The remarkable discovery, described in 2024 in the journal Scientific Reports, came from fossils unearthed in Gujarat, western India. Researchers estimate that Vasuki measured between 10.9 and 15.2 meters (36 and 50 feet) long, although its exact size remains uncertain. Its enormous body and unusual evolutionary history offer a glimpse into a time when giant snakes inhabited the warm, tropical landscapes of ancient India.

Giant Snake Fossils Unearthed in India

Paleontologists Debajit Datta and Sunil Bajpai of the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee identified the species from fossils recovered at the Panandhro Lignite Mine in Kutch, Gujarat. The remains date to the Middle Eocene, a period roughly 47 million years ago when Earth’s climate was considerably warmer than it is today.

The researchers examined 27 fossilized vertebrae, the individual bones that make up a snake’s backbone. Many were remarkably well preserved, and some remained connected in their original arrangement. The bones appear to have belonged to a fully grown animal.

The species was named Vasuki indicus in honor of Vasuki, the mythical serpent associated with the Hindu deity Shiva, who is traditionally depicted with the snake wrapped around his neck. The second part of the name refers to India, where the fossils were discovered.

How Big Was This Prehistoric Snake?

Although the scientists did not recover a complete skeleton, the preserved backbone provides important clues about the snake’s enormous proportions.

Individual vertebrae measured between 37.5 and 62.7 millimeters (1.48 and 2.47 inches) long and between 62.4 and 111.4 millimeters (2.46 and 4.39 inches) wide. Their unusually broad shape suggests that Vasuki possessed a thick, cylindrical body capable of supporting tremendous weight.

To estimate its total length, the researchers compared the fossilized bones with vertebrae from living snakes whose body lengths are known. Two different methods produced estimates ranging from 10.9 to 12.2 meters (36 to 40 feet) and 14.5 to 15.2 meters (48 to 50 feet).

Those measurements place Vasuki among the largest snakes ever identified. Its estimated length rivals that of Titanoboa, the giant snake that inhabited what is now Colombia approximately 60 million years ago and is thought to have reached around 13 meters (43 feet).

However, the researchers caution that their calculations involve considerable uncertainty. Different methods can produce substantially different estimates, particularly when scientists must reconstruct an extinct animal using an incomplete backbone. It remains unclear whether Vasuki actually exceeded Titanoboa in length.

A Massive Predator That Likely Hunted by Ambush

Despite its intimidating size, Vasuki probably was not a particularly fast or agile hunter.

The researchers suggest that its enormous body and distinctive vertebral structure would have favored relatively slow movement. Rather than actively chasing prey, the snake may have relied on ambush tactics, remaining concealed until another animal came within striking distance.

Its hunting behavior could have resembled that of modern anacondas and large pythons, which can overpower prey through constriction. These snakes use their muscular bodies to tighten around captured animals, interfering with circulation until the prey dies.

Scientists suspect Vasuki may have hunted in a similar way, although its precise diet and hunting behavior cannot be determined from the surviving fossils.

Its anatomy also suggests that the snake may have spent much of its time on land or in shallow, swampy environments, rather than living exclusively in water. The ancient landscape surrounding the fossil site contained wetlands and marshes that could have provided suitable habitat for an enormous ambush predator.

Ancient India’s Warm Climate May Have Helped Snakes Grow Enormous

The discovery also raises questions about why some prehistoric snakes reached sizes far beyond those of most species alive today.

During the Middle Eocene, the region where Vasuki lived experienced tropical conditions, with average temperatures estimated at approximately 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit).

Snakes are ectothermic animals, meaning they depend heavily on external sources of heat to regulate their body temperature. Warm environments can support the activity, digestion, and growth of large reptiles, potentially helping explain why exceptionally large snakes appeared during some of Earth’s warmer periods.

However, temperature alone does not determine how large a snake can become. Food availability, suitable habitat, evolutionary history, and other environmental factors also influence body size.

A Lost Lineage of Giant Snakes That Spread Across Continents

Beyond its extraordinary size, Vasuki provides evidence of an ancient branch of snake evolution.

The species belonged to Madtsoiidae, an extinct family of snakes that survived for roughly 100 million years, from the Late Cretaceous to the Late Pleistocene. Members of this group occupied regions including India, Africa, Europe, South America, and Australia.

Unlike modern anacondas and pythons, Vasuki represented a separate evolutionary lineage within this long-extinct family.

The researchers found that its closest relatives included Madtsoia pisdurensis, a fossil snake from ancient India, and Gigantophis garstini, another large prehistoric snake known from North Africa.

These relationships suggest that a lineage of giant madtsoiid snakes originated on the Indian subcontinent before spreading into other parts of the world.

As India moved northward and collided with Asia around 50 million years ago, changing geographic connections may have allowed these snakes to disperse through southern Eurasia, including southern Europe, and eventually into Africa during the Eocene, approximately 56 to 34 million years ago.

Later Fossil Discoveries Reveal an Ancient World Filled With Snakes

Research published in 2025 has added important context to the discovery of Vasuki.

In a study published in the Journal of Paleontology, Datta and Bajpai described additional fossil snakes from Eocene deposits in western India. Their findings revealed a surprisingly diverse community of ancient reptiles, including aquatic snakes, another large member of the madtsoiid family, and other extinct snake groups.

Among the discoveries was Pterosphenus rannensis, an ancient aquatic snake species that adds to scientists’ understanding of how these reptiles evolved and spread.

The researchers also identified another madtsoiid snake that appears to have shared a marshy environment with Vasuki. This suggests that the giant predator was part of a broader community of snakes occupying different ecological roles, rather than an isolated evolutionary oddity.

Evidence from the fossil deposits indicates that some of these snakes inhabited tidal environments, while others occupied swamps and marshes. Together, the discoveries paint a more detailed picture of the complex ecosystems that existed in India tens of millions of years ago.

What Modern Anacondas Reveal About Giant Snakes

Additional evidence about snake gigantism emerged from a separate 2025 study published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Researchers examining fossilized anaconda vertebrae from Venezuela found that these enormous snakes had already evolved large bodies by approximately 12.4 million years ago. Ancient anacondas reached estimated lengths of around 5.2 meters (17 feet), comparable to the size of many living anacondas.

The findings suggest that anacondas maintained their impressive size for millions of years, even as climates and ecosystems changed. They also show that prehistoric snakes did not necessarily grow larger simply because the planet was warmer.

Although anacondas are evolutionarily distinct from Vasuki, the research offers a useful comparison for understanding how different snake lineages became giants and adapted to their environments.

For Vasuki indicus, the full story remains incomplete. Its precise size, appearance, and behavior are still uncertain, but the fossil evidence establishes it as an extraordinary example of prehistoric gigantism.

Together with later discoveries from the same region, the ancient snake is helping scientists reconstruct a largely forgotten world in which massive serpents occupied the tropical landscapes of India.

In a study involving 194 patients, researchers found that a treatment using tiny particles that dissolve within hours was associated with substantial reductions in knee pain and improvements in mobility. The benefits persisted for at least 12 months, with 80% of patients assessed at the one-year follow-up reporting clinically meaningful pain relief.

The approach, known as genicular artery embolization, aims to interrupt the inflammation and abnormal blood vessel growth that contribute to chronic knee pain. Rather than replacing the damaged joint, doctors use a thin catheter to deliver microscopic particles directly into specific blood vessels.

The findings, published in the journal Radiology, suggest that this technique could provide another option for patients who have exhausted conventional treatments but cannot or do not want to undergo knee replacement surgery.

Why Knee Arthritis Is So Difficult To Treat

Osteoarthritis is the world’s most common form of arthritis and a major cause of disability. According to the World Health Organization, knee osteoarthritis affects more than 365 million adults worldwide.

The condition develops as cartilage, the protective tissue that cushions the ends of bones, gradually deteriorates. But osteoarthritis involves more than cartilage damage. Inflammation within the joint, changes in surrounding tissues, and increased sensitivity of pain signaling nerves can all contribute to persistent discomfort.

For many people, the consequences extend far beyond occasional knee pain. Everyday activities such as walking, climbing stairs, exercising, or standing for extended periods can become increasingly difficult.

Treatments typically begin with physical therapy, medication, and injections into the affected joint. When these approaches stop providing adequate relief, knee replacement surgery may eventually be considered. However, surgery is not appropriate or desirable for everyone.

“For many patients with knee osteoarthritis, there is a real treatment gap today,” said Florian Nima Fleckenstein, M.D., deputy head of Interventional Radiology Campus Mitte, Charité — Universitätsmedizin Berlin. “Conservative measures such as intra-articular injections no longer provide sufficient relief, but joint replacement is not an option for medical or personal reasons.”

A Different Way To Fight Knee Arthritis Pain

The treatment being investigated, genicular artery embolization (GAE), approaches knee arthritis from an unusual direction. Instead of focusing directly on damaged cartilage, it targets the abnormal blood vessels that develop around an inflamed joint.

These vessels can form within and around the synovium, a thin membrane lining the inside of the joint. As the vessels multiply, they can contribute to inflammation and encourage the growth of sensory nerves involved in transmitting pain.

GAE is designed to interrupt this process by reducing blood flow through the abnormal vessels while preserving the knee’s normal circulation.

During the procedure, an interventional radiologist inserts a thin catheter into an artery and carefully guides it toward the affected blood vessels. Tiny particles are then injected to block selected vessels, with the goal of reducing inflammation and pain.

The technique is called superselective embolization because doctors target specific small arteries rather than blocking circulation throughout the joint. It does not require an open surgical incision or replacement of the knee.

Researchers have previously investigated both temporary blocking agents and permanent microscopic particles. Each approach has potential drawbacks, including differences in how precisely the particles can be delivered and how long they remain inside the blood vessels.

For this study, the team examined rapidly resorbable, gelatin-based microspheres. These precisely sized, spherical particles are engineered to dissolve within hours, potentially combining the advantages of temporary agents with the controlled delivery of permanent microspheres.

“GAE is a whole new treatment regimen that targets abnormal hypervascularity around the joint and, in turn, modulates the pathological neurovascular environment,” Dr. Fleckenstein said.

Hypervascularity refers to an unusually high concentration of blood vessels. The pathological neurovascular environment describes the abnormal interactions between those vessels and pain signaling nerves in the affected tissue.

“By reducing both inflammation and pain, GAE with resorbable microspheres may be the first procedure that alters the course of the disease, slowing its progression.”

Whether the procedure can actually slow osteoarthritis progression remains an open question. Although reducing inflammation could theoretically influence the disease, the study did not demonstrate that GAE prevents cartilage deterioration or reverses existing joint damage.

Nearly 200 Patients Underwent the Procedure

To evaluate the approach, researchers conducted a prospective single-center study involving 194 patients with osteoarthritis-related knee pain. The participants included 114 women and 80 men, with a median age of 69 years and a median body mass index of 28.4.

All had continued to experience symptoms despite at least three months of conventional care, including physical therapy, anti-inflammatory medications, and injections into the knee.

“We believe these results carry real weight because they come from real-world data,” Dr. Fleckenstein said. “With this broad, inclusive study design, our participants are exactly the patients that physicians encounter every day in their practices.”

The procedures took place between July and November 2024. Forty-five participants (23%) had osteoarthritis affecting both knees and received two separate treatments, with the second performed within four weeks of the first.

Altogether, the researchers carried out 239 GAE procedures.

Doctors used real-time X-ray imaging, known as fluoroscopy, to guide the catheter and deliver the particles to the targeted arteries. All 239 procedures were technically successful, meaning the intended blood vessels were successfully treated.

The safety findings were also encouraging. No moderate or severe adverse events were recorded, and mild, temporary complications occurred in 6.7% of procedures.

These included brief skin discoloration near the treated area and one superficial collection of blood near the catheter insertion site. All resolved without lasting complications.

Knee Arthritis Pain Dropped and Stayed Lower for a Year

The researchers monitored pain, movement, and quality of life before treatment and at several intervals afterward. Assessments were conducted at six weeks, three months, six months, and 12 months. An orthopedic surgeon also examined patients in person at the six-month follow-up.

Participant retention remained relatively high throughout the study. Follow-up rates were 94% at six weeks (183/194), 89% at three months (172/194), 89% at six months (171/194), and 79% at 12 months (154/194).

The most striking finding was the sustained reduction in knee pain.

Using the Numeric Rating Scale (a 0-to-10 measure of pain intensity), median pain scores fell from 7 before treatment to 4 after six weeks. By six months, the median score had declined to 3, and it remained at that level at the 12-month follow-up.

That represents a reduction of more than half from the original median pain score, with benefits that were still apparent a full year after treatment.

“In our cohort, we saw a significant drop in pain and a significant increase in function, including sports and recreation and daily activity,” Dr. Fleckenstein said. “Most importantly, their quality of life significantly increased.”

Patients Also Reported Better Mobility and Quality of Life

The improvements extended beyond pain reduction. Researchers used the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score, a standardized questionnaire that evaluates how knee problems affect symptoms, mobility, recreation, and everyday life.

Across all five areas assessed, patients reported meaningful progress during the year following treatment.

Median scores for daily activities increased from 53 to 71.5, suggesting that routine movements such as walking and climbing stairs became easier. Sports and recreation scores climbed from 15 to 36, indicating improvements in more physically demanding activities.

Scores measuring osteoarthritis symptoms rose from 51 to 68, while the pain category improved from 44 to 65 (where 0 indicates extreme knee pain and 100 indicates no pain at all).

Quality of life scores also increased substantially, rising from 19 before treatment to 40 after 12 months.

To determine whether these changes were large enough to matter to patients, the researchers applied established thresholds for clinically meaningful improvement.

Previous studies have identified a reduction of at least 2.0 points on the Numeric Rating Scale and an increase of at least 10 points in the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score categories as meaningful improvements.

These thresholds are known as the minimum clinically important difference. In simple terms, they distinguish changes that are likely to be noticeable in daily life from smaller statistical differences that may have little practical significance.

At 12 months, 80% of participants who completed the pain assessment exceeded the clinically meaningful improvement threshold.

“Our study demonstrates that GAE using rapidly resorbable gelatin-based microspheres is a safe, minimally invasive therapy that provides meaningful pain relief and functional improvement in participants with osteoarthritis-related knee symptoms for at least 12 months,” Dr. Fleckenstein said. “By embolizing the pathological vessels, we’re able to normalize the vessel structure — and, in turn, the neuronal structure of the knee.”

What Other Studies Reveal About Knee Artery Embolization

The results add to a growing body of evidence investigating whether blocking abnormal knee blood vessels can offer sustained relief from osteoarthritis.

A randomized study published in Clinical Radiology in 2026 provided encouraging findings. Researchers compared GAE combined with standard care against standard care alone in 50 patients. After one year, pain scores had improved by 72.7% in the embolization group, compared with 24.2% in the standard care group. The treated patients also reported better knee function.

However, that study used polyvinyl alcohol particles rather than the dissolving gelatin particles examined by Fleckenstein’s team. It also did not include a sham procedure, making it difficult to separate the treatment’s physical effects from patients’ expectations.

Other research has raised important questions about how much of the improvement is caused by embolization itself.

A randomized, sham-controlled study published in European Radiology in April 2026 followed 58 patients for 12 months. Both the GAE and sham treatment groups experienced sustained reductions in pain, but researchers found no statistically significant difference between them. MRI examinations also failed to identify a significant reduction in joint inflammation attributable to embolization.

Similarly, an analysis appearing in the September 2026 issue of the European Journal of Radiology examined 22 studies involving 633 patients. Although pain scores often improved substantially after treatment, the researchers found no statistically significant advantage over sham procedures when results from three randomized trials were combined.

A separate June 2026 analysis of 45 studies involving 2,205 patients also documented improvements in pain and function, but judged the overall certainty of the evidence to be low or very low.

Together, these findings suggest that GAE is associated with promising improvements, particularly in observational studies, but more rigorous trials are needed to establish how much benefit comes directly from blocking the blood vessels.

Could This Treatment Help Patients Avoid Knee Replacement?

Despite the remaining uncertainties, researchers and medical specialists are increasingly exploring GAE as a possible option for patients who have limited alternatives.

In a 2026 position statement, the Society of Interventional Radiology supported offering the procedure to appropriately selected patients whose symptoms persist despite conservative treatment, particularly those who cannot undergo or wish to delay knee replacement surgery.

The society also emphasized the importance of specialist training, careful patient selection, and continued clinical trials to establish the treatment’s effectiveness and long-term safety.

The study led by Fleckenstein provides particularly valuable information about rapidly resorbable gelatin microspheres. With nearly 200 participants, it represented the largest published clinical investigation of this specific approach at the time.

Still, because the study did not include an untreated or sham treatment comparison group, it cannot establish how much of the observed improvement resulted directly from the procedure. The researchers also did not evaluate whether the treatment slows cartilage loss or prevents patients from eventually needing joint replacement.

Longer follow-up and larger controlled trials will be essential to determine how durable the benefits are, which patients respond best, and whether dissolving particles offer advantages over other embolization materials.

For patients whose knee arthritis continues to interfere with everyday life despite medication, therapy, and injections, the approach nevertheless represents an increasingly studied possibility.

“This lets us speak about safety and efficacy with real confidence,” Dr. Fleckenstein said. “For the right patient, it can mean lasting relief from a single, minimally invasive procedure — a meaningful new option between injections and joint replacement.”

The galaxy cluster, known as XLSSC 122, has become the focus of three recent studies led by researchers at IPAC, Caltech’s science and data center for astrophysics and planetary science. Their findings establish XLSSC 122 as the most distant galaxy cluster known to exhibit strong gravitational lensing, a phenomenon that allows astronomers to measure the mass of otherwise invisible matter. The research was presented at a press conference on June 17, 2026, during the 248th meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

Located approximately 10.4 billion light-years from Earth, XLSSC 122 stood out to astronomers because of its surprising maturity. Although it existed during a period when galaxy clusters were still assembling, it already displayed the size and organized structure typically associated with clusters in the modern universe.

Webb has now uncovered another remarkable feature. XLSSC 122 happens to lie directly in front of one or more galaxies that are even farther away. The cluster’s powerful gravity bends and distorts the light traveling from those background galaxies, creating a rare effect called strong gravitational lensing. This fortunate alignment has given scientists an exceptionally precise way to measure how mass is distributed throughout the cluster.

“When we got those first images back from JWST, we said, ‘wow, look at this, there’s strong lensing coming from this cluster!'” said Kyle Finner, a staff scientist at IPAC and lead author of the first paper examining the cluster. “XLSSC 122 has now set the record for the most distant galaxy cluster displaying strong lensing, which is a valuable tool for astronomers.”

An Ancient Galaxy Cluster Challenges Cosmic Predictions

The newly detected gravitational lensing has allowed researchers to examine the distribution of mass in an ancient galaxy cluster in greater detail than ever before. XLSSC 122 dates to a period known as “cosmic noon,” roughly 10 billion years ago, when the universe was experiencing its most intense era of star formation.

During this time, galaxies were producing stars at rates up to 100 times higher than those observed in the present-day universe. Galaxy clusters were also becoming increasingly common as smaller systems gradually combined into larger structures.

Yet XLSSC 122 appears to have developed in an unexpected way. The new measurements show that a remarkably large amount of its mass is packed into its central region. According to standard cosmological models, the growth of massive structures should have been more gradual, making such a concentrated cluster particularly surprising at this early stage of cosmic history.

“XLSSC 122 is one of the first clusters we know of that formed in the universe, and it has a mass concentration that doesn’t agree with our cosmological model predictions,” said Finner.

To investigate the mystery further, Finner and his collaborators conducted two additional JWST studies, first authored by Zachary Scofield and Hyungjin Joo at Yonsei University. Together, the three papers provide a much more complete picture of this unusual cluster and offer new insights into galaxy cluster formation during cosmic noon.

James Webb Reveals Hidden Dark Matter

Astronomers originally identified XLSSC 122 in 2014 through an X-ray survey carried out by the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton spacecraft. Later observations with the Hubble Space Telescope helped establish its distance of approximately 10.4 billion light-years and confirmed that the cluster appeared unusually developed for its age.

However, Hubble did not reveal clear evidence of strong gravitational lensing. That changed when JWST captured distinctive curved arcs of light surrounding the cluster’s center, providing the first definitive signs of this phenomenon in XLSSC 122.

“Before JWST, we couldn’t do this level of science in the early, distant universe,” said Finner.

The gravitational distortions are caused primarily by something astronomers cannot directly observe: dark matter.

Although XLSSC 122 contains visible stars and glowing gas, these familiar forms of matter account for only a small fraction of the gravitational lensing effect. Most of the distortion comes from dark matter, an invisible substance that has not been directly detected through light but whose gravitational influence is supported by extensive astronomical evidence.

Scientists estimate that dark matter is approximately five times more abundant than ordinary matter, which makes up stars, planets, and everything around us. Its gravity helps hold galaxies together and shapes the universe’s enormous network of galaxy groups, clusters, and filaments.

Because dark matter plays such an important role in cosmic structure, determining how it was distributed billions of years ago offers a powerful way to test theories describing the universe’s development since the Big Bang approximately 13.8 billion years ago.

“Strong lensing is a way to measure the dark matter without actually seeing the dark matter,” said Finner. “It gives us a sensitive probe of our cosmological models.”

A Wider View Reveals a Galaxy Cluster Merger

In their second paper, the researchers investigated XLSSC 122 using another form of gravitational lensing known as weak lensing.

Strong gravitational lensing produces obvious distortions, including the striking arcs captured by JWST. Weak lensing, by comparison, causes much smaller changes in the apparent shapes of distant galaxies. These subtle effects are difficult to identify individually, so astronomers rely on statistical methods to detect them.

The two techniques provide complementary information. Strong lensing is especially useful for measuring the mass concentrated near a cluster’s center, while weak lensing can reveal how matter is distributed across its outer regions.

“Weak gravitational lensing can constrain mass much further out, so you can get a better picture of the surrounding cluster area,” said Finner.

By combining these measurements with X-ray and radio observations from other telescopes, the scientists determined that XLSSC 122 is still undergoing a merger. Its galaxies are continuing to come together as the larger cluster takes shape.

The broader analysis also reinforced the earlier finding that an unusually large amount of mass is concentrated near the cluster’s center.

Ancient Starlight Offers New Clues to Dark Matter

The team’s third and most recent paper revealed another important feature of XLSSC 122: faint light produced by stars that are no longer bound to individual galaxies.

Known as intracluster light, this diffuse glow comes from stars scattered into the spaces between galaxies. Webb’s observations represent the earliest known detection of intracluster light, providing another way to examine the development of galaxy clusters in the distant universe.

The widespread distribution of this light supports the conclusion that XLSSC 122 is undergoing a merger. As galaxies interact and collide, some stars are pulled away from their original galaxies and spread throughout the cluster. In XLSSC 122, many of these displaced stars appear not to have settled into its dense central region.

The researchers also uncovered an intriguing connection between these wandering stars and dark matter.

Near the cluster’s center, the shape of the intracluster light closely matches the distribution of dark matter inferred from strong gravitational lensing. This suggests that the faint glow of stars between galaxies could potentially serve as a visible indicator of where invisible dark matter is concentrated.

If astronomers observe the same relationship in other clusters, particularly those from the early universe, intracluster light could become a valuable new tool for mapping dark matter across cosmic history.

“In this cluster, the intracluster light essentially traces the dark matter,” said Finner. “That light tells us that the cluster is in a merging state.”

Could More Ancient Galaxy Clusters Challenge Cosmology?

The next goal for Finner and his colleagues is to identify and investigate dozens of additional galaxy clusters from similarly early periods in the universe’s history.

Finding these distant objects requires a different approach from studying them in detail. Although JWST is exceptionally powerful, its relatively narrow field of view makes it better suited to examining selected targets than searching enormous areas of the sky.

Instead, astronomers must first identify promising candidates through wide-area X-ray and radio surveys, similar to the observations that originally revealed XLSSC 122.

One promising technique relies on the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect, which occurs when energetic particles inside galaxy clusters scatter radiation from the cosmic microwave background, the faint afterglow of the Big Bang.

This interaction can create distinctive regions that appear as “holes” in observations of the cosmic microwave background. By searching for these signatures, astronomers can locate galaxy clusters that might otherwise be difficult to detect.

Finding more objects like XLSSC 122 could have major implications for cosmology. If other ancient clusters also contain unexpectedly concentrated dark matter and display unusually advanced development, scientists may need to revise some of their basic assumptions about how quickly large cosmic structures formed.

For now, XLSSC 122 provides an important test of existing models, but a larger sample will be necessary to determine whether its unusual properties are rare or part of a broader pattern in the early universe.

“It’s still early in the JWST era,” said Finner, “and if we can start to get data on tens or hundreds of these types of objects at this stage in the universe, then we can really start putting our cosmological models to the test.”

New research from Binghamton University suggests that these healthy routines are connected to a mental skill called psychological flexibility, which helps people adapt to challenges and recover from stressful experiences.

Psychological flexibility refers to the ability to adjust your thoughts, emotions, and actions as circumstances change. Rather than becoming trapped in negative thinking or overwhelmed by frustration, people with greater psychological flexibility can recognize their emotions, consider their options, and respond in a more productive way.

“You might know someone who stays cool under pressure,” said Lina Begdache, an associate professor of health and wellness studies at Binghamton University and lead author of the research. “The kind of person who misses a flight and, instead of panicking, calmly adapts to the situation. This person may still feel stressed, but they’re better able to manage it through psychological flexibility.”

“People may say that these are resilient people, but they also have what’s called psychological flexibility. They’re able to change the way they think about the situation and then use brain resources to handle the stress.”

How Breakfast, Sleep, and Exercise Relate to Mental Resilience

To explore the relationship between lifestyle choices and emotional resilience, Begdache worked with Jason Cherry, a former Binghamton assistant professor of physical therapy, and former student Alexander J. Talkachov.

The researchers collected anonymous survey responses from approximately 400 college students, gathering information about their diets, sleep patterns, exercise habits, and other lifestyle factors.

Their findings revealed an important connection between healthy routines and the ability to cope with stress. Students who reported healthier habits, including regular physical activity and consistent breakfast consumption, also tended to demonstrate greater psychological flexibility and resilience.

The study identified several notable associations:

• Regular breakfast consumption: Eating breakfast at least five times per week was associated with greater resilience, with psychological flexibility helping explain the relationship.
• Adequate sleep: Students who slept fewer than six hours generally reported lower levels of both resilience and psychological flexibility.
• Physical activity: Exercise lasting 20 minutes or longer was associated with greater psychological flexibility and an improved ability to cope with stress.
• Fish oil intake: Taking fish oil several times per week was linked to better psychological flexibility.

The opposite pattern also emerged. Students who reported less healthy behaviors, including frequent fast food consumption and insufficient sleep, tended to show greater psychological rigidity, meaning they had more difficulty adjusting their thoughts and behaviors when circumstances changed.

Because the research relied on survey responses, the results demonstrate associations rather than proving that these habits directly improve psychological flexibility or resilience.

Why Psychological Flexibility Matters for Stress

According to Begdache, psychological flexibility gives people the mental space to recognize what they are experiencing instead of becoming completely absorbed by their stress. This ability to reassess a situation can make it easier to understand difficult emotions and determine how to respond.

She explained that improvements in diet and lifestyle may help support this kind of mental adaptability.

“When we’re under stress, we feel like we fuse with the stress. We live the stress. But psychological flexibility is like stepping back and thinking, ‘I feel this because of that. What can I do?’ Identifying your emotions sometimes helps you find the solution for these emotions,” said Begdache.

The findings also build on Begdache’s previous research, which linked nutritious diets to greater resilience and poorer dietary habits to reduced resilience.

The latest study offers a possible explanation for that relationship. Rather than influencing resilience alone, diet and lifestyle may support psychological flexibility, which in turn helps people manage stress more effectively.

“The new finding here is that diet and lifestyle don’t just make you resilient by themselves. They help you build the psychological flexibility, which, in turn, makes you a resilient person.”

The study, “Dietary and lifestyle factors and resilience: the role of psychological flexibility as a mediator,” was published in the Journal of American College Health.

Although lipids are fundamental to brain function, scientists have struggled to map where different types are located. Conventional imaging techniques cannot easily distinguish individual lipid molecules, leaving a major gap in our understanding of the brain’s chemical organization.

“So scientists have had only a blurry picture of how lipids differ from one part of the brain to another,” says Giovanni D’Angelo, professor at The Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Foundation Chair in Nutrition and Metabolism at EPFL. “That gap matters, because changes in brain lipids are increasingly linked to conditions from depression to Alzheimer’s disease.”

Researchers at EPFL have now taken a major step toward filling that gap. A team led by D’Angelo, Luca Fusar Bassini, and Gioele La Manno has created a detailed map showing how lipids are distributed throughout the mouse brain.

Their Lipid Brain Atlas reveals that these molecules are arranged in highly organized patterns. Some match familiar anatomical structures, while others expose chemical boundaries that previous approaches had overlooked. The patterns are so distinctive that researchers could identify where a brain tissue sample originated simply by examining its lipid composition.

The findings were published in Nature.

Scientists Identify 539 Distinct Chemical Zones in the Brain

To construct the atlas, researchers used mass spectrometry imaging, a technique that allows them to identify lipid molecules across thin sections of brain tissue. A laser scans each slice one location at a time, producing detailed information about which lipids are present and where they are found.

The team examined 172 different lipids in 109 brain slices collected from 11 mice. This generated approximately 7 million measurements, which scientists combined into a comprehensive 3D reconstruction using machine learning tools developed specifically for the project.

The resulting atlas revealed 539 chemically distinct territories, which the researchers named “lipizones.” Each has a characteristic combination of lipids, creating a recognizable chemical signature.

Many of these regions correspond to established brain structures and cell types. Others reveal unexpected relationships between groups of nerve cell bodies and distant regions connected by their fibers. Such connections have often been difficult to detect using maps based on gene activity.

“In effect, lipids work like postal codes, giving distant but related parts of the brain the same chemical address,” says D’Angelo.

Hidden Chemical Patterns Challenge Previous Brain Maps

The new atlas also uncovered surprising differences within parts of the brain that scientists previously considered relatively uniform.

One striking example is white matter, the tissue containing nerve fibers that connect different brain regions. Rather than having a largely consistent chemical composition, white matter contains numerous distinct lipid zones.

“This shows that the cells which make myelin are far more varied in their chemistry than their genes alone would suggest,” says Luca Fusar Bassini.

The researchers also detected previously unrecognized chemical boundaries in the choroid plexus, the structure responsible for producing cerebrospinal fluid, as well as in the tissues lining the brain’s internal cavities.

Together, these findings show that lipid mapping can reveal important features of brain organization that are not apparent from anatomy or genetic information alone.

Pregnancy Triggers Widespread Changes in Brain Lipids

Beyond identifying the brain’s chemical structure, the atlas offered new insight into how that structure changes during pregnancy.

When researchers examined pregnant mice, they found substantial shifts in lipid composition across numerous brain regions. Overall, these changes were more pronounced than the typical lipid differences observed between male and female mice.

The cortex, which forms the brain’s outer layer, showed particularly extensive changes. Meanwhile, levels of galactosyl ceramide, an important component of myelin, increased sharply throughout much of the brain’s white matter.

These findings suggest that pregnancy involves significant changes in the brain’s chemical makeup, potentially helping its neural connections adapt to the body’s changing demands.

“Together, these shifts suggest the brain retunes its own wiring to meet the demands of pregnancy,” says Gioele La Manno. “The Atlas reveals that the brain constantly adjusts its lipids to meet the body’s changing needs.”

A New Tool for Understanding Brain Aging and Disease

The Lipid Brain Atlas is freely available online, allowing scientists worldwide to explore this previously difficult-to-study aspect of brain biology.

By combining lipid information with existing genetic and cellular maps, researchers can gain a more complete understanding of how the brain is organized and how its chemistry changes over time.

The atlas also establishes a detailed reference for healthy mouse brain tissue. Scientists can use it to investigate how disruptions in lipid distribution might contribute to brain development, aging, and disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and depression.

Although the specific mouse brain map cannot be directly applied to humans, the approach used to create it could help researchers uncover comparable patterns in the human brain.

“What transfers to humans isn’t the map, it’s the method, and the fact that we now know that a healthy brain has a very organized lipid map at all,” says Luca Fusar Bassini.