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Methane, which traps heat, may be best known for its danger of posing in the human and earth’s atmosphere, but at the dark depths of the ocean, greenhouse gases are a nutritious diet for some of the world’s most mystical creatures, new research suggests.

Scientists say they discovered three previously unknown ocean spider species off the west coast of the US. I studied Marine habitat known as methane penetrates thousands of feet below sea level.

In this symbiotic relationship, bacteria take real estate in the spider exoskeleton, and in return, microorganisms convert carbon-rich methane and oxygen into sugar and fat.

“Like eggs for breakfast, sea spiders stir the surface of their bodies and tweet all those bacteria for nutrition,” said Shana Goffredy, professor of biology at Occidental College in Los Angeles and lead researcher. This unique nutritional strategy has never been observed in ocean spiders before, she said.

Other species of sea spiders share common with their terrestrial cousins, using large tube-like tusks to capture, secure and suck liquids from soft-body prey. However, laboratory observations of newly discovered species, part of the genus Sericosura, reveal that there is a lack of appendages needed to capture prey, resembling farmers where farmers harvest methane-fueled bacteria from their bodies.

According to Goffredi, spiders and their hitchhiking microbes could play an important role in preventing natural gas that prevents global warming, which is a natural gas that is thought to exacerbate global warming.

“The deep seas feel really far away, but all living things are interconnected. Despite their small size, these animals have a huge impact on their environment,” Goffredi said. “If you don’t really understand the ocean, you can’t expect to (usage) the ocean sustainably.”

Light from the sun does not reach the newly described deep-sea ecosystem that makes homes by the newly described Celicosla spider species.

To survive in this dark environment, microbes have evolved to use chemicals instead of sunlight for energy, explained Nicole Dubilier, professor and director of the Department of Symbiotic Sciences at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Germany. Dubilier was not involved in this study.

After the marine life dies, it sinks to the seabed and buried, Dubilier said. During the decomposition process, methane gas is released, relieving cracks in the sediment like bubbles. Instead of floating on the whims of the water column, methane-eating microbes attach themselves to sea animals to remain in the bubbles.

By analyzing the isotopes of spider tissue, scientists determined that not only did the bacteria unite the ride from their eight-legged friends, they were also being eaten.

“This is truly the beauty of symbiosis between the two. Bacteria get the perfect Goldilockszone with everything they need,” Dubilier said. “Even if 80% of the population is eaten (by spiders), it’s worth it for 20% to survive and continue to breed.”

These Celicosura species are the first sea spiders to eat methane-fueled microorganisms, but other deep-sea animals, such as tube worms and sponges, are known to share rare diets, Dubilier pointed out.

Deep-sea ecosystems are likely to play such an important role in keeping methane away from the Earth’s atmosphere, and one day they said that the same type of microorganism found in the Salmonella spider could be cultured to reduce water contaminants elsewhere.

The newly discovered Celikoslat spider is translucent and only about 0.4 inches (1 cm) long, so it is likely that it cannot move too far. In fact, each of the three sea spider species collected for the study came from various regions off the coast of Southern California and Alaska.

Spiders are so small that many of their organs are found in their appendages. To mating, female spiders shoot hundreds of eggs from their kneecaps. Male spiders gather in sacrament-like bundles that loop around their feet like bracelets, research found.

After the eggs were hatched, Goffredy’s team noticed that bacteria living in his father’s spider were attached to hatching, providing an early food source.

Studying the inheritance of animal microbiota could help scientists, for example, understand more about how human gut bacteria are passed between mothers and newborn children, Dubilier said.

Further investigations of the seabed could also discover more similar, similar seawater species, Goffredy said.

“People tend to think of the deep sea as a kind of uniform ecosystem, but that’s not true. There is a lot of biodiversity in each region, and the animals are very localized to certain habitats on the seabed,” Goffredy said. “If you decide to use the seabed for mining, for example, you need to be very careful.

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The enigmatic skull, which recovered from the bottom of a well in northeastern China in 2018, sparked a conspiracy when it was not consistent with previously known prehistoric humans. Now, the scientists say they have found evidence of where the fossil fits, which could be an important part of another mysterious evolutionary puzzle.

After some unsuccessful attempts, researchers extracted genetic material from the fossilized skull and linked it to an enigmatic group of early humans known as Dragon Man and known as Denisovan. Fossilized bone fragments of Denisoba have been previously discovered and identified using ancient DNA. However, the small size of the specimen made little thought about what the shadowy population of this ancient hominin would look like, and the group has never been assigned an official scientific name.

Scientists usually consider skulls with ridges and ridges of the skull. The best kind of fossil remains to understand the shape and appearance of extinct hominin species. New findings can effectively make a face to Denisovan’s name if confirmed.

“I really feel like I’ve cleared up some of the mysteries surrounding this population,” said Qiaomei Fu, a professor at the Institute of Paleontology and Paleontology, part of Beijing’s Chinese Academy of Sciences and the lead author of the new study. “Fifteen years later, we know the first Denisovan skull.”

Denisovan was first discovered in 2010 from ancient DNA found in the pinky fossils in the Denisova Caves in the Altai Mountains of Russia by a team including FU, a young researcher at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany. More excavated in the caves, from which groups acquire their names and continue to be added to the still incomplete paintings elsewhere in Asia.

The new study, described in two scientific papers published Wednesday, is “undoubtedly, if not the biggest paleontological paper of the year,” and encourages discussion in the field “for quite some time.”

The findings helped bridge the gap between the days when humans weren’t just roaming the planet, and taught scientists more about modern humans. Our species once coexisted for tens of thousands of years, and bred with both Denisovan and Neanderthals before the two were extinct. Most humans today have the genetic heritage of those ancient encounters. Although the fossils of Neanderthal have been the subject of research for over a century, slight details are known about our mystical Denisovan cousin, and skull fossils can be very clear.

Workers in Harbin, northeastern China, discovered the skull of a dragon man in 1933. The man who was building a bridge over the Songhua River when this part was under Japanese occupation took the specimen home and kept it at the bottom of the well for storage.

The man never recovered his treasure, and the skull still had one tooth on his upper jaw, but it was unknown to science for decades until his relatives learned it before his death. His family donated the fossils to Hebei Geo University, and researchers first described it in a series of studies published in 2021, finding that the skull was at least 146,000 years ago.

Researchers argued that the fossils deserved the name of a new species given the unique nature of the skull, and named Homo Longi. This comes from the Black Dragon River, the province where the head jang, or calaum, was discovered. While some experts at the time assumed that the skull could be denigerum, others grouped the skulls in a cache of difficult-to-classify fossils found in China, resulting in intense debate and molecular data from the fossils being particularly valuable.

Given the age and backstory of the skull, Fu said he knew it would be difficult to extract ancient DNA from fossils. “In the world that has ancient DNA, there are only bones from over 100,000 (years) of sites,” she said in an email.

Fu and her colleagues attempted to retrieve ancient DNA from six samples taken from the Dragon Man’s surviving teeth and skull belly bones.

The team also attempted to retrieve genetic material from the dental calculus of the skull. In other words, the teeth were left with a hard layer formed and the gank that could hold DNA from the mouth. From this process, researchers were able to retrieve mitochondrial DNA. This is less detailed than nuclear DNA, but one new paper published in the journal Cell revealed a link between the sample and the known denisova genome.

“Mitochondrial DNA is just a small part of the total genome, but it can convey much to us. There is a limit to its relatively small size compared to nuclear DNA, and it is inherited only from the matrixiniel side, not from the biological parent,” Mcrae said.

“So, without nuclear DNA, this individual could create a case of being a hybrid with Denisovan’s mother, but I think the scenario is much lower than this fossil belonging to the complete Denisovan,” he added.

The team suggested that another paper published Wednesday in the journal Science suggested that the analysis suggests that the Dragon Man skull belongs to the Denisoba population.

Together, “These papers enhance the impact of establishing Harbin’s skull as denigzag,” Hu said.

The molecular data provided by the two papers is potentially very important, according to anthropologist Chris Stringer, a research leader on human origin at the Museum of Natural History in London.

“I have been working with Chinese scientists on new morphological analysis of human fossils, including Harbin,” he said. “Coupled with our research, this work raises the possibility that Harbin is the most complete fossil of Denisovan ever discovered.”

However, Xijun Ni, a professor at Beijing’s Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleontology, was working with Stringer on the first Dragon Man study, but said he was cautious about the results of the two papers, as it was not the latest research and some of the DNA extraction methods used were “experiments.” NI also said that although DNA was obtained from the calculus of the surface teeth, it felt strange that it was not the inside of the teeth or the inside of the abdominal bone, given that the calculus appears to be exposed to potential contamination.

Nevertheless, he added that he believes that the skulls and other fossils identified as Denisovan are likely from the same race.

The goal in using the new extraction approach was to restore as much genetic material as possible, Fu explained, adding that the dense crystal structure of dental calculations may help prevent host DNA from being lost.

Friedwellker, an associate professor of biomolecular paleoanthropology at the Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, showed that the protein signature FU and her team have recovered. Welker recovered Denisovan proteins from other candidate fossils, but was not involved in this study.

“The Harbin skull, currently linked to Denisovan based on molecular evidence, can certainly compare the majority of human fossil records with known Denisovan specimens based on morphology,” he said.

Denisovan’s name and face

The Dragon Man skull is linked to Denisovan based on molecular evidence, making it easier for paleontologists to classify other potential Denisovan relics from China and elsewhere. McRae, Ni and Stringer said they believe Homo Longi is likely to become the official species name for Denisovans, despite other names being proposed.

“Renaming the entire suite of Denisovan’s evidence as Homo Longi is a bit of a step, but it’s been in good condition since the Scientific name Homo Longi technically first existed,” Mcrae said. However, he added that he doubts Denisovan’s unofficial name will always go anywhere and anywhere, suggesting that it could be a species profile as Neanderthals are in Homo Neanderthals.

The findings also allow us to say a little more about what Denisovan looked like, assuming that the Dragon Man skull belongs to a typical individual. According to McRae, ancient humans would have had very strong brow ridges. Overall, Denisovan would have had a robust blocky appearance.

“Like the famous image of Neanderthals dressed in modern clothing, they could still be recognized as ‘humans,” McRae said.

“They are still our more mysterious cousins, slightly less than before,” he added. “There’s still a lot to do to get a sense of who Denisovan is and how they relate to us and other humanity.”

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Using marijuana doubles the risk of dying from heart disease, according to a new analysis of pooled medical data, which involves 200 million people, mainly between the ages of 19 and 59.

“What was particularly noticeable was that patients hospitalized due to these disorders were younger (and therefore likely to have clinical features due to smoking tobacco) and had no history of cardiovascular disorders or cardiovascular risk factors.”, An email from an associate professor of pharmacology at the University of Toulouse, France.

A study published in the Journal Heart shows that both cannabis and cannabis use a 29% higher risk of heart attacks and a 20% higher risk of stroke.

“This is one of the biggest studies on the relationship between marijuana and heart disease to date, and raises serious questions about the assumption that cannabis poses most cardiovascular risks,” said Dr. Linsilver, a clinical professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco.

“We’re also a senior advisor to the Institute of Public Health, a nonprofit public health agency that analyzes marijuana policies and legalization,” said Silver, who is also a senior advisor to the Institute of Public Health, a nonprofit public health agency that analyses marijuana policies and legalization.

Silver is the co-author of an editorial published in a paper calling for change how cannabis is viewed by medical professionals, regulatory agencies and the public.

“Clinicians need to screen people for cannabis use and educate them about its harm because, just like with tobacco, it’s used more widely in some population groups than tobacco,” she said. “Our regulatory system is almost entirely focused on creating legal infrastructure and license legal, commercial (cannabis) businesses, and we need to focus more strongly on health warnings that educate people about real risks.”

A new systematic review and meta-analysis analysed medical information from large observational studies conducted in Australia, Egypt, Canada, France, Sweden and the United States between 2016 and 2023.

These studies did not ask people how they used cannabis, including smoking, steam, tatting, edible, tincture, topics. (Tapping involves evaporating concentrated cannabis and inhaling the vapor.) However, “based on epidemiological data, it is likely that marijuana has been smoked in the majority of cases,” Jouanjus said.

Smoking Smoking smoking is a well-known cause of heart disease. Both cigarette smoke and chemicals damage blood vessels and increase clotting, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Therefore, it is not surprising that smoking, vaping steaming, or tapping cannabis can do the same. “One of the many ways to inhale cannabis will take a risk to users.

Dr. Beth Cohen, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, told CNN in a previous interview that smoking cannabis is not so harmful because it is “natural.”

“Whether it’s tobacco or cannabis, burning something produces toxic compounds, carcinogens and particulate matter that are harmful to your health,” Cohen said in an email.

However, a survey from May 2025 found that eating could also play a role in heart disease.

Those who consumed tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, knitted foods showed signs of early cardiovascular disease, similar to tobacco smokers.

“We found that vascular function was reduced by 42% in marijuana smokers and 56% in THC eating users compared to non-users.” He told CNN in a previous interview at the University of California, San Francisco.

None of the studies included in the new meta-analysis asked users about the efficacy of THC for the products consumed. Even if they had it, the information would soon become outdated, Silver said.

“The cannabis market is a moving target. It’s getting stronger every day,” she said.

“What is sold to Californians today is five to ten times stronger than those in the 1970s. The concentrate will be 99% pure THC. Vapes is over 80%.

“The various chemically extracted cannabinoids can be almost pure THC. All of these have a much different effect on people than smoking joints in the 1970s.”

Higher potency weeds contribute to many problems, including increased addiction. A July 2022 study found that high-grade weed consumption was associated with a four-fold increase in dependence.

According to the CDC, in the United States, about three in 10 people who use marijuana, have a cannabis use disorder, is a medical term for marijuana addiction.

“We know that stronger cannabis is more likely to become addicted,” Silver said. “We know that more powerful cannabis makes people more likely to develop mental illness and be seeing and hearing something that isn’t there or schizophrenia.

The increased efficacy is one reason why current research may not capture the full range of marijuana risks for heart disease, saying, “We fear that it may be even stronger than what the association has reported.”

While science continues to study risks, experts say it’s time to think carefully about the potential harms of cannabis use, especially when heart disease is a concern.

“If I were a 60-year-old at risk for heart disease, I would be very cautious about using cannabis,” Silver said. “I have seen older people using cannabis for pain and sleep, some of them have serious cardiovascular risks, or have strokes or have angina pectoris.

Fix: An earlier version of this story falsely stated the strength of the cannabis products sold in California today.

Editor’s Note: Kara Alaimo is an associate professor of communications at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Her book “Influence: Why Social Media is Toxic to Women and Girls – And How We Get It Back” was published in 2024 by Alcove Press. Follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Bluesky.

If you or someone you know is struggling with suicide thoughts or mental health issues, call 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988 and connecting with a trained counselor, or 988 Lifeline Website.

Many parents worry about how much time their children spend on their screens. However, new research suggests that in order to grasp how these platforms are affecting children, we need to focus on something else.

A study published on Wednesday, June 18 in Jama, the American Medical Association magazine, found that the amount of time children spent on social media, mobile phones and video games was not related to more internalizing symptoms of mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression. That time was not related to more externalizing symptoms of mental health issues, such as rule breaking and aggression, or suicidal behavior or suicidal ideation.

What mattered was whether they were addicted.

Unicio, an assistant professor at the Faculty of Population Health Sciences and the School of Psychiatry at Weil Cornell Medical University in New York, says addictive use is “overuse” and “overuseful use” that is hindered. “They find a craving for it and can’t stop using it.”

Researchers found that almost half of the young people studied had a highly addictive trajectory on their mobile phones, with over 40% following a highly addictive trajectory on video games.

Children with high or increased use of social media and mobile phones were 2-3 times higher risk of suicidal behavior and suicidal ideation than children in lower orbit, according to a study of more than 4,000 US children over four years. Participants were either 9 or 10 years old at the start of the study.

Other results are as follows: Young people with increased or increased use of social media were at an increased risk of symptoms of mental health problems. Many use of video games was associated with a higher risk of mental health problems, suicidal behavior, and symptoms of suicidal ideation.

Girls were more likely than boys when they had a higher trajectory of addictive social media use, while boys were more likely to have a higher trajectory of addictive video games.

Xiao admitted that the results were self-reported and that this study failed to explain genetic or environmental factors that could affect the results.

This study reveals that parents should help parents avoid this type of addiction.

“We’re setting the boundary line early,” said Melissa Greenberg, a clinical psychologist at Princeton Psychotherapy Center in New Jersey. She was not involved in this study.

Kids need to know that using mobile phones, video games and other technologies can be fine.

She also suggested schedule screen-free times during meals and at night. She recommended that she not let the phone be in her teen bedroom after spending the designated time each night.

Greenberg also encouraged activities aimed at teenagers without screens and suggested planning if necessary. When I talk to my parents, I tell them to hang out with more friends. Many parents worry about their child’s safety when they gather in person, but being in the social media bedroom is far more dangerous to be able to connect with predators and sixor chemists or simply become addicted.

Also, “Model your healthy relationship with your own device,” Greenberg said. “Parents should be aware of the use of devices around their children and show them examples of how to balance screen time with screenless times.”

The unreliable generation, a move caused by the book that bears Jonathan Hyde, asked young people to commit on a screen-free summer Friday last year. Can I try this summer with my kids?

This week I will be speaking at a counselor training session at summer camps in Wisconsin and New England, trying to convince you that clearing your phone will give you the best summer of your life.

We point out that learning to get used to ourselves and our thoughts is a skill that unfortunately requires practice these days, learning to get used to ourselves and our thoughts is to be content with ourselves and our thoughts rather than pulling out the phone in our spare time. You can try it by going on a walk (with headphones sun), sitting, watching the sunset, or lying in a hammock. What’s more fun in the summer?

It’s also important to tell children how addictive the screen is “in a non-judgmental way,” Greenberg said. “Screens are meant to attract our attention…and social media platforms are designed to make us come back for more. It’s important that we all recognize this.”

Finally, she said parents need to create a device agreement with their children. You need to work together to determine what kind of use is acceptable, what daily limits and consequences are for breaking the rules, etc.

“Involving the teens in this process,” Greenberg recommended, so they understand the rationale.

Next, the kids will look closely to see if these strategies are working. The key point of the study is “if you don’t look into their addictive use,” Xiao said, “we’ll probably miss it.”

Signs that could lead to children becoming addicted include “obsessive use or out of control” to use these platforms, Greenberg said. “This may seem like you’re going to check your phone frequently or constantly every few minutes, or relying on video games, relying on inappropriate situations, at school, late at night, or on homework.

Other signs of addiction are when children try to reduce their use but are unable to follow restrictions, or when they get into trouble at school or at work or are troubled by friends.

Addicted children may try to hide or lie about their use. And if parents ask about it they might get defensive, Greenberg said.

“Symptoms of withdrawal are classic signs of addiction,” Greenberg warned. Children may be worried, irritated, saddened or angry when they don’t have access to their platform, she said.

Another warning sign is when the child does not fulfill his or her responsibility or engage in offline activities. “This may seem like teens don’t want to do or engage in face-to-face interactions or feel constantly distracted when they try them,” Greenberg said. “You may find that teens don’t want to meet their friends in person or don’t fulfill their responsibilities, such as homework or family responsibilities.”

Finally, parents should be aware of symptoms that their children are not getting enough sleep. “Phone and video game addiction can lead to lack of sleep when teens play phones and video games, which can lead to lack of sleep, depriving them of sleep, leading to fatigue, irritability, anxiety and depression,” Greenberg said.

If you think your child might be addicted, try not to be judged, Greenberg said. Remember they probably don’t want to be addicted, and that’s not a sign you’ve failed as a parent. The problem is that these devices seem to be designed to make us crazy.

“We need to teach them, not shame them,” she said.

Talk to your kids about how they feel and try to understand why they spend so much time on these platforms, she said. Schedule other activities and create or modify device agreements. “If you already have it, we’re talking about what’s not working or not working,” she said, “troubleshooting.”

However, Greenberg advised that if addiction appears to have negative consequences or hinder your child’s functioning, he is seeking help from a mental health professional.

This latest study suggests that parents need to worry more about whether they are showing signs of addiction, such as the amount of time their children are spending on screens.

Parents can take steps to prevent this. However, if the child appears to be addicted, it is important to help them avoid potentially serious consequences.

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