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Scientists sound alarm over unexpected domino effect observed in forests: 'It's very concerning'

Scientists sound alarm over unexpected domino effect observed in forests: 'It's very concerning'

Yahoo02-03-2025

As temperatures continue to rise due to ongoing climate change, scientists uncovered an unexpected domino effect that could put forests across North America in danger.
Researchers from the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory published their findings in the Nature Climate Change journal and predicted that hotter, drier conditions will hinder the growth of a fungus that typically limits the spread of the spongy moth, which is an invasive species "that has caused millions of dollars in damage to forests."
The University of Chicago explained in a news release that the spongy moth "was first introduced to the hardwood forests of New England in 1869," and in the ensuing decades the caterpillars "carved a path of destruction through forests, defoliating and killing trees by the acre." However, the fungus Entomophaga maimaiga caused a lethal infection in spongy moths that curbed the spread, "sparing millions of trees."
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While the fungus is a natural combatant that can grow and infect spongy moths before too much damage is done, the release stated that it grows "only if conditions are cool and moist." Greg Dwyer, professor of ecology and evolution at UChicago and senior author of the new study, warned that the reduction of the fungus could lead to a swift turnaround within the moth population and put forests at a significant risk.
"Even small reductions in mortality rate for the moths lead to big increases in defoliation," Dwyer said. "If they don't get killed off when they're at low density one year, then the next year they'll be back at higher density. You get this multiplication process going on."
Like most invasive species, the spongy moth poses a significant threat to the environment, so combatants like the fungus are essential to mitigate its impact. Rising temperatures and changing weather patterns caused by climate change can create favorable conditions for these invasive species to thrive and spread more rapidly.
According to UChicago, the study's results showed that "as climate change brings hotter and drier conditions to forests, fungal infection rates over the next few decades will drop sharply — meaning that more moths will survive to destroy more trees."
To make things even more worrying, Dwyer reported seeing the effects of these changes sooner than expected, as below-average rainfall and above-average temperatures in recent years have already led to spongy moth outbreaks.
"Our projections were pessimistic, but probably not pessimistic enough. It's very concerning," Dwyer said.
Dwyer said he hopes his research spotlights the importance of taking multiple species into consideration when predicting the effects of climate change.
"The vast majority of previous climate change studies look at individual organisms, but a small amount of climate change can have a big effect when you compound it across multiple species," Dwyer said. "So, computer models are crucial for understanding the effects of climate change on species interactions."
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Richard Garwin, designer of the first H-bomb who also paved the way for MRI, GPS and touch-screens
Richard Garwin, designer of the first H-bomb who also paved the way for MRI, GPS and touch-screens

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Richard Garwin, designer of the first H-bomb who also paved the way for MRI, GPS and touch-screens

Richard Garwin, who has died aged 97, was an American nuclear scientist who designed the world's first hydrogen bomb and went on to become a presidential adviser on arms control, while helping to lay the groundwork for such technology as magnetic resonance imaging, high-speed laser printers and touch-screen monitors. The Nobel prizewinner Enrico Fermi called him 'the only true genius I have ever met', but he never became a household name: a 2017 biography was subtitled 'The Most Influential Scientist You've Never Heard Of'. Edward Teller is usually credited, in an unattributed phrase, as the 'father of the sweet technology of the H-bomb'. Due to the secrecy surrounding its development, it was only in recent years that historians have become aware of Garwin's role, following the publication in 2001 of a transcript of a recording made by Teller in which, while not eschewing the credit for devising the bomb, the scientist recalled that the 'first design was made by Dick Garwin'. In 1951 Garwin, then a 23-year-old faculty member at the University of Chicago, was working during his summer holidays at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico where, building on Teller's ideas, he designed the 'Mike', an 82-ton sausage-shaped test device, after working out how to direct the radiation from the atomic device to initiate a fusion reaction in the hydrogen – what he called 'the match for the nuclear bonfire'. 'The shot was fired almost precisely according to Garwin's design,' Teller recalled, on Enewetak Atoll on November 1 1952. The power of the blast – 450 times that of Nagasaki – stunned even those who had watched previous bomb tests, with a mushroom cloud five times the height of Everest and 100 miles wide. Teller subsequently became famous for destroying the career of Robert Oppenheimer, who had run the Los Alamos lab in the Second World War, giving birth to the atomic bomb, but afterwards questioned the morality of devising an even more powerful weapon. 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Get Ready to Hear a Lot More About Your Mitochondria
Get Ready to Hear a Lot More About Your Mitochondria

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Get Ready to Hear a Lot More About Your Mitochondria

The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s warning about mitochondria slipped in between the anti-vaccine junk science and the excoriation of pharmaceutical drugs as 'the No. 3 killer in our country.' He was speaking in 2023 to Joe Rogan, elaborating on the dangers of Wi-Fi—which no high-quality scientific evidence has shown to harm anyone's health—and arguing that it causes disease by somehow opening the blood-brain barrier, and by degrading victims' mitochondria. The mention of mitochondria—the tiny structures that generate energy within our cells—was brief. Two years later, mitochondrial health is poised to become a pillar of the MAHA movement, already showing up in marketing for supplements and on podcasts across the 'manosphere.' Casey Means, President Donald Trump's newest nominee for surgeon general, has singled out the organelle as the main casualty of the modern American health crisis. According to Means (who has an M.D. but no active medical license), most of America's chronic ailments can be traced to mitochondrial dysfunction. Should she be confirmed to the post of surgeon general, the American public can expect to hear a lot more about mitochondria. Among scientists, interest and investment in mitochondria have risen notably in the past five years, Kay Macleod, a University of Chicago researcher who studies mitochondria's role in cancer, told me. Mitochondria, after all, perform a variety of crucial functions in the human body. Beyond powering cells, they can affect gene expression, help certain enzymes function, and modulate cell death, Macleod said. When mitochondria are defective, people do indeed suffer. Vamsi Mootha, a mitochondrial biologist based at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute, told me that rare genetic defects (appearing in about one in 4,300 people) can cause the organelles to malfunction, leading to muscle weakness, heart abnormalities, cognitive disability, and liver and kidney problems. Evidence also suggests that defects in mitochondria directly contribute to symptoms of Parkinson's disease, and could be both a cause and an effect of type 2 diabetes. Other conditions' links to mitochondria are blurrier. Researchers see aberrant mitochondria in postmortem biopsies of patients with illnesses such as Alzheimer's, cancer, and fatty-liver disease, Mootha said; whether those damaged mitochondria cause or result from such conditions is not yet clear. But according to Good Energy, the book Means published last year with a top MAHA adviser—her brother, Calley—mitochondrial dysfunction is a veritable plague upon the United States, responsible for both serious illness and everyday malaise. In their view, modern Western diets and lifestyles wreck countless Americans' metabolic health: Every time you drink unfiltered water or a soda, or feel the stress of mounting phone notifications, you hurt your mitochondria, they say, triggering an immune response that in turn triggers inflammation. (Damaged mitochondria really can cause inflammation, Macleod said.) This chain of events, the Meanses claim, can be blamed for virtually every common chronic health condition: migraines, depression, infertility, heart disease, obesity, cancer, and more. (Casey Means did not respond to requests for comment; reached by email, Calley did not respond to my questions about mitochondria, but noted, 'There is significant scientific evidence that healthy food, exercise and sleep have a significant impact on reversing chronic disease.') Good Energy follows a typical wellness playbook: using a mixture of valid and dubious research to pin a slew of common health problems on one overlooked element of health—and advertising a cure. Among the culprits for our mitochondrial ravaging, according to the Meanses, are poor sleep, medications, ultraprocessed foods, seed oils, too many calories, and too few vitamins, as well as chronically staying in comfortable ambient temperatures. The Means siblings therefore recommend eschewing refined sugar in favor of leafy greens, avoiding nicotine and alcohol, frequenting saunas and cold plunges, getting seven to eight hours of uninterrupted sleep a night, and cleansing your life of environmental toxins. Some studies indeed suggest that mitochondrial function is linked with sleep and temperature, but they've all been conducted on cell cultures, organoids, or mice. According to Macleod, evidence suggests that diet, too, is likely important. But only one lifestyle intervention—exercise—has been definitively shown to improve mitochondrial health in humans. The Meanses are riding a wave of interest in mitochondrial health in the wellness world. Earlier this year, the longevity influencer Bryan Johnson and the ivermectin enthusiast Mel Gibson both endorsed the dye methylene blue for its power to improve mitochondrial respiration; Kennedy was filmed slipping something that looks a lot like methylene blue into his drink. (Kennedy did not respond to a request for comment; the FDA has approved methylene blue, but only as a treatment for the blood disease methemoglobinemia.) AG1, formerly known as Athletic Greens, formulates its drinkable vitamins for mitochondrial health. Even one laser-light skin treatment promises to 'recharge failing mitochondria.' The enzyme CoQ10 is popular right now as a supplement for mitochondrial function, as is NAD, a molecule involved in mitochondria's production of energy. NAD IV drips are especially beloved by celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Kendall Jenner, and the Biebers. These supplements are generally thought to be safe, and some preliminary research shows that NAD supplementation could help patients with Parkinson's or other neurodegenerative diseases, and that CoQ10 could benefit people with mitochondrial disorders. Patients whose symptoms are clearly caused or made worse by deficiencies in a specific vitamin, such as thiamine, can benefit from supplementing those vitamins, Mootha said. But little research explores how these supplements might affect healthy adults. [Read: The MAHA takeover is complete] In Good Energy, as well as on her website and in podcast appearances, Casey Means promotes a number of supplements for mitochondrial health. She also recommends that people wear continuous glucose monitors—available from her company, Levels Health, for $184 a month—to help prevent overwhelming their mitochondria with too much glucose. (According to Macleod, glucose levels are only 'a very indirect measure' of mitochondrial activity.) As with so many problems that wellness influencers harp on, the supposed solution to this one involves buying products from those exact same people. At best, all of this attention to mitochondria could lead Americans to healthier habits. Much of the advice in Good Energy echoes health recommendations we've all heard for decades; getting regular exercise and plenty of fiber is good guidance, regardless of anyone's reasons for doing so. Switching out unhealthy habits for healthy ones will likely even improve your mitochondrial health, Jaya Ganesh, a mitochondrial-disease expert at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, told me. After all, 'if you consistently beat your body up with unhealthy habits, everything is going to fall sick,' Ganesh said. But the mitochondrial approach to wellness carries risks, too. For patients with genetically caused mitochondrial disease, lifestyle changes might marginally improve some symptoms, Ganesh said, but attempting to cure such conditions with supplements and a healthy diet alone could be dangerous. Means also calls out medications—including antibiotics, chemotherapy, antiretrovirals, statins, and high-blood-pressure drugs—for interfering with mitochondria. Macleod told me that statins really do affect mitochondria, as do some antibiotics. (The latter makes sense: Mitochondria are thought to have evolved from bacteria more than a billion years ago.) That's no reason, though, to avoid any of these medications if a doctor has determined that you need them. [Read: America can't break its wellness habit] And yet, a whole chapter of Good Energy is dedicated to the idea that readers should mistrust the motives of their doctors, who the authors say profit by keeping Americans sick. The book is less critical of the ways the wellness industry preys on people's fears. Zooming in on mitochondria might offer a reassuringly specific and seemingly scientific explanation of the many real ills of the U.S. population, but ultimately, Means and MAHA are only helping obscure the big picture. Article originally published at The Atlantic

Get Ready to Hear a Lot More About Your Mitochondria
Get Ready to Hear a Lot More About Your Mitochondria

Atlantic

time2 days ago

  • Atlantic

Get Ready to Hear a Lot More About Your Mitochondria

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s warning about mitochondria slipped in between the anti-vaccine junk science and the excoriation of pharmaceutical drugs as 'the No. 3 killer in our country.' He was speaking in 2023 to Joe Rogan, elaborating on the dangers of Wi-Fi—which no high-quality scientific evidence has shown to harm anyone's health—and arguing that it causes disease by somehow opening the blood-brain barrier, and by degrading victims' mitochondria. The mention of mitochondria—the tiny structures that generate energy within our cells—was brief. Two years later, mitochondrial health is poised to become a pillar of the MAHA movement, already showing up in marketing for supplements and on podcasts across the 'manosphere.' Casey Means, President Donald Trump's newest nominee for surgeon general, has singled out the organelle as the main casualty of the modern American health crisis. According to Means (who has an M.D. but no active medical license), most of America's chronic ailments can be traced to mitochondrial dysfunction. Should she be confirmed to the post of surgeon general, the American public can expect to hear a lot more about mitochondria. Among scientists, interest and investment in mitochondria have risen notably in the past five years, Kay Macleod, a University of Chicago researcher who studies mitochondria's role in cancer, told me. Mitochondria, after all, perform a variety of crucial functions in the human body. Beyond powering cells, they can affect gene expression, help certain enzymes function, and modulate cell death, Macleod said. When mitochondria are defective, people do indeed suffer. Vamsi Mootha, a mitochondrial biologist based at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute, told me that rare genetic defects (appearing in about one in 4,300 people) can cause the organelles to malfunction, leading to muscle weakness, heart abnormalities, cognitive disability, and liver and kidney problems. Evidence also suggests that defects in mitochondria directly contribute to symptoms of Parkinson's disease, and could be both a cause and an effect of type 2 diabetes. Other conditions' links to mitochondria are blurrier. Researchers see aberrant mitochondria in postmortem biopsies of patients with illnesses such as Alzheimer's, cancer, and fatty-liver disease, Mootha said; whether those damaged mitochondria cause or result from such conditions is not yet clear. But according to Good Energy, the book Means published last year with a top MAHA adviser—her brother, Calley—mitochondrial dysfunction is a veritable plague upon the United States, responsible for both serious illness and everyday malaise. In their view, modern Western diets and lifestyles wreck countless Americans' metabolic health: Every time you drink unfiltered water or a soda, or feel the stress of mounting phone notifications, you hurt your mitochondria, they say, triggering an immune response that in turn triggers inflammation. (Damaged mitochondria really can cause inflammation, Macleod said.) This chain of events, the Meanses claim, can be blamed for virtually every common chronic health condition: migraines, depression, infertility, heart disease, obesity, cancer, and more. (Casey Means did not respond to requests for comment; reached by email, Calley did not respond to my questions about mitochondria, but noted, 'There is significant scientific evidence that healthy food, exercise and sleep have a significant impact on reversing chronic disease.') Good Energy follows a typical wellness playbook: using a mixture of valid and dubious research to pin a slew of common health problems on one overlooked element of health—and advertising a cure. Among the culprits for our mitochondrial ravaging, according to the Meanses, are poor sleep, medications, ultraprocessed foods, seed oils, too many calories, and too few vitamins, as well as chronically staying in comfortable ambient temperatures. The Means siblings therefore recommend eschewing refined sugar in favor of leafy greens, avoiding nicotine and alcohol, frequenting saunas and cold plunges, getting seven to eight hours of uninterrupted sleep a night, and cleansing your life of environmental toxins. Some studies indeed suggest that mitochondrial function is linked with sleep and temperature, but they've all been conducted on cell cultures, organoids, or mice. According to Macleod, evidence suggests that diet, too, is likely important. But only one lifestyle intervention— exercise —has been definitively shown to improve mitochondrial health in humans. The Meanses are riding a wave of interest in mitochondrial health in the wellness world. Earlier this year, the longevity influencer Bryan Johnson and the ivermectin enthusiast Mel Gibson both endorsed the dye methylene blue for its power to improve mitochondrial respiration; Kennedy was filmed slipping something that looks a lot like methylene blue into his drink. (Kennedy did not respond to a request for comment; the FDA has approved methylene blue, but only as a treatment for the blood disease methemoglobinemia.) AG1, formerly known as Athletic Greens, formulates its drinkable vitamins for mitochondrial health. Even one laser-light skin treatment promises to 'recharge failing mitochondria.' The enzyme CoQ10 is popular right now as a supplement for mitochondrial function, as is NAD, a molecule involved in mitochondria's production of energy. NAD IV drips are especially beloved by celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Kendall Jenner, and the Biebers. These supplements are generally thought to be safe, and some preliminary research shows that NAD supplementation could help patients with Parkinson's or other neurodegenerative diseases, and that CoQ10 could benefit people with mitochondrial disorders. Patients whose symptoms are clearly caused or made worse by deficiencies in a specific vitamin, such as thiamine, can benefit from supplementing those vitamins, Mootha said. But little research explores how these supplements might affect healthy adults. In Good Energy, as well as on her website and in podcast appearances, Casey Means promotes a number of supplements for mitochondrial health. She also recommends that people wear continuous glucose monitors—available from her company, Levels Health, for $184 a month—to help prevent overwhelming their mitochondria with too much glucose. (According to Macleod, glucose levels are only 'a very indirect measure' of mitochondrial activity.) As with so many problems that wellness influencers harp on, the supposed solution to this one involves buying products from those exact same people. At best, all of this attention to mitochondria could lead Americans to healthier habits. Much of the advice in Good Energy echoes health recommendations we've all heard for decades; getting regular exercise and plenty of fiber is good guidance, regardless of anyone's reasons for doing so. Switching out unhealthy habits for healthy ones will likely even improve your mitochondrial health, Jaya Ganesh, a mitochondrial-disease expert at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, told me. After all, 'if you consistently beat your body up with unhealthy habits, everything is going to fall sick,' Ganesh said. But the mitochondrial approach to wellness carries risks, too. For patients with genetically caused mitochondrial disease, lifestyle changes might marginally improve some symptoms, Ganesh said, but attempting to cure such conditions with supplements and a healthy diet alone could be dangerous. Means also calls out medications—including antibiotics, chemotherapy, antiretrovirals, statins, and high-blood-pressure drugs—for interfering with mitochondria. Macleod told me that statins really do affect mitochondria, as do some antibiotics. (The latter makes sense: Mitochondria are thought to have evolved from bacteria more than a billion years ago.) That's no reason, though, to avoid any of these medications if a doctor has determined that you need them. And yet, a whole chapter of Good Energy is dedicated to the idea that readers should mistrust the motives of their doctors, who the authors say profit by keeping Americans sick. The book is less critical of the ways the wellness industry preys on people's fears. Zooming in on mitochondria might offer a reassuringly specific and seemingly scientific explanation of the many real ills of the U.S. population, but ultimately, Means and MAHA are only helping obscure the big picture.

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