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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 7 hours ago

To read 2,000-year-old burned scrolls, scientists burn their own
Carbonized model papyrus scrolls written with lead-containing ink showed that X-ray CT can distinguish ink from charred papyrus, with lead producing up to 25-fold greater X-ray absorption. Lead levels as low as 25 µg/cm2 were detectable by CT and handheld X-ray fluorescence. Screening ancient scrolls for lead could improve noninvasive virtual unrolling and text recovery.

Douglas Seiler et al, A model carbonized papyrus scroll opens a novel path to identifying readable scrolls of the Herculaneum Library, PLOS One (2026). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0353485

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 9 hours ago

When the infants turned 1, researchers tested them for egg and peanut allergies at major children's hospitals. Each baby first got a skin-prick test. If that came back positive, they moved on to a food challenge, where doctors watched closely as the baby ate small amounts of scrambled egg or peanut butter to confirm whether a true allergy was present.

A high-allergen maternal diet during pregnancy and lactation did not result in a significantly lower risk of infants developing an egg or peanut allergy. When the researchers looked at allergy outcomes, 7.8% of infants whose mothers ate more eggs and peanuts developed an egg or peanut allergy, compared with 8.4% in the comparison group.

Egg allergy occurred in 6.2% of infants in the high-intake group versus 7.2% in the standard group, while peanut allergy rates were identical at 2.6% in both groups. Eczema rates were also comparable between the two groups.
The results make it clear that adding extra eggs and peanuts to a pregnancy diet does not protect a baby from developing allergies to them. Going forward, the focus should be on evidence-based infant feeding guidance rather than asking mothers to take on another dietary burden.

Debra J. Palmer et al, Trial of a Maternal Diet Rich in Eggs and Peanuts to Reduce Infant Allergy, New England Journal of Medicine (2026). DOI: 10.1056/nejmoa2605659

Maria C. Jenmalm, Maternal Allergen Consumption and Infant Food Allergy — Reassurance, Not Prescription, New England Journal of Medicine (2026). DOI: 10.1056/nejme2610158

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 9 hours ago

Eating more eggs and peanuts while pregnant does not prevent infant allergies, clinical trial finds
Millions of people around the globe might never know the taste of a PB&J sandwich or crème brûlée because of severe peanut and egg allergies. For a long time, avoiding exposure to allergy-causing foods early in life was considered the best way to prevent this, but now this notion has been turned on its head. Scientists thought exposure as early as during breastfeeding might help children build tolerance to these foods.
A team of researchers explored whether a mother consuming large amounts of egg and peanut during pregnancy and early lactation lowers the chance that her baby will develop an allergy to those foods by age 1.

The randomized trial, called PrEggNut, followed more than 2,000 pregnant mothers whose babies were at higher risk of developing allergic disease because of a family history. Half of the women were asked to eat a diet rich in eggs and peanuts, beginning before 23 weeks of pregnancy and continuing until four months after giving birth while breastfeeding.

Eating lots of eggs and peanuts during pregnancy and breastfeeding didn't significantly reduce babies' risk of developing those allergies. By age 1, infants had about the same risk of an egg or peanut allergy whether their mothers ate more of these foods or stuck to a normal diet.
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A few randomized trials of early infant feeding challenged existing avoidance practices and suggested that introducing allergenic foods early might build tolerance rather than trigger allergies. However, they didn't give scientists a clear timeline for how early one needs to start. Should it be as early as in the womb and during breastfeeding, when the immune system first encounters maternal antigens and dietary proteins?

Some allergy-prone babies already show immune responses to egg by 4 months of age. So current guidelines, which recommend introducing allergenic foods at 4 to 6 months, may already be too late for these babies.

During pregnancy, a fetus swallows food allergens present in the amniotic fluid, and after birth, infants encounter these same proteins again through breast milk. This natural pattern of exposure led researchers to the hypothesis that pregnancy and early lactation might be the window when a baby's immune system first learns to tolerate foods.

To explore this further, the researchers designed a randomized, single-blind trial conducted across Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney, Australia. A total of 2,137 pregnant women took part in the PrEggNut trial, with their unborn babies considered at higher risk of developing allergies.

The team randomly divided the mothers into two equal groups and asked them to follow different dietary patterns. Those in the high egg-and-peanut group consumed at least six eggs and 60 peanuts each week, while mothers in the standard-diet group consumed no more than three eggs and 30 peanuts per week.
part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 9 hours ago

SMA is a leading genetic cause of death in children under 1 year of age. ALS, which is often diagnosed between the ages of 40–70, affects both the forebrain and the hindbrain. In both disorders, certain hindbrain neurons gradually cease to function, and the patient loses the ability to swallow, which can cause pneumonia when food or liquid is inhaled into the lungs. Eventually, patients lose the ability to breathe.

The researchers' breakthrough came from studying the earliest moments of embryonic development, during a stage called gastrulation, when the body first takes shape.
Researchers discovered that the hindbrain follows a separate developmental path, running in parallel to—rather than branching off from—the pathway that creates the forebrain and midbrain.
The researchers learned this by examining developing mouse embryos. They identified two different brain progenitor cells. One, which expresses a gene called Otx2, is destined to become the forebrain and midbrain. The other, which expresses a gene called Gbx2, is committed to forming the hindbrain. They showed that these two cell populations never overlap; they are mutually exclusive from the earliest stages of development.

The team then examined the DNA packaging, or chromatin, in these cells. Chromatin is a way cells determine which genes can be easily accessed and which are bundled away out of reach. What they found was striking: The anterior neural ectoderm (future forebrain and midbrain) and posterior neural ectoderm (future hindbrain) have fundamentally different chromatin configurations. These differences essentially locked each progenitor cell into its respective fate, like travellers on parallel tracks that never cross.

Previous attempts to make hindbrain neurons likely tried to coax forebrain and midbrain progenitors into hindbrain cells, which this study shows is not possible.
This revelation explained decades of frustration in the field—scientists had been trying to turn one type of progenitor cell into another that it is fundamentally incapable of becoming.
Armed with this knowledge, the researchers for the first time successfully coaxed human pluripotent stem cells (a kind of cell that can create any cell in the human body) to become functional hindbrain motor neurons in the laboratory. These lab-grown neurons displayed all the hallmarks of authentic hindbrain cells: They exhibited waves of electrical activity called action potentials and made proteins that identify the segments of the hindbrain that control facial and swallowing muscles.

Finally, the researchers looked back over 550 million years of evolutionary time. They found the same two-origin brain pattern in chickens, zebrafish and, remarkably, acorn worms, tiny creatures living on the ocean floor that share a distant common ancestor with humans. Jellyfish, which diverged from humans about 600–700 million years ago, have two nervous systems at different ends of their bodies.

This research suggests that evolution took two existing neural systems and pushed them together spatially.
This is interesting the word 'brain' implies a contiguous organ that likely has a singular origin. But even 500 million years ago, there were these separate neural systems, which now almost operate as one, which is very cool.

Two parallel neural ectoderm progenitors contribute to the developing brain, Nature Neuroscience (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41593-026-02433-7

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 10 hours ago

Human brain has a split origin, new research suggests

For centuries, scientists have thought of the brain as a single, unified organ. But new research reveals that what we call the brain is two distinct organs that evolved independently over hundreds of millions of years.
The discovery overturns a prevailing model of brain development. For decades, researchers have subscribed to the theory that a single progenitor cell early in development gives rise to the entire brain. This model suggested all parts of the brain shared a common developmental origin.

The new findings show that the human brain consists of two ancient nervous systems packaged together—a more primitive part that regulates our hearts' beating, breathing and other functions, and another that makes us distinctly human, capable of poetry, mathematics and wondering about our own origins.

The discovery could help explain why scientists have struggled for decades to grow certain types of brain cells in the laboratory—and it opens new avenues for studying devastating diseases that affect the brain stem, such as spinal muscular atrophy (also known as SMA) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease).
Scientists have shown for the first time that the front of the brain arises from a totally different progenitor cell than the back of the brain. This discovery means that we can now grow neurons from the back of the brain, the hindbrain, in a Petri dish and study their functions.
The adult brain has three main regions: the forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain. The forebrain handles higher-level thinking—language, consciousness and abstract reasoning. In contrast, the hindbrain, located at the back of the skull and often called the brain stem, controls essential, automatic functions that keep us alive: breathing, sleeping and regulating our heartbeat and hunger urges. Hindbrain neurons also control the muscles of the face, tongue and throat, which affect speech and swallowing.

Despite the critical importance of the hindbrain, scientists have struggled for decades to generate human hindbrain neurons in the laboratory. This gap has hampered research into devastating diseases affecting the brain stem, including spinal muscular atrophy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 11 hours ago

Listening to a forest before it changes forever 

In this episode, filmmaker and journalist Leah Varjacques takes us to a Bornean rainforest area, where centuries-old patterns of human and wildlife behavior are being disrupted by the construction of a new capital city. In the midst of all this change, Varjacques documents the work of Wendy Erb, a primatologist and bioacoustic scientist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Erb’s team, working with members of the local Balik population, placed audio recorders around the forest to capture the sounds of this diverse ecosystem before it changes forever.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Scientists Discover Strange 4-Stranded Genetic Structures in Human Blood

If you think you know what DNA looks like, there may be a surprise hiding in your blood.

DNA instantly brings to mind its famous double helix. But genetic material does not always remain in that familiar form. Some pieces can fold into compact, four-stranded structures.

These unusual shapes have previously been seen inside cells. Now scientists say they have caught them folded in human blood plasma.

So why is DNA in our blood at all?

As cells throughout the body die, they leave behind small fragments of DNA. These enter the bloodstream like pieces of a torn message, carrying clues about what is happening inside us.
Until now, scientists have concentrated on reading the message: its genetic letters, the length of each fragment, and where in the genome it came from. A new preprint study suggests that how the message is folded could matter too.

Researchers detected four-stranded structures called G-quadruplexes, or G4s, in genetic material captured directly from human plasma.

A G4 begins when four copies of the genetic letter guanine join to form a tiny square. Several squares can stack together, creating a compact structure very different from the familiar double helix.

The mystery began when scientists noticed unusual fragments known as ultrashort cell-free DNA. At roughly 50 genetic letters long, these single strands were so small that they could slip through the nets used by standard DNA-capturing methods.
Some contained enough guanine to form G4s, and computer analyses pointed to the same possibility.

But finding a piece of string that could form a knot is not the same as finding it already knotted. The team had to catch these structures in human blood while they were still folded.
The discovery opened another mystery.

Although the investigation began with ultrashort DNA, the experiment could not reveal whether the detected G4s were made from DNA or RNA. RNA can fold into the same four-stranded shape, and the detectors recognize the structure rather than the molecule underneath it.
Scientists also do not yet know which tissues released them, or whether the structures folded inside cells or only after entering the bloodstream.
G4s often occur in parts of the genome involved in controlling genes, and elevated G4 levels have been observed in several tumor types. This raises the possibility that G4s circulating in blood could one day provide information about cancer that cannot be found by reading DNA sequences alone.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.05.747829v1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Scientists Gave People BPA For 5 Days. Their Insulin Sensitivity Changed

A ubiquitous industrial chemical commonly used in food and beverage packaging may quietly mess with the body's insulin sensitivity when ingested.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is one of the highest-volume chemicals produced worldwide.

Since the 1960s, it has been used to manufacture an unfathomable number of plastic packages and epoxy resins, which coat the insides of many food and beverage cans.

By some estimates, BPA is so widely consumed that it is present in the urine of more than 90 percent of the US population.

But is that safe?

US health guidelines might say yes, but the first experimental evidence in humans has now found that ingesting BPA, even at low doses, may reduce insulin sensitivity in the short term.
Reducing BPA exposure, such as using stainless steel or glass bottles and BPA-free cans, may lower diabetes risk.

https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/111/9/2610/8537216?login=false

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Driving through water is the biggest cause of death during floods—here's how it can happen
Driving through floodwater can cause vehicles to float, be swept downstream and overturn, creating a drowning risk. In a survey of 185 drivers, most recognized unsafe water depths but underestimated the danger of moving water. Dynamic LED flood warnings attracted more attention and were judged more effective than static signs.

Matthew Watkins et al, An investigation into driver's perceptions of road flooding and adherence to signage, Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.trf.2026.103639

original article.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Advertising is coming to AI chatbots—and it could influence the answers you get
Embedding targeted advertising within AI conversations could blur sponsored and organic information, enabling commercial influence over answers and transactions. Personalized, ephemeral chats may amplify misinformation while evading fact-checking and existing regulation. Clear safeguards are needed to prevent sponsors from shaping AI-generated content beyond disclosure labels.

Carlos Diaz Ruiz et al, Advertising in AI Models: How the Zero-Click Internet Threatens Free Markets and Free Speech, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing (2026). DOI: 10.1177/07439156261436399

original article.

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