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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Wednesday

The Universe throws surprises at us all the time!

Bacterial strain from 5,000-year-old cave ice shows resistance against 10 modern antibiotics

Bacteria have evolved to adapt to all of Earth's most extreme conditions, from scorching heat to temperatures well below zero. Ice caves are just one of the environments hosting a variety of microorganisms that represent a source of genetic diversity that has not yet been studied extensively. Now, researchers tested antibiotic resistance profiles of a bacterial strain that until recently was hidden in a 5,000-year-old layer of ice of an underground ice cave—and found it could be an opportunity for developing new strategies to prevent the rise of antibiotic resistance and study how resistance naturally evolves and spreads. They reported their discovery in Frontiers in Microbiology.

The Psychrobacter SC65A.3 bacterial strain isolated from Scarisoara Ice Cave, despite its ancient origin, shows resistance to multiple modern antibiotics and carries over 100 resistance-related genes. But it can also inhibit the growth of several major antibiotic-resistant 'superbugs' and showed important enzymatic activities with important biotechnological potential.

Psychrobacter SC65A.3 is a strain of the genus Psychrobacter, which are bacteria adapted to cold environments. Some species can cause infections in humans or animals. Psychrobacter bacteria have biotechnological potential, but the antibiotic resistance profiles of these bacteria are largely unknown.

Studying microbes such as Psychrobacter SC65A.3 retrieved from millennia-old cave ice deposits reveals how antibiotic resistance evolved naturally in the environment, "long before modern antibiotics were ever used".

The team drilled a 25-meter ice core from the area of the cave known as the Great Hall, representing a 13,000-year timeline. To avoid contamination, the ice fragments taken from the core were placed in sterile bags and kept frozen on their way back to the lab. There, the researchers isolated various bacterial strains and sequenced their genome to determine which genes allow the strain to survive in low temperatures and which confer antimicrobial resistance and activity.

They tested for resistance of the SC65A strain against 28 antibiotics from 10 classes that are routinely used to or reserved for treating bacterial infections, including antibiotics that have previously been identified to possess resistance genes or mutations that give them the ability to resist drug effects. This way, they could test whether predicted mechanisms translated into measurable resistance.

The 10 antibiotics they found resistance to are widely used in oral and injectable therapies used to treat a range of serious bacterial infections in clinical practice.

Diseases such as tuberculosis, colitis, and UTIs can be treated with some of the antibiotics that the researchers found resistance to, including rifampicin, vancomycin, and ciprofloxacin.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 17, 2026 at 11:30am

Yes, men have a biological clock too. But it's not just age that affects male fertility

Male fertility declines with age, with sperm count, motility, morphology, and semen volume decreasing from the early 20s, and genetic damage in sperm increasing, raising miscarriage and birth defect risks. Environmental and lifestyle factors, such as oxidative stress, toxins, smoking, obesity, and certain medical conditions, also impact male fertility. New guidelines recommend simultaneous fertility assessment for both partners.

https://theconversation.com/yes-men-have-a-biological-clock-too-but...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 17, 2026 at 11:28am

Want a tall, smart child? How IVF tests are selling a dream

Genetic tests marketed to IVF parents claim to predict traits like height and intelligence using polygenic risk scores, but these predictions are highly uncertain and offer minimal benefit—typically only a few IQ points or centimeters in height. Environmental and lifestyle factors play a much larger role in child development, and using such tests poses ethical, psychological, and medical risks without proven advantages.

https://theconversation.com/want-a-tall-smart-child-how-ivf-tests-a...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 17, 2026 at 11:17am

Injured birds seeking medical help

Injured seabird desperately pecks at hospital door for help

An injured seabird sought help by pecking at the door of an emergency room at a hospital in Germany until medical staff noticed it and called firefighters to help with its rescue.

The cormorant, a shiny black waterbird, had a triple fishing hook stuck in its beak when it made its presence known at the glass door of the Klinikum Links der Weser hospital in the northern city of Bremen on Sunday.

In a joint effort, medical staff and firefighters removed the fishhook and treated the wound, the Bremen firefighter department said in a statement. The bird was later released back into nature on the grounds of the hospital park.

"When an injured cormorant does approach humans, it is usually an animal in extreme distress that has lost its natural shyness," the statement said.

A cormorant is a large bird with a long neck, wedge-shaped head and a distinctive sharp beak with a hooked tip. A fishhook in the bird's beak would be extremely dangerous for the animal. Infections, pain and even starvation are possible, the firefighter department said.

Source: News agencies

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 17, 2026 at 11:14am

Deep-sea fish larvae rewrite the rules of how eyes can be built

Deep-sea fish larvae possess unique hybrid photoreceptor cells that combine structural features of rods with the molecular machinery of cones, enabling enhanced vision in the dim twilight zone. Unlike the typical vertebrate pattern where cones precede rods, these larvae use rod-like cones early in development, with some species retaining them into adulthood. This challenges established models of vertebrate retinal development.

https://theconversation.com/deep-sea-fish-larvae-rewrite-the-rules-...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 17, 2026 at 11:05am

Deer inhibit trees but raise plant diversity, 18-year study reveals

At high densities, white-tailed deer inhibit growth of trees but increase the overall diversity of smaller plant and weed species, according to a long-term study published recently.
High densities of white-tailed deer suppress tree regeneration and reduce tree presence in both above-ground vegetation and the soil seedbank, limiting natural forest regrowth. However, deer browsing increases the diversity and evenness of smaller plant and weed species by preventing dominance by a few species. Active management is likely required for successful reforestation in areas with abundant deer.

A. Sophie Westbrook et al, Deer impact seedbanks and plant communities over 18 years of post-agricultural succession, PLOS One (2025). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0339466

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 17, 2026 at 10:25am

How one genome creates two distinct fungal bodies

Creatures that can change from one form to another ?

Yes,  Nature, too, has its shapeshifters, such as dimorphic fungi. While scientists have known for some time that they can reversibly transition between yeast and mycelium forms, a paper recently published in the journal Nature Communications explains how.

Some fungi, such as members of the Mucorales order, can live as yeasts, tiny single-celled organisms, or as mycelium, multicellular branching filaments. Triggers for the morphological switch include oxygen levels and glucose concentrations.  How can a single genome encode two different body plans and could switch between them?

To find out, scientists grew the fungus (Mucor lusitanicus) under oxygen-rich conditions to promote mycelial growth, and under low-oxygen, high-carbon-dioxide conditions to induce the yeast form. Once the fungus had changed shape, the team collected samples and examined the active genetic instructions, specifically the RNA, to see which were being used in each form.

The team found that instead of using the same genes for both forms, the fungus uses paralogs. These are closely related genes that share a common ancestor and arise when a gene is duplicated within a single genome.

In total, they found 490 dimorphic gene families. Although each twin pair has similar functions, there is a specific version for yeast and one for mycelium. For example, a gene responsible for iron absorption in the yeast form has a nearly identical counterpart that performs the same function in the mycelium form.

They are organized in a very elegant way in the genome. The scientists discovered that two related genes are positioned back to back on the DNA and share a bidirectional promoter. These regulate gene expression and so act like control switches. It means the promoters can easily turn one off and the other on without getting them mixed up.

At the heart of the operation, according to the researchers, are two master regulator genes, dkl and dfl. When the team deleted them, the fungus could no longer control its switches and lost its ability to change shape.

The findings identify an evolutionary mechanism that integrates and optimizes the genetic information required for two distinct life forms within a single organism.

One of the most exciting aspects of this research is the potential for new antifungal treatments. Knowing how a fungus switches to its invasive mycelial form gives scientists a clear target to stop the transformation and therefore the spread of fungal infections.

Ghizlane Tahiri et al, Coordinated gene family evolution shapes the genome of dimorphic Mucorales, Nature Communications (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-68866-7

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 17, 2026 at 9:12am

India plans AI 'data city' on staggering scale

India is developing a large-scale "data city" in Visakhapatnam to accelerate its AI infrastructure, supported by major investments exceeding $175 billion, including projects from Google and other global firms. The initiative aims to establish a comprehensive AI ecosystem, targeting six gigawatts of data center capacity, and leverages strategic incentives and infrastructure to attract technology companies.

https://techxplore.com/news/2026-02-india-ai-city-staggering-scale....

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 17, 2026 at 8:58am

Some glaciers can suddenly surge forward—with dangerous consequences

A small fraction of glaciers undergo sudden surges, advancing rapidly for months or years due to meltwater accumulation beneath the ice, which reduces friction. These surges, affecting about 1% of glaciers but 16% of global glacier area, can accelerate ice loss and create hazards such as floods and infrastructure damage. Climate change is altering surge frequency and unpredictability worldwide.

https://theconversation.com/some-glaciers-can-suddenly-surge-forwar...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on February 17, 2026 at 8:51am

Researchers carried out two studies that compared the responses of human participants to two distinct LLMs, namely GPT-4 and GPT-4o, respectively.
The human participants and LLMs were tested on two different types of tasks: spatial and linguistic tasks. Spatial tasks entail the arrangement of shapes or structures in specific ways, while linguistic tasks require respondents to choose or generate specific texts following a set of instructions.
They found that both the human participants and the LLMs they examined exhibited an addition bias. However, this bias was less pronounced in humans and more pronounced in LLMs on tasks where subtracting information was clearly the more efficient strategy to tackle a problem.
Humans made fewer additive choices when subtraction was more efficient than addition (compared to when both were equally efficient), whereas GPT-4's output showed the opposite pattern.

Lydia Uhler et al, Influence of solution efficiency and valence of instruction on additive and subtractive solution strategies in humans, GPT-4, and GPT-4o, Communications Psychology (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s44271-026-00403-0.

part 2

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