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July 8, 2025—The brains of kids who try drugs start off different. Plus, U.S. babies are deficient in key gut microbes, and magma pulses are rifting Africa apart.
—Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Active lava flows spilling out of the Erta Ale volcano in Afar, Ethiopia. Dr. Derek Keir, University of Southampton/University of Florence | | Mehau Kulyk/Science Photo Library/Getty Images | | | Kids' Brains Before Drugs | Researchers scanned the brains of 10,000 kids as they grew into adolescence. Children aged nine to 11 underwent regular brain scans for three years. In separate interviews, the participants and their parents provided information on the kids' diets and any substance use. The scientists found that the brains of children who started experimenting with cannabis, cigarettes or alcohol before age 15 were physically different from those who did not—the differences were there before the individuals first tried a substance. Their brains had preexisting enlargements in many brain regions and they had larger brains overall when the study began compared with those who did not use drugs.Why this is interesting: Having a large brain and other traits like curiosity and openness to new experiences are associated with intelligence. But when curiosity is coupled with a strong drive to seek intense sensations and a willingness to take risks without considering the consequences, it's also linked to a higher likelihood of trying drugs. Such brain differences could be from genetics or childhood exposure to trying circumstances, both of which have previously been associated with addiction risk. The brain differences noted in this study were only linked to early initiation of drug use—not necessarily to addiction itself.
What the experts say: So-called "risky" traits have real benefits in life, says Patricia Conrod, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Montreal. For example, a tendency to seek new experiences can be critical for success in science, medicine and the arts. A willingness to take risks is useful in occupations ranging from firefighting to entrepreneurship. The trick is to help young people manage such predilections safely. | | More than 75 percent of babies in the U.S. are missing a key gut microbe. A seven-year study of more than 400 infants (the largest and most diverse U.S. sample size to date) analyzed baby stool samples multiple times over several years and surveyed parents about their kids' health when the children were two years old. All of the babies were deficient in some kind of gut microbe, but most lacked Bifidobacterium—a crucial group of bacteria associated with a lower risk of many noncommunicable diseases.Why this matters: Microbe deficiencies led to a significantly increased risk of those children developing allergies, asthma or eczema, according to the study. Surveys of infants in Europe have found similar deficiencies. These new results pinpointed a particular species of Bifidobacterium—Bifidobacterium breve—to be associated with a decreased risk of disease in two-year-olds, whereas another related species, Bifidobacterium longum, did not seem to play a role in reducing that risk.
What the experts say: What's causing these deficiencies? The overuse of antibiotics, the oversanitization of the environment, a reduction in breastfeeding, a lack of physical contact with other babies, adult humans and animals, and more could be at play, says Matthew Olm, an assistant professor of integrative physiology at the University of Colorado Boulder, who was not involved in the new study.
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| Unscramble a Piece of History | To celebrate Scientific American's upcoming 180th anniversary, we're publishing a jigsaw puzzle every weekday to show off some of our most fascinating magazine covers over the years. The above cover from March 1915 imagines a view of Saturn—described in the issue as "the most interesting planet of the solar system"—from its moon Titan. Click here for more puzzles. We've had some cool covers over the years! | | - For decades, American science has been the envy of the world, writes Paul M. Sutter, a cosmologist at Johns Hopkins University. "No other country, no other culture, no other civilization has matched what the U.S. has poured into fundamental research in the years since World War II," he says. "The proposed budget cuts kill all of this—the learning; the advancement; the courage; the powerhouse of American ingenuity; and one of the pillars that we can stand on to rightly claim our place in history as a great nation." | 5 min read
| | Let me know if you try out one of our cover jigsaws. While the clicking sound the pieces make as they lock into place is ASMR-tingle-worthy, the cover images are the real prize. I asked our senior graphics editor, Jen Christiansen, about how we used to make our covers in the past. She told me: "In the early years of the magazine's nearly 180-year history, images—including cover art—were not always properly credited. Sometimes clues are embedded in early engravings in the form of initials or names woven into the imagery. Sadly, this painting [of Saturn below] does not include hints." In fact, we're still hunting down the illustrator of this cover. But I'm happy to say we are doing a much better job today of acknowledging the brilliant work of the artists that make our articles, and the science they cover, really shine. | | Do you have a favorite old Scientific American cover? Tell me about it by emailing: newsletters@sciam.com. See you tomorrow!
—Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | | |
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