August 7, 2023: A strange allergy to red meat is spreading, the underground economy between trees and fungus and the benefits of napping. Enjoy! —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | The bite of the lone star tick, found in the U.S. South, Midwest and mid-Atlantic, can trigger a bizarre and sometimes dangerous allergy in humans to red meat (such as beef, pork and venison), dairy, gelatin and some medications. Known as alpha-gal syndrome, the condition is caused by an immune reaction to the sugar alpha-gal (galactose-α-1,3-galactose), which is found in the flesh of most nonprimate mammals. Patients with the syndrome can still eat chicken or fish to get protein. Suffolk County, on Long Island, New York, currently leads the nation with nearly 4,000 confirmed cases of alpha-gal syndrome.
Why this matters: Nearly half of health care providers surveyed by the CDC had not heard of alpha-gal syndrome, and more than a third of others did not feel confident in diagnosing or managing the syndrome. There is no treatment at present, and while antibodies in some people can decline over time, the allergy can exist for life.
What the experts say: "We estimate as many as 450,000 people may be living with alpha-gal syndrome in the U.S.," Gilbert Kersh, chief of the Rickettsial Zoonoses Branch at the CDC's Division of Vector-Borne Diseases. "And the number of positive tests has been going up year by year." | | | A lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum). Credit: Jason Ondreicka/Alamy Stock Photo | | | Many trees trade with fungi to get resources they can't get on their own. The trees provide carbon (in the form of sugar) to the fungi, which in turn give the trees nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus. Our new podcast series explores the underground "economy" of this relationship, and how scientists are mapping the flow of these compounds in this intricate web. Check out the first two episodes wherever you get your podcasts.
Why this matters: For the past few hundred years, humans have been burning fossil fuels—filling the air with more carbon for plants to capture, and hence increasing the amount of nutrients required by the trees. Fungi in turn struggle to gather enough nutrients for the trees. With lack of nutrients, photosynthetic rates will decrease, the trees will grow more slowly, reproduce less often, and die young.
What the experts say: It's hard to predict exactly what will happen to this relationship, and researchers need to gather more data from these communities. "There's the uncertainty in the processes that we represent in these models," says Renato Braghiere, a researcher at the California Institute of Technology and at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "But there's also the uncertainty in the pathways that humans will take. So we might cut emissions by 2030, and then the climate system will take other pathways." | | | Mycorrhizae connect to the roots of plants. This network is often called the "wood wide web" because it facilitates communication in the forest. Credit: Molly Ferguson / Dominic Smith | | | • Unprecedented flooding from the Mendenhall glacier is damaging homes in Juneau, Alaska. At least 15 million people worldwide live in the flood paths of bursting glacial lakes. | 3 min read | | | • Florida's Department of Education approved classroom use of videos that spread climate disinformation and distort climate science. | 7 min read | | | • Short naps up to 30 minutes can have real benefits for cognitive and cardiovascular health. | 7 min read | | | • The panic over the so-called crisis in masculinity is not new and has been going on for centuries, writes Steven Dashiell, a researcher at American University. What is new is the public labeling of men's behavior as good or bad; "by reinforcing the idea that men are behaving badly (more than usual) and need real-time correction, there is a not-too-subtle inference that we need to be "policing" masculinity," he writes. | 5 min read | | | Welcome to a new week. I was lucky enough to visit the Mendenhall Glacier last summer and love the town of Juneau, so I'm sad to hear they're experiencing drastic flooding. Check out my picture from the trip below--you can see the sky-blue sliver of the glacier in the middle of the shot. | Thank you to all my sharp-eyed readers who catch the occasional typo and let me know! I'm grateful that you're reading so closely. Keep sending any comments or corrections to: newsletters@sciam.com. | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | The Mendenhall Glacier is that sliver of pale blue in the center of this image between the tops of the pine trees and the mountains. Taken in July, 2022. The pink flowers in the foreground are called fireweed, and they grow all over Alaska in recently-disturbed patches of land. Credit: Me! Andrea Gawrylewski | | | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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