Are meat allergy cases about to explode?

Infections of alpha-gal syndrome continue to increase, and a cure is nonexistent. ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­

July 13, 2026—Are we about to see an explosion of allergies to red meat? Plus, the secret to humanity's success and a sneak peak at tomorrow's Proof Positive newsletter. Welcome to a new week of discovery! —Andrea Gawrylewski Chief Newsletter Editor TODAY'S NEWS Lone star ticks' saliva prompts a response in our immune systems that can make us allergic to red meat and other mammalian products. CDC Cases of alpha-gal syndrome—a deadly allergy to red meat and other meat products—are increasing across the U.S., driven by lone star tick bites. Scientists are racing to stop the disease. | 4 min read Samples from a 1,900-year-old Roman latrine show the mineral calcite threaded through the material’s cracks and pores, which helped it get stronger with time. | 3 min read Erythrulose—a sugar found in raspberries—is also prevalent in a giant molecular cloud close to our galaxy’s core, scientists have discovered. | 3 min read Mathematicians still haven't proven the fastest way to multiply numbers. | 6 min read Wimbledon 2026 opened with a 148 mph serve—here’s how tennis players' brains track such fast balls. | 4 min read  You'd be surprised to learn how many insects are eaten by feral cats. The big question is if it's a problem. | 4 min read TOP STORIES This is a special sneak peak of tomorrow's edition of Proof Positive, our weekly math newsletter written by theoretical physicist Manon Bischoff every Tuesday. Manon writes about the math of everyday things—waiting for an elevator, how to divide food evenly among friends—and also the math of big questions and ideas in the universe. Subscribe here to read it first every week. The Math of Time Travel We all have some past events we’d like to undo. These can be minor moments, such as a failed exam or an argument with friends, or world-changing incidents, such as the 2019 outbreak that led to the COVID pandemic. ​ Outside of science-fiction stories we have yet to encounter time travelers. But various scientific disciplines, from physics and mathematics to philosophy, have been exploring the topic for decades. ​ The basis for most potential time travel ideas lies in Albert Einstein’s special and general theories of relativity, which he published in 1905 and 1915, respectively. With these theories, he turned our understanding of the world upside down. According to Einstein, time and space are not static quantities but can be stretched or compressed depending on the situation. In other words, a steel rod is not the same length everywhere and at all times, and a second can sometimes pass very quickly and sometimes very slowly. ​ The latter may sound familiar—an hour of school or work can drag on, while an hour with friends flies by. But Einstein wasn’t concerned with the perception of time; he was talking about its actual duration. For example, according to relativity, a second on the Earth’s surface differs from a second on a satellite orbiting it.  ​ Travel into the Future thanks to Rapid Movement ​ Einstein’s special theory of relativity makes time travel possible—but only into the future. As the physicist discovered, clocks run slower for moving observers. So if you board a spaceship for a five-year-long round trip through space, and the craft travels at 97 percent of the speed of light, a good 20 years will have passed on Earth when you return. That’s why, after 11 months on the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly is now an additional 13 milliseconds younger than his twin, who remained on Earth. It’s not only motion that can make time pass more slowly or quickly, however; gravity or acceleration can also do so. This is because of Einstein’s insight that gravity is a geometric effect: mass and energy (which are equivalent, according to E = mc²) curve spacetime, which in turn controls the direction of motion of massive objects. You can imagine that heavy objects such as stars leave a depression in spacetime, which is why other massive objects such as planets are attracted to them.​ Einstein’s general theory of relativity develops a geometric picture of gravity: mass curves spacetime, thus providing the known forces. © Mysid (CC BY-SA 3.0) And because massive objects warp spacetime so dramatically, time passes more slowly in their vicinity. This idea is explored in Christopher Nolan’s film Interstellar. In the movie, one of the protagonists travels to the vicinity of a black hole in search of a habitable planet for humanity. While only a few months pass for him as he explores the area, his daughter, who is still on Earth, ages by several decades. Journeys into the Past ​ Technically, the equations of general relativity also allow for backward time travel through the existence of so-called closed timelike curves. Traveling along these curves, one starts at a point in spacetime, moves backward into the past and ultimately returns to their starting point in place and time. Dutch mathematician Willem Jacob van Stockum was the first to discover this possibility in 1937... Sign up here to read the rest of this essay in tomorrow's edition of Proof Positive. I know you'll love it!​ Humanity's Secret Weapon Humans have spread over more land than any other mammal on Earth, and we achieved this feat in record time. A recent analysis used range maps for nearly 6,000 mammal species to chart how geographic spread relates to evolutionary change, specifically the age of a related group of mammals, the number of species in the group, and its spectrum of body sizes. It found that if humans’ spread worked like other mammals’, we would’ve needed 88 million years to attain our current geographic footprint—and we would have split into some 2,200 distinct species in that time.  ​ Why this is interesting: It seems that humans have relied surprisingly little on genetic adaptation to become a successful species—all eight billion of us together remain less genetically diverse than individual populations of chimpanzees. This analysis backs up the claim that our cultural evolution—the spread of knowledge, customs and technology—gave us a much bigger boost than just our genes.  ​ What the experts say: Because of our adaptive ability to form cultures, individual groups of people perfected the art of survival in vastly different places. A continuous stream of better tools, smarter ideas and more effective practices “really accelerates the pace of evolution,” says the study’s co-author and evolutionary anthropologist Charles Perreault. —Emma Gometz, Newsletter Editor

TRAVEL WITH SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Last Chance for the Trip of a Lifetime Only a few cabins left for our 2026 solar eclipse cruise! Reserve yours while you can for an extraordinary experience: Enjoy private tours of cities along the Mediterranean; listen to expert scientists lecture on the astronomical phenomenon that occurs during an eclipse; savor the natural beauty and delicious cuisine of the Mediterranean. As the moon moves across the sun on August 12, you will watch the sky darken into a surreal twilight over the shimmering sea. Join fellow science lovers and your trip leader, Chief of Reporters Clara Moskowitz.   Learn More

YOUNG AMERICAN SCIENTISTS Jeffery DelViscio Computer scientist Tixiao Shan works to make robots what he calls "true partners for humans." At nonprofit research institute SRI International’s Scene Understanding and Navigation (SUN) Group in Princeton, N.J., he is trying to teach robots to better see the world around them. His computer frameworks help robots build a picture of their surroundings by tracking their own movement with sensors in real time and then using artificial intelligence to interpret those data so they can understand what those surroundings are.  ​ Read the rest of the Young American Scientist profiles here. MONDAY MATH PUZZLE A jigsaw puzzle company wants to design a new rectangular puzzle with a specific quirk: it must have the same number of edge pieces and interior pieces. Each piece begins as a square of the same size, and the typical rounded “blanks” and “tabs” (the holes and the parts that stick out, respectively) are then either cut from or glued to its sides. If the company wants the puzzle to be as large as possible, how many pieces will it have? Click here for the solution.  What makes humans so unique? Yes, we have culture, and that sets us apart from most mammals, but what does this truly mean? In one sense it's the acquisition, sharing and storing of information on never-before-seen scales, upon which we build from generation to generation. Humans also innovate. We invent and mass-produce infinitely more complex and diverse artifacts than other animal on Earth. Because of our sheer number and spread, this all means that we have an outsize impact on other life on the planet. And therefore we have a daunting power over other lifeforms on Earth. I'm not sure we've quite yet reckoned with the true reach that has come from our evolution. ​ Reach out anytime with your questions, thoughts or feedback on this newsletter at newsletters@sciam.com. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor

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