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Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday, 9/6/25 [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-09-06

Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame, jck, JeremyBloom, FarWestGirl and doomandgloom. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man (RIP), wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw.

OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time. Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments. I prefer to focus on recent advances of science, rather than the wholesale destruction of science currently underway. x In a new paper we show how misinformation derails support for public action on climate change by casting doubt on the scientific consensus (which undermines public opinion). Disinformers attack expert consensus because they know it works. Free: bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... — Sander van der Linden (@profsanderlinden.bsky.social) 2025-09-05T15:34:28.382Z

Americans Are Having Less Sex Than Ever

Americans are having a record low amount of sex -- even less than they did during the Covid-19 pandemic -- according to a new study led by researchers at the Institute for Family Studies. WSJ: This continues the downward shift in sexual activity that has been worrying sociologists and psychologists for decades. For the report, called "The Sex Recession," researchers at the IFS analyzed the data on sex and intimacy in the latest General Social Survey produced by NORC at the University of Chicago, which was collected in 2024 and released in May. They found that just 37% of people age 18-64 reported having sex at least once a week, down from 55% in 1990. The decline is even more striking for young adults: Almost a quarter of people age 18-29, or 24%, said they had not had sex in the past year; this is twice as many as in 2010. Much has been written in recent years about the trend of young people having less sex, attributed to everything from stunted social skills to a rise in internet pornography. Yet the IFS study shows that the same trend holds true for people up to the age of 64, of all sexual orientations, both married and single. (After age 64, there was no significant change in the amount of sex people have, largely because this group reports having sex less frequently to begin with, the researchers said.)

Sweeteners Can Harm Cognitive Health Equivalent To 1.6 Years of Aging, Study Finds

A long-term study of over 12,000 adults suggests that artificial sweeteners like aspartame, saccharin, and sugar alcohols may accelerate cognitive decline in middle age, equivalent to about 1.6 years of extra aging. The Guardian reports: Sweeteners' association with cognitive decline is of such concern that consumers should instead use either tagatose, a natural sweetener, or alternatives such as honey or maple syrup, the researchers said. They looked at the impact of seven sweeteners on the health of the study's participants -- 12,772 civil servants in Brazil, with an average age of 52 -- who were followed up for on average eight years. Participants completed questionnaires detailing their food and drink intake over the previous year, and later underwent tests of their cognitive skills such as verbal fluency and word recall. People who consumed the most sweeteners experienced declines in their thinking and memory skills 62% faster than those with the lowest intake, the researchers found. This was "the equivalent of about 1.6 years of aging," the researchers said. Consumption of combined and individual LNCs, particularly aspartame, saccharin, acesulfame K, erythritol, sorbitol and xylitol, was associated with cognitive loss. "Daily consumption of LNCs was associated with accelerated decline in memory, verbal fluency and global cognition," the authors say in their paper, published in the American medical journal Neurology. However, the trend was only observed in participants under the age of 60. That shows that middle-aged adults need to be encouraged to use fewer sweeteners, they added.

Air Pollution Can Drive Devastating Forms of Dementia, Research Suggests

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Fine-particulate air pollution can drive devastating forms of dementia by triggering the formation of toxic clumps of protein that destroy nerve cells as they spread through the brain, research suggests. Exposure to the airborne particles causes proteins in the brain to misfold into the clumps, which are hallmarks of Lewy body dementia, the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer's disease. The finding has "profound implications" for preventing the neurodegenerative disorder, which affects millions worldwide, with scientists calling for a concerted effort to improve air quality by cutting emissions from industrial activity and vehicle exhausts, improving wildfire management and reducing wood burning in homes. The researchers began by analyzing hospital records of the 56.5 million US Medicare patients. They looked at those who were admitted for the first time between 2000 and 2014 with the protein damage. Armed with the patients' zip codes, the scientists estimated their long-term exposure to PM2.5 pollution, airborne particles that are smaller than 2.5 thousandths of a millimeter. These can be inhaled deep into the lungs and are found in the bloodstream, brain and other organs. They found that long-term exposure to PM2.5 raised the risk of Lewy body dementia, but had less of an impact on rates of another neurodegenerative brain disease that is not driven by the toxic proteins. Lewy bodies are made from a protein called alpha-synuclein. The protein is crucial for healthy brain functioning, but can misfold in various ways to produce different kinds of harmful Lewy bodies. These can kill nerve cells and cause devastating disease by spreading through the brain. To see if air pollution could trigger Lewy bodies, the team exposed mice to PM2.5 pollution every other day for 10 months. Some were normal mice, but others were genetically modified to prevent them making alpha-synuclein. The results were striking: in normal mice, nerve cells died off, leading to brain shrinkage and cognitive decline. The genetically modified mice were largely unaffected. Further work in mice showed that PM2.5 pollution drove the formation of aggressive, resilient and toxic clumps of alpha-synuclein clumps that looked very similar to Lewy bodies in humans. Although the work is in mice, the findings are considered compelling evidence. The work has been published in the journal Science.

First Brain-Wide Map of Decision-Making Charted In Mice

In a landmark collaboration across 22 labs, neuroscientists have created the first brain-wide map of decision-making in mice, tracking over 620,000 neurons across nearly 280 brain regions. They found that decision-making is distributed much more broadly than previously thought, involving not just "cognitive" centers but also regions linked to movement. From a report: The task was deceptively simple task. Mice sat in front of a screen that intermittently displayed a black-and-white striped circle for a brief amount of time on either the left or right side. A mouse could earn a sip of sugar water if they quickly moved the circle toward the center of the screen by operating a tiny steering wheel in the same direction, often doing so within one second. On some trials, the circle was faint, requiring the animal to rely on past experience to make a guess, which allowed researchers to study how expectations influence future decisions. While the mice performed the task, researchers recorded brain activity using high-density electrodes that allowed them to monitor hundreds of neurons across many regions simultaneously. The work was divided across the participating labs, so that each lab mapped a particular region of the mouse brain. The pooled dataset covers 620,000 neurons recorded from 139 mice in 12 labs, encompassing nearly the entire brain. The resulting map revealed that decision-making activity is distributed across the brain, including in areas traditionally associated with movement rather than cognition. The findings have been published in two papers in the journal Nature.

Bathroom Doomscrolling May Increase Your Risk of Hemorrhoids

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Popular Science: According to a new medical survey, scrolling on your smartphone while using the toilet may dramatically increase your risk of hemorrhoids. The evidence is laid out in a study published on September 3 in the journal PLOS One. [...] Over the past 20 years, one single device has unequivocally lengthened the amount of time most people spend sitting. "We're still uncovering the many ways smartphones and our modern way of life impact our health," Harvard Medical School gastroenterologist and study co-author Trisha Pasricha said in a statement. "It's possible that how and where we use them -- such as while in the bathroom -- can have unintended consequences." To test this theory, Pasricha and colleagues oversaw a study of 125 adults who recently received a colonoscopy screening. The patients were surveyed on both their daily lifestyles and toilet traditions, while endoscopists subsequently evaluated them for hemorrhoids. Of those volunteers, 66 percent reported passing time in the bathroom while smartphone scrolling. After factoring in potential hemorrhoid influences like age, exercise habits, and fiber intake, the researchers determined that those who relied on this screentime had a 46 percent higher risk of hemorrhoid problems than non-users. "It's incredibly easy to lose track of time when we're scrolling on our smartphones -- popular apps are designed entirely for that purpose," added Pasricha. The survey's results made this abundantly clear: 37 percent of smartphone users spent over five minutes at a time on the toilet, while barely seven percent of non-users reported the same. In general, people opted for reading the news and checking their social media while in the bathroom. [...] Pasricha cautioned against drawing any definitive conclusions just yet, noting the preliminary study's comparatively small sample size. The team intends to investigate the issue further, possibly by tracking patients over longer periods of time, while also experimenting with ways to limit smartphone use. "We need to study this further, but it's a safe suggestion to leave the smartphone outside the bathroom when you need to have a bowel movement," said Pasricha. "If it's taking longer, ask yourself why. Was it because having a bowel movement was really so difficult, or was it because my focus was elsewhere?"

Tiny gold quantum needles with astonishing powers discovered

Scientists at the University of Tokyo have unveiled “gold quantum needles,” a newly discovered nanocluster structure formed under unusual synthesis conditions. Unlike typical spherical clusters, these elongated, pencil-shaped formations display unique quantum behaviors and respond to near-infrared light, making them promising tools for biomedical imaging and energy applications.

Scientists just found a hidden quantum geometry that warps electrons

How can data be processed at lightning speed, or electricity conducted without loss? To achieve this, scientists and industry alike are turning to quantum materials, governed by the laws of the infinitesimal. Designing such materials requires a detailed understanding of atomic phenomena, much of which remains unexplored. A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), in collaboration with the University of Salerno and the CNR-SPIN Institute (Italy), has taken a major step forward by uncovering a hidden geometry -- until now purely theoretical -- that distorts the trajectories of electrons in much the same way gravity bends the path of light. This work, published in Science, opens new avenues for quantum electronics. Future technologies depend on high-performance materials with unprecedented properties, rooted in quantum physics. At the heart of this revolution lies the study of matter at the microscopic scale -- the very essence of quantum physics. In the past century, exploring atoms, electrons and photons within materials gave rise to transistors and, ultimately, to modern computing.

x I'm more than a little excited about this interstellar visitor 🧪 The images keep getting better and the insights deeper PS this is just some of the science funded by the NSF that is threatened by devastating budget cuts--speak up and call Congress. www.sci.news/astronomy/in... — Mark Peifer (He, him) (@peiferlabunc.bsky.social) 2025-09-06T18:41:34.696Z

A monster molecular cloud has been discovered in our galaxy – “No one had any idea this existed”

An international team of astronomers has discovered a massive cloud of gas and dust located in a little-known region of our Milky Way galaxy. The Giant Molecular Cloud (GMC) is about 60 parsecs -- or 200 light years -- long. In a new study published in the Astrophysical Journal, researchers using the U.S. National Science Foundation Green Bank Telescope (NSF GBT) have peered into a molecular cloud known as M4.7-0.8, nicknamed the Midpoint cloud. Their observations have revealed a dynamic region bustling with activity, including potential sites of new star formation. "One of the big discoveries of the paper was the GMC itself. No one had any idea this cloud existed until we looked at this location in the sky and found the dense gas. Through measurements of the size, mass, and density, we confirmed this was a giant molecular cloud," shares Natalie Butterfield, an NSF National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF NRAO) scientist and lead author of this paper.

MIT scientists uncover shocking origin of the moon’s magnetic scars

Where did the moon's magnetism go? Scientists have puzzled over this question for decades, ever since orbiting spacecraft picked up signs of a high magnetic field in lunar surface rocks. The moon itself has no inherent magnetism today. Now, MIT scientists may have solved the mystery. They propose that a combination of an ancient, weak magnetic field and a large, plasma-generating impact may have temporarily created a strong magnetic field, concentrated on the far side of the moon. In a study appearing in the journal Science Advances, the researchers show through detailed simulations that an impact, such as from a large asteroid, could have generated a cloud of ionized particles that briefly enveloped the moon. This plasma would have streamed around the moon and concentrated at the opposite location from the initial impact. There, the plasma would have interacted with and momentarily amplified the moon's weak magnetic field. Any rocks in the region could have recorded signs of the heightened magnetism before the field quickly died away.

Earth’s inner core exists only because of carbon

A new study by researchers at the University of Oxford, University of Leeds, and University College London has identified a new constraint on the chemistry of Earth's core, by showing how it was able to crystallize millions of years ago. The study was published today (September 4) in Nature Communications. The researchers showed that the core would need to be made of 3.8% carbon for it to have begun crystallizing. This result indicates that carbon may be more abundant in Earth's core than previously thought, and that this element could have played a key role in how it froze, offering a rare glimpse into the processes occurring at the heart of our planet. Earth's inner core, the solid iron-rich mass at the center of our planet, is slowly growing as the surrounding molten outer core cools and freezes. But this process has been a source of debate amongst scientists for decades.

x New paper is officially out! Ratfish have a second jaw on their foreheads - CT + histology show they’re real teeth, built from the same tissues and signals as oral teeth. www.washington.edu/news/2025/09... — Dr. Karly E. Cohen (@karlycohen.bsky.social) 2025-09-04T19:01:17.313Z

Baby pterosaurs died in ancient storms—and their fossils reveal the truth

Two tiny pterosaurs, preserved for 150 million years, have revealed a surprising cause of death: violent storms. Researchers at the University of Leicester discovered both hatchlings, nicknamed Lucky and Lucky II, with broken wings—injuries consistent with being tossed through the air by powerful gusts. These storms not only claimed their lives but also created the rare conditions that preserved them so perfectly in the Solnhofen limestones.

Seagrass found to be a powerful carbon sponge with a surprising weakness

Seagrass has the potential to be one of the world's most effective sponges at soaking up and storing carbon, but we don't yet know how nutrient pollution affects its ability to sequester carbon. In a pair of studies, U-M researchers evaluated the impact of nitrogen and phosphorus on seagrass, short, turf-like grasses that live in shallow, coastal areas. Examining data gathered from a plot of seagrass enriched with nutrients over a period of nine years, the scientists found that nutrients can increase seagrass's ability to store carbon. However, in a second study, they also found that an overload of nitrogen could lead to increased phytoplankton growth, which can shade out and kill seagrass.

x African mollies (Poecilia formosa) are almost all female, and reproduce gynogenetically, which is clonal reproduction that requires sperm from another species to trigger embryogenesis (but does not contribute DNA) to offspring! www.cbc.ca/news/science... — Tristan A.F. Long (@thelonglab.bsky.social) 2025-09-04T23:30:57.478Z

A monster seaweed bloom is taking over the Atlantic

Researchers at Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute have released a landmark review tracing four decades of changes in pelagic sargassum - free-floating brown seaweed that plays a vital role in the Atlantic Ocean ecosystem. Once thought to be primarily confined to the nutrient-poor waters of the Sargasso Sea, sargassum is now recognized as a rapidly growing and widely distributed marine organism, whose expansion across the Atlantic is closely linked to both natural processes and human-induced nutrient enrichment. The review, published in the journal Harmful Algae, sheds new light on the origins and development of the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, a massive recurring bloom of sargassum that stretches across the Atlantic Ocean from the coast of West Africa to the Gulf of America.

x woah this is genuinely, utterly WILD Ant queens of one species produce males of another species, so she can then mate with them and produce hybrid workers! This is so gloriously weird I can't quite compute it 🤯🧪🐜 www.nature.com/articles/d41... — Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 (@joshlukedavis.com) 2025-09-03T22:09:33.178Z

Woolly mammoth teeth reveal the world’s oldest microbial DNA

Scientists have uncovered microbial DNA preserved in mammoth remains dating back more than one million years, revealing the oldest host-associated microbial DNA ever recovered. By sequencing nearly 500 specimens, the team identified ancient bacterial lineages—including some linked to modern elephant diseases—that coexisted with mammoths for hundreds of thousands of years. These discoveries shed light on the deep evolutionary history of microbes, their role in megafaunal health, and how they may have influenced adaptation and extinction.

Scientists reveal how breakfast timing may predict how long you live

As we age, what and how much we eat tends to change. However, how meal timing relates to our health remains less understood. Researchers at Mass General Brigham and their collaborators studied changes to meal timing in older adults and discovered people experience gradual shifts in when they eat meals as they age. They also found characteristics that may contribute to meal timing shifts and revealed specific trajectories linked to an earlier death. The results are published in Communications Medicine. "Our research suggests that changes in when older adults eat, especially the timing of breakfast, could serve as an easy-to-monitor marker of their overall health status. Patients and clinicians can possibly use shifts in mealtime routines as an early warning sign to look into underlying physical and mental health issues," said lead author Hassan Dashti, PhD, RD, a nutrition scientist and circadian biologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system. "Also, encouraging older adults in having consistent meal schedules could become part of broader strategies to promoting healthy aging and longevity." Dashti and his colleagues -- including senior author Altug Didikoglu, MSc, PhD, of the Izmir Institute of Technology in Turkey -- examined key aspects of meal timing that are significant for aging populations to determine whether certain patterns might signal, or even influence, health outcomes later in life. The research team analyzed data, including blood samples, from 2,945 community-dwelling adults in the UK aged 42-94 years old who were followed for more than 20 years. They found that as older adults age, they tend to eat breakfast and dinner at later times, while also narrowing the overall time window in which they eat each day.

Study finds cannabis improves sleep where other drugs fail

Insomnia patients taking cannabis-based medical products reported better quality sleep after up to 18 months of treatment, according to a study published August 27 in the open-access journal PLOS Mental Health by Arushika Aggarwal from Imperial College London, U.K., and colleagues. About one out of every three people has some trouble getting a good night's rest, and 10 percent of adults meet the criteria for an insomnia disorder. But current treatments can be difficult to obtain, and the drugs approved for insomnia run the risk of dependence. To understand how cannabis-based medical products might affect insomnia symptoms, the authors of this study analyzed a set of 124 insomnia patients taking medical cannabis products. They examined the patient's reports of their sleep quality, anxiety/depression, and quality of life changes between one and 18 months of treatment. The patients reported improved sleep quality that lasted over the 18 months of treatment. They also showed significant improvements in anxiety/depression as well as reporting less pain. About nine percent of the patients reported adverse effects such as fatigue, insomnia, or dry mouth, but none of the side effects were life-threatening. While randomized controlled trials will be needed to prove that the products are safe and effective, the authors suggest that cannabis-based medical products could improve sleep quality in insomnia patients.

The midlife crisis is over, but something worse took its place

A new survey-based study suggests that the "unhappiness hump" -- a widely documented rise in worry, stress, and depression with age that peaks in midlife and then declines -- may have disappeared, perhaps due to declining mental health among younger people. David Blanchflower of Dartmouth College, U.S., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on August 27, 2025. Since 2008, a U-shaped trend in well-being with age, in which well-being tends to decline from childhood until around age 50 before rebounding in old age, has been observed in developed and developing countries worldwide. Data have also revealed a corresponding "ill-being" or unhappiness hump. Recent data point to a worldwide decline in well-being among younger people, but most studies have not directly addressed potential implications for the unhappiness hump. To help clarify, Blanchflower and colleagues first analyzed data from U.S. and U.K. surveys that included questions about participants' mental health. U.S. data included responses from more than 10 million adults surveyed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between 1993 and 2024. U.K. data spanned 2009 through 2023 and were collected in the ongoing U.K. Household Longitudinal Study, which involves 40,000 households.

Your nose could detect Alzheimer’s years before memory loss

A fading sense of smell can be one of the earliest signs of Alzheimer's disease even before cognitive impairments manifest. Research by scientists at DZNE and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) sheds new light on this phenomenon, pointing to a significant role for the brain's immune response, which seems to fatally attack neuronal fibers crucial for the perception of odors. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, is based on observations in mice and humans, including analysis of brain tissue and so-called PET scanning. These findings may help to devise ways for early diagnosis and, consequently, early treatment. The researchers come to the conclusion that these olfactory dysfunctions arise because immune cells of the brain called "microglia" remove connections between two brain regions, namely the olfactory bulb and the locus coeruleus. The olfactory bulb, located in the forebrain, analyzes sensory information from the nose's scent receptors. The locus coeruleus, a region of the brainstem, influences this processing by means of long nerve fibers originating from neurons in the locus coeruleus and extending all the way to the olfactory bulb. "The locus coeruleus regulates a variety physiological mechanisms. These include, for example, cerebral blood flow, sleep-wake cycles, and sensory processing. The latter applies, in particular, also to the sense of smell," says Dr. Lars Paeger, a scientist at DZNE and LMU. "Our study suggests that in early Alzheimer's disease, changes occur in the nerve fibers linking the locus coeruleus to the olfactory bulb. These alterations signal to the microglia that affected fibers are defective or superfluous. Consequently, the microglia break them down."

Scientists Tap 'Secret' Fresh Water Under the Ocean, Raising Hopes For a Thirsty World

A first-of-its-kind global research expedition has extracted freshwater samples from beneath the Atlantic Ocean floor off Cape Cod, documenting a massive aquifer stretching from New Jersey to Maine. The three-month Expedition 501, funded at $25 million by the National Science Foundation and European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling, drilled up to 1,289 feet into the seabed at sites 20-30 miles offshore. Samples registered salinity as low as 1 part per thousand -- meeting U.S. freshwater standards -- with some readings even lower. Scientists collected nearly 50,000 liters for laboratory analysis to determine whether the water originates from ancient glacial melt or current terrestrial groundwater systems. The UN projects global freshwater demand will exceed supply by 40% within five years.

Satellites confirm 1990s sea-level predictions were shockingly accurate

Global sea-level change has now been measured by satellites for more than 30 years, and a comparison with climate projections from the mid-1990s shows that they were remarkably accurate, according to two Tulane University researchers whose findings were published in Earth's Future, an open-access journal published by the American Geophysical Union. "The ultimate test of climate projections is to compare them with what has played out since they were made, but this requires patience - it takes decades of observations," said lead author Torbjörn Törnqvist, Vokes Geology Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. "We were quite amazed how good those early projections were, especially when you think about how crude the models were back then, compared to what is available now," Törnqvist said. "For anyone who questions the role of humans in changing our climate, here is some of the best proof that we have understood for decades what is really happening, and that we can make credible projections."

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