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The Sun’s Poles Hold the Key to Its Three Greatest Mysteries

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Monday, September 29, 2025

The Sun’s polar regions, long hidden from our Earth-bound perspective, are a critical frontier in solar physics, holding the secrets to the solar magnetic cycle and the origin of the fast solar wind. An upcoming mission is designed to achieve an unprecedented polar orbit, promising to finally reveal these uncharted territories and transform our ability to predict space weather. Credit: Image courtesy of Zhenyong Hou and Jiasheng Wang at Peking University. Beijing Zhongke Journal Publising Co. Ltd.The Sun’s poles may hold answers to long-standing mysteries about magnetic cycles, solar wind, and space weather. The polar regions of the Sun remain one of the least explored areas in solar science. Although satellites and ground-based observatories have captured remarkable details of the Sun’s surface, atmosphere, and magnetic field, nearly all of these views come from the ecliptic plane, the narrow orbital path followed by Earth and most other planets. This restricted perspective means scientists have only limited knowledge of what occurs near the solar poles. Yet these regions are critical. Their magnetic fields and dynamic activity are central to the solar magnetic cycle and provide both mass and energy to the fast solar wind. These processes ultimately shape solar behavior and influence space weather that can reach Earth. Why the Poles Matter On the surface, the poles may seem calm compared to the Sun’s more active mid-latitudes (around ±35°), where sunspots, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are common. However, research shows that polar magnetic fields contribute directly to the global solar dynamo and may act as the foundation for the next solar cycle by helping establish the Sun’s dipole magnetic field. Observations from the Ulysses mission further revealed that the fast solar wind originates mainly from vast coronal holes in the polar regions. For this reason, gaining a clearer view of the Sun’s poles is essential to addressing three of the most fundamental questions in solar physics: 1) How does the solar dynamo work and drive the solar magnetic cycle? The solar magnetic cycle refers to the periodic variation in sunspot number on the solar surface, typically on a time scale of approximately 11 years. During each cycle, the Sun’s magnetic poles undergo a reversal, with the magnetic polarities of the north and south poles switching. The Sun’s global magnetic fields are generated through a dynamo process. Key to this process are the differential rotation of the Sun that generates the active regions, and the meridional circulation that transport magnetic flux toward the poles. Yet, decades of helioseismic investigations have revealed conflicting results about the flow patterns deep within the convection zone. Some studies even suggest poleward flows at the base of the convection zone, challenging the classical dynamo models. High-latitude observations of the magnetic fields and plasma motions could provide the missing evidence to refine or rethink these models. 2) What drives the fast solar wind? The fast solar wind – a supersonic stream of charged particles – originates primarily from the polar coronal holes, and permeates the majority of the heliospheric volume, dominating the physical environment of interplanetary space. However, critical details regarding the origin of this wind remain unresolved. Does the wind originate from dense plumes within coronal holes or from the less dense regions between them? Are wave-driven processes, magnetic reconnection, or some combination of both responsible for accelerating the plasma in the wind? Direct polar imaging and in-situ measurements are required to settle the debate. 3) How do space weather events propagate through the solar system? Heliospheric space weather refers to the disturbances in the heliospheric environment caused by the solar wind and solar eruptive activities. Extreme space weather events, such as large solar flares and CMEs, can significantly trigger space environmental disturbances such as severe geomagnetic and ionospheric storms, as well as spectacular aurora phenomena, posing a serious threat to the safety of high-tech activities of human beings. To accurately predict these events, scientists must track how magnetic structures and plasma flows evolve globally, not just from the limited ecliptic view. Observations from a vantage point out of the ecliptic would provide an overlook of the CME propagation in the ecliptic plane. Past Efforts Scientists have long recognized the importance of solar polar observations. The Ulysses mission, launched in 1990, was the first spacecraft to leave the ecliptic plane and sample the solar wind over the poles. Its in-situ instruments confirmed key properties of the fast solar wind but lacked imaging capability. More recently, the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter has been gradually moving out of the ecliptic plane and is expected to reach latitudes of around 34° in a few years. While this represents a remarkable progress, it still falls far short of the vantage needed for a true polar view. A number of ambitious mission concepts have been proposed over the past decades, including the Solar Polar Imager (SPI), the POLAR Investigation of the Sun (POLARIS), the Solar Polar ORbit Telescope (SPORT), the Solaris mission, and the High Inclination Solar Mission (HISM). Some envisioned using advanced propulsion, such as solar sails, to reach high inclinations. Others relied on gravity assists to incrementally tilt their orbits. Each of these missions would carry both remote-sensing and in-situ instruments to image the Sun’s poles and measure key physical parameters above the poles. The SPO Mission The Solar Polar-orbit Observatory (SPO) is designed specifically to overcome the limitations of past and current missions. Scheduled for launch in January 2029, SPO will use a Jupiter gravity assist (JGA) to bend its trajectory out of the ecliptic plane. After several Earth flybys and a carefully planned encounter with Jupiter, the spacecraft will settle into a 1.5-year orbit with a perihelion of about 1 AU and an inclination of up to 75°. In its extended mission, SPO could climb to 80°, offering the most direct view of the poles ever achieved. The 15-year lifetime of the mission (including an 8-year extended mission period) will allow it to cover both solar minimum and maximum, including the crucial period around 2035 when the next solar maximum and expected polar magnetic field reversal will occur. During the whole lifetime, SPO will repeatedly pass over both poles, with extended high-latitude observation windows lasting more than 1000 days. The SPO mission aims at breakthroughs on the three scientific questions mentioned above. To meet its ambitious objectives, SPO will carry a suite of several remote-sensing and in-situ instruments. Together, they will provide a comprehensive view of the Sun’s poles. The remote-sensing instruments include the Magnetic and Helioseismic Imager (MHI) to measure magnetic fields and plasma flows at the surface, the Extreme Ultraviolet Telescope (EUT) and the X-ray Imaging Telescope (XIT) to capture dynamic events in the solar upper atmosphere, the VISible-light CORonagraph (VISCOR) and the Very Large Angle CORonagraph (VLACOR) to track the solar corona and solar wind streams out to 45 solar radii (at 1 AU). The in-situ package includes a magnetometer and particle detectors to sample the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field directly. By combining these observations, SPO will not only capture images of the poles for the first time but also connect them to the flows of plasma and magnetic energy that shape the heliosphere. SPO will not operate in isolation. It is expected to work in concert with a growing fleet of solar missions. These include the STEREO Mission, the Hinode satellite, the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS), the Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S), the Solar Orbiter, the Aditya-L1 mission, the PUNCH mission, as well as the upcoming L5 missions (e.g., ESA’s Vigil mission and China’s LAVSO mission). Together, these assets will form an unprecedented observational network. SPO’s polar vantage will provide the missing piece, enabling nearly global 4π coverage of the Sun for the first time in human history. Looking Ahead The Sun remains our closest star, yet in many ways it is still a mystery. With SPO, scientists are poised to unlock some of its deepest secrets. The solar polar regions, once hidden from view, will finally come into focus, reshaping our understanding of the star that sustains life on Earth. The implications of SPO extend far beyond academic curiosity. A deeper understanding of the solar dynamo could improve predictions of the solar cycle, which in turn affects space weather forecasts. Insights into the fast solar wind will enhance our ability to model the heliospheric environment, critical for spacecraft design and astronaut safety. Most importantly, better monitoring of space weather events could help protect modern technological infrastructure — from navigation and communications satellites to aviation and terrestrial power systems. Reference: “Probing Solar Polar Regions” by Yuanyong Deng, Hui Tian, Jie Jiang, Shuhong Yang, Hao Li, Robert Cameron, Laurent Gizon, Louise Harra, Robert F. Wimmer-Schweingruber, Frédéric Auchère, Xianyong Bai, Luis Rubio Bellot, Linjie Chen, Pengfei Chen, Lakshmi Pradeep Chitta, Jackie Davies, Fabio Favata, Li Feng, Xueshang Feng, Weiqun Gan, Don Hassler, Jiansen He, Junfeng Hou, Zhenyong Hou, Chunlan Jin, Wenya Li, Jiaben Lin, Dibyendu Nandy, Vaibhav Pant, Marco Romoli, Taro Sakao, Sayamanthula Krishna Prasad, Fang Shen, Yang Su, Shin Toriumi, Durgesh Tripathi, Linghua Wang, Jingjing Wang, Lidong Xia, Ming Xiong, Yihua Yan, Liping Yang, Shangbin Yang, Mei Zhang, Guiping Zhou, Xiaoshuai Zhu, Jingxiu Wang and Chi Wang, 29 August 2025, Chinese Journal of Space Science.DOI: 10.11728/cjss2025.04.2025-0054 Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.Follow us on Google and Google News.

The Sun’s poles may hold answers to long-standing mysteries about magnetic cycles, solar wind, and space weather. The polar regions of the Sun remain one of the least explored areas in solar science. Although satellites and ground-based observatories have captured remarkable details of the Sun’s surface, atmosphere, and magnetic field, nearly all of these views [...]

Schematic of the Solar Polar Orbit Observatory
The Sun’s polar regions, long hidden from our Earth-bound perspective, are a critical frontier in solar physics, holding the secrets to the solar magnetic cycle and the origin of the fast solar wind. An upcoming mission is designed to achieve an unprecedented polar orbit, promising to finally reveal these uncharted territories and transform our ability to predict space weather. Credit: Image courtesy of Zhenyong Hou and Jiasheng Wang at Peking University. Beijing Zhongke Journal Publising Co. Ltd.

The Sun’s poles may hold answers to long-standing mysteries about magnetic cycles, solar wind, and space weather.

The polar regions of the Sun remain one of the least explored areas in solar science. Although satellites and ground-based observatories have captured remarkable details of the Sun’s surface, atmosphere, and magnetic field, nearly all of these views come from the ecliptic plane, the narrow orbital path followed by Earth and most other planets.

This restricted perspective means scientists have only limited knowledge of what occurs near the solar poles. Yet these regions are critical. Their magnetic fields and dynamic activity are central to the solar magnetic cycle and provide both mass and energy to the fast solar wind. These processes ultimately shape solar behavior and influence space weather that can reach Earth.

Why the Poles Matter

On the surface, the poles may seem calm compared to the Sun’s more active mid-latitudes (around ±35°), where sunspots, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are common. However, research shows that polar magnetic fields contribute directly to the global solar dynamo and may act as the foundation for the next solar cycle by helping establish the Sun’s dipole magnetic field. Observations from the Ulysses mission further revealed that the fast solar wind originates mainly from vast coronal holes in the polar regions. For this reason, gaining a clearer view of the Sun’s poles is essential to addressing three of the most fundamental questions in solar physics:

1) How does the solar dynamo work and drive the solar magnetic cycle?

The solar magnetic cycle refers to the periodic variation in sunspot number on the solar surface, typically on a time scale of approximately 11 years. During each cycle, the Sun’s magnetic poles undergo a reversal, with the magnetic polarities of the north and south poles switching.

The Sun’s global magnetic fields are generated through a dynamo process. Key to this process are the differential rotation of the Sun that generates the active regions, and the meridional circulation that transport magnetic flux toward the poles. Yet, decades of helioseismic investigations have revealed conflicting results about the flow patterns deep within the convection zone.

Some studies even suggest poleward flows at the base of the convection zone, challenging the classical dynamo models. High-latitude observations of the magnetic fields and plasma motions could provide the missing evidence to refine or rethink these models.

2) What drives the fast solar wind?

The fast solar wind – a supersonic stream of charged particles – originates primarily from the polar coronal holes, and permeates the majority of the heliospheric volume, dominating the physical environment of interplanetary space.

However, critical details regarding the origin of this wind remain unresolved. Does the wind originate from dense plumes within coronal holes or from the less dense regions between them? Are wave-driven processes, magnetic reconnection, or some combination of both responsible for accelerating the plasma in the wind? Direct polar imaging and in-situ measurements are required to settle the debate.

3) How do space weather events propagate through the solar system?

Heliospheric space weather refers to the disturbances in the heliospheric environment caused by the solar wind and solar eruptive activities. Extreme space weather events, such as large solar flares and CMEs, can significantly trigger space environmental disturbances such as severe geomagnetic and ionospheric storms, as well as spectacular aurora phenomena, posing a serious threat to the safety of high-tech activities of human beings.

To accurately predict these events, scientists must track how magnetic structures and plasma flows evolve globally, not just from the limited ecliptic view. Observations from a vantage point out of the ecliptic would provide an overlook of the CME propagation in the ecliptic plane.

Past Efforts

Scientists have long recognized the importance of solar polar observations. The Ulysses mission, launched in 1990, was the first spacecraft to leave the ecliptic plane and sample the solar wind over the poles. Its in-situ instruments confirmed key properties of the fast solar wind but lacked imaging capability. More recently, the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter has been gradually moving out of the ecliptic plane and is expected to reach latitudes of around 34° in a few years. While this represents a remarkable progress, it still falls far short of the vantage needed for a true polar view.

A number of ambitious mission concepts have been proposed over the past decades, including the Solar Polar Imager (SPI), the POLAR Investigation of the Sun (POLARIS), the Solar Polar ORbit Telescope (SPORT), the Solaris mission, and the High Inclination Solar Mission (HISM). Some envisioned using advanced propulsion, such as solar sails, to reach high inclinations. Others relied on gravity assists to incrementally tilt their orbits. Each of these missions would carry both remote-sensing and in-situ instruments to image the Sun’s poles and measure key physical parameters above the poles.

The SPO Mission

The Solar Polar-orbit Observatory (SPO) is designed specifically to overcome the limitations of past and current missions. Scheduled for launch in January 2029, SPO will use a Jupiter gravity assist (JGA) to bend its trajectory out of the ecliptic plane. After several Earth flybys and a carefully planned encounter with Jupiter, the spacecraft will settle into a 1.5-year orbit with a perihelion of about 1 AU and an inclination of up to 75°. In its extended mission, SPO could climb to 80°, offering the most direct view of the poles ever achieved.

The 15-year lifetime of the mission (including an 8-year extended mission period) will allow it to cover both solar minimum and maximum, including the crucial period around 2035 when the next solar maximum and expected polar magnetic field reversal will occur. During the whole lifetime, SPO will repeatedly pass over both poles, with extended high-latitude observation windows lasting more than 1000 days.

The SPO mission aims at breakthroughs on the three scientific questions mentioned above. To meet its ambitious objectives, SPO will carry a suite of several remote-sensing and in-situ instruments. Together, they will provide a comprehensive view of the Sun’s poles. The remote-sensing instruments include the Magnetic and Helioseismic Imager (MHI) to measure magnetic fields and plasma flows at the surface, the Extreme Ultraviolet Telescope (EUT) and the X-ray Imaging Telescope (XIT) to capture dynamic events in the solar upper atmosphere, the VISible-light CORonagraph (VISCOR) and the Very Large Angle CORonagraph (VLACOR) to track the solar corona and solar wind streams out to 45 solar radii (at 1 AU). The in-situ package includes a magnetometer and particle detectors to sample the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field directly. By combining these observations, SPO will not only capture images of the poles for the first time but also connect them to the flows of plasma and magnetic energy that shape the heliosphere.

SPO will not operate in isolation. It is expected to work in concert with a growing fleet of solar missions. These include the STEREO Mission, the Hinode satellite, the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS), the Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S), the Solar Orbiter, the Aditya-L1 mission, the PUNCH mission, as well as the upcoming L5 missions (e.g., ESA’s Vigil mission and China’s LAVSO mission). Together, these assets will form an unprecedented observational network. SPO’s polar vantage will provide the missing piece, enabling nearly global 4π coverage of the Sun for the first time in human history.

Looking Ahead

The Sun remains our closest star, yet in many ways it is still a mystery. With SPO, scientists are poised to unlock some of its deepest secrets. The solar polar regions, once hidden from view, will finally come into focus, reshaping our understanding of the star that sustains life on Earth.

The implications of SPO extend far beyond academic curiosity. A deeper understanding of the solar dynamo could improve predictions of the solar cycle, which in turn affects space weather forecasts. Insights into the fast solar wind will enhance our ability to model the heliospheric environment, critical for spacecraft design and astronaut safety. Most importantly, better monitoring of space weather events could help protect modern technological infrastructure — from navigation and communications satellites to aviation and terrestrial power systems.

Reference: “Probing Solar Polar Regions” by Yuanyong Deng, Hui Tian, Jie Jiang, Shuhong Yang, Hao Li, Robert Cameron, Laurent Gizon, Louise Harra, Robert F. Wimmer-Schweingruber, Frédéric Auchère, Xianyong Bai, Luis Rubio Bellot, Linjie Chen, Pengfei Chen, Lakshmi Pradeep Chitta, Jackie Davies, Fabio Favata, Li Feng, Xueshang Feng, Weiqun Gan, Don Hassler, Jiansen He, Junfeng Hou, Zhenyong Hou, Chunlan Jin, Wenya Li, Jiaben Lin, Dibyendu Nandy, Vaibhav Pant, Marco Romoli, Taro Sakao, Sayamanthula Krishna Prasad, Fang Shen, Yang Su, Shin Toriumi, Durgesh Tripathi, Linghua Wang, Jingjing Wang, Lidong Xia, Ming Xiong, Yihua Yan, Liping Yang, Shangbin Yang, Mei Zhang, Guiping Zhou, Xiaoshuai Zhu, Jingxiu Wang and Chi Wang, 29 August 2025, Chinese Journal of Space Science.
DOI: 10.11728/cjss2025.04.2025-0054

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In a World-First, Scientists Directly Observe Elusive “Dark Excitons”

Using one of the world’s most advanced spectroscopy systems, researchers have developed a framework to guide studies in next-generation quantum information technologies. For the first time, scientists in the Femtosecond Spectroscopy Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have directly tracked how dark excitons evolve in atomically thin materials. This achievement paves [...]

The TR-ARPES setup used in the research. Credit: Jeff Prine (OIST)Using one of the world’s most advanced spectroscopy systems, researchers have developed a framework to guide studies in next-generation quantum information technologies. For the first time, scientists in the Femtosecond Spectroscopy Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have directly tracked how dark excitons evolve in atomically thin materials. This achievement paves the way for advances in both classical and quantum information technologies. The study was published in Nature Communications. Professor Keshav Dani, who leads the unit, emphasized the importance of the work: “Dark excitons have great potential as information carriers, because they are inherently less likely to interact with light, and hence less prone to degradation of their quantum properties. However, this invisibility also makes them very challenging to study and manipulate. Building on a previous breakthrough at OIST in 2020, we have opened a route to the creation, observation, and manipulation of dark excitons.” “In the general field of electronics, one manipulates electron charge to process information,” explains Xing Zhu, co-first author and PhD student in the unit. “In the field of spintronics, we exploit the spin of electrons to carry information. Going further, in valleytronics, the crystal structure of unique materials enables us to encode information into distinct momentum states of the electrons, known as valleys.” The ability to use the valley dimension of dark excitons to carry information positions them as promising candidates for quantum technologies. Dark excitons are by nature more resistant to environmental factors like thermal background than the current generation of qubits, potentially requiring less extreme cooling and making them less prone to decoherence, where the unique quantum state breaks down. The experimental setup at OIST, featuring the world-leading TR-ARPES (time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy) microscope, which features a proprietary, tabletop XUV (extreme ultraviolet) source, capable of imaging the electrons and excitons at femtosecond timescales (1fs = one quadrillionth (10-15) of a second). Credit: Jeff Prine & Andrew Scott (OIST)Defining landscapes of energy with bright and dark excitons In the last ten years, researchers have made significant strides in studying a family of atomically thin semiconductors called TMDs (transition metal dichalcogenides). Like all semiconductors, TMDs consist of atoms arranged in a crystal lattice that restricts electrons to defined energy levels, or bands, such as the valence band. When light strikes the material, electrons are lifted from the valence band into the higher-energy conduction band, leaving behind positively charged vacancies known as holes. The mutual attraction between the negatively charged electrons and positively charged holes binds them into hydrogen-like quasiparticles called excitons. If the electron and hole share specific quantum features, such as having the same spin configuration and occupying the same “valley” in momentum space (the energy minima available in the crystal lattice), they recombine within a trillionth of a second (1ps = 10−12 second), releasing light. These are known as “bright” excitons. However, if the quantum properties of the electron and hole do not match up, the electron and hole are forbidden from recombining on their own and do not emit light. These are characterized as ‘dark’ excitons. “There are two ‘species’ of dark excitons,” explains Dr. David Bacon, co-first author who is now at University College London, “momentum-dark and spin-dark, depending on where the properties of electron and hole are in conflict. The mismatch in properties not only prevents immediate recombination, allowing them to exist up to several nanoseconds (1ns = 10−9 second – a much more useful timescale), but also makes dark excitons more isolated from environmental interactions.” The atomic structure of ultrathin semiconductors like TMDs is hexagonal, and this symmetry is reflected in momentum space, where the conduction (top) and valence (bottom) bands each have local energy minima and maxima at specific points (K), which can be visualized as valleys in a momentum landscape. Time-reversal symmetry in quantum mechanics dictates that what happens in one valley is mirrored in the opposite valley: if the conduction band at K has spin-down (red), then K’ must have spin-up (blue), leading to an alternating pattern along the edge of the hexagon. Bright excitons form when the electron rests in the same valley and has the same spin as the corresponding hole. By using either left- or right-circularly polarized light, one can selectively populate bright exciton in a specific valley. The insert shows energy measurements of bright excitons, showing the contrast in valleys K and K’. Credit: Momentum landscape figure adapted Bussolotti et al., (2018) Nano Futures 2 032001. Insert adapted from Zhu et al., (2025) Nature Communications 16 6385“The unique atomic symmetry of TMDs means that when exposed to a state of light with a circular polarization, one can selectively create bright excitons only in a specific valley. This is the fundamental principle of valleytronics. However, bright excitons rapidly turn into numerous dark excitons that can potentially preserve the valley information. Which species of dark excitons are involved and to what degree they can sustain the valley information is unclear, but this is a key step in the pursuit of valleytronic applications,” explains Dr. Vivek Pareek, co-first author and OIST graduate who is now a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology. Observing electrons at the femtosecond scale With the state-of-the-art TR-ARPES (time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy) system at OIST, equipped with a custom-built table-top XUV (extreme ultraviolet) source, the researchers were able to monitor how different excitons evolved after bright excitons formed in a particular valley of a TMD semiconductor. They accomplished this by measuring momentum, spin state, and the population of electrons and holes at the same time, a combination of properties that had never previously been quantified together. Graphical illustration of the results, showing how the population of different exciton emerge and evolve over time at a picosecond scale (1ps = 10−12 second). Credit: Jack Featherstone (OIST), adapted from Zhu et al. (2025) Nature Communications 16 6385Their findings show that within a picosecond, some bright excitons are scattered by phonons (quantized crystal lattice vibrations) into different momentum valleys, rendering them momentum-dark. Later, spin-dark excitons dominate, where electrons have flipped spin within the same valley, persisting on nanosecond scales. With this, the team has overcome the fundamental challenge of how to access and track dark excitons, laying the foundation for dark valleytronics as a field. Dr. Julien Madéo of the unit summarizes: “Thanks to the sophisticated TR-ARPES setup at OIST, we have directly accessed and mapped how and what dark excitons keep long-lived valley information. Future developments to read out the dark excitons valley properties will unlock broad dark valleytronic applications across information systems.” Reference: “A holistic view of the dynamics of long-lived valley polarized dark excitonic states in monolayer WS2” by Xing Zhu, David R. Bacon, Vivek Pareek, Julien Madéo, Takashi Taniguchi, Kenji Watanabe, Michael K. L. Man and Keshav M. Dani, 10 July 2025, Nature Communications.DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-61677-2 Funding: Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Fusion Oriented REsearch for disruptive Science and Technology, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan Science and Technology Agency Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.

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Kenya’s Turkana people genetically adapted to live in harsh environment, study suggests

Research which began with conversations round a campfire and went on to examine 7m gene variants shows how people survive with little water and a meat-rich dietA collaboration between African and American researchers and a community living in one of the most hostile landscapes of northern Kenya has uncovered key genetic adaptations that explain how pastoralist people have been able to thrive in the region.Underlying the population’s abilities to live in Turkana, a place defined by extreme heat, water scarcity and limited vegetation, has been hundreds of years of natural selection, according to a study published in Science. Continue reading...

A collaboration between African and American researchers and a community living in one of the most hostile landscapes of northern Kenya has uncovered key genetic adaptations that explain how pastoralist people have been able to thrive in the region.Underlying the population’s abilities to live in Turkana, a place defined by extreme heat, water scarcity and limited vegetation, has been hundreds of years of natural selection, according to a study published in Science.It shows how the activity of key human genes has changed over millennia and the findings place “Turkana and sub-Saharan Africa at the forefront of genomic research, a field where Indigenous populations have historically been underrepresented”, according to Charles Miano, one of the study’s co-authors and a postgraduate student at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri).The research sequenced 367 whole genomes and analysed more than 7m genetic variants, identifying several regions of the genome under natural selection. It was conducted through the Turkana Health and Genomics Project (THGP), an initiative bringing together researchers from Kenya and the US, including Kemri, the Turkana Basin Institute (TBI), Vanderbilt University in Tennessee and the University of California, Berkeley.The genomic analysis found eight regions of DNA that had undergone natural selection but one gene, STC1, expressed in the kidneys, showed exceptionally strong evidence of humans adapting to extreme environments. Evidence included the body’s response to dehydration and processing purine-rich foods such as meat and blood, staples of the Turkana people’s diet.Turkana women give water to their goats from a shallow well. The region is characterised by extreme heat, water scarcity, and limited vegetation. Photograph: Monicah Mwangi/ReutersTurkana stretches across a large swathe of northern Kenya, one of the most arid regions in the world, where shade is scarce and water even more rare. Rainfall arrives in short, unpredictable bursts, and securing enough water for themselves and their herds of cattle, goats and camels is a daily chore. Fetching water can involve journeys of many hours each day across hot terrain devoid of vegetation.About 70% to 80% of the community’s diet comes from animal sources, mostly milk, blood and meat, reflecting resourcefulness and adaptation to scarcity, which is common among pastoralist societies around the world living in environments where crops cannot grow and where markets are too far away to be accessed on foot.Yet, after years of documenting the Turkana people’s lifestyle and studying blood and urine samples to assess their health, researchers found that, although the community consumes too much purine, which should lead to gout, the condition rarely appears among the Turkana.“About 90% of the people assessed were dehydrated but generally healthy,” said Prof Julien Ayroles, from the University of California, Berkeley, one of the project’s co-principal investigators. “The Turkana have maintained their traditional way of life for thousands of years, providing us with an extraordinary window into human adaptation.”Genetic adaptations are believed to have emerged about 5,000 years ago, coinciding with the aridification of northern Africa, the study suggesting that as the region became drier, natural selection favoured variants that enhanced survival under arid conditions.A Turkana woman carries the leg of a cow as she migrates with Turkana people to find water and grazing land for cattle. Photograph: Goran Tomašević/Reuters“This research demonstrates how our ancestors adapted to dramatic climate shifts through genetic evolution,” said Dr Epem Esekon, responsible for Turkana county’s health and sanitation sector.However, as more members of the Turkana community move to towns and cities, the same adaptations that once protected them may now increase risks of chronic lifestyle diseases, a phenomenon known as “evolutionary mismatch”. This occurs when adaptations shaped by one environment become liabilities in another, highlighting how rapid lifestyle changes interact with deep evolutionary history.When the researchers compared biomarkers and gene expression – the process by which information encoded in a gene is turned into a function – in the genomes of city-dwelling Turkana people with their kin still living in the villages, they found an imbalance of gene expression that may predispose them to chronic diseases such as hypertension or obesity, which are more common in urban settings where diets, water availability and activity patterns are radically different.“Understanding these adaptations will guide health programmes for the Turkana, especially as some shift from traditional pastoralism to city life,” said Miano.As the world faces rapid environmental change, the Turkana people’s story offers inspiration and practical insights. For generations, the researchers said, this community has developed and maintained sophisticated strategies for surviving in a challenging and variable environment, knowledge that becomes increasingly valuable as the climate crisis creates new survival challenges.The study has combined genetic findings with community insights on environment, lifestyle and health. Photograph: Luis Tato/AFP/Getty ImagesFor close to a decade, the project centred on co-production of knowledge, combining genomic science with ecological and anthropological expertise. The agenda emerged from dialogue with Turkana elders, scientists, chiefs and community members, conversations about health, diet and change, often in the evening around a campfire.“Working with the Turkana has been transformative for this study,” said Dr Sospeter Ngoci Njeru, a co-principal investigator and deputy director at Kemri’s Centre for Community Driven Research. “Their insights into their environment, lifestyle and health have been essential to connecting our genetic findings to real-world biology and survival strategies.”Dr Dino Martins, director of the TBI, says the deep ecological connection and the adaptation to one of the Earth’s hottest and most arid environments provides lessons for how climate continues to shape human biology and health. “The discovery adds another important piece of knowledge to our wider understanding of human evolution,” he said.Researchers say other pastoralist communities in similar environments in east Africa, including the Rendille, Samburu, Borana, Merille, Karamojong and Toposa, are likely to share this adaptation.The research team will create a podcast in the Turkana language to share the study’s findings and also plan to offer the community practical health considerations that arise from rapidly changing lifestyles.

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Are Five Senses Holding Us Back? Scientists Say We Could Use Seven

A mathematical model shows memory capacity is maximized when represented by seven features. The study links this to the potential for seven senses, with applications in AI and neuroscience. Skoltech researchers have developed a mathematical model to study how memory works. Their analysis led to unexpected insights that may advance the design of robots, artificial [...]

A new mathematical model of memory hints that seven senses, not five, may be the optimal number for maximizing mental capacity. Credit: ShutterstockA mathematical model shows memory capacity is maximized when represented by seven features. The study links this to the potential for seven senses, with applications in AI and neuroscience. Skoltech researchers have developed a mathematical model to study how memory works. Their analysis led to unexpected insights that may advance the design of robots, artificial intelligence, and our understanding of human memory. The study, published in Scientific Reports, suggests there could be an ideal number of senses. If that is true, then humans with five senses might actually benefit from having a few more. “Our conclusion is, of course, highly speculative in application to human senses, although you never know: It could be that humans of the future would evolve a sense of radiation or magnetic field. But in any case, our findings may be of practical importance for robotics and the theory of artificial intelligence,” said study co-author Professor Nikolay Brilliantov of Skoltech AI. “It appears that when each concept retained in memory is characterized in terms of seven features — as opposed to, say, five or eight — the number of distinct objects held in memory is maximized.” Modeling memory engrams Building on a framework established in the early 20th century, the team focused on the basic units of memory known as “engrams.” An engram can be described as a sparse network of neurons distributed across different brain regions that activate together. Its conceptual content is an idealized object defined by multiple characteristics. In human memory, these characteristics map to sensory inputs. For instance, the memory of a banana would include its image, smell, taste, and other sensory details. Altogether, this forms a five-dimensional representation that exists within a larger five-dimensional space containing all other stored concepts. The five senses. Credit: Modified by Nicolas Posunko/Skoltech from image generated by Deep Style (Abstract) model on Deep Dream GeneratorOver time, engrams can become more refined or more diffuse depending on how frequently they are triggered by external stimuli acting through the senses, which in turn recall the memory of the object. This process represents how learning strengthens memories while disuse leads to forgetting through environmental interaction. “We have mathematically demonstrated that the engrams in the conceptual space tend to evolve toward a steady state, which means that after some transient period, a ‘mature’ distribution of engrams emerges, which then persists in time,” Brilliantov commented. “As we consider the ultimate capacity of a conceptual space of a given number of dimensions, we somewhat surprisingly find that the number of distinct engrams stored in memory in the steady state is the greatest for a concept space of seven dimensions. Hence, the seven senses claim.” Maximizing conceptual space In other words, let the objects that exist out there in the world be described by a finite number of features corresponding to the dimensions of some conceptual space. Suppose that we want to maximize the capacity of the conceptual space expressed as the number of distinct concepts associated with these objects. The greater the capacity of the conceptual space, the deeper the overall understanding of the world. It turns out that the maximum is attained when the dimension of the conceptual space is seven. From this, the researchers conclude that seven is the optimal number of senses. According to the researchers, this number does not depend on the details of the model — the properties of the conceptual space and the stimuli providing the sense impressions. The number seven appears to be a robust and persistent feature of memory engrams as such. One caveat is that multiple engrams of differing sizes existing around a common center are deemed to represent similar concepts and are therefore treated as one when calculating memory capacity. The memory of humans and other living beings is an enigmatic phenomenon tied to the property of consciousness, among other things. Advancing the theoretical models of memory will be instrumental to gaining new insights into the human mind and recreating humanlike memory in AI agents. Reference: “The critical dimension of memory engrams and an optimal number of senses” by Wendy Otieno, Ivan Y. Tyukin and Nikolay Brilliantov, 15 August 2025, Scientific Reports.DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-11244-y Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.

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Autism Research Is a Chance for RFK Jr. to Take Pesticides Seriously

Unlike some of his other concerns, these echo legitimate science.

Pesticides once appeared to be a clear target for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s desire to “make America healthy again.” Before becoming the health secretary, he described Monsanto, the maker of the glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup, as “enemy of every admirable American value,” and vowed to “ban the worst agricultural chemicals already banned in other countries.” Since he came to power, many of Kennedy’s fans have waited eagerly for him to do just that.Kennedy has yet to satisfy them: In the latest MAHA action plan on children’s health, released last week, pesticides appear only briefly on a laundry list of vague ideas. The plan says that the government should fund research on how farmers could use less of them, and that the government "will work to ensure that the public has awareness and confidence” in the EPA’s existing pesticide-review process, which it called “robust.”Unlike Kennedy’s concerns about vaccines, his concerns about pesticides have echoed those found in a body of legitimate research. Studies have found associations between exposure to some herbicides and pesticides and cancer, hormone disruption, and other acute and chronic health conditions. These include neurodevelopmental impacts in children, such as autism—which Kennedy has also promised to tackle.Right now his department’s promised report on what has caused rates of autism to rise over recent decades is expected to highlight Tylenol use, whether during pregnancy or, as my colleague Tom Bartlett reported, based on Kennedy’s correspondence with a fringe researcher, in early childhood. Researchers generally point to a change in diagnostic criteria as the primary reason rates have spiked so dramatically. They also consider autism a complex condition that does not appear to have a single cause: Studies suggest that genetics play a bigger role than environmental factors in determining a person’s risk, though both seem likely to contribute and may work in concert. A serious effort from the government to understand its causes would require investment in long-term, large-cohort, and detailed studies that might cast light on the contribution of many environmental factors, including pesticides. Several studies have found neurological impacts associated with pesticides. UC Davis’s MIND Institute put out a study in 2014 that found autism risk was much higher among children whose mothers had lived near agricultural-pesticide areas while pregnant. A 2017 paper found that zip codes that conducted aerial spraying for mosquitoes—a pesticide—had comparatively higher rates of autism than zip codes that didn’t. Others have linked pesticides to a range of behavioral and cognitive impairment in children.Rebecca Schmidt, a molecular epidemiologist and professor at UC Davis, has been researching potential risk factors for autism as part of the school’s long-term MARBLES study of mothers and children. Schmidt and her colleagues study families with at least one child already diagnosed with the condition—to see what environmental and biological factors may raise the risk of subsequent children being diagnosed. (Younger siblings of a child with autism have on average a 20 percent chance of also having it.) Her own research, she told me, has not seen as dramatic of results for pesticides as the 2014 paper—which she also worked on—reported, though other labs have found associations of their own between prenatal pesticide exposure and autism.These studies, like most studies that assess environmental exposures, typically cannot determine causality between agricultural-pesticide exposure and autism risk. Investigating links between pesticides and health outcomes is challenging; researchers can look at geographic proximity to sprayed fields, but drilling down to find out how much pesticide actually ended up in a person’s body requires herculean diagnostic efforts, such as frequent urine sampling. And the conclusions drawn from these studies can only point to associations between certain exposures and the likelihood of developing the condition: Showing direct causality would involve willingly exposing pregnant mothers and infants to pesticides and seeing what happens, which scientists cannot do, for obvious reasons. But based on what she knows now, Schmidt told me, “pesticides are probably not a good exposure for any pregnant person, or even children,” since their brains are still developing.In investigating autism causes, Kennedy could also consider another environmental factor: air pollution. Breathing air pollution does have robust evidence linking it to neurodevelopmental effects in children, including autism. The Trump administration’s policy changes since January have predominantly tipped the country toward more air pollution, not less, while its climate-policy rollbacks will contribute even further to the burden of air pollution from wildfires. Meanwhile, some evidence also suggests a link between flame-retardant exposure and behavioral-developmental problems in children. Other studies have found possible links between pre- and postnatal exposure to PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” and autism.All of this means that following the science would give Kennedy many places to look. “We've been working on this for over a decade,” Schmidt told me. “Every time we do a study, it raises new questions. And so it’s a complex picture that takes time to tease apart.” Designing and completing strong studies of any of these factors is challenging and costly. If the federal government did want to put its resources toward finding the causes of autism, Kennedy would do well to increase funding for large, national studies that follow people for years.The latest MAHA plan does say that the National Institutes of Health, along with other agencies, will develop a way to evaluate “cumulative exposure,” or the impact of the cocktail of chemicals Americans are regularly interacting with—including pesticides. It does not say how that research will be funded or which of the tens of thousands of in-use chemicals the agencies would focus on.Since taking office, Kennedy has mostly avoided even rhetorically linking specific environmental exposures to health concerns. An earlier MAHA report had more to say on pesticides, but The New York Times and Politico reported that Republican lawmakers as well as the farm lobby expressed concern about its potential impact on farmers. At a Senate hearing, Kennedy said that there are “a million farmers who rely on glyphosate” and told lawmakers that “we are not going to do anything to jeopardize that business model.” At a Heritage Foundation event last month, Kennedy’s senior adviser, Calley Means, said on a panel that corn and soybean farmers are not the “enemy,” but rather that the “deep state” is. (Corn and soy are two of the most heavily sprayed crops.) In response to a request for comment, HHS pointed me to last week’s MAHA plan, as well as the EPA’s work to evaluate environmental risks while phasing out animal testing.This shift has raised the ire of some of Kennedy’s most ardent fans. Zen Honeycutt, the founder of the advocacy group Moms Across America who has been a major Kennedy supporter, said shortly after the MAHA plan was unveiled last week that her vote for the Republican Party is not guaranteed: “We will be actively campaigning to get people into office coming in the midterms that will protect our children, and we are not beholden to political parties.” In a statement later that day, she said that eliminating specific mentions of glyphosate and atrazine, another widely used pesticide that appeared in the first report and has concerning health implications, is “a tactic to appease the pesticide companies.”Some of Kennedy’s defenders rightly point out that he is not in charge of the EPA, which regulates pesticides, or the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees farming policies. Even if he cannot regulate pesticides himself, he is in charge of the National Institutes of Health, “and the NIH can study the causes of the effects of these chemicals on Americans. Those studies can drive the marketplace and policy change,” Vani Hari, a food activist, MAHA influencer, and vocal supporter of Kennedy, told me. (In particular, she wants to see the United States, as some other countries have, eliminate the practice of spraying glyphosate on crop fields right before harvest, which farmers do to dry out the crops.) Kennedy understands the threat these chemicals pose, she told me: “When there is an opportunity to add influence, he will. He’s not afraid to speak up.”I asked whether she would be disappointed if the forthcoming autism report doesn’t mention pesticides and instead focuses on Tylenol and folate deficiencies. She told me she doubted that the autism report would overlook pesticides. “I don’t see that even happening,” she said. Yet in his few months in office, Kennedy has had many chances to let science guide him and has let them pass—on the health benefits of seed oils, the safety of abortion pills, children’s mental-health screening, and, most notably, vaccine policy. This may be one more.

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See Vaccine Recommendations Backed by Science in These Handy Charts

These graphics will guide you through science-based vaccine guidelines for children and adults

Vaccines are a marvel of modern medicine: the carefully tested and regulated technologies teach people’s immune systems how to fight off potentially fatal infections, saving both lives and health care costs.But for as long as vaccines have existed, people have opposed them, and in recent years the antivaccine movement has gained visibility and power. Now the Department of Health and Human Services is led by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.—an environmental lawyer with no medical training and a history of antivaccine activism. And these lifesaving medical interventions are coming under threat.Access to COVID vaccines this fall is already expected to be limited to people aged 65 years or older and to those with underlying health conditions that make them more vulnerable to severe disease. And in June Kennedy dismissed all 17 sitting members of a crucial vaccine oversight group, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which, in the past, has made independent, science-based recommendations on vaccine access for people in the U.S. The dismissals came just weeks before the panel’s next scheduled meeting; Kennedy appointed eight new members in advance of the meeting, which is still set to begin on June 25.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.As a public resource, Scientific American has created graphics outlining the vaccines recommended by ACIP as of its final meeting in 2024.Vaccine recommendations have always been in flux as new products have been developed and continuing research has suggested better practices: The COVID pandemic required brand-new vaccines for a novel virus, for example. And in the U.S., the stunning success of the HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine led to its recommendation for everyone aged 26 or younger, meanwhile the oral polio vaccine was discontinued in favor of the inactivated injected vaccine.But traditionally, these decisions have been made by scientists based on solid research done within the confines of accepted ethical practices. These principles mean, for example, that a vaccine’s side effects are carefully monitored and evaluated against its immune benefit and that potential replacement vaccines are tested against their predecessors, not—as Kennedy has proposed—an inert placebo that would leave people vulnerable to an infection that doctors already have the tools to combat.Kennedy’s decision to replace ACIP wholesale and the comments he has made about deviating from standard vaccine policymaking practice suggest that new recommendations won’t be backed by established vaccine science—hence our reproduction of the vaccine recommendations as of the end of 2024.Note that these are generalized recommendations; people should talk with their health care providers about individual risks and needs, as well as how to proceed after missing a dose. Pregnant people can consult additional resources from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists for vaccines recommended during pregnancy. People planning to travel internationally should also check what vaccines are recommended for their destination and consult with a health care professional more than a month before departure.Vaccines Recommended for ChildrenJen Christiansen; Source: “Recommended Immunizations for Birth through 6 Years Old, United States, 2025.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Version dated to November 22, 2024. Accessed June 18, 2025 (primary reference)Jen Christiansen; Source: “Recommended Immunizations for Children 7–18 Years Old, United States, 2025.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Version dated to November 22, 2024. Accessed June 18, 2025 (primary reference)Vaccines Recommended for AdultsJen Christiansen; Source: “Recommended Immunizations for Adults Aged 19 Years and Older, United States, 2025.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Version dated to November 22, 2024. Accessed June 18, 2025 (primary reference)Infections These Vaccines Protect AgainstRespiratory syncytial virus (RSV): This respiratory virus hospitalizes an estimated 58,000 children and 177,000 older adults each year in the U.S. Annually in the country, it kills between 100 and 500 children under five years old and about 14,000 older adults.Hepatitis A and B: Both of these viruses cause liver infections. Severe cases of hepatitis A can require liver transplants, while chronic cases of hepatitis B can lead to other liver problems, including liver cancer.Rotavirus: This common gastrointestinal virus causes diarrhea that is sometimes severe enough to require hospitalization. Infections are most common in children under three years old, and the virus can withstand handwashing and common hand sanitizers.Diphtheria: This bacterial infection has become rare in the U.S. through vaccination; before the vaccine was available, case rates could be as high as 200,000 annually. The infection can manifest in the respiratory system or the skin. Half of untreated people die; children under age five and adults more than 40 years old are most vulnerable.Tetanus: Sometimes called lockjaw because an early symptom is muscle pain and spasms in the jaw, tetanus is caused by toxins from a bacterium. Doctors don’t have a cure for tetanus, and the infection has become rare in the U.S. only through vaccination.Pertussis/whooping cough: This bacterial infection is sometimes nicknamed the “100-day cough” for its most characteristic symptom. U.S. infection levels have generally run between 10,000 and 20,000 diagnosed cases per year; the disease hospitalizes more than one in five infected children under six months old.Haemophilus influenzae type b infection: This bacterium—unrelated to the influenza virus—causes a host of infections, including mild cases in the ears and lungs but also severe cases in systems such as the bloodstream and central nervous system. Before the vaccine was developed, the U.S. saw 20,000 severe infections annually in children under five years of age, and one in 20 of these cases was fatal.Pneumococcal disease: The bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae can cause a range of infections, including so-called invasive infections that tend to be more serious. Pneumococcal disease can include pneumonia—pneumococcal pneumonia hospitalizes more than 150,000 people in the U.S. each year. But other types of pathogens also cause pneumonia, and pneumococcal disease can manifest anywhere in the body.Polio: This virus most frequently causes asymptomatic infections, but symptomatic infections can have quite severe symptoms, including paralysis of one or more limbs or even of the muscles involved in breathing. Polio can also trigger new symptoms many years after the initial infection in what’s called postpolio syndrome.COVID: In the five years since COVID emerged, this disease has contributed to the deaths of more than 1.2 million people in the U.S.; weekly death tolls remain in the hundreds. The virus also causes lingering and sometimes debilitating systemic issues known as long COVID, including in children.Influenza: This respiratory virus is most prevalent in North America between October and May. Although many cases can be treated at home, flu infections can be very serious, particularly in young children and adults aged 65 or older, as well as people with immune issues and other chronic conditions. During the 2023–2024 season, the CDC reported 34 million cases of flu, 380,000 hospitalizations and 17,000 deaths.Chickenpox: The varicella-zoster virus causes a characteristic itchy rash of small blisters that appear in conjunction with a fever, headache and other mild symptoms. Severe cases can cause more systemic infections, pneumonia, brain swelling and toxic shock syndrome. Adults who did not have chickenpox as a child are more vulnerable to serious infection.Measles: Measles is one of the most contagious viruses known to experts, and historically most children contracted it before the age of 15. Doctors have no cure for measles; they can only treat its symptoms. About one in 1,000 cases causes brain inflammation; even rarer complications can occur years after the initial infection. The measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine has dramatically reduced caseloads in the U.S. since the late 1960s, however.Mumps: Mumps is a viral infection characterized by the swelling of certain salivary glands, but other organs can also be affected, including the testicles, ovaries, brain, spinal cord and pancreas. Mumps can also trigger miscarriage early in pregnancy.Rubella: Sometimes called German measles, rubella is a viral infection that is unrelated to measles but also causes a rash. For most people, rubella is a mild illness, but it triggers serious birth defects in as many as 90 percent of cases in which the virus infects someone during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.Meningococcal disease: Infection of the blood or the membranes of the central nervous system by the bacterium Neisseria meningitidis kills 10 to 15 percent of people who are treated; cases that aren’t fatal can include a range of long-term issues.Human papilloma virus (HPV): Infection with this virus leaves people susceptible to cancer, particularly cervical cancer; nearly 38,000 cancers per year are attributed to the virus.Mpox: The virus that causes mpox was first identified in 1958 but more regularly infects animals than humans. In 2022 it began spreading in people worldwide, however. The infection is characterized by a painful rash and flulike symptoms. The vaccine is only recommended for people who are likely to be exposed to the virus.Dengue: Dengue is a mosquito-borne illness that is most common in tropical regions. In severe cases, it can damage blood vessels and interfere with the blood’s ability to clot. Vaccination is not available in the contiguous U.S., but it is available in U.S. territories and freely associated states for children aged nine to 16 who have had the disease before and live in a region where the infection is common.Shingles: This infection is caused by the same virus as chickenpox, which remains in the body after a chickenpox infection. When the previously dormant virus reactivates, it can cause shingles, a painful localized rash that is most common in people aged 50 or older and can lead to ongoing pain, vision issues and neurological problems.

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