People in the oldest stage of life who regularly engage in aerobic activities and strength training exercises perform better on cognitive tests than those who are either sedentary or participate only in aerobic exercise. That is the key finding of our new study, published in the journal GeroScience.

We assessed 184 cognitively healthy people ranging in age from 85 to 99. Each participant reported their exercise habits and underwent a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests that were designed to evaluate various dimensions of cognitive function.

We found that those who incorporated both aerobic exercises, such as swimming and cycling, and strength exercises like weightlifting into their routines – regardless of intensity and duration – had better mental agility, quicker thinking and greater ability to shift or adapt their thinking.

Using a well-known cognitive screening tool called the Montreal Cognitive Assessment that provides a balanced view of many aspects of cognition, we found that people who didn’t engage in any physical exercise scored lower than those who did both cardio and strength training. This difference was slight but significant even when controlling for other factors like education and how much people exercised. In addition, the group that did both types of exercises did better in specific cognitive activities, like symbol coding, beyond just the screening results.

It’s important to note that while our study establishes a correlation between a mix of aerobic and strength training exercises and higher cognitive test scores, the design of the study did not enable us to determine a causal relationship.

Nonetheless, the results suggest that a varied exercise routine is associated with improved cognitive functioning in people who are in their late 80s and beyond. We conducted the study as part of a large, multisite collaboration with the McKnight Brain Research Foundation, which has institutes at the University of Florida, the University of Miami, the University of Arizona and the University of Alabama-Birmingham.

Why it matters

The aging of the global population makes cognitive health a pressing issue. The number of people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in the U.S. is projected to reach almost 14 million by 2060, up from just over 6 million as of 2020. Our findings not only offer hope for healthier aging but also present a practical approach to maintaining or even enhancing cognitive health in the last decades of life.

These results are not just numbers; they represent real-world thinking abilities that can affect the quality of life for those entering their golden years.

The fact that nearly 70% of our study participants were already engaging in some physical exercise prior to signing up for our study challenges the stereotype that old age and physical inactivity must go hand in hand.

Our findings provide an evidence base for health care providers to consider recommending a mixed regimen of aerobic and strength exercises as part of their patients’ wellness plans. Studies show that when cognitive decline is slowed, people spend less on medical care and experience a higher quality of life.

What’s next

Some of the next questions we hope to answer include: What types of aerobic and strength exercises are most effective for cognitive health? Is walking as effective as jogging? Does lifting weights have the same impact as resistance band exercises? And how much exercise is needed to see noticeable cognitive benefits?

Another critical question is the potential of exercise as a treatment for neurocognitive disorders among older people. Our results suggest that physical activity is a preventive measure. But could it also be an active treatment for cognitive decline? This is an exciting development and one that is opening up all sorts of new possibilities for helping people live fully across their entire life span.

The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.

Brian Ho, PhD Candidate in Clinical & Health Psychology, University of Florida and Ronald Cohen, Professor of Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Florida

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

When you hear about the abundance of life on Earth, what do you picture? For many people, it’s animals – but awareness of plant diversity is growing rapidly.

Our planet has nearly 300,000 species of flowering plants. Among animals, only beetles can compete with that number. There are more species of ferns than birds, more mints than mammals, and more beans than butterflies. Measured in total mass, plants make up 82% of all life on land across the globe.

We are plant scientists and co-founders of Let’s Botanize, an educational nonprofit that uses plant life to teach about ecology, evolution and biodiversity. In the past several years we have witnessed a botanical boom, with participation in plant-based hobbies surging. From cultivating houseplants to foraging for wild foods and outdoor gardening, plant appreciation is on the rise.

Botanizing is spending time alongside plants in order to observe and appreciate them as living organisms – like birding, but with subjects that stay in place. When you botanize, a simple walk in the woods becomes an immersive experience shared with many species. Getting to know your nonhuman neighbors is a way to engage with a changing planet.

Plant collecting and colonialism

Botanizing has a deep and checkered history. Humans have been analyzing and classifying plants for thousands of years, often to figure out what they can safely eat or cultivate.

When Europeans began exploring and colonizing other parts of the world, they were interested in finding plants that were useful as food, medicine or for other purposes. For example, in the early 17th century, the Dutch East India Company forcibly colonized the Banda Islands in what is now Indonesia in order to monopolize the cultivation and lucrative trade of nutmeg (Myristica fragrans).

In 19th-century England, Victorians became obsessed with plants, especially ferns. This craze came to be known as pteridomania, or fern fever. It coincided with the height of European imperialism across the globe, which included widespread collection of valuable plants from faraway places.

Today, however, many botanic gardens and arboreta – gardens that focus on trees and shrubs – have shifted their mission to public education, scientific research and biodiversity conservation. They can be good resources for learning to botanize.

Why botanize?

Plants provide raw materials for the homes we live in, the food we eat and the oxygen we breathe. Without them, life as humans know it could not exist.

Nonetheless, many people think of plants more as a backdrop to life, rather than as a central part of it. Scientists and educators call this phenomenon plant awareness disparity – a widespread cognitive bias that leads people to underestimate the diversity and importance of plants.

Research has shown the value of being outside in natural green areas or around plants indoors. Even traditional western doctors are starting to prescribe nature walks to reduce stress and improve physical well-being. Botanizing can provide a reason to get outdoors, and spending time closely observing plants’ minute structures is a great mindfulness practice.

We also see botanizing as a valuable alternative to spending time on social media. As many experts have observed, online platforms have become so individually tailored by algorithms that each user participates in their own version of reality, a trend that has enabled increasingly combative and antisocial behavior. Botanizing is an opportunity to take a break from these tailored worlds and deeply engage with local human and nonhuman communities.

Finally, since plants form the foundation of life on Earth, caring for plants is a way of caring for our planet. Botanizing is one simple way to inspire change in other aspects of our lives that prioritizes sustainability.

Tools of the trade

There are many ways to botanize. Typically it involves trying to identify a plant species, observing its form and structure or assessing how it survives in the landscape. Plants are everywhere and don’t move, so this can be done in virtually any setting, including your windowsill or sidewalk.

So, how do you start? You can focus on plant structure, ecology, interactions, colors, textures or scents – or tastes, if you’re bold. You don’t need to travel far or spend a lot of money. There’s much to learn from your houseplants, the food you cook, the wood grain of your furniture, the plants growing in your sidewalks, gardens or local green spaces.

Here are a few essential tools:

– A hand lens is a window into the minutia of the botanical world. It’s as essential for a botanist as binoculars are for a birder. We recommend one with 10x magnification – that is, one that magnifies what you’re looking at by a factor of 10.

– A local field guide is your reference textbook. A good field guide to your local plants will have images and detailed text that you can use to cross-reference your identifications.

– A plant identification app can help confirm your identifications. Machine learning algorithms are getting increasingly good at matching plant images with species. One popular choice is the Seek app, which is powered by iNaturalist, an online social network where people share information about living species and get help with identifications.

– Almost every region of the U.S. has local botanical clubs that typically hold regular meetings and organize workshops, online groups, botanizing days and more. Joining one is a great way to meet and learn from people with similar interests.

To germinate your initial interest, we recommend searching for a spark plant – one that excites, engages or is meaningful to you. It can be a plant that you are familiar with but haven’t seen growing in real life, one that is totally new to you, or one that you associate with a special moment.

If botanizing is to reclaim its place as a nature-based hobby, we believe it is important to reimagine it as a critically evolved 21st century pastime. That means looking at plants with appreciation – not simply as products for human use but as foundational and interconnected members of life on Earth.

Jacob S. Suissa, Assistant Professor of Plant Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee and Ben Goulet-Scott, Higher Education & Laboratory Coordinator at Harvard Forest, Harvard University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

In an exciting milestone for lunar scientists around the globe, India’s Chandrayaan-3 lander touched down 375 miles (600 km) from the south pole of the Moon on Aug. 23, 2023.

In just under 14 Earth days, Chandrayaan-3 provided scientists with valuable new data and further inspiration to explore the Moon. And the Indian Space Research Organization has shared these initial results with the world.

While the data from Chandrayaan-3’s rover, named Pragyan, or “wisdom” in Sanskrit, showed the lunar soil contains expected elements such as iron, titanium, aluminum and calcium, it also showed an unexpected surprise – sulfur.

Planetary scientists like me have known that sulfur exists in lunar rocks and soils, but only at a very low concentration. These new measurements imply there may be a higher sulfur concentration than anticipated.

Pragyan has two instruments that analyze the elemental composition of the soil – an alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and a laser-induced breakdown spectrometer, or LIBS for short. Both of these instruments measured sulfur in the soil near the landing site.

Sulfur in soils near the Moon’s poles might help astronauts live off the land one day, making these measurements an example of science that enables exploration.

Geology of the Moon

There are two main rock types on the Moon’s surface – dark volcanic rock and the brighter highland rock. The brightness difference between these two materials forms the familiar “man in the moon” face or “rabbit picking rice” image to the naked eye.

Scientists measuring lunar rock and soil compositions in labs on Earth have found that materials from the dark volcanic plains tend to have more sulfur than the brighter highlands material.

Sulfur mainly comes from volcanic activity. Rocks deep in the Moon contain sulfur, and when these rocks melt, the sulfur becomes part of the magma. When the melted rock nears the surface, most of the sulfur in the magma becomes a gas that is released along with water vapor and carbon dioxide.

Some of the sulfur does stay in the magma and is retained within the rock after it cools. This process explains why sulfur is primarily associated with the Moon’s dark volcanic rocks.

Chandrayaan-3’s measurements of sulfur in soils are the first to occur on the Moon. The exact amount of sulfur cannot be determined until the data calibration is completed.

The uncalibrated data collected by the LIBS instrument on Pragyan suggests that the Moon’s highland soils near the poles might have a higher sulfur concentration than highland soils from the equator and possibly even higher than the dark volcanic soils.

These initial results give planetary scientists like me who study the Moon new insights into how it works as a geologic system. But we’ll still have to wait and see if the fully calibrated data from the Chandrayaan-3 team confirms an elevated sulfur concentration.

Atmospheric sulfur formation

The measurement of sulfur is interesting to scientists for at least two reasons. First, these findings indicate that the highland soils at the lunar poles could have fundamentally different compositions, compared with highland soils at the lunar equatorial regions. This compositional difference likely comes from the different environmental conditions between the two regions – the poles get less direct sunlight.

Second, these results suggest that there’s somehow more sulfur in the polar regions. Sulfur concentrated here could have formed from the exceedingly thin lunar atmosphere.

The polar regions of the Moon receive less direct sunlight and, as a result, experience extremely low temperatures compared with the rest of the Moon. If the surface temperature falls, below -73 degrees C (-99 degrees F), then sulfur from the lunar atmosphere could collect on the surface in solid form – like frost on a window.

Sulfur at the poles could also have originated from ancient volcanic eruptions occurring on the lunar surface, or from meteorites containing sulfur that struck the surface and vaporized on impact.

Lunar sulfur as a resource

For long-lasting space missions, many agencies have thought about building some sort of base on the Moon. Astronauts and robots could travel from the south pole base to collect, process, store and use naturally occurring materials like sulfur on the Moon – a concept called in-situ resource utilization.

In-situ resource utilization means fewer trips back to Earth to get supplies and more time and energy spent exploring. Using sulfur as a resource, astronauts could build solar cells and batteries that use sulfur, mix up sulfur-based fertilizer and make sulfur-based concrete for construction.

Sulfur-based concrete actually has several benefits compared with the concrete normally used in building projects on Earth.

For one, sulfur-based concrete hardens and becomes strong within hours rather than weeks, and it’s more resistant to wear. It also doesn’t require water in the mixture, so astronauts could save their valuable water for drinking, crafting breathable oxygen and making rocket fuel.

While seven missions are currently operating on or around the Moon, the lunar south pole region hasn’t been studied from the surface before, so Pragyan’s new measurements will help planetary scientists understand the geologic history of the Moon. It’ll also allow lunar scientists like me to ask new questions about how the Moon formed and evolved.

For now, the scientists at Indian Space Research Organization are busy processing and calibrating the data. On the lunar surface, Chandrayaan-3 is hibernating through the two-week-long lunar night, where temperatures will drop to -184 degrees F (-120 degrees C). The night will last until September 22.

There’s no guarantee that the lander component of Chandrayaan-3, called Vikram, or Pragyan will survive the extremely low temperatures, but should Pragyan awaken, scientists can expect more valuable measurements.

Jeffrey Gillis-Davis, Research Professor of Physics, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.