Huxley’s Soma…and Ours

Fred Gardner

 July 28, 2026

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In November it will be 30 years since California voters passed Proposition 215,  legalizing cannabis for medical use. Last Sunday at the state fair some of the activists involved in that campaign were given awards –heavy medals that said “Pebbles Trippet Lifetime Achievement.”

I made the drive to hot, flat Sac to see the trailer of a film about Pebbles and a documentary about the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers’ Club, original headquarters of the Prop 215 campaign. Fairgoers were checking out the vendors’ wares and showing almost zero interest in the OGs. Like the “Cannabis Cup” of yesteryear, the highlight of the event was an awards ceremony at which growers were honored with blue ribbons that will facilitate sales in the year ahead.

The show-runners hardly paid lip service to “medical use.” People were enjoying themselves.  So this is our victory, I kept thinking: access to soma that’s safer than Prozac (or was, until Whiteman did to marijuana what he had done to coca and poppies).

 In  Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, one of the slogans promoting soma is “a gramme in time saves nine.” By pure coincidence, probably, Eli Lilly promoted Prozac as”First in line for all nine symptoms of depression.” These were defined in ads as, “depressed mood (sic), loss of interest, fatigue, sleep disturbances, weight/appetite change, lack of concentration, slowness/restlessness, guilt/feelings of worthlessness, thoughts of death.”  Five yesses and you qualify.  Is there an adult in the US who doesn’t?

Huxley was swacked out on mescaline when he wrote his prophetic novel in the late 1930s. He foresaw planetary unity with the rich/poor system in place. Genetic engineering for the sake of “social predestination.” Earlier onset of puberty for the workers. Electroshock in the nursery to create a reflex aversion to books and flowers.

A character called “The Director” explains, “A love of nature keeps no factories busy… It was decided to abolish the love of nature… We condition the masses to hate the country, but simultaneously, we condition them to love all country sports. We see to it that all country sports shall entail the use of elaborate apparatus. So that they consume manufactured articles as well as transport.”

Subliminal messages are played for the sleeping children (who are clones, of course): “Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they’re so frightfully clever. I’m really awfully glad I’m a Beta, because I don’t work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid…” After the Elementary Class Consciousness lesson ends, the subliminal voices adapt demand to supply. “‘I do love flying,’ they whispered, ‘I do love flying, I do love having new clothes… old clothes are beastly,’ continued the untiring whisper. ‘We always throw away old clothes. Ending is better than mending, ending is better than mending, ending is better than mending. The more stitches, the less riches…'”

The universally worshipped figure is Henry Ford, the Elon Musk of his day. The sign of the T is sacred. Vibro-vacuum machines are available. The dissidents are called “Simple Lifers” and get mowed down. (How timely can you get?) 

A wee sample:  “Lennina and Henry were dancing in another world –the warm, the richly coloured, the infinitely friendly world of soma-holiday. How kind, how good-looking, how delightfully amusing everyone was!  ‘A gramme in time saves nine,’ said Lenina, producing a bright treasure of sleep-taught wisdom. Bernard pushed away the proffered glass impatiently. ‘Now don’t lose your temper,’ she said. ‘Remember, one cubic centimetre cures ten gloomy sentiments.’ 

“‘Oh for Ford’s sake, be quiet!’ he shouted.

“Lenina shrugged her shoulders. ‘A gramme is always better than a damn,’ she concluded with dignity, and drank the sundae herself.”

Fred Gardner is the managing editor of O’Shaughnessy’s. He can be reached at fred@plebesite.com

SPACE/COSMOS

NASA head defends Artemis 3 crew of all men

AFP
June 10, 2026 

(L/R) NASA astronaut commander Randy Bresnik, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut pilot Luca Parmitano, NASA astronaut mission specialist Frank Rubio, and NASA astronaut mission specialist Andre Douglas, the Artemis 3 crew – Copyright AFP SAUL LOEB

NASA’s administrator Jared Isaacman on Wednesday defended the makeup of the space agency’s latest Artemis crew, an all-male group.

The nominations have earned criticism that NASA may have acted in accordance with President Donald Trump’s direction to eliminate diversity and inclusion efforts.

Isaacman insisted in a lengthy social media post that the “crew selection does not involve any political appointees.”

“The Astronaut Office assigns the crew that gives the mission the best chance of meeting its objectives, taking into account many factors, including the background and expertise of the astronauts, such as test pilot experience, development work on specific programs, and availability.”

The third phase of Artemis will involve testing the Orion spacecraft and conducting rendezvous and docking tests with lunar landers. It will not include a Moon voyage.

NASA had previously committed to put both a woman and a person of color on the lunar surface.

Last year, however, NASA removed language regarding that commitment and diversity more broadly from some of its web pages, as Trump directed federal agencies to eliminate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs and references.

That doesn’t necessarily mean NASA’s pledge has been scrapped, but it’s no longer explicit.

Isaacman said “those raising this concern may not be aware of the pipeline of crews,” including those “undergoing lunar-specific training that would be a better fit for a future surface mission.”

“We have an extraordinary astronaut corps, and every mission and every crew is part of a larger campaign to get America back to the Moon and to build the future we all dreamed about as children.”

The third Artemis crew includes NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik, who will serve as commander, and mission specialists Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio.

Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano will represent the European Space Agency as the voyage’s pilot, becoming the first European to join one of the program’s missions.

The crew of the Artemis 2 journey conducted this past spring was named prior to Trump’s return to the White House.

It included the first Black man, Victor Glover, and the first woman, Christina Koch, to fly around the Moon.

Jeremy Hansen became the first Canadian to carry out such a mission, while Reid Wiseman was the commander.

From Dusk Till Dawn

 June 10, 2026 

By Eurasia Review

Astronomers have revealed distinct differences in atmospheric conditions between the morning and evening transition zones of the ultra-hot gas planet WASP-121 b, which separate day from night, commonly called terminators. This achievement was only possible due to the unmatched sensitivity of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Led by Cyril Gapp, a PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg, Germany, a team of researchers detected this phenomenon, which had previously been predicted by theoretical computations.

Confirmation of variations between dusk and dawn

The discovery corresponds to an asymmetry in the absorption of infrared light received from the host star, which is partially filtered through the planet’s atmosphere during its transit. The researchers interpret this as the result of non-uniform temperatures and chemical compositions in the exoplanet’s atmosphere.

“With its unprecedented observational quality, JWST gives us the most detailed glimpses into distant planets to date: By measuring how star light absorption changes as WASP-121 b rotates, we probe its atmosphere longitude by longitude,” said Cyril Gapp, MPIA.

The data indicate that the evening terminator absorbs more light than the morning side, consistent with the commonly accepted picture of powerful winds that transport intense heat from the day to the night side. Hot winds follow the planet’s rotation eastward, which heats the evening zone. With rising temperatures, this region is bound to expand, increasing the planet’s cross-section and allowing it to absorb stellar radiation more efficiently.

Besides a general slight reduction in brightness towards the end of the transit, the data obtained by JWST’s NIRSpec (Near-infrared spectrograph) instrument also reveal an increase in the carbon monoxide (CO) signal. However, this appears to be a temperature effect, not related to an increase in carbon monoxide molecules.

In contrast, the amount of water (H2O) in the atmosphere appears to drop, which the astronomers interpret as a real decrease in water molecules. The temperatures in the upper atmosphere are high enough to break water molecules into their constituents. This result again corroborates the existence of hot winds heating the evening terminator region.

Two extreme sides of an ultra-hot planet

To detect these minute variations, the astronomers exploited a peculiar behaviour of hot gas planets. The proximity to their host stars slowly synchronizes their spin and orbital motion via tidal forces, such that eventually one rotation takes as long as one revolution. Finally, these planets exhibit two distinct hemispheres: a hot side constantly facing the star and an opposite, darker and cooler side.

“WASP-121b is particularly extreme, with average temperatures on the dayside hemisphere being around 2770 Kelvin, while those on the nightside are closer to about 1000 Kelvin,” co-author Tom Evans-Soma from the University of Newcastle, Australia, explains. He previously determined the planet’s temperature range and is also affiliated with MPIA. These values translate to almost 2500 degrees Celsius, or about 4525 degrees Fahrenheit, on the dayside, and approximately 725 degrees Celsius, or 1340 degrees Fahrenheit, at night.

When astronomers observe such a planet transiting in front of a star, the planet rotates slightly between the points of ingress and egress, revealing different fractions of its atmosphere. While the planet mostly presents its night side, our point of view permits glimpses beyond the dusk and dawn towards the bright dayside, depending on the transit’s progress. The zone leading the planet’s orbit corresponds to the morning side, and the one trailing is the evening side.

Apart from recording the measured brightness variation over time, spectrographs break light into smaller components, which physicists call a spectrum, much as a prism produces a rainbow-like distribution of colours. Since atmospheric gases absorb light at distinct colours or wavelengths, a detailed analysis reveals their chemical composition.

Elapsed time converts to longitude

Hence, the variation along the direction of rotation translates into a time-dependent change of the filtered signal. In the case of WASP-121 b, the rotation angle during a full transit amounts to about 30 degrees, which is sufficient to probe the morning (dawn) and evening (dusk) terminators with high precision in longitude.

Astronomers usually average the measurements over the entire transit to achieve a clearer signal. However, to determine how the signal changes during the planet’s trajectory across the star, Gapp and his colleagues allowed for a temporal variation while the planet rotates. By applying statistical methods, they found that their procedure provides a significantly better fit to the data, indicating that they indeed detected a significant variation.

Notable gaps in atmospheric models

To verify the measured temperatures that would cause local expansion, the astronomers ran models simulating heat distribution in the upper layers of a gas planet, depending on the planet’s properties and the constellation of the planet and its host star. While these atmospheric models confirmed the asymmetric effect caused by spatial temperature variations, the data revealed a larger signal amplitude than the models predicted.

The astronomers suspected that cooling mechanisms at the morning terminator might be at work that the models didn’t account for. Previous studies have indicated that clouds may be present, albeit composed not of water droplets but of minerals such as silicates. Clouds can efficiently shield infrared light emitted from hot gaseous layers below, mimicking lower temperatures. Infamously, simulating the physics of clouds, condensation, and evaporation in a dynamic environment is hard. Therefore, physical models commonly applied to exoplanet atmospheres, such as the one used in this study, do not account for clouds, which can yield unrealistic results.

After tweaking the simulation to approximate the effect clouds have on infrared radiation from deeper layers, the results were more consistent with observations. However, only more sophisticated models will be able to confidently confirm the presence of clouds.

A blueprint for future studies

Model updates will also improve future investigations using this method. The astronomers have already identified additional suitable targets within the required temperature range and rotation speed to successfully probe the terminator regions. This will help them establish a sample of ultrahot gas planets, revealing their longitudinal structure, and potentially discover similarities and differences among these extreme worlds.

Japan keeps traditional samurai horse festival alive by adapting to climate change

For more than a millennium, Japan has celebrated its samurai heritage with armoured horseriders charging through the countryside during its annual Soma Nomaoi festival. Up until two years ago, the tradition was threatened by soaring summer temperatures brought on by climate change. Organisers have decided to adapt, relieving riders and horses alike by switching the event to the spring.

Issued on: 03/06/2026 

The thousand-year-old Japanese festival of Soma Nomaoi began as a way to train mounted warriors. © Yuichi Yamazaki, AFP

Japan's thousand-year-old samurai horse festival has survived wars, earthquakes and a nuclear disaster. Now it's battling a new challenge – climate change.

The Soma Nomaoi began as a way to train mounted warriors and it still looks the same a millennium later, with riders dressed in samurai armour competing in horseback events.

Until 2024, the festival took place at the height of Japan's gruelling summers, which had become so hot that riders and spectators were collapsing and horses dying of heatstroke.

That prompted organisers to switch the festival to the cooler temperatures of late May.

Records suggest that Soma Nomaoi has been held uninterrupted for at least the last 400 years. © Yuichi Yamazaki, AFP


Mitsukiyo Monma, who has been taking part in the event for 54 years, told AFP that the change had given the festival a new lease of life.

"You have to wear a kimono under the armour, which is not like going out in just a T-shirt in the summer," said the 69-year-old, adding that he needed medical attention on a day when the mercury was close to 40C.

"Your clothes would be so soaked that you could wring out the sweat," he said.

"When the festival moved to May, it was the first time I could drink hot coffee before going out."

Scientists say climate change is making extreme weather events more frequent and severe, and temperatures around the world have soared in recent years.

Japan is no exception. Last year, the country had its hottest summer since records began in 1898.

Temperatures rising to 40C and above have become so common that Japan's weather agency recently created an official designation for them, labelling them "cruelly hot" days.
'Truly a samurai'

Such conditions are hardly ideal for the Soma Nomaoi, where participants compete on horseback in samurai armour weighing around 25 kg.

The main event starts with races around a flat, oval track, with riders carrying giant flags on their backs.

The festival used to take place at the height of summer, with riders and spectators collapsing in the heat. © Philip Fong, AFP


Hundreds of riders then gather in a large grass field and compete to grab coloured flags that drift to the ground after being fired high into the air.

On the last of the festival's three days, participants try to grab wild horses with their bare hands and offer them to the gods.

The action is fast and furious, and Monma says it is serious business for the riders taking part.

"I feel like I've truly become a samurai," he said.

"I feel more courageous, and on the day itself, my whole body and mind tighten."

The Soma Nomaoi takes place around Minamisoma, almost 300 kilometres north of Tokyo.

It started around 1,000 years ago and records suggest it has been held uninterrupted for at least the last 400 years.

Mitsukiyo Monma has taken part in the Soma Nomaoi for 54 years. 

© Yuichi Yamazaki, AFP


The festivities kept going even in the aftermath of a 2011 earthquake and tsunami that left over 18,000 people dead or missing and caused a devastating meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

Fumihiko Futakami, director of the Minamisoma City Museum, says the Soma Nomaoi was a source of comfort when he was evacuated to Tokyo after the disaster.

"Even for people who have left here and now live elsewhere, when they think of their hometown, they think of mounted warriors," he said.

"It's the identity of our town."

Uncertain future

The festival's warrior roots meant only samurai could take part until the feudal system was abolished in the late 19th century.

Women were admitted after World War II, and festival veteran Monma fulfilled a lifelong dream when his two granddaughters joined him for this year's event.

Organisers have switched the Soma Nomaoi festival to the cooler temperatures of late May. © Yuichi Yamazaki, AFP


It took place under cloudy skies, with the temperature hovering around a pleasant 18C.

There was little chance of a repeat of the 2023 Soma Nomaoi, when more than 100 horses and dozens of people needed treatment for heatstroke, and two animals died.

"There isn't much shade anywhere, so I think this is the most comfortable temperature for everyone," said 25-year-old Haruto Inoue, who was visiting from nearby Tochigi to watch the festival for the first time.

"They look so cool in their samurai gear, racing through the mud and giving it everything they've got."

Anyone can participate in the Soma Nomaoi, but owning or hiring a horse is not cheap.

The number of participants is steadily declining, and Japan's ageing population is a major factor.

With Japan's ageing population, Soma Nomaoi has seen the number of participants decline and its future is uncertain. © Yuichi Yamazaki, AFP


Monma worries that the festival might not survive another 100 years unless organisers can come up with solutions.

Museum director Futakami believes moving it away from the punishing summer heat has been a good start.

"The horses are livelier and the participants aren't so exhausted that they can barely move the next day," he said.

"I think most people would say it's been a good thing."

Heat, Inequality, And The ‘Right To Cool’ – Analysis

May 28, 2026 
Observer Research Foundation
By Soma Sarkar

Urban heat has emerged as one of the most unequal climate risks in cities. India is currently experiencing a severe heatwave, with temperatures routinely crossing 44°C in multiple cities. During the unprecedented heatwave in late April 2026, India accounted for 95 of the world’s 100 hottest cities.

Although rising temperatures affect an entire city, spatial inequalities and diverse socioeconomic conditions stratify levels of exposure and vulnerability within the population. Informal settlements, areas with limited tree cover, and neighbourhoods characterised by poorly ventilated housing tend to experience more intense thermal stress. At the same time, the ability to seek refuge from heat is unequally distributed between those who can rely on private cooling infrastructure, such as air conditioning, and those who cannot. For the underprivileged, shared urban commons, such as parks, lakes, shaded areas, and community lands, have traditionally served as places of respite that provided informal cooling refuges. However, rapid urbanisation and urban densification have engulfed even these shared spaces, concretising land into built areas and intensifying urban heat island effects.

These inequalities become more apparent when viewed through the lens of labour. Low-income populations, particularly informal workers, such as street vendors, delivery workers, sanitation workers, and construction labourers, experience higher and more intense heat exposure because their livelihoods require prolonged outdoor presence. Though they sustain the everyday functioning of urban economies, urban planning often overlooks where they can find refuge. For many, avoiding outdoor work during peak heat hours can threaten their earnings and job security. Consequently, while heat advisories may encourage residents to stay indoors, large segments of the urban workforce have little choice but to continue toiling in hazardous conditions.

This scenario raises critical questions about urban justice: If access to cooling and climate protection is mediated by income and property ownership, what does that mean for the promise of an inclusive city? Do the people whose labour sustains urban economies have a right to shade, rest, and thermal refuge?

Spatial Inequalities in Heat Exposure and Refuge

The weakening of monsoonal cooling and extension of the high-heat period across South Asia by 2026 El Niño pose a greater risk to India. Indian cities have warmed at roughly 0.53°C per decade in night-time land surface temperature. Approximately 60 percent of the increased heating in Indian cities can be attributed to urbanisation and the increase in concrete surfaces, asphalt, metal roofs, and glass curtain walls. The indicators of ward-level heat exposure are informal settlement density, low green cover, minimal tree canopy, proximity to industrial land uses, and the predominance of thin metal or asbestos roofing, all of which correlate with income conditions. For example, Mumbai has a differential of 5.6°C between settlements separated by approximately 2 kilometres, with Dharavi having a mean land surface temperature of 35.9°C, compared with 30.3°C in Matunga. Approximately 37 percent of Mumbai’s households have tin roofs that trap radiant heat, with indoor temperatures exceeding 40°C during peaks. In Mumbai’s M/East Ward, heat worsens for the marginalised population exposed to the mountains of waste at the Deonar landfill. Similarly, slum surveys in Ahmedabad revealed that 85.5 percent of the sampled households experienced significantly higher heat than households in non-slum areas.

Beyond exposure, the capacity to seek refuge from heat is itself unequally distributed. Cooling technologies impose a dual inequality: their capital and operating costs exclude the urban poor on the one hand, and their condensers raise outdoor temperatures on the other. This scenario creates segregated atmospheres and externalises the thermal cost to vulnerable groups. This dual inequality is most evident in informal settlements in cities like Delhi, which co-exist alongside affluent neighbourhoods. Low-income households may spend up to 8 percent of their budget on cooling, which can lead to energy poverty.

This dual inequality is not confined to Indian cities. In Phoenix, Arizona, for example, Hispanic majority neighbourhoods are found to be 5°C hotter than the suburbs, with tree equity gaps persisting despite heat plans. Santiago, Chile, mirrors this in its peripheries, where migrant workers inhabit heat-vulnerable hillsides.

Heat and Informal Labour

In India, the informal sector employs more than 200 million workers, many of whom work in outdoor or semi-outdoor environments with no institutional protection against extreme heat. In 2024, India lost about 247 billion labour hours due to heat, resulting in economic losses worth US$194 billion. For daily wage workers, heat-related work stoppages mean immediate income loss, with no paid leave or social protection, forcing many to continue working under dangerous conditions. Women in high-heat-vulnerability areasexperience fatigue, dizziness, dehydration, and gastrointestinal illnesses, leading to income losses during the summer months of April to June.

Street vendors, construction labourers, sanitation workers, delivery riders, waste pickers, domestic workers, and agricultural labourers in peri-urban settings are among those most exposed. Their occupational heat exposure is not simply a function of outdoor temperature, but it is intensified by the thermal properties of the surfaces they work on or under (asphalt, concrete, metal), the absence of shade, limited access to drinking water and rest facilities, and the economic perils of voluntarily withdrawing from heat-exposed work. In this context, standard heat advisories such as “Avoid getting out in the sun, especially between 12:00 noon and 03:00 pm” and “Avoid strenuous activities when outside in the afternoon” are often impractical for informal and low-income workers, for whom compliance may directly translate into wage and livelihood losses.

This shows that the urban heat crisis is a structural emergency exposing deep faultlines in how Indian cities are planned, governed, and for whom. The policy response has remained largely technocratic, fragmented, and insufficiently attentive to the dimensions of labour justice and spatial equity. Cool roof programmes, heat action plans, and early warning systems are welcome and necessary, but they are insufficient so long as they do not address the underlying conditions that make large sections of the population chronically exposed to thermal heat.

From Fragmentation to Integration: A Just Urban Climate Agenda

The heat crisis reveals an urgent need to revisit urban governance through the twin lenses of the urban commons and climate justice. Parks, lakes, tree canopies, and shaded public squares are critical life-support infrastructures. Urban heat is deeply intertwined with the water crisis as green cover vanishes, impervious surfaces expand, groundwater tables decline, and urban flooding intensifies. It is also linked to air quality, as heat inversions trap pollutants and increase respiratory risks. Moreover, heat vulnerability increases with housing precarity, as those in informal settlements lack insulated walls, cross-ventilation, or access to reliable electricity for cooling. These are not disparate crises requiring targeted solutions but interlocking symptoms of a single, deeper failure of urban planning philosophy.

Indian cities must adopt an Integrated Urban Climate Resilience Framework that would treat heat mitigation, stormwater management, urban greening, air quality improvement, and housing resilience as interdependent goals. Cities like Medellín and Singapore have demonstrated that urban ecological infrastructure, when planned holistically, can simultaneously cool cities, manage floods, enhance biodiversity, and improve liveability for all residents. Parks, lakes, urban forests, and shaded public spaces must be formally recognised in urban master plans and municipal budgets as critical climate infrastructure, ring-fenced from encroachment and commercial development.

The city-level Heat Action Plans must be expanded and reoriented to centre the rights of outdoor workers, providing statutory protection, including mandatory rest breaks, access to shade and potable water at worksites, flexible timing provisions during peak heat hours, and health insurance coverage for heat-related illnesses. Governments must also provide income security against the time lost due to heat advisories that urge people to remain indoors at certain times of the day. The lives of those who build and sustain the city must have the ‘right to cool’ and not be treated as acceptable casualties of the heat.

About the author: Soma Sarkar is an Associate Fellow with the Urban Studies Programme at the Observer Research Foundation.

Source: This article was published by the Observer Research Foundation.

 

Secret night operations between moths and colored-nectar flowers

Nocturnal hawkmoths found to pollinate flowers that produce colored nectar for the first time

School of Science, The University of Tokyo

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image: 

A nocturnal hawkmoth visiting the flowers of Jasminanthes mucronata, a plant species native to Japan that produces black nectar

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Credit: Chiyoda et al, 2026

Researchers Soma Chiyoda, Ko Mochizuki, and Atsushi Kawakita from the University of Tokyo have discovered that nocturnal hawkmoths are the main pollinators of Jasminanthes mucronata, a plant species native to Japan that produces black nectar. This is the first time that a colored-nectar flower is confirmed to be mainly pollinated by nocturnal insects. The discovery thus promotes further research into this so far unexplored ecology. The findings were published in the journal Ecology.

In ancient Greek mythology, nectar was the drink of the gods, the key to their immortality. Real-life nectar might not confer immortality to its consumers, but it certainly helps many a creature stay alive by providing them with rich nutrition. The creatures feeding on these plants then unwittingly carry their pollen across the landscape. To draw a map of this complex web of co-existence, we must discern species interact with one another. As nectar is generally transparent, flowers that produce colored nectar have garnered particular attention in the research community. However, due to the visual nature of colored nectar, researchers have focused mostly on daytime animals as potential pollinators.

“I have always liked moths,” says Chiyoda, the first author, “and I have been especially interested in their little-known ecology, as many species are active at night. When I learned about the white, fragrant flowers of J. mucronata, I immediately thought this species seemed perfectly suited to attract moths. However, I needed to test the hypothesis.”

Chiyoda and his colleagues conducted a total of 75 hours of direct observations of floral visitors, both during the day and at night, at multiple sites in southern Japan. Although they could frequently observe hawkmoths visiting the flowers, they needed to collect them to determine whether the insects actually carried pollen from the flowers. Initial attempts using insect nets failed as hawkmoths proved to be too adept fliers.

“After repeated unsuccessful attempts,” Chiyoda remembers, “we finally captured a hawkmoth using light trapping. It was carrying pollen on its proboscis, an elongated mouthpart. We shared the success of this first of a kind experience in the mountains under the night sky.”

The study found several moth species pollinating J. mucronata and is the first to highlight the potential importance of colored nectar in nocturnal pollination systems. The results suggest that remarkable pollination biology may still be waiting to be discovered, even in familiar plants, hidden in the dark of night. Speaking of which… J. mucronata has not revealed all its secrets, either.

“This study did not clarify why the plant produces black nectar. In the future, we aim to use J. mucronata as a model to explore the adaptive role of colored nectar at night. This may help deepen our understanding of how colored nectar evolved, a topic that has previously been discussed mainly in relation to daytime pollinators,” says Chiyoda looking to the future.

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Journal

Ecology

DOI

10.1002/ecy.70370 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Black juice in the dark: pollination of dark-nectared Jasminanthes mucronata (Apocynaceae) by nocturnal hawkmoths

Article Publication Date

3-Apr-2026