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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Tuesday

Things to know about rare earth elements

Rare earth elements, comprising 17 metals including the lanthanides, are essential for modern technologies due to their unique magnetic, conductive, and optical properties. Despite their name, they are relatively abundant but challenging to mine safely. Global supply is not limited to one country, though China dominates processing. Recovering rare earths from mine waste offers a sustainable supply option.
What are rare earth elements? Where do they come from? What's the big deal?

1. Everyday devices are possible because of rare earths
The phrase "rare earth elements" generally refers to 17 chemical elements, including Scandium, Yttrium and a 15-member family from atomic number 57 (Lanthanum) to 71 (Lutetium) called the lanthanides.

Many of them share magnetic, conductive and optical properties that make them useful as coatings and additives in alloys and glass and other materials used in a wide range of modern technology. These include jet engines, LED bulbs, fiber-optic cables, lasers and a lot of military technology.

"In some of those applications, it's safe to say rare earths are irreplaceable.
For example, neodymium and praseodymium make super powerful magnets that have enabled the miniaturization of technologies in phones and computers. These really powerful magnets make the magic happen in high-speed trains and MRI machines, too."

Not every application feels particularly high-tech. Seat belts in cars also use rare earth magnets.

"It's not due to a particular engineering need either. It turns out that when folks were developing the seat belt retracting mechanism, that was the type of magnet they had on the shelf."
2. 'Rare' is a misnomer
Rare earths are not, in fact, particularly rare. The rare earths name is a holdover from the 18th century, when Yttrium was discovered by a miner in Sweden. These elements were "rare" then, because nobody had seen them before. But now we know they can be found around the globe.

"Seventeen elements is actually a sizable chunk of the periodic table.
We're talking about a fair amount of the stuff that makes up Earth's crust, from an elemental and mineralogical standpoint. The rare earths that we use most commonly are as abundant as copper or lead."

They're just not particularly fun to dig up.

"The geological conditions that cause rare earths to come together in higher concentrations can also concentrate radioactive materials.
hat makes them hard to mine safely, and can really increase costs."

That doesn't mean rare earths are expensive. They're actually relatively cheap, trading at prices far lower than precious metals like gold or platinum. In China, which has 30% of the world's proven rare earth reserves, mines typically discard as much as half of the rare earths they dig up, because prices aren't high enough to put the effort into recovering more.
Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Tuesday

Earth formed from material exclusively from the inner solar system, planetary scientists show
Analysis of isotopic data from meteorites indicates that Earth's material originated almost entirely from the inner solar system, with less than 2% contribution from beyond Jupiter. This suggests minimal exchange between inner and outer solar system reservoirs, likely due to Jupiter acting as a barrier. Most volatile elements, including water, must have been present in the inner solar system during Earth's formation.

Paolo A. Sossi et al, Homogeneous accretion of the Earth in the inner Solar System, Nature Astronomy (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-026-02824-7

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Tuesday

Liquids can fracture like solids—researchers discover the breaking point

Simple liquids can fracture like solids when subjected to sufficient tensile stress, exhibiting brittle fracture at a critical stress of about 2 MPa. This behaviour is governed by viscosity rather than elasticity and appears consistent across different simple liquids, regardless of chemical composition. The finding challenges traditional views of fluid mechanics and suggests new avenues for manipulating liquids in various applications.

Thamires A. Lima et al, Unexpected Solidlike Fracture in Simple Liquids, Physical Review Letters (2026). DOI: 10.1103/t2vy-32wr

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Tuesday

Graphene oxide kills bacteria while sparing human cells

Hygiene in everyday items that touch the body—such as clothing, masks, and toothbrushes—is critically important. The underlying principle of how graphene selectively eliminates only bacteria has now been revealed. In Advanced Functional Materials, a  research team presents the potential for a next-generation antibacterial material that is safe for the human body and capable of replacing antibiotics.

The research team has identified the mechanism by which graphene oxide (GO) exhibits powerful antibacterial effects against bacteria while remaining harmless to human cells.

Graphene oxide is a nanomaterial consisting of an atomic level carbon layer (graphene) with oxygen attached; it is characterized by its ability to mix well with water and implement various functions.

This study is highly significant as it provides molecular level proof of graphene's antibacterial action, which had not been clearly understood until now.

The research team confirmed that graphene oxide performs "selective antibacterial action" by attaching to and destroying only the membranes of bacteria, much like a magnet attaches only to specific metals, while leaving human cells untouched. This occurs because the oxygen functional groups on the surface of graphene oxide selectively bind with a specific component (POPG) found only in bacterial cell membranes.
Simply put, it recognizes a "target" present only in bacterial membranes to attach and destroy the structure. In this context, phospholipids are fatty components that make up the membrane surrounding a cell, and POPG is a component primarily present in bacteria.

Furthermore, fibres using this material maintained their antibacterial functions even after multiple washes, showing potential for use in various industrial fields such as apparel and medical textiles.

This technology is already being applied to consumer products.

Sujin Cha et al, Biocompatible but Antibacterial Mechanism of Graphene Oxide for Sustainable Antibiotics, Advanced Functional Materials (2026). DOI: 10.1002/adfm.74695

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Tuesday

Human brain operates near, but not at, the critical point

A recent study published in Physical Review Letters reveals that many widely used signatures of criticality in brain data may be statistical artifacts. They propose a more robust framework that, when applied to whole-brain fMRI data, confirms the brain operates near, but not exactly at, a critical point.

Neuroscientists have long found the idea fascinating—that the brain operates near a "critical point," a phase transition between stable and chaotic dynamics. Theory suggests this sweet spot enhances computational flexibility, dynamic range, and sensitivity to inputs. Evidence has mounted over the years from neural recordings showing approximate scale invariance and power-law behavior across spatiotemporal scales.

Operating near a critical point can retain many of the proposed computational benefits, such as rich multiscale collective modes and strong but controllable amplification, while avoiding the drawbacks of sitting exactly at criticality, where small perturbations can lead to instability, runaway activity, or reduced robustness, the researchers say.

Rubén Calvo et al, Robust Scaling in Human Brain Dynamics Despite Correlated Inputs and Limited Sampling Distortions, Physical Review Letters (2026). DOI: 10.1103/36v9-wtm8.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Tuesday

Boosting good gut bacteria population through targeted interventions may slow cognitive decline

The gut is essentially an anaerobic ecosystem teeming with a vast mix of microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, and protozoa, collectively called the microbiota. These organisms settle across different regions of the gut lining and together form the bulk of the human microbiome, spanning over 1,000 microbial species.

Several studies have established that gut microbiota play a key role in brain development and cognition. As people age or maintain poor diets, the community of bacteria in the gut can shift from helpful to harmful, a state known as dysbiosis. Such imbalances in gut bacteria may quietly fuel brain decline by triggering inflammation, weakening the brain's protective barrier, and allowing harmful proteins linked to Alzheimer's to build up.

The origin of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's or dementia isn't limited to the brain. The state of your gut can quietly set off a cycle of chronic, system-wide inflammation that nudges the brain toward cognitive decline. But how does the pathogenesis of a disease that seems purely brain-based begin in the gut—an organ that is mostly busy producing chemicals for digesting food?

It turns out these two entities are linked by the gut-brain axis, a two-way communication superhighway that constantly sends signals between the digestive tract and the central nervous system. It runs on chemical messengers like neurotransmitters and fatty acids, sharing information that shapes our memory, mood, and inflammation triggers.

An analysis of 15 studies involving more than 4,200 participants found that the gut-brain highway can be put to work as a drug-free route to support cognitive health. Tuning the gut microbiota through diet, supplements, or medical interventions such as fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) can help improve memory, executive function, and overall cognitive performance, particularly in early or mild cases of cognitive impairment.

The credit for this protective effect goes to an increase in beneficial gut bacteria that produce compounds capable of slowing cognitive decline and reducing inflammation. The findings are published in Nutrition Research.

Sofia Libriani et al, The association between gut microbiota and cognitive decline: A systematic review of the literature, Nutrition Research (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.nutres.2026.01.003

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Monday

Mild hypoxia after premature birth may disrupt hippocampal communication, mouse study suggests
Mild hypoxia after premature birth impairs learning and memory into adulthood by disrupting neuron-to-neuron communication in the hippocampus. This effect involves altered function of a specific protein channel and a second regulatory protein. Restoring the second protein's function in adult mice reversed the channel impairment, indicating potential therapeutic targets for hypoxia-induced cognitive deficits.
During intensive care after preterm births, babies can experience low oxygen in their tissue and cells—or hypoxia. Hypoxia is linked to poor brain health outcomes and life-long memory issues, but the mechanisms are unclear.
Researchers discovered a contributing mechanism by creating a mouse model for mild hypoxia following premature birth.
This new study explores how mild hypoxia may alter brain development without direct brain injury in this neonatal period.
As presented in their JNeurosci paper, mild hypoxia shortly after birth hindered learning and memory into adulthood, and the researchers discovered, at least in part, the mechanism for this effect: altered neuron-to-neuron communication in the hippocampus.

Probing a molecular mechanism, the researchers found that hypoxia following premature birth affected a protein channel involved in neuron-to-neuron communication and memory that develops in the hippocampus during adolescence. They also identified a second protein that was involved in hypoxia's effects on the channel's functioning.

When the researchers targeted this second protein in adult mice, they restored the channel's function.
According to the authors, this work sheds light on how hypoxia in preterm babies influences neuron communication in memory-related brain regions to hinder learning and memory into adulthood.

Mild Neonatal Hypoxia Targets Synaptic Maturation, Disrupts Adult Hippocampal Learning and Memory, and is Associated with CK2-Mediated Loss of Synaptic Calcium-Activated Potassium Channel KCNN2 Activity, JNeurosci (2026). DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1643-25.2026

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Monday

Deuterium-labeled guinea pig helps scientists study metabolism

A guinea pig was raised exclusively on heavy water, resulting in deuterium incorporation into its biomolecules. Using mass spectrometry, the dynamics of deuterium labeling in various compounds were tracked, revealing synthesis rates and dietary contributions. This approach enables precise metabolic studies and supports the development of personalized nutrition strategies.
Scientists have raised the world's only isotope-labeled guinea pig. For 156 days, the animal, named Khryun, was given only heavy water to drink. Such water is non-radioactive and has long been used in biomedical research as a way to "label" molecules: the natural isotope deuterium accumulates in the chemical bonds of organic compounds and serves as a tracer for tracking their formation and breakdown. This approach can be useful for studying human metabolism, including the development of personalized medicine methods. The research results are published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.

Chemical elements exist in nature as isotopes—atoms with the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons. In heavy water, ordinary hydrogen atoms are replaced by its heavier isotope, deuterium. Isotopes have virtually identical chemical properties, allowing them to be used as invisible tracers. This very approach—replacing ordinary compounds with labeled ones and tracking their transformations—forms the basis for deciphering most biochemical processes.
To track how the isotopic labels became incorporated into various biological molecules, the researcher used high-performance liquid chromatography combined with high-resolution mass spectrometry.
The Mass spectrometry enables precise determination of the mass of all molecules present in a sample and distinguishes isotopes by their weight, making this method indispensable for such studies. The rate at which the label appears in a given compound reflects the intensity of its synthesis in the body.

The study determined the timeframes over which deuterium content in various substances reached steady-state levels. The final isotope content in each compound indicates to what extent it is synthesized by the body itself versus derived from food.

Oat shoots grown on heavy water were also produced. After Khryun ate them, the researcher determined how quickly the isotopically labeled substances from the oats became incorporated into the animal's own biological molecules.

 The study established a methodological framework for using isotopically labelled food to investigate individual metabolic characteristics, opening up enormous possibilities for metabolic control.

Yury Kostyukevich et al, Turnover Rate of Lipids, Metabolites and Proteins Revealed by 156-Day-Long D₂O Administration in a Guinea Pig, International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2026). DOI: 10.3390/ijms27041944

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Monday

Why drawing eyes on food packaging could stop seagulls stealing your chips

Displaying eye-like images on food packaging can deter some herring gulls from approaching and stealing food, as these birds are slower to approach and less likely to peck at boxes with eyes compared to plain ones. This response likely stems from an instinctive wariness of being watched, a behavior observed in many animals. However, the deterrent effect is not universal, with only about half of gulls consistently avoiding the eye-marked packaging.

https://theconversation.com/why-drawing-eyes-on-food-packaging-coul...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Monday

Altered colony chemistry reveals a process that destroys termite societies

Termite colony collapse is linked to the accumulation of uric acid in worker termites, particularly following changes in reproductive hierarchy. Elevated uric acid reduces reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, weakening immune responses and increasing susceptibility to infections, which ultimately leads to colony decline. This process highlights the importance of internal chemical balance for colony stability.

Takao Konishi et al, What kills a society: accumulation of uric acid increases infectious disease risk in termites, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2026). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2025.2438.

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