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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 5 hours ago

The cloning limit does exist

After 20 years and more than 30,000 cloning attempts, researchers have found the limit on the number of times that a single mouse can be serially re-cloned — their attempts failed after 58 generations. The cloned mice looked normal and lived as long as normal mice, but accumulated mutations at an unusually high rate, which could be why attempts to clone them were eventually unsuccessful, the team says. The findings suggest that asexual reproduction is ultimately unsustainable for mice, and potentially for other mammals, too.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-69765-7?utm_source=Live+...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 6 hours ago

Walking pace may outperform blood pressure and cholesterol in predicting mortality risk, study suggests
Analysis of over 400,000 UK adults indicates that walking pace is a stronger predictor of mortality risk than blood pressure or cholesterol, particularly in individuals with chronic health conditions. Incorporating simple physical measures such as walking pace, handgrip strength, and resting heart rate enhances mortality risk prediction beyond traditional clinical factors.

The Utility of Measures of Physical Behavior, Function, and Fitness as Predictors of Mortality, Mayo Clinic Proceedings (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.mayocpiqio.2026.100710

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 6 hours ago

The study reported that:

Out of nearly 3 million pregnancies, approximately 1% (n = 28,641) were affected by placental abruption.
During a 28-year follow-up period, children born to mothers who had a placental abruption during the pregnancy were 4.6 times more likely to die from cardiovascular disease than children born to mothers who experienced a normal placental separation from the uterus after delivery.
Children born to mothers who had a placental abruption faced nearly three times higher risk of being hospitalized for heart-related complications during the next 28 years. These conditions included heart failure, ischemic heart disease, heart attack, blocked arteries, and general cardiovascular disease.
The children's risk of stroke hospitalization was 2.4 times higher than for children whose mothers did not have a placental abruption.
These heart disease and stroke risks associated with abruption were even higher among children younger than 1 year old.
The association between placental abruption and increased cardiovascular risk remained similar after conducting an additional analysis contrasting cardiovascular disease risks between biological siblings (each mother served as their own control), suggesting that genetic and environmental factors did not explain this relationship.

Placental abruption is a sudden and often catastrophic event that cannot be prevented and comes with no warning. Older women or those expecting more than one baby, such as twins or triplets, have an increased risk of developing this condition.
Avoiding smoking, drinking alcohol, and using illegal drugs (particularly, cocaine) and maintaining good blood pressure control are also important, as they are linked to placental abruption.

Cardiovascular Disease in Singleton Offspring Born of Pregnancies Complicated by Placental Abruption: A Population-Based Retrospective Cohort Study, DOI: 10.1161/JAHA.125.045199

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 6 hours ago

Premature placental separation may increase child's risk of heart disease by age 28

Children born after placental abruption face a 4.6-fold higher risk of early cardiovascular disease or death from cardiovascular disease by age 28 compared to those without this complication. Risks of heart-related hospitalization and stroke are also significantly elevated. The association persists even when accounting for genetic and environmental factors within families.
The risk of developing early cardiovascular disease or dying from cardiovascular disease by the age of 28 was about 4.6 times higher among people born to mothers who had a placental abruption during their pregnancy. This finding was compared to people whose birth did not have this complication, according to new research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Placental abruption occurs when the placenta separates from the uterus before birth rather than after delivery, and this can lead to severe hemorrhaging or other serious complications for the mother and baby. According to the American Heart Association's 2026 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics, most studies have reported an incidence of 0.5% to 1% for placental abruption in the general population.
The study suggests that placental abruption needs to be taken as a very serious complication for the mother and also potentially affecting the baby's cardiovascular health later in life.
Most treatments after a placental abruption focus on following the mother after a pregnancy complication. This study shows it is important that their children are also monitored to identify potential complications due to their increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 6 hours ago

Dengue fever is a growing problem: Why it's so hard to beat with vaccines

Dengue fever, caused by four related viral serotypes, is expanding globally due to climate and urbanization. Vaccine development is challenging because immunity to one serotype can worsen infection with another via antibody-dependent enhancement. Effective vaccines must induce balanced, strongly neutralizing responses to all serotypes. Vaccine performance varies by prior infection, age, and transmission intensity, requiring tailored strategies and ongoing safety monitoring.

https://theconversation.com/dengue-fever-is-a-growing-problem-why-i...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 6 hours ago

How inflammation may prime the gut for cancer
Chronic gut inflammation can leave lasting epigenetic changes, or "molecular scars," in intestinal cells, making tissues more susceptible to cancer if a cancer-promoting mutation occurs later. These epigenetic alterations persist after inflammation subsides, are inherited by daughter cells, and may accelerate tumor growth, highlighting potential biomarkers and intervention targets for colorectal cancer risk.

Chronic inflammation can raise a person's risk of cancer, and a new study reveals key details about how that might happen in the gut and points to better ways to identify and reduce risk.
revealed in mice that after colitis (chronic intestinal inflammation), seemingly healed gut tissues may retain the memory of earlier inflammation through molecular "scars" that make it easier for cancer to take hold later on. These memories are encoded as changes in the epigenome that are handed down from cell to cell through many generations of cell division, with long-lasting effects on gene activity that can later drive tumor growth.
The work, appearing in Nature, suggests a two-hit process over time in which alterations in the genome—an epigenetic change and a cancer mutation—can accelerate tumor growth. It also points to ways to potentially identify and possibly intervene on these cancer-promoting factors with new biomarkers and therapeutics.

Surya Nagaraja et al, Epigenetic memory of colitis in stem cells promotes tumour growth, Nature (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10258-4. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10258-4

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 6 hours ago

What is particularly noteworthy is the idea that it is not only epigenetic processes that influence an individual's behavior and, consequently, their environment, but that, conversely, the environment altered by individual decisions can also give rise to new epigenetic patterns.

For example, individuals may seek out a new living environment or alter their surroundings by building a nest, which in turn affects the epigenome—the totality of all epigenetic marks. Even without direct inheritance via the germline, the epigenome can thus be altered in offspring.

This has far-reaching consequences: such processes could buffer natural selection and thereby generate and maintain epigenetic diversity within populations.
For understanding ecological and evolutionary processes, this represents a shift in perspective. Rather than examining genetic or phenotypic differences in isolation, researchers should analyze genetic, epigenetic and observable traits of the same individuals together.

This concept helps explain how environmental change is linked to individualization. In times of climate change and biodiversity loss, it provides an important foundation for better assessing the adaptive capacity and resilience of natural populations.

Denis Meuthen et al, Exploring the interplay of epigenetics and individualization, Trends in Ecology & Evolution (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2025.12.010

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 6 hours ago

Why no individual is like another when epigenetics come into play
Epigenetic modifications—chemical changes to DNA that do not alter its sequence—regulate gene expression and contribute to individual behavioural differences among animals. These modifications can result from both environmental influences and intrinsic factors, creating a dynamic interplay where behaviour and environment reciprocally shape the epigenome. This process enhances individual ecological niches and maintains diversity within populations, influencing adaptation and evolution.

Why do animals behave differently, and what are the consequences of this? A research team now provides a new explanation: epigenetic processes—chemical markings on DNA—may play a key role. The study, published in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution, links individuality, environmental adaptation, genetics, ecology, and evolution in a novel way.
The researchers propose that individuality and epigenetic variation influence each other. This bidirectionality—this mutual interaction—helps us to better understand ecological and evolutionary processes, they say.
At the center of the study is epigenetics. This refers to chemical modifications of DNA in which small molecules attach to the genetic material. These modifications do not alter the genetic sequence itself, but they regulate how frequently a gene is translated into proteins. Proteins, in turn, shape the observable traits and characteristics of an organism.

Thus, the same genetic blueprint—the same genotype—can give rise to different appearances, known as phenotypes. The researchers propose that epigenetic mechanisms contribute to how animals develop their individual ecological niche.

An individual niche is the range of environmental conditions under which a specific individual with a given set of traits could possibly live and reproduce. It is a subset of the species' niche that arises from the interaction of the individual with its environment.
The researchers distinguish between epigenetic changes triggered by environmental factors and those that arise independently, such as genetically determined or spontaneously occurring modifications. All forms play different roles in shaping individual differences.
Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 6 hours ago

Thousands of websites are accidentally broadcasting sensitive data, study finds

Researchers have discovered a major security leak hiding in plain sight on the internet that could expose the personal data and financial records of millions of people. In a paper published on the arXiv preprint server, they  analyzed 10 million websites to see how often API (application programming interfaces) credentials are exposed. These are digital keys or tokens that enable different software programs to communicate and are often used to process bank payments and access cloud storage.

The team used a huge database called the HTTP Archive, which tracks how millions of real websites work. They looked at live, running versions of sites to monitor how data is processed as pages load.

By examining the websites while they were active, the researchers identified API credentials that appear only when a user visits a site. These credentials are specific strings of text that a website uses to identify itself to services like banks or cloud providers.

The researchers found 1,748 active, verified credentials from major service providers (including Amazon Web Services, Stripe and OpenAI). These credentials were found publicly accessible within the live code of websites. The dangers are that anyone who finds the keys and knows what they're doing can gain full access to a company's cloud servers, bank accounts, or customer databases without a password.

The study also revealed that some of these credentials remained exposed for 12 months. In a few rare cases, the sensitive keys had been publicly available for several years without being detected by the companies. Most of the breaches (84%) were found within JavaScript files, the background instructions that tell a website how to behave.

The fault, however, doesn't lie with service providers like Amazon or Stripe, according to the study authors. The problem is with software developers and website operators who accidentally include these private credentials in the final version of a website that is sent to a user's browser.

The results show that the vast majority of leaks are introduced during the build process and materialize exclusively in live production environments (e.g., within JavaScript bundles), making the static scanning methods used in prior work fundamentally insufficient for the web," explain the authors.

The researchers wrote to the affected organizations to alert them of the leaks, and within two weeks, 50% of the exposed credentials were removed or deactivated.

The team suggests a few best practices to help stop the leaks. These include developers scanning the live, running version of their website rather than just the private code, and companies setting strict rules for their automated website-building tools. They also recommend that service providers improve their automated systems to alert customers the moment a secret key is detected on a public webpage.

Nurullah Demir et al, Keys on Doormats: Exposed API Credentials on the Web, arXiv (2026). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2603.12498

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

CERN hails delicate test on transporting antimatter as a scientific success

CERN successfully transported antiprotons by road for the first time, using a cryogenic, magnetically shielded vacuum trap to prevent contact with matter and annihilation. The test demonstrated the feasibility of moving antimatter safely, enabling future high-precision studies of fundamental symmetries outside CERN, though current containment is limited to about four hours.
Manipulating antimatter, like antiprotons, can be tricky business. As scientists understand the universe today, for every type of particle that exists, there is a corresponding antiparticle, exactly matching the particle but with an opposite charge.
If those opposites come into contact, they "annihilate" each other, setting off lots of energy, depending on the masses involved. Any bumps in the road on the test journey that aren't compensated for by the specially-designed box could spoil the whole exercise.

Scientists in Geneva took some antiprotons out for a spin—a very delicate one—in a truck, in a never-tried-before test drive that has been deemed a success.
If this so-called antimatter had come into contact with actual matter, even for a fraction of an instant, it would have been annihilated in a quick flash of energy. So experts at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, had to be extra careful when they took 92 antiprotons on the road for a short ride on Tuesday.

The antiprotons were suspended in a vacuum inside a specially designed box and held in place by supercooled magnets.

In methodical exercise over about three hours, the nearly 1,000-kilogram (2,200-pound) cryogenic box was craned up slowly and moved through a cavernous lab the onto the truck.

The drive on CERN's campus itself lasted only about a half-hour to test how—if at all—the infinitesimal particles could be transported by road without seeping out.
The antiprotons were then placed back in their usual lab area, and the operation was concluded with applause, claims of success

Source: CERN

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