David Despain (he/him/el)

Life Lessons From (Very Old) Bowhead Whales

How bowhead whales achieve a long healthspan — being better at fixing damaged DNA

Can You Exercise While Taking GLP-1 Medication? Absolutely—Here’s How to Do It Safely. Endocrinologists, nutritionists, and personal trainers explain why it's important to stick to your workout routine when taking a GLP-1—and how to maintain your gains

What to know about exercise while on GLP-1 therapy

Jane Goodall, legendary primatologist, has died at age 91 Jane Goodall, primatologist who transformed our understanding of the lives of apes, has died, according to an announcement from the Jane Goodall Institute.

RIP, Jane Goodall www.npr.org/2025/10/01/4...

🥀 🧪 Jane Goodall 1934-2025

World first: Andrzej Bargiel just skied down Everest without bottled oxygen The Polish athlete becomes the first person to climb to and ski from Mount Everest's summit without supplementary oxygen - cementing his place among the legends of high-mountain endurance.

Amazing www.redbull.com/us-en/andrze...

Nations ratify the world's first treaty to protect international waters The first treaty to protect marine diversity in international waters will come into force early next year after being ratified by the 60th nation, Morocco.

👏🏽

Fig. 2: New hominin dentition from the LGRP.

Hominin fossils from the Ledi-Geraru Research Project area, Ethiopia, suggest that early Homo and Australopithecus species co-existed in the region more than 2.5 million years ago, according to a paper published in Nature. go.nature.com/45Np847🏺 🧪

Weird Weather: How to Tell a Williwaw from a Haboob You may have endured a frost quake, pogonip or Saskatchewan screamer without knowing it. Take our tour of weird weather terms to find out

This is helpful www.scientificamerican.com/article/weir...

Your Brain Literally Washes Itself while You Sleep Washing waste from the brain is an essential function of sleep—and it could help ward off dementia

I really enjoyed this article on the brain's glymphatic system, from the discovery of how brains "wash" themselves" to new frontiers including "glymphograms" to measure brain clearance efficiency. I'm looking forward to seeing where this research leads in the years ahead. Now, time for bed.

The Need for Speed: Improving Muscle Power for Longevity Cardiorespiratory (aerobic) fitness (CRF), often quantified by peak oxygen consumption, is a powerful predictor of cardiovascular disease (CVD) as well as of all-cause and CVD-related mortality.1 Howe...

The Need for Speed: Improving Muscle Power for Longevity - Mayo Clinic Proceedings www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S002...

adding SARS-CoV-2 Mpro (in red, purple, blue, gray, little green) to a test tube with pink plasma, causes activation of VII and XII (red circles) to make a blood clot (RBCs with yellow platelets and yellow fibrin)

🩸A new study shows that adding SARS-CoV-2’s main protease (Mpro) enzyme to plasma from healthy donors can trigger blood clots by activating coagulation factors VII and XII. buff.ly/hWZB7aS

🩸This may help explain why COVID increases blood clot risk.

#medsky #hemesky #IDsky 🛟😷🧪

Attenborough’s Ocean is the film I’ve been waiting my whole career for – now the world must act on its message | George Monbiot The documentary shows the damage that fishing does to our planet. So why does the industry still hold governments to ransom? asks Guardian columnist George Monbiot

Go watch this

Status, trends and conservation of global sea turtle populations - Nature Reviews Biodiversity This Review takes stock of global sea turtle populations, summarizing the dominant threats and most effective conservation interventions.

Sea turtle conservation strategies

Opinion | The Science I Would Be Doing if I Weren’t in ICE Detention

The Science I Would Be Doing if I Weren’t in ICE Detention

By Kseniia Petrova

"Ms. Petrova is a Russian scientist who works in a lab at Harvard Medical School. She told her story through a Times Opinion editor, Alex Ellerbeck, over multiple calls from an ICE detention center."

The National Weather Service Is Understaffed and Facing Huge Cuts—That Could Cost Lives Weather experts warn that staff cuts at the National Weather Service that have been made by the Trump administration are a danger to public safety as tornadoes, hurricanes and heat loom this spring an...

The National Weather Service costs the average American $4 and prevents billions of dollars of damage PER YEAR. One in three local offices are now "critically understaffed" while summer's weather threats loom. 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...

What was food like before the FDA? Formaldehyde, brick dust, lead, and borax once made grocery shopping a minefield.

What was food like before the FDA? www.popsci.com/health/food-... @deborahb.bsky.social

Wild chimpanzees share fermented fruits Bowland and colleagues document intake of naturally fermented breadfruit containing alcohol by wild chimpanzees.

Cheers to the chimps, not so different from us 🍻

What the ‘trash heap’ penguins of Argentina are teaching us about survival For more than 60 million years, penguins of all kinds—including the opportunistic Magellanic penguin—have been driven by an evolutionary urge to reach beyond their boundaries. Today, many are surfacin...

Opportunistic penguins www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...

Leading Nutrition Scientist Departs N.I.H., Citing Censorship Kevin Hall said his work on ultraprocessed foods has been “hobbled” under the Trump administration. Scientists have been raising such concerns for months.

Wake me up when we live in a free country again

Paris said au revoir to cars. Air pollution maps reveal a dramatic change. Air pollution fell substantially as the city restricted car traffic and made way for parks and bike lanes.

NYC, please take note!

Lilly's oral GLP-1 drug delivers Ozempic-like efficacy in phase 3 diabetes trial Eli Lilly has met its goal of achieving semaglutide-like efficacy with an oral GLP-1 drug. | Eli Lilly has met its goal of achieving semaglutide-like efficacy with an oral GLP-1 drug. The phase 3 stud...

Lilly's oral GLP-1 drug completes phase 3 trial, up for FDA approval for weight loss this year, T2D in 2026

EAT-Lancet planetary diet shows no dementia risk, may protect against Alzheimer’s In a large Swedish study, researchers found that the environmentally sustainable EAT-Lancet diet does not increase dementia risk and may lower the risk of Alzheimer’s and all-cause dementia, particula...

Interesting. Overall from the study, looks like a 11-14% reduction in risk of all-cause dementia, and 12-19% reduction in risk of AD in APOE4 non-carriers (depending on score) -- that is meaningful -- but no effect on APOE4 carriers.

Why Africans should be telling the story of human origins Yohannes Haile-Selassie wants to shift the trajectory of palaeoanthropology in fossil-rich Ethiopia away from its long colonial heritage.

Loved

Spaghetti science: What pasta reveals about the universe When you see pasta, your brain probably doesn't jump to the secrets of the universe. But for almost a century, physicists have puzzled over spaghetti's counterintuitive properties.

Who knew the secrets to life’s origins could be found in “cacio e pepe”? FSM signs are everywhere. 😁🍝

Scientists solve the mystery of sea turtles' 'lost years' Using satellite trackers, scientists have discovered the whereabouts of young sea turtles during a key part of their lives.

File under “awesome”

Alcohol and cancer risk: what you need to know Experts weigh in on the risks of moderate drinking — and how people should assess them.

Scientists first labelled alcohol as a carcinogen more than 35 years ago, and the evidence has only grown since. What has been less clear is the level of drinking at which cancer risk starts to rise. Nature spoke with experts about the risks. 🧪

YouTube video by World Obesity Federation #WorldObesityDay 2025: Changing Systems, Healthier Lives

Today is #WorldObesityDay. This year's theme shines a light on systems that shape our health.