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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 3 hours ago

Stimulating the brain with electromagnetic therapy after stroke may help reduce disability
Electromagnetic network-targeted field (ENTF) therapy combined with physical therapy led to a 22% higher rate of freedom from disability in stroke survivors compared to sham treatment, with improvements across disability levels and no serious adverse effects. Findings are based on two small trials, indicating the need for larger studies to confirm efficacy.

The analysis found:

• The percentage of participants who achieved freedom from disability was 22% higher in the ENTF group compared to the group that received the sham treatment (33.8% versus 11.9%, respectively).
• Measurable improvements were also seen in ENTF participants' disability levels across the full range of disability outcomes, with both less moderately to severe disability (mRS of 3–5) and less moderate disability (mRS of 2).
• No serious adverse effects were reported among participants who received ENTF therapy.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-brain-electromagnetic-therap...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 4 hours ago

Some bottled water is worse than tap for microplastics, study shows
Bottled water contains up to three times more nanoplastic particles than treated tap water. Over half of detected particles were nanoplastics, primarily originating from packaging. Advanced detection methods revealed higher concentrations than previously estimated. The health impacts of nanoplastics remain uncertain, but their ability to cross biological barriers raises concern.

Megan N. Jamison Hart et al, What's in your water? A comparative analysis of micro- and nanoplastics in treated drinking water and bottled water, Science of The Total Environment (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.181148

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 5 hours ago

How sleep loss can damage your brain's wiring

Sleep loss damages the fatty insulation protecting the nerve cells in our brain, according to a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research also explains why we often feel slow and groggy after a bad night's sleep.

Most of us will experience sleep loss at one time or another and suffer the consequences of tiredness and slower reactions the next day. The biological mechanisms for these are not well understood and often attributed to tired or overworked neurons. Researchers thought there might be other factors at play, so they decided to investigate.

The team studied MRI scans of 185 volunteers who self-reported poor sleep quality, which confirmed previous studies that found a link between inadequate sleep and changes in the structure of white matter (the bundles of nerve fibers that carry impulses between neurons). To find the cause, the researchers ran tests on rats that had their sleep restricted for ten days.

First, they performed electrical tests on the rats' brains and discovered that sleep loss caused nerve signals to take around 33% longer to travel between the two hemispheres. Later analysis of brain tissue found a likely cause. The myelin sheaths were much thinner. These are the fatty layers that wrap around nerve fibers to insulate them and speed up electrical signals.

Analysis of the lipid composition of the brain and the activity of genes that regulate oligodendrocytes revealed that the main issue was cholesterol deficiency. The scientists focused on these cells because they are responsible for creating and maintaining myelin. They found that cholesterol, which is essential for keeping the insulation thick and healthy, was not being properly transported to the myelin sheaths, so they were thinner and less able to do their job.

To test this, the researchers administered a compound called cyclodextrin, which works to flush trapped cholesterol out of cells and back into circulation. This prevented myelin sheaths from thinning any further and eliminated the roughly 33% delay in signal speed. In behavioral tests, the rodents performed just as well as those that were well-rested.

It is too early to talk about treatments for sleep deprivation based on the conclusions of this study. However, if confirmed in humans, the results would open up new possibilities, as the researchers acknowledge in their paper.

Reyila Simayi et al, Sleep loss induces cholesterol-associated myelin dysfunction, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2026). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2523438123

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Beetle hoodwinks bees with floral smell

Larvae of the European blister beetle (Meloe proscarabaeus) mimic the scent of flowers to find a ride to their next meal. The larvae produce floral-smelling compounds to lure bees, then hitchhike back to the bees’ nest and eat the eggs they find there. This trickery is the first known example of an animal imitating the scent of a flower.

The floral illusion: A parasitic beetle mimics the scent of flowers...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Lilliputian hallucinations: A mushroom that makes you see tiny people!

Lilliputian hallucinations concern hallucinated human, animal or fantasy entities of minute size. 

Some mysterious mushrooms are found in different parts of the world, but they give people the same exact visions.

Unlike other hallucinogenic fungi, the mushroom Lanmaoa asiatica causes strikingly similar visions in people who eat it before it’s properly cooked — hordes of tiny people everywhere. Cases of these ‘lilliputian hallucinations’ have been documented in scientific literature since the 1990s, but researchers only pinned down the species that causes them in 2015. Even with their culprit in hand, scientists are still working to discover what about the mushroom gives rise to the sometimes days-long hallucinations, and why the apparitions are almost always the same.

Leroy’s elusive little people: A systematic review on lilliputian h...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Saturday

Understanding unconsciousness during general anaesthesia

Brain marker signals when anaesthesia takes hold

De-synchronized electrical activity marks the loss of awareness.

Scientists have identified a distinctive brain-wave pattern that marks the slide into unconsciousness during general anaesthesia with the drug propofol. Data taken from people about to have surgery show that, as anaesthesia takes hold, a specific type of activity in brain areas such as the parietal cortex and deeper structures slips out of synchronicity. If verified in studies that gather deep-brain data, and use other anaesthetics, this shift could serve as a biomarker of loss of consciousness that doctors could use to avoid sedating patients too deeply — or not deeply enough.

Neurophysiological connectomic signatures of consciousness during p...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Saturday

Another kind of student debt is entrenching inequality: 'Time inheritance'

Inequality in education is shaped not only by financial resources but also by "time inheritance." Students from privileged backgrounds benefit from "banked time," allowing them to take risks and pursue opportunities, while those from less advantaged families operate on "borrowed time," facing pressure to earn quickly and support relatives. This temporal disparity limits educational and career choices, reinforcing social inequality.

Another kind of student debt is entrenching inequality

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Saturday

Most doctor-made YouTube health videos lack strong proof, study finds

Many health videos on YouTube, even those made by doctors, may not be giving viewers reliable medical information, a new study suggests.

Researchers reviewed 309 popular YouTube videos about cancer and diabetes and found that fewer than 1 in 5 were supported by high-quality scientific evidence.

About two-thirds had low, very low or no evidence at all to back up their health claims.

Even more concerning: Videos with weaker evidence often attracted more viewers than those backed by strong science.

The study, published recently in JAMA Network Open, looked only at videos created by health professionals that had at least 10,000 views.

This reveals a substantial credibility-evidence gap in medical content videos, where physician authority frequently legitimizes claims lacking robust empirical support.

Videos with the weakest evidence were 35% more likely to get higher view counts than videos with strong scientific evidence, the study found.

Physician-spread misinformation is a long-standing problem, dating back well before the internet era.

 This study authors say that some doctors still rely on personal experience and beliefs instead of hard data, even though evidence-based medicine (EBM) is considered the gold standard.

And EBM seemingly devalues the individual clinician's judgment!

EunKyo Kang et al, The Quality of Evidence of and Engagement With Video Medical Claims, JAMA Network Open (2026). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.52106

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Saturday

Scientists teached microorganisms to build molecules with light

Engineered Escherichia coli were shown to perform light-driven enzymatic reactions in vivo, enabling new chemical transformations such as hydroalkylations, hydroaminations, and hydroarylations without external radical precursors. This integrated photobiocatalytic platform expands the biosynthetic capabilities of microbes, offering potential for sustainable production of complex molecules.

Yujie Yuan et al, Harnessing photoenzymatic reactions for unnatural biosynthesis in microorganisms, Nature Catalysis (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41929-025-01470-y

Scientists teach microorganisms to build molecules with light

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Saturday

AI is failing 'Humanity's Last Exam'—so what does that mean for machine intelligence?
Current AI models perform poorly on "Humanity's Last Exam," a benchmark of 2,500 expert-level questions designed to probe the limits of machine capabilities, with top models initially scoring below 10%. Improved scores reflect targeted optimization, not human-like understanding. Benchmark results do not equate to general intelligence, as human and machine intelligence differ fundamentally.

A benchmark of expert-level academic questions to assess AI capabil...

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