In a groundbreaking study set to reshape our understanding of polar carbon dynamics, researchers have uncovered that the lithology of catchment areas along the Antarctic Peninsula plays a pivotal role in regulating the net carbon balance of these fragile ecosystems. This revelation not only challenges previous assumptions regarding carbon sequestration in polar regions but also highlights the complex interplay between geology and climate change in one of the planet’s most sensitive areas.

For decades, scientists have grappled with accurately quantifying carbon fluxes in polar environments due to the extreme conditions and limited accessibility. The Antarctic Peninsula, stretching northwards from the main Antarctic continent, represents a unique geophysical interface where ice, rock, and ocean converge. Prior research predominantly focused on biological and climatic factors controlling carbon balance but seldom accounted for the geochemical contributions borne from the underlying lithology. This new research sets a transformative precedent by rigorously dissecting how rock types influence carbon absorption and release processes, thereby painting a more nuanced picture of the peninsula’s carbon budget.

The study relied heavily on state-of-the-art field measurements coupled with advanced geochemical modeling to parse out the contributions of catchment lithology—essentially the rock makeup and mineral composition of drainage basins—to net carbon balance. Geological substrates act not only as passive backdrops but as active participants in biogeochemical cycles. Chemical weathering of silicate and carbonate minerals can sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide, while other rock forms may facilitate carbon release via mineral dissolution or hydrological transport mechanisms. The research team meticulously sampled various catchment zones along the peninsula, integrating data from frozen soils, sediment runoff, and meltwater streams to decode these lithological influences.

One of the most striking findings from the investigation was the spatial variability of carbon fluxes directly correlated with geological heterogeneity. Catchments dominated by silicate-rich bedrock exhibited higher carbon sequestration capabilities through rock weathering processes compared to those underlain by carbonate lithologies, which tend to release carbon dioxide during dissolution. This variability suggests that predictions of polar carbon dynamics need to incorporate detailed geological maps and lithological classifications for greater precision. Such insights could significantly improve climate models that currently struggle with polar region parameterization.

Moreover, the researchers illuminated the role of mineral weathering as a long-term sink for atmospheric CO2, contrasting the widely documented biological sinks such as phytoplankton blooms and moss growth. In particular, the slow yet persistent process of silicate mineral weathering draws down carbon dioxide, converting it into bicarbonate ions that are flushed into the ocean. This naturally occurring geological carbon pump could be particularly impactful in the Antarctic Peninsula where rapid glacial retreat exposes fresh silicate rock surfaces, enhancing weathering rates. These observations offer compelling evidence that geological processes may buffer climate change effects, at least regionally, by locking away carbon in mineral forms.

Intriguingly, temporal data spanning multiple melt seasons revealed that net carbon balance is highly sensitive to seasonal variations in temperature and hydrology, which themselves are modulated by lithological factors. For example, catchments composed of permeable volcanic rocks exhibited more pronounced meltwater infiltration, accelerating mineral weathering and carbon sequestration during warm months. Conversely, less permeable sedimentary formations tended to trap water and organic carbon within soils, affecting the timing and magnitude of CO2 fluxes to the atmosphere. This complex feedback between lithology, hydrology, and climate underscores the necessity of interdisciplinary approaches when assessing polar carbon systems.

The implications of these findings reverberate far beyond academic curiosity. As the Antarctic Peninsula experiences some of the fastest warming rates on Earth, understanding the controls on carbon balance is critical for forecasting future climate trajectories. If lithological variability leads to differential carbon sequestration zones, then localized geological disruptions caused by melting glaciers or human activity could substantially alter regional carbon budgets. This knowledge is paramount for policymakers designing effective climate mitigation strategies, particularly in sensitive high-latitude environments where carbon feedbacks may accelerate global warming.

In addition to geochemical and climatological impacts, the study also highlights the potential for emerging technologies such as remote sensing and machine learning to map lithological controls at unprecedented resolution. By integrating satellite imagery with field data, researchers can create predictive models that swiftly identify carbon hotspots and areas vulnerable to carbon loss. This approach holds promise not only for Antarctic research but for global efforts to monitor and manage terrestrial carbon stocks in the face of escalating environmental change.

Furthermore, the interdisciplinary team behind this research underscores the importance of collaboration across geology, ecology, and atmospheric science disciplines. Only through such synergies can the subtle yet powerful effects of geological substrates on biogeochemical cycles be fully appreciated. This holistic perspective marks a paradigm shift in polar science, encouraging future studies to transcend traditional boundaries between earth sciences and climate research.

The work also invites a reevaluation of how catchment-scale processes are incorporated into Earth system models. Historically, these models have neglected fine-scale lithological heterogeneities, instead favoring generalized assumptions about soil and sediment carbon storage. The evidence provided by this study advocates for embedding lithological parameters into model architectures, enabling more accurate simulations of polar carbon dynamics under variable climatic scenarios. Such advancements are vital for anticipating tipping points in Antarctic ecosystems where abrupt changes could trigger widespread carbon release.

As global attention intensifies on polar regions as bellwethers of climate change, the intricate connection between rocks beneath our feet and atmospheric carbon cycles comes sharply into focus. The Antarctic Peninsula serves as a natural laboratory, revealing that the geology beneath evolving ice landscapes is not merely inert background but an active, dynamic component influencing the Earth’s carbon footprint. These insights champion a new era where geosciences play a central role in unraveling planetary carbon mysteries and inform global climate stewardship.

To realize the full potential of these findings, continuous monitoring and expanded field campaigns will be indispensable. The study sets a benchmark for future Antarctic research by demonstrating how integrative methodologies can decode complex environmental phenomena. With accelerating climate pressures threatening polar ecosystems, unraveling the lithological control on carbon balance becomes not just an academic endeavor but an urgent imperative for humanity’s environmental resilience.

In conclusion, this landmark research elegantly reveals how the mineral composition and geological characteristics of Antarctic catchments exert profound control over carbon exchanges between land, atmosphere, and ocean. By amalgamating detailed geochemical analyses with ecological and climatic data, the study enriches our comprehension of polar carbon cycling and offers tangible pathways to improve global climate models. As the Antarctic Peninsula continues to reshape itself under warming skies, understanding the lithological underpinnings of its carbon dynamics will be essential for predicting its role in the Earth’s future climate narrative.

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Subject of Research: Geology and carbon cycling in the Antarctic Peninsula catchments

Article Title: Catchment lithology controls net carbon balance along the Antarctic Peninsula

Article References:
He, S., Zhang, X., Hu, H. et al. Catchment lithology controls net carbon balance along the Antarctic Peninsula. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-74667-9

Image Credits: AI Generated

A new satellite-based framework allows scientists to measure the changing rhythms of cities in near real time. Cities are often described as living systems, but until now that idea has mostly been a metaphor. Roads, buildings, parks, and neighborhoods change constantly, yet much of that activity is hard to see as it happens. By the [...]

Bumble bees demonstrated an unexpected ability to solve a novel object-based challenge without training. A bee’s brain is smaller than a sesame seed, yet in a new experiment, some bumble bees appeared to solve a problem that required more than simple instinct. They had to move an object into position, climb onto it, and use [...]

In a groundbreaking study published in PNAS Nexus on May 23, 2026, researchers have unveiled compelling evidence that extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs), frequently known as “red flag” laws, substantially diminish the likelihood of arrests among individuals subjected to these legal interventions. This decline in arrests encompasses a broad spectrum of offenses, notably violent crimes and firearm-related offenses, and persists not only during the enforcement period of the orders but intriguingly continues well beyond their expiration. These findings are poised to reshape public policy discussions concerning firearm violence prevention strategies in the United States.

The context driving this research is a nationwide crisis of firearm violence, which as of 2024, has tragically culminated in over 43,000 deaths, with shootings in 2025 alone injuring approximately 40,000 individuals, excluding cases of suicide. Such staggering figures underscore the urgent need for efficacious interventions. ERPOs have emerged as a targeted legal mechanism whereby courts temporarily restrict firearm access for individuals deemed to pose an imminent threat to themselves or others. Currently, 22 states, alongside the U.S. Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia, have enacted distinct ERPO statutes, reflecting growing legislative momentum. California pioneered this policy approach in 2016, branding them Gun Violence Restraining Orders.

The retrospective cohort study analyzed detailed arrest data from 679 California residents subject to ERPOs between 2016 and 2019. Demographic profiling revealed a predominance of males (91.9%) with an average age slightly above 40 years. Ethnically, the cohort comprised mainly White individuals (59.9%), followed by Hispanic (19%) and Black populations (10.3%). Researchers meticulously compared arrest rates across three critical intervals: six months preceding the ERPO issuance, during the active order period, and the subsequent six months following order expiry. The scope of offenses under scrutiny included any form of arrest, violent crime, firearm-related offenses, and firearm-specific violence.

Quantitative analysis revealed that the presence of an ERPO corresponded with an impressive 55% reduction in arrests for any offense compared to the baseline six-month period prior. Arrests specifically for violent crimes plummeted by 71%, while firearm-related arrests witnessed a striking 76% decline. Most notably, firearm violence arrests decreased by an extraordinary 80% during the enforcement phase. These statistics not only affirm ERPOs’ immediate efficacy in curtailing dangerous behaviors but also highlight their targeted protective potential.

Perhaps more unexpectedly, the data indicated that the downward trend in arrests did not revert to pre-order levels once ERPOs expired. Instead, reductions persisted and even deepened in certain categories. Post-expiration, arrest rates for any offense decreased by 63%, violent crime arrests by 75%, firearm-related offenses by 70%, and firearm violence arrests by 63%. Such sustained effects provoke critical questions about the mechanisms through which ERPOs might exert enduring behavioral influence, potentially functioning as a catalyst for long-term risk amelioration.

While the study’s outcomes exude optimism, authors elucidate several methodological limitations. Primary among these is the reliance on arrest records as a proxy for criminal activity, a metric subject to inherent biases and imperfect capture of all unlawful behavior. Additionally, the exclusive focus on California’s ERPO implementation during a specific timeframe limits the generalizability of findings to other jurisdictions or more current contexts. Nonetheless, the robust statistical associations discovered furnish key empirical support for ERPOs’ role in comprehensive violence reduction frameworks.

Veronica Pear, the study’s lead investigator and a respected epidemiologist affiliated with the UC Davis Centers for Violence Prevention, articulates the multipronged utility of ERPOs. “While often conceptualized primarily for suicide prevention, our analysis elucidates their significant function in preventing interpersonal violence,” Pear asserts. This research thus broadens the conceptual paradigm, reinforcing ERPOs as a practical, evidence-based intervention capable of mitigating acute crises and producing enduring safety benefits.

This study also complements a growing body of literature that underscores ERPOs as instrumental in suicide prevention, consolidating their standing as a versatile tool in public health and criminal justice spheres. The convergence of findings across domains of self-directed and other-directed violence lends vital credence to expanding ERPO adoption and refining enforcement protocols, especially given the current societal imperative to stem firearm-related morbidity and mortality.

From a policy perspective, these insights furnish lawmakers with empirically grounded justifications for instituting or strengthening ERPO frameworks. Importantly, the study encourages a nuanced appreciation of ERPOs’ temporal dynamics, highlighting the necessity for continued engagement and perhaps supplemental interventions after an order lapses to sustain positive outcomes.

On the frontier of violence prevention research, the study paves avenues for further investigation into optimizing ERPO implementation, exploring differential impacts across demographic subgroups, and elucidating the behavioral psychology underlying observed arrest reductions. Such endeavors will be pivotal in tailoring ERPO policies that maximize protective effects while respecting individual rights and legal safeguards.

As firearm violence continues to exact a heavy toll on American communities, this research provides a beacon of evidence-informed hope. By harnessing the nuanced potential of ERPOs, stakeholders can better navigate the complex interplay of legal, public health, and social factors driving violence prevention and move toward a safer society.

Subject of Research: People

Article Title: Reduced incidence of arrest following an extreme risk protection order among respondents in California

News Publication Date: 23-May-2026

Web References:

• https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgag184
• https://cvp.ucdavis.edu/

References:

• Pear, V., et al. (2026). Reduced incidence of arrest following an extreme risk protection order among respondents in California. PNAS Nexus. DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgag184

Keywords: Gun violence, Public health, Crime, Criminology, Human social behavior

A newly identified sensory pathway links fine hairs to itch sensations, revealing an unexpected biological system that may contribute to chronic itching disorders and provide new targets for treatment. An itch can seem simple, but scientists are finding that the sensation is far more complex than it appears. Researchers at the University of Michigan have [...]

For women's health providers, the Dobbs decision that rescinded abortion rights wasn't just an abstract political event.

US scientists have shed light on the physics behind diamond’s superconductivity, which could help engineers develop more powerful quantum devices, including multifunction quantum chips.

The joint research team consisted of experts from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. It discovered new insights into how electricity can flow through a diamond without resistance under the right conditions.

The findings could lead to multifunctional quantum chips capable of combining several quantum technologies within a single material. “This offers a new way of thinking by integrating superconducting and semiconductor behavior to create opportunities for multifunction quantum devices,” David Awschalom, PhD, from UChicago PME, said.

According to Awschalom, who is the Liew Family Professor of Quantum Science and Engineering and Physics at UChicago PME and the director of the Chicago Quantum Exchange, the breakthrough could make quantum technologies more efficient and better integrated with classical technologies. 

An unexpected discovery

Diamond is valued in advanced technology because of its exceptional hardness, optical properties, and thermal conductivity (Tc). It features the highest thermal conductivity and mineral hardness of any material known. It can also become superconducting when doped with boron, an element that alters its electrical conductivity.

More than two decades ago, scientists discovered that diamond can also become superconducting when doped with atoms of boron, an element that can alter its electrical behavior. Until now, however, the mechanisms behind the phenomenon remained largely unclear.

To analyze the phenomenon, the researchers synthesized high-quality diamond thin films, which contained carefully distributed boron atoms. They were stunned to find that despite appearing structurally uniform, the films had a hidden mosaic of microscopic superconducting regions.

The research team called these regions “puddles.” It was further discovered that they eventually connect with one another, therefore allowing electrical current to travel through the material without resistance.

“This serendipitous discovery caught us totally by surprise because these are structurally homogeneous, crystalline films,” Nitin Samarth, PhD, the Verne M. Willaman Professor of Physics and Materials Science and Engineering at Penn State, and co-corresponding author of the paper, said. “So, the question was: Where is this granularity coming from?”

A new quantum platform

According to the researchers, these superconducting regions are not fixed. Their shape and behavior can be modified by changing magnetic fields, temperature, and electrical currents. The researchers believe they can learn to connect them more efficiently by identifying how electrons move between them.

This could boost the performance of future quantum devices and allow them to operate at higher temperatures. Meanwhile, several parameters can be adjusted independently to tailor the material’s properties, including boron concentration, crystal orientation, mechanical strain, and dimensionality.

“We now have a reliable roadmap for engineering diamond superconductors by independently adjusting the material’s core properties,” Samarth said in a press statement. “There are a lot of exciting possibilities here, for both quantum and classical technology.”

Awschalom noted that the discovery could lead to the creation of multifunctional quantum-on-chip devices. “Imagine a future technology that combines light, spin, superconductivity, and magnetism, all in a single material that one could also integrate with today’s microelectronics,” he concluded.

The study has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

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A new study by Prof. Gabriel Weimann, a senior researcher at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) at Reichman University and professor emeritus in the Department of Communication at the University of Haifa, and Daniel Haberfeld, a researcher and head of the Cyberterrorism Desk at ICT, explored the activities of the Handala hacker group, which is linked to Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). The study sought to determine whether the group's operations are best characterized as cyberterrorism or psychological warfare.

Warm weather has fueled a bloom that National Park Service workers are trying to kill using everything from hydrogen peroxide to nanobubbles ahead of July 4 celebrations.

The Trump administration has abandoned its effort to halt wind energy projects across the United States and dropped its challenge to the court ruling that tossed President Donald Trump’s order freezing federal permitting and leasing for wind projects. States that challenged the order hailed the development as one of the most significant legal victories against the Trump White House’s campaign against the energy transition.

On Monday, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit dismissed the appeal after the Justice Department filed a motion for its voluntary dismissal on June 10.

The case against Trump’s executive order was filed in May 2025 by a coalition of attorneys general from 17 states and Washington, DC, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

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The Trump administration has abandoned its effort to halt wind energy projects across the United States and dropped its challenge to the court ruling that tossed President Donald Trump’s order freezing federal permitting and leasing for wind projects. States that challenged the order hailed the development as one of the most significant legal victories against the Trump White House’s campaign against the energy transition.

On Monday, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit dismissed the appeal after the Justice Department filed a motion for its voluntary dismissal on June 10.

The case against Trump’s executive order was filed in May 2025 by a coalition of attorneys general from 17 states and Washington, DC, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

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© glegorly

New research indicates that when it comes to heart health, the types of fruits and vegetables consumed may be just as important as the amount. Most healthy eating advice focuses on quantity: eat more fruits and vegetables, aim for five servings a day, and your heart will benefit. But new research suggests that when it [...]

The Greenland Ice Sheet, one of the planet’s largest reservoirs of freshwater, has become the focal point of groundbreaking research revealing a hitherto underestimated phenomenon: pervasive and expanding glacier algal blooms. Recent advanced modeling conducted by scientists Williamson and Tedstone has shed new light on the spatial extent and environmental implications of these microscopic organisms thriving on the ice. This emerging evidence disrupts prior assumptions about glacier ecosystems and poses significant concerns regarding future ice sheet dynamics amid climate warming.

Glacier algae, photosynthetic microorganisms adapted to extreme cold, dark, and nutrient-poor environments, have traditionally been considered minor ecological players in polar regions. However, their capacity to proliferate in biofilms across the ice surface influences the ice’s physical properties profoundly. The team utilized sophisticated climate-ice modeling tools coupling biological growth parameters to simulate algal bloom dynamics across Greenland’s vast ice sheet. This holistic approach enabled quantification of bloom distribution and intensity under current and projected climatic scenarios, opening avenues to assess feedback mechanisms in cryosphere systems.

The researchers addressed key variables including temperature fluctuations, solar radiation, meltwater availability, and nutrient influx that regulate glacier algal growth. By integrating these parameters, their model replicated repeated satellite observations indicating that algal blooms have become ubiquitous rather than occasional phenomena on the ice sheet’s surface. Importantly, this newfound ubiquity corresponds with notable increases in the ice’s albedo reduction, a process by which the darkened ice absorbs significantly more solar energy, accelerating melting rates substantially.

One of the critical breakthroughs of the study is the identification of a positive feedback loop involving glacier algae expansion and ice melt intensification. As temperatures rise, the expanded meltwater ponds create optimal microhabitats, facilitating rapid algal growth. This dark biomass, in turn, reduces reflectance, trapping more heat and thus promoting further meltwater generation—a cascading effect that amplifies ice mass loss. The implications for sea-level rise are profound since even marginal increases in melt rates compound over the Greenland Ice Sheet’s immense area.

The modeling framework also underscores the spatial variability of algal bloom intensity. Coastal fringes and lower elevation zones experience the highest biomass accumulation due to warmer temperatures and longer melt seasons. Conversely, high-altitude sites see more sporadic blooms, limited by colder conditions and shorter windows of liquid water presence. However, the projection models suggest an altitudinal upward expansion of these biological communities as climate warming persists, potentially transforming previously cryotoxic zones into hospitable environments for microbial colonization.

Further analysis revealed complex interactions between algal species composition and their pigmentation, which influence their light-absorption properties. Some glacier algae produce dark pigments like purpurogallin, a bioactive compound that enhances solar radiation absorption, contributing disproportionately to albedo reduction relative to their biomass. This biochemical adaptation illustrates the tightly coupled biological-physical dynamics on ice surfaces and the potential for microbe-driven modulation of glacier energy balance.

The study also incorporates insights from remote sensing technologies, including multispectral satellite instruments capable of detecting subtle color changes on the Greenland Ice Sheet indicative of blooming events. These observational datasets, validated against in-situ measurements, provided empirical support for the model’s predictive accuracy. Such integration of fieldwork and computational modeling represents a cutting-edge methodology in cryoecology, enabling researchers to quantify glacier surface biological phenomena at unprecedented spatial and temporal resolutions.

Climate models incorporating these glacier algal dynamics expose an alarming acceleration in the Greenland Ice Sheet’s mass loss trajectory. Inclusion of biological factors leads to revised melt projections that surpass prior estimates relying solely on physical ice melt processes. This insight challenges the traditional paradigms of cryosphere modeling and calls for a multidisciplinary approach that fully integrates biogeochemical and microbial influences into climate impact assessments.

From an ecological perspective, expanding glacier algal blooms signify a broader shift in polar microbial ecosystems in response to anthropogenic climate change. These vibrant microbial mats not only modify the physical environment but also participate actively in the cycling of nutrients and carbon on the ice surface, potentially altering biogeochemical fluxes at regional and global scales. The expansion of such biota may herald a new era of glacier ecology, where microbial life increasingly shapes cryospheric processes.

The researchers caution that while current models provide a vital baseline, uncertainties remain regarding the precise sensitivity of glacier algae to evolving environmental parameters such as nutrient availability from atmospheric deposition and meltwater chemistry alterations. Future investigations will need to incorporate microbial genomic and metabolic studies to refine growth kinetics and adaptive resilience under multifactorial stress conditions driven by climate variability.

The potential ramifications of glacier algal blooms extend beyond Greenland. Similar processes may be occurring or will develop in ice masses worldwide, including mountain glaciers and Antarctic ice shelves. This raises critical questions about representativeness and transferability of observational and modeling findings across different cryoenvironments. Continued interdisciplinary research is essential to globally map biological-cryosphere interactions and predict their contributions to ice sheet stability and sea-level rise.

Ultimately, the work by Williamson and Tedstone adds a vital piece to the puzzle of how biological life interacts with Earth’s changing cryosphere. Their modeling of ubiquitous and expanding glacier algal blooms challenges us to reconsider ice sheets not merely as inert reservoirs of frozen water, but as dynamic ecosystems intricately entwined with climate processes. As climate warming intensifies, these microscopic organisms emerge as influential agents capable of reshaping the trajectories of some of the planet’s most critical and vulnerable landscapes.

Their findings call for immediate attention from climate scientists, ecologists, and policymakers alike, highlighting the need to integrate biological feedbacks into predictive models and mitigation strategies. Understanding and managing the consequences of expanding glacier algal blooms may prove crucial for preserving polar environments and moderating global sea-level rise in the coming decades.

In essence, Greenland’s ice sheet is not just melting — it is biologically darkening and transforming in ways that complicate our understanding of climate change impacts. The intersection of microbial ecology and glaciology unveiled by this study signals a paradigm shift that underscores the intricate complexity of Earth’s systems and the unforeseen drivers accelerating environmental change.

Subject of Research: Glacier algal blooms on the Greenland Ice Sheet and their impacts on ice melt and albedo reduction.

Article Title: Ubiquitous and expanding glacier algal blooms modelled around the Greenland Ice Sheet.

Article References:
Williamson, C.J., Tedstone, A.J. Ubiquitous and expanding glacier algal blooms modelled around the Greenland Ice Sheet. Commun Earth Environ (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-026-03758-8

Image Credits: AI Generated

In 2021, a team at Nottingham Trent University surveyed almost 1,000 people in the UK and found something that broke the standard textbook on dangerous personalities. About 19 percent of the sample scored high on the so-called dark triad — psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism — and also scored above average on empathy. The two were supposed to be mutually exclusive. They weren’t. The research, led by associate professor Nadja Heym, gave this group a name: dark empaths.

The mechanism that makes them possible — and dangerous — is a split inside the word “empathy” itself.

Empathy is two systems, not one

For decades, psychology treated empathy as a single trait: you either had it or you didn’t, and the people who lacked it were the ones to watch. The Heym study used a sharper instrument. It measured two distinct kinds.

Cognitive empathy is the ability to read another person — to model what they are feeling, predict their reactions, take their perspective. It is a thinking skill. Chess players have it. Negotiators have it. Good interviewers have it.

Affective empathy is the part that actually hurts. It is the involuntary catch in the chest when someone else cries, the flinch when you watch a stranger stub their toe. It is what stops most people from being cruel, because cruelty produces an echo inside the person inflicting it.

The two systems sit in different neural circuits. You can have one without the other. And the Nottingham Trent finding was that the dangerous personalities don’t lack empathy across the board — they tend to keep the cognitive half running while the affective half stays quiet.

What the 2021 study actually found

Heym’s team assessed participants on statements measuring manipulative attitudes, regret-based threat behaviors, and secretiveness. Those scores were cross-referenced against measures of both empathy types and a scale of indirect aggression — making someone feel guilty, excluding them socially, malicious jokes at their expense.

Four groups fell out of the data. A typical group with average traits, about 34 percent. An empath group, low on dark traits and high on empathy, about 33 percent. A traditional dark triad group, high on dark traits and low on empathy, around 13 percent. And the dark empaths — high on dark traits, but above average on both kinds of empathy — at about 19 to 20 percent.

Both dark groups reported more aggression than the rest. The traditional dark triad edged ahead on that measure in the original 2021 sample. But in follow-up work Heym presented at scientific conferences, with nearly 800 American participants, the dark empaths’ aggression levels came in close to par with the dark triad — while their drive, goal-orientation, and responsiveness to reward ran significantly higher.

Heym described them as go-getters. The label the field has started using is more pointed: successful psychopaths. And that combination — the harm levels of the dark triad with the social fluency of an empath — is what makes the split inside empathy more than a taxonomic curiosity.

Why this combination is harder to spot than a narcissist

A textbook narcissist gives themselves away. The boasting, the cold edge in a conversation that should be warm, the way attention has to keep returning to them — these signals tend to surface within a few interactions. People notice. Friends warn each other.

A dark empath rarely produces that surface signal. They read a room with the precision of a good clinician. They know what you want to hear, which compliment will land, when to ask the soft follow-up question that signals validation. What would normally make them stop short of using that information against you is muted.

The result is a person who appears warm, perceptive, often the most understanding presence in the room, while operating on a calculation the room cannot see. Heym told BBC Science Focus that people around dark empaths are often left with only a vague feeling that something isn’t quite right.

The neuroscience underneath the split

That vague feeling has a physical basis. A 2013 fMRI study of incarcerated individuals with psychopathy, published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, asked participants to imagine another person in pain. The expected empathic response — activation in the anterior insula, anterior midcingulate cortex, and inferior frontal gyrus — was reduced compared with controls. The machinery for sharing pain was running quietly. The machinery for recognising it was largely intact.

Other work, summarised in a Psychology Today review of empathy deficits, narcissism, and neurodivergence, points to differences in the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex — regions that handle the emotional weight assigned to other people’s distress. Gray matter abnormalities have been documented in narcissistic personality disorder.

Crucially, a separate line of research on narcissists found that when participants were explicitly asked to take the perspective of someone describing trauma, their heart rates rose in line with real empathic response. They could feel it. They just didn’t, by default. The capacity exists. The choice is to keep it offline. That last point matters: the split isn’t a hardware failure, it’s a setting — which is why the behaviour can be sustained for years without giving way to a breakdown.

What it looks like in everyday life

That setting produces a fairly specific behavioural fingerprint.

They understand you too well, too quickly — like being known after a single coffee. That speed is the read, not the bond. They use guilt as a regular instrument: knowing what hurts you is the prerequisite for choosing to press there. Their humour carries a cruel edge — Heym’s questionnaire specifically captured malicious jokes at others’ expense, and the dark empath group registered there alongside the dark triad.

They also damage your other relationships. Master manipulators with high social fluency tend to reshape the network around them, quietly, through information control and selective alliance-building. Machiavellianism, Heym notes, is the hardest of the dark traits to identify precisely because it operates through rumour and access rather than overt confrontation.

And you feel different when they’re not around. A persistent low-grade dread that lifts in their absence is one of the more reliable signals — closer to a body’s verdict than a mind’s. People who are genuinely attuned to social safety often register relational threat at the nervous-system level long before they can articulate it.

The case of Heather

Heather, a 53-year-old who told her story to The i Paper, was married to her husband for 12 years. In public he was magnetic — the kind of person who seemed to know every waiter, every owner, every other diner in a restaurant. He worked at a senior level in education. He talked fluently about emotional intelligence with her children from a previous marriage.

In private he stonewalled her for days at a time. He once moved out of the house for six weeks without explanation or contact. She later learned about pornography addiction and affairs. In a conversation about his ex-girlfriends, he blamed every one of them for their breakups, and the silence she sat in afterwards was the realisation that she wasn’t special — she was the next in a series.

It wasn’t until after the separation in July 2023, talking to a friend with a background in neuropsychology, that she heard the term. She described him as someone who spoke about empathy but showed no genuine emotional connection, treating others instrumentally rather than with care. The cognitive read was flawless. The affective response was absent. Twelve years of marriage is what the social camouflage can sustain when only one half of the system is running.

If you’re curious to go deeper into this phenomenon, there’s a really thoughtful video by Psychology Says that explores the dark empath concept and why this particular combination of traits can be so difficult to detect in real-world interactions.

Why the successful ones are the most dangerous

A traditional psychopath with high drive tends to flame out. Impulsiveness, aggression, lack of moral brake — the failure mode is public, scandalous, and usually fast. People complain. Frauds get uncovered. Bullies get reported.

Dark empaths don’t generate that kind of obvious wreckage. They regulate the surface behaviour. They know when to apologise convincingly, when to send the thoughtful text, when to perform warmth in the meeting that matters. The destruction tends to be slower, more intimate, and harder to point at — a marriage that erodes over a decade, a workplace where talented people keep quietly leaving, a friend group that thins without anyone quite naming why.

Heym’s commentary in The Conversation emphasises that dark empaths are more likely than traditional dark triad individuals to end up in positions of power — CEOs, politicians, senior managers — because the social camouflage holds up under scrutiny. The dangerous ones aren’t the loud ones. They’re the ones whose performance of decency survives the long term.

The introspective edge

One detail from the 2021 study cuts against the easy villain reading. The dark empaths in Heym’s sample reported the harshest self-judgement of any group. They knew what they were capable of. They knew the shape of their own behaviour. And — this is the part that tends to unsettle people who study them — they were largely okay with it.

That introspective awareness is itself a function of cognitive empathy turned inward. You can model yourself the same way you model others. You can see the manipulation clearly and choose to continue. The affective brake that would convert that knowledge into shame, and shame into change, is the part that stays dim.

What to do with the finding

The practical value of the cognitive-affective split is that it gives people a vocabulary for an experience that previously had none. If you grew up being told that bad people are obviously cold, and you encountered someone who was visibly warm and somehow left you smaller every time, the categories didn’t fit. Heym’s framework explains why: warmth that is purely cognitive looks identical to warmth that is affective, until you stop reacting the way the reader expects.

The follow-up signal is behavioural consistency over time. Cognitive empathy is a performance, and performances drift when the audience changes — when you’re tired, when stakes are low, when you stop being useful. Affective empathy doesn’t drift in the same way, because it isn’t being maintained by attention. It’s just on.

This is why splitting empathy into two systems matters beyond academic taxonomy. As long as empathy was treated as a single dial — present or absent — the warm, perceptive person who hurt you didn’t compute, and the only available explanation was that you must have misread them.

The 2021 Nottingham Trent paper has been cited hundreds of times since publication, and Heym’s American replication suggests the four-group structure isn’t a UK artefact. Roughly one in five people carries this profile. Most of them are not Ted Bundy. They are the boss whose praise lands strangely, the partner whose apologies sound rehearsed, the friend who knows your wound too precisely.

The reason they are hard to spot is the same reason they are dangerous: the half of empathy that lets them see you is wide awake, and the half that would stop them from using what they see has been turned down to a whisper. Once you can name those as two separate things, the person finally computes — and so does what they did.

The post In 2021, a team at Nottingham Trent University led by Nadja Heym surveyed almost 1,000 people and found that the dangerous personalities don’t lack empathy — they just use the cognitive half without the affective one appeared first on Space Daily.

As the world continues to witness unprecedented growth in air travel, a groundbreaking study published in Communications Earth & Environment reveals alarming insights into the global repercussions of accelerating aircraft emissions on air quality and human health. This landmark research meticulously quantifies how expanding aviation activities contribute to deteriorating atmospheric conditions and exacerbate public health crises worldwide, underscoring an urgent need for global policy interventions and technological innovation.

The aviation sector, responsible for a substantial portion of anthropogenic greenhouse gas and pollutant outputs, has long been scrutinized for its environmental footprint. Yet, the intricate dynamics linking aircraft emissions to widespread air quality degradation and subsequent health implications have remained largely underexplored until now. Quadros, Nelen, Snellen, and colleagues harnessed sophisticated atmospheric modeling techniques combined with epidemiological data to elucidate these complex pathways with unprecedented precision.

Aircraft engines emit a cocktail of pollutants, including nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matter (PM), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and carbon dioxide (CO2). These emissions initiate a cascade of atmospheric chemical reactions, creating secondary pollutants such as ozone and fine particulate matter, which profoundly impair air quality. The study’s simulation results reveal that aircraft emissions alone contribute significantly to elevated ground-level ozone concentrations, particularly in densely populated and heavily trafficked air corridors.

One of the study’s pivotal findings focuses on the spatial distribution of pollution burdens. Regions adjacent to major airports and common flight routes exhibit air quality dips notably beyond local vehicular and industrial contributions. The researchers found that the transboundary nature of aircraft emissions facilitates the transport of chemically reactive species across continents, linking aviation activities not only to local but also to regional and global air pollution episodes.

In terms of human health, the implications are disturbing. The researchers applied integrated exposure-response functions to estimate the morbidity and mortality attributable to aviation-induced pollution. Their assessments suggest a substantial increase in respiratory ailments, cardiovascular diseases, and premature deaths attributable to aircraft emissions. Particularly vulnerable populations, such as urban dwellers, children, elderly individuals, and those with preexisting conditions, face disproportionate risks.

Moreover, the study highlights the synergistic effects of aircraft emissions with other urban pollutants, exacerbating harmful synergistic interactions that amplify health risks. For instance, the NOx and VOCs emitted interact under sunlight to generate ozone, a potent respiratory irritant, and exacerbate asthma symptoms. The authors stress the importance of recognizing these nonlinear effects for robust public health policy formulation.

Climate feedback mechanisms linked to aviation emissions emerge as a critical concern in the report. The authors delineate how nitrogen oxides released at high altitudes not only affect surface-level ozone but also perturb the radiative balance of the atmosphere. This creates complex feedback loops that potentially accelerate climate warming, indicating that the environmental cost of aviation extends beyond conventional pollutants to include broader climatic impacts.

Technology advances and mitigation strategies receive thorough evaluation in the study. The authors discuss current emission reduction technologies such as lean-burn engines, sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs), and operational measures like optimized flight paths and altitude adjustments. Despite their promise, the research cautions that without comprehensive adoption and scaling, these technologies alone may fall short of offsetting the forecasted growth in emissions.

The aviation sector is projected to expand considerably over the coming decades, driven by economic growth and increasing globalization. The study’s projections indicate that without stringent regulatory frameworks and aggressive emission reduction commitments, the global burden of aviation-induced air pollution and related health impacts will escalate dramatically, particularly in emerging economies with rapidly growing air traffic.

Policy recommendations form a cornerstone of the researchers’ conclusions. They advocate for coordinated international efforts to tighten emission standards, mandate SAF usage, and invest in next-generation propulsion technologies such as electric and hydrogen-powered aircraft. Furthermore, integrating aviation sector goals into broader air quality management and climate policies is deemed essential to maximize health and environmental benefits.

In addition to technological and regulatory measures, the report emphasizes the role of real-time monitoring networks and data-sharing frameworks. Enhanced surveillance of aircraft emissions and their atmospheric transformations can enable dynamic policy responses, better inform public health advisories, and foster transparency and accountability among stakeholders ranging from airlines to regulators.

The health economics dimension discussed in the study reveals enormous societal costs tied to aviation-related air pollution. Hospitalizations, lost productivity, and long-term healthcare expenditures attributed to pollution-induced diseases impose substantial financial burdens on governments and communities alike, reinforcing the public health imperative for aggressive mitigation.

Further research priorities identified in the report call for improved characterization of ultrafine particles emitted by aircraft engines, nuanced understanding of population exposure patterns near airports, and exploration of co-benefits arising from simultaneous air quality and climate interventions. Interdisciplinary collaboration combining atmospheric science, epidemiology, engineering, and policy studies is championed as the pathway to innovative solutions.

In light of this new research, the aviation industry stands at a crossroads. Balancing the undeniable economic and social advantages of air travel with its adverse environmental and health externalities necessitates transformative thinking and collaborative global action. The study’s revelations provide an indispensable scientific foundation for stakeholders to forge a sustainable aviation future.

This comprehensive investigation serves as a clarion call for urgent recognition of the aviation sector’s hidden consequences, urging policymakers, industry players, and the public to engage in proactive, science-informed strategies that safeguard air quality and human health on a planetary scale.

Subject of Research:
The study focuses on evaluating the global impact of increasing aircraft emissions on air quality and related human health outcomes, analyzing both direct and indirect effects through sophisticated atmospheric and epidemiological modeling.

Article Title:
Global air quality and human health impacts of growing aircraft emissions

Article References:
Quadros, F.D.A., Nelen, R., Snellen, M. et al. Global air quality and human health impacts of growing aircraft emissions. Commun Earth Environ (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-026-03732-4

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1038/s43247-026-03732-4

Keywords:
Aircraft emissions, air quality, human health, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, ozone formation, aviation pollution, atmospheric modeling, public health impact, sustainable aviation fuels

In a groundbreaking study published in Communications Earth & Environment, researchers Michael Dickau, Kirsten Zickfeld, and Henry D. Matthews unveil a sobering new framework for understanding the permanence of climate change. Their work introduces the concept of “degree-years of temperature overshoot” as a critical metric that quantifies how temporary excursions beyond safe temperature thresholds can lead to irreversible environmental transformations. This innovative approach adds a crucial dimension to climate science, emphasizing not just peak temperature increases but the duration and cumulative intensity of warming above critical limits.

Traditional climate models have largely focused on absolute temperature increases as the key indicator of climate risk, emphasizing targets such as the 1.5°C or 2°C limits set by the Paris Agreement. However, the new research underscores that even transient overshoots—periods during which global mean surface temperature temporarily exceeds these thresholds—have the potential to trigger lasting and perhaps unstoppable changes in Earth’s systems. The authors coin the term “degree-years” to capture both the magnitude and the persistence of such overshoots, integrating these factors into a unified metric that reflects cumulative thermal stress on the planet.

This degree-years concept operates by calculating the product of how many degrees the global temperature exceeds a set threshold and the length of time this exceedance lasts. For instance, a half-degree overshoot lasting two years would equate to one degree-year; similarly, a one-degree overshoot lasting one year also amounts to one degree-year. Crucially, the study demonstrates that certain climate impacts can become irreversible once the cumulative degree-years surpass specific tipping points, regardless of whether global temperature subsequently declines.

Using an ensemble of Earth system models, the research team investigates multiple climate feedback mechanisms and tipping elements, such as the melting of polar ice sheets, disruption of ocean circulation patterns, and shifts in tropical rainforests. Their simulations reveal that the risk of crossing dangerous thresholds escalates significantly with increasing degree-years of overshoot. For example, temporary overshoot scenarios that peak above 2°C but rapidly return below this limit still lead to substantial and irreversible sea level rise due to sustained polar ice melt dynamics set in motion during the overshoot period.

One of the key insights emerging from this work challenges the assumption that episodes of elevated temperature can be fully “undone” by later cooling. The degree-years metric quantifies the residual “memory” of warming embedded in earth system components, which continue to evolve even after global temperatures stabilize. The long timescales involved in ice sheet dynamics and biosphere feedbacks mean that rapid temperature corrections may not reverse damage already set in progress during the overshoot phase. Hence, avoiding overshoot altogether, or limiting both its magnitude and duration, becomes paramount to mitigating irreversible harm.

The study’s implications are profound for policy and climate mitigation strategies. Current targets geared towards limiting peak warming are important but may be insufficient if the duration of overshoot is not carefully managed. This necessitates a reconsideration of emissions trajectories, emphasizing pathways that avoid substantial periods above critical temperature thresholds. It also highlights the urgency of carbon dioxide removal and other negative emissions technologies as tools to swiftly bring temperatures down post-overshoot, should such scenarios unfold.

Further complicating the global puzzle, the authors note that regional climate impacts tied to degree-years of overshoot may be even more severe and less reversible. Areas dependent on stable ice coverage, predictable monsoon patterns, or intact rainforest ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to the cumulative stress captured by the degree-years framework. These localized consequences exacerbate socioeconomic and ecological vulnerabilities, raising challenging questions about adaptation and resilience under future climate regimes.

The robustness of the degree-years concept is fortified by the multi-model approach, harnessing the strengths of different Earth system models to explore uncertainties and variability in tipping thresholds. Although individual models exhibit different sensitivities, the overarching finding that overshoot duration compounds irreversible impacts holds consistently across simulations. This consensus underscores the importance of integrating degree-years into future climate risk assessments and international negotiations.

Another notable aspect of this research is its capacity to reconcile temporal aspects of climate response with policy-relevant decision-making. Climate policies often operate on decadal or shorter timescales, yet many earth system processes unfold over centuries to millennia. Degree-years offers a bridge, linking short-term temperature excursions to long-term, irreversible environmental change, thereby sharpening the scientific basis for precautionary action.

In terms of public communication, the concept of degree-years could serve as a powerful narrative tool. It translates complex climate dynamics into an intuitive measure that captures cumulative exposure to harmful warming. This allows scientists, policymakers, and the public to grasp why even brief exceedances of temperature targets cannot be dismissed as temporary or harmless, engendering a sense of urgency and shared responsibility to prevent such scenarios.

Moreover, the study opens exciting avenues for further research. Quantifying degree-year thresholds specific to different types of tipping points—such as permafrost thaw, coral reef die-offs, or monsoon shifts—can refine risk predictions and tailor mitigation efforts. Understanding interactions between multiple tipping elements under varying degree-year exposures may reveal potential cascade effects, heightening the stakes of temperature overshoot.

From a geoengineering perspective, the findings also raise caution. Proposed interventions aimed at artificially reducing global temperatures after an overshoot event must be evaluated in the context of irreversible processes already triggered. If irreversible changes are initiated early in the overshoot phase, cooling alone may not restore pre-overshoot conditions, limiting the efficacy of such strategies.

Importantly, this study enhances our conceptual toolkit for addressing the climate crisis. Instead of focusing solely on static temperature targets, it shifts the lens to dynamic exposure metrics that capture the integrative nature of climate impacts. This could inspire novel frameworks for carbon budgeting, climate risk governance, and adaptation planning that better reflect the temporal dimension of warming.

As the world grapples with the twin challenges of rapid decarbonization and social transformation, the message is clear: the pathways we choose today will dictate not just the future peak temperatures but whether we cross invisible but consequential temporal boundaries that lock in irreversible change. The degree-years of temperature overshoot is a clarion call to steer humanity away from transient excesses and towards a sustainable, stable climate future.

In sum, Dickau, Zickfeld, and Matthews have presented a visionary and urgently needed perspective on climate change risks. Their pioneering work demystifies the irreversibility of certain climate impacts by framing it within the cumulative thermal stress of overshoot duration and intensity. This holistic approach complements existing metrics and offers a powerful new paradigm for safeguarding the planet’s habitability in an era of uncertainty.

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Subject of Research: Irreversible climate changes linked to cumulative temperature overshoot measured as degree-years.

Article Title: Irreversible climate changes driven by degree-years of temperature overshoot.

Article References:
Dickau, M., Zickfeld, K. & Matthews, H.D. Irreversible climate changes driven by degree-years of temperature overshoot. Commun Earth Environ (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-026-03761-z

Image Credits: AI Generated

The first tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season appears to be forming over South Texas, raising the risk of dangerous flooding across multiple states.

Two trillion, and most of them out of sight

In 2016 a team led by Christopher Conselice at the University of Nottingham put the number of galaxies in the observable universe at about two trillion, roughly ten times the figure astronomers had been working with. The twist sits inside the result: the great majority of those galaxies are too faint for any telescope now operating to detect.

The paper states it plainly. There are “at least 2 × 10¹² (two trillion) galaxies in the currently visible universe, the vast majority of which cannot be observed with present day technology as they are too faint.” In other words, the count is less a tally of dots in our images than an estimate of how many dots the images are missing.

How you count galaxies you cannot see

The team did not add up galaxies one by one. Instead they used galaxy stellar mass functions, which describe how many galaxies of each mass exist in a given slice of space. They measured these at many points in cosmic history, reaching back to within roughly 650 million years of the Big Bang. Much of the deep data came from the Hubble Space Telescope, whose narrow, long-exposure images act like core samples drilled through the universe.

Fitting those measurements with a standard mathematical curve, the researchers worked out the density of galaxies at each epoch, then integrated across the whole observable volume and the whole age of the universe. The arithmetic ran down to galaxies as small as a million times the mass of the Sun, faint dwarfs that no survey can see at great distance.

Working with colleagues at Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands and the University of Edinburgh, the team turned narrow, deep images of the sky into three-dimensional maps. From those they measured the volume and the galaxy density of one small slice of space after another. Conselice likened the effort to an intergalactic archaeological dig, a way of estimating how many galaxies had been missed rather than counting the ones already on the photographic plates. The faintest galaxies the model implies would shine at around magnitude 29 on the astronomers’ brightness scale, far below the reach of the unaided eye and beyond all but the deepest exposures ever taken.

Two independent versions of the calculation gave 1.2 trillion and 2.8 trillion. The University of Nottingham reported the averaged figure of two trillion as the headline result, the product of what Conselice described as roughly fifteen years of work.

“We are missing the vast majority of galaxies because they are very faint and far away,” Conselice said when the study appeared. “It boggles the mind that over 90 percent of the galaxies in the universe have yet to be studied.”

The early universe was more crowded

The count is high partly because the young universe was busier than the present one. When the team tracked how galaxy numbers changed over time, the trend ran backward. A given volume of space held about ten times more galaxies when the universe was a few billion years old than it does today.

That sounds backward, since the universe has only grown older and larger. The explanation is that small galaxies have spent billions of years merging into bigger ones, so the population thins even as individual galaxies grow. Most of the missing multitude are low-mass systems, no larger than the dwarf galaxies that orbit the Milky Way, and they are exactly the ones too dim to register at great distance.

Why the number jumped tenfold

Before this work, the count was usually put in the hundreds of billions, with the often-quoted figure around 100 billion. Even careful counts from the deepest direct images, such as the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, reached only a couple of hundred billion galaxies. The 2016 model put the true total at almost ten times that direct-count number, roughly two trillion. That implies about ninety percent of galaxies are fainter than current telescopes can register, below an apparent brightness of about magnitude 29.

That gap is not just bookkeeping. The number of galaxies feeds into the total amount of starlight filling space, and into the centuries-old puzzle known as Olbers’ paradox, which asks why the night sky is dark if the universe is full of stars. A sky packed with two trillion galaxies might seem to make the paradox worse, not better.

The team’s answer is that the light of those distant galaxies never reaches us at full strength. Most of it is absorbed by gas in intergalactic space, and the expansion of the universe stretches the rest toward redder, fainter wavelengths. So the universe can be far more crowded than telescopes show while the night sky stays dark, with most of its contents waiting in the gloom for sharper eyes.

What this does and does not prove

The two-trillion figure is a model-dependent extrapolation, not a head count, and the authors are careful about its limits. The result hinges on two choices: the smallest galaxy mass they counted and the earliest epoch they reached. They note that pushing the mass limit lower would multiply the total by about seven, which is why they frame two trillion as a floor rather than a ceiling.

The bigger caveat arrived later. In 2021 a team used NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, far enough from the Sun to escape the dust glow that brightens the sky near Earth, to measure the cosmic optical background, the summed light of all galaxies. From out there the sky was about ten times darker than the darkest view Hubble can manage. The researchers argued in public that the faintness of that glow points to a total closer to the hundreds of billions than to trillions. “We simply don’t see the light from two trillion galaxies,” one of them, Marc Postman, told reporters.

So the famous number is one side of an open argument, the high end of a range that newer data has pulled downward. What survives the dispute is the underlying lesson rather than the digit: most of the universe’s galaxies, on any of these estimates, are fainter than we can currently observe.

A number that keeps moving

The galaxy count has climbed and fallen as instruments changed, from a few hundred billion in the 1990s to two trillion in 2016 and back toward the hundreds of billions in the New Horizons reading. Each revision says as much about the reach of the telescope as about the universe itself.

That may be the honest takeaway. The number of galaxies is not a settled fact carved into the sky but a running estimate, one that shifts every time a new instrument sees a little deeper into the dark.

The post At least two trillion galaxies fill the observable universe — ten times the old estimate — and most are too faint for any telescope today to see, a 2016 study found appeared first on Space Daily.

A hidden biological clock has been discovered by genetic researchers, revealing how proteins act as a timing mechanism that controls living organisms’ growth into adulthood.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) researchers in New York revealed their findings in a recent paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, identifying how a feedback circuit between the proteins MYRF-1 and LIN-42 functions as the worm genome’s master developmental clock.

Their research focused on the worm species Caenorhabditis elegans, revealing how these proteins set the timing of pulses that guide the worm through its development.

A Missing Biological Clock

“Development requires that cells change identity in the correct order while the organism continues to grow. How multicellular animals generate and synchronize this timing information across tissues has remained unclear,” the authors write.

The search for this missing biological clock was the core of the CSHL team’s research. Genetic and developmental problems are often expressed as a failure of developmental processes to initiate, which could be tied to problems with internal timing sequences that organize such behaviors. This marks the first time researchers have discovered a non-repeating biological clock.

“This is the central clock for all cells in the worm,” explained co-author Christopher Hammell. “It’s responsible for coordinating a finite series of sequential pulses of gene expression that must occur only once, and in order, for proper developmental progression. It’s like a ratchet. It turns genes on and off multiple times during development, but ultimately, it’s only going in one direction.”

Exploring the Genetic Issues

CSHL researchers paired the modern AI tool AlphaFold with more traditional genetic research techniques, such as protein sequencing, molecular experiments, and DNA sequencing, to identify MYRF-1’s role in the worm’s development.

The team found that protein signals both initiate and terminate developmental stages, keeping growth on track. MYRF-1 pulses fire first, then activate LIN-42, which determines the strength and duration of the timing pulses. This biological clock activates stage-specific regulatory RNAs and synchronizes developmental checkpoints, creating a rhythmic gene-regulation metronome that enforces the irreversible nature of growth and molting. 

In tests to confirm how this biological clock operates, researchers discovered that blocking MYRF-1 expression disrupts the worms’ development cycle.

Understanding the Rhythm of Growth

“We’ve never seen anything like this before,” Hammell says. “MYRF-1 is part of this master regulatory clock for all cells, but it’s also acting as a key maker and the master key for each stage of growth. Without the right key for each stage, development hits a wall and can’t progress.”

The researchers say that understanding how these proteins interact to create cellular clocks that guide development will help researchers better understand cell growth, progression, and differentiation.

“The MYRF-1/LIN-42 circuit runs in all cells,” Hammell says. “And every one of these independent cellular clocks appears to be in sync when you watch normal development. But are they communicating with each other? We’ve never thought deeply about that question before.”

A better understanding of these clocks could offer potential routes to cures for genetic and developmental issues by allowing medical science to jump-start processes that fail to initiate naturally.

Fundamentally, by restoring synchronization of these growth, development, and differentiation processes, scientists and medical practitioners could see better future success in alleviating certain genetic conditions.

The team’s recent paper, “A Molecular Timer Couples Organism-Wide Temporal Identity to Developmental Checkpoints,” appeared in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on May 6, 2026.

Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.

In the rapidly urbanizing world, understanding the exact contours of cities is more important than ever. Urban boundaries are not just lines on a map; they define jurisdictions for governance, affect resource allocation, and influence socio-economic analyses. Yet, delineating these boundaries is a complex task, as cities are multifaceted entities with diverse spatial characteristics. Recent research by Van Migerode, Poorthuis, and Derudder proposes a novel framework for selecting proxy datasets to identify city boundaries, emphasizing that the choice of proxy should be fundamentally purpose-driven, ensuring alignment with the conceptualization of the city relevant to the specific application.

Traditionally, city boundaries have been drawn based on administrative lines, but these often fail to capture the functional and lived realities of urban regions. As urban areas morph, sprawl, and reconfigure, administrative borders can lag behind socio-economic and physical changes, making them inadequate for many contemporary analyses. Alternative methods utilize various proxy datasets, each reflecting different facets of urbanity, such as population density, built-up areas as detected through satellite imagery, and night-time light emissions as captured by remote sensing technologies. These proxies, while informative, come embedded with unique assumptions and biases, necessitating a clear rationale for their selection.

Population-based proxies define cities based on concentrations of people, often relying on census data or other demographic sources. This approach can highlight areas of intense human activity and social interaction. However, it may neglect important spatial structures, such as industrial zones or unpopulated commercial districts, which are nonetheless integral parts of the urban fabric. Moreover, population data are typically collected at intervals as long as a decade, limiting their responsiveness to rapid urban dynamics. Consequently, population metrics provide a somewhat static and socially centered picture of a city’s boundaries.

Conversely, proxies relying on built-up area data leverage remote sensing imagery to detect physical infrastructure and developed land. This method captures the morphological aspect of urbanization, mapping where human construction dominates the landscape. Built-up area proxies often use high-resolution satellite data to discern artificial surfaces, offering fine spatial detail with high temporal frequency. While they effectively mirror the tangible footprint of urban expansion, these proxies may misclassify transient or non-urban structures, and often do not differentiate between residential, commercial, or industrial land uses, potentially conflating distinct urban functions within the boundary delineation.

Another widely used proxy is night-time light intensity, which measures the artificial illumination visible from space during the night. This method taps into the energetic and economic activities that illuminate urban nightscapes, providing a dynamic indicator of urban vibrancy and development. Night-time light data have increasingly become popular for mapping urban extents in places with limited census or infrastructure data. However, they can introduce artifacts such as blooming effects, where lights appear to spread beyond their actual sources, and may underrepresent low-income or peri-urban areas with less developed electrical infrastructure, skewing the perceived urban footprint.

Recognizing these inherent differences, Van Migerode and colleagues advocate for a tailored approach that moves beyond the one-size-fits-all mentality. Their framework encourages researchers to explicitly state the conceptualization of the city they aim to operationalize, considering whether their focus lies in socio-economic interactions, morphological characteristics, or energetic activity. By interrogating the theoretical underpinnings of urban conceptualization, researchers can better match proxy datasets to the phenomena under investigation, yielding more accurate and meaningful delineations.

This purpose-driven framework also addresses the multifaceted nature of cities as complex socio-technical systems. For studies exploring urban economic networks, population proxies may offer the most relevant boundaries, capturing hubs of human activity and interaction. In contrast, infrastructural planning or environmental assessments may benefit from built-up area proxies to define where physical developments occur. Similarly, investigations into urban energy consumption or night-time economies might find night-time light data more indicative of their spatial focus. Thus, choosing the proxy is not merely a technical decision but an epistemological one, deeply connected to how urbanity is understood.

The framework proposed promotes transparency in research methodologies by encouraging authors to articulate their rationales clearly. This practice can enhance reproducibility and comparability across studies, as differing urban delineations often lead to incongruous results in cross-city or temporal analyses. Moreover, explicit justification enables better critique and refinement of urban proxies, fostering a collective advancement in the science of urban boundary delineation.

Technological advances in remote sensing and data availability further complicate and enrich this field. High-resolution satellites, increased frequency of data capture, and improvements in light detection instruments have expanded the potential of morphological and night-time light proxies. At the same time, the proliferation of big data sources such as mobile phone records, social media check-ins, and GPS traces presents emerging avenues to define urban boundaries based on patterns of human mobility and interaction, though these too bring questions about representativeness and privacy.

Indeed, the use of multi-proxy approaches is gaining traction as a way to integrate complementary perspectives. Instead of relying on a single dataset, combining population, built-up area, and night-time light data can create hybrid delineations that balance social, physical, and energetic dimensions of urbanity. However, such integrative methods necessitate sophisticated statistical and machine learning techniques to reconcile often contrasting signals and to assign appropriate weights, underscoring the importance of a well-founded theoretical framework to guide the integration process.

The implications of selecting appropriate urban proxies extend beyond academic inquiry. Urban policy, infrastructure investment, disaster management, and sustainability planning all depend on accurate urban boundary definitions. For example, misestimating city size can lead to under- or over-provision of services, misallocation of fiscal resources, and inadequate risk assessments. As urban populations worldwide continue to grow and new urban forms emerge, such as mega-regions and polycentric metropolitan areas, the challenge of delineating city boundaries only intensifies, demanding innovative and flexible approaches.

Van Migerode and colleagues’ contribution is thus timely and significant, offering a pathway to sharpen analytical precision amid the complexity of urban systems. Their emphasis on purpose-driven selection and methodological clarity serves as a call to action for urban scientists, geographers, planners, and policymakers alike to critically evaluate and transparently report the foundations of their city boundary definitions. This paradigm shift has the potential to yield urban analyses that are not only methodologically robust but also genuinely reflective of the multifarious realities cities embody.

The study also raises questions about future directions in urban boundary research. How can emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and real-time data streams, be harnessed to dynamically update urban boundaries? What ethical considerations arise when integrating new data types? Can standardized frameworks be developed without sacrificing contextual sensitivity? These pressing inquiries underscore that delineating cities is as much an evolving scientific endeavor as it is a reflection of changing societal values and technological landscapes.

In sum, the research by Van Migerode, Poorthuis, and Derudder advances the discourse on urban boundary delineation by positioning the proxy selection process as fundamentally purpose-driven, rather than convenient or conventional. Their framework champions the alignment between conceptual goals and empirical data, ensuring that proxies serve as accurate mirrors of the urban phenomena under study. As cities continue to shape the future of humanity, refining how we define their edges remains a critical step in understanding and managing urban complexity.

This nuanced approach promises to enhance the rigor and relevance of urban studies, enriching everything from demographic assessments and infrastructure planning to environmental monitoring and economic development strategies. Through clarity and intentionality in proxy selection, researchers can unlock new insights into urban form and function, enabling smarter decisions that respond effectively to the challenges and opportunities of urban life.

Ultimately, the quest to delineate city boundaries is a reflection of our broader efforts to comprehend the urban condition in all its dimensions. As this study reveals, the tools we choose shape not only our maps but also our understanding of what cities are and what they could become.

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Subject of Research: Proxy datasets for delineating city boundaries and their suitability based on purpose-driven selection.

Article Title: Proxy datasets to identify city boundaries.

Article References:
Van Migerode, C., Poorthuis, A. & Derudder, B. Proxy datasets to identify city boundaries. Nat Cities (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-026-00464-6

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-026-00464-6