Nasper Mushonga

NASA astronaut Anil Menon and CSA astronaut Joshua Kutryk completed a 7h 11m spacewalk (U.S. EVA 100 / 285th ISS EVA) installing the seventh iROSA on channel 2A. Final array planned 5 Nov on 3B — up to +30% power (~160→~215 kW), including for controlled deorbit.

Flight 15 aims to catch both Super Heavy Booster 22 and Ship 42 — the first Ship catch try after three prior booster catches. B22 static-fired 25 Oct 2026; S42 on 27 Oct. FAA licence pending; no launch date set.

UK Biobank wrist-light study (87,577 adults, median 8.1 years): daytime light >1,000 lux linked to 16% lower dementia risk; <0.70 h/day at ≥5,000 lux outperformed six established risk factors. Observational. General Psychiatry 2026.

Neurology study of 12,772 Brazilian adults (~8 years): highest intake of seven low/no-calorie sweeteners linked to ~63% faster decline in thinking and memory (~1.6 extra years). Observational — not proof of cause. AAN / Gonçalves, Suemoto et al.

UCSF B-SYNC CAR-T cells activate only in the brain (brevican sensor) and cleared DMG in mice; cells persisted past 70 days. Human trial at UCSF may begin as early as April 2027. Science Translational Medicine, 28 Oct 2026.

RCT of 100 adults (systolic 120–140): after four weeks of three sessions/week, once or twice weekly maintained significant systolic reductions vs control; three times/week did best (~14 mmHg). BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine.

Finnish study (51 adults): every circulating white-cell type measured rose after one 30-min sauna with a mid-session cold shower; neutrophils and lymphocytes were back to normal within 30 minutes. Temperature 2026.

INSPIRE trial (117 adults, 6 weeks): inulin reduced knee OA pain, improved grip strength and pain sensitivity. Dropout 3.6% vs 21% on digital physio. Gut bacteria and GLP-1 may be involved.

Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience / Cell Stem Cell 2026: ~30% of older adults with Alzheimer's pathology never get symptoms. Immature hippocampal neurons in resilient brains show survival programmes and lower inflammation.

Staged bilateral MRgFUS in 40 patients: 86% reported some improvement three months after the second side. The second side helped less and raised speech, walking and balance risks. Careful selection required.

Phase 2b JAMA trial (193 adults, 38 sites): one dose of mebufotenin benzoate nasal spray; day-29 remission 26% (8 mg) and 18% (12 mg) vs 8% low dose. Benefit still at day 57. Company-funded; needs phase 3.

NASA's Swift Observatory, launched in 2004 and designed for a 2-year mission, made its final observation on 20 October 2026 after a robotic boost attempt never happened. It is expected to re-enter within weeks.

A US government-commissioned study (J Stud Alcohol Drugs, 2026) estimates that 14 US drinks a week carries about a 4% (1 in 25) lifetime risk of an alcohol-caused death.

In the ASPREE trial (13,541 older adults with genetic data), aspirin was linked to lower dementia risk only in the top 20% of a platelet-linked genetic score (1% vs 3.3%), with roughly double the major bleeding (4.4% vs 2.1%).

In a phase III trial of 830 young children (JAMA Pediatrics, 2026), silver diamine fluoride stopped 54% of treated cavities at 6 months vs 22.5% with placebo. It leaves a permanent black stain.

Everyone wants AI, but AI runs on electricity, and 655 million people still have none. Toby Rice on energy poverty, with Tracking SDG7 data.

In Queen Mary University of London's SCRATCH-HTN trial, 63 people with uncontrolled high blood pressure used a home ear-nerve stimulator. It was safe and easy to use but did not lower blood pressure more than a sham device overall; a possible benefit in more severe hypertension needs larger trials.

WEHI researchers found that gamma delta T cells can recognise and kill small cell lung cancer even when it hides from the usual immune cells. In trial data, patients with more of these cells tended to live longer, and two approved drugs boosted their killing in the lab.

About 2.9 million people a year die from cooking smoke at home, and hundreds of millions still have no electricity. Where energy poverty is worst, with World Bank, WHO and UN data.

A Neurology study of 294 people with mild to moderate Parkinson's found that those active more than eight hours a week showed almost no decline on a memory and thinking test, and their movement symptoms slightly improved. It shows an association, not cause.

Rutgers researchers found that bacteria corrode titanium dental implants, shedding particles that lock macrophages into bone-destroying inflammation. Mice lacking the calcium channel TRPC1 had much smaller abscesses and still cleared bacteria. A mouse result, not yet a treatment.

The FDA has cleared Wave Neuroscience's MeRT System, which uses an EEG to personalise transcranial magnetic stimulation, as an add-on treatment for adults with PTSD. The company reports a 52% symptom reduction and 68% remission; the full trial data have not yet been published.

A five-year, farmer-led CSIRO project, STRAP, funded by almost A$8 million from the Future Drought Fund, is trialling intercropping, legumes, alternative fertilisers and integrating pasture into cropping across SA, Victoria and NSW.

Ploughing twice a year and letting native plants grow, instead of keeping soil bare, more than doubled protected soil aggregates in a silty loam almond orchard, with about 50% more carbon inside them. Sandy soils responded far less (Soil and Tillage Research, 17 Oct 2026).

A University of Cologne study in Nature found mild cold makes worms' muscles produce BH2, which drives tyrosine production and extends worm lifespan. Lifespan results are in worms, not people.

A two-year USC trial gave 365 older adults at higher Alzheimer's risk 2,000 mg DHA a day; DHA reached the brain (+17%) but memory and hippocampal shrinkage were no better than placebo.

Fraunhofer ISE's 25 Ah pouch cells with silicon-rich anodes ran more than 1,000 full cycles and kept over 83% of their capacity, at 280 Wh/kg in a non-optimised research cell (20 Oct 2026).

Texas A&M AgriLife trials killed cover crops 8 to 2 weeks before cotton: a late kill drained the most soil moisture, an early kill let the soil recharge. Early results.

A DARPA-funded Michigan project, M3BOLT, uses magnetic and plain sound waves as 1s and 0s; the team projects 100-1,000x faster, more efficient computing. Early design concept.

A Nature Neuroscience study links Parkinson's to cholesterol trafficking by ABCA1; in mice, switching it off or giving magnesium citrate reduced the damage. Mouse research only.

A Circulation study of 13 ISS astronauts found heart filling dipped in the first two weeks, then recovered; a Mars-gravity tilt test after landing showed no major strain.

Penn linked hospital EEG to a secure AI chat app: patient labels on seizure alerts cut false alarms by about 80% in a simulation.

Bonn researchers turned blood cells from an 80-year-old into neural stem cells with a molecular age under 20. Lab research on cells, not a treatment.

Iowa farmers planting fall cover crops can get $5/acre off 2027 crop insurance, with a record 1.4 million acres in cost-share.

California ran the soil sponge idea for 20 years: at Five Points, reduced tillage plus cover crops left soil 136% more stable in water, with roughly double the top-layer carbon and 12% more water held. One long-term site, and benefits were strongest at the surface.

Biochar from crop waste lifted maize up to 29% in Bangladesh trials: biochar added to balanced fertiliser raised maize to 9.21 tonnes a hectare, and biochar-coated urea gave full yield with 75% of the recommended nitrogen. Results vary by soil, and costs still need working out.

Blood could spot Crohn's and colitis, 10 years early: in 2,000 stored blood samples from 500 US military personnel, antibody patterns, including against Epstein-Barr virus, appeared up to a decade before Crohn's or ulcerative colitis was diagnosed. No such test is available yet.

Bleached coral healed by touch, in seven weeks: in a small Stanford lab study, bleached coral fragments touching healthy clones of the same coral fully recovered in seven weeks, while fragments kept a few millimetres apart died. Not reef-scale yet.

Why some people with the strongest Alzheimer's gene stay sharp: Columbia researchers found a rare FN1 variant cut Alzheimer's odds by 71% in people with two APOE4 copies, and showed excess fibronectin makes the blood-brain barrier leaky (Nature Aging, 2026; lab and animal work, no treatment yet).

Japan's MMX mission lifted off at 8:41pm BST on 19 October 2026 to bring home a piece of Mars's moon Phobos: Mars arrival in 2027, the Idefix rover in 2029, a landing in 2030 to collect at least 10g of sample, and return to Australia in 2031.

How deep sleep controls growth hormone: UC Berkeley research in Cell, done in mice, found a two-way brain circuit — sleep drives growth hormone release, and growth hormone feeds back on a brainstem area to promote wakefulness.

Less tillage, cover crops and compost in Victoria: a four-season Soil Wealth ICP trial at Tarwin in a celery, leek and spinach system cut diesel 33%, labour 50% and early irrigation 50%, with about $2,300/ha net profit gain in the trial area.

Lab-grown mini-brains ‘read’ Braille patterns: brain organoids under a millimetre across, with about 10,000 neurons, produced activity patterns that a decoder could use to identify Braille letters, 61% from one organoid and 83% from three.

A shredded star exposed a wandering black hole: a star torn apart about 3,500 light-years from its galaxy's centre revealed a hidden black hole of about 1.6 million solar masses (TDE 2023mfm).

Locked-out crops? Mustard-family plants were thought unable to partner with soil fungi. Sheffield researchers (Current Biology) found Arabidopsis trades carbon for nitrogen and phosphorus with an ancient fine root endophyte. Lab model plant, not field crops yet.

AI on your desk? Meta launched Muse Spark Open on 15 Oct 2026: an open-weight model Meta says rivals leading Chinese open models and can run on two Mac Studios with M5 Ultra chips. These are Meta's claims.

Quantum errors cut ~40x: Google Quantum AI says magic state cultivation on its Willow processor reduced errors about 40-fold and produced T-states with a record 99.99% logical fidelity (Science, 15 Oct 2026).

Feed straw to livestock first: in a 30-year rainfed maize trial in China, returning straw as livestock manure raised soil organic carbon 40%, versus about 16% for mulching and 19% for shredded straw, with the same carbon going in.

Chicken manure lifted harvests ~46%: a five-year trial on alkaline black soils in northeast China found adding humic acid or composted chicken manure to fertiliser raised average yields about 46%, though extra nutrients may explain part of it.

Holes in the soil boost harvests: a German field study in Plant and Soil made more than 12,000 artificial pores with 10 mm steel rods pushed 80 cm deep, raising wheat and barley yields and helping roots reach the subsoil.

Batteries for the freezing Moon: NASA's SPEARS solid-state cells worked well to -60°C, with reduced performance to -80°C, and survived 100°C to -170°C. Early lab work; heaters still needed.

Sharper than planned: NASA's Roman Space Telescope nudged a mirror by about a sixteenth of a hair, and its main camera now beats its image-quality requirement by nearly 30%.

Shrimp in space: 51 students built SCAMPI, a sealed ecosystem of shrimp, algae and microbes that launched to the ISS on SpaceX CRS-35 to study life in microgravity.

Seeing storms before clouds form: Meteosat-13's Infrared Sounder, Europe's first in geostationary orbit, is now operational, mapping warmth and humidity layer by layer every 30 minutes.

Retinas made in space? NASA's CRS-35 cargo run tests building artificial retinas layer by layer in microgravity: early research, not a cure.

Why cyber security matters: record breach costs, billions lost to online crime, a real crypto hack example and three easy ways to protect yourself.

Disclosure: I hold some NEAR. Not financial advice.

Could AI crack the locks on crypto wallets? A podcast warning and a "bunker mode" call, but no working attack shown: a warning, not a proven attack.

Plough less, grow more? Strip tillage gave about 48% higher yields than ox ploughing in a 2-year trial in Ethiopia.

Medieval scribes wrote the gospels on animal skin — sheeppox virus DNA found in the York Gospels, traced back 3,700 years.

Acid soil locks the food away — one dose of lime raised finger millet yields by up to 95%

Astronauts saw the Moon flash 5 times — the Artemis II crew spotted space rocks hitting the Moon.

Your hands are mirror images that never quite line up, and so are many molecules. Making just one version won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

This tiny pond alga led to a Nobel Prize — one of its proteins can switch brain cells on and off with light (2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine).

A hole on the Moon may turn out to be a front door — NASA Project GIMLI will check for a lava tube under Marius Hills Pit.

In farm soil, carbon helps decide how much phosphorus a crop can actually reach — IITA study of 554 Nigerian samples.

Mushrooms on the forest floor mark a hidden fungal network — soil health linking tree roots underground.

No-till planter into cereal rye. Regenerative planting for soil health.

Perseverance drills Mars rock and seals the core in a sample tube.

Hands plant fir seedlings. Regenerative tree planting for soil health.

Earth rises over the Moon as Apollo 8 swings around the far side.

The far side of the Moon, the face Earth never sees.