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.

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I am with Elon Musk and his dream to move to Mars. I have always had a feeling that we’re not alone.

For decades, scientists searching for extraterrestrial intelligence have focused on one specific type of radio signal, extremely narrow spikes in frequency. These “narrowband” signals are considered strong candidates for technological transmissions because natural astrophysical processes rarely produce them. However, new research from the alien-hunting organization, the SETI Institute, suggests alien signals might be harder to detect than previously thought, not because they do not exist, but because they may become distorted before leaving their home star systems.

The study, published in The Astrophysical Journal, explores how stellar “space weather” could blur radio transmissions from distant civilizations. Turbulent plasma near stars, including charged particles carried by stellar winds and eruptions such as coronal mass ejections, can interfere with radio waves as they travel outward from a transmitting planet. Even if a civilization sends a perfectly narrow signal, the plasma surrounding its star could spread the signal’s energy across a wider range of frequencies.

This process weakens the signal’s peak strength and makes it more difficult for traditional SETI detection systems to identify. Many current search pipelines are optimized to detect ultra-sharp signals, meaning broadened transmissions could slip below detection thresholds.

“SETI searches are often optimized for extremely narrow signals,” said Dr. Vishal Gajjar, astronomer at the SETI Institute and lead author of the study. “If a signal gets broadened by its own star’s environment, it can slip below our detection thresholds, even if it’s there, potentially helping explain some of the radio silence we’ve seen in technosignature searches.”

To understand how strong this effect might be, researchers studied radio transmissions from spacecraft within our own solar system. By measuring how solar plasma affects these signals, the team developed models that estimate how stellar turbulence might distort transmissions in other planetary systems.

Their findings suggest the effect could be particularly strong around M-dwarf stars, small and active stars that make up roughly 75% of the Milky Way’s stellar population. Because these stars often produce intense stellar activity, signals from planets orbiting them could become significantly broadened before escaping the system.

The research suggests future SETI searches may need to expand their approach, developing detection systems capable of identifying signals that have been smeared or broadened by stellar environments, not just perfectly narrow ones. By accounting for how stellar activity reshapes radio transmissions, scientists hope to design searches that are better matched to what actually arrives at Earth, potentially revealing signals that have so far remained hidden.

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“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. 

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Israel’s water and agricultural technologies didn’t emerge from ideal conditions. They were developed under pressure: low rainfall, saline water, political isolation, lack of energy resources, and the constant need to feed a growing population with limited land. Over the years, I’ve written about many of these companies not as miracle-makers, but as problem-solvers. That’s what makes them relevant to places like Somaliland. Israel was the first country in the world to recognize Somaliland as an independent state although Ethiopia has been treating the nation as such for decades.

Below are 10 technologies, and the Israeli companies behind them, that could realistically support Somaliland’s long-term food, water, and energy resilience.

The first is drip irrigation, pioneered by Netafim, founded in the 1960s on Kibbutz Hatzerim after engineer Simcha Blass noticed that slow, targeted watering produced healthier plants. Netafim’s systems are now used worldwide to cut water use while increasing yields, especially in dry regions.

Closely related is low-pressure irrigation and fertigation, advanced by companies like NaanDanJain and Rivulis. These systems work well for smallholder farmers, allowing nutrients and water to be delivered together with minimal waste.

For water supply, desalination technology developed by IDE Technologies has transformed Israel’s water security. While IDE is best known for large plants, the company has also developed smaller-scale systems suitable for coastal communities, which could be relevant for Somaliland’s long shoreline.

In parallel, solar-powered water pumping systems—used widely in Israel’s peripheral regions—can replace diesel pumps. While not a single-company solution, Israeli integrators often combine solar technology from firms like SolarEdge with water systems to power wells, treatment units, and irrigation without fuel imports.

Another promising approach is wastewater reuse, an area where Israel leads globally. Municipal-scale treatment combined with agricultural reuse has been refined through decades of practice, with engineering firms and public utilities supporting reuse rates that reach nearly 90 percent. Scaled-down versions of these systems could help Somaliland’s towns reuse water safely rather than losing it entirely.

In agriculture, greenhouse and net-house farming has been advanced by Israeli companies such as Hishtil, which supplies seedlings and controlled-growing solutions designed for heat and water stress. These systems allow year-round production of vegetables with far less water than open-field farming.

Precision agriculture has also become more accessible through Israeli startups like CropX and Phytech, which use soil sensors and plant data to tell farmers exactly when to irrigate. Even basic versions of these tools can significantly reduce water waste.

On the seed side, Israeli breeders such as Hazera and Zeraim Gedera (now part of Syngenta) have developed heat- and drought-tolerant vegetable varieties suited for semi-arid climates. Crop genetics matter as much as irrigation in a warming world.

Food loss after harvest is another overlooked challenge. Israeli cold-chain innovations, including solar-powered cold rooms used across Africa, help reduce spoilage and increase farmer incomes. These systems don’t require a national grid and can be deployed at cooperative or village scale.

Finally, there is knowledge transfer, often the most underestimated technology of all. Israel’s international development agency MASHAV has trained tens of thousands of farmers and water managers worldwide through hands-on programs focused on dryland agriculture, water reuse, and cooperative farming. Technology adoption succeeds when training is local, practical, and gradual.

None of these tools promise instant prosperity. But together, they form a practical toolkit shaped by environments not unlike Somaliland’s own. In a region too often discussed only through politics or security, focusing on water, food, and energy systems offers a quieter, more durable path forward.

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Most bacteria in soil cannot be cultured in the lab, and that has long been a barrier for science. Yet the soil beneath our feet is the world’s largest reservoir of microbial diversity, a hidden ecosystem that could hold cures for drug-resistant infections, insights into climate, and new tools for sustainable farming. This makes sense considering the “healing” feeling when you are out in nature, in the forest, feet in the soil.

A new study in Nature Biotechnology may change the way we access that treasure trove.

Researchers at Rockefeller University have developed a way to extract very large DNA fragments directly from soil, sidestepping the need to grow bacteria in petri dishes. From a single forest soil sample, the team generated hundreds of complete bacterial genomes never seen before, and identified two new antibiotic leads. This could lead to a quick amplification of new leads to powerful and life-saving antibiotics.

“We finally have the technology to see the microbial world that have been previously inaccessible to humans,” says Sean F. Brady, head of Rockefeller’s Laboratory of Genetically Encoded Small Molecules. “And we’re not just seeing this information; we’re already turning it into potentially useful antibiotics. This is just the tip of the spear.”

The method, which pairs soil DNA extraction with long-read nanopore sequencing, allows scientists to recover continuous stretches of DNA tens of thousands of base pairs long. “It’s easier to assemble a whole genome out of bigger pieces of DNA, rather than the millions of tiny snippets that were available before,” Brady adds. “And that makes a dramatic difference in your confidence in your results.”

Related: Adding Mycorrhizal Fungi to Green Roofs

Using their approach, the researchers discovered two promising molecules. One, erutacidin, disrupts bacterial membranes through a novel mechanism and is effective against resistant pathogens. The other, trigintamicin, acts on a rare target called ClpX, a protein-unfolding motor. Brady describes the overall strategy as simple but transformative: “Isolate big DNA, sequence it, and computationally convert it into something useful.”

Soil in the News: Why It Matters Now

Soil health is making headlines worldwide. A Guardian investigation in late August showed how regenerative farmers are looking at soil microbes under microscopes to improve yields without chemicals. In Israel, regenerative agriculture pilots are testing methods to restore soil biodiversity under real farm conditions. Meanwhile, mega-fires across the Mediterranean this summer highlighted how degraded soils struggle to retain water and recover from climate shocks.

Soil microbes are not just about crops. They underpin global carbon cycles, water retention, and climate stability. As this study shows, they may also be humanity’s best source of new medicines. If foresters like in Canada keep pouring chemicals like glyphosate weed killers on forests, how can we expect the soil to thrive?

Related: A museum for Middle East soil

For regenerative agriculture, the lesson is clear: as Woody Harrelson says preserving soil biodiversity preserves opportunity. Degraded soils lose microbial richness, shrinking both ecosystem function and the chance to discover new bioactive molecules. Practices like cover cropping, composting, and reduced tillage foster microbial life, keeping the “dark matter” of the soil alive and accessible.

“All over the world there’s this hidden ecosystem of microbes that could have dramatic effects on our lives,” Brady notes. The Rockefeller team’s discovery makes that invisible world visible — but keeping it healthy is a job for all of us.

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In the global effort to cure HIV, one of the biggest scientific barriers is locating the virus’s reservoirs — hidden sites in the body where HIV can lie dormant, invisible to antiretroviral therapy (ART). The Last Gift Study, conducted by UC San Diego and collaborators, offers a novel way forward. Terminally ill people living with HIV consent to rapid autopsies within hours of their death, allowing researchers to map in unprecedented detail where HIV hides.

The study has conducted 42 rapid autopsies so far. These autopsies allow scientists to sample various tissues soon after death, before decomposition obscures anatomical details or viral localization. Researchers have identified HIV reservoirs in jejunum, lymph nodes, the male genital tract, among other places.

Participants are usually on ART before death. The data allow comparison between what ART suppresses in the living and what is still detectable in tissues post-mortem.

Testimonies from participants show powerful motivations: altruism, leaving a legacy, belief in scientific progress. For example, in Positively Aware, a participant “My death will not be in vain. It will allow me to leave a positive legacy and inspire others to give back.” (positivelyaware.com)

So far, the study is offering insights that are otherwise nearly impossible — especially about HIV reservoirs in less accessible tissues (brain, gut, lymphoid tissue, genital tract). These insights are crucial for designing cure strategies that truly address latent virus, not just what’s visible in blood.

Ethical and Social Concerns

Despite its scientific promise, the Last Gift Study raises several ethical questions:

Consent around end of life: Are people who are terminally ill fully able to understand and consent to what donating their body will entail, especially the autopsy within hours after death? Critics argue that emotional state, pain, grief, or diminished capacity may interfere.

Translatability: Even if HIV reservoirs are mapped, will that lead to therapies that can reach them safely, or in all populations?

Community engagement and oversight: The study has a community advisory board, which helps ensure the voices of people with HIV are included. But vigilance is needed to maintain transparency.

Body donation is a sensitive topic. Public and media reports in recent years have exposed abuses and misuses in the world of body (cadaver) donation, which risk undermining trust. A few examples:

Reuters reported how Science Care, a U.S. company, earned over $27 million annually recruiting body donors “through hospices, clergy and online ads,” and then selling or distributing body parts for profit. For many donors or next of kin, the possibility that donated bodies are being used in profit-making operations is very disturbing.

When people hesitate to donate their body for science — whether because of religious beliefs, cultural taboos, fear of misuse, or simply distrust — studies like Last Gift may find it harder to enroll participants. This could slow or even stall progress in cure research.

Green Prophet Past Coverage & Related Concerns

Green Prophet has covered similar issues of medical ethics, public health, and trust in science. Some previous articles that readers may consult:

AIDS from Baby Gaga breast-milk ice cream?

AIDS cured with Egypt’s magical “kebab” machine, army claims video — unpacking false “miracle cures” and the danger of misinformation.

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NASA’s Perseverance rover has spent three years exploring the floor of Jezero Crater, just north of the Martian equator, and the results are sparking new questions about life’s potential beyond Earth. A joint analysis by SETI Institute Senior Research Scientist Janice Bishop and University of Massachusetts Engineering Professor Mario Parente, published in Nature News & Views, reveals evidence of ancient chemical reactions that could have created energy-rich environments on early Mars.

Using hyperspectral images from the CRISM spectrometer aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Bishop and Parente produced a high-resolution mineral map of Jezero Crater showing deposits of clays and carbonates — minerals that form in the presence of water. “Coordinating mineral detections from orbit at Mars with in situ detections by the Perseverance rover gives us a detailed look at ancient chemical reactions for a few small areas and a broader view across kilometers of the surface,” said Bishop.

Clues in the Minerals

On its traverse from the landing site toward the crater’s western delta, Perseverance confirmed the presence of smectite clays and carbonates first spotted from orbit. More surprisingly, at sites named Bright Angel and Masonic Temple, it discovered tiny green-toned nodules of iron phosphate and iron sulfide embedded in clay-rich mudstone. On Earth, phosphates are essential to life, and such minerals can form through interactions between water, minerals, and organic matter.

“My group observed redox reactions in lab experiments where ferrihydrite containing oxidized iron was heated with organic compounds, including amino acids, to produce the mineral magnetite containing reduced iron,” Bishop explained. These “redox reactions” — transfers of electrons between minerals — can create energy that, on Earth, some microorganisms exploit for survival.

Raman data from Perseverance’s SHERLOC instrument suggest that the reduced minerals in Jezero’s mudstones appear more abundant in areas with higher concentrations of organic compounds. While not proof of life, this link hints at chemical pathways that could have supported microbial metabolism billions of years ago.

Signs of Change Over Time

The phosphate mineral vivianite, identified in the greenish nodules, was also found at a site called Onahu — but there it appears oxidized, or “rusted,” indicating environmental shifts in Mars’ history. Similar alternations in iron chemistry have been tied to changing habitability conditions on Earth.

Perseverance’s findings parallel discoveries in extreme environments here, such as Antarctic subglacial lakes, where microbes alter minerals in oxygen-poor water. “While there is no evidence for microbes on Mars today, if life once existed there, similar processes could have reduced sulfate minerals to sulfides in an ancient lake at Jezero crater,” Bishop said.

Parente’s work on CRISM data correction has removed distortions from Martian atmospheric effects and instrument quirks, allowing detection of subtle mineral “fingerprints” once lost in the noise. Using AI, his team created the most accurate mineral maps of Mars to date, pinpointing small outcrops and revealing mineral diversity that earlier surveys missed.

“By extracting the atmosphere’s imprint directly from the image itself, our technique yields cleaner surface spectra,” said Parente. “With CRISM data now clarified, subtle mineral features can be detected with greater confidence.”

Life, or Just Chemistry?

On Earth, similar mineral–organic interactions can be biological or abiotic. In Jezero Crater, the long geological timescales suggest the reduced vivianite and sulfides may have formed without biology — but organic compounds could still have driven the chemistry.

“Sulfur isotope analyses were used on Antarctic sediments to determine a biologic origin of the tiny sulfide crystals in anoxic water,” Bishop noted. Comparable tests on Mars samples, once returned to Earth, could help answer whether ancient Martian chemistry was purely geological — or something more.

The presence of clays, carbonates, phosphates, and organics together paints a picture of an ancient Mars where water was abundant and redox chemistry was active — two key ingredients for habitability. Whether this points to past life or not, the chemistry uncovered offers new insight into how planets evolve and how life might arise elsewhere.

More on Space from Green Prophet:

• NASA heads to Jupiter’s moon Europa to look for life below its frozen ocean
• Why Is the Martian Night Sky So Bright? New NASA video explains the Red Planet’s glow
• Mars found a way to store carbon. Can we?
• SpaceX and SETI partner to protect alien-hunting telescopes
• Ride on Japan’s space elevator
• Space-travel sunscreen found in new fungus experiment
• Can plants grow on the Moon?
• NASA’s rover finds opals on Mars
• Austrian Space Forum sets its next Mars mission to Morocco
• Microlightning in water might have sparked life
• Scientists design ‘Dune’-inspired spacesuit to recycle urine

The post Perseverance Rover Uncovers Ancient Martian Chemistry — And Raises the Question: Could This Hint at Past Life? appeared first on Green Prophet.

We tend to think of forests as quiet places—but beneath the soil, there’s a bustling network of chemical conversations taking place. It’s part of what some scientists call the “wood wide web”—a vast underground communication system that connects plants, fungi, and microbes in complex, symbiotic ways. It’s been shown that plants can speak. This new study might help us decode what they are saying.

Now, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have uncovered new insights into this hidden language. By studying the molecular “words” that tree roots send into the soil, they’ve created one of the most detailed maps yet of underground plant communication—one that could revolutionize how we grow food and bioenergy crops.

As plants grow, their roots don’t just absorb nutrients—they release a rich array of organic chemicals into the soil, a process known as rhizodeposition. These secretions act like messages or invitations to microbes and fungi, encouraging cooperation, support, or sometimes defense.

“Plants form relationships with microbes like bacteria and fungi that help them survive tough conditions like drought or poor soil,” said Dr. Paul Abraham, co-lead of the study at ORNL. “But we’re only beginning to understand the full vocabulary of these underground interactions.”

To decode this chemical language, ORNL researchers focused on poplar trees, which are being studied as future bioenergy crops. They grew two types of poplar under different conditions—some with extra nutrients, some without—and collected samples from their roots at different growth stages.

Instead of looking for specific molecules they already knew, scientists used a technique called untargeted metabolomics, which allowed them to capture everything the plants were saying, so to speak.

“This approach lets us detect a much broader range of chemical diversity,” Abraham explained. “We’re finding unexpected or previously unrecognized compounds that may play critical roles in soil and plant systems.”

A molecular treasure trove

What they found was a treasure trove of compounds—some never identified before. Each plant produced different chemical profiles depending on its genes, environment, and age. These findings suggest that plants tailor their messages depending on who they’re talking to—whether they’re calling for help, warning of threats, or optimizing partnerships.

“This kind of insight helps us breed or engineer crops that are not only higher-yielding, but also more resistant to climate stress,” Abraham said.

Mushrooms, microbes, and machine learning?

Why does this matter? The underground networks built by fungi and bacteria are essential for healthy ecosystems—and for our ability to grow resilient crops in a changing climate. Fungi, in particular, act as “middlemen”, connecting roots across distances and helping move nutrients, water, and even chemical signals between plants.

To better understand this complex web, ORNL is now looking to AI and machine learning. “The chemical space we’re measuring is vast,” Abraham said. “Most of the molecules we detect can’t be confirmed using existing reference standards.”

In other words, there are too many molecules and not enough names. That’s where artificial intelligence will step in—to help identify unknown compounds and unlock new insights into how plants and microbes interact.

The ORNL team’s research, published in Plant, Cell & Environment, could eventually lead to crops that communicate more efficiently with beneficial fungi and bacteria—reducing the need for synthetic fertilizers and helping build a more sustainable agricultural system.

“Nature already has a smart underground network,” says Karin Kloosterman, editor of Green Prophet who founded an AI company Flux to listen to the language of plants: “Our job is to listen, decode it, and learn how to work with it.”

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“While we found that both the mother’s and father’s exposures were linked to when their daughters and granddaughters began puberty, the father’s influence was surprisingly strong.”

It’s often told that a grandmother’s environment and lifestyle effects her unborn grandchildren, because a grandmother’s daughter carries all her children’s eggs inside her tummy too. Grandparents also have an effect on mitochondrial health, pointing to a new study on grandfathers.

A grandfather’s exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals, perhaps at work or on the farm, may impact the age when his granddaughter starts her first period, according to a study being presented Sunday at ENDO 2025, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco, Calif.

“Girls are starting puberty earlier than ever before, which can raise their risk for health problems later in life,” said lead researcher Xin Hu, PhD, of Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta, Ga. “We wanted to explore why this might be happening by looking at how environmental exposures from grandparents can influence when girls get their first period.”

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are substances in the environment (air, soil, or water supply), food sources, personal care products, and manufactured products that interfere with the normal function of the body’s endocrine system. Since EDCs come from many different sources, people are exposed in several ways, including air, food and water. EDCs also can enter the body through the skin. Microplastics are also a possible source.

The researchers used data from the Child Health and Development Studies (CHDS), a long-term study that began in the 1960s. They measured thousands of small molecules in blood samples taken from 249 couples in the 1960s. The researchers linked the couples’ chemical and metabolic profiles to the timing of puberty in their daughters and granddaughters.

The researchers studied the age at which their daughters (247 girls) and granddaughters (139 girls) started their periods. They found that while the median age of having a first period was stable between the grandmothers and their daughters, it dropped a full year from the daughters to the granddaughters, whose median year of birth was 1990.

They discovered that certain chemicals in both the mother’s and father’s blood were linked to when their descendants began puberty, with stronger effects seen in the granddaughters’ than in the daughters’ generation. Some chemicals such as phenoxyethanol, a common preservative in personal care products and foods, were linked to earlier puberty, especially when both parents had similar exposures.

“While we found that both the mother’s and father’s exposures were linked to when their daughters and granddaughters began puberty, the father’s influence was surprisingly strong,” Hu said. “Paternal exposure to environmental chemicals may play an unrecognized but critical role in shaping offspring endocrine health.”

She said this is the first population-based study to show that a father’s environment can affect reproductive development in both his daughter and granddaughter. “These findings highlight that prevention is possible if we identify mechanisms to protect future daughters and granddaughters, which cannot be effective if we do not consider the male line,” she said.

“Our results highlight the role of endocrine-disrupting chemicals during the vulnerable period of conception and pregnancy,” said senior author Barbara Cohn, PhD, MPH, of the Public Health Institute in Berkeley, Calif. “This research emphasizes the lasting impact of environmental exposures on reproductive health across generations.”

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New agreement aims to shield radio astronomy from satellite interference, but the night sky faces growing threats.

The Bigger Picture: Space Junk and a Dimming Night Sky

The post SpaceX and SETI Partner to Protect Alien-Hunting Telescopes—But What About the Rest of the Sky? appeared first on Green Prophet.