the esophagus.
The discovery challenges a longstanding assumption about how these structures evolved. Researchers found that the newly identified therian-like bony hooks existed alongside more primitive bony ridges known from earlier mammaliaforms and mammalian ancestors. Their coexistence in the same animal suggests the modern structures did not evolve directly from the primitive ridges as previously believed.
“This fossil captures an important stage in mammalian evolution,” said Luo. “For decades, scientists have wanted to know when the soft-tissue structures necessary for suckling and complex swallowing first appeared. Megacauda provides some of the clearest evidence yet that many of these innovations emerged well before the rise of modern mammals.”
The research also has important implications for understanding living mammals. While therian mammals use a sophisticated suckling mechanism supported by soft palate and constrictor muscles, monotremes such as platypuses and echidnas use a different method for obtaining milk and lack some of these anatomical features. The new evidence suggests that monotremes likely lost elements of the ancestral suckling apparatus during their evolutionary history and developed an alternative method of milk intake.
Beyond feeding biology, Megacauda highlights the remarkable ecological diversity of mammaliaforms living alongside dinosaurs. At approximately the size of a modern otter, it is among the largest known Jurassic mammaliaforms and represents one of the earliest examples of adaptation to a semiaquatic lifestyle.
“These discoveries continue to reveal that the Age of Dinosaurs was also a time of extraordinary evolutionary innovation among early mammals,” said Peishu Li, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and a co-author of the study.
The study’s authors include April I. Neander and Zhe-Xi Luo, Ph.D., (University of Chicago); Yikun Li and Honggang Zhang, Ph.D., (Shenyang Normal University, China); Chang-Fu Zhou, Ph.D., (Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, China); Thomas Martin, Ph.D., (University of Bonn, Germany); and Peishu Li, Ph.D., (Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine).
Journal
Nature
Method of Research
Imaging analysis
Subject of Research
Animals
Article Title
An early predecessor to mammals could swim, suckle and swallow
Article Publication Date
7-Oct-2026

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 14:52:18 +0000

Some of those ancient sea predators were built for surprise attacks

Rutgers researcher links tail shape to different hunting styles among the giant marine reptiles known as mosasaurs

Rutgers University
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A mosasaur leaps from the water to snatch prey in this artist’s depiction. A Rutgers-led study suggests differences in the tails of these ancient marine reptiles helped shape their hunting strategies.
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Credit: Illustration by Henry Sharpe/Formoso Lab/Rutgers University

Some of the giant marine reptiles that ruled the seas during the age of dinosaurs were better built for surprise attacks, while their relatives were better suited to chasing prey through open water, according to a Rutgers-led study.
These animals, known as mosasaurs, were a group of lizards adapted to life in the ocean. Researchers reconstructed the bodies of four kinds of mosasaurs from their fossil skeletons, then applied principles of physics to estimate how quickly each could surge forward with a single powerful sweep of its tail.
The calculations suggest that a particularly large Tylosaurus, one kind of mosasaur, could have reached about 15 miles per hour with a single tail stroke. That estimate describes a brief burst, rather than the speed the animal could maintain. Although the exact speeds remain uncertain, the differences among the animals offer clues to how they hunted.
The research, published in Current Biology, was led by Kiersten Formoso, an assistant professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources in the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.
“At the same time dinosaurs likeT. rex were ruling the land, mosasaurs were ruling the seas,” Formoso said.
Understanding how these predators caught their meals, she said, helps scientists reconstruct how ancient ocean ecosystems worked.
Modern audiences may recognize mosasaurs from the Jurassic World films and the Apple TV series Prehistoric Planet. Formoso consulted on two seasons of the documentary series and early versions of this research helped inform its depictions of mosasaur movement.
Her scientific question began with a difference in the fossils. Two major branches of the mosasaur family tree had differently proportioned tails. Could those differences have affected how quickly the animals launched an attack?
Previous research had largely focused on cruising, a steady type of swimming in which an animal repeatedly beats its tail to move through the water. Formoso wanted to examine the sudden burst that could help a predator seize prey or a smaller animal escape being eaten.
The team modeled a movement it calls a “slam-start.” An animal curls its tail to one side, then forcefully sweeps it back, pushing against the water and driving its body forward.
Formoso compared that initial surge to a swimmer pushing off the wall of a pool.
“It’s the tail itself pushing off the water,” she said.
The nearly complete fossils provided detailed information about body size and tail shape. To reconstruct the missing tail muscles, the researchers drew on the anatomy of living lizards, including Komodo dragons.
The team tested a range of assumptions about muscle power, tail flexibility and resistance from the water to see whether the findings held up under different conditions.
Across the tested conditions, two species, Platecarpus and Tylosaurus, achieved faster lunges for their body size than Mosasaurus and Plotosaurus. Platecarpus was the fastest of the four.
The advantage came largely from a longer, flexible section of the tail that allowed Platecarpus and Tylosaurus to curl it farther before sweeping it back. How far the tail could curl had a much larger effect on the modeled speeds than all other conditions
Such an advantage would favor ambush hunting in shallowseas, the researchers said. Mosasaurus and especially Plotosaurus appear to have been better suited to pursuing prey in the open ocean.
“That doesn’t mean Plotosaurus was slow,” Formoso said. “Its tail was built for sustained, tuna-like swimming rather than sudden bursts.”
The findings agree with other clues to mosasaur lifestyles, including studies of bite force, tooth wear, and the chemical makeup of fossils.
The study also has a New Jersey connection: Alongside the four main reconstructions, the team modeled exceptionally large animals, including a Mosasaurus based on a fossil from New Jersey held by the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton.
To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to put numbers on burst swimming performance in any marine reptile from the age of dinosaurs. They are making their tools freely and publicly available so other researchers can apply the approach to additional extinct swimmers, including animals with no close living equivalent.
Formoso’s broader research examines how animals with land-dwelling ancestors evolved to live in water. Her approach rests on a simple fact: The physical rules that govern swimming today also applied millions of years ago
"Physics is physics,” she said.
Explore more of the ways Rutgers research is shaping the future.
Journal
Current Biology
DOI
10.1016/j.cub.2026.09.036
Method of Research
Data/statistical analysis
Disinformation and influence operations: Which countermeasures actually work?

Information systems researcher Vera Schmitt leads new Horizon Europe project FIMI-RESIST at Mainz University, bringing together ten partners from nine countries

Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz
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FIMI-RESIST project kickoff at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
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Credit: photo/©: Raphael Fischer / JGU

Under the leadership of Professor Vera Schmitt, the XplaiNLP Research Group at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) is coordinating the new EU research project FIMI-RESIST. Over the next 30 months, ten partners from research and technology, media and civil society across nine countries will examine which existing European tools designed to counter foreign information manipulation and interference perform effectively under real-world conditions. XplaiNLP combines natural language processing with explainable AI and robust information processing, providing the scientific foundation for a joint assessment of Europe's existing anti-disinformation tools. Horizon Europe, the European Union's flagship funding program for research and innovation, is supporting the project with approximately EUR 3.5 million.
From stand-alone projects to comparable solutions
Technological change is reshaping the disinformation landscape. Generative AI lowers the barriers to producing synthetic content, manipulated media can be scaled rapidly, and the AI systems people increasingly use to find and assess information are themselves becoming targets. At the same time, the European Union has funded a broad range of research projects and tools to detect and mitigate disinformation. What has been missing is a common framework for systematically evaluating their effectiveness and comparing their performance.
FIMI-RESIST addresses precisely this gap. Rather than developing another stand-alone tool, the project will establish a shared evaluation and harmonization framework for existing European solutions. Twenty previously EU-funded tools will be assessed using common criteria and shared benchmarks. The objective is to generate more robust evidence about which approaches are best suited to specific users, operational settings, and threat scenarios.
Real-world testing with media, fact checkers, and security stakeholders
One central focus of the project is practical application. Working with journalists, fact checkers, security stakeholders, and civil society organizations, the consortium will assess how effectively existing tools can be integrated into day-to-day workflows and where gaps remain as AI-driven threats evolve. The project will also establish a help desk, a European hub, and training offerings to ensure that validated methods and project results remain accessible beyond the funding period.
The findings are also intended to inform the European debate on the regulatory and institutional response to disinformation, including in the context of the Digital Services Act, the AI Act, and the European Media Freedom Act.
A consortium of ten European partners
The consortium comprises
XplaiNLP Group, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany (Professor Vera Schmitt)
Kempelen Institute of Intelligent Technologies (KInIT), Slovakia (Dr. Jakub Šimko)
Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), Greece (Dr. Symeon Papadopoulos)
University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands (Professor Richard Rogers)
Logically/INSIKT, the United Kingdom and Spain
Factiverse, Norway
Exorde Labs, France
Cyfluence Research Center, Germany
Deutsche Welle, Germany
VoxUkraine, Ukraine
Gretchen AI, Germany, is an associated partner in the consortium. The project is also supported by Alexandra Geese, Member of the European Parliament.
The kickoff also included contributions from Saman Nazari (Alliance4Europe), Sandra Fiene (European Commission), and policy and project officers Ilona von Bethlenfalvy and Alberto Domini.

Related links:
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101285890 – CORDIS project information on "FIMI-RESIST: Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference – Robust European Safeguards and Innovative Systems against Threats"
https://xplainlp.github.io/ – XplaiNLP Research Group at JGU
https://wiwi.uni-mainz.de/ – Department of Business and Economics at JGU

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 14:58:18 +0000


Personality traits influence level of lasting distress during a crisis, USC-led study finds

National study finds neuroticism was associated with greater and more persistent mental distress during and after the COVID-19 pandemic

University of Southern California

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An individual’s personality, especially how strongly they react to uncertainty, may help indicate how vulnerable they are to prolonged mental distress during a major crisis, according to a new USC-led study.
An analysis of several years of nationally representative U.S. data found that people scoring higher in neuroticism experienced larger and more persistent increases in anxiety and depression symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic than people scoring lower in the trait, said lead author Marco Angrisani, senior economist at the USC Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR) and associate professor (research) of economics at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
“There is a wide variety of mental health responses to large-scale societal stressors,” Angrisani said. “Our study shows that personality traits, and neuroticism in particular, play a role in shaping heterogeneous responses in a major crisis across individuals and could therefore inform better targeted interventions.”
The study appeared in PLOS ONE on Oct. 7, 2026.
The ‘Big 5’ personality traits
The researchers followed 4,030 U.S. adults using data from the Understanding America Study, a nationally representative internet panel managed by CESR. The analysis included more than 100,000 survey responses collected from 2019 through early 2024, allowing researchers to compare mental health before, during and after the pandemic.
The study examined five broad personality characteristics:
Neuroticism: A tendency to experience worry, emotional sensitivity and stronger reactions to stress or uncertainty.
Extraversion: A tendency to be outgoing, energetic and motivated by social interaction.
Openness: Curiosity about new ideas and experiences, along with a willingness to consider change.
Agreeableness: A tendency to be cooperative, trusting and concerned about social harmony.
Conscientiousness: A tendency to be organized, dependable, self-disciplined and goal-oriented.
These characteristics occur on a continuum. Everyone has some degree of each, and a high or low score does not constitute a disorder.
Distress not equally distributed
In the study, mental distress was measured with the PHQ-4, a brief questionnaire assessing symptoms of anxiety and depression. A score of six or higher indicates moderate-to-severe symptoms, though it is not itself a clinical diagnosis.
During the pandemic, increases in the probability of moderate or severe distress were approximately 11 to 20 percentage points greater among participants who scored in the highest 25% for neuroticism versus those in the lowest quarter. The association persisted across young, middle-aged and older adults and remained evident into the post-pandemic observation period.
Participants higher in neuroticism also perceived greater health and financial risks, adopted more protective behaviors and reported exercising and relaxing less frequently while consuming more alcohol. Measurements of extraversion, openness and agreeableness showed weaker or inconsistent associations, while conscientiousness appeared modestly protective, particularly among adults aged 60 and older.
Predicting mental health needs in a crisis
The findings could help clinicians and emergency planners recognize who may need closer follow-up after disasters, public-health emergencies or other prolonged disruptions. Public information campaigns could also be tested to ensure they inform people without unnecessarily increasing distress among those who are more vulnerable to it. Importantly, personality should be just one part of a broader risk assessment, alongside symptoms, previous mental-health conditions, and social circumstances, not a label or an automatic trigger for treatment, Angrisani explained.
However, neuroticism is a risk factor, not a diagnosis or a determinant of an individual’s mental health status. In the paper, the authors advocate for monitoring and stepped care: following people over time and offering treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy or emotion-regulation training when significant, persistent symptoms emerge, rather than treating people solely because of a personality score.
Because the study was observational, it identifies associations and cannot prove that personality, especially neuroticism, caused distress. All personality and mental distress measures were self-reported, and the findings may not generalize beyond the United States, Angrisani cautioned. Still, the results suggest that crisis communication emphasizing practical, controllable actions — combined with accessible mental-health support — could help protect psychologically vulnerable groups, he said.
About the study
Angrisani’s co-authors include Wändi Bruine de Bruin, Provost Professor of Public Policy, Psychology, and Behavioral Science at the USC Schaeffer Institute for Public Policy & Government Service as well as Vincenzo Atella of the University of Rome Tor Vergata and Joanna Kopinska of Sapienza University of Rome (Italy). The study was funded by the National Institute on Aging (grant U01AG077280 to Angrisani).
Journal
PLOS One
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0358371
Method of Research
Observational study
Subject of Research
People
Article Title
How personality traits shape susceptibility to mental distress in times of crisis: Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic
Article Publication Date
7-Oct-2026
How neurotic people struggled more in the COVID-19 pandemic: they perceived the risk as higher, exercised less, and drank more alcohol

PLOS
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1 in 20 pet cats in North America might have Giardia infection, with young, male, unneutered cats especially at risk, per analysis of more than 150,000 feline stool samples

PLOS
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Map of Giardia duodenalis detected in cats from United States.
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Credit: Wingerd et al., 2026, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

1 in 20 pet cats in North America might have Giardia infection, with young, male, unneutered cats especially at risk, per analysis of more than 150,000 feline stool samples
Article URL: https://plos.io/4hjS21j
Article title: Giardia duodenalis in domestic cats from the US and Canada: Prevalence and zoonotic potential
Author countries: USA, Colombia.
Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.
Journal
PLOS One
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0358546
Article Title
Giardia duodenalis in domestic cats from the US and Canada: Prevalence and zoonotic potential
Article Publication Date
7-Oct-2026

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 14:45:26 +0000

Ancient spotted bat samples help researchers understand present-day population dynamics
Researchers analyzed Euderma maculatum genetic variation across thousands of years
Peer-Reviewed Publication
PLOS
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Photo of a spotted bat flying.
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Credit: Faith M. Walker, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Understanding changes in North American bat populations is critical to measuring risk of extinction from emerging threats such as habitat loss, climate change, white nose syndrome and other disturbances. A study published October 7, 2026, in the open access journal PLOS One by Faith M. Walker at Northern Arizona University, USA, and colleagues describes an innovative research design involving the genetic analysis of ancient, modern, and contemporary biological samples from North American spotted bats.
Globally, bats comprise one-fifth of mammalian diversity, but their elusive behavior can hinder scientific observation. For example, spotted bats (Euderma maculatum) are nocturnal, agile fliers who roost solitarily. In order to better understand spotted bats’ population genetic diversity and structure, researchers obtained samples from 121 individual bats from across three separate timeframes across the species range in western North America. These samples included live, captured bats, historical specimens from museum collections collected between 1904 and 1991, contemporary specimens collected between 1994 and 2025, and ancient remains recovered from a northern Arizona cave, radiocarbon dated to 120–2,100 years before present (BP).
The researchers were able to describe the genetic structure, genetic variation and genetic relatedness of spotted bats and identify genetic differences between the northern and southern populations. The study had a few limitations, such as a sample bias – many of the modern specimens originated from a single cave. Future studies are needed to better understand the impacts of specific anthropogenic disturbances on population dispersal and dynamics.
According to the authors, “Our integrative approach across temporal scales highlights the conservation importance of preserving genetically diverse core populations, vulnerable leading-edge populations, and isolated relict lineages. Further knowledge of population structure and genetic diversity across the species’ range will promote conservation and management actions for spotted bats”.
Faith M. Walker adds: “One of the most important findings of our study is that spotted bats in the southwestern United States harbor the greatest genetic diversity across the species' range, making this region a critical reservoir of evolutionary potential for the species. In contrast, northern populations appear to have lower genetic diversity and may be more vulnerable to future environmental change.”
“Rare and elusive species like the spotted bat can be extremely difficult to study using conventional methods. Genetics allows us to see patterns of connectivity, isolation, and long-term persistence that would otherwise remain hidden, providing information that can directly inform conservation planning.”
"One of the most rewarding aspects of this project was bringing together samples collected over more than a century, from museum specimens and ancient cave remains to bats captured in the field today. Each sample represented a small piece of the species' history, and together they allowed us to reconstruct a much broader picture of how spotted bat populations have changed through time."
"Spotted bats are among North America's most mysterious mammals. By combining DNA from ancient, historical, and modern specimens, we were able to trace their evolutionary history across space and time and

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 14:42:14 +0000

Study: ‘Classic example’ of sexual dimorphism in fossil record actually shows nuance between males and females

University of Kansas
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Illustration of uintatheres that scientists thought were a prime illustration of sexual dimorphism, or the tendency for males and females of a species to be physically different. Instead, a new study from the University of Kansas shows nuance between males and females.
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Credit: Wikimedia Commons Charles Robert Knight https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eobasileus.jpg

LAWRENCE — For decades, paleontologists have held up uintatheres as a prime illustration of sexual dimorphism, or the tendency for males and females of a species to be physically different.
Notable for their large size, prominent horns and canine teeth, uintatheres emerged about 58 million years ago, fewer than 10 million years after a space rock killed the dinosaurs, and show up in the fossil record for the next 20 million years or so.
But a study from the University of Kansas published today in the journal PLOS One shows the differences between male and female uintatheres might not be as vast as paleontologists have long believed.
“Males have been interpreted as being much larger and possessing far more dramatic cranial features than females,” said study author Kevin Mulcahy, doctoral student at the KU Biodiversity Institute & Natural History Museum.
Mulcahy and his doctoral adviser, K. Christopher Beard, senior curator at the institute, were trying to identify a single broken upper molar from fieldwork in Montana that the researchers suspected could have belonged to the uintathere group.
“We had a research visit at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where our main goal was just to compare that tooth to teeth from other uintatheres and figure out what type of animal we had,” Mulcahy said. “They have this big collection — entire shelves occupied with these skulls, and each one of them is almost a meter long. These are famous specimens that are in the literature, and I was originally just looking at them to compare their teeth, and I noticed a ton of variation in a way that didn’t appear binary.”
The KU scholar began recording dimensions of the skulls at the AMNH.
“I just, really hastily, with a ruler, gathered a bunch of measurements of the skulls while we were there,” Mulcahy said. “I started playing around with statistics, and there are ways you can look at different measurements to see if they’re best fit by a classic unimodal distribution, or if you were to think you’re dealing with something that exhibits strong sexual dimorphism, you’d see something with a bimodal distribution — that there are two means, one for males and one for females.”
However, after analysis, the KU researcher wasn’t seeing that distribution in the traits he’d measured in New York.
“It wasn’t like there’s one group of specimens that look bigger than another, and then there’s another group that are smaller with smaller horns and canines,” he said. “So I was kind of interested — are these really good examples of sexual dimorphism after all? Is there actual evidence in the morphology of these skulls, in the distribution in particular of the ranges of morphology we’re seeing, that that’s what’s going on?”
Mulcahy branched out, gathered more measurements from specimens at other institutions, and used new statistical procedures. In the end, his dataset included about 30 skulls of one extinct species, Uintatherium anceps.
“Maybe there were some little signals of dimorphism here and there, but nothing really concrete,” he said. “I had an idea: Maybe it’s just that the techniques I’m using aren’t robust enough to actually measure sexual dimorphism. With fossil animals, you don’t actually know which specimens are males and which are females. You can guess and then test whether or not the ones you guess are males differ from the ones you guess are females, but that’s super circular, because you could just be picking the most extreme ones to be one sex and the least extreme to be the other. Of course they’re going to differ.”
So, the KU researcher decided to use the same statistical techniques he was using on uintatheres on modern-day bison, as he could be sure of the sex of each specimen.
“When you’re dealing with living animals, you can just take the males, take the females and compare them,” he said. “Bison are another really big herbivore, with a similar sort of ecology that’s been proposed for uintatheres, and they also have big horns. What I noticed is that the signals of dimorphism I was picking up in bison were a lot clearer. When I was looking at the bison, it was almost perfect that all of the females were most similar to the females, and all the males were most similar to the males.”
Mulcahy said mistaken assumptions about sexual dimorphism could have roots in the cultural biases of the late 19th and early 20th century, when so many fossil species were first described.
“Back then, this is right when evolutionary theory, sexual selection, natural selection, all of that is kind of coming into play,” he said. “I think it’s really important to remember that these things were first discovered in the late 1800s by a bunch of male paleontologists working in a very Victorian-era mindset. The idea is basically assumed at that point that males are going to be bigger and scarier than females. It’s really interesting: When you step back and actually test that hypothesis, it doesn’t really hold up.”
The KU researcher said a weak signal for dimorphism in uintatheres, long a flagship for dimorphism, suggests other species in the fossil record might also be less dimorphic than paleontologists have held.
Working around men may make women feel worse about mistakes, study finds

With more men on the team, it may become harder for women to admit mistakes or see them as learning opportunities, shows study of workplaces with ‘harsh error culture’

Frontiers
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We all make them, and we all make them at work: mistakes on the job happen regardless of line of work, experience, and gender. How employees feel about them and how they are perceived by others, however, differs. Between men and women, the latter are more likely to perceive mistakes more negatively – but this depends on with whom they are sharing the office, a new Frontiers in Organizational Psychology study has shown.
“On paper, a mistake carries the same consequences whoever makes it, and that is exactly what we found. But formal rules aren’t culture,” said lead author Dr Grace Lordan at the London School of Economics. “In teams that are three-quarters or more male, women told us they feel less comfortable admitting a mistake and less confident it will be treated as something to learn from. Where women are in the majority, that gap vanishes.”
Women at work
For their study, the team surveyed how comfortable employees would be admitting mistakes, how likely they are to believe they’d be penalized for making them, and whether they’d consider them as a learning opportunity. Over 1,400 employees in the UK financial service sector participated. While this sector is male dominated, the study population was made up of 81% women.
The results showed two consistent patterns: being a woman and being in a male-dominated work setting was associated with seeing mistakes more negatively; the latter pattern was regardless of gender.
“Extremely male-heavy, high-pressure teams may foster a general climate of fear or perfectionism and a ‘no mistakes’ norm,” said Lordan.
Further, men reported more positive views of mistakes across all measurements than women, who felt less comfortable admitting mistakes, were more likely to think they’d be punished for them and were less inclined to consider them learning opportunities. In more male-dominated workplaces, these trends sharpened further.
“In teams where more than three quarters were men, women report less comfort: 5.46 vs 5.94 for men in the same settings on a seven-point scale. Women were also less likely to see mistakes as learning opportunities (4.20 vs 4.54),” Lordan pointed out. “In low-male-share environments, women’s views are as positive as men’s or slightly better.”
Men’s perception, on the other hand, varied very little depending on their workplace’s gender composition.
Err to learn
The one score where the team did not find a gender difference was the expectation of penalization. In comparable roles and settings, women didn’t expect to be punished more than men, neither in female- nor in male-heavy places of work. This could be due to how respondents interpreted the term ‘penalization,’ which might have evoked formal consequences, for example, a note on the record or a career setback.
Fear of indirect penalties, however, might be more widespread among women, said the team.
“Comfort and learning tap informal, cultural dimensions, which is where bias tends to show up: being seen as less competent, having the mistake held against you in unwritten ways,” said Lordan. “Women may feel on ‘thinner ice’ psychologically even with the same consequences on paper.”
The authors pointed out that this might not only affect employees and teams but may also have negative repercussions throughout companies.
“Learning from failure is where innovation comes from. If women feel less free to admit mistakes, the organization doesn’t just lose their confidence; it loses the lessons,” said Lordan. “The fix isn’t expensive. Leaders, and especially men leading male-heavy teams, can change the climate simply by being open about their own mistakes.”
The authors also suggest peer groups for women, in- and outside of immediate teams, that offer safe spaces to discuss mistakes. Excessive double-checking or avoiding ‘risky’ projects, however, can stunt career growth.
Because of the gender-unbalanced sample, the authors said that their results cannot be readily generalized. The findings mostly apply to high-pressure, low-tolerance fields, but may extend to tech, engineering, and some medical specialties, other research suggests. The data was also based on self-reports about a hypothetical scenario that might have been imagined differently by every participant.
“Over time, freedom to fail could contribute to gaps in expertise, confidence and advancement, caused by unequal opportunity to learn, not ability,” concluded Lordan. “A more inclusive error culture benefits everyone.”
Journal
Frontiers in Organizational Psychology
DOI
10.3389/forgp.2026.1619562
Method of Research
Survey
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
Is it OK to Make Mistakes at Work? Perceptions of Differential Treatment of Mistakes by Men and Women in the Workplace
Article Publication Date
8-Oct-2026

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 14:38:09 +0000

Digital health promises shape the work of healthcare professionals

University of Eastern Finland
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The future benefits expected of remote monitoring in healthcare are shaped by how professionals understand their current work and its associated challenges, a recent study from the University of Eastern Finland shows.
Researchers interviewed healthcare professionals involved in a remote-monitoiring pilot for older patients with neurological conditions. The study examined home-based digital monitoring as a new way of organising care, with nurses’ day-to-day work playing a central role during the pilot phase, when remote monitoring was still being tested.
Nurses described remote monitoring as involving a considerable amount of day-to-day work, including advising and encouraging patients, solving technical problems and taking on new monitoring tasks. At the same time, remote monitoring was expected to make future nursing work more efficient and streamlined as technologies develop and practices become established. Patients were seen as needing considerable support in the early phases, while future patients were expected to manage more independently.
A key finding of the study was that experiences of remote monitoring and expectations about its future are closely connected, but not without tensions
“The promises of digital health are not only about the future. They also shape how professionals understand their current work,” says Doctoral Researcher Melika Azim Zadegan of the University of Eastern Finland.
The study highlights that developing digital health services requires more than technological development. Attention must also be paid to how professionals experience changes in working practices and how they envisage the future of remote monitoring in their own work.
“It is important to study digitalisation in healthcare while new ways of working are still being tested. This helps us understand how early experiences and future expectations are connected and what kinds of tensions may emerge between them,” Azim Zadegan says.
The study was conducted within the Neuro-Innovation PhD programme, which is funded by the University of Eastern Finland and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 101034307.
Journal
Global Qualitative Nursing Research
DOI
10.1177/233339362614933
Article Title
Tensions in Remote Monitoring: Nurses’ Everyday Work in Digitally Supported Care

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 08:05:36 +0000

SOCIAL CAPITAL
Norway Plans to Tap $63.7 Billion From Its Oil Fund in 2027
By Tsvetana Paraskova - Oct 07, 2026
wealth fund for public expenses next year, higher than this year’s spending from the world’s largest such fund.
The government unveiled its budget bill for 2027, which includes a proposal to withdraw and spend 608.4 billion Norwegian crowns, or $63.7 billion, from Government Pension Fund Global.
Under the proposal, spending from the sovereign wealth fund would increase by 4.9 billion crowns, or $513 million, compared to 2026, measured in fixed 2027 prices, the government said. The planned spending for 2027 accounts for 2.7% of the value of the fund, equal to 2026.
Key economic assumptions in the 2027 budget draft include GDP growth of 1.7% next year, up from 1.1% in 2026 and returning to the 2025 level.
Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), which is commonly referred to as 'Norway's oil fund' because it was created with oil and gas revenues, is a shareholder in many large companies in the world, with more than half of the value of its equity investments in the U.S. market. The Norwegian fund was created in the 1990s, and today it holds, on average, 1.5% of all listed companies in the world.
The fund posted a record-high profit of $185 billion for the first half of 2026, as Asian technology stocks boosted its returns and profit on the portfolio.
For the first half of the year, the fund posted a record profit on the portfolio before foreign exchange adjustments at 1.753 billion Norwegian crowns, or $185 billion, the fund’s manager, Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), said in August. This is more than double compared to the profit for the first half of last year, amid a rally in technology stocks.
Equity investments accounted for 72.1% of the fund’s value at the end of the first half of 2026, and fixed-income investments for 25.8%. Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft are the most valuable investments of the Norwegian wealth fund.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 08:02:36 +0000

South Korea Unveils $747 Billion Plan to Break Its Fossil Fuel Habit
By Charles Kennedy - Oct 07, 2026
South Korea plans to invest as much as one quadrillion Korean won, or $747 billion, in renewable energy, EV uptake, and industry decarbonization by 2035 as it looks to address energy security concerns and tightening global carbon regulations.
Senior South Korean officials on Wednesday presented the details of the so-called Korea Green Transformation (K-GX) Strategy through 2035, which includes targeting 100 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity by 2030, and electric and hydrogen vehicles topping 70% of new vehicle sales by 2035. In addition, South Korea will aim to slash emissions in key industrial sectors, including steel, cement manufacturing, semiconductors, petrochemicals, and refining.
“We must move away from the practice of chasing others and become architects and leaders of the green market ourselves,” South Korea’s President, Lee Jae Myung, said at a news conference, as carried by Reuters.
South Korea also looks to strengthen its energy security in the aftermath of the Middle East crisis, which forced its refiners and utilities to search for alternative crude oil and LNG supplies as cargoes were trapped in the Strait of Hormuz.
The country, one of the biggest oil and gas importers in Asia, is diversifying oil and gas sourcing, but without a major leap into homegrown renewable energy, it remains heavily dependent on geopolitical turbulence and supply shocks.
Current wind and solar capacity in South Korea could save $4.7 billion in fossil fuel import costs this year alone as energy commodity prices spiked, clean energy think tank Ember said in June.
As of the early-June 2026 spot prices, South Korea’s annual fossil fuel imports for the whole energy sector would hit $133 billion, research by Ember and Global Energy Monitor showed. That sum is almost six times the country’s annual debt repayments, three and a half times food imports, and almost three times its defense expenditure.
The 100-GW renewables target by 2030 could avoid an additional $12 billion in annual fossil fuel import costs, Ember said.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 08:00:56 +0000

Petronas Moves to Appraise Major Oil Discovery Offshore Malaysia
By Charles Kennedy - Oct 07, 2026
Malaysia’s state-owned Petronas is preparing to drill an appraisal well at its major Megah oil discovery offshore Sabah as it moves to establish the size and commercial potential of one of the country’s most significant recent finds.
The Megah-2 appraisal well will target the 2025 Megah discovery in Deepwater Block 3K. Industry estimates have put the discovery at around 200 million to 300 million barrels, although Petronas has yet to publish an official recoverable resource estimate.
Malaysia’s Marine Department issued a notice in late September covering drilling operations at Megah-2. The West Capella, an ultra-deepwater drillship capable of operating in water depths of up to 10,000 feet, has reportedly been lined up for the campaign.
Petronas officially identified Megah-1 as one of two Malaysian exploration discoveries made during the first half of 2025, saying the finds strengthened the country’s domestic oil portfolio.
The appraisal effort is being supported by a major seismic reprocessing campaign from TGS. The company is reprocessing approximately 514 square kilometers of 3D seismic data over the Megah discovery using advanced full-waveform inversion and depth-imaging technology. Processing began in July, with final data expected in April 2027.
Megah-2 is expected to provide further information on reservoir quality, fluids and the potential scale of a commercial development.
The discovery also comes as Malaysia seeks to unlock more of its deepwater potential. Petronas estimates that more than 6 billion barrels of oil equivalent remain to be discovered in Malaysian deepwater acreage, with Sabah holding the largest share of that potential.

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 09:18:12 +0000

Even brief e-cigarette use can cause lasting lung damage and weaken defenses against respiratory viruses, study finds

National Jewish Health

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Just days of e-cigarette vapor exposure can injure the lungs' most delicate tissue and leave it more vulnerable to viral infection, according to a study led by National Jewish Health researchers and published in JCI Insight.(Opens in a new window)

The research team studied human lung epithelial and endothelial cells, along with precision-cut human lung tissue, all taken from the distal lung — the deep, delicate region where oxygen passes into the bloodstream. They exposed these tissues to e-cigarette vapor alone, and separately tested vapor exposure followed by infection with a respiratory virus, in preclinical models. Within 24 hours, e-cigarette vapor damaged the protective barrier of the distal lung, triggered cellular stress, impaired cells’ internal process for clearing damaged components, slowed cell growth and repair, and increased cell death.

Strikingly, signs of lung stress persisted 10 days after just a five-day exposure period ended. The team observed lasting changes in barrier function, tissue remodeling, and Th1 immunity — a branch of the immune system critical to fighting viral infections.

Prior vaping exposure also increased SARS-CoV-2 viral burden and suppressed several antiviral genes following infection.

“Our findings suggest that even short-term vaping exposure can initiate injury in the deepest and most delicate regions of the lung,” said senior author Irina Petrache, MD, pulmonologist and chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at National Jewish Health. “Importantly, some effects persisted after exposure ended and altered the immune response to a subsequent viral infection.”

The findings, which will need to be confirmed in future studies in people, point to biological mechanisms that may help explain why vaping has been linked to lung injury and greater susceptibility to respiratory infections. The researchers noted that repeated exposure could potentially contribute to chronic lung disease by sustaining cellular injury and disrupting normal repair.

National Jewish Health is the leading respiratory hospital in the nation delivering excellence in multispecialty care and world class research. Founded in 1899 as a nonprofit hospital, National Jewish Health today is the only facility in the world dedicated exclusively to groundbreaking medical research and treatment of children and adults with respiratory, cardiac, immune and related disorders. Patients and families come to National Jewish Health from around the world to receive cutting-edge, comprehensive, coordinated care. To learn more, visit njhealth.org or the media resources page.
Journal
JCI Insight
DOI
10.1172/jci.insight.198757
Article Title
E-cigarette exposure triggers distal lung cell injury, persistent lung stress response, and antiviral immune suppression

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 09:15:05 +0000

Researchers study how psychopathic traits shape language

Findings reveal differences in language associated with psychopathic traits

University of Mississippi
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Subtle differences in how people talk about their lives and experiences can reveal tendencies toward psychopathy. Ole Miss psychologists are studying responses from 450 people to understand how psychopathic traits such as meanness, boldness and disinhibition show up in everyday language.
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Credit: Graphic by Sarah Tewolde/University Marketing and Communications

Popular culture often depicts people with psychopathy as cold, emotionless and hollow, but a recent University of Mississippi study found that the language associated with psychopathic traits is more complicated than often described.
University of Mississippi psychologists studied hundreds of autobiographical essays and found that the three traits often used as a framework to understand psychopathy – boldness, meanness and disinhibition – were linked to different patterns in language. The researchers published their findings in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.
"The goal here is not to diagnose psychopathy based on language," said Ky Bray, an Ole Miss doctoral candidate in psychology. "It's to point to the fact that psychopathy shows up in everyday behaviors, even subtle behaviors like language.
"If we want to understand psychopathy and the different traits that comprise it, we need to think creatively about how these traits shape social interaction."
The three traits used to understand and assess the pathology are called the Triarchic Model of Psychopathy. They can influence everyday actions and behaviors, such as the way a person talks about themselves, said Laura Drislane, assistant professor of psychology.
The research surveyed 450 participants, including college students and people who reported prior incarceration. Drislane and Bray first asked participants to answer open-ended questions about their life's high, low and turning points. Then participants filled out a survey to measure their psychopathic traits.
The researchers used text-analysis software to examine how often participants used words associated with categories such as positive tone, negative tone, achievement, clout and risk.
They found that people scoring higher in disinhibition were more likely to use negative words and less likely to reference friends, use positive words or use words related to achievement. Higher meanness was associated with more positive tone and more achievement and reward-related language, with less negative emotional language.
People scoring higher in boldness used fewer words related to anxiety – such as fear, afraid or worry – and made fewer references to mental illness.
"What this tells us is the story we tell about our life has meaning," Drislane said. "It helps people make sense of their experiences, develop a worldview and a coherent sense of who they are.
"What we're starting to see is that in psychopathy, there are traits that relate to differences in meaning-making and the ways people think about their life."
The associations in word choice and trait were also dependent on which narrative question the participants were answering, indicating that psychopathic language is not hollow or lacking in emotion as often depicted; rather, it is context- and trait-dependent.
"People tend to think of psychopathy as one thing, but it's actually multidimensional," Bray said. "What we mean when we say that is everyone exists on this spectrum. Everyone has some degree of meanness, boldness and disinhibition.
"Viewing it from a multidimensional perspective allows us to observe how those traits might manifest in nonforensic populations, in people who have not committed a crime. That allows us to see how these traits affect college students, business professionals or interpersonal relationships."
Like many personality pathologies, psychopathy exists on a spectrum, with the common conception of a "psychopath" on one end and a person scoring low in boldness, meanness and disinhibition on the other.
"That's in part why there's a movement away from calling people 'psychopaths,' because we don't view psychopathy as a category," Drislane said. "But psychopathic dimensions can predict important outcomes, things like crime, recidivism or intimate partner violence.
"What our research, including this paper, suggests is that it's important to look beyond that label and into the different components or dimensions of psychopathy, because each of those dimensions actually has a unique set of outcomes or things that it can predicts."
Also, like many mental conditions, psychopathy can be treated to minimize symptoms.
"If we want to be able to treat or ideally even prevent psychopathy from developing, we need to understand the mechanisms at play," she said. "That comes down to understanding the unique contributors for all three of these dimensions."
Journal
Personality and Individual Differences
DOI
10.1016/j.paid.2026.113978

Join us for a day of artist discussions, exhibitions, live music, comedy, and anti-fascist resistance - with the support of Manifesto Press.

Meet poet Micahael Rosen, comedian Alexei Sayle, Fran Lock, Arthur Smith, Rick Blackman, musician Ben Lunn, leading activist Victoria Holmes and writer film-maker Deidre O'Neill.

This inaugural event - arising from a world-historic juncture, when the choice between “socialism and barbarism” is reigniting in its starkest, most unforgiving light - will unite cultural workers across the country. To share ideas, workshop solutions, and above all, to mobilise against the politics of hate, once again underwritten by the crises and contradictions of capitalism.

From writers and musicians to dancers and videogame developers, producers of culture must play their part. As they have historically…

Artists Against Fascism is part of a long working-class tradition that dates back almost a century to the Artists International Association (AIA) of the 1930s, the Stars Campaign for Inter-Racial Friendship of the 1950s, Rock Against Racism of the 1970s, and, in the 1980s, Cable Street Beat.

This important gathering has wide support across the labour and trade union movement and includes live music and comedy performances. It is sponsored by publisher Manifesto Press, bookstore Bookmarks, daily newspaper The Morning Star, Smokestack books, Cuba solidarity, the Workers Music Association, Culture Matters, the Communist Party and the Young Communist League.

So come along, continue the struggle for cultural democracy. This weekend, Saturday 10th October at Newington Green Meeting House, running 11am to 11pm.

To book and for Programme: www.artistsagainstfascism.art

Be there. Bring others. Organise.

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Thu, 08 Oct 2026 09:01:25 +0000

Water level of Danube near Slovak capital Bratislava hits historical low
/ Image by Peter Tóth from PixabayFacebook
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By bne IntelliNews October 7, 2026
The water level of the largest European river, the Danube, at the Slovak capital Bratislava has fallen to the lowest level since measurement began in 1900.
The average daily water flow at the Devín section of the river just outside Bratislava reached 575.9 cubic metres per second on October 5, the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute (SHMÚ) reported on October 6.
“The Danube, one of the most significant European rivers, rewrites more than hundred years of its history,” SHMÚ stated, adding that the previous “historic minimum from January 1900” was deepened by “another 4.1m3/s".
This summer, Slovakia was coping with a severe drought, which also hit other countries in the region. SHMÚ noted that June, July and August this year “were assessed as below normal to dry months”, and that average water flow reached “only about 36% of the long term monthly values”. September was assessed as significantly below normal.
Slovakia also reported very low water levels in other major rivers as well as water reservoirs. The summer of 2026 was the third hottest since 1931 and the sixth driest since 1881, Czech online news outlet Novinky.cz noted.

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 08:53:25 +0000

EU should tap financial, digital and wealth taxes to fund priorities, wiiw says
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By IntelliNews October 7, 2026
The European Union should broaden the sources of revenue funding its budget to include financial transactions, digital companies and wealthy individuals as it faces rising costs for defence, competitiveness and the green transition, the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw) said on October 7.
The EU needs to raisebns of euros in additional funding as it confronts higher defence spending and seeks to strengthen its economy while financing its green and digital transitions. The European Commission has proposed a budget of almost €2 trillion for 2028-2034, with new and adjusted EU revenue sources expected to raise €58.2bn annually.
In a study, wiiw economists Bernhard Schütz and Philipp Heimberger argued that the bloc should become less dependent on contributions from member states and develop a broader range of EU-level revenue sources.
"Even greater dependence on member states’ contributions risks narrowing the debate over the EU budget further to the question of which country pays how much, rather than focusing on how to address the challenges of our time and how to finance the measures needed to tackle them," Heimberger said.
The researchers said a wider mix of revenue sources could distribute the financing burden more evenly, make it easier for governments to reach agreement on the EU budget and reduce tax competition between member states.
The current system relies heavily on national contributions linked to gross national income and value-added tax, meaning that labour and consumption indirectly bear much of the burden.
Labour accounted for 52% of total tax revenue in the EU in 2024, while consumption accounted for 27%, according to the study. Capital and wealth taxes contributed just 5% and 2%, respectively.
The economists therefore called for greater use of taxes that draw revenue from financial markets, digital activity and wealth.
A financial transaction tax could generate tens ofbns of euros annually depending on its design and participation, while potentially discouraging high-frequency trading that can contribute to financial-market volatility, the study said.
A common EU digital tax could raise as much as €26bn a year, according to the researchers. Such a tax could also address what they see as a gap in the taxation of large foreign technology companies that earn revenue from EU users without necessarily having a physical presence in the countries where that revenue is generated.
"Large foreign digital corporations can currently generate substantial revenues from processing user data without having to pay tax on those revenues in the EU countries concerned, as they do not have a physical presence there. A digital tax would change this," Schütz said.
The study also examined a minimum tax on individuals with net wealth above €100mn, which it estimated could generate up to €40bn a year for the EU budget.
Other possible sources included taxes on crypto-assets and online gambling, as well as a bank levy, alternative forms of corporate taxation and a carbon-based tax on air tickets.
The Commission has already proposed several new own resources, including revenues from the EU emissions trading system and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, alongside a levy on uncollected electronic waste and a tobacco tax.
The wiiw researchers said the debate should extend beyond simply finding enough money to cover the EU's spending plans, arguing that decisions on revenue sources would also determine how the costs of common priorities were distributed.
They also called for common EU borrowing to remain part of the discussion, pointing to the experience of the €800-billion NextGenerationEU recovery programme launched after the COVID-19 pandemic.
"A stronger and more independent financing base, complemented by common borrowing for strategic investment, could substantially strengthen the EU’s capacity to act, including in its competition with China and the United States," Heimberger said.

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 08:47:36 +0000

Croatian startup maps 4.3mn vineyards as climate change reshapes wine regions
Changing climate conditions are affecting the world's wine-growing regions. / Image by Jill Wellington from PixabayFacebook
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By IntelliNews October 7, 2026
A Croatian company has launched a digital database mapping more than 4.3mn vineyards and 104,000 wineries in 90 countries, combining satellite terrain measurements with climate data to track how changing conditions are affecting the world's wine-growing regions.
WorldWineryMap.com, developed by Umag-based World Winery Map, maps 4,303,693 vineyard parcels and provides data including elevation, slope, solar radiation, soil composition and temperatures during the vine-growing season.
"For each parcel, we extracted the exact coordinates and calculated the elevation, slope, and aspect using the Copernicus GLO-30 terrain model, then layered climate data on top of that," said founder Matija Gavrilovic.
The company said it assembled vineyard data from 38 sources, including 22 official government registers covering more than 3.8mn of the mapped plots. Other data comes from agricultural censuses, satellite analysis and unofficial sources.
The platform identifies 98,719 wine-growing boundaries, including 2,815 official wine regions, subregions and appellations and 95,904 named vineyard sites.
It also incorporates climate indicators such as the Huglin and Winkler indices, rainfall and average growing-season temperatures, allowing users to compare conditions between wine-producing areas.
"Building a system of this magnitude required processing more than four million geospatial polygons and precisely intersecting them with topographical and climate layers," Gavrilovic said. "The result is the most comprehensive digital archive of world viticulture ever created."
The company said the platform uses legal boundaries and official nomenclature where available, including French INAO delimitations and US American Viticultural Area borders.
The map is aimed at wine professionals and travellers, with a geolocation function allowing users to find nearby wineries and obtain directions.

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 08:59:26 +0000

PRAGMATISM
Four in ten Ukrainians now see a frozen front line as the most realistic end to the war
Some 41% of Ukrainians now see a freeze with territorial losses as the most realistic end to the war, up from 33% in February 2025. / bne IntelliNews

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By Ben Aris in Berlin October 7, 2026
Some 41% of Ukrainians now consider a settlement in which Ukraine keeps its statehood and independence but suffers forced territorial losses to be the most realistic end to the war, up from 33% in February 2025, according to a survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) published on October 6.
Respondents were asked to pick the scenario they thought possible in the current situation, not the one they wanted. KIIS said that, judging by its other surveys, most people who chose the territorial-loss option had in mind a "freeze" along the current front line, and stressed that the question did not concern formal recognition of the occupied territories as part of Russia.
A combined 53% chose scenarios involving the liberation of at least some territory, down from 60% in February 2025. Some 14% thought a return to the de facto borders of February 24, 2022 the most realistic outcome (16% previously), 4% the recovery of all of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions (5%), 23% the restoration of the 1991 borders including Crimea (25%), and 12% full territorial integrity with the fighting carried onto Russian territory (14%). Another 6% could not say.
Belief in victory remains high but has become less certain. Some 79% said Ukraine would win the war, 47% of them definitely and 32% probably, while 7% expected Russia to win and 14% were undecided. In KIIS's late July to early August survey 85% believed Ukraine would win and 60% were certain of it.
Three-quarters of Ukrainians, 75%, would accept negotiations with Russia now to end the war, against 21% who would not, a result almost identical to February 2025. KIIS warned that the question covered only the holding of talks and should not be read as support for concessions to Moscow.
Some 69% would support an immediate and complete ceasefire along the current line of contact on condition that Ukraine does not legally recognise the occupied territories as Russian, keeps strengthening its army and continues its course towards the EU and Nato. Another 22% opposed the idea and 9% were undecided.
The conditions matter. In the July-August survey only 32% accepted a withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Donbas in exchange for abstract US and European security guarantees, while 60% rejected it; when the scenario was a freeze on the current line backed by concrete guarantees in the form of more weapons and financial support, 59% approved. In May, 61% rejected a ceasefire on the current line without security guarantees, KIIS said.
Ukrainians' stated stamina has not changed. Some 62% said they were prepared to endure the war for as long as necessary, 4% for about a year and 23% for a few months to half a year, figures practically unchanged from late July and early August. In Kyiv the share ready to hold out as long as needed was 72%, against 69% in the previous survey, despite the start of Russia's jet-powered drone attacks on the capital.
KIIS noted that the fieldwork took place after the jet-drone campaign against civilian infrastructure had begun, but ended before the strikes on the bridges across the Dnipro.
"Ukrainians maintain a constructive approach and are open to difficult compromises," KIIS executive director Anton Hrushetskyi said. "However, these compromises should not be unilateral concessions and something that would resemble Ukraine's capitulation."
The poll is the second set of results from the same wave. Questions on corruption from the September survey found that graft worries Ukrainians more than Russia's missile strikes, and on October 5 KIIS reported that 53% think President Volodymyr Zelenskiy should not seek a second term.
KIIS interviewed 1,002 adults living in government-controlled territory by telephone between September 12 and 21, for the NGO Forum. The survey excluded residents of occupied areas and Ukrainians who left the country after February 24, 2022. The formal margin of error is up to 4.1 percentage points, and KIIS warned that wartime conditions add some systematic bias. The results were also reported by the Kyiv Post.
Which of these scenarios for the end of the war is the most realistic in your opinion? Not the one you would like, but the one that is possible in the current situation?
Feb.25
Sep.26
The very fact of preserving Ukraine's statehood and independence, even with forced territorial losses
33
41
Return of the actual borders of Ukraine as of the beginning of the invasion on February 24, 2022
16
14
Restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine,
including the return of Donetsk and Luhansk regions in full
5
4
Full restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine,
including the return of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, as well as Crimea
25

Venezuelans in no mood to dance despite Trump's oil bonanza
"Economic deterioration remains one of the main problems. Since Maduro was captured, there has been no economic recovery of the kind many expected," Venezuelan journalist Mariano told Intellinews. / bne IntelliNewsFacebook
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By IntelliNews Caracas bureau October 7, 2026
Nicolás Maduro has all but vanished from the walls of Caracas. Nine months after a US military operation removed him from power on January 3, the billboards, murals and government façades that once carried his face in profusion bear little trace of the unpopular, authoritarian leader who inherited Hugo Chávez's revolution.
For more than a decade Maduro's likeness was a fixture of the Venezuelan capital, part of a visual apparatus Chavismo used to project its permanence. Chávez's image served the same purpose. The stylised eyes first deployed in his 2012 re-election campaign were later reproduced across the country and became an emblem of the state. Much of that imagery is now peeling away, unmourned by most, and nothing of comparable weight has taken its place.
Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro's former vice-president and now the country's interim leader under US tutelage, has made little effort to fill the void. Her administration has few street-level markers and no signature public works to its name. The most conspicuous billboards in the capital honour the rescuers who responded to the twin devastating earthquakes of June 24, while newer campaigns promote “Venezuela Renace,” a programme to rebuild homes and infrastructure damaged in the disasters.
Yet the retreat of Chavista iconography has done little to persuade Venezuelans that their circumstances have changed. An economy hollowed out by more than two decades of mismanagement and corruption, and then by US sanctions, is showing signs of recovery on paper but not in people's lives. Those interviewed by IntelliNews in Caracas said economic hardship remained their overriding concern, as a sliding bolívar drove up prices and blunted any benefit from the foreign investment pledged for the oil and energy sectors.
"Economic deterioration remains one of the main problems for Venezuelans. Since Maduro was captured, there has been no economic recovery of the kind many expected. The official dollar exchange rate continues to rise almost every day and, with it, prices are also increasing," said Mariano, an investigative journalist who returned from exile this year. He and others quoted in this article asked that their real names be withheld for security reasons.
Some businesses, he said, have begun pricing goods against the euro as currency volatility intensifies. He also questioned whether the oil revenues touted by Donald Trump are reaching ordinary Venezuelans. "After nine months, there is also no sign of investments that have produced a significant improvement in quality of life. Power cuts have become worse and so has the water supply," he said.
That is a far cry from Trump's rosy account of Venezuelans "dancing in the streets because they have a lot of money coming in through the big oil companies that are all moving in".
The money is real, but its path to Venezuelan households is circuitous. Since January, Washington has in effect taken control of the country's crude sales. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Senate foreign relations committee in January that proceeds would be held in a US-supervised account in Qatar, so that Caracas could pay police, sanitation workers and the day-to-day costs of government. Supervision was meant to guard against the graft that plagued PDVSA, the state oil company, under Chávez and Maduro. Energy secretary Chris Wright later said the revenue would no longer pass through Qatar, and Rubio told the US Congress that Venezuela had agreed to submit monthly budget requests to the State Department to receive its share of the proceeds.
But transparency remains thin. PDVSA has published no revenue figures since 2016, and the administration has not disclosed how much it controls.
The relationship deepened sharply in late August, when Trump announced what he called "the biggest oil deal in world history". The agreement covers 17 fields that Caracas says hold 65bn barrels of proven reserves, roughly a fifth of the national total, eight of them in the Maracaibo Basin and nine in the Orinoco belt. Rodríguez said the pact targets output of more than 1.5mn barrels a day over 25 years.
US officials said the arrangement would give Washington 55% of the effective output of a new private joint venture, split between equity in a holding company and oil bought at cost, with production earmarked for the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve and the military. The operator, North American Blue Energy Partners, will hold operating control, while the US government will hold a 35% stake, preferential access to 20% of production at cost and a veto over the board, a majority of whose members must be American. The company is headed by Alejandro Betancourt, a controversial businessman with ties to the Maduro government.
Rodríguez hailed the agreement as historic. Critics are less convinced. Opponents across Venezuela's political spectrum have questioned its legality and warned that it erodes national sovereignty, and analysts note that the constitution reserves ownership of petroleum to the state. Output is already recovering. Production rose to 1.2mn bpd in August, driven mainly by Chevron's joint ventures with PDVSA.
Commercial convenience, meanwhile, has turned old foes into partners. Washington has lifted sanctions on Rodríguez and recognised her as "sole Head of State" in federal court proceedings, while Trump has called her a “terrific person” who is "doing a fantastic job.” The pair met for the first time in New York last month to discuss Venezuela’s economic recovery and political transition, according to Rubio.
But for Mariale, a nurse at two public hospitals, that unlikely partnership has yet to show up in her paycheck. "In reality, I haven't seen any difference since Maduro left. I think the people benefiting are the politicians, as always, while ordinary people remain in the same situation. If there are no improvements in wages, we remain where we were," she said.
Carlos, a young chef juggling two jobs to get by, asked why the investment Washington trumpets has yet to show up in basic services. "Improvements should start to become visible when you are negotiating with a country that, according to what is being said, is investing millions of dollars in Venezuela," he said. For him, economic recovery is inseparable from political change. "For the situation to improve, the only option is to hold transparent elections and move towards a democratic and consensual transfer of power."
That transition looks increasingly distant. Hopes that a vote would be called within months of Maduro's ouster have given way to talk of elections in 2027 or even 2028. Addressing the UN General Assembly in New York last month, Rodríguez promised that free elections would be held and said her government had opened talks with opposition groups, but set no date. The White House has likewise shown little public urgency. Rubio told US senators in January that a rushed democratic transition was not the first priority, and Trump said in July that Venezuelans were "not ready yet for the elections".
"Many Venezuelans expected elections to be called during the first three months of the transition. Now, instead, people are talking about 2027 or even 2028. That fuels the perception that there has been no real political change," Mariano said. "Although repression has eased, those who carried out the previous system remain in power. For many Venezuelans, seeing Trump alongside Delcy creates the impression that there will be no meaningful political transformation and that he did not fulfil what he promised, that he betrayed them."
On one front, at least, Venezuelans describe real change. Maduro claimed victory in the July 28, 2024 election despite opposition tallies showing a clear win for its candidate, Edmundo González, and the brutal crackdown that followed led to more than 2,000 political arrests. This year, those interviewed said, persecution has eased markedly.
According to Foro Penal, a Venezuelan rights group, the authorities have freed most of those detainees this year, including every journalist still in custody, although a few civilian and military political prisoners remain behind bars. Some Venezuelans who fled earlier crises have begun to return, among them figures close to María Corina Machado, the opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Machado herself, sidelined by the Trump administration in favour of Rodriguez, remains abroad. In recent weeks she has said she has been prevented from entering the country on seven occasions, without saying who blocked her or how.
"The return of opposition figures who left Venezuela after the political crises of 2014 and 2017 also suggests that arbitrary detentions at airports have become less common. It is a sign of some opening, although not necessarily of a break with the past," Mariano said.
Venezuelans have also regained some freedom to protest, reopening an outlet for discontent that the 2024 crackdown had largely closed. But the persistence of economic and political grievances shows how limited the transition has been so far.
Maduro may have disappeared from the walls of Caracas, and his successors now dance to Washington's tune. The structures and ills of his era, though, are proving far harder to erase.

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 08:41:25 +0000

BAN DEEP SEA MINING
Study Suggests Deep Sea Mining Could Be a Loss-Making Proposition
Image courtesy of The Metals Company
Published Oct 6, 2026 by The Maritime Executive

Any deep-ocean seabed operation is an expensive proposition, as research vessel operators and offshore drilling companies are well aware. Deep-sea mining for manganese nodules would be no exception, demanding specialized tonnage, robotics, processing equipment and R&D. In a new report, some of the budding industry's opponents suggest that the overhead of industrial-scale subsea operations could make deep sea mining a loss-making proposition - even before accounting for environmental factors.
Drawing on an investment prospectus for two projects belonging to The Metals Company, one of the biggest deep sea mining firms, the environmental consultancy Koinon conducted "stress-tests" to see if TMC's business model would hold up under various scenarios. The study was sponsored by five NGOs and foundations that are opposed to rapid commercialization of the practice. Koinon's analysts looked at typical cost overruns for megaprojects and ran 10,000 simulations on various outcomes, finding that the median outcome would result in no meaningful return.
"In 60% of iterations, the collector’s net cash flow is negative in every year, with the consequence that no internal rate of return exists," Koinon's analysts wrote. "Among the minority of runs that do generate a positive return profile, the median IRR stands at 4%."
The report concludes that the project has an 83 percent probability of returning a loss, with a median net present value of -$5 billion, assuming a discount rate of 8 percent. By comparison, under TMC's own projected scenario, the two projects would make $23 billion.
The consultancy's analysis found that the up-front capex cost of the collection system was the primary driver of profitability, and the only variable capable of moving the project's margins into the zone of positive returns. Koinon estimated that - based on typical cost overruns for a frontier industry - the average simulated cost of the collection system would likely be about 1.9 times TMC's expected cost, based on typical overruns in past reference cases in offshore oil and gas, frontier technology and mega-scale mining projects. In its sensitivity analysis, changes in capex alone could vary the size of the return by more than $8 billion, making capex alone determinative of project profit or loss.
The discount rate is a key element in this analysis. Koinon noted that the regulatory and environmental risk associated with deep sea mining has prompted dozens of bankers, insurers and industrial-metals buyers to publicly vow not to do business with deep-sea minerals producers - potentially making project financing more expensive (and thereby driving up the discount rate).
"The project’s own economics, when simulated rather than asserted, show no return in the majority of cases and a loss in the large majority, while the financing environment strips the cheapest layers from the capital stack, with the consequence that any viable project is forced onto equity priced for speculative risk," Koinon concluded. "The required return that follows, in the order of 25 to 30%, sits above the entire institutional private-markets universe against which it might be benchmarked."
Separately, the consultancy analyzed potential tax revenues from the project and determined that the net benefits for national governments - including project sponsor states - would be slim. The International Seabed Authority would reap substantial revenues from project royalties, but these would be offset by declining tax revenue from onshore mining projects. (The tax revenue drop would be a consequence of higher supplies and lower prices for nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese.)
"This study confirms that deep-sea mining remains economically unattractive from a commercial investment perspective," asserted Torsten Thiele, founder of study co-sponsor Global Ocean Trust. "The findings also highlight that the risks extend beyond mining companies to sponsoring states and countries dependent on terrestrial mining."
TMC asserts that the environmental risks of deep-sea mining can be managed, and that it can earn an after-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 27 percent on its first projects. The firm argues that the world's economies need a new source of industrial metals, and that manganese nodule extraction can provide that supply with a lower environmental impact than that of shoreside mining projects.
Opponents argue that the long term environmental effects of deep-sea mining are unknown, and that little-studied seabed ecosystems will be disturbed by the removal of manganese nodules from the bottom. Risks include sediment releases into the water column, long-term habitat alteration, and increased odds of extinction for certain vulnerable species, according to some researchers and activists.

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 08:42:07 +0000

ECOCIDE
Greenpeace Warns of Environmental Fallout From Tanker Attack in Black Sea
A burning slick spreads from the tanker Aframax Rio off Sochi, Oct. 6. The fire has since been extinguished (Russian social media)
By The Maritime Executive 2026-10-07

Smoke from the burning tanker off the resort town of Sochi, Russia petered out on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after the vessel was hit by one or more Ukrainian drones. Russian authorities have confirmed that a "terrorist attack" on the merchant tanker occurred, and Russian media outlets have confirmed its identity as the Liberian-flagged Aframax Rio.
All 23 crewmembers (all Indian nationals) were evacuated safely from the tanker, and no injuries were reported, according to the Russian Ministry of Transport. The agency says that after an initial period of monitoring to allow the flames to subside, the fire has now been brought under control. Russia's public health ministry claims that no pollution has been detected, though burning petroleum on the water was visible in bystander imagery from the night of the attack. Nearby public beaches have been closed as a precautionary measure, and environmental monitoring of air and water quality continues, according to Sochi Mayor Andrey Proshunin.
The vessel's salvage status as of October 7 is unknown; in unverified images circulating on social media on October 7, local citizens suggested that the ship had taken on a list to starboard. The vessel is on the move, drifting with the current up the coastline of the Lazarevsky District, Proshunin said in a statement.
"I ask everyone to remain calm, adhere to established restrictions, and rely only on verified information. The city's emergency response team is constantly monitoring the situation," Proshunin said.
In a statement, environmental NGO Greenpeace warned that the attack on the laden tanker could lead to "unprecedented pollution of the Black Sea and the destruction of marine ecosystems," exceeding the scale of the last two substantial spills in the region.
"[Russian oil] poses a direct threat to the people of Russia itself and to the environment of the entire Black Sea region," the NGO wrote.
It was the second drone-boat attack on Sochi in a month following a strike on September 9, which hit a public beach and injured 30 bystanders.
Both Ukraine and Russia have made extensive use of drone technology to attack civilian-crewed merchant ships, both domestic and foreign-flagged. On Tuesday, a Russian drone strike sank a Turkish-operated merchant ship off the coast of Bulgaria, killing ten foreign crewmembers. A separate Russian strike sparked a fire and injured two crewmembers on a second Turkish-operated vessel.

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 08:32:37 +0000

HD Hyundai Expands SMR Nuclear Reactor Efforts with Demonstration Center
HD KSOE released in 2025 its first model showing the design for a SMR-powered containership (HD KSOE)
By The Maritime Executive 2026-10-07

South Korean shipbuilder HD Hyundai is working to accelerate its efforts to commercialize Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) through a new agreement partnering with the nuclear industry and academia. The plan is to combine the design and construction capabilities of the shipbuilding industry with the expertise of the nuclear industry and universities to serve as a catalyst for accelerating commercialization.
The new SMR Marine Technology Demonstration Center includes the participation of the Korean Register as well as the nuclear industry and Korean universities. The 12 participating organizations plan to jointly utilize their existing testing facilities and research infrastructure to reduce redundant investments and enhance the efficiency of technology verification for SMR technology. They will jointly develop core technologies required for marine SMR applications and work together to identify and plan large-scale national projects. They will also seek to participate in government R&D opportunities.
By linking the various segments of expertise and technology, HD Hyundai says it will contribute to the development, testing, verification, and demonstration of SMR technology.
It is the next step in the efforts to develop SMR technology to power a new generation of vessels. Last year, HD Hyundai’s HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (HD KSOE) revealed its first model of a 15,000 TEU containership employing SMR technology for propulsion power. The company noted that it had already obtained Approval in Principle from ABS (American Bureau of Shipping) for its design for the SMR-powered containership. It said it had advanced the designs while highlighting the enhanced economic efficiency and safety of the design by incorporating actual equipment and safety design concepts.
HD KSOE highlights that the SMR technology does not require engine exhaust systems or fuel tanks. In its design, it optimizes the space used by a large engine room on a conventional containership to accommodate additional containers. In addition to the inherent benefit of SMR technology, HD Hyundai also applied a marine radiation shielding system using a double-tank method with stainless-steel and light water containment.
The shipbuilder HD KSOE announced last year that it planned to establish a marine nuclear demonstration facility. It said it would open the center at its Future Technology Center in Yongin, South Korea, to verify the safety of SMR designs.
Across the shipping industry, interest continues to build in potential applications for SMR-powered vessels. Hyundai Glovis, a leader in vehicle transport and logistics, announced last week that it is partnering with U.S.-based logistics company Liberty Global Logistics to review the operation of SMR-propelled car carriers on routes between Korea and the United States.

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 08:30:23 +0000

Report: South America Diversions Jumped as Panama Canal Restrictions Grew
USS George Washington and escorts transiting the Strait of Magellan in 2024 (USN)
By The Maritime Executive 2026-10-07

The number of ships choosing to reroute around South America has skyrocketed, according to a new report from the analysts at Bloomberg. Using data from the Chilean Navy on the number of pilot requests for the Strait of Magellan, Bloomberg reports a strong year-over-year increase in shipping volume.
It reports the diversions began in July and increased 70 percent year-over-year in both August and September. The Chilean Navy did not provide Bloomberg with data on the types of ships making the transit, but the analysts said the increase came primarily in the 60,000 to 65,000 gross ton size of vessel.
The timing of the increase coincides with the Panama Canal’s efforts, which began both lowering the number of daily transits and, more importantly, restricting maximum draft for the transit. Large gas carriers and containerships were expected to be impacted by the restriction. Containerships, for example, are required to restrict their cargo loads or offload and tranship boxes across the isthmus to meet the draft restriction. Industry analysts have also cited examples of LNG carriers diverting around South America.
The Panama Canal typically maintains a level of around 38 daily transits, but it had begun restricting the number as part of its water conservation methods. Currently, the largest vessels, which use the Neopanamax locks, are restricted to a total of nine daily transits, although the Panama Canal Authority was adding one back based on current water levels. The older Panamax locks currently have a maximum of 23 ships per day.
The Panama Canal Authority strongly emphasized that vessels were advised to make reservations to manage the reduced number of transits. Even with that, there are currently 45 booked vessels waiting for transit, and the northbound delay is again rising, with the average over the past 28 days now up to 5.5 days waiting time. There are, however, only three ships currently waiting that do not have a booked transit slot.
Operators had the option of entering the bidding for slots, but there too the prices skyrocketed, especially ahead of the restrictions starting in September. Record prices exceeding $4 million and then $5 million were reported to obtain slots and jump the wait at the Panama Canal.
In addition to the vessels rerouting to avoid the challenges at the Panama Canal, Bloomberg analysts note some ships are also rerouting around South America on routes between West Africa and Asia, as well as efforts to avoid the security concerns in the Middle East and the Red Sea.
In addition to the added distance from the routes around South America, it can also be one of the most challenging weather environments for ships. The Strait of Magellan reduces mileage and shelters from some of the weather concerns, but it requires pilots.
According to the report, other factors are also contributing to the increase in ship volume in the region. During the winter, roads, for example, between Chile and Argentina can be blocked by snow, with some shippers choosing to instead send goods by ship. Now, as the Southern Hemisphere summer season is beginning, there is also an influx of cruise ships heading to the region and Antarctica.

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 08:26:40 +0000

Storm Isaias is Set to Become a Hurricane as it Approaches Gulf Oil Patch
Tropical Storm Isaias strengthens on
By The Maritime Executive 2026-10-07
Tropical Storm Isaias is strengthening swiftly as it heads towards the U.S. Gulf Coast, and is expected to reach hurricane strength by the time it makes landfall near the Florida Panhandle. The storm's probable path will take it near to U.S. offshore oil and gas infrastructure, with near-term effects in the form of evacuations and well shut-ins.
In its Wednesday afternoon update, NOAA's National Hurricane Center said that Isaias' intensity was about 55 knots, expected to rise to 95 knots before landfall on Friday. Strong upper-level wind shear is expected to limit its strength. A hurricane watch has been issued between Bay St. Louis, Mississippi and Indian Pass in the Florida Panhandle; NHC warned of the possibility of damaging winds, dangerous storm surge and extended power outages for residents in this region. Storm surge levels could reach up to seven feet in some coastal areas of Mississippi and Alabama, and up to five feet in the Florida Panhandle.
The affected warning area covers a large segment of the U.S. shipbuilding industrial base: Ingalls Shipbuilding and Bollinger in Pascagoula, Birdon and Metal Shark in Bayou La Batre, Austal USA and Alabama Shipyard in Mobile, and Eastern Shipbuilding in Panama City and Port St. Joe, among others.
The storm is expected to continue to bring heavy rainfall along the Gulf Coast and inland areas until Saturday, potentially leading to isolated areas of flash flooding.
The storm's path is expected to run near the eastern edge of the Gulf oil patch, and some offshore infrastructure is within the NHC's warning cone for probable storm path. Risk of elevated winds and waves is prompting a small number of rig operators along the easternmost edge to curtail work and evacuate personnel. The newly-unified Marine Minerals Administration - formerly the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement - said in a statement that as of Wednesday, eight production platforms and two non-DP rigs have been evacuated. One DP rig has temporarily moved off-location to get further away from the storm's path.
As a precautionary measure, offshore wells totaling about 25 percent of all Gulf oil production and 16 percent of the region's gas production have been shut in. Industry operators will bring these wells back online after a post-storm inspection, usually with a fast turnaround time.
The shut-ins will temporarily remove about 0.5 million barrels per day of production from the global market, adding slightly to the crude oil market disruption caused by ongoing conflict in the Mideast. Because of dueling blockades in the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea, deliveries of newly-pumped oil are several million barrels below global demand, leading to a protracted drawdown on commercial and strategic reserves. The net draw rate on global oil stocks averaged about two million barrels per day in the third quarter, according to recent estimates from the Energy Information Administration.

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 08:23:25 +0000

Kawasaki Heavy Industries Unveils Climb-Capable Shipyard Robot
Kawasaki's Sakaide Plant (Tayorinai eye / CC BY 2.0)
By The Maritime Executive 2026-10-07

Japanese conglomerate Kawasaki Heavy Industries is among the country's largest shipbuilders, and it also happens to have rare access to its own internal robotics division. It is putting a long legacy of robotics expertise to the test with a new emphasis on "physical AI" in every domain, including out in the yard. On Tuesday, it released an initial look at an AI-enabled, magnet-footed drone robot that can climb bulkheads and navigate small spaces.
The prototype model is small, just two feet long, but the objective is to field a fully-developed version that can weld or perform weld inspections on vertical surfaces, without need for high-reach equipment or human workers. A robot that could work aloft on contoured surfaces would have substantial advantages in a drydock, removing the need for access equipment and staging for human workers.
Japanese shipyards have a strong business need to increase their efficiency: The labor supply in Japan is restricted by an aging, steadily declining population. Guest-worker programs have helped to plug the gap, but the national government is instituting ever-tighter restrictions on work visas. In this environment, a front-line labor position replaced with technology is a job filled rather than a job lost. South Korean yards face similar constraints and have taken a leading role in developing robotic welding robots for block construction.
More broadly, Kawasaki wants to accelerate its efforts with the introduction of AI in day-to-day operations. That includes robotics and "physical AI," a fusion of hardware and AI that creates systems that interact with the physical environment. It plans to invest $3.5 billion on the upgrade effort across all its manufacturing divisions over the next four years, including early testing at the Sakaide shipyard in Kagawa Prefecture.
"Physical AI . . . reaches out from the screen into the real, physical world. Think of self-driving cars, or robots — physical AI can recognize what's happening around it, make decisions, and move things in the real world. As it spreads, we can expect the machines around us to move more flexibly, making our daily lives more convenient," said Jun Yamaguchi, lead co-creation manager at Kawasaki's new physical AI R&D lab in San Jose, California.
By 2030, Kawasaki Heavy Industries wants to have an AI-enabled humanoid robot in general service, bringing the advantages of robotics to a broad range of human tasks.
Top image: Kawasaki's Sakaide Plant (Tayorinai eye / CC BY 2.0)

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 08:17:00 +0000

Russian Fuel Shipments Add to Spat Between Ukraine and S. Korea
The Russian-flagged tanker Astoria, one of the EU-sanctioned product tankers named in the report (VesselFinder / Wolfgang Berthel)
By The Maritime Executive 2026-10-07

A series of reported diesel shipments from Ulsan to Vladivostok have added fuel to a growing diplomatic dispute between South Korea and the Ukrainian government.
According to a recent analysis by The Guardian, Korean exporters shipped about 1.3 million barrels of diesel and other fuels to Russia in July and August. Three of the ships involved were sanctioned by the EU, and two of these vessels appear to have called directly in Ulsan to take on cargo before delivering it to Russia - without apparent difficulty with the local authorities over their sanctions status, according to the report.
The Guardian found that on some of these voyages, the tanker crews initially declared a destination in Japan or Singapore before diverting to Vladivostok to deliver their fuel.
The report's findings were echoed by Ukrainian presidential adviser Vladyslav Vlasiuk this week, drawing strong pushback from Seoul. "That a Ukrainian presidential official cited a Guardian article to publicly portray Korea as helping ease Russia's fuel crisis and loss of refining capabilities . . . is different from the truth and inappropriate," a spokesperson for the Blue House said Wednesday.
But by Thursday, South Korea's foreign ministry reversed course and said that it would review whether any Korean diesel was exported to Russia. Some energy commodities, including diesel and jet fuel, are not currently covered by South Korean export controls on sales to Russian commercial buyers, the ministry noted - but it pledged to take legal steps if irregularities are discovered.
Disputed prisoner transfers
Relations between Kyiv and Seoul were already strained before the tanker dust-up. North Korea supplies manpower and arms for the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, and Ukrainian soldiers occasionally capture a small number of North Korean nationals on the battlefield. In a recent prisoner transfer, Ukraine sent two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea; this sensitive deal was agreed in advance, but the two sides differ on whether it was supposed to be kept secret. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky disclosed the transfer in public during a meeting of the UN General Assembly on September 24, using it to illustrate North Korea's arms and personnel trade with Russia. "Kim Jong Un uses them like currency and gets [military technology] in return," Zelensky said in his address.
Zelensky's administration initially denied that there had been any agreement about keeping the politically-sensitive prisoner transfer under wraps. But Seong Ghi-hong, South Korea's senior presidential secretary for public relations, told media on September 27 that Zelensky had crossed an important line with the disclosure and the denial. "The presidential office expresses strong regret over Ukraine’s unilateral disclosure and its subsequent false announcement that there had not been a non-disclosure agreement," Ghi-hong said in a statement.
South Korea has been a significant supporter of Ukraine throughout the war, providing Kyiv with loan assistance and joining in economic sanctions on Russia.

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 08:12:08 +0000

WINDFALL PROFIT TAX
Shell’s Refining Margin Jumps 75% as Fuel Supplies Dry Up
By Tsvetana Paraskova - Oct 07, 2026
Shell’s refining margin for the third quarter has nearly doubled sequentially to hit a record high, which is set to combine with strong trading results and high oil and gas realizations to keep yielding windfall profits for the supermajor.
Shell expects its indicative refining margin for the third quarter to have jumped to $42 per barrel, up from $24 per barrel for the second quarter, the UK-based major said on Wednesday in its third quarter 2026 update note ahead of the full results release on October 29.
Global refining margins have soared in the summer as limited flows of fuels from the Middle East and the Russian ban on diesel exports compounded the global fuel crunch. Refineries in the U.S., Europe, and Asia have been struggling – and failing – to offset what has been an estimated 7-8 million barrels per day (bpd) of refined petroleum products taken off the market.
For Shell, the refinery utilization rate dropped from 102% in the second quarter to an estimated 93% - 97% in the third quarter, as low water levels on the Rhine River impacted the utilization rate at the Rheinland refinery in Germany, the supermajor indicated in its update note.
Trading in the gas and fuel divisions is expected to be in line with the second quarter of the year, when Shell booked significantly higher trading profits on the back of soaring energy commodity prices.
While it expects lower oil production for the third quarter, Shell lifted its natural gas output guidance to include the acquisition of Canadian producer ARC Resources, which was completed in early September.
Gas production is now seen at 740,000 – 780,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) for the third quarter, up from 631,000 boe/d for the second quarter.
Another energy major, Norway’s Equinor, also guided on Wednesday for higher-than-previously expected earnings in its marketing, midstream, and processing division. Equinor expects “unusually strong European refining margins” and optimization in third-party LNG trading to boost profits for the division above the $400-million guidance.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 14:36:00 +0000


Chronic respiratory disease burden rises in the WHO Western Pacific Region despite falling age-standardized mortality

A GBD 2023 analysis in Med Research highlights aging, COPD, tobacco smoking and air pollution as central priorities

International Society for Health Data Science
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image:
Time trends are shown in separate panels for (A) age‐standardized incidence rate (ASIR), (B) age‐standardized prevalence rate (ASPR), (C) age‐standardized mortality rate (ASMR), and (D) age‐standardized DALY rate (ASDR). Solid lines represent point estimates, and shaded regions indicate 95% uncertainty intervals. EAPC values with 95% confidence intervals are shown within each panel. All rates are expressed per 100,000 population.
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Credit: Zhang Yue | Yi‐Cheng Fu | Wen Zuo | Li‐Na Wang| Xing‐Xing Suo | Peng Sun | Jin‐Hui Bian| Ming‐Yan Wang
A new analysis in Med Research uses the Global Burden of Disease 2023 study to assess chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs) across 37 countries and territories in the WHO Western Pacific Region from 1990 to 2023. The study examined incidence, prevalence, deaths, disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), age-standardized rates, disease subtypes and selected modifiable risk factors.
By 2023, CRDs accounted for 22.0 million incident cases, 155.9 million prevalent cases, 1.4 million deaths and 29.9 million DALYs in the region. Compared with 1990, absolute numbers increased across all major indicators, largely reflecting population growth and aging. At the same time, age-standardized mortality and DALY rates declined substantially, with estimated annual percentage changes of -2.67% and -2.31%, respectively.
The burden was concentrated among older adults and remained higher in males. COPD dominated the disease composition, accounting for 75.3% of CRD-related DALYs in 2023. Among the selected risk factors, tobacco smoking and air pollution were the leading modifiable contributors, followed by occupational exposure.
Illustrative comparisons of China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines and Australia showed marked heterogeneity within the region. The findings suggest that respiratory-health strategies in the Western Pacific Region should combine sustained tobacco control, cleaner air, stronger occupational protection, earlier detection and long-term management of chronic respiratory conditions.
Because the analysis relies on GBD modelled estimates, country-level differences in diagnostic access, data completeness and cause-of-death coding should be considered when interpreting cross-country comparisons.
Journal
Med Research
DOI
10.1002/mdr2.70085
Reshaping banking and financial services with disruptive technologies

New book explores how disruptive technologies are transforming banking and financial services

Bentham Science Publishers

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Bentham Books announces the release of Reshaping Banking and Financial Services with Disruptive Technologies, an insightful edited volume examining how emerging technologies are transforming financial institutions, customer experiences, risk management and the broader financial ecosystem.

About the Book
Rapid advances in artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, the Internet of Things and data analytics are reshaping the way financial institutions operate and deliver services. Alongside opportunities for greater efficiency, transparency and innovation, these technologies are creating new challenges related to cybersecurity, regulation, ethics and digital trust.
Reshaping Banking and Financial Services with Disruptive Technologies explores the opportunities and challenges associated with the digital transformation of modern finance. The book covers emerging issues including fintech regulation, ethical decision-making, financial fraud detection, cybersecurity, investor confidence, green banking, portfolio management, digital payments, hyper-personalized banking, AI and machine learning, and cyber-physical financial systems.
By bringing together conceptual analysis, contemporary research and practical perspectives, the volume provides a comprehensive understanding of the technological and strategic forces shaping the future of banking and financial services.

Key Highlights
• Impact of AI, blockchain, cloud computing, IoT and data analytics on financial services
• Fintech regulation, cybersecurity, digital trust and ethical decision-making
• Financial fraud detection, investor confidence and risk management
• Green banking, digital payments and hyper-personalized financial services
• Emerging technologies and cyber-physical systems shaping the future of finance

Readership: Researchers, financial-sector practitioners, policymakers and postgraduate students interested in banking, fintech, financial technology and digital transformation.

About the Editors
Monica Gupta, Priya Jindal, and Piyush Gupta bring together contemporary research and multidisciplinary perspectives on financial innovation, digital transformation, emerging technologies and the evolving banking and financial services landscape.
Book Link: https://bit.ly/4rT66Us
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2174/97988988175341260101
DOI
10.2174/97988988175341260101

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 14:29:44 +0000

Material cycling across Earth’s spheres and triggers of Cambrian explosion: A tectonic perspective

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Cartoon for contributions of tectonics to Earth surficial system during Cambrian explosion
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Credit: Jinlong Yao/ Northwest University, Yigui Han/ Northwest University, Donghai Zhang/ Northwest University, Qian Liu/ Northwest University, Long Chen/ Northwest University, Pengyuan Cui/ Northwest University, Guochun Zhao/ Northwest University & The University of Hong Kong

A comprehensive model of the Cambrian explosion featuring "multi-factors coupling and multi-sphere driving". Supercontinent breakup and mantle plume activity served as the initial trigger of environmental change in the Neoproterozoic, the orogenic belts and subduction zones under the modern plate tectonic regime during Gondwanan assembly served as the long-term sustained driving force, and the extreme geomagnetic field served as an important environmental stressor. The coupling of these three factors jointly provided the genetic and environmental triggers, material basis, and ecological space required for the Cambrian explosion, and together they drove the milestone evolution of Earth's habitability.
The unique characteristics of Earth include life, an oxidized atmosphere, plate tectonics, continental crust, and the hypsometry between ocean and continent. These characteristics are also fundamental elements of Earth's habitability. The evolution of Earth's habitability is largely attributed to its stable but continuously evolving oceans, continents, magnetic field, atmosphere, and surface temperature, as well as the exchange of elements and energy among Earth's different spheres. On geological timescales, tectonic movement and the supercontinent cycle have been the main drivers of continental formation and the exchange of elements and energy between oceans and continents, and between the surface spheres and the solid Earth, which has driven the evolution of Earth's surface environment. Multi-sphere driving mechanisms have triggered extreme events in the evolution of life and the environment, and ultimately shaped a habitable planet with an oxidizing ocean and atmosphere and biodiversity. Related research has become a focus of international Earth science research. These advances also have broad implications for understanding natural hazards, resource distribution, environmental change, climate evolution, and the development of planetary habitability. However, how Earth evolved from an early uninhabitable planet into a habitable planet with a multi-sphere system and flourishing life still involves major scientific debates.
To address these long-standing uncertainties, this paper systematically summarizes the patterns and characteristics of Earth's multi-sphere evolution, explores tectonically driven cross-sphere material cycling, and discusses the driving factors of the Cambrian explosion from the perspective of solid Earth science. The authors believe that the evolution of Earth's tectonic regime is a key driving force for changes in the mode and efficiency of cross-sphere material cycling. Although certain characteristics of modern plate tectonics may have appeared locally in the Archean or Paleoproterozoic, Dr. Yao argues that a global-scale modern plate tectonic regime was not finally established until the assembly of Gondwana during the Neoproterozoic–Early Paleozoic. Relevant indicators include whole-plate deep subduction and global tectonic reorganization, along with extensive metamorphic records and bimodal metamorphic T/P ratio distribution identical to that of the modern Earth.
This paper constructs a co-evolutionary mechanism of "supercontinent cycle–surface environment–life evolution," linking the breakup of Rodinia → Snowball Earth → the Neoproterozoic Oxygenation Event (NOE) → Gondwana orogens and carbon cycling → the Cambrian explosion into a complete chain of reactions. The breakup of Rodinia triggered large igneous province (LIP) eruptions and CO₂ degassing, followed by basalt weathering that consumed CO₂ and triggered Snowball Earth. The extreme greenhouse climate after the end of Snowball Earth and the oxidation event laid the ecological foundation for the Ediacaran biota radiation and the Cambrian explosion. The assembly of Gondwana formed a 9,000-km-long super-orogenic belt located at middle to low latitudes, triggering intense weathering and denudation, delivering large amounts of nutrient elements (such as phosphorus) to the ocean, enhancing marine productivity, and driving and sustaining the NOE. In addition, "orogen-driven carbon cycling" played a key role in the long-term stability of the climate. The large-scale subduction–accretionary orogens during Gondwanan assembly had dual functions as both carbon source and carbon sink. Subduction-zone metamorphic decarbonation and arc volcanism continuously degassed CO₂, preventing the Earth from falling into a permanent "icehouse" due to excessive weathering. Meanwhile, intense silicate weathering continuously consumed CO₂, forming a negative feedback cooling effect. Together, these maintained the surface temperature above the threshold suitable for life. This surface environment of "continuous oxygenation, sufficient nutrients, and relatively stable climate" provided the necessity of large-scale metazoan radiation for energy supply, biomineralization, and ecological stability. Finally, extreme geomagnetic events should also be incorporated into the triggering mechanisms of the Cambrian explosion. At the Ediacaran–Cambrian boundary, the strength of Earth's magnetic field dropped to an extremely low level, and the polarity reversal frequency reached as high as 20–25 times per million years, indicating that the geodynamo mechanism once collapsed. The initial formation of Earth's inner core may have been related to the cooling of Earth's interior caused by whole-plate deep subduction under the modern plate tectonic regime, while the enhanced penetration of high-energy particles and UV-B radiation caused by the weakened magnetic field may have exerted extinction pressure on the Ediacaran biota, while also providing selective advantages for animals with vertical burrowing, biomineralized shells, or free-swimming capabilities, thereby "accelerating" the Cambrian explosion.
Key findings include:
(1) Tectonics and supercontinent cycles serve as primary driving forces for the evolution of Earth’s habitability.
(2) Plate tectonics and mantle plume drive the exchange of elements and energy between different spheres.
(3) Coupled tectonic-environmental changes and geomagnetic field triggered the Cambrian explosion.
This paper “Material cycling across Earth’s spheres and triggers of Cambrian explosion: a tectonic perspective” was published in Continent and Life Evolution.
Yao J, Han Y, Zhang D, Liu Q, Chen L, et al. Material cycling across Earth’s spheres and triggers of Cambrian explosion: a tectonic perspective. Cont. Life Evol. 2026(2):0011, https://doi.org/10.55092/cle20260011.
Journal
Continent & Life Evolution
DOI
10.55092/cle20260011
Method of Research
Observational study
Armed conflict accelerates global cropland loss: Study

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
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Armed conflict accelerates cropland loss, and the effects can persist for years after conflict begins and vary substantially with conflict severity and social conditions, according to a new study published in Nature Food on September 24.
The study, led by Prof. LI Guangdong, Dr. QI Wei, and Prof. WANG Zhenbo from the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, provides global evidence of the long-term effects of armed conflict on cropland and agricultural production.
Armed conflict is widely recognized as a major driver of food insecurity, but its long-term effects on cropland have been poorly understood at the global scale.
In this study, the researchers combined annual 30-m-resolution global cropland maps from 2000 to 2020 with more than 460,000 georeferenced armed conflict events across 155 countries.
They examined cropland changes in buffer regions extending five kilometers from conflict locations. They then used difference-in-differences and propensity score matching statistical methods to distinguish conflict-related changes from broader environmental and socioeconomic trends.
The study found that areas exposed to armed conflict covered only about 3% of the global land area yet accounted for more than 6% of the world’s cropland in 2020, indicating disproportionate exposure of agricultural land to conflict. While global cropland expanded overall between 2000 and 2020, cropland within conflict-affected areas declined slightly over the same period.
Further analysis showed that armed conflict was associated with an average 3.01% reduction in cropland area, equivalent to an annual loss of 14.46 hectares per conflict-exposed buffer region. These effects persisted for years after the onset of conflict.
A complementary spatial comparison showed that conflict-affected areas experienced 23.7% greater cropland loss than otherwise comparable non-conflict areas. The largest losses were concentrated in Western Africa, Eastern Africa, and Southeast Asia.
According to the researchers, the agricultural consequences of armed conflict vary substantially across regions and depend on conflict severity and social context.
The effects varied substantially with conflict intensity and duration. Areas experiencing very frequent conflict showed particularly severe cropland losses, with the highest-frequency group losing about one-third of its cropland. Protracted and high-severity conflicts were associated with much greater losses than intermittent or low-severity conflicts. By contrast, areas transitioning to post-conflict peace showed no clear evidence of continued cropland decline.
The researchers also found that conflict-related cropland losses varied with broader social and institutional conditions. Losses tended to be greater in countries with higher levels of refugee displacement, with a similar pattern observed for food insecurity. By contrast, higher scores for government effectiveness, regulatory quality, and the rule of law corresponded to smaller losses. According to the researchers, these findings suggest that institutional capacity may help protect agricultural systems against the effects of conflict.
To assess the implications for food production, the research team converted the estimated cropland losses into potential crop production and dietary energy. After accounting for cropland gains and losses related to urban expansion, conflict-affected areas lost approximately 249,667 km2 of cropland between 2000 and 2020.
The dietary energy associated with the crops that could have been produced on this land was estimated to be sufficient to meet the minimum annual requirements of approximately 255.54 million people.
The researchers emphasized that this figure represents forgone production potential, rather than actual food consumption or realized food insecurity, which also depend on trade, prices, distribution, and access.
Overall, the findings reveal the persistent and uneven effects of armed conflict on cropland and show how these effects vary with conflict characteristics and institutional conditions.
According to the researchers, the findings highlight the importance of monitoring conflict alongside cropland change and integrating short-term humanitarian responses with longer-term efforts to restore agricultural infrastructure, support farmers, and strengthen local institutions in conflict-affected regions.
Journal
Nature Food
DOI
10.1038/s43016-026-01436-8
Article Title
Armed conflict accelerates cropland loss and food insecurity worldwide

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 14:24:46 +0000

Crucial questions about AI ethics explored in new book series from CRC Press and Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence

First book in the series examines responsible use of AI in education

Taylor & Francis Group
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AI is being integrated into our daily lives and reshaping our world at speed, often far outpacing consideration of the ethical issues it raises. A new book series from CRC Press and the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) has been developed to provide a nuanced understanding of the ethical concerns and implications of current and emerging AI technology.
The AAAI/CRC Press Advances in AI Ethics series will bring together leading researchers and practitioners from around the world to explore the ethical concerns surrounding AI and offer actionable guidance on using it safely and responsibly.
“The ethical questions about whether and how AI should be used in different situations are arguably more important than the technological challenges to be overcome,” said Lucy McClune, Senior Commissioning Editor, Computer Science at CRC Press. “This series aims to address those crucial questions, providing an essential resource for researchers, students, policymakers, technologists, and anyone committed to ensuring AI serves a fair, just, and equitable society.”
The series is edited by Francesca Rossi (IBM Fellow and AI Ethics Global Leader, USA) and Virginia Dignum (Umeå University, Sweden), with the support of the AAAI. As the premier scientific society in AI, AAAI's deep engagement with the field ensures the series will deliver cutting-edge insights of current challenges and a clear roadmap for navigating the future of AI ethics.
Francesca Rossi highlights that: “AI ethics does not lack books, but the field can look fragmented, with many different assumptions about what the issues are and what it means to address them. This series reflects a view that Virginia and I share: that these questions are empirical and evidence-based, inseparable from governance, and best approached constructively. It is also a view that fits AAAI's commitment to treating AI questions scientifically. A series makes it possible to carry that perspective consistently across volumes.”
The first book in the series, Ethical AI and Education: Reality, Opportunities, Governance, and Consequences of AI in the Classroom, will be published later this month. Written by Clara Hawking and Darren Coxon, it examines the realities of AI in educational settings, covering key ethical considerations for educators today, from governance frameworks and accountability structures to practical classroom applications. It addresses critical issues including bias, data privacy, academic integrity, and teacher agency, while offering concrete strategies for building human-centered classrooms in an increasingly AI world.
CRC Press and AAAI have also announced that the series’ second book, The End of Reality: Humans in the Age of ChatGPT, Deepfakes, and Artificial Intelligence by Mateusz Łabuz, will be published in December 2026.

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 14:22:08 +0000

Climate disinformation can push carbon taxes off a cliff model shows

KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.
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image:
Climate and policy outcomes under disinformation scenarios, comparing peak temperature, final atmospheric CO₂, early carbon taxation, and average abatement under a politically constrained planner and majority voting across benchmark, early, late, persistent, and intervention scenarios.
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Credit: Katsiaryna Bahamazava and Stanley Reznik

Carbon pricing is widely regarded as a cornerstone of climate policy, yet real-world carbon prices remain far below the levels recommended by benchmark climate models. One reason may lie not in the physics or economics of climate change, but in what people believe about it. Most climate-economy models assume that citizens hold correct beliefs about climate damages. In practice, climate disinformation can distort those beliefs and weaken support for mitigation.
In a study published in the KeAi journal Risk Sciences, researchers from University College Dublin and the ILaVita Foundation developed a dynamic climate-economy model in which the population is divided into two groups: "informed" agents, who understand the true extent of climate damage, and "misinformed" agents, who systematically understate it. The share of informed agents shifts over time through learning, disinformation shocks, and feedback from visible climate harm.
The team compared two ways of setting a carbon tax. In the first, a politically constrained planner understands the true damages but faces implementation costs whenever policy exceeds what public opinion will support. In the second, policy is decided by majority voting and adjusts gradually, reflecting how slowly real tax systems change.
"Contrary to the common view that insulated planners are always better suited for long-horizon climate policy, majority voting can initially generate stronger carbon taxation than a politically constrained planner," explains corresponding author Katsiaryna Bahamazava of University College Dublin. “As long as informed voters remain the majority, the median voter backs the ambitious policy, producing stronger early mitigation and lower peak warming.”
That "democratic advantage", however, proved fragile. Once disinformation erodes the informed majority, the political target for carbon taxation shifts sharply, producing what the authors describe as a cliff-edge dynamic in which implemented policy declines rapidly. The planner, by contrast, weakens more smoothly as public support fades.
Notably, timing matters too. Disinformation arriving late or persisting over time was especially damaging because it undermines support after the transition to stronger climate policy has begun, generating "hothouse" warming trajectories under both regimes. Encouragingly, a sufficiently strong counter-disinformation intervention almost completely offset an early disinformation shock, returning outcomes close to the no-disinformation benchmark.
"Protecting the information environment is not merely a matter of public discourse or democratic quality; it is a macroeconomic component of effective climate policy," says co-author Stanley Reznikof the ILaVita Foundation. "Information policy is not just complementary to carbon pricing; it helps sustain the political conditions under which carbon pricing remains feasible."
###
Contact the author: Katsiaryna Bahamazava, School of Computer Science, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Email: Katsiaryna.Bahamazava@ul.ie
The publisher KeAi was established by Elsevier and China Science Publishing & Media Ltd to unfold quality research globally. In 2013, our focus shifted to open access publishing. We now proudly publish more than 300 world-class, open access, English language journals, spanning all scientific disciplines. Many of these are titles we publish in partnership with prestigious societies and academic institutions, such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).
Journal
Risk Sciences
DOI
10.1016/j.risk.2026.100063
Method of Research
Computational simulation/modeling
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
Climate disinformation, belief distortions, and the timing of carbon taxes: A policy analysis.
COI Statement
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships tha

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 14:20:59 +0000

Only 9% of major companies use biodiversity indicators, study finds

Lund University
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Biodiversity indicators can help companies make more sustainable decisions. But only nine per cent of the world’s largest companies in sectors with a major impact on biodiversity use such indicators, according to a new study from Lund University. The researchers also show that different indicators can lead to different conclusions and present seven recommendations for how they should be used.
Researchers from Lund University reviewed sustainability reports from 89 of the world’s largest companies operating in the sectors with the greatest impact on biodiversity: food, beverages, tobacco, apparel, chemicals, construction, energy and mining. Eight of the companies reported using biodiversity indicators to inform their decisions. However, only two of the eight reported using more than one indicator, something the researchers can now show is of great importance.
“Different indicators measure different aspects of nature. Our results show that no single biodiversity indicator provides a complete picture. Companies that rely on only one indicator may therefore make decisions that protect one biodiversity value while damaging another,” says William Sidemo Holm, one of the researchers behind the study.
In the new study, the researchers conducted analyses comparing four different indicators. The results show that the indicators often differ in their assessments of how important a geographical area is for biodiversity. A company that uses only one indicator risks concluding that an area is of little importance for biodiversity, even though it may be highly valuable from perspectives that the particular indicator does not capture.
“If companies want to understand and report their impact on biodiversity accurately, they need to use several indicators rather than a single measure. Indicators can play a crucial role in informing decisions that affect biodiversity, but there is still considerable room for improvement in how they are used today,” says William Sidemo Holm.

The researchers’ recommendations for future development and application of biodiversity indicators:
Use multiple biodiversity indicators to capture different aspects of biodiversity and avoid overlooking important values.
Use more than one indicator per biodiversity aspect when possible, reducing bias from specific datasets or methods.
Use composite indicators cautiously, mainly as an initial screening tool; rely on individual indicators for important decisions.
Assess biodiversity at the ecoregion level, not only globally, to recognise important biodiversity in less species-rich ecosystems.
Develop new indicators for underrepresented biodiversity dimensions, such as genetic diversity and ecological connectivity.
Improve taxonomic coverage, especially for plants, fungi and invertebrates, which are currently underrepresented.
Combine biodiversity indicators with assessments of future human pressures, such as projected land-use change, to better inform business decisions.
Journal
Journal of Cleaner Production
DOI
10.1016/j.jclepro.2026.149032
Article Title
Biodiversity at risk when businesses rely on narrow indicators