The Safe Drinking Water Act requires monitoring by public water utilities, but those samples are taken outside property lines of individual households. Once inside a home, microbial communities can change and evolve in ways that are generally not monitored or even understood.

Fangqiong Ling, an assistant professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, is working to change that, along with her colleagues and students within the school’s cluster of water quality researchers.

For a paper published Dec. 10 in Nature Water, Ling and colleagues shared results from sampling the bathroom faucets of eight households in the St. Louis metro area. They sampled the homes for seven days to see the flow and change of different bacteria populations. They found that, though houses generally shared major categories of bacteria, down to the species level, there was wide variation from house to house.

“The houses have their own unique signature compared to the rest,” Ling said.

All public tap water is subject to stringent treatment and disinfectants, so the number of microbial cells they detected was very small — another challenge for monitoring.

But the survivors they find are tough. The researchers anticipated seeing antibiotic resistance genes in tap water microbiomes, and they did find that pattern.

Using the same common disinfectant means that a recognizable group of microbes can potentially pick up resistance to that disinfectant. The researchers found a pattern of that “resistome” across households. But what accounts for the huge variety in species?

Computer modeling suggests that microbes initially establish their communities through both deterministic and stochastic processes, meaning random events, which could account for why there is huge variation at the species level, household to household.

For household water, these processes could involve the random timing for microbes’ arrival at the house, their growth dynamics and a variety of factors that aren’t yet understood.

The research aims to be able to monitor, anticipate and prevent outbreaks of opportunistic pathogens and bacteria that spread disease. This kind of monitoring is under development for large buildings and institutions such as hospitals, but it’s scarce for individual households.

“Houses are still the place where the majority of our interactions with water take place, so we want to study households,” Ling said.

While researchers found illness-causing pathogens or bacteria (in small quantities) in houses, it doesn’t necessarily mean that household water is unsafe — but public health regulators should keep a closer watch, she said.

Ling’s PhD student Lin Zhang, lead author on the Nature Water paper, has set up a way to crowd-source the sampling by recruiting high school students to serve as “community scientists.” Those students collected samples from about 100 households in the St. Louis metro area, data Zhang is analyzing for her final PhD project.

While plumbing-associated bacteria are generally harmless, the resistance genes they carry can be transferred to pathogens when individuals are undergoing antibiotic treatments. Because people have frequent contact with these bacteria through activities like showering and using water, there is a strong incentive to better understand the microbiome and “resistome” in plumbing systems, as well as how they interact with humans.

In the meantime, Zhang is gratified that she gets to do research that can have a local benefit and to work with students.

“I like that we were able to give high school students a glimpse into real-world research and the scientific method,” she said. “Hopefully, this might motivate them to pursue a future in environmental engineering.”

Fixing the pipes

This fall, the Environmental Protection Agency instituted a rule that all municipalities that provide water will be required to replace lead pipes within the next decade. With the changeover in infrastructure, there also may be opportunities to improve monitoring beyond metals and institute mitigation measures for microplastics and the microbiome.

It’s all “on tap” for Dan Giammar, the Walter E. Browne Professor of Environmental Engineering, who is heading up a number of projects to monitor and improve drinking water sources over the next few years.

“Aspects of drinking water quality that can change between the treatment plant and the customer’s tap have been frustratingly difficult to monitor,” Giammar said. “This innovative work provides new insights into how microbes grow and what microbes are present in premise plumbing.”

As Ling and Zhang delve into better testing of household plumbing, more questions will likely arise because when it comes to microbial life, nothing is as it seems.

“The more houses we sample, the more diversity we’re seeing,” Ling said. This work was supported by a McKelvey School of Engineering Startup Fund and a Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award by the Oak Ridge Associated Universities to F.L. This research was also partially supported by the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems (CBET) of the National Science Foundation under award 2047470 to F.L.

There is no question that the Sun is a temperamental star, as alone this year’s unusually strong solar storms prove. Some of them led to remarkable auroras even at low latitudes. But can our star become even more furious? Evidence of the most violent solar “tantrums” can be found in prehistoric tree trunks and in samples of millennia-old glacial ice. However, from these indirect sources, the frequency of superflares cannot be determined. And direct measurements of the amount of radiation reaching the Earth from the Sun have only been available since the beginning of the space age.

Another way to learn about our Sun’s long-term behavior is to turn to the stars, as is the approach of the new study. Modern space telescopes observe thousands and thousands of stars and record their brightness fluctuations in visible light. Superflares, which release amounts of energy of more than one octillion joules within a short period of time, show themselves in the observational data as short, pronounced peaks in brightness. “We cannot observe the Sun over thousands of years,” Prof. Dr. Sami Solanki, Director at the MPS and coauthor, explained the basic idea behind the investigation. “Instead, however, we can monitor the behavior of thousands of stars very similar to the Sun over short periods of time. This helps us to estimate how frequently superflares occur,” he adds.

Looking for close relatives of the Sun

In the current study, the team including researchers from the University of Graz (Austria), the University of Oulu (Finland), the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, the University of Colorado Boulder (USA) and the Commissariat of Atomic and Alternative Energies of Paris-Saclay and the University of Paris-Cité, analyzed the data from 56450 sun-like stars as seen by NASA’s space telescope Kepler between 2009 and 2013. “In their entirety, the Kepler data provide us with evidence of 220000 years of stellar activity,” said Prof. Dr. Alexander Shapiro from the University of Graz.

Crucial for the study was the careful selection of the stars to be taken into account. After all, the chosen stars should be particularly close “relatives” of the Sun. The scientists therefore only admitted stars whose surface temperature and brightness were similar to the Sun’s. The researchers also ruled out numerous sources of error, such as cosmic radiation, passing asteroids or comets, as well as non-sun-like stars that in Kepler images may by chance flare up in the vicinity of a sun-like star. To do this, the team carefully analyzed the images of each potential superflare — only a few pixels in size — and only counted those events that could reliably be assigned to one of the selected stars.

In this way, the researchers identified 2889 superflares on 2527 of the 56450 observed stars. This means that on average, one sun-like star produces a superflare approximately once per century.

“High performance dynamo computations of these solar-type stars easily explain the magnetic origins of the intense release of energy during such superflares,” said coauthor Dr. Allan Sacha Brun of the Commissariat of Atomic and Alternative Energies of Paris-Saclay and the University of Paris-Cité.

Surprisingly frequent

“We were very surprised that sun-like stars are prone to such frequent superflares,” said first author Dr. Valeriy Vasilyev from the MPS. Earlier surveys by other research groups had found average intervals of a thousand or even ten thousand years. However, earlier studies were unable to determine the exact source of the observed flare and therefore had to limit themselves to stars that did not have any too close neighbors in the telescope images. The current study is the most precise and sensitive to date.

Longer average time intervals between extreme solar events have also been suggested by studies looking for evidence of violent solar storms impacting Earth. When a particularly high flux of energetic particles from the Sun reaches the Earth’s atmosphere, they produce a detectable amount of radioactive atoms such as the radioactive carbon isotope ¹⁴C. These atoms are then deposited in natural archives such as tree rings and glacial ice. Even thousands of years later, the sudden influx of high-energy solar particles can thus be deduced by measuring the amount of 14C using modern technologies.

In this way, researchers were able to identify five extreme solar particle events and three candidates within the past twelve thousand years of the Holocene, leading to an average occurrence rate of once per 1500 years. The most violent is believed to have occurred in the year 775 AD. However, it is quite possible that more such violent particle events and also more superflares occurred on the Sun in the past. “It is unclear whether gigantic flares are always accompanied by coronal mass ejections and what is the relationship between superflares and extreme solar particle events. This requires further investigation,” co-author Prof. Dr. Ilya Usoskin from the University of Oulu in Finland pointed out. Looking at the terrestrial evidence of past extreme solar events could therefore underestimate the frequency of superflares.

Forecasting dangerous space weather

The new study does not reveal when the Sun will throw its next fit. However, the results urge caution. “The new data are a stark reminder that even the most extreme solar events are part of the Sun’s natural repertoire,” said coauthor Dr. Natalie Krivova from the MPS. During the Carrington event of 1859, one of the most violent solar storms of the past 200 years, the telegraph network collapsed in large parts of northern Europe and North America. According to estimates, the associated flare released only a hundredth of the energy of a superflare. Today, in addition to the infrastructure on the Earth’s surface, especially satellites would be at risk.

The most important preparation for strong solar storms is therefore reliable and timely forecasting. As a precaution, satellites, for example, could be switched off. From 2031, ESA’s space probe Vigil will help in the endeavor of forecasting. From its observation position in space, it will look at the Sun from the side and notice sooner than Earth-bound probes when processes that might drive dangerous space weather are brewing up on our star. The MPS is currently developing the Polarimetric and Magnetic Imager for this mission.

“The increase in early-onset colorectal cancer is a global phenomenon,” said Dr. Hyuna Sung, senior principal scientist, cancer surveillance research at the American Cancer Society and lead author of the study. “Previous studies have shown this rise in predominately high-income Western countries, but now, it is documented in various economies and regions worldwide.”

The primary study objective was to examine contemporary CRC incidence trends in young versus older adults using data through 2017 from 50 countries/territories. Data were compiled using the Cancer Incidence in Five Continents Plus and trends were examined for age-standardized incidence rates of CRC ranging from 1943-2017. Temporal trends were visualized and quantified by age at diagnosis (25-49 years and 50-74 years). Average annual percentage changes (AAPC) were estimated for the last 10 years of data.

During the past decade, incidence rates of early-onset CRC (25-49 years) were stable in 23 countries, but increased in 27 countries, with the greatest annual increases in New Zealand (4.0%), Chile (4.0%) and Puerto Rico (3.8%). Fourteen of the 27 countries/territories showed either stable (Puerto Rico, Argentina, Norway, France, Ireland) or decreasing rates (Israel, Canada, the USA, England, Germany, Scotland, Slovenia, Australia, and New Zealand) in older adults. The rise in early-onset CRC was faster among men than women in Chile, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Ecuador, Thailand, Sweden, Israel, and Croatia, while young women experienced faster increases in England, Norway, Australia, Türkiye, Costa Rica, and Scotland. For the remaining 13 countries with increasing trends in both age groups, the annual percentage increase in young compared to older adults was larger in Chile, Japan, Sweden, the Netherlands, Croatia, and Finland, smaller in Thailand, Martinique, Denmark, Costa Rica, and similar in Türkiye, Ecuador, and Belarus. For the last five years, the incidence rate of early-onset CRC was highest in Australia, Puerto Rico, New Zealand, the U.S., and the Republic of Korea (14 to 17 per 100,000) and lowest in Uganda and India (4 per 100,000).

“The global scope of this concerning trend highlights the need for innovative tools to prevent and control cancers linked to dietary habits, physical inactivity, and excess body weight. Ongoing efforts are essential to identify the additional factors behind these trends and to develop effective prevention strategies tailored to younger generations and local resources worldwide,” added Sung. “Raising awareness of the trend and the distinct symptoms of early-onset colorectal cancer (e.g., rectal bleeding, abdominal pain, altered bowel habits, and unexplained weight loss) among young people and primary care providers can help reduce delays in diagnosis and decrease mortality.”

“This flagship study reveals that increasing rates of early onset bowel cancer, affecting adults aged 25-49, is a global issue. Concerningly, this research has revealed for the first time ever that rates are rising more sharply in England than in many other countries around the world,” said Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK.”A cancer diagnosis at any age has a huge impact on patients and their families — so while it’s important to note that rates in younger adults are still very low compared to people over 50, we need to understand what’s causing this trend in younger people. More research is needed — like team PROSPECT, a global Cancer Grand Challenges team who has been awarded £20m to uncover the causes of bowel cancer in younger adults, and strategies to prevent it.”

Other ACS researchers contributing to the study include Rebecca Siegel, Chenxi Jiang, and senior author Dr. Ahmedin Jemal. Yin Cao, an associate professor of surgery and of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and a research member of Siteman Cancer Center, based at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University Medicine, is a contributing author.

The extraordinary images — taken with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope — show a galaxy that glitters with 10 distinct star clusters that formed at different times, much like our own Milky Way.

Cocooned in a diffuse arc, and resembling fireflies “dancing” on a summer night, the newly discovered galaxy — which the Wellesley team have dubbed the “Firefly Sparkle” — was taking shape around 600 million years after the Big Bang, around the same time that our own galaxy was beginning to take shape.

Wellesley College astronomer Lamiya Mowla is co-lead author of the paper, which was published Wednesday, Dec. 11, in Nature.

Mowla says the discovery is particularly important because the mass of the Firefly Sparkle is similar to what the Milky Way’s mass might have been at the same stage of development. (Other galaxies Webb has detected from this time period are significantly more massive.)

“These remarkable images give us an unprecedented picture of what our own galaxy might have looked like when it was being born,” Mowla says. “By examining these photos of the Firefly Sparkle, we can better understand how our own Milky Way took shape.”

Glimpses of a young galaxy forming in a way so similar to our own are unparalleled, Mowla says. The JWST images show a Milky Way-like galaxy in the early stages of its assembly in a universe that’s only 600 million years old.

“As an observational astronomer studying the structural evolution of astronomical objects in the early Universe, I want to understand how the first stars, star clusters, galaxies, and galaxy clusters formed in the infant Universe and how they changed as the Universe got older,” Mowla notes. Of the Firefly Sparkle, she says, “”I didn’t think it would be possible to resolve a galaxy that existed so early in the universe into so many distinct components, let alone find that its mass is similar to our own galaxy’s when it was in the process of forming.

“There is so much going on inside this tiny galaxy, including so many different phases of star formation,” Mowla told NASA. “These images are the very first glimpse of something that we’ll be able to study — and learn from — for many years to come.”

Mowla, who co-led the project with Kartheik Iyer, a NASA Hubble Fellow at Columbia University in New York, is an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Wellesley, and a 2013 graduate of the college.