Daybreak Notes & Beans ☕️

Why Women Find Other Women More Attractive Than Men (Science Finally Has an Answer)

Alexander Verbeek — Wed, 27 May 2026 20:26:56 GMT

During my first coffee this morning, I enjoyed reading the articles and studies that I’ll share with you today. A global study about faces covered 76 countries. NASA started building a moon base faster than I expected. A medieval manuscript has been sitting in private hands for 700 years. Not a bad Wednesday. As always, I dug through science journals and conservation reports before you were awake, looking for stories that mainstream news tends to skip. This morning, the mix looks particularly good: brain health you can really influence, a pair of rare antelopes getting comfortable in their new enclosure, and a European train booking system that I have been waiting to see fixed for decades. There is also a video at the end that made me wonder what I was actually watching. I hope you can help me with that.

Even women rate female faces as more attractive, global study finds

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics have confirmed what centuries of language seem to take for granted. Their dataset covered 52 studies in 76 countries, with more than 1.5 million ratings of 17,000 faces from nearly 30,000 raters. The average female face is rated more attractive than roughly 60% of male faces.

Photo by Elisa Photography

The most surprising result was that women gave other women the highest ratings and men the lowest. Only when people rated themselves did the gap disappear. Both men and women tend to rate rounder faces as more attractive, and women’s faces tend to be more rounded. Researchers say a purely cultural explanation is hard to sustain given how consistently the effect appears across the world.

The gap narrows steadily with age. By the 80s, the difference has nearly vanished, as male and female facial structures grow more similar over time. Only now that I think about it, if this question had been asked to me, I would probably have agreed with the majority. I think I do, more often than not, find female faces more attractive. I wonder how that works for you. Whether you are male or female, do you recognize this outcome?

NASA starts building its moon base, less than two months after Artemis II

Less than two months after Artemis II’s record lunar flyaround, NASA has already started building its moon base. The agency awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to four companies, ordering landers, rovers, and drones to land at the lunar south pole before astronauts arrive there, planned for as early as 2028.

NASA

Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin will provide landers to deliver moon buggies built by Astrolab and Lunar Outpost. Firefly Aerospace will deliver the first drones to the moon. These systems, nicknamed MoonFall, will eventually mark the perimeter of a base NASA envisions sprawling over hundreds of square miles. Administrator Jared Isaacman said the boundary markers are designed to respect other countries’ nearby equipment on the lunar surface.

The second phase, from 2029 into the early 2030s, adds permanent infrastructure, including a power grid. By the mid-2030s, astronauts could live there in specialized habitats. The long-term goal is to lay the groundwork for an eventual Mars expedition, beyond the science and lunar economics. I have been following the Artemis missions closely, and will keep you updated on new developments.

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Multiple hobbies linked to lower dementia risk, especially social ones

A Japanese study followed more than 22,000 people for 11 years and found that having at least one hobby in midlife was linked to a 19% lower risk of developing disabling dementia. Multiple hobbies reduced that risk by about 23%. No single type of hobby stood out. Physical, cognitive, and social activities all showed protective effects.

Photo by Vlad Sargu

Researchers explain the benefits through the concept of cognitive reserve. Mentally stimulating activities appear to build more neural connections, helping the brain compensate for later deterioration. Australian research found that writing, puzzles, and computer use were linked to a 9 to 11% lower dementia risk. Creative hobbies like knitting or woodworking showed about a 7% reduction.

Social connection appears to be the strongest single factor. A long-running study found that people who were not socially active developed dementia symptoms roughly five years earlier than those who were. Playing cards alone on a phone has some cognitive benefits. A weekly card night with friends adds movement, laughter, and social contact. That combination is far better for the brain.

A 700-year-old King Arthur manuscript comes to auction for the first time

One of the earliest illuminated manuscripts telling the story of King Arthur is going to auction at Christie’s in July, with an estimate of £1.5 to £2 million. The Lebaudy manuscript dates from around 1290 to 1310, has spent more than 700 years in private hands, and has never been publicly exhibited.

King Arthur from the Epitome of Chronicles, first half of 13th century (Matthew Paris, Public domain)

The manuscript contains 126 miniature illustrations decorated with burnished gold leaf, including a rare image of Merlin transformed into a talking stag. It was produced by an anonymous artist known as the Master of the Liège Apocalypse, recognizable by his square-jawed figures and vivid red-dotted cheeks. Previous owners include a 15th-century knight, an obsessive Victorian bibliophile, and the French industrialist Jean Lebaudy.

Scholars are watching closely. The manuscript has been inaccessible to researchers because wealthy private collectors have always claimed it. A Cambridge specialist who has studied scans says the ending appears to be a rewritten version, with more focus on Arthur’s battles and questions of kingship than the standard text. She hopes an institution will finally buy it and open it to proper study.

Nine in ten UK adults cherish outdoor childhood memories. Half now rarely go outside.

A poll of 2,000 people for the Wildlife Trusts found that almost 90% of UK adults have warm memories of playing outside as children. Two-thirds said they spent more than half their free time outdoors when they were young. Now nearly half spend less than three hours a week in natural settings, and for one in ten it is less than one hour.

Photo by Christian Bowen

Time in nature is known to benefit both physical and mental health. The UK government has committed to ensuring everyone has access to a green space within a 15-minute walk of home, but one in five households currently does not. Previous research found that regular access to nature reduces GP visits by 28%.

Two-thirds of respondents said a childhood nature memory made them more likely to reconnect with the outdoors. A 2016 poll found that three-quarters of UK children spent less time outside than people in prison. Parks budgets have been cut sharply over the past decade, making access harder to guarantee. The Wildlife Trusts’ 30 Days Wild challenge has now reached three million participants.

Morning Compass

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Supercharged vitamin K compound helps brain cells regenerate in lab tests

Researchers at the Shibaura Institute of Technology in Japan have synthesized a modified vitamin K compound that appears roughly three times more potent than the natural form at prompting brain cells to regenerate. Lost neurons are the core problem in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s disease. No existing treatment can restore them.

The team combined vitamin K with retinoic acid, a vitamin A derivative already known to encourage neuron growth, creating 12 hybrid compounds. One, called Novel VK, stood out in tests on mouse cells. It crossed the blood-brain barrier, raised active vitamin K levels in the brain, and triggered neuronal differentiation at a rate three times higher than the natural compound.

These results come from cell studies and animal experiments, not human trials. But the researchers believe they have identified a useful receptor target linked to communication between neurons. Vitamin K is cheap, safe, and widely available. If this line of research advances, it could eventually point toward therapies aimed at rebuilding neural tissue rather than just slowing its loss.

Maue, Fitz, Kudu, and Bon64 land safely in Kenya as mountain bongos come home

Four mountain bongos have landed safely in Kenya after a flight from Czechia. Named Maue, Fitz, Kudu, and Bon64, they are part of a second wave of repatriations aimed at strengthening the gene pool at the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy. I reported earlier this year that these four were heading home. They are home now.

Female Mountain Bongo (Tragelaphus eurycerus isaaci) photographed at Mount Kenya National Park. (Chuckupd, Public domain)

Wildlife officer Ngenoh Erick Kibet and keeper Christine Gichohi spent two weeks in Czechia preparing the animals for the journey. Each has its own personality. Maue is calm and gentle. Fitz requires careful handling. Kudu took time to trust anyone. Bon64, the youngest, is curious and easily spooked. The pair monitored the animals throughout the entire flight without sleeping.

The mountain bongo is found only in Kenya’s highland forests, with no more than 100 counted in the wild. Since 2021, the total population in Kenya has grown from 150 to 179. A 100th calf was recently born at the conservancy. Kibet said he wants to see these animals living freely in the wild, and not leave that discovery to his grandchildren.

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The EU wants to let you book a cross-Europe train journey with one ticket

More than half of all European rail journeys longer than 900 kilometers cannot currently be booked as a single end-to-end ticket. The EU’s new Passenger Package, announced in May, aims to change that. Under the plan, travelers will be able to combine tickets from different operators into one booking, with consistent passenger rights protecting the whole journey.

Photo by Thomas Choi

The problem is partly commercial. National rail operators have blocked third-party platforms from displaying their full range of fares, protecting market share at the expense of travelers. A 2025 Eurobarometer survey found that 43% of Europeans simply skip multi-train journeys because booking them is too complicated. Planning a cross-border train trip currently takes 70% longer on average than booking a flight.

As a European who uses trains regularly, this gap has always frustrated me. Flying within Europe is almost always the easier option, which should not be true. The new rules require operators to share ticketing data with independent platforms. Rail industry groups are pushing back, calling it regulatory overreach. Whether the legislation passes and delivers single-ticket travel will be the real test.

A moment of science

Giant pandas are officially no longer classified as “Endangered.” They are now listed as “Vulnerable” by the IUCN, a genuine conservation achievement. What the video below makes perfectly clear is that this had very little to do with the pandas themselves.

Watch them fall out of trees and look genuinely puzzled by the existence of gravity. Darwin spent years developing his theories about survival of the fittest. He may not have had giant pandas specifically in mind. They appear to have survived primarily on the strength of their cuteness and the relentless dedication of conservation teams around the world.

A moment of beauty

A bear is walking calmly beside a pond. It notices a crow struggling in the water. It reaches in and pulls the bird to safety. No matter how many times I watch this, it gets me.

But I am genuinely not sure what I am seeing. Was that kindness? Or just curiosity, and when the crow turned out to be neither food nor a toy, the bear simply walked away? Watch until the end and tell me what you think.

Stay inspired,

Alexander

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🧭 Morning Compass

As a reader of Daybreak Notes & Beans, you know that the positive news ends up in the newsletter you are reading right now.

The Morning Compass is the best way to quickly catch up on the more serious news that’s going on during your first coffee. I also share what to expect in today’s news, what happened on this day in history, what I recently published, what I captured, and what I stumbled upon.

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Notes

Facial attractiveness: The Guardian, ‘Women’s faces rated more attractive even by other women, study finds’ — https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/may/27/women-faces-rated-more-attractive-study
NASA moon base: ScienceAlert, ‘NASA Begins Phase 1 of Building Its Moon Base. Here’s The Full Plan.’ — https://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-begins-phase-1-of-building-its-moon-base-heres-the-full-plan
Dementia and hobbies: ScienceAlert / The Conversation, ‘Are Your Hobbies Reducing Your Dementia Risk? 4 Questions to Ask Yourself’ — https://www.sciencealert.com/are-your-hobbies-reducing-your-dementia-risk-4-questions-to-ask-yourself
King Arthur manuscript: The Guardian, ‘Medieval King Arthur manuscript could fetch £2m at auction’ — https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/may/26/medieval-king-arthur-manuscript-auction
Nature and outdoor time: The Guardian via inkl, ‘Half of UK adults say they spend less than three hours a week outside in nature’ — https://www.inkl.com/a/kdqoBBsLkMy
Vitamin K and brain regeneration: ScienceDaily, ‘Scientists create supercharged vitamin K that helps the brain heal itself’ — https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260526233433.htm
Mountain bongos: The Guardian, ‘Bringing the boys back home: how mountain bongos Maue, Fitz, Kudu and Bon64 made their way back to Kenya’ — https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/may/24/bringing-the-boys-back-home-how-mountain-bongos-maue-fitz-kudu-and-bon64-made-their-way-back-to-kenya
EU single train ticket: Euronews, ‘One journey, one ticket, full rights: What is the EU’s single ticket that simplifies train travel?’ —

https://www.euronews.com

🐋 Beluga Whales Can Recognize Themselves in a Mirror (Plus Nine More Good-News Stories)

Alexander Verbeek — Mon, 25 May 2026 21:01:51 GMT

This morning, I read about a beluga whale pressing a mark on her side against a mirror to get a better look at it. A whale, alone in a pool, deliberately uses a reflection to examine herself. I wish they would live in the ocean rather than in an aquarium; there is so much we can learn from these beautiful animals. Today, you will also read about the real genetic secret behind orange cats, a tiny blue octopus discovered nearly 6,000 feet beneath the Galápagos, and two 17th-century paintings that vanished in Seville in 1930 and have just found their way home.

Beluga whales recognize themselves in mirrors

Beluga whales can recognize themselves in mirrors, placing them among a small group of animals with clear signs of self-awareness. A study published in PLOS One tested four captive belugas at the New York Aquarium. Two of them, Natasha and Maris, showed the most striking responses.

Carquinyol from Badalona, Catalunya, CC BY-SA 2.0

Their first encounter with a mirror began with jaw-clapping and head-jerking, behaviors typically directed at other whales. Then they started nodding, shaking their heads in semicircles, and watching what happened in their reflection. The researchers call this contingency testing: deliberate and unusual movements designed to check whether the animal in the mirror is copying them.

Natasha went further. She swam laps with her marked side facing the mirror and pressed the mark directly against the glass. Scientists at Hunter College describe this as passing the mark test, the standard measure for self-recognition. Bottlenose dolphins, elephants, magpies, and certain fish have passed it before. Belugas now join that list.

150 minutes of exercise a week is a floor, not a target

Public health guidelines say 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week protects your heart. A new study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine confirms that it works and also shows it is barely a starting point. The real cardiovascular benefit requires considerably more.

Photo by Masood Aslami

Researchers tracked more than 17,000 adults in the UK over nearly eight years, using wrist activity monitors and a fitness test. Meeting the 150-minute guideline reduced cardiovascular risk by 8 to 9 percent. A reduction of more than 30 percent required around 560 to 610 minutes a week, roughly 80 to 90 minutes daily.

Less fit people needed more exercise than fitter individuals to reach the same protection. For years, I treated 150 minutes as my target rather than my floor. Reading this, I think I will have to find considerably more time for sport.

Do you manage 80 to 90 minutes on most days?

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Wind and solar overtook gas globally for the first time in April

For the first time in a full calendar month, wind and solar generated more electricity worldwide than gas. Analysis from energy think tank Ember shows that renewables produced 531 terawatt-hours in April, while gas plants produced 477 terawatt-hours. That is 22 percent of global electricity from wind and solar, against 20 percent from gas.

Eric Titcombe, CC BY 2.0

The comparison from five years ago shows how fast this has shifted. In April 2021, gas output was almost identical to where it is now, but wind and solar together produced less than half what they did this April. Global renewable output grew 13 percent compared to a year earlier, with gains across China, the EU, the UK, the US, Australia, Chile, and Brazil.

April was the first full month of the energy disruption linked to the war in Iran. Even so, Ember says the milestone was driven by years of investment, not the crisis. Wind and solar use no fuel once built. That structural advantage is starting to show clearly in the global numbers.

Scientists describe a tiny blue octopus found nearly 6,000 feet beneath the Galápagos

A golf-ball-sized blue octopus discovered near Darwin Island in the Galápagos has been identified as a new species. Researchers aboard the exploration vessel E/V Nautilus spotted it in 2015, roughly 5,800 feet below the ocean surface, using a remotely operated vehicle. The immediate reaction, captured in expedition audio, was “He’s tiny!” and “It’s blue!”

Because the team had only one confirmed specimen, they could not dissect it the standard way. Instead, they used micro CT scanning at the Field Museum in Chicago, creating a detailed 3D model without cutting the animal open. The scans revealed enough internal anatomy to confirm the octopus as a previously undescribed species. It has been named Microeledone galapagensis.

Janet Voight, curator emerita of invertebrates at the Field Museum and lead author of the study, has spent more than 40 years studying octopus evolution. This is the first time she has led the formal description of a new species. She points out that the Pacific Ocean covers more area than all of Earth’s landmasses combined, and that most of its deep seafloor has never been examined.

Researchers found the most fuel-efficient route to the Moon from 24 million options

Scientists at the University of Coimbra evaluated 24 million possible trajectories between Earth orbit and the Moon and identified one that consistently uses less fuel than standard routes. The optimal path swings close to the Moon first, enters a looping orbit near a gravitational balance point between the two worlds, then drops into lunar orbit. The full trip takes about 32 days.

“A new view of the moon” (NASA)

The fuel savings look modest on paper: 58.80 meters per second less than comparable routes. But in spaceflight, every meter per second translates directly into fuel mass, and fuel mass drives mission cost. A lighter spacecraft can carry more instruments. A cheaper mission can fly more often.

The route is too slow for crew transport but well suited for cargo. It also has a practical communications advantage: a spacecraft following this path maintains contact with Earth throughout, unlike direct routes that pass behind the Moon and lose signal temporarily. As lunar missions become more frequent after 2030, routes that trade speed for efficiency and reliability will matter considerably more.

Morning Compass

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A brain protein decline may be driving how fast we age

Scientists at Xiamen University in China have identified a protein called Menin as a potential hidden driver of aging. Published in PLOS Biology, the research shows that Menin levels drop sharply in the hypothalamus as mice grow older, triggering brain inflammation, memory problems, thinner skin, lower bone mass, and shorter lifespans. When researchers restored the protein in elderly mice, signs of aging reversed within 30 days.

The hypothalamus is a small brain region that regulates metabolism, sleep, hormones, and body temperature. Researchers increasingly suspect it may also coordinate much of the aging process itself, rather than aging being simply the result of wear and tear across different body systems.

One finding stands out for practical reasons. When Menin levels fell, production of D-serine, an amino acid that supports learning and memory, also dropped. Supplementing elderly mice with D-serine for three weeks improved cognitive performance. D-serine occurs naturally in soybeans, eggs, fish, and nuts and is available as a dietary supplement. The research is still in early stages and was conducted in mice, not humans, but it points toward aging as something the brain may actively regulate.

Scientists solved the genetic mystery of why orange cats are almost always male

Scientists have pinpointed why orange cats are predominantly male and why tortoiseshell cats are almost always female. Two independent research teams, one from Stanford University and one from Kyushu University in Japan, arrived at the same answer: a gene called Arhgap36, located on the X chromosome.

Photo by Fernando Vega

In orange cats, this gene produces about 13 times more RNA than in other cats. That overexpression affects the cells responsible for hair pigmentation, producing a reddish pigment that makes the coat appear orange. The genetic variation is a small deletion in DNA rather than a dangerous mutation. The researchers note that cats with this variant are healthy and, as one study put it, also “cute.”

Because Arhgap36 sits on the X chromosome, male cats need only one copy of the variant to display orange coloring. Females need two copies, one from each parent, which makes full orange far less likely. Tortoiseshell and calico cats carry two X chromosomes with different variants. As the embryo develops, cells randomly choose which chromosome to express across different parts of the coat, producing the familiar mottled pattern.

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Two 17th-century paintings missing since 1930 returned to Seville after 95 years

Two oval oil paintings by Seville painter Lucas Valdés have been returned to the Hospital of the Venerable Priests in Seville after disappearing for nearly a century. The works, depicting biblical scenes on pine panel, were loaned to the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition and never came back. Spanish police recovered them this month after spotting them in an auction catalog.

(Gustavo Bacarisas, Gibraltar}, Public domain)

The investigation began in September 2025, when the Archdiocese of Seville alerted the Ministry of Culture that two works matching the missing paintings had appeared in an upcoming sale. The Historical Heritage Brigade confirmed their authenticity and seized them before the auction took place. Officers then identified the current holders and secured a return through mediation rather than legal proceedings.

On May 20, the paintings were formally handed over to the Archdiocese in a ceremony at the church where they originally hung. The return closes a 95-year gap. Whoever received the works in 1930 left no record of why they never came back.

The River Wye has been formally recognized as a living ecosystem with legal rights

The River Wye has become the first full river catchment in the UK to be recognized as a living ecosystem with intrinsic rights. A charter adopted by Herefordshire and Powys county councils grants the river the right to flow, to biodiversity, to be free from pollution, and to regenerate. Two more councils covering the rest of the Wye’s 130-mile course are expected to follow.

Wye Bridge (Martinvl, CC BY-SA 4.0)

The announcement came at the Hay-on-Wye literary festival. It is part of a wider rights of nature movement that has granted legal personhood to rivers in Ecuador, Canada, and New Zealand. In 2025, ecologist Louise Bodnar became the first formal voice of the Wye, holding a voting seat on the catchment management board representing the river’s interests.

The timing matters because the Wye is in serious trouble. Industrial chicken farming and sewage spills have caused algae and weed growth that has been suffocating the ecosystem. More than 4,500 people who live or work near the river have joined legal action against a major poultry producer and a water company over pollution. Campaigners welcome the charter but say urgent enforcement is still needed to prevent what one describes as “a biologically dead river.”

A moment of science

In about two minutes, this video compresses 250 million years of planetary change into something you can watch over your morning coffee. What you see is Earth from space, continents drifting in slow motion, separating and colliding according to plate tectonics theory. The landmasses we recognize today gradually rearrange themselves into something unrecognizable. Scientists predict most of the world’s continents will eventually merge again into a single supercontinent, just as they did before Pangaea broke apart.

The scale puts things in perspective. The political crises filling the news feel enormous right now. Compared to the timelines in this video, they are barely a flicker. The planet has its own agenda, moving at a pace that makes all of human history look brief.

A moment of beauty

When a group of opossum babies was orphaned after their mother died, a cat named Tostada took them in. She cleans them and keeps them warm. What makes this video so striking is not what Tostada teaches them, but what she accepts. The babies cling to her back the way opossums cling to their mothers. And Tostada simply walks with them there. She does not try to turn them into kittens. She meets them as they are.

I wonder if Luna would be up to this.

Stay inspired,

Alexander

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🧭 Morning Compass

As a reader of Daybreak Notes & Beans, you know that the positive news ends up in the newsletter you are reading right now.

I always write it, but sometimes there is a video, like this one, earlier today:

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Screen Skills

One of my other newsletters, Screen Skills, provides practical digital advice in plain language. It is a tech newsletter for non-tech people.

Did you, like me, learn typing on a classic typewriter?
Is computer technology not your hobby, but do you feel you need to know the basics?
Do you find it hard to keep up with every new update on your phone?
Screen Skills keeps things simple, always starts at the basics, and makes your digital life easier in just a few minutes a week.

Screen Skills: 20% off in first year📲

Today, I published:

The Planet

On Sunday, I published part 9 in the series “The Fall”:

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Bomb shelters in Oslo

And on Tuesday in The Planet, I wrote something closer to home: I walked inside one of Oslo’s 18,600 bomb shelters yesterday morning with Norway’s National Civil Defense Commissioner. What I heard there is worth reading.

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The Curious Wanderer

On Saturday, I published

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Notes

Belugas: Smithsonian Magazine, ‘Belugas Can Recognize Themselves in Mirrors, Joining a Short List of Nonhuman Species That Show Signs of Self-Awareness’ - https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/belugas-can-recognize-themselves-in-mirrors-joining-a-short-list-of-nonhuman-species-that-show-signs-of-self-awareness/
Exercise: ZME Science, ‘The 150-minute Exercise Rule Helps Your Heart. But If You’re Serious About It, Better Aim for 600 Minutes’ - https://www.zmescience.com/medicine/aim-for-600-minutes-exercise/
Wind and solar: The Cooldown, ‘Wind and solar overtake gas worldwide for the first time as crisis shakes energy markets’ - https://www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/wind-solar-energy-milestone-global-electricity/
Blue octopus: Science Daily, ‘Adorable tiny blue octopus found nearly 6,000 feet beneath the Galápagos’ - https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260525000446.htm
Moon route: ZME Science, ‘Scientists Map Most Cost-Effective Route to the Moon Out of 24 Million Possibilities’ - https://www.zmescience.com/space/most-cost-effective-route-moon/
Aging: Science Daily, ‘Scientists discover hidden driver of aging — Simple supplement reversed brain decline’ - https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260524012959.htm
Orange cats: Smithsonian Magazine, ‘Geneticists Solve the Mystery of Why Some Cats Are Orange — and Why They Tend to Be Males’ - https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/geneticists-solve-the-mystery-of-why-some-cats-are-orange-and-why-they-tend-to-be-males-180985619/
Seville paintings: Euronews, ‘Two 17th-century paintings missing for nearly 100 years recovered after loan’ - https://www.euronews.com/culture/2026/05/25/two-17th-century-paintings-missing-for-nearly-100-years-recovered-after-loan
River Wye: The Guardian via inkl, ‘River Wye granted rights in UK first that could help in fight against pollution’ - https://www.inkl.com/a/rlwRvbtzvyl
Moment of science: wonderofscience/businessinsider.com on x
Moment of beauty: beauty of music and nature on x

Why T. Rex Gave Up Its Arms for a Bigger Bite, and What Science Just Proved

Alexander Verbeek — Fri, 22 May 2026 20:35:57 GMT

In Oslo in late May, it never really gets dark. Walking home past the Opera House last night at eight, it looked like midday. White marble sloping into the fjord, long shadows across the water. Good light to start the day, good morning to share what I found. We have dinosaurs, record-breaking whales, a Neolithic hall that aligned with the solstice, and a Zen monk with very strong opinions about sweeping. Ten stories for your first coffee.

T. rex had tiny arms because its skull took over the hunt

UCL and Cambridge researchers examined 82 theropod species and found that tiny arms evolved independently in at least five dinosaur lineages. The driving factor turned out to be skull power, not body size. Dinosaurs with shorter arms consistently had the most robust, powerful skulls. T. rex ranked as the most skull-robust dinosaur in the entire study, with the South American Tyrannotitan a close second.

Photo by Fausto García-Menéndez

The theory follows from the prey. As giant plant-eaters like sauropods became dominant, predators shifted strategy. Grasping a 100-foot-long dinosaur with claws is not effective. Clamping on with massive jaws is. Evolution invested in the jaws and stopped investing in the arms. Lead researcher Charlie Scherer called it a case of “use it or lose it.”

Even a Majungasaurus in Madagascar, weighing only 1.6 tons, followed the same pattern. You did not need to be enormous to take this evolutionary path. The skulls got stronger first and the arms shrank later. The research was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Low vitamin D triples post-surgery pain in breast cancer patients

New research links vitamin D deficiency to significantly worse pain after breast cancer surgery. A study at Fayoum University Hospital in Egypt followed 184 women undergoing mastectomy. Half had low vitamin D levels, below 30 nanomoles per liter. Those patients were three times more likely to experience moderate-to-severe pain in the 24 hours following surgery.

Photo by Michele Blackwell

The opioid difference was substantial. Patients with low vitamin D required an average of 112 milligrams more tramadol after the operation, and extra fentanyl during it. Opioids carry real costs beyond pain relief: nausea, vomiting, drowsiness, and risk of dependence. Higher use of these drugs after a difficult surgery is a problem worth preventing where possible.

The study was observational and conducted at a single center, so it cannot prove that low vitamin D directly causes increased pain. But the researchers concluded that deficient patients might benefit from supplementation before surgery. It is a simple, affordable step that could make an already difficult experience considerably less painful. The findings were published in Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine.

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Volunteers rebuilt a 4,500-year-old hall near Stonehenge by hand

English Heritage unveiled a 7-meter-high reconstruction of a Neolithic hall near Stonehenge. More than 100 volunteers built it over nine months using only hand tools. The £1 million structure is based on an archaeological site called Durrington 68, first excavated in 1928. The original purpose is unknown. Animal bones and grooved pottery found nearby suggest winter feasting or ritual gatherings.

Photo by Nik

Experimental archaeologist Luke Winter designed the hall using replica stone tools and prehistoric pollen data. He began the project 50/50 on whether the original site was ever a roofed structure. As construction neared completion, he moved to 75%. One moment confirmed it for him. On the winter solstice morning, standing inside the finished frame, his shadow fell directly on the central post at the back. The building aligns with the solstice exactly as Stonehenge does.

The hall opens to the public this summer and becomes a free learning space for schools afterward. The team counted every blow of every axe during construction. Everything in the building, every timber and every tool mark, was growing in this landscape 5,000 years ago.

Two humpback whales just broke the mammal migration record

Scientists identified two humpback whales that each completed a solo crossing between Australia and Brazil, a distance of more than 9,000 miles. They traveled in opposite directions and outranked every humpback migration on record, including a previous holder that crossed from Colombia to Zanzibar. The whales were matched by the distinctive color patterns and jagged edges of their tails, from a database of over 19,000 images gathered across four decades.

Photo by Todd Cravens

Humpbacks follow predictable migration routes learned from their mothers. Traveling between separate mating sites is not part of the pattern. Since the photos only captured the whales at the start and end of their journeys, researchers do not know the exact routes taken. The most likely explanation is that the whales met others on shared feeding grounds and continued in a different direction rather than returning home.

The Pacific Whale Foundation co-authored the study, published in Royal Society Open Science. As climate change warms oceans and shifts krill distributions, knowing the full range of humpback movement becomes more important for conservation. Finding two individuals that crossed between Australia and Brazil challenges what scientists previously assumed about how separate those populations really are.

In today’s Morning Compass 🧭

Germany just lost 5,000 US troops because its chancellor said something honest about the Iran war. Poland gained 5,000 because its new president won an election that Trump endorsed. Both decisions were made without military planning, without consultation, without process. If you were a European ally right now, you would be doing the math.

Morning Compass also covers the Senate war powers vote on Iran, the International Energy Agency’s warning that global oil markets could enter a “red zone” by July, and a story from Vinnytsia, Ukraine, that is the most human thing I have seen this week. A widowed stork sitting on her nest, unable to leave, and the people of a city at war coming to feed her with fish on a long stick.

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Lithuania went from 15 percent to 50 percent renewable electricity in five years

Lithuania sourced 15 percent of its electricity from renewables five years ago. In 2025, that figure reached 50 percent. The European Parliament recognized this as the fastest transformation of renewable electricity in the EU over that period, and Lithuania became the first country in Europe to achieve full independence from Russian fossil fuels.

Photo by Andreas Gücklhorn

The investment was systematic. Solar capacity grew from 225 megawatts in 2021 to 3,284 megawatts in 2025. Wind capacity more than tripled. The number of households and businesses generating their own electricity jumped from 18,800 to 174,500. In April alone, solar and wind covered 84 percent of the country’s electricity demand, with domestic production meeting 99 percent of its total electricity needs.

The target is 100 percent renewable electricity by 2028, followed by becoming a net exporter of clean energy. The Iran war has driven oil and gas prices sharply higher across Europe, making home-grown renewable power more valuable than ever. Lithuania started building this capacity years before the crisis. Other countries now have a practical model to follow, and one that was tested under real pressure.

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Scientists mapped where rare earth elements hide inside the Earth

Cambridge researchers assembled chemical data on 9,000 igneous rock samples from around the world and built the first global atlas of rare earth element deposit locations. The pattern was clear. Deposits cluster near the steep edges of Earth’s thickest and oldest continental cores. Thicker lithosphere keeps rock under high pressure at depth, trapping small pockets of magma that slowly concentrate metals over time.

Rare earth elements are critical for smartphones, wind turbines, and electric vehicles. Most of the world’s supply comes from China, which creates real vulnerabilities for countries trying to build clean energy infrastructure. A tool that predicts where deposits form is directly useful for any country trying to reduce that dependence. Lead researcher Emilie Bowman described the atlas as offering “predictive power” for where deposits can be expected to form.

The team now plans to extend the map to rocks older than 200 million years, which host most of the economically viable deposits currently being mined. Linking rock chemistry data with seismic wave imaging of Earth’s interior was the key step. Using earthquakes like sonar, the researchers could map lithospheric thickness and match it against where the richest rock samples appear. The research was published in Nature Geoscience.

Why Zen monks clean all day, and what psychologists make of it

Zen apprentices spend much of their training sweeping floors and scrubbing corridors. Buddhist monk Shoukei Matsumoto writes that sweeping removes worldly desires and scrubbing frees the mind of attachments. Clinical psychologist Holly Schiff confirms there is real science behind this. Repetitive physical tasks regulate the nervous system. They are predictable, structured, and produce a visible result. That combination is calming in a way most cognitive work is not.

Photo by lee bernd

The visibility matters. A swept floor gives you a clear before-and-after. Most emotional or intellectual work does not. Schiff suggests that for people who dread cleaning, the shift is about slowing down rather than forcing enjoyment. Pay attention to the physical movement, the rhythm, the temperature of the water. Done this way, it starts to function like a mindfulness exercise. Breaking the task into one surface, one drawer, one corner reduces the sense of being overwhelmed before you begin.

Matsumoto calls it “habitat care” rather than a chore. Cleaning is tending to the relationship between yourself and the world around you. Peace comes not from the finished tidy state but from the ongoing, humble act of clearing the space. The famous Zen saying puts it plainly: before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. While I was in my twenties, I learned these lessons in a Buddhist monastery in Thailand, and I decided to share them after reading about them in an article this morning.

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Fijian farmers read yam vines and bee behavior to predict cyclones

On Fiji’s second-largest island, farmer and climate resilience expert Marika Radua watches wild yam vines every July. If they creep along the ground, a hurricane is likely coming between November and April. If they shoot upward, the season should be calm. The vines, he says, are already protecting themselves from wind. It is nature signaling what is ahead.

Photo by Max

Pacific island nations are now taking this kind of traditional ecological knowledge seriously. Fiji’s meteorological service announced in 2024 that it would integrate these natural indicators into its scientific forecasting, calling the combination “a total package.” Vanuatu has gone further with an app called ClimateWatch, where communities report signs like green turtles nesting further inland before a cyclone approaches.

The practical case is straightforward. The Pacific Ocean covers millions of square kilometers and monitoring equipment cannot reach every island. In the weeks before Cyclone Winston struck Fiji, coastal villagers noticed hornets nesting close to the ground, dead fish on shorelines, and seabirds flying lower than usual. Some communities reported these traditional signs were the first reliable warning they received. With more lead time, people stocked food, reinforced houses, and moved animals to shelter. Ancient knowledge buying modern time.

A moment of science

The Art Institute of Chicago has been running forensic tests on Van Gogh’s “The Bedroom,” painted in 1889. By analyzing microscopic paint remnants, conservators can trace what the original colors actually were before they shifted over more than a century. The results are surprising. What we see today is not what Van Gogh put on the canvas.

Van Gogh painted “The Bedroom” while living at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. I visited that place years ago. The room is still there, and the olive trees he painted just outside are still standing too. Standing in that space, knowing what he was going through during his final year, stays with you. Seeing the science now reveal what he originally saw in color adds something I was not expecting. The video is from the Art Institute’s Instagram and runs about one minute.

A moment of beauty

Kaieteur Falls in Guyana drops more than 220 meters in a single unbroken plunge, making it the world’s largest single-drop waterfall by volume. It sits deep inside undisturbed Amazon rainforest, surrounded by mist and birdsong, visited by almost no one. No crowds, no hotels, no tour buses. Just water falling through green silence.

Stay inspired,

Alexander

Daybreak Notes & Beans is different. While most news is often depressing these days, this newsletter brings you stories that inspire and make you smile.

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Screen Skills

One of my other newsletters, Screen Skills, provides practical digital advice in plain language. It is a tech newsletter for non-tech people.

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On Wednesday, I published:

The Planet

South Korea’s candlelight revolution

If you also read The Planet, two pieces are worth your time this week. On Sunday, I published Part 8 of The Fall, a series on how authoritarian regimes end. This installment is on South Korea’s candlelight revolution: 2.3 million people in the streets, a president impeached within months, and a Constitutional Court voting 8-0 to remove her. It is the most modern case in the series and perhaps the most directly relevant to Americans watching their own political moment.

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Bomb shelters in Oslo

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The Curious Wanderer

On Saturday, I published:

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Notes and sourcesNotes

T. rex arms: Science Daily / UCL and Cambridge, ‘T. rex’s tiny arms may have evolved for a surprisingly brutal reason’ — https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260519224314.htm
Vitamin D and pain: Science Daily, ‘Scientists discover strange link between vitamin D and pain’ — https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260519224308.htm
Stonehenge Neolithic hall: The Guardian, ‘English Heritage unveils recreation of 4,500-year-old Neolithic hall near Stonehenge’ — https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/may/XX/english-heritage-stonehenge-neolithic-hall
Humpback whales: AP, ‘Humpback whales travel a record 9,000 miles between Australia and Brazil’ — https://apnews.com/article/humpback-whale-migration-australia-brazil-4507fe77f565814156617430914756a5
Lithuania renewables: Euronews, ‘Turning crisis into opportunity: How Lithuania became a wild card for the EU’s clean energy race’ — https://www.euronews.com/2026/05/22/turning-crisis-into-opportunity-how-lithuania-became-a-wild-card-for-the-eus-clean-energy-
Rare earth elements: Phys.org / University of Cambridge, ‘Atlas reveals rocks with rare earth element potential’ — https://phys.org/news/2026-05-atlas-reveals-rare-earth-element.html
Zen cleaning: Science Alert / AP, ‘A Simple Chore Could Help Calm Your Mind, And It’s Popular With Zen Monks’ — https://www.sciencealert.com/a-simple-chore-could-help-calm-your-mind-and-its-popular-with-zen-monks
Fiji cyclone prediction: BBC Future, ‘Bees and breadfruit: how Fijians predict cyclones’ — https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260422-bees-and-breadfruit-how-fijians-predict-cyclones
Van Gogh’s Bedroom: Art Institute of Chicago Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/artinstitutechi
Kaieteur Falls: video via Massimo on x

Good News Is Not a Luxury: A New Study Explains Why You Need It

Alexander Verbeek — Thu, 21 May 2026 19:52:46 GMT

Science confirms what this newsletter has always believed

I suspected this for a long time. As the writer of a positive newsletter and as someone who posts daily videos of kindness, beauty, and hope on Substack Notes, I was not surprised by the results of a new study on how kindness stories affect our mood. And I suspect that many of you, as longtime readers here, are not surprised either.

Researchers showed 1,800 participants a negative news story followed by either a kindness-focused piece or an amusing one. Both helped. But kindness worked best. People who watched acts of heroism or simple human compassion reported more positive emotions and a stronger belief in the goodness of people around them. Researchers call the mechanism “elevation,” a feeling of moral uplift that replaces cynicism with hope.

We already knew this. Every time I post a video of someone helping a stranger, the comments fill with warmth. Every time I share a conservation win or a moment of human decency, the response is the same. Now we have the science behind it.

That matters because it means this newsletter is not a distraction from the hard news. It is a counterweight to it. If you value what we are building together here, the best things you can do are share these articles with people who need them and consider a paid subscription if you have not yet. Both help this reach further.

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Cows know your face — and your voice

Cows are smarter than most people think. A new study from French researchers at the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment shows that dairy cows can tell familiar and unfamiliar humans apart just by looking at their faces on a video screen. The animals spent more time studying the faces of people they had never met, which researchers interpret as a sign of recognition.

Photo by Gilles DETOT

The experiment went further. When a recorded voice was played alongside images of two people, the cows looked longer at the face that matched the voice. That is cross-modal recognition: linking what you see with what you hear to form a single mental picture of a person. Sheep, horses, and dogs show the same ability. Cows have now joined that list.

The lead researcher put it in simple terms: “The better we understand an animal, the better we treat it.” As a vegetarian, I am not entirely convinced. I do not need to understand a cow better to treat her with respect. And I wonder whether those who eat cows, and then call it beef instead of what it is, will eat any fewer of them now that they know she recognized the face of the person who fed her.

South American monkeys are getting heavier as temperatures rise

A 24-year study of wild owl monkeys in Argentina has turned a long-standing ecological rule on its head. Scientists have assumed for decades that warm-blooded animals in warmer climates tend to be lighter, because smaller bodies shed heat more efficiently. The Azara’s owl monkeys living in Formosa did not follow the textbook.

Owl monkey, also known as Night monkey (By dsasso - night monkey, CC BY-SA 2.0)

Researchers from Yale measured 180 monkeys across a quarter-century and found they are now about 50 grams heavier on average than they were in 1999, roughly a 4% increase. Over the same period, mean daily temperatures in the region rose by more than one degree Celsius. The animals’ body lengths stayed the same. Only their weight increased.

The best explanation is counterintuitive. Young monkeys in warmer conditions spend less energy staying warm. That saved energy goes into growth. So rising temperatures are not shrinking these primates. They are fattening them. What this does to their long-term survival as climate change continues is a question the researchers are still working on.

Why 90% of people are right-handed — a mystery solved

About nine in ten people on earth are right-handed. That consistency, across every culture and geography, has puzzled scientists for a long time. A new study from Oxford and the University of Reading suggests the answer lies in two ancient changes in human evolution: our ancestors started walking upright, and their brains got bigger.

Photo by Chivalry Creative

Researchers analyzed hand preference data from more than 2,000 individuals across 41 primate species. Most showed little bias for either hand. Humans stood out sharply, with a strong preference for the right. That rightward preference grew steadily through the human family tree. Neanderthals were also mostly right-handed. The hobbit-like Homo floresiensis, with its smaller brain and partly arboreal lifestyle, showed almost no preference either way.

Walking on two legs freed human hands for specialized work and set the stage for what came next. As brains grew larger and each hemisphere took on different tasks, the right hand got the assignment. The preference was baked in long before anyone picked up a pen.

Morning Compass

The opening image hides clues to the stories. Can you recognize them?

If you haven’t read it yet, please give it a try. I would love to hear your feedback.

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Plants can eat the dust that settles on their leaves

Every year, billions of tons of dust circle the globe on air currents, crossing continents and oceans before settling on whatever lies below. Scientists have long known this dust enriches soil. What they did not know was that some plants skip the soil entirely and absorb nutrients directly through their leaves.

Photo by Wander Fleur

A new study tested three common shrub species in a Mediterranean shrubland that receives heavy annual deposits of mineral dust carried on winds from the Arabian and Sahara deserts. Researchers applied volcanic ash directly to the foliage and tracked where the minerals went. The nutrients turned up in the plants’ shoots, not their roots. The leaves were doing the absorbing.

The quantities matter. Researchers calculate that leaf-based uptake could supply up to 17% of the iron that plants in the western United States receive from soil annually, and up to 12% of the phosphorus in the eastern Amazon. Some plants also have tiny leaf hairs that trap dust particles more effectively. It is a feeding strategy nobody thought to look for until now.

A blood protein may signal Alzheimer’s risk as early as 45

Alzheimer’s disease is usually diagnosed in people’s seventies or later. But the biological changes that lead to it begin much earlier, possibly decades before any symptoms appear. New research from New Zealand suggests that midlife could be a critical window for detection.

Scientists working with the Dunedin Study, which has tracked the same cohort of people for more than 50 years, found that a protein called pTau181 was elevated in 45-year-olds who also reported concerns about their memory and thinking. That protein already appears at much higher levels in people with Alzheimer’s disease. Finding it linked to self-reported memory worries in middle age pushes the potential detection window back by decades.

The researchers found no connection between pTau181 levels and brain scan results or cognitive test scores at 45. That may mean the protein rises before physical changes show up on imaging. The same group will be followed as they age, and clearer answers should come. For now, midlife memory concerns are worth taking seriously rather than brushing aside.

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A frog named Greg survived a trip through the salad supply chain

Australian farmer Rhys Smoker was preparing a steak and salad dinner in Esperance, Western Australia, when he opened a sealed bag of supermarket lettuce and found a live frog inside. His housemates did not believe him until he brought the bag into the lounge room to show them.

Photo by Jack Hamilton

They named the frog Greg. Then they played Crazy Frog as a send-off tune and released him at a pond near the house. Woolworths, the supermarket chain that sold the lettuce, called it an isolated incident, apologized, and sent a replacement bag of leaves.

Australia has more stories like this. Five years ago, a three-meter diamond python turned up on a shelf at a Woolworths in Sydney. A venomous pale-headed snake was found wrapped in plastic with lettuce at an ALDI the same year. The continent’s wildlife has a habit of turning up where you least expect it. Greg, at least, made it back to the pond.

Satellites and AI are tracking hedgehogs to slow their decline

Hedgehog numbers in the UK have fallen sharply over recent decades, and researchers at Cambridge University are now trying to reverse that with satellite imagery and artificial intelligence. Their system, called Tessera, analyzes orbital images at a level of detail that can identify individual hedgehogs fitted with GPS trackers.

Photo by Alexas_Fotos

Training the system required around 20 petabytes of data, roughly the equivalent of 10 billion standard digital photographs. When university computers ran out of capacity, researchers installed extra processors under their desks to keep the work going. A deal with technology firms AMD and Vultr has since provided larger infrastructure.

More than 100 research groups have already used Tessera for other projects, including mapping which crops grow in which fields across UK farmland year after year. For hedgehogs, the hope is that detailed movement data will reveal where they travel, what threatens them, and which conservation steps actually make a difference.

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A moment of science

The Sydney Opera House took 14 years to build and nearly broke everyone involved. Danish architect Jørn Utzon spent years unable to solve a central engineering problem: his curved shell roofs looked extraordinary on paper, but no two panels were the same shape, making construction practically impossible. Then in 1961, he had a breakthrough. He realized that every shell could be derived from a single sphere with a radius of 75.2 meters. All 2,194 precast concrete panels could be cut from the same geometric template.

Engineers used some of the earliest computers in architectural history to calculate the structural loads. Workers drove 580 concrete piers 25 meters into the bedrock of Sydney Harbor to support it all. The building opened in 1973, a decade behind schedule and more than fourteen times over its original budget. The video below compresses those years of construction into an extraordinary minute.

A moment of beauty

Museum visitors have always stood before old portraits and felt a flicker of recognition. Occasionally, they realize the person staring back could be them. Not similar. Identical. The same bone structure, the same expression, separated by five centuries.

This video captures those encounters. Watch people discover themselves as they hang on the wall.

Is there a painting of someone who looks like you?

Stay inspired,

Alexander

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🧭 Morning Compass

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Screen Skills

One of my other newsletters, Screen Skills, provides practical digital advice in plain language. It is a tech newsletter for non-tech people.

Did you, like me, learn typing on a classic typewriter?
Is computer technology not your hobby, but do you feel you need to know the basics?
Do you find it hard to keep up with every new update on your phone?
Screen Skills keeps things simple, always starts at the basics, and makes your digital life easier in just a few minutes a week.

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Yesterday, I published:

The Planet

South Korea’s candlelight revolution

Bomb shelters in Oslo

Subscribe to The Planet 🌎

The Curious Wanderer

On Saturday, I published:

Subscribe to The Curious Wanderer

Notes and sourcesNotes

Kindness and bad news: Kathryn Buchanan, The Conversation, ‘Stories of kindness may counteract the negative effects of looking at bad news’ - https://theconversation.com/stories-of-kindness-may-counteract-the-negative-effects-of-looking-at-bad-news-new-research-194582
Cows recognize faces: Océane Amichaud et al., PLOS One, ‘Cows visually discriminate and cross-modally recognise familiar and unfamiliar human faces in videos’ - https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0329529
Owl monkeys and climate: Mike Cummings, Yale News, ‘Warmer temps, heavier owl monkeys: Climate linked to weight gain in primates’ - https://news.yale.edu/2026/05/20/warmer-temps-heavier-owl-monkeys-climate-linked-weight-gain-primates
Right-handedness: Michael Irving, Science Alert, ‘Two Ancient Clues May Finally Explain Why 90% of Us Are Right-Handed’ - https://www.sciencealert.com/two-ancient-clues-may-finally-explain-why-90-of-us-are-right-handed
Plants absorb dust: Jay Kakade, Refractor, ‘Plants can eat the dust that falls onto their leaves’ - https://refractor.io/biology/plants-eat-dust-on-leaves/
Alzheimer’s at 45: The Conversation via Science Alert, ‘An Early Clue to Alzheimer’s May Appear as Young as 45, Study Finds’ - https://www.sciencealert.com/an-early-clue-to-alzheimers-may-appear-as-young-as-45-study-finds
Frog in lettuce: AP News, ‘Live frog surprises housemates in Australian farmer’s lettuce bag’ - https://apnews.com/article/australia-frog-lettuce-salad-esperance-4134acf75e814dedd7789c1423c26ab1
Hedgehog satellites: Zoe Kleinman, BBC, ‘Satellites and AI used to track UK hedgehogs in bid to slow decline’ - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c202g60qrlpo

Why Your Diet at 70 Can Make You Biologically Younger in Four Weeks

Alexander Verbeek — Tue, 19 May 2026 20:21:22 GMT

Before dawn, while most of you are still sleeping, I go looking for the stories worth your time. The more political developments (and my opinions) end up in the Morning Compass of my More newsletter; you can read today’s Morning Compass here. But I reserve all the positive stories that make you forget about the bad news that always seems to catch the wo…

Luna Scores Like a Dog: The Science of Why Pets Are Good for You

Alexander Verbeek — Mon, 18 May 2026 20:21:09 GMT

Today marks 46 years since Mount St. Helens erupted in Washington State. I’ll come to that near the end. First, a question about your pets, the fiber trend that deserves more attention, two plants back from extinction, an ancient poem found in Rome after 50 years, and the brain science that changes how you should think about exercise.

The Museum Visit That Slows Your Biological Clock

Alexander Verbeek — Fri, 15 May 2026 20:16:57 GMT

During my first coffee this morning, I came across a study that gave me permission to do something I have been wanting to do for years. Researchers at University College London found that visiting museums, going to concerts, joining a choir, or simply reading about art slows biological aging at roughly the same rate as regular exercise. I may skip my mo…

Why French Students Pay One Euro for Lunch While Americans Pay a Lifetime of Debt

Alexander Verbeek — Thu, 14 May 2026 20:00:33 GMT

It is raining in Oslo. While most of you were still sleeping, I went looking for stories worth sharing. Today’s newsletter went in several directions before I was done with it. A Dutch drone that navigates like a bee. An 18-year-old in Ireland figured out how to make plastic that cleans up after itself. Neanderthals performed dentistry 59,000 years ago,…

GPS Backpacks for Hedgehogs and Other Reasons to Love Science Today

Alexander Verbeek — Tue, 12 May 2026 20:46:51 GMT

Before my first coffee was finished, I had read about wild asses crossing a railway line in Mongolia, hot springs in Zambia that may be splitting Africa in two, and an HIV treatment that keeps the virus suppressed for nearly two years after a single infusion. Science keeps moving forward, even when politics tries to drag everything backward. Today’s new…

Why Your Brain Got Smaller While You Got Smarter

Alexander Verbeek — Mon, 11 May 2026 20:48:15 GMT

Three of today’s stories are about brains. One explains why human brains have been shrinking for the past 11,000 years while intelligence has risen. Another reveals a pattern that has held for 70 years: not one person blind from birth has ever developed schizophrenia. A third shows that pregnancy rewires a mother’s brain in ways that are largely positiv…

Two Birthdays Today: Attenborough at 100 and One Year of Daybreak Notes & Beans

Alexander Verbeek — Fri, 08 May 2026 20:00:21 GMT

Dear friends,

Today, there are two birthdays worth noting. David Attenborough turns 100; that’s the big one. But there is another small birthday: Daybreak Notes & Beans turns one. More on both of those further down. First, the stories.

Europe Opens Its First Elephant Sanctuary and The First Two Captive Giants Are Heading Home

Alexander Verbeek — Thu, 07 May 2026 20:46:07 GMT

During my first coffee this morning, I found myself lingering over a story from Portugal. Two elephants, both in their 40s and held in captivity for most of their lives, are about to meet in a landscape where their ancient relatives walked 40,000 years ago. That felt like the right place to start today. From there, we move to Alaskan fjords, Paris museu…

Your Dog or Cat Really Does Know When You're Having a Bad Day

Alexander Verbeek — Tue, 05 May 2026 20:24:08 GMT

Luna is on the chair beside me as I write this, watching. She does that when I am tired. She also seems to know, before I have touched a single bag, when I am about to travel. This morning’s first story has some answers about that bond.

Today: a French study on what your pet is actually doing for your health. Clean energy is crossing a historic threshold…

After Tear Gas and Protests, 1,500 Beagles Finally Find Their Homes

Alexander Verbeek — Mon, 04 May 2026 15:30:46 GMT

During my first coffee this morning, the story I loved to read was about beagles. After protests, tear gas, and a legal standoff that made international headlines, 1,500 dogs are leaving a Wisconsin research facility and heading to homes across the country. From there, the morning takes in scientists building tools to measure animal happiness, a rewrite…

How Your Morning Coffee Is Protecting Your body From Aging

Alexander Verbeek — Fri, 01 May 2026 15:49:59 GMT

This morning, I have a warship found after 107 years, kiwi birds home in Wellington, a 4,000-year-old script being decoded, and coffee doing more for your cells than anyone realized. A strong Friday mix. ☕️

City birds are more afraid of women than men. Scientists have no idea why

Alexander Verbeek — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 21:08:28 GMT

Dear friends,

Birds are more afraid of women than men, and scientists studying 37 species across five European countries have no idea why. That mystery opens today’s newsletter. There is also a remarkable Viking treasure just found in Norway, Munch paintings leaving their chocolate factory home for the first time in a century, and the science behind why …

One year ago, I wrote about Trump's game of chicken. He's still playing it.

Alexander Verbeek — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 14:26:00 GMT

Dear friends,

Wednesday is my day off from the regular ten stories. But I have something worth sharing today, and a small anniversary played a role in finding it.

Daybreak Notes & Beans is approaching its first birthday. Before it existed, I published on Buy Me a Coffee — short café chronicles that grew longer over time, as these things tend to do. Exactl…

A baby born mid-flight, an orangutan crossing a bridge, and seeds that listen

Alexander Verbeek — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 20:02:19 GMT

If you follow me on Substack Notes, you saw this morning’s poster around eight Eastern. Today, it centers on King Charles III's state visit, with details hidden in the scene for those who look closely. On the left, there is an orangutan on a rope bridge in Sumatra. That story is in here. So is a baby born just before a plane’s wheels touched down, and a…

Sawe Did It: The First Official Sub-Two-Hour Marathon, and Nine More Positive Stories

Alexander Verbeek — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 16:18:12 GMT

A Kenyan runner broke the two-hour marathon barrier in London yesterday. Forty years after Chernobyl exploded, wild horses graze in the exclusion zone. Scientists inch closer to saving the northern white rhino. And a baby elephant in South Africa found a reason to live. Ten stories to start your Monday.

Escaping Into Nature, But Trump's War With Iran Was Already There

Alexander Verbeek — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 21:22:44 GMT

Dear friends,

No Daybreak Notes & Beans today — there will be one tomorrow, as usual.

But I wanted to give you something to read over the weekend, and I also want to be honest with you about why I am doing this.

The Curious Wanderer is my travel newsletter, and it is still small. About ten times as many people read this one. I spend just as much time on it…

Daybreak Notes & Beans ☕️

Why Women Find Other Women More Attractive Than Men (Science Finally Has an Answer)

Even women rate female faces as more attractive, global study finds

NASA starts building its moon base, less than two months after Artemis II

Multiple hobbies linked to lower dementia risk, especially social ones

A 700-year-old King Arthur manuscript comes to auction for the first time

Nine in ten UK adults cherish outdoor childhood memories. Half now rarely go outside.

Morning Compass

Supercharged vitamin K compound helps brain cells regenerate in lab tests

Maue, Fitz, Kudu, and Bon64 land safely in Kenya as mountain bongos come home

The EU wants to let you book a cross-Europe train journey with one ticket

A moment of science

A moment of beauty

More from Alexander Verbeek:

🧭 Morning Compass

Screen Skills

The Planet

The Curious Wanderer

Notes

🐋 Beluga Whales Can Recognize Themselves in a Mirror (Plus Nine More Good-News Stories)

Beluga whales recognize themselves in mirrors

150 minutes of exercise a week is a floor, not a target

Wind and solar overtook gas globally for the first time in April

Scientists describe a tiny blue octopus found nearly 6,000 feet beneath the Galápagos

Researchers found the most fuel-efficient route to the Moon from 24 million options

Morning Compass

A brain protein decline may be driving how fast we age

Scientists solved the genetic mystery of why orange cats are almost always male

Two 17th-century paintings missing since 1930 returned to Seville after 95 years

The River Wye has been formally recognized as a living ecosystem with legal rights

A moment of science

A moment of beauty

More from Alexander Verbeek:

🧭 Morning Compass

Screen Skills

The Planet

The Curious Wanderer

Notes

Why T. Rex Gave Up Its Arms for a Bigger Bite, and What Science Just Proved

T. rex had tiny arms because its skull took over the hunt

Low vitamin D triples post-surgery pain in breast cancer patients

Volunteers rebuilt a 4,500-year-old hall near Stonehenge by hand

Two humpback whales just broke the mammal migration record

In today’s Morning Compass 🧭

Lithuania went from 15 percent to 50 percent renewable electricity in five years

Scientists mapped where rare earth elements hide inside the Earth

Why Zen monks clean all day, and what psychologists make of it

Fijian farmers read yam vines and bee behavior to predict cyclones

A moment of science

A moment of beauty

More from Alexander Verbeek:

🧭 Morning Compass

Screen Skills

The Planet

The Curious Wanderer

Notes and sourcesNotes

Good News Is Not a Luxury: A New Study Explains Why You Need It

Science confirms what this newsletter has always believed

Cows know your face — and your voice

South American monkeys are getting heavier as temperatures rise

Why 90% of people are right-handed — a mystery solved

Morning Compass

Plants can eat the dust that settles on their leaves

A blood protein may signal Alzheimer’s risk as early as 45

A frog named Greg survived a trip through the salad supply chain

Satellites and AI are tracking hedgehogs to slow their decline

A moment of science

A moment of beauty

More from Alexander Verbeek:

🧭 Morning Compass

Screen Skills

The Planet

The Curious Wanderer

Notes and sourcesNotes

Why Your Diet at 70 Can Make You Biologically Younger in Four Weeks

Luna Scores Like a Dog: The Science of Why Pets Are Good for You

The Museum Visit That Slows Your Biological Clock

Why French Students Pay One Euro for Lunch While Americans Pay a Lifetime of Debt

GPS Backpacks for Hedgehogs and Other Reasons to Love Science Today

Why Your Brain Got Smaller While You Got Smarter