Several hundred meters beneath the Pacific, off Costa Rica, there is a garden of golden, branching coral rising from rocks crowded with brittle stars. Some colonies grow taller than a meter. It sounds like somewhere a wizard would send you to retrieve an object with an unreasonable number of conditions attached, but it’s a real place on the same planet where we spend afternoons trying to remember our passwords.
The coral is called Laurinque elenya. Its name draws on Quenya, one of Tolkien’s Elvish languages: a golden tree, of the stars. Scientists found something beautiful and reached for the language of an imagined world to describe it. I find that very reassuring. There are people doing serious research who remain susceptible to a little enchantment.
The discovery, announced in August and receiving fresh attention this week, came from expeditions in 2019 and 2023. Researchers collected samples using a remotely operated vehicle and then faced a problem: the coral didn’t fit any recognized family. Three commonly used genetic markers pointed in different directions. Comparing hundreds of genes, alongside its anatomy, helped establish that it warranted a new family and genus.
Imagine putting that much effort into determining where something belongs and eventually having to build it its own filing cabinet. As someone who has worked in compliance, I respect the commitment.
More than the name, though, I love what happened before it. Dr. Odalisca Breedy and her colleagues encountered something they couldn’t readily explain, and they kept looking. There’s a kind of care in being willing to revise your categories because the thing in front of you deserves a more accurate understanding. The coral had been getting on with its life; the humans needed to catch up.
These gardens provide habitat for other deep-sea life, and they are considered vulnerable marine ecosystems. Naming what lives there is part of making that life visible to us. We can’t make sensible decisions about what we’re disturbing if we’ve barely begun to understand what’s present.
I don’t need every discovery to arrive with a cure, a product, or a proposal for improving quarterly earnings. Sometimes I want to know that there are golden animals shaped like trees beneath the ocean, and that people have devoted years to understanding them. That is a perfectly worthwhile use of a human life.
My husband bought me new pastels, which arrived yesterday, and I may have stayed awake until two in the morning using them. They are AMAZING. I reasoned that the kids didn’t have school, so I could sleep in, apparently forgetting that our household also contains a baby who wakes at 6:04 a.m. on the dot. Ezra’s relationship with the calendar is strictly advisory.
The kids are happy and had a three-day weekend this week. Ezra continues walking around in his shoes all day and night, my husband is still working away on the exterior of the house, and I spent about three hours cleaning up the yard yesterday. Then the pastels arrived and my remaining judgment went out with the yard debris.
I’m still recovering, and Mom is unfortunately still sick, so we’ve had to postpone our livestream again. We’re looking forward to talking midterms with you, hopefully soon, once I’m fully recovered and Mom’s soul no longer risks being exchanged to the fairy godmother of phlegm. Thank you for being patient with us.
Getting absorbed in something beautiful was a welcome way to spend an evening, even if I negotiated the sleep arrangements with a person who does not yet participate in negotiations. There is pleasure in paying attention long enough for something to become more interesting. I would like to make more room for that, preferably before midnight.
There is also news this week about people insisting that the terms of care deserve attention.
Zambia signed a five-year health financing agreement with the United States on Thursday after disputed patient-data and specimen-sharing requirements were removed. The Associated Press reports combined commitments of about $2.49 billion from the two governments.
The Washington Post, drawing on drafts and the final agreement, reports that earlier conditions linking assistance to a separate commercial deal involving mineral access were also dropped. U.S. officials dispute that characterization, and Zambia’s health minister says his ministry never saw mineral provisions. The removal of the disputed data and specimen terms is the clearer point of agreement.
That matters. A country receiving health assistance still has the right to ask who will obtain its people’s information, what they will do with it, and whose interests the arrangement serves. Needing help doesn’t make those questions impolite.
From my years in healthcare quality and compliance, I know that a promise to use information responsibly needs details behind it. Who has access? For what purpose? What limits apply? The answers matter to people who may never be in the room where the agreement is signed.
I’m encouraged that objection changed the terms here. The financing commitment still has to become actual care, but people pushed back on an arrangement they found unacceptable, and those provisions were removed. There is something useful to remember in that when we are repeatedly told that a decision has already been made.
Closer to home, Medicare’s annual open enrollment begins October 15 and runs through December 7, with changes generally taking effect January 1. KFF’s analysis finds that the average beneficiary will have 35 Medicare Advantage plans available for 2027, down from 39 this year. Those averages cover plans available for general enrollment and conceal considerable differences by location.
If you or someone you love has Medicare, this is a good time to review next year’s coverage. Check whether the doctors and pharmacies you use remain in the network, whether your prescriptions are covered, and what the total costs look like. A familiar company name on the envelope doesn’t tell you everything about the plan inside.
Medicare.gov has a plan comparison tool, and State Health Insurance Assistance Programs offer free counseling independent of insurance companies. If you’re considering returning to Original Medicare, get advice about prescription coverage and Medigap before switching; there are limits on when you can obtain a supplement.
I would prefer that getting care required less annual detective work. Until we achieve that, a useful link and someone willing to sit beside you while you sort through the choices can make a difference.
Today I’m grateful for the researchers who kept looking, for people who insisted on better terms, and for the opportunity to be briefly irresponsible with a box of pastels. I would also welcome an amendment to Ezra’s morning schedule, although the administration appears unwilling to consider public comment.
If this report gave you something worth thinking about, please restack it or share it with someone who might enjoy it. That helps our work reach people we couldn’t reach on our own.
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Thank you for spending part of your Saturday with us.
Well Shanley, you go deep in every directon.