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August 19, 2025—We're covering teens bucking vaccine trends, alien life that could be powered by cosmic rays and new therapies for people allergic to peanuts.
—Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | Cosmic radiation could be a boon for subsurface life on worlds such as Europa (left), Mars (center) and Enceladus (right), according to a new study. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute (left); NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS (center); NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute (right) | | - Beneath the surfaces of distant planets, microbes might subsist on the energy unleashed by cosmic rays rather than starlight, a new study suggests. | 4 min read
- Bucking national trends in childhood vaccination rates, more teens are getting recommended shots, including those for measles and whooping cough. | 3 min read
- A large language model interviewed freelance science journalist Webb Wright and then built an AI agent to portray his personality, but the digital clone only imitated a narrow slice of his voice and thoughts. | 8 min read
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A food-prep technique used by a species of spiders lacking venom glands has now been described. After wrapping prey in silk strands, the spiders puke up toxic digestive fluids to soak the package and marinate their meal alive. | 2 min read
| | New treatments are showing promise for freeing millions of kids and adults from the deadly threat of peanut allergy, a fast-growing medical problem in the U.S. and beyond, writes freelance science journalist Maryn McKenna. Peanut allergies are the third most common food sensitivity (after shellfish and milk), but they send more U.S. children to the hospital with life-threatening anaphylaxis than other food-borne allergies do. | | Jen Christiansen; Source: "National Trends in Emergency Department Visits and Hospitalizations for Food-Induced Anaphylaxis in US Children," by Megan S. Motosue et al., in Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, Vol. 29, August 2018 (data) | | How it works: Some of the new therapies are designed to desensitize people to the peanut protein that can cause an allergic reaction. One fairly new FDA-approved therapy, an oral immunotherapy, is given by mouth to patients in escalating, precisely metered doses of powdered peanut protein. Other research has shown some early success in exposing people with the allergy to smaller doses of peanut allergens, either under the tongue or on the skin by means of a patch applied daily that contains a peanut protein. A separate approach involves injecting an existing drug, a monoclonal antibody called omalizumab, in an effort to remodel how the immune system responds to food more broadly. What this matters: More than 33 million people in the U.S. have at least one food allergy, according to the advocacy group Food Allergy Research and Education. Reactions range from digestive upset to airway closure. And people can be allergic to more than one type of food. So researchers also are looking into successive administration of a pair of monoclonal-antibody drugs that could have a long-term effect of tamping down immune-system overreactions to allergens. | | Jen Christiansen; Source: "Food Allergy Facts and Statistics for the U.S.," published by FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education), July 2024, foodallergy.org (data) | | | | |
Can you unscramble this? Reassemble the cover of our July 1993 issue, showing a warm-blooded "polar dinosaur," adapted to the cold and dark of Antarctica, that could have outlived its warmer-climate relatives. | | One more intriguing takeaway about the latest nut-allergy science from McKenna's story, above, points to preventing food allergies, not just curing or reducing reactions. Robust findings now are upending well-intentioned medical advice to significantly delay exposing children to potentially allergy-causing foods, especially in allergy-prone families. "Immunologists and allergists are aware that early feeding prevents allergy," McKenna writes, but there is still work to do to reconcile the early exposure findings with pediatric guidance that recommends exclusive breastfeeding for an infant's first six months.
| | We always like to hear from you. Please send your non-allergenic thoughts, queries and other feedback to us at: newsletters@sciam.com. —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor
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