Comment

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 15, 2025 at 10:32am

Some scholars have proposed that language capacity dates back a couple of million years, based on the physiological characteristics of other primates. But to the researchers of this study, the question is not when primates could utter certain sounds; it is when humans had the cognitive ability to develop language as we know it, combining vocabulary and grammar into a system generating an infinite amount of rules-based expression.
Human language is qualitatively different because there are two things, words and syntax, working together to create this very complex system. No other animal has a parallel structure in their communication system. And that gives us the ability to generate very sophisticated thoughts and to communicate them to others, they argue.
This conception of human language origins also holds that humans had the cognitive capacity for language for some period of time before we constructed our first languages.

Language is both a cognitive system and a communication system. Prior to 135,000 years ago, it did start out as a private cognitive system, but relatively quickly that turned into a communications system.
So, how can we know when distinctively human language was first used? The archaeological record is invaluable in this regard. Roughly 100,000 years ago, the evidence shows, there was a widespread appearance of symbolic activity, from meaningful markings on objects to the use of fire to produce ocher, a decorative red color.
Like our complex, highly generative language, these symbolic activities are engaged in by people, and no other creatures. As the paper notes, "behaviors compatible with language and the consistent exercise of symbolic thinking are detectable only in the archaeological record of H. sapiens.
So Language was the trigger for modern human behavior. Somehow, it stimulated human thinking and helped create these kinds of behaviors. If we are right, people were learning from each other [due to language] and encouraging innovations of the types we saw 100,000 years ago.
To be sure, as the authors acknowledge in the paper, other scholars think there was a more incremental and broad-based development of new activities around 100,000 years ago, involving materials, tools, and social coordination, with language playing a role in this, but not necessarily being the central force.

Shigeru Miyagawa et al, Linguistic capacity was present in the Homo sapiens population 135 thousand years ago, Frontiers in Psychology (2025). DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1503900

Part 3

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 15, 2025 at 10:27am

The new paper examines 15 genetic studies of different varieties, published over the past 18 years: three used data about the inherited Y chromosome, three examined mitochondrial DNA, and nine were whole-genome studies.

All told, the data from these studies suggest an initial regional branching of humans about 135,000 years ago. That is, after the emergence of Homo sapiens, groups of people subsequently moved apart geographically, and some resulting genetic variations have developed, over time, among the different regional subpopulations.

The amount of genetic variation shown in the studies allows researchers to estimate the point in time at which Homo sapiens was still one regionally undivided group.
The studies collectively provide increasingly converging evidence about when these geographic splits started taking place.

The first survey of this type was performed by other scholars in 2017, but they had fewer existing genetic studies to draw upon. Now, there are much more published data available, which, when considered together, points to 135,000 years ago as the likely time of the first split.
This new meta-analysis was possible because quantity-wise we have more studies, and quality-wise, it's a narrower window [of time].
Many linguists think all human languages are demonstrably related to each other.
Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 15, 2025 at 10:25am

Genomic study indicates our capacity for language emerged 135,000 years ago

 When did human language as we know it emerge? A new survey of genomic evidence suggests our unique language capacity was present at least 135,000 years ago. Subsequently, language might have entered social use 100,000 years ago.

Our species, Homo sapiens, is about 230,000 years old. Estimates of when language originated vary widely, based on different forms of evidence, from fossils to cultural artifacts. The authors of the new analysis took a different approach. They reasoned that since all human languages likely have a common origin—as the researchers strongly think—the key question is how far back in time regional groups began spreading around the world.

The logic is simple: Every population branching across the globe has human language, and all languages are related.

Based on what the genomics data indicate about the geographic divergence of early human populations. So we can say with a fair amount of certainty that the first split occurred about 135,000 years ago, so human language capacity must have been present by then, or before.

The paper based on this argument, "Linguistic capacity was present in the Homo sapiens population 135 ...," appears in Frontiers in Psychology.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 15, 2025 at 10:17am

Scientists propose another possibility with this research. The researchers first investigated how droplets of water developed different charges when divided by a spray or splash.

They found that larger droplets often carried positive charges, while smaller ones were negative. When the oppositely charged droplets came close to each other, sparks jumped between them. The researchers call this "microlightning," since the process is related to the way energy is built up and discharged as lightning in clouds. The researchers used high-speed cameras to document the flashes of light, which are hard to detect with the human eye.

Even though the tiny flashes of microlightning may be hard to see, they still carry a lot of energy. The researchers demonstrated that power by sending sprays of room-temperature water into a gas mixture containing nitrogen, methane, carbon dioxide, and ammonia gases, which are all thought to be present on early Earth.
This resulted in the formation of organic molecules with carbon-nitrogen bonds, including hydrogen cyanide, the amino acid glycine, and uracil.

The researchers argue that these findings indicate that it was not necessarily lightning strikes, but the tiny sparks made by crashing waves or waterfalls that jump-started life on this planet.
On early Earth, there were water sprays all over the place—into crevices or against rocks, and they can accumulate and create this chemical reaction, they say. We usually think of water as so benign, but when it's divided in the form of little droplets, water is highly reactive.

Yifan Meng et al, Spraying of Water Microdroplets Forms Luminescence and Causes Chemical Reactions in Surrounding Gas, Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adt8979. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adt8979

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 15, 2025 at 10:14am

'Microlightning' in water droplets may have sparked life on Earth

Life may not have begun with a dramatic lightning strike into the ocean but from many smaller "microlightning" exchanges among water droplets from crashing waterfalls or breaking waves.

New research shows that water sprayed into a mixture of gases thought to be present in Earth's early atmosphere can lead to the formation of organic molecules with carbon-nitrogen bonds, including uracil, one of the components of DNA and RNA.

The study, published in the journal Science Advances, adds evidence—and a new angle—to the much-disputed Miller-Urey hypothesis, which argues that life on the planet started from a lightning strike. That theory is based on a 1952 experiment showing that organic compounds could form with the application of electricity to a mixture of water and inorganic gases.

In the current study, the researchers found that water spray, which produces small electrical charges, could do that work all by itself, no added electricity necessary.

Microelectric discharges between oppositely charged water microdroplets make all the organic molecules observed previously in the Miller-Urey experiment, and the researchers propose that this is a new mechanism for the prebiotic synthesis of molecules that constitute the building blocks of life.

For a couple billion years after its formation, Earth is believed to have had a swirl of chemicals but almost no organic molecules with carbon-nitrogen bonds, which are essential for proteins, enzymes, nucleic acids, chlorophyll, and other compounds that make up living things today.

How these biological components came about has long puzzled scientists, and the Miller-Urey experiment provided one possible explanation: that lightning striking into the ocean and interacting with early planet gases like methane, ammonia, and hydrogen could create these organic molecules.

Critics of that theory have pointed out that lightning is too infrequent and the ocean too large and dispersed for this to be a realistic cause.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 14, 2025 at 12:51pm

WORLD-FIRST: Aussie man leaves hospital with totally artificial Titanium heart

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 14, 2025 at 10:24am

Scientists from IOCB Prague are on track of finding a treatment for autoimmune hair loss

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 14, 2025 at 9:39am

Oral snakebite treatment

Researchers  have completed a Phase I clinical trial for a new oral treatment for snakebite.

The study, conducted by researchers from the Center for Snakebite Research & Interventions (CSRI) at LSTM and the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi and published in the journal eBioMedicine, shows that the drug, unithiol, is safe, well tolerated, and easy to administer in remote rural clinics, paving the way for its development as a field-ready treatment.

Unithiol is already approved for treating heavy metal poisoning but was identified for study in the treatment of snakebite envenoming due to its ability to neutralize snake venom metalloproteinases (SVMPs). These zinc-based toxin components, found in the venoms of vipers and many other snakes, are responsible for causing severe tissue damage and life-threatening bleeding in snakebite patients.

Snakebite envenoming remains a major global health challenge, causing more than 140,000 deaths a year, mainly in rural Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia. Current antivenom treatments are costly, can cause severe side effects and must be administered intravenously in hospital settings, barriers that delay life-saving intervention.

The animal-derived antivenoms used today are based on 100-year-old principles.

Small molecule therapeutics, such as unithiol, have the potential to be safer and cheaper and can be taken easily as a pill.

The phase 1 trial  has shown that unithiol is safe even at the high doses that the researchers think will be needed to treat snakebite, so they could be on the cusp of bringing snakebite treatment  into the 21st century and vastly improving patient outcomes.

Preclinical research by LSTM scientists previously demonstrated that unithiol could prevent the worst effects of venom and potentially save lives. The phase 1 clinical trial assessed different doses of unithiol in oral and intravenous forms. All showed no serious side effects, even at the maximum dose, and analysis of participants' blood found that the drug was rapidly absorbed and present at levels expected to inhibit snake venom toxins.

Based on these findings, the LSTM team will advance unithiol to phase 2 clinical trials, where the drug will be tested in patients who have been bitten and envenomed by snakes. If successful, unithiol could be rapidly deployed in rural clinics and first-aid settings, buying snakebite victims valuable time to get to a hospital and reducing the severity of envenoming.

A word of caution though: While unithiol may not be a cure by itself, the scientists hope that it will prevent the worst effects of snakebite envenoming and buy victims valuable time to get to a hospital, thereby reducing their risk of death or disability.

 Michael Abouyannis et al, Development of an oral regimen of unithiol for the treatment of snakebite envenoming: a phase 1 open-label dose-escalation safety trial and pharmacokinetic analysis in healthy Kenyan adults, eBioMedicine (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2025.105600

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 14, 2025 at 8:19am

Violent supernovae 'triggered at least two Earth extinctions,' study suggests

At least two mass extinction events in Earth's history were likely caused by the "devastating" effects of nearby supernova explosions, a new study suggests.

Researchers note that   these super-powerful blasts—caused by the death of a massive star—may have previously stripped our planet's atmosphere of its ozone, sparked acid rain and exposed life to harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun.

They think a supernova explosion close to Earth could be to blame for both the late Devonian and Ordovician extinction events, which occurred 372 and 445 million years ago respectively.

The Ordovician extinction killed 60% of marine invertebrates at a time when life was largely confined to the sea, while the late Devonian wiped out around 70% of all species and led to huge changes in the kind of fish that existed in our ancient seas and lakes.

Past research has failed to identify a clear cause for either event, although they are thought to have been linked to the depletion of Earth's ozone layer, which could have been triggered by a supernova.

The new study, published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, found that the rate supernovae occur near to our planet is consistent with the timings of both mass extinctions.

The authors say it is a "a great illustration for how massive stars can act as both creators and destructors of life."

That's because supernovae are also known to spread the heavy elements that help form and support life across the universe.

Supernovae occur when massive stars reach the end of their lives, run out of fuel, cool off, and then collapse under the pressure of gravity. The explosions are the biggest humans have ever seen.

Supernova explosions bring heavy chemical elements into the interstellar medium, which are then used to form new stars and planets.

But if a planet, including the Earth, is located too close to this kind of event, this can have devastating effects.

Supernova explosions are some of the most energetic explosions in the universe.

"If a massive star were to explode as a supernova close to the Earth, the results would be devastating for life on Earth. This research suggests that this may have already happened", they add.

The researchers came to their conclusion after carrying out a "census" of massive stars within a kiloparsec (around 3,260 light-years) of the sun.

Alexis L. Quintana et al, A census of OB stars within 1 kpc and the star formation and core collapse supernova rates of the Milky Way, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societyacademic.oup.com/mnras/article … 0.1093/mnras/staf083 . On arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2503.08286

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 14, 2025 at 8:07am

They tried out three different delivery viruses and found that a retrovirus achieved the most efficient rate of conversion. Reducing the density of cells grown in the dish also helped to improve the overall yield of motor neurons. This optimized process, which takes about two weeks in mouse cells, achieved a yield of more than 1,000%.

Proliferation history and transcription factor levels drive direct conversion to motor neurons, Cell Systems (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2025.101205. www.cell.com/cell-systems/full … 2405-4712(25)00038-9

Compact transcription factor cassettes generate functional, engraftable motor neurons by direct conversion, Cell Systems (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2025.101206. www.cell.com/cell-systems/full … 2405-4712(25)00039-0

Part 2

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