Comment

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 19, 2026 at 10:20am

How do plants know when to bloom? Spring flowering explained by UW chronobiologist

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 19, 2026 at 10:05am

Hubble Accidentally Catches Comet Breaking Up

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 19, 2026 at 10:02am

Neanderthals may have used birch tar for its anti-bacterial properties, experiments suggest

Neanderthals probably used birch tar for multiple functions, including treating their wounds, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS One by a team of researchers

Birch tar is commonly found at Neanderthal archaeological sites, and in some cases this tar is known to have been used as an adhesive to assemble tools.

To investigate the medicinal potential of birch tar, researchers extracted tar from modern birch tree bark, specifically targeting species known from Neanderthal sites.

They used multiple extraction methods, including distillation of tar in a clay pit and condensation of tar against a stone surface, both of which would have been methods available to Neanderthals. When exposed to different strains of bacteria, all of the tar samples were found to be effective at hindering the growth of Staphylococcus bacteria known to cause wound infections.

These experiments not only support the efficacy of Indigenous medicinal practices, but also reinforce the possibility that Neanderthals used birch tar to treat wounds.

The authors note that there are other potential uses of birch tar, such as insect repellent, as well as other plants to which Neanderthals had access. Further exploration of the multiple potential uses of these natural ingredients will enable a more thorough understanding of Neanderthal culture.

Siemssen T, et al. Antibacterial properties of experimentally produced birch tar and its medicinal affordances in the Pleistocene, PLOS One (2026). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0343618

**

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 19, 2026 at 9:58am

Children shaped clay 15,000 years ago, long before pottery or farming, archaeologists find

Long before pottery, before agriculture, when the first villages took shape, people in the Levant were already molding clay with their hands, carefully, deliberately, and sometimes playfully. Some of those hands belonged to children.

An international team of archaeologists  has uncovered the earliest known clay ornaments in Southwest Asia, revealing a forgotten chapter in the story of how humans began to express identity, belonging, and meaning through material culture. The findings, published this week in Science Advances, push back the symbolic use of clay in the region by thousands of years.

The ornaments, 142 beads and pendants, were made some 15,000 years ago by Natufian hunter-gatherers living in what is now Israel. These communities were the first in the world to settle permanently in one place, millennia before the rise of agriculture. Until now, clay in this period was thought to play little or no ornamental role. In fact, only five clay beads from this era were previously known worldwide.

This discovery completely changes how we understand the relationship between clay, symbolism, and the emergence of settled life.

Perhaps the most striking discovery lies not in the shapes of the beads, but in their surfaces. Preserved fingerprints, 50 in total, allowed researchers to identify who made them. The prints belong to individuals of different ages: children, adolescents, and adults. It is the first time archaeologists have been able to directly identify the makers of Paleolithic ornaments, and the largest such fingerprint assemblage ever documented from this period.

Some objects appear to have been designed specifically for children, including a tiny clay ring just 10 millimeters wide.

The findings suggest that making ornaments was a shared, everyday activity, one that played a role in learning, imitation, and the transmission of social values from one generation to the next.

By documenting one of the world's oldest traditions of clay adornment, the study reframes the Natufians not just as forerunners of agriculture, but as innovators of symbolic culture, people who used clay to say something about who they were, and who they were becoming.

Laurent Davin, Modelling identities among the first-sedentary communities: emergence of clay personal ornaments in Epipaleolithic Southwest Asia, Science Advances (2026). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aea2158. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aea2158

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 18, 2026 at 11:30am

Closing your eyes might not help you hear better after all

Most people will close their eyes when trying to concentrate on a faint sound. Many of us have been told that keeping our eyes closed helps us hear better—that it frees up our brains' processing abilities and increases our auditory sensitivity. However, that strategy may sometimes backfire, particularly in environments with a lot of loud background noise.
Closing the eyes in noisy environments reduces the ability to detect faint sounds, contrary to common belief. Visual input, especially dynamic videos matching the sound, enhances auditory sensitivity. Eye closure leads to neural filtering that can suppress both noise and target sounds, while visual engagement helps the brain separate signals from background noise.
In The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, researchers tested whether a person closing their eyes can really hear better in noisy environments.

To test this, volunteers listened to a collection of sounds through headphones amid background noise. Then, the volunteers adjusted the volume of the sounds until they could barely make them out over the background noise.

This test was conducted first with eyes closed, then with eyes open but looking at only a blank screen, then looking at a still picture corresponding to the sound, and finally, looking at a video matching up with the sound they were trying to hear.
To their surprise, the researchers found that, contrary to popular belief, closing one's eyes actually impairs the ability to detect these sounds! Conversely, seeing a dynamic video corresponding to the sound significantly improves hearing sensitivity.
To find an explanation for this result, the researchers attached electroencephalography (EEG) devices to the participants to monitor their brain activity. They determined that closing the eyes puts a participant's brain in a state of neural criticality, which more aggressively filters noises and quiet sounds, including the target sounds those participants were trying to detect.

In a noisy soundscape, the brain needs to actively separate the signal from the background, The researchers found that the internal focus promoted by eye closure actually works against you in this context, leading to over-filtering, whereas visual engagement helps anchor the auditory system to the external world.
The authors emphasize that this result is unique to noisy environments. With a calmer background, the conventional strategy of keeping their eyes closed likely does help people detect faint sounds. But because so much of our lives are spent surrounded by noise, it might be better to face the world with eyes wide open, say the researchers.

Visual engagement modulates cortical criticality and auditory target detection thresholds in noisy soundscapes, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (2026). DOI: 10.1121/10.0042380

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 18, 2026 at 11:24am

Engineered bacteria deliver cancer drug directly inside tumors in mice

Engineered Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 (EcN) can be modified to produce and deliver the anticancer drug Romidepsin (FK228) directly within tumors in mice. The bacteria selectively colonize tumors and release the drug in situ, resulting in targeted tumor therapy. This approach demonstrates potential for bacteria-assisted, tumor-targeted delivery of anticancer agents.

Ma C, et al. Engineered romidepsin biosynthetic pathways in Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 improve the efficacy of bacteria-mediated cancer therapy, PLOS Biology (2026). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003657

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 18, 2026 at 10:29am

Heart disease risk tied to certain molecules made by gut microbes

Bloodstream levels of nine specific metabolites produced by gut microbes are statistically associated with the risk of developing coronary heart disease. These associations persist after accounting for factors such as age, family history, and diet, though some differences appear by race or age. The identified metabolites may serve as potential biomarkers or therapeutic targets for coronary heart disease.
In a study involving data from thousands of people, the risk of a new coronary heart disease diagnosis was statistically associated with bloodstream levels of nine specific molecules that are produced by gut microbes.
The human digestive tract naturally contains a large population of microbes. Different people have different proportions of different species of gut microbes, which produce different molecules during their normal, metabolic chemical reactions.

These metabolites can enter the bloodstream and exert a broad range of impacts, good and bad, on human health. Some gut microbe metabolites may be linked with a person's risk of coronary heart disease—the world's leading cause of death.

Using data from nearly 2,000 of the participants, researchers discovered several gut microbe metabolites associated with the risk of developing coronary heart disease. Then, they used the rest of the data to validate and refine these links—including external and quantitative validations, and accounting for many other factors known to be associated with risk of coronary heart disease, such as age, family health history, and diet.

The final analysis revealed nine specific gut microbe metabolites in the bloodstream that were associated with a higher or lower chance of developing coronary heart disease. These links remained consistent across some participants when stratified by lifestyle or family history. However, some differences in links between specific metabolites and heart disease risk were found when individuals were stratified by race or age.
This study underscores the link between gut microbes and heart health. On the basis of the findings, the researchers call for follow-up research into the nine metabolites they identified to determine whether they represent potentially promising avenues for development of novel ways to treat or prevent coronary heart disease.

Zheng Y, et al. Circulating gut microbial metabolites and risk of coronary heart disease: A prospective multi-stage metabolomics study.PLOS Medicine (2026). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1004750

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 18, 2026 at 10:21am

Hidden mutagens in your lipstick and water

Substances capable of mutating human genetic material—altering and permanently damaging it—are present in many everyday products. Researchers have, for the first time, detected mutagens and concurrently cytotoxic substances in food, meat, smoke flavourings, personal care products, and even water.
To achieve this, they developed a novel screening procedure enabling the determination of the mutagenicity of individual substances within complex mixtures. Furthermore, the new test procedure detects potential detoxification of mutagens in the body via simulated human liver metabolism. It revealed that detoxification within the body is minimal.

Katharina Schmidtmann et al, High-Throughput Testing for Unknown Mutagens and Cytotoxica via Duplex Planar Ames–Cytotoxicity Bioassay Including Metabolic S9 Activation, Analytical Chemistry (2026). DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.5c06690

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 18, 2026 at 10:14am

Scientists discover new heavy proton-like particle at CERN

A new heavy proton-like particle, Ξ_cc⁺, containing two charm quarks and one down quark, has been observed at CERN's LHC using the upgraded LHCb detector. The particle was identified via its decay into Λ_c⁺, K⁻, and π⁺, with a measured mass of 3,619.97 MeV/c², consistent with theoretical predictions and resolving previous uncertainties about its existence.

Details of the Ξ_cc⁺ discovery were presented at the Rencontres de Moriond Electroweak conference.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 18, 2026 at 10:10am

In their new study, the researchers used the same technique to measure how the brain responds to not only propofol but two additional anesthesia drugs—ketamine and dexmedetomidine. Animals were given one of the three drugs while their brain activity was analyzed, including their response to auditory tones.

This study showed that the same destabilization induced by propofol also appears during administration of the other two drugs. This "universal signature" appears even though the three drugs have different molecular mechanisms: propofol binds to GABA receptors, inhibiting neurons that have those receptors; dexmedetomidine blocks the release of norepinephrine; and ketamine blocks NMDA receptors, suppressing neurons with those receptors.

Each of these pathways, the researchers hypothesize, affect the brain's balance of stability and excitability in different ways, and each leads to an overall destabilization of this balance.
All three of these drugs appear to do the exact same thing. In fact, you could look at the destabilization measure we use and you can't tell which drug is being applied.
Now that the researchers have shown that three different anesthesia drugs produce similar destabilization patterns in the brain, they think that measuring those patterns could offer a valuable way to monitor patients during anesthesia. While anesthesia is overall a very safe procedure, it does carry some risks, especially for very young children and for people over 65.

Similar destabilization of neural dynamics under different general anesthetics, Cell Reports (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2026.117048. www.cell.com/cell-reports/full … 2211-1247(26)00126-9

Part 2

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• …
• 1204
• Next ›
• Page