140 - Dog Years-Human Tears, Guts Gone Wrong, and Cheating Death
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Now to this week’s newsletter…
01
Dog Years, Human Tears
Tommy Tomlinson cried when his dog died. He didn't cry when his mother passed. That confession isn't heartless—it's human. In this moving essay, Tomlinson explores why the death of a dog can sometimes pierce us more deeply than the loss of a person. Dogs, unlike people, offer uncomplicated love. They are with us constantly, asking for little, giving everything. We grieve them for their absence and the life they co-authored with us. After losing his dog Otis, ESPN's Scott Van Pelt said, "He's the corner puzzle piece." Even John Wick, the fictional assassin, was set off not by the death of his wife but by the murder of his beagle. It wasn't "just a dog." It was the last thread connecting him to love.
Why a Dog's Death Hits So Hard - The Atlantic (gift article) (13 min).
02
The Kids Are(n’t) Alright
For decades, the happiness curve resembled a tidy U-high in youth, dipping in midlife and rising again with age. But something in the global psyche has shifted. Young adults, once the standard-bearers of optimism, are now reporting startling levels of dissatisfaction across nearly every measure of human flourishing: mental health, relationships, purpose, and even self-perceived character. A massive cross-cultural study of over 200,000 people finds that Gen Z and millennials aren't just struggling—they're languishing. In the U.S., the drop is most dramatic. Sociologists blame perfectionism, disconnection, screen time, and a fraying social fabric. As Yale's Laurie Santos puts it: "Young people are spending less time with friends than they were a decade ago." The curve hasn't just flattened—it's collapsing.
Young People Are Not As Happy As They Used to Be, Study Finds - The New York Times (gift article) (10 min).
03
Betting the Mind
In 1998, philosopher David Chalmers bet neuroscientist Christof Koch that science would fail to pinpoint the seat of consciousness within 25 years. In 2023, Koch surrendered a fine bottle of Madeira wine. But what we gained wasn't defeat—it was transformation. In a first-of-its-kind adversarial collaboration, two warring camps agreed to test their predictions on neutral ground. The result? A nuanced stalemate but also a new gold standard for how to study slippery phenomena like consciousness. The biggest win wasn't for either theory. It was for science done out in the open, with humility. "The most interesting findings," wrote Anil Seth, "were the ones that went against both theories."
Inside the Big Bet on Consciousness - Nautilus (7 min).
+see also: Where Does Consciousness Come From? Two Neuroscience Theories Go Head-to-Head | Scientific American.
04
I, Therefore I Am?
If a machine tells you it's conscious, should you believe it? As AI models grow more lifelike—claiming inner experience, even describing what it feels like to "wake up"—experts like Susan Schneider urge caution. Just because a system mimics emotion doesn't mean it feels it. A chatbot's declarations of sentience may echo our beliefs but not evidence of an inner life. Still, the implications are profound: legally, ethically, and emotionally. Imagine mourning an AI that was never alive. Or defending one in court. Until we can separate intelligence from consciousness, we risk treating imitation as equivalence. "We need better tests," Schneider writes, "before handing out rights—or responsibilities."
If a Chatbot Tells You It Is Conscious, Should You Believe It? | Scientific American (6 min).
05
Hush Money
When Finland rebranded itself to the world, it didn't shout—it whispered. The Finns bet on silence as their national asset in a global cacophony of advertising and overpromise. But silence, it turns out, isn't just clever marketing—it's medicine. Science now confirms what Florence Nightingale once insisted: quiet is care. Two minutes of silence can relax the body more than soothing music. In mice, two hours of quiet prompted neurogenesis in the hippocampus. In humans, silence activates the brain's "default mode," where memory, insight, and self-understanding flourish in a world where every second pings for attention, silence is an endangered resource. Finland didn't invent it—but it did remember its value.
This Is Your Brain on Silence - Nautilus (9 min).
+see also: These Are Their Brains on Silence - Nautilus (5 min).
06
Guts Gone Wrong
Bowel cancer used to be an oldtimer's disease. Not anymore. New data show that someone born in 1990 is four times as likely to develop colon cancer by age 50 as someone born in 1950. The culprit? A common strain of E. coli producing a toxin called colibactin—now found in over half of tumors from patients under 40. The twist is that the mutational damage begins in childhood, possibly before memory forms. Researchers suspect a perfect storm—C-sections, antibiotics, and low-fiber diets—reshaping the microbiome in ways that make room for cancer to take root early. It's a troubling preview of a future where age is no longer a defense against disease—and the battlefield is our bacteria.
Rates of bowel cancer are rising among young people (7 min).
+see also: Gut bacteria may play a role in the rise in colon cancer in young adults: Shots - Health News : NPR (6 min) (Thanks, Dave!).
07
Taste Buds Rebooted
Ozempic and Wegovy aren't just slimming waistlines—they're reshaping cravings, too. Users of these GLP-1 drugs report that their favorite foods suddenly repulse them. Fried chicken tastes like feathers. Wine tastes like weeds. Even cravings become abstract—less wanting, less joy. Scientists now suspect that these medications alter not just appetite but taste itself. The reason may lie in the brain's reward system and GLP-1 receptors in the tongue. "You still like it," says one researcher. "You just don't want it." For some, it's a relief. For others, it's like losing an old friend. Food, once pleasure, becomes a function. And with that shift, a new frontier in appetite is quietly unfolding.
Why Ozempic and Wegovy Might Change Your Favorite Food | Scientific American (6 min).
08
Cheating Death
In the clear waters of the Mediterranean, an unassuming jellyfish refuses to die. Turritopsis dohrnii, better known as the "immortal jellyfish," can reverse its life cycle indefinitely—reverting from adult medusa to juvenile polyp in a biologically sanctioned loop. Scientists recently cracked part of the code: these jellyfish activate genes related to cellular pluripotency and DNA repair precisely when aging begins. Then they shut them down again. It's like watching a butterfly decide, midflight, to turn back into a caterpillar. While immortality remains sci-fi, these regenerative processes hint at possibilities for slowing human aging. However, as one researcher warns, "Without death, there is no system." Immortality may be biologically possible—but perhaps evolution knew better.
Scientists Found a Sea Creature That Cheats Death. Is This the Key to Human Immortality? (8 min)
09
Five-Minute Brain Boost
Brain health has a surprisingly low barrier to entry: five minutes. A new study shows that even tiny bursts of moderate-to-vigorous activity—brisk walking, dancing, water aerobics—can measurably boost cognitive functions like memory and executive planning in older adults—the more huff-and-puff, the better the mental performance. And the opposite holds: inactivity correlates with cognitive decline. It's not about becoming an athlete—it's about redistributing the 24-hour pie. Every minute we steal from sedentary behavior and gift to movement becomes a deposit in our neural longevity bank. As one researcher said, "Boost your physical activity and boost your brain health." The threshold isn't marathons. It's minutes.
Just 5 Minutes of Exercise Can Boost Brain Health - Neuroscience News (6 min).
10
Heavy Is the Brain That Wears the Weight
What if the weight you carry on your body also ages your brain? New research from the UK Biobank suggests that long-term obesity doesn't just affect your heart—it reshapes your brain. Scientists tracked over 500,000 adults and discovered five distinct obesity "trajectories." Those who maintained or increased excess weight showed a progressive decline in brain structure and cognitive ability, with damage beginning in emotional centers and spreading to memory and decision-making regions. But there's a hopeful twist: those who lost weight over time had nearly no cognitive decline. The study reframes obesity not just as a metabolic issue but as a neurological one. "Reducing both the severity and duration of obesity exposure," the authors note, "may be crucial for preserving brain health." In other words, the brain keeps the score and notices when the load gets lighter.
Obesity May Accelerate Brain Aging and Cognitive Loss - Neuroscience News (7 min).
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