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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 10 hours ago

How the brain builds a sentence

Researchers have tracked the electrical activity of individual brain cells during conversation in real time, capturing how sentences are built before a single word is spoken. By observing these neurons in a brain region called the frontotemporal cortex, scientists have discovered that individual neurons act as specialized linguistic building blocks. “We used to think language was this diffuse, whole-network phenomenon,” says neurosurgeon and study co-author Ziv Williams. “But it turns out you have specific neurons that only care if a word is a noun, or only care if a phrase is ending.”

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10691-5?utm_source=Live+...

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01922-w?utm_source=Live+...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 10 hours ago

One vaccine changed everything: England's youngest women stopped dying from this cancer

The HPV vaccine for cervical cancer has reduced the risk of dying from the disease before age 30 in England to almost zero, the first study of its kind showed this week.
Between 2020 and 2024, no women in the country ages 20 to 24 died from cervical cancer, according to the study published in The Lancet medical journal.

It is the first time not a single death has been recorded in the age group, with the vaccine estimated to have saved the lives of nearly 200 young women.

In addition to the complete absence of deaths for 2020–24, there was also an 80% reduction in the same age group in the four preceding years, between 2015 and 2019, the study, which examined nationwide mortality data, found.

Thanks to HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccination and cervical screening, a future where almost nobody gets cervical cancer is now firmly in sight.

Nationwide mortality data from England show that cervical cancer deaths among women aged 20–24 fell to zero between 2020–2024, with an estimated ~200 deaths averted since HPV vaccination began. Vaccination at ages 12–13 was associated with near-zero risk of death from cervical cancer before age 30. However, current HPV vaccine uptake (76%–86% by age 15) remains below the 90% target.

Peter Sasieni et al, Cervical cancer mortality trends following HPV vaccination in England, 2001–24: an analysis of population-based mortality data, The Lancet (2026). DOI: 10.1016/s0140-6736(26)00918-9

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 10 hours ago

Microplastics may worsen fatty liver disease, new study suggests

Microplastics—minuscule pieces of plastic broken down from larger plastic waste—are a growing concern for human health, especially for the liver. A new study published in Science Advances demonstrates that a common type of microplastic is particularly harmful to the liver under high-fat dietary conditions.
The study, conducted in mice, found that blood markers of liver injury were more than twice as high in animals exposed to microplastics while consuming a high-fat diet, compared with animals exposed to the same particles while consuming a standard diet. The study focused on the most common type of plastic, polyethylene, which is found in materials like plastic bags and milk jugs.
The study also identified a gene regulator known as PPAR-alpha as playing a key role in the liver's response to microplastic exposure. PPAR-alpha, a protein inside the cells that controls how the body breaks down and uses fat for energy, influences a gene called Anxa2, which plays a role in tissue repair.

These findings suggest that microplastics may affect some of the liver's natural defense and repair mechanisms.
Although the research was conducted in mice, and additional research is needed to determine whether the same effects occur in humans, the study establishes a framework for understanding how microplastics may contribute to liver disease.
In mice, polyethylene microplastics combined with a high-fat, MASH-inducing diet more than doubled blood markers of liver injury compared with microplastics plus standard diet. Spatial transcriptomics localized “hot spots” of liver damage and inflammation. PPAR-α–dependent regulation of Anxa2 was implicated, suggesting disruption of hepatic defense and repair pathways.

Woncheol Jung et al, Spatial transcriptome mapping identifies Ppara-Anxa2 cross-talk in microplastic-induced hepatotoxicity, Science Advances (2026). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aec8681

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 10 hours ago

Warming climate reduces milk quality and quantity

Heat stress on dairy cows affects more than just the quantity of milk produced—warming temperatures also reduce the fat and protein content of the milk, new research finds.
Heat stress in dairy cows reduces both milk yield and fat/protein content, with composition losses beginning at lower temperatures than yield declines. A 10-point increase in temperature-humidity index cuts yield by 1.2% but revenue by 2.8%, implying economic losses comparable to yield effects. Little evidence of biological heat adaptation was detected across cows or regions.

Jeisson Prieto et al, Milk composition responses amplify economic damages from heat stress, Environmental Research Letters (2026). DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ae74e6

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 11 hours ago

Shell too snug? Hermit crabs have a fix

Hermit crabs depend on empty snail shells for protection, and the right size shell isn't always available.

For decades, biologists have known that hermit crabs forced to live in shells that are too small slow their growth. What wasn't clear was how they did it. New research suggests the answer isn't simply that the crabs eat less. Instead, they appear to regulate growth by changing how efficiently they use the food they consume.

Hermit crabs constrained to undersized shells slow growth not by reducing food intake but by lowering nutrient assimilation efficiency and increasing fecal output. This indicates structural constraints can modulate internal energy processing, showing growth depends on both nutrient intake and conversion to body mass rather than consumption alone.

Caitlin E. Ball et al, Small shells, slower growth: Experimental evidence consistent with nutrient elimination in Pagurus longicarpus, Invertebrate Biology (2025). DOI: 10.71161/ivb.144.4.2025.00022

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 11 hours ago

Orangutans eat medicinal plants in patterns that suggest self-medication

Long-term observations of Bornean orangutans show they selectively consume plant species rich in antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and wound-healing compounds, often in recurring combinations and sequences atypical of their usual diet. These patterns are consistent with self-medication rather than purely nutritional feeding and parallel medicinal plant use by local Indigenous communities.
Orangutans seek out plants with antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and wound-healing properties, new research shows. Based on 20 years of observations of orangutans in Indonesian Borneo, scientists assessed how often the animals ate plants with known medicinal benefits. The findings, published in Scientific Reports, suggest orangutans eat combinations of plants in specific sequences—consistent with "self-medication" seen in other species.
It's not clear how they learn to do this, but the researchers think it may involve instinct and/or behaviour passed down over many generations.
What makes the findings interesting is that some plant species appeared together in the orangutan diet far more often than we would expect by chance. Several of these plants are known to contain compounds linked to antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory or wound-healing effects.

Importantly, many of these plants are not major parts of the orangutan diet overall, suggesting they may be eaten for specific benefits rather than as everyday food sources.
Chimpanzees are known to engage in "self-medication," for example by eating plants that reduce internal parasite infections. Similar behaviours have also been observed in bonobos, gibbons and gorillas.
Some of the plants eaten by the orangutans are also used by local Indigenous people for medicinal purposes.

G. Allen et al, Investigating medicinal resource combinations in the Bornean orangutan diet, Scientific Reports (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-52614-4

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 13 hours ago

How do flocking birds and schools of fish move? New research offers crystal-clear answer
Flocking birds and schools of fish are a familiar sight. While previous research has uncovered the broad dynamics driving these movements, their underlying intricacies remain a mystery. Now a study by a team of  mathematicians offers new insights into these phenomena. It reveals that flocks and schools behave in ways similar to a soft crystalline material, with individual birds and fish serving as "atoms" that are evenly spaced in a lattice-like formation.
The findings, reported in the journal Physical Review Fluids, offer detailed insights into the hydrodynamic and aerodynamic interactions crucial in aerospace and automotive engineering, robotics and energy harvesting.
Lines of birds or fish behave like an elastic material with regularly spaced individuals held together by flexible, or spring-like, bonds—akin to soft crystalline substances in which atoms are arranged in an orderly, repeating pattern.
The research team proposed a mathematical model to explain these movements—one akin to those of soft crystalline materials, or soft crystals. These ordered solid materials can change their properties in response to stimuli, such as temperature or physical force, which makes their atomic organization fragile. The researchers subsequently saw a connection between crystalline organization and how birds or fish move together while adjusting their movements and formation in response to air or water flows, predators or objects such as rocks or buildings.

Crystalline organization is inherently fragile, as positions are susceptible to deformations and instabilities. In similar ways, birds and fish must sense and respond quickly to other forces in order to maintain long columnar formations. So while soft crystals, flocks of birds, and schools of fish are fragile in their makeup, such fragility may also be advantageous as it can be responsive to its surroundings.

Christiana Mavroyiakoumou et al, Modeling flying formations as flow-mediated matter, Physical Review Fluids (2026). DOI: 10.1103/tp8s-76vr

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 13 hours ago

World's highest-consuming 10% cause up to $5.7 trillion a year in environmental damage, study finds
The environmental damage caused by the world's highest-consuming 10% of people is worth $1.7 trillion to $5.7 trillion a year. At the central and upper estimates, this is several times more than the international community has committed to spend on climate action and biodiversity conservation combined, and is on the scale of the funding estimated to be needed globally to address these crises.
This finding, published in Communications Sustainability, puts a price on the harm this group inflicts across four planetary boundaries: climate change, biodiversity loss, nutrient pollution and freshwater use.

The average annual damage bill for a person in the global top 10% is $2,300 to $7,500. In the United States, where per-person impacts are highest, the figure rises to $19,000 to $63,000—equivalent to 6% to 20% of their income or 0.8% to 3% of their wealth. More than 60% of the global top 10% live in the U.S. and EU. In the EU, 40% to 45% of the population falls within this highest-consuming group, and in the U.S. it is more than half the population.

Biodiversity loss is the single largest contributor to the global damage bill, accounting for 47% to 56% of the total. Climate change accounts for 36% to 45%. The finding underlines recent calls to tackle biodiversity and climate crises together rather than treating them as separate policy challenges.
The figures are likely conservative. They cover only four of nine planetary boundaries and reflect direct consumption alone. For the highest-income individuals, roughly half of emissions come from investments rather than personal consumption—impacts not captured in this analysis.

The scale of the damage bill illustrates the potential revenue if polluter-pays principles were applied to high-consuming groups. The researchers note that environmental taxation focused on luxury consumption rather than basic goods tends to be more progressive and more effective at reducing emissions, though they stress that pricing is one tool among several and does not justify or compensate for the damage itself.

Inge Schrijver, Environmental damages of the top ten percent consumers exceed global climate and biodiversity funding gaps, Communications Sustainability (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s44458-026-00079-x. www.nature.com/articles/s44458-026-00079-x

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 13 hours ago

The authors also describe illusions related to the window of revision, where later perceptual inputs change the perceptual representations of something that occurred earlier. This is also called postdiction. These illusions are not limited to visual processes but also occur in auditory and tactile processes and have been observed in several animals.

"A key feature of these illusions is their time sensitivity, usually occurring only within a range of 100–450 ms in humans. A classic example is apparent motion. When two frames containing the same perceptual object but having a spatial offset are presented close together in time, it looks as though the object has moved from position A to B.

"Even though this motion percept is contingent on the second frame showing the object in position B, the object appears to be moving even in the first frame. This happens in humans when the two frames are separated by no more than 150 ms. This illusion is ubiquitous across both vertebrate and invertebrate animal species. Macaques, mice, pigeons, Drosophila, and fish perceive apparent motion. However, the temporal range over which apparent motion is best perceived may vary," the study authors write.
Ultimately, the authors say these windows could form the foundation for investigating principles of temporal phenomenology in animals by providing more informed speculations about phenomenological principles across species. Future work may develop theoretical models that predict how different windows should relate to each other and explore whether there are temporal dimensions of experience in other species that humans don't have at all.
The study authors conclude, "While this research program is of obvious interest to empirical, theoretical and philosophical inquiries in consciousness science, it can also contribute ecological insights. Understanding the dynamic constraints on perception and attention can further allow us to capture species-specific behavior (as in our example of the peacock courtship display) and coordination with the environment, conspecifics and/or predators (e.g., understanding motion dazzle as a predator-escape strategy).

"Similarly, the pace and rhythms of experience can inform real-world infrastructure designs. For instance, better understanding the temporal experience of birds may help reduce collisions with wind turbines, as motion blur may reduce the visibility of rapidly rotating blade edges for some species."

Ishan Singhal et al, Timescapes of non-human experience, Trends in Cognitive Sciences (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2026.05.002

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 13 hours ago

'Timescapes' may explain why animal species perceive events so differently

There is evidence that nonhuman animals perceive the world, and how it unfolds in time, differently from humans and from each other. For example, certain beetles can see flickering in lights up to around 500 Hz, while in humans that flickering appears as a steady light after 60 Hz. Humans see flashed objects as lagging behind moving objects when they actually aren't. While other animals also seem to experience this illusion, the flash appears in a different location. Apparent motion—where stationary objects appear to be moving—also has been shown to differ in humans and mice.

In a new paper, published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, a group of researchers propose a strategy for understanding the temporal aspects of animal experiences through the characteristic way their perceptions are organized and updated over time, which they refer to as the animal's "timescape."

Most attempts to compare animal time perception have relied on a single metric and are too crude to capture real experiential differences. Thus far, most attempts have focused on the critical flicker fusion threshold (CFFT), which is the rate at which a flickering light is perceived as steady. While the CFFT may provide an interesting look at one aspect of the temporal discrimination of visual content, the authors of the new study say it falls short of providing an in-depth understanding of how animals perceive time and may even be misleading.
After noting the wide range of 4–500 Hz in CFFTs in different animals, they write: "Based on these vast differences in CFFTs, one might be tempted to conclude that streams of experience flow extremely slowly or extremely fast when compared with a human benchmark. However, this conclusion would be hasty. Even in humans, CFFTs are uninformative about the temporal regularities over which our perceptual mechanisms anticipate, organize, revise or attend to perceptual inputs. Moreover, CFFTs are fundamentally a measure of retinal sensitivity. As such, they offer little information about the timescapes of perceptual experiences in general."

The researchers propose that an animal's timescape can better be described using five experimentally testable temporal "windows," which give a richer, more biologically grounded picture of animal experience. These include synchronization of the binding of contents in a single perceptual moment (synchronization), how perceptual content is updated with subsequent input (revision), how long attention is sustained on something (attention), how long perceptual content is present after a stimulus offset (persistence), and how long it takes to perceive something before switching (stability).

Experiments across various studies have shown that different species show strikingly different durations for each window, suggesting genuinely different temporal organizations of experience. The researchers say temporal illusions are also powerful tools for probing these windows across species. They give multiple examples of how illusions provide insights into each window.
For example, one illusion, referred to as "motion dazzle," consists of a camouflage strategy using contrasting patterns that disrupt the accurate perception of motion and speed to confuse predators. This illusion can help researchers learn more about the synchronization window. They say the luminance contrasts of an image are scanned and then processed at different latencies. Dark-to-light transitions are processed before light-to-dark transitions and are then perceived as parts of the same image with different latencies. The effect differs across species.
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