All aboard!

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today: Big box retailers and ecommerce giants biggest winners in GLP-1 sales; Airfare costs likely to remain elevated; New study identifies therapeutic target for treating Alzheimer’s; Solar storms create a wrinkle for Mars exploration; and how your mindset can reframe aging…🤔

Let’s get into it!

A study published by researchers at the University of Minnesota in Nature Neuroscience identified a type of protein that could be the key to new therapeutic treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.

The main two culprits normally targeted when treating the neurodegenerative disease are amyloid proteins and tau tangles, which slowly destroy the axons that form neural pathways, before killing the neurons themselves.

The researchers found a type of mitochondrial plaque that may form independently of, but in tandem with, the amyloid proteins that typically represent what physicians look for in early-stage assessments.

"This discovery identifies mitochondrial plaques as a previously unrecognized feature of Alzheimer's disease," said Paul Robbins, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School. "By understanding how these plaques form and contribute to disease progression, we may be able to develop new strategies to slow or even prevent Alzheimer's disease."

Research presented at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting revealed the previously undiscovered intensity of solar storms on the Red Planet, and how they would make human exploration of it more difficult.

The research was conducted to investigate what happened to NASA’s Opportunity rover after it stopped communicating on June 10, 2018. It was known that it likely died in an intense dust storm, which is a common weather event on Mars.

What the researchers didn’t know prior to the study was how dust storms can be dramatically intensified by the climatological effects of solar storms.

Mars has a weak magnetosphere and extremely thin atmosphere, meaning solar storms have a significant impact on the planet, including during dust storms.

“Dust storms were not originally part of our investigation, so finding one happening at the same time as the heating was unexpected,” Lancaster University physicist Lana Williams, who studies Martian space and atmospheric plasma dynamics, said in a statement. 

Dust storms are unbelievably chaotic on Mars on a good day. The charged particles at high Martian altitudes picked up by the European Space Agency’s Trace Gas Orbiter suggest the solar-infused dust storms could present difficulties, both in landing on Mars and exploring it.

There are physical realities that come with aging that no amount of mental positivity can contend with. Father time may get the last laugh…but he doesn’t have to be the only one.

As long as there’s breath in your lungs, electricity in your heart, and a lightbulb on upstairs, nothing can stop the will of the human spirit except the human him or herself.

This is the mentality of psychologist Carol Dweck, who introduced the idea of adopting a growth mindset over a fixed mindset at any age in order to harness control over and take of advantage of one’s own wellbeing.

Some examples of having a fixed mindset include: “I’m too old to start exercising”'; “I’m too old to make new friends”; “my memory isn’t what it used to be.”

In each of these cases, the person is surrendering control of their journey to father time.

Why are you too old to make new friends? Do you enjoy friendly relationships and companionship? Go get some more.

Do you want your mind to be sharp? Eat well, exercise, sleep right, and socialize.

Do you like being strong and nimble? Strength and flexibility can be cultivated at any age.

The reality is we’re all on the long road to the same destination, but how fast you drive, what car you’re driving, and who’s riding shotgun are all choices made by the person at the wheel. 💪

Fine in ‘79

We’re throwing it back to this week in 1979, quizzin’ you on the top of the charts and the top of the box office with today’s trivia 😎