The skin is an important form of protection against the external environment. It is more than just a barrier, though: it is an active organ that keeps you cool by sweating, contains immune cells that prevent infections, and allows you to sense things through touch. The skin’s function can be affected by warmer temperatures and changing weather patterns known as climate change. These changes impact infectious organisms by disrupting their surrounding ecosystems, increasing their ability to spread skin infections. Additionally, the fuels we burn to power our everyday lives release harmful pollution that weakens the skin’s protective barrier and triggers inflammation. Though climate change impacts everyone, children’s developing bodies and increased time outdoors make them more vulnerable to hazards that can affect their skin and overall health. This article discusses the effects of climate change on the skin and identifies ways to protect skin health.
Many people develop more than one long-lasting illness as they get older, such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, or Parkinson’s disease. These illnesses affect different parts of the body, but some share deeper roots inside aging cells. Cells depend on messages from the rest of the body to know when to use energy, repair damage, or calm inflammation. Cells receive many of these messages through proteins called receptors, which sit on the cell surface and catch messages as they arrive. One important group is called G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). GPCRs pass messages into cells and help control several body systems at once. Because GPCR signals can overlap, changes in these signals may help explain why long-lasting illnesses often appear together as people age. Scientists are studying whether future medicines could tune GPCR signals more carefully and match treatments to each person’s body—helping more people stay healthy later in life.
Do you think humans are the only ones that can make smart choices? We tested whether the tiny larvae of mealworms can make decisions based on what they learn. First, we trained the larvae to find their preferred food in one of two branches of a maze. Then, outside the maze, the larvae were fed the same food after it had been made bitter and therefore unpleasant. How did the hungry larvae behave when they returned to the maze? Did they choose the branch where they had originally learned they could find their preferred food, or did they stop doing so because that food was no longer desirable? Mealworms are becoming an important sustainable food source, but if these tiny larvae are capable of making decisions to meet their goals, what might this tell us about the minds of even the smallest animals?
Sleep is necessary for optimal functioning and for overall health and wellbeing. You might have heard advice on how to improve your sleep, such as reducing intense activities close to bedtime or keeping a regular sleep-and-wake schedule. As many countries experience climate change, it is also important to be aware of how sleep may be affected when the temperature changes. Sleep may be delayed or disturbed in a cold environment or a hot and humid one, and poor sleep can make it difficult to function well, especially if it happens often. It is important to create a good sleep environment, keeping in mind that the temperature and humidity of the room, the air circulation, as well as the bedding and clothes worn to bed, play a role in a person’s ability to get the most out of the time spent in bed.
Trick or treat? In our lab, it feels like Halloween every day because we work with tiny pumpkin-shaped molecules called cucurbiturils. Instead of candy, they can trap other molecules inside them! Why is this exciting? Some molecules can close into rings only when they bend so that their ends come close together, but they are usually too floppy to do it on their own. When these molecules hide inside our “molecular pumpkins”, they are gently squeezed into the perfect position for the right parts to react and form a ring—sometimes thousands of times faster than when the molecule is free in solution. By studying this special trapping trick, we are learning how to turn slow reactions into fast, efficient ones, giving scientists new methods for building functional molecules in a cleaner, more innovative way.
