Rock glaciers hold on, and some depression may be a body-clock problem

Rock glaciers like it are now getting attention as holdouts. Their thick outer layers of debris buffer them from rising temperatures, so they seem to be largely refusing to melt, for now, while the familiar white glaciers retreat 1. The contrast is sharp: scientists project Earth will lose 25 percent to more than 40 percent of its glacier mass by 2100, and glaciers have already lost an estimated 9,500-plus gigatons of ice since 1975 1. Stream ecologist Scott Hotaling says he feels "like a coroner of mountain landscapes," so a story "closer to being optimistic" is exceptionally rare 1.

A total of 2,604 people, roughly one in four, fit the proposed subtype. The paper appeared in the British Journal of Psychiatry on October 21 15. This group developed depression earlier, around 19 versus about 23 for everyone else, skewed female, and reported more psychological distress and more frequent suicidal thoughts 15.

A single 10-minute session aimed at the globus pallidus interna, a deep hub linked to psychosis, lowered delusion severity by an average of 1.2 points on a standard scale, while scores rose 0.4 points after the sham. The benefit lasted through the seven-day follow-up 83. Side effects were mild fatigue and headache, and they showed up equally after real and sham treatment 83. The results appeared October 20 in npj Acoustics 20.

After several months, T cells in the brain had dropped by about half. Treated mice kept roughly 40 percent more tissue in memory regions and did better on a memory test, though the amount of tau had not changed at all 8. Separately, an eLife team built human forebrain organoids with stem-cell-derived microglia and CD8+ T cells. In the dish, microglia cleared amyloid-beta but also called in T cells through CCL4/5 signaling, and drugs blocking CCR5 or CXCR3 stopped that recruitment 109.

The accident became a natural experiment for UC San Diego researchers, who tested 55 monkeys on a choice between food on a clean surface and food on a surface covered with real macaque feces sealed under clear epoxy, so the look was intact and the smell and risk were gone 63. The unexposed group picked the contaminated-looking food in 79 percent of trials. The outbreak groups picked it in 47 percent of trials, whether or not the individual monkey had been infected 279. The study ran in Royal Society Open Science 63.

People with these conditions often have persistently low vitamin C. The vitamin group had fewer adverse events during the study and follow-up, and shifts in immune signaling molecules called cytokines that are associated with better outcomes 5. It did not slow the rate at which abnormal blood cells expanded. An exploratory analysis found that vitamin C participants were significantly more likely to be alive at roughly three years 5. The trial came from the Van Andel Institute-Stand Up To Cancer Epigenetics Dream Team and was published in CANCER 5.

Seven of ten patients showed improved light sensitivity. Wearing goggles that deliver pulses of light, roughly half could reach for and touch objects or identify the orientation of a black bar 218. Those who responded kept improving over about five years. One participant, whose story made headlines in 2021, can now recognize and count different objects, and crosswalk stripes pop out for them 218. The idea traces to Karl Deisseroth's optogenetics work, which started with the algae protein channelrhodopsin 218.

In June a camera caught a pronghorn on the bridge, the species' first confirmed crossing of that interstate in 20 to 30 years 252. Pronghorn had spent those decades walking the fence, looking for a gap wide enough to trust 252. In roughly ten months since opening, state officials told The Colorado Sun that drivers have hit two animals. Elk, bears, mule deer, coyotes, northern leopard frogs and the threatened Preble's meadow jumping mouse have also used the corridor 252.