Feedback is New Scientist’s a popular side view of the latest science and technology news. Items you think readers might find interesting can be submitted to Feedback by email at feedback@newscientist.com
Astreenomers
Feedback is shocked – shocked – learning that a grove of trees in northern Italy did not actually predict a solar eclipse.
Now we know what most readers will be thinking at this point: “You mean someone thought trees could actually predict solar eclipses? To which the answer is ‘surprisingly yes.’
The aforementioned partial solar eclipse occurred on October 25, 2022. Prior to that, botanists led by Alessandro Chiolerio inserted frozen electrodes into spruce trees to monitor their bioelectric activity. In April 2025 they reported their findings: “Trees anticipated the eclipse and synchronized their bioelectrical behavior hours in advance. Older trees showed greater anticipatory behavior with early asymmetry and entropy increases.”
With graceful inevitability comes revelation, published in Trends in Plant Science Hon February 6 and we were flagged by reporter Matthew Sparkes (who should get some sort of fee for the number of items he contributes to Feedback).
Authors Ariel Novoplansky and Hezi Yizhaq point out that the decrease in sunlight during the partial eclipse was too small to affect the trees: their leaves were still saturated with sunlight. Additionally, eclipses of this type repeat on a cycle of just over 18 years. The oldest trees in the study were about 70 years old, so they could only live to be three, which doesn’t seem like enough to learn this pattern, especially since eclipses take different paths across the Earth’s surface.
Feedback read the original study and we’re not sure it was necessary to go that deep to uncover it. The team wired only three trees and five stumps. Size isn’t everything, but sample size does matter.
There is also an extensive section on “a theoretical analysis of quantum field theory” in the paper. Yes, it’s the Q-word! “There are trees OPENand therefore dissipativesystems that constantly exchange (release and receive) matter and energy in various forms with their environment,” he explains. aging systems, the origin during their lifetime cannot be shifted and their temporal development (the arrow of time) cannot be overturned…” There is much more, but after the first paragraph of Feedback we felt like we had quantum leaped into a state where we no longer wanted to read.
Nevertheless, there is a coincidence of the trees’ electrical activities that synchronized 14 hours before the eclipse. How can we explain this? Novoplansky and Yizhaq have a proposal. “From October 22 to 25, 2022, there were a total of 664 lightning strikes,” they write. This includes three strikes within 10 kilometers of the site and within 14 hours before the eclipse. Maybe that had something to do with it.
Do not spill
Continuing with our ‘people sending us press releases’ and ‘they’d say no’ themes, Feedback has heard some great news about tea.
“The latest scientific research reveals that drinking a cup of tea a day benefits the heart, as well as increasing evidence to support cholesterol levels, blood pressure, inflammation and blood clotting,” it appears. This is good news for Feedback, as we consume quite a lot of tea, and even better for Mrs Feedback, whose bloodstream is about 70 per cent tea.
Who are the bearers of these charitable messages? Why, Tea Advisory PanelOf course. Feedback was previously unaware of the Tea Advisory Panel, but its website informs us that it is “supported [sic] a limited educational grant from the UK TEA & INFUSIONS ASSOCIATION, the trade association for the UK tea industry”. The panel exists to “provide impartial information to the media about the health benefits of tea”.
These are the statements that close the press release: “Previous research has shown that the sweet spot is four cups of tea a day… Yet only a third of Brits (35%) say they drink three to four cups of tea a day… So it’s our job as tea experts and nutritionists to ensure that the heart-healthy message of tea is clearly communicated to the general public.” Feedback would say more, but we really like espresso.
Universal and free
In our ongoing search for the best and worst examples of technical shortcuts, Feedback came across an amazing initiative started by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania.
The basic idea is simple enough. There are an awful lot of construction toys, from Lego to Stickle Bricks. However, they are not interoperable: with a few exceptions, you cannot connect pieces from two different systems.
That’s why Golan Levin and Shawn Sims decided to create open source 3D printable adapters that can connect parts from different construction systems. If you have a 3D printer, you can download free designs and make your own chimeric toys.
It’s all quite nice. The designers they explain that their purpose was to enable “radically hybrid constructive play, creating previously impossible designs and ultimately more creative opportunities for children”, providing “a public service that corporate interests won’t – or won’t”.
Feedback suggests that this set deserves widespread use. However, we suspect that its appeal to parents is somewhat limited by the creators’ decision to call it the Free Universal Construction Kit.
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