Comment

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Thursday

The team now plans to explore the efficacy of the nanozyme in preventing ischemic stroke, which is also caused by clogging of blood vessels.

Their experiments with human platelets worked well too.

G. R. Sherin et al, Vanadia Nanozymes Inhibit Platelet Aggregation, Modulate Signaling Pathways and Prevent Pulmonary Embolism in Mice, Angewandte Chemie International Edition (2025). DOI: 10.1002/anie.202503737

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Thursday

Novel nanozyme prevents excess clotting

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have developed an artificial metal-based nanozyme that can potentially be used to clamp down on abnormal blood clotting caused by conditions like pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE).

The work is published in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

Under normal circumstances, when a blood vessel is injured, specialized blood cells called platelets get activated and cluster together around the vessel to form protective blood clots. This process, known as the blood clotting cascade (hemostasis), involves a complex series of protein interactions triggered by signals from physiological agonists (chemicals) such as collagen and thrombin.

However, when these signals go haywire in conditions like PTE or diseases like COVID-19, oxidative stress and levels of toxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) increase, leading to over-activation of platelets. This triggers the formation of excess clots in the blood vessel, contributing to thrombosis, a major cause of morbidity and mortality.

To tackle this challenge, researchers  have developed nanomaterials that mimic the activity of natural antioxidant enzymes, which scavenge reactive oxidative molecules.

These "nanozymes" work by controlling ROS levels, thereby preventing the over-activation of platelets that leads to excess clot formation or thrombosis.

The team synthesized redox active nanomaterials of different sizes, shapes, and morphologies via a series of controlled chemical reactions starting from small building blocks. They then isolated platelets from human blood, activated them using physiological agonists, and tested how effectively the different nanozymes could prevent excess platelet aggregation.

The team found that spherical-shaped vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅) nanozymes were the most efficient—these materials mimic a natural antioxidant enzyme called glutathione peroxidase to reduce oxidative stress.

It was challenging to get the pure form of the nano enzyme with only the +5 oxidation state of vanadium oxide. This was important because the +4 oxidation state is toxic to the cells.

The unique chemistry of the vanadium metal is crucial because the redox reactions that reduce ROS levels are happening on the surface of the vanadium nanomaterial.

The team injected the nanozyme in a mouse model of PTE and found that it significantly reduced thrombosis and increased the animals' survival rates. They also observed the weight, behavior, and blood parameters of the animal for up to five days after injecting the nanozyme, and did not find any toxic effects.

Anti-platelet drugs that target thrombosis sometimes have side effects such as increased bleeding.

Unlike conventional anti-platelet drugs that interfere with physiological hemostasis, the nanozymes modulate the redox signaling and do not interfere with normal blood clotting. This means that they won't cause bleeding complications that are a major concern with current therapies.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Thursday

The researchers also examined whether eating a portion of fiber, protein or fat before carbohydrates reduced blood sugar spikes. The participants ate pea fiber powder, protein from boiled egg whites or fat in the form of crème fraîche 10 minutes before eating rice.

Eating fiber or protein before the rice lowered the glucose spike, and eating fat before the rice delayed the peak of the spike. But these changes in blood glucose response occurred only in the metabolically healthy participants who were insulin-sensitive or had normal beta cell function.

Though eating fat, protein or fiber before carbohydrates had minimal impact on the blood glucose response patterns in participants with insulin resistance or beta cell dysfunction.
Eating carbohydrates later in a meal is still a good idea even though it has not yet been sorted out whether it is best to eat protein, fat or fiber before carbohydrates. Eat your salad or hamburger before your French fries, the researchers recommend.

Individual variations in glycemic responses to carbohydrates and underlying metabolic physiology, Nature Medicine (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41591-025-03719-2

Part 3

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Thursday

The study participants wore continuous glucose monitors and ate same-sized portions of different carbohydrates that were delivered to their homes. There were seven foods tested: jasmine rice; buttermilk bread; shredded potato; pasta; canned black beans; grapes; and a berry mix containing blackberries, strawberries and blueberries.

The participants consumed the food first thing in the morning, after fasting for 10 to 12 hours. Each participant ate each food type twice, and the research team tracked their blood sugar response during the three hours after their meal.

Many participants had a blood glucose spike after eating rice or grapes, regardless of their metabolic health status. The blood glucose responses to foods containing the highest amounts of resistant starch—potatoes and pasta—varied depending on the participants' metabolic dysfunction.

Starchy foods were not equal; there was a lot of individual variability in which foods produced the highest glucose spike.
The highest blood sugar spikes after eating pasta occurred in participants who had insulin resistance, and the highest spikes after eating potatoes occurred in participants who were either insulin resistant or had beta cell dysfunction.

The multi-omics profiling showed that the potato-spiking participants also had high levels of triglycerides, fatty acids and other metabolites commonly seen in people with insulin resistance.

Glucose spikes to beans were associated with histidine and keto metabolism, a state in which the body primarily uses fat for energy. Participants whose blood sugar spiked after eating bread were more likely to have hypertension, or high blood pressure.
The highest blood glucose spikes after eating potatoes occurred in the participants who were the most insulin resistant and had the lowest beta cell function. Everyone spiked to some extent after eating grapes. The comparison of the blood glucose responses to potatoes versus grapes was associated with having insulin resistance, suggesting that this ratio could serve as a real-world biomarker for insulin resistance in the future.

"Such a biomarker would be useful because insulin resistance is amenable to lifestyle and medication interventions that can reduce risk for diabetes in high- risk individuals. At present there is no easy way to diagnose it in the clinic.
Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Thursday

Blood sugar response to various carbohydrates may point to metabolic health subtypes

A study  by researchers shows that differences in blood sugar responses to certain carbohydrates depend on details of an individual's metabolic health status.

The differences in blood sugar response patterns among individuals were associated with specific metabolic conditions such as insulin resistance or beta cell dysfunction, both of which can lead to diabetes. The study findings suggest that this variability in blood sugar response could lead to personalized prevention and treatment strategies for prediabetes and diabetes.

Right now, the Diabetes Associations' dietary guidelines do not work that well because they lump everyone together. This study suggests that not only are there subtypes within prediabetes, but also that your subtype could determine the foods you should and should not eat.

A paper explaining the research was published in Nature Medicine.

There is more than one pathway to diabetes, which is currently diagnosed based on elevated blood sugar levels, called hyperglycemia. Beta cells in the pancreas make the hormone insulin, which is then distributed to cells throughout the body to help convert glucose, or sugar, in the blood into energy.

Beta cell dysfunction occurs when the pancreas fails to make or to release enough insulin, and insulin resistance occurs when cells in the body do not respond fully to insulin. Both beta cell dysfunction and insulin resistance can contribute to the high blood sugar levels that define prediabetes and type 2 diabetes.

In the study, 55 participants without a history of type 2 diabetes underwent metabolic testing for insulin resistance and beta cell dysfunction in addition to multi-omics profiling, which included tests for triglyceride levels, metabolites in plasma of the blood, measures of liver function and gut microbiome data.

Just under half of the participants, 26 in total, had prediabetes.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Thursday

Why AI can't understand a flower the way humans do

Even with all its training and computer power, an artificial intelligence (AI) tool like ChatGPT can't represent the concept of a flower the way a human does, according to a new study.

That's because the large language models (LLMs) that power AI assistants are usually based on language alone, and sometimes with images.

A large language model can't smell a rose, touch the petals of a daisy or walk through a field of wildflowers. Without those sensory and motor experiences, it can't truly represent what a flower is in all its richness. The same is true of some other human concepts.

The findings have implications for how AI and humans relate to each other.

If AI construes the world in a fundamentally different way from humans, it could affect how it interacts with us.

Researcher found that overall, the LLMs did very well compared to humans in representing words that didn't have any connection to the senses and to motor actions. But when it came to words that have connections to things we see, taste or interact with using our body, that's where AI failed to capture human concepts.

"From the intense aroma of a flower, the vivid silky touch when we caress petals, to the profound joy evoked, human representation of 'flower' binds these diverse experiences and interactions into a coherent category," the researchers say in the paper they published on the topic.

The issue is that most LLMs are dependent on language, and "language by itself can't fully recover conceptual representation in all its richness".

Even though LLMs can approximate some human concepts, particularly when they don't involve senses or motor actions, this kind of learning is not efficient.

"They obtain what they know by consuming vast amounts of text—orders of magnitude larger than what a human is exposed to in their entire lifetimes—and still can't quite capture some concepts the way humans do.

"The human experience is far richer than words alone can hold."

 Large language models without grounding recover non-sensorimotor but not sensorimotor features of human concepts, Nature Human Behaviour (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-025-02203-8

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Thursday

Life from oceans to savannas explained with one single rule

A simple rule that seems to govern how life is organized on Earth is described in a new study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

The research team that undertook this work thinks this rule helps explain why species are spread the way they are across the planet. The discovery will help to understand life on Earth—including how ecosystems respond to global environmental changes.

The rule is simple: in every region on Earth, most species cluster together in small "hotspot" areas, then gradually spread outward with fewer and fewer species able to survive farther away from these hotspots.

In every bioregion, there is always a core area where most species live. From that core, species expand into surrounding areas, but only a subset manages to persist. It seems these cores provide optimal conditions for species survival and diversification, acting as a source from which biodiversity radiates outward.

This pattern highlights the disproportionate ecological role these small areas play in sustaining the biodiversity of entire bioregions. Safeguarding these core zones is therefore essential, as they represent critical priorities for conservation strategies.

Researchers studied bioregions across the world, examining species from very different life forms: amphibians, birds, dragonflies, mammals, marine rays, reptiles, and trees.

Given the vast differences in life strategies—some species fly, others crawl, swim, or remain rooted—and the contrasting environmental and historical backgrounds of each bioregion, the researchers expected that species distribution would vary widely across bioregions. Surprisingly, they found the same pattern everywhere.

The pattern points to a general process known as environmental filtering. Environmental filtering has long been considered a key theoretical principle in ecology for explaining species distribution on Earth.

Until now, however, global empirical evidence has been scarce. This study provides broad confirmation across multiple branches of life and at a planetary scale.

It doesn't matter whether the limiting factor is heat, cold, drought, or salinity. The result is always the same: only species able to tolerate local conditions establish and persist, creating a predictable distribution of life on Earth.

The existence of a universal organizing mechanism has profound implications for our understanding of life on Earth. This pattern suggests that life on Earth may be, to some extent, predictable.

Such predictable patterns can help scientists trace how life has diversified through time and offer valuable insights into how ecosystems might react to global environmental changes.

A general rule on the organization of biodiversity in Earth's biogeographical regions, Nature Ecology & Evolution (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41559-025-02724-5

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Thursday

Astronomers uncover most energetic explosions in universe

Astronomers from the University of Hawaiʻi's Institute for Astronomy (IfA) have discovered the most energetic cosmic explosions yet discovered, naming the new class of events "extreme nuclear transients" (ENTs). These extraordinary phenomena occur when massive stars—at least three times heavier than our sun—are torn apart after wandering too close to a supermassive black hole. Their disruption releases vast amounts of energy visible across enormous distances.

The researchers observed stars getting ripped apart as tidal disruption events for over a decade, but these ENTs are different beasts, reaching brightnesses nearly ten times more than what they typically see.

Not only are ENTs far brighter than normal tidal disruption events, but they remain luminous for years, far surpassing the energy outputs of even the brightest known supernova explosions.

The immense luminosities and energies of these ENTs are truly unprecedented. The most energetic ENT studied, named Gaia18cdj, emitted an astonishing 25 times more energy than the most energetic supernovae known. While typical supernovae emit as much energy in just one year as the sun does in its 10 billion-year lifetime, ENTs radiate the energy of 100 suns over a single year.

Jason Hinkle, The Most Energetic Transients: Tidal Disruptions of High Mass Stars, Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adt0074. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adt0074

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Thursday

The heaviest proton emitter: New type of atomic nucleus discovered

The radioactive decay of atomic nuclei has been one of the keystones of nuclear physics since the beginning of nuclear research. Now the heaviest nucleus decaying via proton emission has been measured in the Accelerator Laboratory of the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. The research article was written as part of an international research collaboration involving experts in theoretical nuclear physics and published in Nature Communications on 29 May 2025.

Proton emission is a rare form of radioactive decay, in which the nucleus emits a proton to take a step toward stability. 

The new nucleus is so far the lightest known isotope of astatine, ¹⁸⁸At, consisting of 85 protons and 103 neutrons. Exotic nuclei of this kind are extremely challenging to study due to their short lifetimes and low production cross sections, so precise techniques are needed.

The nucleus was produced in a fusion-evaporation reaction by irradiating natural silver target with ⁸⁴Sr ion beam. The new isotope was identified using the detector setup of the RITU recoil separator.

 Henna Kokkonen et al, New proton emitter ¹⁸⁸At implies an interaction unprecedented in heavy nuclei, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-60259-6

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Thursday

Arbitrary rules are those that are decided or made without any fixed principle, plan, or system, often appearing random or unfair. They are based on individual discretion, preference, or whims, rather than logic or established standards. In legal contexts, arbitrary decisions are often seen as unjust because they lack a rational basis and can disregard fair considerations. 

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