What happens when your immune system hijacks your brain

“My year of unraveling” is how a despairing Christy Morrill described nightmarish months when his immune system hijacked his brain.

What’s called autoimmune encephalitis attacks the organ that makes us “us,” and it can appear out of the blue.

Morrill went for a bike ride with friends along the California coast, stopping for lunch, and they noticed nothing wrong. Neither did Morrill until his wife asked how it went — and he'd forgotten. Morrill would get worse before he got better. “Unhinged” and “fighting to see light,” he wrote as delusions set in and holes in his memory grew.

Of all the ways our immune system can run amok and damage the body instead of protecting it, autoimmune encephalitis is one of the most unfathomable. Seemingly healthy people abruptly spiral with confusion, memory loss, seizures, even psychosis.

Author goes far and wide on quest to document all plants native to Manitoba

When Diana Bizecki Robson was growing up in Saskatoon during the 1970s, she enjoyed riding her bike to parks and riverbanks where she spent hours studying the diversity of wild plants and their pollinators.

After deciding to become a biologist, Bizecki Robson worked for a few years as an environmental consultant which allowed her to conduct plant surveys. But it was when the opportunity to work at the Manitoba Museum came along — in October 2003 — that she could finally pursue the type of field work and research she loves.

Today, Bizecki Robson is the curator of botany at the Manitoba Museum. She oversees a herbarium which holds over 50,000 specimens.

“One of the things I discovered as part of a collection assessment project that I did when I first got here was that the museum did not have a specimen of every single species of plant or fungus or lichen (from this province) in its collection,” said Bizecki Robson.

Cougar makes rare appearance in Manitoba

A cougar made a rare appearance on a trail camera in the Whiteshell Provincial Park.

U of M research underscores importance of polar bears to future of Arctic

Polar bears are generous hunters whose leftovers feed many other animals, new research shows, casting the protected species as a major provider, not just a vulnerable predator in a province that attracts thousands of polar bear watchers every fall.

Arctic foxes, wolverines, eagles, hawks, gulls and even younger bears are among at least 11 species who feast on the prey left behind by polar bears. The latest study calculates the leftovers: 7.6 million kilograms per year in picked-over seal carcasses left on sea ice.

That’s a conservative estimate, said biologist and University of Manitoba PhD candidate Holly Gamblin, lead author of the study published Tuesday in the journal Oikos from the Nordic Ecological Society.

“A bunch of my co-authors are in that polar bear research world and have been thinking about investigating (this issue), knowing that it’s this really under-represented and under-studied component of the story, when we think about polar bears as apex predators,” said Gamblin, who has studied Arctic foxes. “They had had this idea for a while and I was just sort of in the right place at the right time.”

Prolonged drought stunts the renowned wild blueberry crop in the Maritimes

HALIFAX - This summer’s prolonged drought across Atlantic Canada has had a costly impact on wild blueberry growers in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Donald Arseneault, general manager of the NB Blueberries industry group, says that as this year’s harvest was wrapping up, the total yield was believed to be 70 per cent less than the previous three-year average.

“This year has been tremendously dry and we haven't really seen this in a long time,” Arseneault said, adding that this year’s crop amounted to about 20 million pounds, down from the annual average of 68 million pounds.

The industry, which ships its product around the world, was also hurt by delays caused by the provincial government’s decision to temporarily shut down the harvest as it tried to deal with a growing number of wildfires that flared up amid tinder-dry conditions.

Chinese landscape architect Yu Kongjian among 4 killed in a plane crash in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The crash of a small plane in southwestern Brazil killed four people including Chinese landscape architect and urban planner Yu Kongjian, Brazilian authorities said Wednesday.

The accident happened late Tuesday during a landing attempt at a large farm about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the municipality of Aquidauana in Mato Grosso do Sul state, firefighters said.

Yu, who was known for promoting ecologically sound development, was traveling with two Brazilian documentary makers, Luiz Fernando Feres da Cunha Ferraz and Rubens Crispim Jr., who were making a film about the Pantanal wetlands. All three were killed along with pilot Marcelo Pereira de Barros, authorities said.

Yu was know for developing the concept of “ sponge cities, ” with infrastructure that can absorb rainwater to mitigate flood risks and improve the urban climate.

Only moratorium can save moose population: MWF

The Manitoba Wildlife Federation is calling for a moose-hunt moratorium in two parts of the province after aerial surveys showed “significantly declining” numbers of the animal.

“The populations may never bounce back,” the federation’s Chris Heald said Tuesday.

The advocacy group representing sport hunters and anglers issued a news release calling for the complete closure of the fall moose hunt in Duck Mountain and Porcupine Forest. It follows Manitoba Conservation’s 2023 aerial survey results, which indicate “significantly declining moose populations” in the game-hunting areas in western Manitoba.

It wouldn’t be the first time for a moose conservation closure there. In 2011, licensed and Indigenous hunters supported a full closure of the moose hunt after a 2010 survey the showed moose population had fallen in both areas to 2,471 animals.

Another subdivision, another city problem

So, here we go again folks. We just get the protection of the Lemay Forest done and dusted and bingo, there’s another proposed subdivision for 23 homes on two-acre flood plain lots right across the Red River from the Lemay on the old Daman Farm site.

On World Rhino Day, South Africa marks progress but still loses a rhino daily to poachers

DINOKENG GAME RESERVE, South Africa (AP) — The Dinokeng Game Reserve in South Africa has a thriving rhino population, but their exact numbers and the details of the security operation that keeps them safe from poaching are closely guarded secrets.

They are the protocols that reserves with rhinos follow to ensure they're not the next target for poachers who still kill on average one rhino every day in South Africa for their horns despite decades of work to save the endangered species.

South Africa has the largest populations of both black and southern white rhinos of any country and sees itself as the custodian of the animals' future.

As conservationists mark World Rhino Day on Monday, South Africa remains in a constant and costly battle against poaching nearly 30 years after black rhinos were declared critically endangered, and more than a half-century since southern white rhinos were on the brink of extinction with just a few dozen left.

Small changes, big impact

Are you a climate champion or climate destroyer? Ecological quizzes and carbon-footprint calculators can help you find out.

Province creates hunting buffer zone on Bloodvein First Nation

The Manitoba government is creating a buffer zone restricting where non-Indigenous hunters can harvest moose on Bloodvein First Nation’s traditional lands.

Manitoba Natural Resources and Indigenous Futures Minister Ian Bushie announced the change late Monday as moose season began for game hunting areas 17, 17A and 17B that includes the traditional areas of the First Nation, located 285 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

The community, which established a check stop to prevent illegal drugs and contraband from entering the First Nation, warned “outside hunters” on social media weeks ago that they’re not welcome to take moose on their traditional lands.

The Manitoba Wildlife Federation has questioned the First Nation’s authority to block licensed hunters with a moose tag from the area and called on the provincial government to intervene.

Very hungry caterpillars very good for biodiversity

Widely considered a pest and a scourge, a leaf-chomping defoliator dedicated to decimating crops, boring into buds and biting down blossoms as it works to satiate its inexhaustible appetite, a new nature documentary reveals there’s more to the much-maligned caterpillar than meets the eye.

The larval creature takes centre stage in Winnipeg filmmaker Jeff McKay’s documentary feature The Extraordinary Caterpillar.

His hour-long film takes viewers on a journey to understanding why the famously “very hungry caterpillar” is a key player in maintaining biodiversity.

“Caterpillars are right at the centre of the food chain, they are key to the food chain working as it should,” McKay says.

One Tech Tip: Ditch the chatbots and take your AI nature apps on a birdwatching hike

I didn't notice the scarlet tanager until the alert appeared on my phone: “Merlin heard a new bird!”

Despite its brilliant plumage — jet-black wings on a crimson body — the songbird can be a hard one to spot in a forest because it prefers to stay high in the canopy. It sounds a little like a robin to an untrained ear.

But the free Merlin Bird ID app detected a scarlet tanager was likely nearby by using artificial intelligence to analyze my phone’s live sound recording. I paused my hike, quietly scanned the treetops, saw the bird as it kept singing and clicked a button to add the species to my growing "life list" of bird sightings. Digital confetti burst on my screen.

Like a real-world version of Pokémon Go, a gotta-catch-'em-all drive to add to my Merlin list has helped me find a great kiskadee in Mexico and a rusty-cheeked scimitar-babbler in the Himalayas. But sometimes the greatest revelations are close to home, as more AI nature app users are starting to discover.

Le centre d’interprétation Saint-Léon: là où souffle l’esprit de la nature et de l’innovation

Avec ses galeries interactives, ses sentiers en pleine nature et son riche contenu éducatif, le Centre d’interprétation Saint-Léon est bien plus qu’un simple musée rural. En 2025, la communauté célèbre les 20 ans du premier parc éolien du Manitoba — une réalisation marquante racontée au cœur du Centre. Entre salamandres mystérieuses, énergies vertes et oiseaux migrateurs, les visiteurs y découvrent un territoire où science, nature et fierté locale se rencontrent.

Situé près du lac Saint-Léon, le Centre d’interprétation Saint-Léon a toujours eu pour vocation d’éduquer les curieux, qu’ils soient touristes ou de la région, mais aussi de rassurer. Lorraine Mabon, la présidente, raconte:

“Le but original, c’était de parler des salamandres et de leur rôle, parce qu’il y en avait énormément dans la région et les gens en avaient un peu peur. Mais les salamandres, qu’on trouve sur les terres humides, sont une bonne chose: elles sont indicatrices de la bonne santé de l’environnement.

“Un autre fait intéressant, c’est que si elles perdent un membre, elles peuvent le régénérer! Beaucoup de scientifiques étudient cette faculté exceptionnelle.”

From science experiments to ordering dinner, trying new things can pay valuable dividends

Among the many technical terms from fields such as neuroscience, artificial intelligence, applied mathematics and genetics found in this fascinating new book by bestselling Canadian science writer/distance runner/physicist Alex Hutchinson, the reader discovers “prediction error.”

It’s a term that comes from studies of how the brain makes sense of the impressions presented to it by the senses. The brain doesn’t simply receive sensory data; rather, it continually makes predictions based on partial sense data and feeds these back to the senses. When we get lost, the predictions we make tend to be errors.

We also carry a variant of the gene DRD4 that gives us a happy endorphin boost when our rate of prediction error declines. That genetic variant, Hutchinson writes, emerged 40-50,000 years ago, “right around the time when our ancestors began their long, multi-pronged march to the farthest corners of the globe. It was a march, the findings hinted, spurred in part by dopamine.”

Appropriately enough, The Explorer’s Gene will be picked up by many readers as a result of a prediction error. Judging by the title and the historic mountaineering photo on the cover, readers may assume the book is a story of outdoor adventure.

Commuter traffic stops for whales on Australia’s humpback highway

PORT STEPHENS, Australia (AP) — The ferry was late, but not because of the usual traffic. Sydney commuters watched from an idling boat this month as humpback whales the size of buses surfaced nearby, halting the vessel’s passage across the harbor. The curious mammals seemed to be watching them back.

In June and July, it’s not uncommon for whales to stop water traffic in Sydney. Winter heralds the opening of the so-called humpback highway, a migratory corridor along Australia's east coast used by about 40,000 of the massive creatures as they travel from feeding grounds in freezing Antarctica to tropical breeding areas off Queensland state.

“It’s blubber to blubber,” said Dr. Vanessa Pirotta, a wildlife scientist at Macquarie University in Sydney and author of the book “Humpback Highway.” During peak traffic periods the bustling coastal city of 5.5 million people becomes one of the world’s few urban centers where you might see a breaching whale on your morning walk, while buying a coffee, or waiting at a bus stop – anyplace you can see the ocean.

Whales cruise close to shore

More than 7,000 elms felled in Winnipeg last year due to disease

A city report reveals elm trees were chopped down more than expected last year due to Dutch elm disease.

Olympic boxing champ Imane Khelif must undergo genetic sex screening to fight for new governing body

Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif must undergo genetic sex screening to participate in upcoming events with the sport's new governing body.

World Boxing announced mandatory sex testing for all athletes Friday. The governing body specifically mentioned Khelif when announcing the policy, saying the Algerian gold medal winner must be screened before she will be approved to fight at any upcoming events, including the Eindhoven Box Cup next month in the Netherlands.

“The introduction of mandatory testing will be part of a new policy on ‘Sex, Age and Weight’ to ensure the safety of all participants and deliver a competitive level playing field for men and women,” World Boxing wrote in a statement. The fighters' national federations will be responsible for administering the tests and providing the results to World Boxing.

Khelif won a gold medal at the Paris Olympics last summer amid international scrutiny on her and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting, another gold medal winner. The previous governing body for Olympic boxing, the Russian-dominated International Boxing Association, disqualified both fighters from its 2023 world championships after claiming they had failed an unspecified eligibility test.

Army Corps analysis finds Great Lakes pipeline tunnel would have sweeping environmental impacts

Building an underground tunnel for an aging Enbridge oil pipeline that stretches across a Great Lakes channel could destroy wetlands and harm bat habitats but would eliminate the chances of a boat anchor rupturing the line and causing a catastrophic spill, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Friday in a long-awaited draft analysis of the proposed project's environmental impacts.

The analysis moves the corps a step closer to approving the tunnel for Line 5 in the Straits of Mackinac. The tunnel was proposed in 2018 at a cost of $500 million but has been bogged down by legal challenges. The corps fast-tracked the project in April after President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies in January to identify energy projects for expedited emergency permitting.

A final environmental assessment is expected by autumn, with a permitting decision to follow later this year. The agency initially planned to issue a permitting decision in early 2026.

With that permit in hand, Enbridge would only need permission from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy before it could begin constructing the tunnel. That's far from a given, though.

Dive-bombed or not, Vancouverites are still pro-crow, researchers say

VANCOUVER - Along her journey towards understanding Vancouver's crows, psychology professor Suzanne MacDonald says she made a friend.

It's a crow that brings her gifts after she set up a bird feeder at her home in the neighbourhood of Kitsilano.

Once, it was a barnacle-covered shell, which MacDonald treasures. Other times, it was "bits of garbage" that MacDonald doesn't fancy much, though she "appreciates the sentiment."

"I think he definitely recognizes me. When other people go out on my patio, he doesn't come to them. He knows me," said MacDonald.

2024 sees record warm temperatures, less sea ice cover in Gulf of St. Lawrence

MONT-JOLI - Last year, the Gulf of St. Lawrence recorded its highest maximum surface temperature and lowest seasonal volume of ice cover in decades, say researchers with the federal Fisheries Department.

Surface temperatures and ice cover are directly related to air temperature, said Peter Galbraith, a research scientist in physical oceanography at the agency's Maurice Lamontagne Institute in Mont-Joli, Que., northeast of Quebec City.

Last July, the surface temperature hit 16.7 C, a record since data started being recorded in 1981, and 2.4 C warmer than average. Between May and November, the warmest surface temperature was 11.6 C, also a record, and 1.6 C higher than average.

“So it was the warmest air temperature, which gave us the warmest sea surface temperature,” Galbraith said.

Toronto Zoo warns of extinctions if Ontario mining bill becomes law

TORONTO - Species could go extinct if Ontario passes a controversial mining bill that is set to transform its approach to endangered species and the environment, the Toronto Zoo warned the province.

Bill 5, the Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, would strike a blow to the recovery of several species the institution has been trying to save, said Dolf DeJong, the zoo's CEO, at a committee hearing at Queen's Park on Thursday.

If and when the bill becomes law, DeJong wants the province to step up with funding so it can dramatically increase its biobank with Ontario species that could die off as a result of the legislation.

"We're concerned this act will result in the erosion of biodiversity and the loss of species at risk," DeJong said.