Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 4-30-2026:>/p>

• Dr. Dawn opens with a bike safety public service message, noting a 34% increase in bicycle use in Santa Cruz alongside rising e-bike accidents. She urges drivers to stay vigilant and calls for education and enforcement of helmet laws, particularly for riders under 18.
• A University of Michigan researcher discovered that standard nitrile, latex, and vinyl gloves shed stearate particles indistinguishable from polyethylene under spectroscopy, contaminating microplastics research with approximately 2,000 false positives per square millimeter. Only clean-room gloves avoided this problem, throwing years of microplastics studies into question.
• Dr. Dawn explains skin's three-layer structure and the stratum corneum's ceramide-based moisture barrier. She warns against stripping natural oils with astringents and hot showers, notes that UV disrupts proteins holding skin cells together, and cites a 2019 study showing moisturing treatment reduced circulating inflammatory cytokines in older adults.
• Making music coordinates sound, vision, motor control, and imagination across the brain. Studies show musicians have more gray matter, better executive function, sharper memory, and even reduced pain sensitivity. A 2010 paper found musicians who began before age seven have a larger corpus callosum, and a 2024 study showed pianists had better working memory while woodwind players did best at executive function.
• Stanford researcher Pascal Geldsetzer analyzed populations in Australia, New Zealand, Wales, and Ontario, finding the Shingrix vaccine reduces dementia risk by up to 20%. Dr. Dawn hypothesizes that even "dormant" varicella triggers low-level inflammation affecting brain microglia, and recommends spacing Shingrix three months apart from the second dose rather than one month to avoid side effects.
• A Nature study of 175 people watching movies found that observing someone being touched activates the same brain regions as being touched yourself—your brain experiences sensations in corresponding body parts. This vision-touch link could enable less invasive sensory testing for autistic individuals.
• Princeton and Flatiron Institute researchers identified four distinct autism phenotypes: broadly affected (10%), mixed with developmental delay (19%), moderate challenges (33%), and social/behavioral (37%). A second Nature study confirmed genetically distinct forms unfold on different timelines, with post-age-six diagnoses showing different genetic profiles than early childhood cases.