Waxing poetic

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today. Why we feel close to celebrities; does repeated exposure actually make allergies worse?; and Fat Bear Week 2026 is here. 🐻

Let’s get into it!

A study published in the journal Immunity by researchers at Mass General Brigham looked into the reasons why those with allergies seemingly develop greater immune responses after repeated exposure.

They studied the sensory neurons that generate sensations like itchiness or pain, and found these neurons become metabolically “encoded” with a record of an exposure to an allergen. This record acts like a memory, which triggers a stronger immune response each additional time the body is exposed.

The discovery of this supposed memory forming functionality could be the key to cutting off the process that triggers the development of an allergy altogether.

"Now that we know what may cause people to become allergic and pick up more sensitivities, we can design ways to stop it from happening," said senior author Caroline L. Sokol, M.D., Ph.D., a physician-scientist in the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in the Mass General Brigham Department of Medicine.

"What is especially encouraging is that allergic memory in neurons faded with time in our models," Sokol said. "We are now investigating whether we can deliberately reset this memory, which could ultimately offer a way to reduce the risk of developing allergies."

Parasocial relationships have been studied since the 1950s, but they’ve become a particularly familiar concept in the age of the enhanced access provided by social media.

A parasocial relationship develops when one person feels closeness to another that doesn’t even know they exist. Everyone can attest to having a relationship like this at some point in their lives, be it through a celebrity crush, a favorite musician, or a heroic sports figure.

Sociologists Donald Horton and Richard Wohl coined the term in a paper they published in 1956, which investigated the ways one-sided intimacy could form from a distance. They noted its prevalence developed with the mass adoption of different forms of media like radio and television.

Repeated exposure breeds the conditions that lead to friendships, and they determined such conditions could sociologically and psychologically exist, even if only experienced by one side of a two-way relationship.

These conditions were kicked into overdrive by social media, with the process of self-disclosure (the slow process by which we tend to reveal our true selves in relationships) was transformed in a way that could facilitate rapid parasocial attachments (like when celebrities share personal details of their lives directly with followers).

Research has also shown such hyper access can create “familiarity breeds contempt” situations, when parasocial relationships turn sour, and followers turn negative on those they strangely remain tied to through parasocial attachments.

It’s that time of year again, where the big boys and girls at Katmai National Park in Alaska begin showing off how much they’ve packed on ahead of their months-long hibernation.

Fat Bear Week 2026 voting is open, and Bear 32—known as Chunk—looks to defend his title after last year’s landslide victory. He ran away with the top prize, despite having suffered multiple injuries throughout the summer, including a broken jaw, the cause of which the park couldn’t identify.

“His entire mandible, one of his canines and his front teeth are just completely broken,” Katmai National Park ranger Sarah Bruce told KTUU last week. “That bone is completely broken and he’s still able to get really fat. This is a super resilient bear.”

Chunk weighs around 1,200 pounds, and like many bears of his size, will consume upwards of 200,000 calories per day just to store enough energy to get through the winter.

Last year’s competition yielded over 1.7 million votes from over 100 countries, and this year’s is expected to yield at least as many, if not more, as Chunk’s global fan club rallies to help him retain his title.

You can view Chunk’s competition and cast your ballots here.

Amateur archeologist Oliver Riedl was scanning a field in western Germany last year when he stumbled upon a few ancient coins. Then his metal detector kept beeping, and he realized he’d actually discovered what’s now confirmed to be Germany’s largest-ever discovery of Roman coins.

“It was clear to me that there was something bigger buried here,” Riedl said, regarding the beginnings of his major discovery near Wesseling, south of Cologne, a year ago.

Altogether, 934 silver Roman denarii were retrieved, which were determined to be from the time of Emperor Hadrian, who ruled during the early-second century.

The treasure finally went on display at LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn in Bonn, Germany yesterday. Experts believe the 6.8-pound trove was buried intentionally sometime between 125 and 150 AD.

“Of course, we can only speculate about the motives, but it’s very likely that someone wanted to keep this money safe. After all, banks didn’t exist back then,” said Erich Classen, state archaeologist and the director of the LVR Office for the Preservation of Archaeological Monuments in the Rhineland.

It’s unclear exactly how much these coins are worth, but experts say a Roman soldier at the time would make roughly 300 denarii a year, meaning he would have to save every bit of his disposable income for six years to amass the collection discovered by Riedl. 👀

Same actor, different character

Han Solo was also Indiana Jones, but do you know which other characters these actors played? Find out with today’s trivia 😏 

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