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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 1, 2025 at 8:02am

To explain what they observed, the researchers developed a first-order theoretical model showing how mechanical stresses build up unevenly on either side of the droplet—a difference that helps explain the asymmetric cracking patterns they saw.

These findings have real-world implications. In forensic science, for example, investigators use bloodstain pattern analysis—or BPA—to reconstruct events at crime scenes. Their results suggest that both the tilt of the surface and the size of the droplet can significantly alter the resulting patterns. Ignoring these factors could lead to misinterpretations, potentially affecting how such evidence is read and understood.

Bibek Kumar et al, Asymmetric Deposits and Crack Formation during Desiccation of a Blood Droplet on an Inclined Surface, Langmuir (2025). DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.4c03767

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 1, 2025 at 8:01am

Blood droplets on inclined surfaces reveal new cracking patterns

Drying droplets have fascinated scientists for decades. From water to coffee to paint, these everyday fluids leave behind intricate patterns as they evaporate. But blood is far more complex—a colloidal suspension packed with red blood cells, plasma proteins, salts, and countless biomolecules.

As blood dries, it leaves behind a complex microstructural pattern—cracks, rings, and folds—each shaped by the interplay of its cellular components, proteins, and evaporation dynamics. These features form a kind of physical fingerprint, quietly recording the complex interplay of physics that unfolded during the desiccation of the droplet.

Researchers explored how blood droplets dry by varying both their size—from tiny 1-microliter drops to larger 10-microliter ones—and the angle of the surface, from completely horizontal to a steep 70° incline. Using an optical microscope, a high-speed camera, and a surface profiler, they tracked how the droplets dried, shrank and cracked.

 On flat surfaces, blood droplets dried predictably, forming familiar coffee-ring-like deposits surrounded by networks of radial and azimuthal cracks. But as the researchers increased the tilt, gravity pulled the red blood cells downhill, while surface tension tried to hold them up. This resulted in asymmetric deposits and stretched patterns—a kind of biological landslide frozen in time.

Cracking patterns were different on the advancing (downhill) and receding (uphill) sides. On the advancing side, where the dried blood mass accumulated more, the cracks were thicker and more widely spaced. On the receding side, where the deposit thinned out, the cracks were finer. Larger droplets (10 microliter) exaggerated the asymmetry even more, with gravity playing a bigger role as the droplets grew heavier—leaving behind a long, thin "tail" of blood that dried and showed scattered dried red blood cells.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 30, 2025 at 9:05am

Scientists develop silk microneedles to deliver nutrients and chemicals to plants

When farmers apply pesticides to their crops, 30 to 50% of the chemicals end up in the air or soil instead of on the plants. Now, a team of researchers has developed a much more precise way to deliver substances to plants: tiny needles made of silk.

In a study published in Nature Nanotechnology, the researchers developed a way to produce large amounts of these hollow silk microneedles. They used them to inject agrochemicals and nutrients into plants, and to monitor their health.

In demonstrations, the team used the technique to give plants iron to treat a disease known as chlorosis, and to add vitamin B12 to tomato plants to make them more nutritious. The researchers also showed the microneedles could be used to monitor the quality of fluids flowing into plants and to detect when the surrounding soil contained heavy metals.

Overall, the researchers think the microneedles could serve as a new kind of plant interface for real-time health monitoring and biofortification.

Yunteng Cao et al, Nanofabrication of silk microneedles for high-throughput micronutrient delivery and continuous sap monitoring in plants, Nature Nanotechnology (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41565-025-01923-2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 30, 2025 at 9:00am

Heart disease deaths worldwide linked to chemical widely used in plastics

Daily exposure to certain chemicals used to make plastic household items could be linked to more than 365,000 global deaths from heart disease in 2018 alone, a new analysis of population surveys shows.

While the chemicals, called phthalates, are in widespread use globally, Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East populations bore a much larger share of the death toll than others—about half the total.

For decades, experts have connected health problems to exposure to certain phthalates found in cosmetics, detergents, solvents, plastic pipes, bug repellents, and other products. When these chemicals break down into microscopic particles and are ingested, studies have linked them to an increased risk of conditions ranging from obesity and diabetes to fertility issues and cancer.

 The current study focused on a kind of phthalate called di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), which is used to make food containers, medical equipment, and other plastic softer and more flexible. Exposure has been shown in other studies to prompt an overactive immune response (inflammation) in the heart's arteries, which, over time, is associated with an increased risk of heart attack or stroke.

In their new analysis, the authors estimated that DEHP exposure contributed to 368,764 deaths, or more than 10% of all global mortality from heart disease in 2018 among men and women aged 55 through 64. A report on the findings is published in the journal eBioMedicine.

"By highlighting the connection between phthalates and a leading cause of death across the world, our findings add to the vast body of evidence that these chemicals present a tremendous danger to human health," said study  authors.

According to the authors, the resulting economic burden from the deaths identified in their study was estimated to be around $510 billion and may have reached as high as $3.74 trillion.

In a past study from 2021, the research team tied phthalates to more than 50,000 premature deaths each year, mostly from heart disease.

 Phthalate exposure from plastics and cardiovascular disease: global estimates of attributable mortality and years life lost, eBioMedicine (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2025.105730

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 30, 2025 at 8:49am

Most of the elements we know and love today weren't always around. Hydrogen, helium and a dash of lithium were formed in the Big Bang, but almost everything else has been manufactured by stars in their lives, or during their violent deaths. While scientists thoroughly understand where and how the lighter elements are made, the production locations of many of the heaviest neutron-rich elements—those heavier than iron—remain incomplete.

These elements, which include uranium and strontium, are produced in a set of nuclear reactions known as the rapid neutron-capture process, or r-process. This process requires an excess of free neutrons—something that can be found only in extreme environments. Astronomers thus expected that the extreme environments created by supernovae or neutron star mergers were the most promising potential r-process sites.

It wasn't until 2017 that astronomers were able to confirm an r-process site when they observed the collision of two neutron stars. These stars are the collapsed remnants of former stellar giants and are made of a soup of neutrons so dense that a single tablespoon would weigh more than 1 billion tons. The 2017 observations showed that the cataclysmic collision of two of these stars creates the neutron-rich environment needed for the formation of r-process elements.
However, astronomers realized that these rare collisions alone can't account for all the r-process-produced elements we see today. Some suspected that magnetars, which are highly magnetized neutron stars, could also be a source.

Researchers  calculated in 2024 that giant flares could eject material from a magnetar's crust into space, where r-process elements could form.

It's pretty incredible to think that some of the heavy elements all around us, like the precious metals in our phones and computers, are produced in these crazy extreme environments

The group's calculations show that these giant flares create unstable, heavy radioactive nuclei, which decay into stable elements such as gold. As the radioactive elements decay, they emit a glow of light, in addition to minting new elements. The group also calculated in 2024 that the glow from the radioactive decays would be visible as a burst of gamma rays, a form of highly energized light. When they discussed their findings with observational gamma-ray astronomers, the group learned that, in fact, one such signal had been seen decades earlier that had never been explained. Since there's little overlap between the study of magnetar activity and heavy-element synthesis science, no one had previously proposed element production as a cause of the signal.

In the new paper, the astronomers used the observations of the 2004 event to estimate that the flare produced 2 million billion billion kilograms of heavy elements (roughly equivalent to Mars' mass). From this, they estimate that one to 10% of all r-process elements in our galaxy today were created in these giant flares. The remainder could be from neutron star mergers, but with only one magnetar giant flare and one merger ever documented, it's hard to know exact percentages—or if that's even the whole story.

Anirudh Patel et al, Direct Evidence for r-process Nucleosynthesis in Delayed MeV Emission from the SGR 1806–20 Magnetar Giant Flare, The Astrophysical Journal Letters (2025). DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/adc9b0

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 30, 2025 at 8:45am

Flares from magnetized stars can forge planets' worth of gold

Astronomers have discovered a previously unknown birthplace of some of the universe's rarest elements: a giant flare unleashed by a supermagnetized star. The astronomers calculated that such flares could be responsible for forging up to 10% of our galaxy's gold, platinum and other heavy elements.

The discovery also resolves a decades-long mystery concerning a bright flash of light and particles spotted by a space telescope in December 2004. The light came from a magnetar—a type of star wrapped in magnetic fields trillions of times as strong as Earth's—that had unleashed a giant flare.

The powerful blast of radiation only lasted a few seconds, but it released more energy than the sun does in 1 million years. While the flare's origin was quickly identified, a second, smaller signal from the star, peaking 10 minutes later, confounded scientists at the time. For 20 years, that signal went unexplained.

Now, a new insight by astronomers at the Flatiron Institute's Center for Computational Astrophysics (CCA) in New York City has revealed that the unexplained smaller signal marked the rare birth of heavy elements such as gold and platinum. In addition to confirming another source of these elements, the astronomers estimated that the 2004 flare alone produced the equivalent of a third of Earth's mass in heavy metals. They report their discovery in a paper published on April 29 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

This is really just the second time we've ever directly seen proof of where these elements form, the first being neutron star mergers, say the researchers. 

Part1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 30, 2025 at 8:36am

In the human clinical study, 14 women with severe, treatment-resistant fibromyalgia received FMT from healthy donors. Post-treatment, 12 participants reported a clinically significant reduction in pain.

Improvements, while not complete reversals, were observed in overall symptom burden, sleep quality, anxiety, and depression scores. Quantitative sensory testing showed reductions in cold pain hypersensitivity. Stool analysis confirmed successful bacterial engraftment from healthy donors.

Based on the results, alterations in gut microbiota may play a causal role in the development of pain and other symptoms associated with fibromyalgia. Because the human trial was open-label, lacked a control arm, and enrolled only women, the findings are preliminary and need confirmation in randomized controlled trials.
Modulating the gut microbiota through fecal transplantation presents a potential therapeutic strategy for individuals suffering from this chronic pain syndrome. Establishing the functional significance of gut microbiota in fibromyalgia would open new opportunities for evaluating microbial-based interventions.

Weihua Cai et al, The gut microbiota promotes pain in fibromyalgia, Neuron (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2025.03.032

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 30, 2025 at 8:35am

Mice develop fibromyalgia-like pain after receiving gut microbiota from human patients

Research has discovered that transplanting gut microbiota from women with fibromyalgia into mice induces pain, immune activation, metabolomic changes, and reduced skin innervation.

The exact cause of fibromyalgia is unknown. Fibromyalgia affects 2% to 4% of the population, primarily women, and is characterized by chronic widespread pain, fatigue, sleep disruptions, and cognitive difficulties. Most patients suffer from significant symptoms that negatively impact quality of life.

Dysregulated activity of the central nervous system, altered neurotransmitters, neuroinflammation, and reduced intraepidermal nerve fiber density have been observed in fibromyalgia patients. Functional gastrointestinal disorders and depression are also common.

Previous studies have revealed that gut microbiota composition differs between women with fibromyalgia and healthy controls, yet the connection between this altered microbiota and any functional role it might play remains a mystery.

In the study, "The gut microbiota promotes pain in fibromyalgia," published in Neuron, researchers conducted a fecal microbiota transplantation study to determine whether altered gut microbiota from fibromyalgia patients could cause pain and related symptoms.

Researchers performed fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) into germ-free female mice using samples collected from women with fibromyalgia and age-matched healthy controls. An open-label clinical trial enrolled 14 women with severe fibromyalgia who received five oral FMT doses from healthy female donors.

To assess pain and systemic changes in mice, the study employed behavioral assays, single-cell RNA sequencing, metabolomic profiling, dorsal root ganglia calcium imaging, and spinal microglia analysis. Clinical participants received oral FMT capsules biweekly for five doses following antibiotic and bowel cleansing preparation.

Mice that received microbiota from fibromyalgia patients developed mechanical, heat, and cold hypersensitivity, spontaneous pain, and muscle pain within four weeks. Persistent pain and depression-like behaviors were observed in mice four months post-transplantation.

Changes coincided with altered gut microbiota composition, immune activation marked by classical monocytes and spinal microglia, shifts in amino acid and bile acid metabolism, and reduced intraepidermal nerve fiber density. Replacing fibromyalgia-associated microbiota with that from healthy donors reversed pain hypersensitivity. Oral bile acid supplementation also reduced pain responses in mice.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 29, 2025 at 9:57am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 29, 2025 at 9:30am

Study explores the motivations behind helping others

Why are some people more helpful than others? In a new JNeurosci paper, researchers used rats to explore why some individuals may be more receptive to the distress of others and how this information leads to helpful behaviour.

During a task the researchers previously developed, they observed the behaviors and brain activity of helpful rats compared to less helpful rats. In this task that probes helping behavior, rats are given the option to release a distressed peer trapped in a restrainer.

Rats that were more likely to come to the aid of others had increased activity in brain regions associated with empathy and motivation compared to less helpful rats.

The researchers also observed that helper rats had increased oxytocin receptor expression in a brain region that drives motivation compared to the less helpful rats. According to the authors, this could mean that caring for others, more than relating to others' distresses, contributes to helpfulness.

When oxytocin signaling was inhibited, rats were less friendly with others, suggesting oxytocin may support helping by making rats feel attachment to others.

 Neural and Behavioral Correlates of Individual Variability in Rat Helping Behavior: A Role for Social Affiliation and Oxytocin Receptors, JNeurosci (2025). DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0845-24.2025

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