For the one in three (98 million) Americans living with prediabetes, a surprising fresh fruit pairing may hold promise for heart health. A new study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association suggests that adding one avocado and a cup of mango to your daily routine may help support key markers of cardiovascular health.

Adults with prediabetes who enjoyed this combination daily for eight weeks saw improvements in blood vessel function and diastolic blood pressure – two important indicators of cardiovascular wellness.

Conducted by researchers at Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech), the study asked adults with prediabetes to follow an Avocado-Mango (AM) diet – adding one medium Hass avocado and a cup of fresh mango to their daily meals and snacks for eight weeks. A calorie-matched control group followed a similar diet, with avocado and mango replaced by calorically comparable carbohydrate-based foods. Those on the AM diet saw meaningful improvements in blood vessel function, which supports healthy circulation, and diastolic blood pressure, a key factor in long-term heart health, compared to the control group.

Blood vessel function improved significantly in participants on the AM diet. They experienced a significant increase in flow-mediated dilation (FMD) – a key measure of endothelial function (blood vessel health) – to 6.7%, compared with a decline to 4.6% in the control. This suggests a meaningful improvement.

Diastolic blood pressure also significantly improved, particularly among men. In the control group, men saw an average central blood pressure increase of 5 points (mmHg), while those on the AM diet experienced a reduction of about 1.9 points – a difference that can be clinically significant if sustained. These benefits occurred without changes in calorie intake or body weight, suggesting that nutrient-dense fruits like avocado and mango may support cardiovascular health without major lifestyle changes.

“This research reinforces the power of food-first strategies to help reduce cardiovascular disease risk, particularly in vulnerable populations like those with prediabetes,” said Britt Burton-Freeman, PhD, Principal Investigator and Professor at Illinois Tech. “It’s an encouraging message: small, nutrient-dense additions—like incorporating avocado and mango into meals and snacks—may support heart health without the need for strict rules or major dietary overhauls.”

The Avocado-Mango group also saw increases in fiber, vitamin C, and heart-healthy monounsaturated fat – nutrients tied to cardiovascular wellness – without changes in calorie intake or body weight. Select kidney function markers, such as estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), also improved.

While no significant differences were found in cholesterol, blood sugar, or inflammation, the findings highlight the value of adding nutrient-rich fruits to the diet, especially for those at risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The post Mango and avocado combine for heart health appeared first on Green Prophet.

Plastic products are ubiquitous in our food supply chain, shedding microplastics into every part of the human ecosystem. As they degrade, microplastics break down into even smaller fragments called nanoplastics — tiny particles that can affect biological molecules in ways not fully understood.

In a new study, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign examined what happens when nanoplastics interact with Salmonella, potentially affecting food safety and human health.

“Salmonella enterica is a major foodborne pathogen that is often found in meat, poultry, and ready-to-eat food. We are testing ground turkey from grocery stores in our lab for a study on food safety, and finding that it is frequently positive for Salmonella.

“If you cook the meat properly, you should not have a problem. However, ground turkey is often packaged in plastic, and we wanted to explore how Salmonella react when they come into contact with plastic polymers,” said senior author Pratik Banerjee.

Banerjee’s team previously studied the interaction of nanoplastics and an E. coli strain responsible for major outbreaks of severe gastroenteritis. In this study, they focused on Salmonella enterica and polystyrene, a commonly used plastic material for food packaging and disposable utensils.

“We examined the physiology of Salmonella in response to nanoplastics, and we found an increased expression of virulence-related genes. The bacteria also formed thicker biofilms, which further indicates they are becoming more virulent,” said Jayita De, a graduate student in Banerjee’s lab and lead author on the paper.

Biofilm is an agglomeration of microorganisms growing together to form a protective layer, increasing survival for pathogenic bacteria under physiological stress. You might see biofilms as a slimy film in your kitchen sink or on your cutting board after handling raw meat.

However, while Salmonella initially showed increased virulence, prolonged exposure to nanoplastics slowed its stress response.

“When the bacteria first encounter nanoplastic particles, they go into offensive mode and become more virulent. But after a while, they start losing their resources and energy, so they switch to defensive mode, which allows them to persist in the environment for a longer time. If the concentration of nanoplastics rises, they can again switch to an offensive mode. It’s a trade-off between offense and defense,” De said.

The overall conclusion is that interaction with nanoplastics induces behavioral changes in Salmonella enterica, but further research is needed to determine the direction and impact of those changes.

Equally concerning is the possibility that nanoplastics can affect antibiotic resistance in Salmonella, Banerjee said.

“Any compound that puts physiological stress on the bacteria can trigger antimicrobial resistance. Nanoplastics are not antimicrobials, but mere exposure to them could convert bacteria that previously were not resistant to a particular antibiotic in a process called cross-resistance,” he explained.

This is the topic of an ongoing study, but initial findings indicate that polystyrene nanoplastics can cause Salmonella to increase the expression of antimicrobial-resistant genes, Banerjee added.

“However, we don’t want to sound the alarm and advocate that people stop using plastics. Plastic packaging provides a lot of benefits, such as reducing food spoilage and waste while keeping expenses low. We don’t know yet whether this is something we should be worried about,” he said.

Banerjee’s research team is among the first to examine the interactions between foodborne pathogens and plastic particles, thereby advancing this emerging field from a food safety perspective. He hopes other researchers around the world will pick up the mantle, because there is a lot more to learn about consequences, risks, and tolerances before any policy recommendations can be made.

The post How plastics can increase food poisoning appeared first on Green Prophet.

Short-term surges in air pollution in New Jersey from the 2023 Canadian wildfires were associated with a higher stroke rate and more serious strokes, according to a preliminary study released March 3, 2026, that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 78^th Annual Meeting next month.

“Wildfire smoke contains pollutants like ozone and particulate matter, so it is more than a nuisance, it can be a public health hazard,” said study author Elizabeth Cerceo, MD, of Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in Camden, New Jersey. “The 2023 Canadian wildfires resulted in unprecedented declines in air quality across the northeastern United States. Our findings show that short-term exposure to elevated air pollution from these wildfires was associated with a higher incidence and severity of stroke.” 

Related: smoking and strokes

For the study, researchers used a stroke registry to identify all cases of stroke that occurred during June and July 2023 and during the same months a year earlier. Ischemic strokes are the most common kind of stroke. Bleeding strokes are more severe and often more fatal.

Researchers reviewed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data for both periods from air quality monitors located in Camden, New Jersey. They calculated average daily exposures for ozone which, when inhaled, can cause shortness of breath, coughing and aggravation of conditions like asthma. They also calculated daily average exposures for fine particulate matter, also called PM2.5, which is air pollution with particles that are 2.5 micrometers in diameter or less.

Ozone levels peaked at 136 parts per billion (ppb) during the wildfires in 2023 compared to median ozone concentration of 36 ppb. Particulate matter reached 211 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m³) compared to median concentration of 48.5 µg/m³.

Daily air quality data was matched with the timing of each stroke. Because pollution effects may take a few days to impact the body, researchers also took into account the levels from the preceding one to two days before participants had their stroke.

For ozone levels, 72% of the days were 50 ppb or less, with 28% of the days above the recommended level. The World Health Organization guideline for ozone is 50 ppb. Researchers compared 42 strokes that occurred on above average ozone days, with 80 strokes that occurred on below average days. For strokes that occurred on above average ozone days, the incidence of stroke, or the rate at which new stroke cases occurred, was 1.25 strokes per day compared to 0.93 strokes per day that occurred on below average days.

After adjusting for factors like age, sex, race, and cause of stroke, researchers found higher average ozone days were associated with a 0.32 higher incidence of stroke per day.

They also found for strokes on above average ozone days, there was a higher proportion of bleeding strokes and more large artery atherosclerosis, plaque buildup in major arteries.

For particulate matter levels, 38% of the days were above average days and 62% were below average days. Researchers compared 39 strokes that occurred on above average particulate matter days to 83 strokes that occurred on below average days. They found above average particulate matter was associated with longer hospital stays and higher scores on a scale measuring stroke severity.

“While longer-term air pollution has been recognized as a risk factor for stroke, less is known about short exposures to wildfire smoke,” said Cerceo. “Our study addresses a critical gap by providing more information about the neurological impact of wildfire smoke. Our findings can help guide stroke prevention and underscore the need for public health interventions during wildfires.”

The post Exposure to wildfire smoke leads to strokes appeared first on Green Prophet.

“Our study reveals the growing trend of synthetic opioid use in communities and our non-invasive approach to detect these emerging drugs, helping public health officials to respond more effectively and shape informed policies,” explains Ramesh Sapkota, an author of the study.

Opioid drugs including oxycodone, heroin and fentanyl have fueled an ever-worsening epidemic in the US. And after giant events in New Orleans they are popping up in the wastewater.

Synthetic opioids such as nitazenes are emerging as new drugs that are being misused. Nitazenes were first developed as an alternative to morphine in the 1950s but carried too high an overdose risk for clinical use. However, they re-emerged in the illicit drug market around 2019. And although they frequently appear in overdose-related deaths, not all jurisdictions are monitoring for them yet.

For example, Louisiana’s Department of Health reported that 46% of overdose deaths in 2023 were caused by opioids, but none officially report nitazene involvement, contradicting the national trends reported by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And their most commonly found nitazene analogue, metonitazene, is 1,000 times more potent than morphine.

To monitor this emerging risk, Sapkota, Emilia Lomnicki and Bikram Subedi turned to a method that could provide near real-time, non-invasive results: wastewater monitoring. They say this is the first time that this technique has been used to track several nitazene compounds in municipal wastewater.

The researchers specifically focused on the period surrounding and including the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras in New Orleans (Jan. 23 to March 31, 2025) and collected a total of 28 samples from a treatment plant estimated to serve nearly 300,000 people. The analyses detected seven of the nine nitazenes down to trace levels in wastewater. And their most commonly found nitazene analogue, metonitazene, is 1,000 times more potent than morphine. Surprisingly, some analogues were found at similar levels during the week of the big events and the week after, and some were only found after Mardi Gras had concluded.

These estimates do not provide insight into the consumption rate of nitazene analogues because the excretion rates of these drugs must be understood first. However, early detection of these dangerous substances is incredibly important, especially during high-traffic events like those studied here.

“With this knowledge, valuable insight into the evolving dynamics of the overdose crisis is gained, and a discussion on public health responses to combat these illicit drugs and prevent further loss of life is opened,” concludes Lomnicki.

Wastewater treatment facilities do not adequately filter drugs and chemicals from drinking water and tap water. While some studies show high removal rates (>90%) for certain drugs, others indicate that many opioids, particularly synthetic ones, pass through standard treatment, leading to their release into environmental waters. 

The post What we find in New Orleans tap water after Mardi Gras appeared first on Green Prophet.

Between 1840 and 1907, tens of thousands of one-humped dromedary camels (Camelus dromedarius) were imported into Australia to help with inland transport and exploration. Estimates range from about 10,000 to 20,000 animals brought into the country in that period.

The very first camel brought into Australia arrived in 1840, shipped from the Canary Islands; only one of that small group survived the voyage. This camel was named Harry.

But over the years the camel population grew to a point where they have become a nuisance. Australia is home to the world’s biggest feral camel population to the point they are considered a pest. There about one million roaming in the outback, damaging ecosystems.

To ease the burden, some countries are happy to take camels, as in this flight of camels headed on a plane to Saudi Arabia.

Quick facts about camels:

Camels are choking and dying from plastics in Dubai

Camel milk is considered superior to cow milk for many reasons. Here are 6.

The post Australian camels fly on a plane to Saudi Arabia appeared first on Green Prophet.

Prior to the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, Americans lived in communities awash with lead from industrial sources, paint, water supply pipes and, most significantly, tailpipe emissions. A dangerous neurotoxin that accumulates in human tissues and is linked to developmental deficits in children, environmental lead levels have come way down in the years since, and so have human exposures.

The proof is in your hair.

An analysis of hair samples conducted by University of Utah scientists shows precipitous reductions in lead levels since 1916.

“We were able to show through our hair samples what the lead concentrations are before and after the establishment of regulations by the EPA,” said demographer Ken Smith, a distinguished professor emeritus of family and consumer studies. “We have hair samples spanning about 100 years. And back when the regulations were absent, the lead levels were about 100 times higher than they are after the regulations.”

A useful element with a dark side

The findings, which appear in PNAS, underscore the vital role of environmental regulations in protecting public health. The study notes lead rules are now being weakened by the Trump administration in a wide-ranging move to ease environmental protections.

“We should not forget the lessons of history. And the lesson is those regulations have been very important,” said co-author Thure Cerling, a distinguished professor of both geology and biology. “Sometimes they seem onerous and mean that industry can’t do exactly what they’d like to do when they want to do it or as quickly as they want to do it. But it’s had really, really positive effects.”

Lead is the heaviest of heavy metals that, like mercury and arsenic, accumulate in living tissue and are toxic at even low levels. Yet lead holds very useful properties, great for fashioning into pipes and as a chemical additive. Lead was added to paint to improve durability, speed up drying, and produce vibrant colors with greater coverage. Lead also improved the performance of automobile engines by preventing pistons from “knocking.”

By the 1970s, its toxicity became well established, and EPA regulations began phasing it out of paint, pipes, gasoline and other consumer products.

How Utahns’ affection for family history advances science

To document whether these steps were helping reduce lead exposure in people, Smith joined with geologist Diego Fernandez and Cerling, who had developed techniques to discern where animals have lived and what they eat based on chemical analysis of hair and teeth.

The lead research is built on a previous study funded by the university’s Center on Aging and the National Institutes of Health that had recruited Utahns who consented to provide blood samples and family health histories.

For the new study, the researchers asked members of that cohort to provide hair samples, both contemporary and from when they were young. These people obliged, and some were able to find ancestors’ hair preserved in family scrapbooks dating as far back as a century. In all, the team acquired hair samples from 48 individuals in this manner, offering a robust window into lead levels along Utah’s populous Wasatch Front, which historically experienced heavy lead emissions from industrial sources.

“The Utah part of this is so interesting because of the way people keep track of their family history. I don’t know that you could do this in New York or Florida,” said Smith, who directed the U’s Pedigree and Population Program at the Huntsman Cancer Center while these studies were conducted.

This region supported a vibrant smelting industry through most of the 20th century, centered in the cities of Midvale and Murray. Most of Utah’s smelters were shuttered by the 1970s, around the same time the EPA clamped down on the use of lead in consumer products.

The research team ran the hair samples through mass spectrometry equipment at the facility directed by Fernandez.

“The surface of the hair is special. We can tell that some elements get concentrated and accumulated on the surface. Lead is one of those. That makes it easier because lead is not lost over time,” said Fernandez, a research professor in the Department of Geology & Geophysics. “Because mass spectrometry is very sensitive, we can do it with one hair strand, though we cannot tell where the lead is in the hair. It’s probably on the surface mostly, but it could also be coming from the blood if that hair was synthesized when there was high lead in the blood.”

Blood would provide a better exposure assessment, but hair is far easier to collect and preserve, and more importantly, it offers clues to long-ago exposures for a person who has grown up or even deceased.

“It doesn’t really record that internal blood concentration that your brain is seeing, but it tells you about that overall environmental exposure,” Cerling said. “One of the things that we found is that hair records that original value, but then the longer the hair has been exposed to the environment, the higher the lead concentrations are.”

The team’s findings regarding lead in hair run parallel to the reductions of lead in gasoline following the EPA’s establishment by President Richard Nixon.

Prior to 1970, for example, gasolines contained about 2 grams of lead per gallon. That might not sound like much, but considering the billions of gallons of fuel American automobiles burn each year, it adds up to nearly 2 pounds of lead released into the environment per person a year.

‘It’s an enormous amount of lead that’s being put into the environment and quite locally,” Cerling said. “It’s just coming out of the tailpipe, goes up in the air and then it comes down. It’s in the air for a number of days, especially during the inversions that we have and it absorbs into your hair, you breathe it and it goes into your lungs.”

But after the 1970s, even as gasoline consumption escalated in the United States, the concentrations of lead in the hair samples plummeted, from as high as 100 parts per million (ppm) to 10 ppm by 1990. In 2024, the level was less than 1 ppm.

The post Our hair shows that banning lead works appeared first on Green Prophet.

In Islamic tradition, there is a point where creation ends — a boundary at the 7th heaven that marks the limit of what any created being can reach. That boundary is called Sidrat al-Muntahā, translated as the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary.

The reference appears in the Qur’an in a short, concentrated passage in Surah An-Najm (The Star), describing a vision “at the Lote Tree of the most extreme limit.” The lote tree is known as the Sidr tree, from which the Yemenites make holy honey, and it is also believed to be the thorn worn by Jesus.

Where the lote shows up in Islam’s most famous ascent story

The boundary, or Sidrat al-Muntahā is most often discussed in connection with the Prophet Muhammad’s Night Journey and Ascension (al-Isrā’ wal-Mi‘rāj) to Jerusalem, which was a dream. For in reality, Mohammed never actually made it to Jerusalem, the Holy City. In a well-known narration recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari, the moment is described with a modest line:

Then Jibril took me till we reached Sidrat-ul-Muntaha … which was shrouded in colors indescribable.

In the same narration, the ascent is tied to the establishment of the five daily prayers — a reminder that the story returns to lived practice. In Judaism, the three-times daily supplication was inspired by the Jewish forefather Abraham, described as “standing” before God, interpreted as the first morning prayer (Genesis 19:27), and Isaac going out to “meditate” (or pray) in the fields and Jacob inspired by the evening prayers.

What “utmost boundary” means

In Islam, the Arabic name is descriptive: sidrah (transliterated with an h or without) refers to a lote tree, and muntahā means the farthest point or extremity — the tree at the limit. One academic treatment explores how “the lote tree of the boundary” functions as a threshold image in Islamic interpretive traditions.

Knowing about the concept of the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary helps explain a core idea in Islam: God is beyond creation, and there are limits to what humans — and even angels — can know. Islam doesn’t aim for union with God or endless revelation; it emphasizes humility, restraint, and knowing when to stop asking. The story of the Lote Tree shows why Islam values discipline and practice, like daily prayer, over personal mystical experience. Protecting the boundary between the divine and the human is seen not as restrictive, but as essential.

The sidr tree and the Lote Tree

The sidr tree is a real, familiar tree across Arabia and parts of the Middle East. And it makes great honey. In English it’s often called the lote tree or Christ’s thorn jujube (Ziziphus species). It grows in harsh, dry conditions, provides deep shade, edible fruit, and medicinal leaves, and is known for its resilience.

For centuries it has been part of everyday desert life — practical, tough, and unremarkable in appearance.

In Islam, this ordinary tree is given extraordinary meaning. Sidrat al-Muntahā — the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary — takes its name from the sidr tree but is not simply a botanical reference. It marks the furthest limit of creation and knowledge, the point beyond which no created being, including angels, can go.

The Qur’an mentions it briefly, without description or symbolism piled on. That restraint is intentional. Islam does not turn the sidr tree into a symbol of God or a ladder toward divinity as the Jewish text goes – Jacob wrestling with the angel. Instead, it uses a known, grounded tree to mark a boundary. In Islam God remains beyond the created world, and knowing where that boundary lies is part of the faith.

The post The Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary, explained appeared first on Green Prophet.

For too long, sustainability and profit have been treated as opposites.

One was about doing good, the other about doing well. But the businesses that will define the next decade are the ones that understand the two are now inseparable.

Sustainability is not a cost. It is a new way to make money.

At HiveKeepers, we stopped asking how to make beekeeping more sustainable and started asking how sustainability could make it more profitable. That shift led to the Micro Honey Harvester, a world-first modular system that lets anyone, anywhere, harvest pure honey without the complexity, cost or waste of traditional extraction.

Traditional honey extraction is messy, expensive and inaccessible for most people who care about sustainable food production. Large rooms, heavy machinery and dedicated facilities all create barriers for smaller producers trying to operate profitably.

The Micro Honey Harvester removes those barriers entirely. Designed with precision and intention, it eliminates the need for an extraction room. With a simple push of a button, beekeepers can harvest fresh honey from hive to home in minutes with zero mess. The result is less waste, higher yield, lower setup costs and a cleaner product ready for sale.

And here’s the part businesses rarely acknowledge: it can make you money.

Whether you are a commercial grower, hobbyist beekeeper or retail equipment supplier, this system opens a new income stream with minimal environmental impact.

For the first time, sustainability is no longer only an ethical choice. It is a financial strategy.

Consumers today expect transparency and traceability from the businesses they support. They want to know their purchases make a difference. By integrating sustainable systems like the Micro Honey Harvester, businesses don’t just meet this expectation, they exceed it. They attract new customers, command stronger margins and tell a genuine story that resonates with modern buyers.

HiveKeepers is already proving this model works. Our technology has been recognised globally, winning both an Apimondia Gold Innovation Award and an Australian Good Design Award. These accolades represent more than engineering excellence. They signal a vision for how design, purpose and profitability can coexist.

As Founder Simon Mildren puts it, “We didn’t want to make another product. We wanted to redesign an entire process and make it profitable for everyone involved, from the beekeeper to the planet.”

The Micro Honey Harvester reflects a shift in mindset. It shows what happens when sustainability sits at the centre of design, not the edge. Every element was created to reduce waste, save energy and simplify the harvesting process without compromising quality. The result is a product that benefits both the environment and the economy. It empowers individuals and businesses to take part in regenerative production, turning sustainability into something tangible and rewarding.

This is also a glimpse into the future of food production. Local, traceable, small-scale and connected. Just as microbreweries redefined beer, micro-harvesting is redefining honey.

Distributed production strengthens resilience and creates a closer relationship between the producer, the consumer and the land. It shortens supply chains, reduces waste and builds a more transparent and trustworthy marketplace.

HiveKeepers is part of a growing movement proving that innovation and sustainability are not competing goals, they are the same goal. The companies that understand this will lead the next wave of growth.

The Micro Honey Harvester is not just for beekeepers. It is for innovators, growers and entrepreneurs who see that doing better for the planet and doing better for their business are now one and the same.

This is not a trend. It is the future. Sustainability is the way forward, and it is the way to make money moving forward.

Simon Mildren, HiveKeepers: team@hivekeepers.com

The post Sustainability That Sells: How Profit and Purpose Come Together in the Hive appeared first on Green Prophet.

A joint study by Tel Aviv University (TAU) and the University of Haifa set out to solve a scientific mystery: how a soft coral is able to perform the rhythmic, pulsating movements of its tentacles without a central nervous system. The study’s findings may change the way we understand movement in the animal kingdom in general and particularly in corals.

The study was led by Elinor Nadir, a PhD student at TAU, under the joint supervision of Professor Yehuda Benayahu of the School of Zoology at TAU’s George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences and Professor Tamar Lotan of the Department of Marine Biology at the Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences at the University of Haifa. The findings were published on November 11, 2025, in the scientific journal PNAS.

The research team discovered that the soft coral Xenia umbellata, one of the most spectacular corals on Red Sea reefs, drives the rhythmic movements of its eight polyp tentacles through a decentralized neural pacemaker system. Rather than relying on a central control center, a network of neurons distributed along the coral’s tentacle enables each one to perform the movement independently, while still achieving precise, collective synchronization.

“It’s a bit like an orchestra without a conductor,” explains Professor Tamar Lotan of the School of Marine Sciences at the University of Haifa. “Each tentacle acts independently, but they are somehow able to ‘listen’ to each other and move in that perfect harmony that so captivates observers. This is a completely different model from how we understand rhythmic movement in other animals.”

Corals of the Xeniidae family are known for their hypnotic movements — the cyclic opening and closing of their tentacles. Until now, however, it was unclear how they perform this. To investigate, the researchers conducted cutting experiments on the coral’s tentacles and examined how they regenerated and restored their rhythmic motion. To their surprise, even when the tentacles were cut off and separated from the coral — and even when further divided into smaller fragments — each piece retained its ability to pulse independently.

Subsequently, the researchers conducted advanced genetic analyses and examined gene expression at different stages of tentacle regeneration after separation from the coral. They found that the coral uses the same genes and proteins involved in neural signal transmission in far more complex animals, including acetylcholine receptors and ion channels that regulate rhythmic activity. According to the researchers, this discovery suggests that the origin of rhythmic movements — familiar to us from those underlying breathing, heartbeat, or walking — is far more ancient than previously thought. The corals demonstrate how coordinated movement can emerge from a simple, distributed system, long before sophisticated control centers evolved in the brains of advanced animals.

“It is fascinating to reach the conclusion that the same molecular components that activate the pacemaker of the human heart are also at work in a coral that appeared in the oceans hundreds of millions of years ago,” Professor Benayahu adds. “The coral we studied allows us to look back in time, to the dawn of the evolution of the nervous system in the animal kingdom. It shows that rhythmic and harmonious movement can be generated even without a brain — through remarkable communication among nerve cells acting together as a smart network. There is no doubt that this study adds an important layer to our understanding of the wonders of the coral reef animal world in general, and of corals in particular, and underscores the paramount need to preserve these extraordinary natural ecosystems.”

The post The life of a coral gives clues to the origins of our heartbeat appeared first on Green Prophet.

The Muslim prophet Muhammad never traveled to the city of Jerusalem in his lifetime. Yet his dream is celebrated as a spiritual transformation. The Isra and Mi‘raj story describes a spiritual or visionary experience, not a recorded historical journey. Even early Islamic scholars debated whether the event was physical or symbolic. Yet today, Muslims around the world are marking Isra and Mi‘raj as a living spiritual tradition filled with prayer, storytelling, and community rituals around the world.

The approximate date when the Prophet’s night journey occurred is the 27th of Rajab (7th month of the Islamic calendar), about 12 years after the start of revelation, which is about 1 year before the Prophet’s migration from Mecca to Medina, considered the starting point of the Islamic calendar, according to Islamic scholars.

Isra means night journey and mi’raj means ascending like on a ladder.

• Isra = the night journey

• Mi‘raj = the ascent

In the Old Testament at the same location, Jacob dreams of a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, with angels ascending and descending on it. The vision symbolizes a connection between the human and divine worlds, made visible during a night of spiritual revelation.

In Christianity, Jesus’ Ascension into heaven mirrors the idea of rising toward God, while Jacob’s ladder (shared with Judaism) is interpreted by Christians as a symbol of Christ connecting heaven and earth. Like Isra and Mi‘raj, these stories express the belief that humans can encounter the divine beyond ordinary physical limits.

How Isra and Mi‘raj Is Celebrated Today

Across Muslim communities, the night is observed with special mosque gatherings, Qur’an recitations, sermons, and family discussions. In many countries, the evening becomes a moment for reflection rather than public festivity. Food also plays a quiet but important role. Families prepare simple shared meals, sweets, dates, and regional dishes that vary by culture:

In Indonesia and Malaysia, communal rice dishes, sweet porridge, and traditional cakes are served after prayers.

In Turkey, families share pastries and syrup-soaked desserts.

In the Middle East, dates, flatbreads, and warm drinks accompany storytelling and prayer.

Children learn the story through songs, drawings, and school programs, while elders emphasize humility, gratitude, and discipline.  The night is not about celebration in a modern party sense, but about remembering faith and spiritual responsibility.

The Isra and Mi‘raj festival commemorates not travel, but transformation — and a reminder that in Islamic tradition, spiritual elevation begins with inner struggle.

The post Isra and Mi’raj Festival and the Night Journey to Jerusalem that shaped Islam appeared first on Green Prophet.