How RNA travels between cells to control genes across generations

RNA-based medicines are one of the most promising ways to fight human disease, as demonstrated by the recent successes of RNA vaccines and double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) therapies. But while health care providers can now successfully develop drugs that use dsRNA to accurately target and silence disease-causing genes, a major challenge remains: getting these potentially life-saving RNA molecules into cells efficiently.

A new study published in the journal eLife on February 4, 2025, may lead to breakthroughs in RNA-based drug development.

Researchers used microscopic roundworms as a model to investigate how dsRNA molecules naturally enter cells and influence many future generations. The team discovered multiple pathways for dsRNA to enter the worms' cells—a finding that could help improve drug delivery methods in humans.

Researchers learned that RNA molecules can carry specific instructions not just between cells but across many generations, which adds a new layer to our current understanding of how inheritance works.

The researchers  found that a protein called SID-1, which acts as a gatekeeper for the transfer of information using dsRNA, also has a role in regulating genes across generations.

When researchers removed the SID-1 protein, they observed that the worms unexpectedly became better at passing changes in gene expression to their offspring. In fact, these changes persisted for over 100 generations—even after SID-1 was restored to the worms.

Interestingly, you can find proteins similar to SID-1 in other animals, including humans. Understanding SID-1 and its role has significant implications for human medicine. If we can learn how this protein controls RNA transfer between cells, we could potentially develop better targeted treatments for human diseases and perhaps even control the inheritance of certain disease states.

The research team also discovered a gene called sdg-1 that helps regulate "jumping genes"—DNA sequences that tend to move or copy themselves to different locations on a chromosome. While jumping genes can introduce new genetic variations that may be beneficial, they are more likely to disrupt existing sequences and cause disease.

The researchers found that sdg-1 is located within a jumping gene but produces proteins that are used to control jumping genes, creating a self-regulating loop that could prevent unwanted movements and changes.

It's fascinating how these cellular mechanisms maintain this delicate balance, like a thermostat keeping a house at just the right temperature so it isn't too warm or too cold. The system needs to be flexible enough to allow some 'jumping' activity while preventing excessive movements that could harm the organism.

These findings  provide valuable insights into how animals regulate their own genes and maintain stable gene expression across generations. Studying these mechanisms could potentially pave the way for innovative future treatments for heritable diseases in humans.

 Nathan M Shugarts Devanapally et al, Intergenerational transport of double-stranded RNA in C. elegans can limit heritable epigenetic changes, eLife (2025). DOI: 10.7554/eLife.99149.3

Antibiotic resistance can spread unpredictably into the environment, living on mineral surfaces

Imagine one of world's many picturesque beaches, the waves lapping against the shore, the golden sand and the smooth pebbles. That sounds like a beautiful moment in time. But under the surface, there is more to the story.

A new study, published in Science of The Total Environment,  shows that the sand on that beach may contain antibiotic resistant DNA. Flow and currents in rivers, lakes, streams and the sea, suspend and move mineral particles making it possible for suspended DNA to attach and travel long distances.

The DNA that codes for antibiotic resistance may have been carried into the environment by wastewater from hospitals or farming. If left alone in the water column, the DNA will degrade fast, but if it binds to bypassing mineral surfaces the DNA can be stabilized and survive. Deposited minerals can thus act as a sort of gene library carrying genes from one environment to another, and this may cause antibiotic resistance to spread.

Even though the DNA is bound to the particles, local bacteria can incorporate the DNA and become resistant. Once incorporated, the resistance can spread rapidly to neighboring bacteria and to offspring. In this way, antibiotic resistance can spread unpredictably to new environments—even though these bacteria have never seen a high-resistance environment.

According to the new study, the type of mineral plays a large role for how fast bacteria can incorporate mineral-bound DNA and how fast the obtained trait is disseminated throughout a community. In addition, some mineral grains can both up-concentrate and preserve DNA, while others can only carry a few molecules.

The researchers hope to be able to find an antidote of sorts, a mineral compound that can prevent bacteria from incorporating the DNA or the DNA from spreading in biofilm.

Saghar Hendiani et al, Reconciling the role of mineral surfaces for bacterial evolution: Importance of minerals in the dissemination of antibiotic resistance, Science of The Total Environment (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.178301

Air pollution clouds the mind and makes everyday tasks challenging, researchers discover

People's ability to interpret emotions or focus on performing a task is reduced by short-term exposure to particulate matter (PM) air pollution, potentially making everyday activities, such as the weekly supermarket shop, more challenging, a new study reveals.

Scientists discovered that even brief exposure to high concentrations of PM may impair a person's ability to focus on tasks, avoid distractions, and behave in a socially acceptable manner.

Researchers exposed study participants to either high levels of air pollution—using candle smoke—or clean air, testing cognitive abilities before and four hours after exposure. The tests measured working memory, selective attention, emotion recognition, psychomotor speed, and sustained attention.

Publishing their findings on 6 Feb in Nature Communications, researchers  reveal that selective attention and emotion recognition were negatively affected by air pollution—regardless of whether subjects breathed normally or only through their mouths.

The experts suggest that inflammation caused by pollution may be responsible for these deficits, noting that while selective attention and emotion recognition were affected, working memory was not. This indicates that some brain functions are more resilient to short-term pollution exposure.

 Acute particulate matter exposure diminishes executive cognitive functioning after four hours regardless of inhalation pathway, Nature Communications (2025).

Mercury content in tuna can be reduced with new packaging solution

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), mercury is one of the ten most harmful chemicals for humans. Exposure can damage the central nervous system, with fetuses and young children being particularly sensitive to the effects. That is why dietary recommendations for pregnant women advise caution with tuna consumption.

Fish is a high-quality source of protein, containing omega-3 fatty acids and many other beneficial nutrients. However, the accumulation of toxic mercury also makes fish consumption a concern, of which tuna is particularly susceptible.

Researchers have come up with a novel approach to packaging canned tuna infused in a water-based solution of amino acid cysteine. It was shown to remove up to 35% of the accumulated mercury in canned tuna, significantly reducing human exposure to mercury via food. The research is published in the journal Global Challenges.

The concept of so-called active packaging is to develop materials, like a liquid inside a can, that interacts with food during storage to increase the shelf life.

This study shows that there are alternative approaches to addressing mercury contamination in tuna, rather than just limiting consumption. 

In the study, the researchers discovered that the greater the surface area of fish flesh in contact with the cysteine solution, the higher the mercury uptake. The highest value of mercury reduction, 35%, was reached when testing canned minced tuna, from regular grocery stores. They also discovered a maximum threshold of two weeks, after which no further changes occurred.

In the current study, however, the researchers did not observe any noticeable changes in appearance or smell of the tested fish samples. Cell-based assays have also proven the safety of the developed technology.

Przemysław Strachowski et al, New Insight into Mercury Removal from Fish Meat Using a Single‐Component Solution Containing cysteine, Global Challenges (2024). DOI: 10.1002/gch2.202400161

Scientists discover brain mechanism that helps overcome fear

Researchers have unveiled the precise brain mechanisms that enable animals to overcome instinctive fears. Published in Science, the study in mice could have implications for developing therapeutics for fear-related disorders such as phobias, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The researchers mapped out how the brain learns to suppress responses to perceived threats that prove harmless over time.

Humans are born with instinctive fear reactions, such as responses to loud noises or fast-approaching objects. However, we can override these instinctive responses through experience—like children learning to enjoy fireworks rather than fear their loud bangs. Scientists are trying  to understand the brain mechanisms that underlie such forms of learning.

Using an innovative experimental approach, the research team studied mice presented with an overhead expanding shadow that mimicked an approaching aerial predator. Initially, the mice sought shelter when encountering this visual threat.

However, with repeated exposure and no actual danger, the mice learned to remain calm instead of escaping, providing researchers with a model to study the suppression of fear responses.

Based on previous work , the team knew that an area of the brain called the ventrolateral geniculate nucleus (vLGN) could suppress fear reactions when active and was able to track knowledge of previous experience of threat. The vLGN also receives strong input from visual areas in the cerebral cortex, and so the researchers explored whether this neural pathway had a role in learning not to fear a visual threat.

The study revealed two key components in this learning process: 1) specific regions of the visual cortex proved essential for the learning process, and 2) a brain structure called the ventrolateral geniculate nucleus (vLGN) stores these learning-induced memories.

found that animals failed to learn to suppress their fear responses when specific cortical visual areas were inactivated. However, once the animals had already learned to stop escaping, the cerebral cortex was no longer necessary.

The new results challenge traditional views about learning and memory.

Part 1

While the cerebral cortex has long been considered the brain's primary center for learning, memory and behavioral flexibility, we found the subcortical vLGN and not the visual cortex actually stores these crucial memories. This neural pathway can provide a link between cognitive neocortical processes and 'hard-wired' brainstem-mediated behaviors, enabling animals to adapt instinctive behaviors.
The researchers also uncovered the cellular and molecular mechanisms behind this process. Learning occurs through increased neural activity in specific vLGN neurons, triggered by the release of endocannabinoids—brain-internal messenger molecules known to regulate mood and memory.

This release decreases inhibitory input to vLGN neurons, resulting in heightened activity in this brain area when the visual threat stimulus is encountered, which suppresses fear responses.
The implications of this discovery extend beyond the laboratory.
These findings could also help advance our understanding of what is going wrong in the brain when fear response regulation is impaired in conditions such as phobias, anxiety and PTSD. While instinctive fear reactions to predators may be less relevant for modern humans, the brain pathway we discovered exists in humans too.

This could open new avenues for treating fear disorders by targeting vLGN circuits or localized endocannabinoid systems.

Sara Mederos et al, Overwriting an instinct: Visual cortex instructs learning to suppress fear responses, Science (2025). DOI: 10.1126/science.adr2247. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adr2247

Part 2

Why some heavy drinkers develop advanced liver disease, while others do not

Why do some people who consume a few glasses of alcohol a day develop advanced liver disease while others who drink the same amount don't? The answer may lie in three common underlying medical conditions, according to a new study published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology from Keck Medicine of USC. The research found that heavy drinkers with either diabetes, high blood pressure or a high waist circumference are as much as 2.4 times more likely to develop advanced liver disease.

The results identify a very high-risk segment of the population prone to liver disease and suggest that preexisting health issues may have a large impact on how alcohol affects the liver.

Diabetes, high blood pressure and a high waist circumference (35 inches for women; 40 inches for men), which is associated with obesity, belong to a cluster of five health conditions that influence an individual's risk for heart attack and stroke known as cardiometabolic risk factors.

Cardiometabolic risk factors have been linked to the buildup of fat in the liver (also known as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease), which can lead to fibrosis, or scarring of the liver.

Alcohol also causes fat buildup in the liver.

Researchers discovered that heavy drinkers with either diabetes or a high waist circumference were 2.4 times more likely to develop advanced liver disease and those with high blood pressure 1.8 times more likely.

They found that the other two cardiometabolic risk factors—high triglycerides (elevated levels of a type of fat in the blood) and low HDL (high-density lipoprotein or "good" cholesterol) had less significant correlations to liver disease.

 Brian P. Lee et al, Association of Alcohol and Incremental Cardiometabolic Risk Factors with Liver Disease: A National Cross-Sectional Study, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cgh.2025.01.003

Toxic dangers lurk in LA, even in homes that didn’t burn

Houses still standing after the LA fires may release dangerous chemicals indoors for months.

Even as firefighters douse the deadly LA wildfires, a more insidious danger remains. Chemicals from the ashy residue of thousands of burned homes and cars, scorched plastic pipes and even lifesaving fire retardants have blanketed parts of the region.

And that may jeopardize the immediate health of people living near burn zones for months to come. Long-term health consequences are also possible.

Wildfires’ aftermath may expose people to toxic chemicals and harmful particles in the air and water both outside and inside their homes, experts warn.

Ash, soot and other pollutants that settle out of smoke may get stirred up and resuspended by wind and as people move about. These emissions are not necessarily captured by the regional air quality monitoring.

So even if your city’s air “looks good or healthy or green, that doesn’t necessarily indicate that the air quality is good around your home.” That’s especially a problem for those living close to burned areas but may be an issue kilometers away, too.

Part 1

Exactly what may be in the air depends on the fuels that fed the fire. Smoke from burning vegetation is full of fine particles and chemicals, including ozone, sulfur dioxide, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and other volatile compounds that can be hazardous to health.

Increasingly, urban areas are burning too, especially as development snuggles up next to wildlands. So heavy metals are another health worry.

Urban wildfires represent a unique challenge because of the types of pollutants that are generated.
When buildings and automobiles burn, heavy metals, such as lead and copper, get dispersed. Older homes may release asbestos fibers. Plastics and electronics give off noxious chemicals and metals. All of that can contaminate air, soil and water.
Some worry that the chemicals used to fight the fire pose a risk, too. Among the many iconic images of the LA fires were low-flying planes dumping fire retardants that painted neighborhoods red.
But the main component of fire retardant “is ammonium phosphate, which is basically just fertilizer,” say the experts. “The red color comes from iron oxide, which is more or less rust.” Gum or other thickeners may be added. Those are “not so harmful,” they say.

Source: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/toxic-danger-lurk-burn-los-ange...

Part 2

Common bacterial infection may trigger lung transplant rejection

A large team of surgeons and organ transplant researchers affiliated with multiple institutions  has found an association between lung transplant patients who become infected with the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa and rejection of the transplanted lung.

In their study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the group analyzed lung transplant case histories looking for patients with P. aeruginosa and lung rejection.  Other researchers have published a Focus piece in the same journal issue outlining the work.

The relief that patients with sick lungs experience after a lung transplant is often quickly displaced by fear of their body rejecting the new lungs despite immunosuppressive drugs. Lung transplantation has one of the lowest rates of success of all organ transplants. One of the team members noticed that many patients who experienced lung rejection also had a P. aeruginosa infection.

The team wondered if such infections played a role in transplant rejections. To find out, they analyzed patient case histories and found the rate to be higher than expected. This prompted them to conduct experiments with lab mice.

In their lab experiments, otherwise healthy lab mice were infected with P. aeruginosa and were then given new lungs from another mouse. As the team monitored their progress, they found that the test mice infected with P. aeruginosa experienced bacterial spread to lymphoid tissue, where the infection killed CD4+ cells. That led to growth in the number of B cells expressing a protein called CXCR3, which were sensitive to antigens in the donated lungs. As a result, the B cells produced donor-specific antibodies, which led to rejection of the lungs.

The team also found that giving the test mice drugs that blocked the expression of CXCR3 by the B cells inhibited the mechanism that led to rejection, allowing the mice to keep their new lungs. Thus, the team not only found a possible association between P. aeruginosa infections and rejection of transplanted lungs, but a possible solution for the problem.

Fuyi Liao et al, Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection induces intragraft lymphocytotoxicity that triggers lung transplant antibody-mediated rejection, Science Translational Medicine (2025). DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.adp1349

Idaira M. Guerrero-Fonseca et al, No tolerance for Pseudomonas in lung transplants, Science Translational Medicine (2025). DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.adu6563

Evidence of cannibalism by ancient Magdalenian people found in cave in Poland

A team of archaeologists, paleontologists, and historians from several institutions in Spain, Germany, and Poland, has found evidence of Magdalenian people from approximately 18,000 years ago, living in a cave in what is now Poland, engaging in cannibalism. In their paper published in Scientific Reports, the group describes their analysis of bones found in the cave many years ago, and the evidence that strongly suggests that the early people were consuming human flesh.

Prior research has shown that multiple groups or entire cultures have at times throughout human history engaged in cannibalism. The practice has most often been performed as part of a ritual of some sort, although there are also many examples of people resorting to eating the remains of others in their group due to starvation conditions.

For this new study, the researchers took a new look at bones and bone fragments that had been removed from Maszycka Cave in southern Poland from digs that took place in the 19th century and as recently as the 1960s. Because the bones had been broken and splintered, it was not known until now that they were even of human origin.

In taking a close look at some of the fragments, the researchers noted there were marks on them consistent with marks on bones from animals that had been cut up and consumed. They also found that many of the bones had been cracked open so that the nutrient-rich marrow inside could be removed, and perhaps also consumed. They also note that the human bones were mixed in among bone fragments of other animals which had the same types of cut marks on them, suggesting they too were consumed.

The final piece of evidence was the timing; all the bones were from roughly the same time period, suggesting that they had been entombed together, possibly during a single event. Also, the bones are from a time not long after the last ice age—as more land opened up with the receding ice, cannibalism may have reflected the violence of competing for territory.

The research team suggests that taken together, the evidence strongly suggests cannibalism, though they acknowledge there is a little wiggle room. Some early cultures have been known to strip the bones of their dead clean as a form of ritual or burial. They note it is possible the people who left the bones behind were doing something similar.

 Francesc Marginedas et al, New insights of cultural cannibalism amongst Magdalenian groups at Maszycka Cave, Poland, Scientific Reports (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-86093-w

**

PRESS RELEASE sent to me by DST, Govt. of India to share online:

CSIR-NIIST develops technology for converting biomedical waste into soil additives

· Science & Technology Minister Jitendra Singh to launch the Research-based Point-of-Care Validation of technology at AIIMS New Delhi on Feb 10

New Delhi, Feb 08: Union Minister for Science and Technology Dr. Jitendra Singh will formally launch an automated biomedical waste conversion rig that can disinfect pathogenic biomedical waste such as blood, urine, sputum, and laboratory disposables, without the use of costly and energy-intensive incinerators, besides imparting a pleasant fragrance to these foul-smelling toxic waste.

The rig, christened as “Sṛjanam” and developed by CSIR-NIIST based at Thiruvananthapuram, will be installed and commissioned at a function at AIIMS, New Delhi on February 10.

The prototype equipment, with a daily capacity of 400 kg, can handle 10 kg degradable medical waste per day in the initial phase. The technology, once validated, will be ready for full-scale implementation after securing approval from competent authorities.

Through this technology, CSIR-NIIST (National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology) aims at an innovative and alternative solution for the safe, inexpensive and environment-friendly disposal of pathogenic biomedical waste.

The event will be attended by Dr. M Srinivas, Director, AIIMS New Delhi; Dr. (Mrs.) N Kalaiselvi, Secretary, DSIR & DG, CSIR; Shri Tanmay Kumar, Secretary, MoEFCC; Dr Rajiv Bahl, Secretary, DHR & DG, ICMR; and Dr. V K Paul, Member, NITI Aayog.

Dr. C Anandharamakrishnan, Director, CSIR-NIIST, will propose the vote of thanks.

The technology, developed by CSIR-NIIST, has been confirmed by expert third-parties for its antimicrobial action and non-toxic nature of the treated material. It can also disinfect laboratory disposables for direct recycling. Soil studies have confirmed that the treated biomedical waste is superior to organic fertilizers like vermicompost.

“With its potential to transform treated waste into value-added soil additives with minimal human intervention, our technology provides a safer solution for healthcare facilities, avoids the risk of spills and occupational exposure, and assists in preventing uncontrolled spread of infectious microbes,” said Dr. C Anandharamakrishnan.

India produces 743 tonnes of biomedical waste daily, according to the 2023 annual report of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). It presents a significant challenge for proper management and disposal.

Improper segregation, open dumping, open burning, and inadequate incineration lead to severe health hazards, such as the release of harmful human carcinogens, particulate matter, and ash residues. Increased biomedical waste generation demands more transportation facilities, increasing the risk of accidents and spills. The WHO has also emphasized the importance of innovative and alternative protocols for pathogenic biomedical waste disposal.

Dr. C Anandharamakrishnan said the dumping of biomedical waste at any premise is prohibited by law. However, there have been several incidents of dumping the biomedical waste generated in one state across the borders of the neighbouring states.

Incineration is a costly energy-intensive strategy that forces the stakeholders to adopt simpler and cheaper, but sometimes illegal means, to dispose biomedical waste.

Earth's inner core is less solid than previously thought

The surface of the Earth's inner core may be changing, as shown by a new study by  scientists that detected structural changes near the planet's center, published in Nature Geoscience.

The changes of the inner core have long been a topic of debate for scientists. However, most research has been focused on assessing rotation.

Located 3,000 miles below the Earth's surface, the inner core is anchored by gravity within the molten liquid outer core. Until now, the inner core was widely thought of as a solid sphere.

But a study conducted recently showed a different picture.

The study utilized seismic waveform data—including 121 repeating earthquakes from 42 locations near Antarctica's South Sandwich Islands that occurred between 1991 and 2024—to give a glimpse of what takes place in the inner core.

As the researchers analyzed the waveforms from receiver-array stations located near Fairbanks, Alaska, and Yellowknife, Canada, one dataset of seismic waves from the latter station included uncharacteristic properties the team had never seen before.

 The new study indicates that the near surface of the inner core may undergo viscous deformation, changing its shape and shifting at the inner core's shallow boundary.

The clearest cause of the structural change is interaction between the inner and outer core. The molten outer core is widely known to be turbulent, but its turbulence had not been observed to disrupt its neighbour the inner core on a human timescale.

The discovery opens a door to reveal previously hidden dynamics deep within Earth's core, and may lead to better understanding of Earth's thermal and magnetic field.

John Vidale, Annual-scale variability in both the rotation rate and near surface of Earth's inner core, Nature Geoscience (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01642-2. www.nature.com/articles/s41561-025-01642-2

Potassium-enriched salt shows promise for cutting recurrent stroke risk in clinical trial

Potassium supplements in salt were associated with reduced rates of recurrent stroke and mortality in a large-scale cluster randomized clinical trial involving patients.

Findings come from a subgroup (stroke patients) analysis within the original Salt Substitute and Stroke Study (SSaSS), an international study conducted by researchers.

Stroke ranks among the top causes of death and disability in low- and middle income countries, and recurrent events remain a major concern. High sodium intake and low potassium intake are considered key risk factors.

The SSaSS trial involved 600 villages and 20,995 individuals in rural China. In the previous studies, researchers replaced participants' salt with a 75% salt, 25% potassium chloride substitute.

In the study, "Salt Substitution and Recurrent Stroke and Death: A Randomized Clinical Trial," published in JAMA Cardiology, the team analyzed data from 15,249 participants who had previously reported suffering from stroke.

Researchers used data from the original study, which monitored blood pressure, stroke recurrence, mortality, and safety outcomes, including hyperkalemia risk. Urinary sodium/potassium excretion was also tracked.

Over the study period, recurrent stroke was 14% lower in the 25% potassium substitute group compared with the regular salt group, the same as found in the original full cohort study.

Mean systolic blood pressure over follow-up was lower in the salt substitute group compared with controls. A total of 2,735 recurrent stroke events occurred, with 691 fatal and 2,044 nonfatal episodes.

Hemorrhagic stroke showed a 30% relative reduction, and stroke-related deaths decreased by 21%. No meaningful difference in hyperkalemia was observed between groups.

Findings indicate that salt reduction with 25% potassium is a safe, low-cost dietary intervention that can reduce stroke recurrence and mortality among stroke survivors. Researchers suggest broader implementation of salt substitutes, particularly in regions with high sodium intake and limited access to preventive health care.

Xiong Ding et al, Salt Substitution and Recurrent Stroke and Death, JAMA Cardiology (2025). DOI: 10.1001/jamacardio.2024.5417

Almost all nations miss UN deadline for new climate targets

Nearly all nations missed a UN deadline Monday to submit new targets for slashing carbon emissions, including major economies under pressure to show leadership following the US retreat on climate change.

Just 10 of nearly 200 countries required under the Paris Agreement to deliver fresh climate plans by February 10 did so on time, according to a UN database tracking the submissions.

Under the climate accord, each country is supposed to provide a steeper headline figure for cutting heat-trapping emissions by 2035, and a detailed blueprint for how to achieve this.

Global emissions have been rising but need to almost halve by the end of the decade to limit global warming to safer levels agreed under the Paris deal.

This latest round of national pledges are the most important policy documents of this century.

Yet just a handful of major polluters handed in upgraded targets on time, with China, India and the European Union the biggest names on a lengthy absentee list.

Most G20 economies were missing in action with the United States, Britain and Brazil—which is hosting this year's UN climate summit—the only exceptions.

There is no penalty for submitting late targets, formally titled nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

They are not legally binding but act as an accountability measure to ensure countries are taking climate change seriously and doing their fair share toward achieving the Paris goals.

The sluggish response will not ease fears of a possible backslide on climate action as leaders juggle Trump's return and other competing priorities from budget and security crises to electoral pressure.

Source: News Agencies

Helping Evolution: How humans unintentionally altered the skulls of pigs

Short snouts and a flat profile—within a span of 100 years, humans have significantly changed the shape of the skulls of German domestic pigs. According to a team of scientists , this is likely down to new breeding practices introduced at the beginning of the 20th century.

The researchers analyzed 3D scans of 135 skulls of wild boars and domestic pigs from the early 20th and 21st centuries. Surprisingly, the same effects can even be observed in species that were kept separately. Their findings have been published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

Humans have been keeping pigs as livestock for several centuries. During this time, the animals have changed considerably. For example, they have become larger and have lost their black and brown bristles and darker skin tone.

The demand for pork in some countries increased significantly at the beginning of the 20th century and breeders were encouraged to optimize their animals. They needed them to grow quickly, provide good meat, and be fertile.

For the current study, researchers analyzed 135 skulls from three different breeds: Deutsches Edelschwein, Deutsches Landschwein—and wild boars, who acted as a control group. The skulls were either from the early 20th century or were only a few years old.

The two domestic pig breeds exhibited significant changes: The animals' snouts became significantly shorter and flatter, while the skulls of the more contemporary animals no longer had a slightly outwardly curved forehead. Researchers  didn't expect such pronounced differences to appear within a span of only 100 years.

Remarkably, both breeds of domestic pig underwent the same changes, despite being kept separately. "These changes occurred even though breeders did not select the animals specifically for their skull shape, as this trait was not important for breeding. Instead, the changes appear to be an unintended by-product of selecting the desired traits.

Another reason for the alterations could be related to changes in the animals' diet. Nutrition is known to influence the growth and development of animals. Today, pigs are mainly fed pellets that are high in protein. In contrast, the skulls of wild boars, who remain omnivores, have not undergone such changes.

The findings demonstrate how strongly humans can influence the evolution of animals.

Charles Darwin assumed that long periods of time—millions of years—are required for major changes to take place. This work is further proof that humans can greatly accelerate this process through selective breeding, say the researchers.

Creationists are you listening?

A. Haruda et al, Evolution under intensive industrial breeding: skull size and shape comparison between historic and modern pig lineages, Royal Society Open Science (2025). DOI: 10.1098/rsos.241039

Gut bacteria can alter brain proteins: New glycosylation method uncovers link

Our guts are home to trillions of bacteria, and research over the last few decades has established how essential they are to our physiology—in health and disease. A new study by researchers shows that gut bacteria can bring about profound molecular changes in one of our most critical organs—the brain.

The new study, published in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, is the first to show that bacteria living in the gut can influence how proteins in the brain are modified by carbohydrates—a process called glycosylation. The study was made possible by a new method the scientists developed—DQGlyco—which allows them to study glycosylation at a much higher scale and resolution than previous studies.

Proteins are the workhorses of our cells and their main building blocks. Sugars, or carbohydrates, on the other hand, are among the body's main sources of energy. However, the cell also uses sugars to chemically modify proteins, altering their functions. This is called glycosylation.

Glycosylation can affect how cells attach to each other (adhesion), how they move (motility), and even how they talk to one another (communication).

It is involved in the pathogenesis of several diseases, including cancer and neuronal disorders.

Part 1

However, glycosylation has traditionally been notoriously difficult to study. Only a small portion of proteins in the cell are glycosylated and concentrating enough of them in a sample for studying (a process called 'enriching') tends to be laborious, expensive, and time-consuming.
So far, it's not been possible to do such studies on a systematic scale, in a quantitative fashion, and with high reproducibility. These are the challenges the researchers managed to overcome with the new method.
DQGlyco uses easily available and low-cost laboratory materials, such as functionalized silica beads, to selectively enrich glycosylated proteins from biological samples, which can then be precisely identified and measured. Applying the method to brain tissue samples from mice, the researchers could identify over 150,000 glycosylated forms of proteins ('proteoforms'), an increase of over 25-fold compared to previous studies.

The quantitative nature of the new method means that researchers can compare and measure differences between samples from different tissues, cell lines, species etc. This also allows them to study the pattern of 'microheterogeneity'—the phenomenon where the same part of a protein can be modified by many (sometimes hundreds of) different sugar groups.

One of the most common examples of microheterogeneity is human blood groups, where the presence of different sugar groups on proteins in red blood cells determines blood type (A, B, O, and AB). This plays a major role in deciding the success of blood transfusions from one individual to the other.

The new method allowed the team to identify such microheterogeneity across hundreds of protein sites.
With this new weapon, teh researchers tackled the present problem.
The team found that when compared to "germ-free mice," i.e. mice grown in a sterile environment such that they completely lack any microbes in and on their body, mice colonized with different gut bacteria had different glycosylation patterns in the brain. The changed patterns were particularly apparent in proteins known to be important in neural functions, such as cognitive processing and axon growth.

The study's datasets are openly available via a new dedicated app for other researchers.

Clément M. Potel et al, Uncovering protein glycosylation dynamics and heterogeneity using deep quantitative glycoprofiling (DQGlyco), Nature Structural & Molecular Biology (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41594-025-01485-w

Part 2

Students discover a new protein while investigating Streptococcus infection

Strep throat, something we've all had at some point in our lives, is caused by the bacteria Streptococcus pyogenes. Infection by Streptococcus can be fatal in serious cases and is the leading cause of death among flesh-eating diseases, resulting in over half a million deaths annually.

That scratchy, sore feeling at the back of your throat is a result of Streptococcus pyogenes infected by viruses called bacteriophages. These "phages" carry the genes for toxins that are responsible for strep throat, and when they invade Streptococcus pyogenes, they transfer these genes, enhancing the bacterium's ability to cause infection.

However, many people carry Streptococcus pyogenes on their bodies, and it doesn't make them sick. Some of the big questions in the field are when, how and why does it make you sick? And why does Streptococcus become a pathogen?

Two graduate students have discovered that phages use paratox to control the metabolism of Streptococcus, redirecting DNA processing pathways for the benefit of the phage.

With help from undergraduate student Julia Horne, the team was able to demonstrate that paratox also likely regulates when it is time for the phage to leave Streptococcus and go on to infect new bacteria. Muna and Horne now have a protein named after them, JM3 which stands for Julia Muna construct 3.

 This discovery, published in Nucleic Acids Research, has opened many doors for future research projects.

Tasneem Hassan Muna et al, The phage protein paratox is a multifunctional metabolic regulator of Streptococcus, Nucleic Acids Research (2024). DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkae1200

Less, but more: A new evolutionary scenario marked by massive gene loss and expansion

Evolution is traditionally associated with a process of increasing complexity and gaining new genes. However, the explosion of the genomic era shows that gene loss and simplification is a much more frequent process in the evolution of species than previously thought, and may favor new biological adaptations that facilitate the survival of living organisms.

This evolutionary driver, which seems counter-intuitive—"less is more" in genetic terms—now reveals a surprising dimension that responds to the new evolutionary concept of "less, but more," i.e., the phenomenon of massive gene losses followed by large expansions through gene duplications.

This is one of the main conclusions of an article published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.

The paper identifies new evolutionary patterns, and it outlines a new scenario, marked by the enormous potential for genetic change and evolutionary adaptation driven by large-scale gene loss and duplication in living organisms.

Gene loss is a widespread mechanism throughout the biological scale and represents an evolutionary driving force that can generate genetic variability and also biological adaptations, and this has traditionally been known as the 'less is more' hypothesis.

Now, the paper describes a new evolutionary framework called "less, but more," which extends the previous model in terms of the importance of gene loss as an evolutionary driving force.

Part 1

This work focuses on the study of the genome of the Oikopleura dioica species, a swimming organism of the marine zooplankton that belongs to the tunicates—a sister group of vertebrates—and is phylogenetically linked to evolutionary history. In this study model—a free-living tunicate or appendicularian—the team reconstructed the evolutionary history of fibroblast growth factor (FGF) gene families, which are critical in the developmental process of organisms.

"The findings suggest that the process of gene loss reduced the number of FGF growth factor gene families from eight to just two, which are the Fgf9/16/20 and Fgf11/12/13/14 families. These surviving subfamilies have doubled over the course of evolution to generate a total of 10 genes in appendicularians.
The "less, but more" evolutionary model "helps us to understand how sometimes losing opens up new possibilities for subsequent gains and, therefore, losses are necessary to favor the evolutionary origin of new adaptations

Gaspar Sánchez-Serna et al, Less, but More: New Insights From Appendicularians on Chordate Fgf Evolution and the Divergence of Tunicate Lifestyles, Molecular Biology and Evolution (2024). DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msae260

**

Part 2

Human presence at waterholes may change animal behavior

When tourists venture into nature, their thoughts are often focused on the animals they'll get to see. But animals may also have them in mind, according to a new study from the University of Georgia published in the Journal of Zoology.

With how common tourism is becoming, humans and animals will cross paths more often. Not only are tourists coming to watch the animals, but researchers will also stay out for long periods of time to count populations of different species.

As such, the study focused on how humans being nearby influenced the behavior of African mammals, including lions and zebras, while at waterholes.

When humans are present, some animals shift their daily activity patterns. the carnivores changed because of the human presence, and the herbivores changed because of the carnivore presence. It was not just one species that altered their behavior.

The study used a series of camera traps that took photos once animals walked by. Based on these pictures, researchers determined when and how often animals were visiting waterholes.

When humans were around, the time of day when some mammals came to the waterhole would shift compared to periods when humans weren't present. Some would visit earlier, while others visited later.

Animals shifting schedules can lead to different species interacting when they usually wouldn't—something that's especially a problem for some herbivores that could run into predators who typically aren't active during those times of the day.

Because of how important tourism is for conservation and income, the researchers emphasized the need to consider how human activity can impact animals on a larger scale.

Part 1 

Nocturnal carnivores became more active during the day
The study took place at the Ongava Research Center in Namibia, a country in Southern Africa. It is a nature reserve that borders a national park, where tourists have a heavy presence.
During the dry season, animals on the reserve depend on man-made waterholes. With so few sources of water, this gave researchers a reliable spot to set up camera traps and document animal activity.

Photos were taken three days before humans came, three days while they were at the waterholes and three days after they left. Researchers did this for two years.
Four major carnivore species—the spotted hyena, black-backed jackal, brown hyena and African lion—came to the waterhole more during the day. Usually, these predators rule the night, and are less active during the day.
Having humans at the waterholes at night, when they typically aren't there, maybe threw the animals off a bit and made them nervous, say teh researchers .
Since carnivores in the area already knew humans would be around during the day, they may have felt more comfortable getting water then instead of at night when tourists usually aren't at waterholes.
Predators and prey could cross paths more often
Some herbivores also changed their schedule. The duiker, springbok, mountain zebra and plains zebra started to visit the waterholes at night, despite being more comfortable around people.

This change was likely to avoid the carnivores that started visiting the waterhole during the day. But not all herbivores made the switch.

There are many other herbivore species that are still active during the day and overlap with those carnivores now.
That can change the dynamics of the ecosystem, and some animals could get preyed upon during times of the day when they usually feel safer.
Tourism still essential for wildlife conservation
Outside of shifting schedules, the presence of humans may be stressful for some animals.

Even so, tourism remains an essential tool for bringing attention and money to wildlife conversation, the researchers said. It also offers employment and a source of income to many people, especially in rural regions.

But it also takes a very pristine environment and brings people into it.
We must understand how tourism is affecting these eco systems to protect them efficiently.

J. R. Patterson et al, Effects of human presence on African mammal waterhole attendance and temporal activity patterns, Journal of Zoology (2024). DOI: 10.1111/jzo.13245

Part 2

Mitochondria's role in diabetes

Mitochondria are essential for generating energy that fuels cells and helps them function.

Mitochondrial defects, however, are associated with the development of diseases such as type 2 diabetes. Patients who suffer from this disorder are unable to produce enough insulin or use the insulin produced by their pancreas to keep their blood sugar at normal levels.

Several studies have shown that insulin-producing pancreatic β-cells of patients with diabetes have abnormal mitochondria and are unable to generate energy. Yet, these studies were unable to explain why the cells behaved this way.

In a study published in Science, researchers used mice to show that dysfunctional mitochondria trigger a response that affects the maturation and function of β-cells.

The researchers also confirmed their findings in human pancreatic islet cells.

Mitochondrial dysfunction affects several types of cells

Their results prompted the team to expand their search into other cells that are affected during diabetes.

Reversing mitochondrial damage could help cure diabetes

Regardless of the cell type, the researchers found that damage to the mitochondria did not cause cell death.

This observation brought up the possibility that if they could reverse the damage, the cells would function normally.

To do so, they used a drug called ISRIB that blocked the stress response. They found that after four weeks, the β-cells regained their ability to control glucose levels in mice.

Losing your β-cells is the most direct path to getting type 2 diabetes. Through this study we now have an explanation for what might be happening and how we can intervene and fix the root cause.

Emily M. Walker et al, Retrograde mitochondrial signaling governs the identity and maturity of metabolic tissues, Science (2025). DOI: 10.1126/science.adf2034

Crossing the blood–brain barrier with a payload via engineered bacteria

Researchers  have reported crossing the blood–brain barrier with help from a modified Lactobacillus plantarum. By delivering an appetite-regulating hormone directly to the olfactory epithelium, the hormone was able to reach its target.

Only the secreted hormone molecules crossed into the brain. Engineered Lactobacillus plantarum remained in the nasal passage, where it released its therapeutic payload, which then diffused along the olfactory pathway into the brain.

Current approaches to treating neurological conditions suffer from the highly protective nature of the blood–brain barrier. Intranasal therapies often encounter rapid clearance without a sustained therapeutic delivery.

In the study "Engineered Commensals for Targeted Nose-to-Brain Drug Delivery," published in Cell, researchers address these challenges by exploiting L. plantarum's natural affinity for the olfactory epithelium.
L. plantarum was chosen as a delivery vector as it naturally localizes to the olfactory epithelium binding sites. Initial investigations involved engineering L. plantarum to express and secrete hormones such as leptin, alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).

Experiments incorporated in vitro models using nasal cell monolayers and in vivo studies with male mice aged 6 to 8 weeks. Intranasal administration of fluorescent-labeled bacteria allowed visualization of bacterial localization.

Part 1

As expected, the engineered bacteria localized specifically in the olfactory epithelium and released their payloads into adjacent brain regions. Mice fed a high-fat diet and treated with hormone-secreting bacteria exhibited reduced body weight gain, lower food consumption, improved glucose tolerance and diminished adipose tissue deposition compared with control groups.

Findings further indicated that leptin secreted by the bacteria persisted in the olfactory epithelium longer than recombinant leptin delivered intranasally.

Results support the method's potential as a noninvasive vector for brain-targeted therapies. While the study used an appetite-regulating hormone, this delivery system could be adapted for neurological conditions such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's, and brain cancers, where drug penetration into the brain remains a major hurdle.

Haosheng Shen et al, Engineered commensals for targeted nose-to-brain drug delivery, Cell (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.01.017

Part 2

Why babies recover, but adults scar, after heart damage

Newborns with heart complications can rely on their newly developed immune systems to regenerate cardiac tissues, but adults aren't so lucky. After a heart attack, most adults struggle to regenerate healthy heart tissue, leading to scar-tissue buildup and, often, heart failure.

A new  study in experimental animals reveals a critical difference in how macrophages—a part of the immune system—help repair the heart in newborns versus adults after a heart attack. The study highlights a fundamental difference in how the immune system drives healing based on age.

The study is published in the journal Immunity.

In newborns, macrophages perform a process called efferocytosis, which recognizes and eats dying cells. This process triggers the production of a bioactive lipid called thromboxane, signaling nearby heart muscle cells to divide, and allowing the heart to regenerate damaged heart muscle, the study found. In adults, macrophages produce much less thromboxane, leading to a weaker repair signal.

"By mimicking the effects of thromboxane, we might one day improve tissue repair after a heart attack in adults," the researchers say.

Early Age Efferocytosis Directs Macrophage Arachidonic Acid Metabolism for Tissue Regeneration, Immunity (2025).

Study shows male stick insects have lost their reproductive function

While most animals reproduce sexually, some species rely solely on females for parthenogenetic reproduction. Even in these species, rare males occasionally appear. Whether these males retain reproductive functions is a key question in understanding the evolution of reproductive strategies.

A new study published in Ecology by a research team provides insight into this question. The researchers focused on the rare males of Ramulus mikado, a stick insect species in Japan, where parthenogenesis is predominant. Their analysis of male reproductive behavior reveals new findings.

Males engage in mating but do not contribute genetically. The rare males actively mated with females, just like typical males. However, genetic analysis confirmed that no male-derived genes were passed on to their offspring. The study further revealed that these males do not produce functional sperm, rendering them incapable of restoring sexual reproduction in the species.

Their findings showed that the males exhibited the typical morphological traits of stick insects and engaged in mating behaviors with conspecific females. However, despite their reproductive attempts, they were completely sterile. At the same time, the female reproductive organs associated with sexual reproduction showed signs of degeneration.

The rare males of this stick insect have completely lost their reproductive function.

Part 1

Unlike female sexual traits, the loss of male sexual traits is generally thought to take an extremely long time. In many other species, even rare males often retain their reproductive capabilities. However, these findings suggest that R. mikado has relied solely on parthenogenesis for such an extended period that even neutral mutations have accumulated, leading to the complete loss of male reproductive traits.
This study demonstrates that parthenogenesis in R. mikado has become irreversible. Although asexual reproduction is often considered evolutionarily short-lived due to the lack of genetic recombination, previous research estimated that this species has persisted for hundreds of thousands of years. How has R. mikado managed to survive for such a long time? This remains an intriguing mystery for future research.

Tomonari Nozaki et al, Lack of successful sexual reproduction suggests the irreversible parthenogenesis in a stick insect, Ecology (2025). DOI: 10.1002/ecy.4522

Part 2

The secret behind sharp vision: New research reveals the benefits of tiny eye movements

Even when we think we are holding our gaze perfectly still, our eyes make tiny, involuntary movements. While these "fixational eye movements" might seem like they would blur our vision, new research reveals they actually help us see fine details more clearly.

In a study combining theoretical modeling and human experiments,  researchers and their collaborators  have uncovered how these microscopic eye movements enhance rather than impair our visual acuity.

Using advanced eye-tracking technology and computational models, the team demonstrated that these movements help our retinas process visual information more effectively. Their paper is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

It is a fascinating paradox, say the researchers. These constant, tiny movements of our eyes might appear to make our vision less precise, but they actually optimize the way our retinas encode visual information. We found that humans naturally maintain these movements within a nearly perfect range for enhanced visual acuity.

The researchers found that these movements help by 'refreshing' the content of our visual receptors while maintaining an optimal balance between motion and stability. They also found that in the experiment, the movements adapt to the size of the object shown.

The study was conducted using a sophisticated adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscope, allowing researchers to track these minute eye movements with unprecedented precision while participants performed visual tasks. The researchers then combined theoretical modeling with empirical data to link eye movements to retinal neural coding and human behaviour.

Trang-Anh E. Nghiem et al, Fixational eye movements as active sensation for high visual acuity, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2416266122

Climate change may be delaying births, suggests study

New  research has found exposure to outdoor air pollution and extreme temperatures during pregnancy may increase the risk of prolonged pregnancy, offering new insights into the impact of climate change on maternal health.

Published in Urban Climate, the study is titled "Maternal climate-related exposures and prolonged pregnancy: Findings from a statewide population-based cohort study in Western Australia."

The study analyzed data from nearly 400,000 births in Western Australia and found that higher exposure to fine particulate air pollution (PM_2.5) and biothermal stress (a measure that combines air temperature, radiant temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and human physiology) was associated with pregnancies lasting beyond 41 weeks.

While climate exposure has long been linked to preterm births, this is the first study to examine its impact on prolonged pregnancies.

These  findings show that exposure to air pollution and biothermal stress during pregnancy increases the likelihood of prolonged pregnancies, particularly among mothers over 35 years old, first-time mothers, those living in urban areas, and those with complicated pregnancies.

"Environmental stressors, including climate-related exposures during pregnancy, have been associated with maternal stress response and subsequent disruptions in endocrine and inflammatory activities, which increase towards the end of pregnancy. This can either shorten gestation, leading to preterm birth, or lengthen gestation, resulting in prolonged pregnancy in some cases."

 Prolonged pregnancy can have serious health implications for both mother and baby, including the need for medical interventions such as labor induction or cesarean sections, increased risk of stillbirth, birth complications, child mortality, early childhood behavioral and emotional problems, and emotional impacts on families.

This study highlights the need for targeted policies and preventative measures to reduce climate-related health risks, including better air quality regulations and public health initiatives aimed at protecting expectant mothers and children from extreme climatic conditions.

Sylvester Dodzi Nyadanu et al, Maternal climate-related exposures and prolonged pregnancy: Findings from a statewide population-based cohort study in Western Australia, Urban Climate (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.uclim.2025.102316

Method to measure blood-brain barrier permeability accurately developed

For decades, scientists across the globe have investigated methods to accurately measure drug permeability across the blood-brain barrier, a compact layer of cells that protect the brain from potentially dangerous substances and microbes. They struggled with a number of parameters, such as blood flow and binding to plasma proteins, which were shown to impact permeability in different ways.

In research published in the December 2024 issue of Fluids and Barriers of the CNS ("Brain endothelial permeability, transport and flow assessed over 10 orders of magnitude using the in situ brain perfusion technique"), researchers  sought to reconcile discrepancies in the field and provide accurate methods for measuring permeability over a very broad range spanning from poorly crossing polar compounds (compounds with a positive or negative charge) to rapidly crossing approved central nervous system (CNS) clinical drugs.

The project team evaluated 120 compounds, revealing that many current CNS drugs permeate the barrier and equilibrate in the brain in less than 10 minutes. The findings challenged previous literature and demonstrated that the equilibration rate for a significant number of CNS drugs is much greater than previously realized.

The researchers showed that many of the drugs that are used and approved for CNS uptake go into the brain quite well. A good number of agents in the benzodiazepine, antidepressant, antipsychotic, stimulant and antiepileptic drugs go in as quickly as the blood flow can deliver them. It's amazingly rapid. For such agents, we had to have extremely accurate measurement of cerebral blood flow.

The project also highlighted the role of plasma proteins which, for many lipophilic agents can serve an additional brain delivery role beyond that of free drug in plasma. In effect, plasma-bound drugs can dissociate to maintain the intervascular free drug concentration, which otherwise would show rapid depletion under conditions of higher extraction (50–99%). 

 Quentin R. Smith et al, Brain endothelial permeability, transport, and flow assessed over 10 orders of magnitude using the in situ brain perfusion technique, Fluids and Barriers of the CNS (2024). DOI: 10.1186/s12987-024-00584-y

Rising pollen levels linked to increased mortality in older adults

As climate change intensifies pollen seasons across some regions, new research  reveals a connection between pollen exposure and death rates among older adults with breathing problems.

The study, published in BMC Public Health, shows that high pollen days aren't just an inconvenience for allergy sufferers—they could pose serious health risks for vulnerable populations. With pollen seasons growing longer and more intense, understanding these risks has become increasingly urgent for public health officials and health care providers.

The study found that high levels of certain pollen, particularly from deciduous trees and ragweed, were linked to increased risk of death from breathing problems. The effects could last up to two weeks after exposure.

The findings suggest that exposure to certain types of pollen can increase the risk of death from breathing-related problems, particularly for people with chronic conditions. This is especially concerning given expectations that climate change will exacerbate the severity of pollen seasons in coming years.

The researchers looked at four types of pollen: deciduous tree pollen from trees that lose their leaves, evergreen tree pollen, grass pollen and ragweed pollen.

While not everyone is equally sensitive to pollen, the findings highlight the importance of tracking pollen levels and taking precautions during high pollen days, especially for older adults with breathing problems, the researchers say. And, they add, with predicted climate change, preparing for the risks will be increasingly important for public health.

 Peter S. Larson et al, Chronic and infectious respiratory mortality and short-term exposures to four types of pollen taxa in older adults in Michigan, 2006-2017, BMC Public Health (2025). DOI: 10.1186/s12889-025-21386-3

Cockatoos prefer their noodles dunked in blueberry yogurt: First evidence of non-primate food flavoring behaviour

 Researchers are reporting that Goffin's cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana) engage in food flavoring behaviour by dunking food into soy yogurt. Experimentally controlled tests have confirmed that the birds selectively dipped food in flavored yogurt rather than neutral alternatives, ruling out alternative explanations such as soaking or cleaning.

Dunking behavior in non-human animals is considered a foraging innovation. It is typically associated with softening dry food, cleaning, flavoring, drowning prey, or transporting liquid.

Prior research has documented various species engaging in dunking, though reports on food flavoring behavior are rare.

Previously, members of the same group of cockatoos exhibited innovative dunking behavior to soak dry food.

The observations that led to the study titled "Innovative Flavoring Behavior in Goffin's Cockatoos," published in Current Biology, began when two cockatoos were seen dunking cooked potato pieces into blueberry-flavored soy yogurt.

To systematically investigate this behavior, researchers conducted 14 30-minute observations during breakfast sessions. Eighteen cockatoos were given access to a food bowl containing potatoes or noodles, along with three dunking mediums: freshwater, blueberry-flavored soy yogurt, and neutral soy yogurt.

Nine out of 18 cockatoos engaged in dunking, preferring noodles over potatoes (an average of 12 times per bird vs. 6 times per bird).

Statistical analysis showed that food was dunked in blueberry yogurt over two times more often than neutral yogurt, while no food was dunked in water. The birds also preferred directly eating blueberry yogurt over the neutral variety.

Part 1

To rule out alternative explanations for the behavior, researchers tested whether dunking functioned as soaking, cleaning, food transport, or tool use. Cockatoos left food in yogurt for an average of 3.2 seconds, significantly shorter than the 22.9 seconds previously observed for water-soaking behavior.

The absence of dunking in water, combined with eating the food with yogurt rather than licking it off, supported the interpretation that dunking was intended for flavoring. A separate test for color preference between yogurts found no significant difference in selection, indicating that dunking choices were based on flavor rather than visual cues.

Food preference testing further revealed that the birds preferred the combination of noodles and blueberry yogurt over noodles or yogurt alone. The potatoes were acceptable without flavoring.

This study provides the first experimental evidence of food flavoring behavior outside the primate lineage. While the cognitive mechanisms behind the innovation remain unclear, researchers note that Goffin's cockatoos demonstrate high cognitive abilities, including problem-solving and sequential planning.

Jeroen Stephan Zewald et al, Innovative flavoring behavior in Goffin's cockatoos, Current Biology (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.002

Part 2

Engineered animals show new way to fight mercury pollution

Scientists have found an effective new way to clean up methylmercury, one of the world's most dangerous pollutants, which often builds up in our food and environment because of industrial activities such as illegal gold mining and burning coal. The discovery, published in Nature Communications on 12 February 2025, could lead to new ways of engineering animals to protect both wildlife and human health.

The researchers  have successfully genetically modified fruit flies and zebrafish to transform methylmercury into a far less harmful gas that disperses in air.

So we  can now use synthetic biology to convert the most environmentally harmful form of mercury and evaporate it out of an animal!

Methylmercury causes environmental harm due to its high bioavailability and poor excretion: it can easily cross the digestive tract, the blood-brain barrier, and the placenta and becomes increasingly concentrated as it moves up through food webs to levels that can cause harm to neural and reproductive health.

The research team modified the DNA of fruit flies and zebrafish by inserting variants of genes from bacteria to make two enzymes that together can convert methylmercury to elemental mercury, which evaporates from the animals as a gas.

When they tested the modified animals, they found that not only did they have less than half as much mercury in their bodies, but the majority of the mercury was in a much less bioavailable form than methylmercury.

The researchers included safety measures to ensure the modified organisms cannot spread uncontrollably in nature, and they also highlight the need for regulatory control for any real-world use.

Methylmercury demethylation and volatilization by animals expressing microbial enzymes, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-56145-w

Earth's early cycles shaped the chemistry of life

How did non-living chemicals become bio-chemicals on early Earth? This is the question most people ask.

A new study explores how complex chemical mixtures change under shifting environmental conditions, shedding light on the prebiotic processes that may have led to life. By exposing organic molecules to repeated wet-dry cycles, researchers observed continuous transformation, selective organization, and synchronized population dynamics.

Their findings, appearing in Nature Chemistry, suggest that environmental factors played a key role in shaping the molecular complexity needed for life to emerge.

To simulate early Earth, the team subjected chemical mixtures to repeated wet-dry cycles. Rather than reacting randomly, the molecules organized themselves, evolved over time, and followed predictable patterns.

This challenges the idea that early chemical evolution was chaotic. Instead, the study suggests that natural environmental fluctuations helped guide the formation of increasingly complex molecules, eventually leading to life's fundamental building blocks.

The new work investigates how chemical mixtures evolve over time, illuminating potential mechanisms that contributed to the emergence of life on Earth.

The research examines how chemical systems can undergo continuous transformation while maintaining structured evolution, offering new insights into the origins of biological complexity.

Chemical evolution refers to the gradual transformation of molecules in prebiotic conditions, a key process in understanding how life may have arisen from non-living matter. While much research has focused on individual chemical reactions that could lead to biological molecules, this study establishes an experimental model to explore how entire chemical systems evolve when exposed to environmental changes.

The researchers used mixtures containing organic molecules with diverse functional groups, including carboxylic acids, amines, thiols, and hydroxyls.

By subjecting these mixtures to repeated wet-dry cycles—conditions that mimic the environmental fluctuations of early Earth—the study identified three key findings: chemical systems can continuously evolve without reaching equilibrium, avoid uncontrolled complexity through selective chemical pathways, and exhibit synchronized population dynamics among different molecular species.

These observations suggest that prebiotic environments may have played an active role in shaping the molecular diversity that eventually led to life.

Part 1

This research offers a new perspective on how molecular evolution might have unfolded on early Earth.
By demonstrating that chemical systems can self-organize and evolve in structured ways, this work provides experimental evidence that may help bridge the gap between prebiotic chemistry and the emergence of biological molecules.
Beyond its relevance to origins-of-life research, the study's findings may have broader applications in synthetic biology and nanotechnology. Controlled chemical evolution could be harnessed to design new molecular systems with specific properties, potentially leading to innovations in materials science, drug development, and biotechnology.

Evolution of Complex Chemical Mixtures Reveals Combinatorial Compression and Population Synchronicity, Nature Chemistry (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41557-025-01734-x

Part 2

Mimicry: Masquerading moth deploys specialized nanostructures to evade predators

Researchers found the forewings of the fruit-sucking moth (Eudocima aurantia) have the appearance of a crumpled leaf—but are in fact flat.

They  published their research in Current Biology  this week.

They found the moth mimics the 3D shape and coloration of a leaf using specialized nanostructures on its wings. These nanostructures create a shiny wing surface that mimics the highlights found on a smooth, curved leaf surface.

Structural and pigmentary coloration produces a leaf-like brown color, with the moth exploiting thin-film reflectors to produce directional reflections—producing the illusion of a 3D leaf shape.

It is intriguing that the nanostructures which produce shininess only occur on the parts of the wing that would be curved if the wing was a leaf. 

This suggests that moths are exploiting the way predators perceive 3D shapes to improve their camouflage, which is very impressive.

What is remarkable about this moth, however, is that it is creating the appearance of a three-dimensional object despite being almost completely flat. 

This mimicry likely serves as a camouflage strategy, fooling predators into misidentifying the moth as an inedible object.

Jennifer L. Kelley et al, A leaf-mimicking moth uses nanostructures to create 3D leaf shape appearance, Current Biology (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.029. www.cell.com/current-biology/f … 0960-9822(25)00059-4

Diabetes can drive the evolution of antibiotic resistance, study suggests

Antibiotics are powerful, fast-acting medications designed to eradicate bacterial infections. However, in recent years, their dependability has waned as antibiotic resistant bacteria continues to evolve and spread.

Staphylococcus aureus is a leading cause of antibiotic-resistance-associated infections and deaths. It is also the most prevalent bacterial infection among those with diabetes mellitus, a chronic condition that affects blood sugar control and reduces the body's ability to fight infections.

Researchers have just shown that people with diabetes are more likely to develop antibiotic-resistant strains of Staph, too.

Their results, which were published in Science Advances, show how the diabetic microbial environment produces resistant mutations, while hinting at ways antibiotic resistance can be combated in this patient population.

The researchers found that antibiotic resistance emerges much more rapidly in diabetic models than in non-diabetic models of disease.

This interplay between bacteria and diabetes could be a major driver of the rapid evolution and spread of antibiotic resistance that we are seeing.

Diabetes affects the body's ability to control a type of sugar called glucose, often causing excess glucose to build up in the bloodstream. Staph feeds off these high sugar levels, allowing it to reproduce more rapidly. The bacterium can also grow without consequence, as diabetes also impairs the immune system's ability to destroy cells and control infection.

As the numbers of bacteria increase in a diabetic infection, so does the likelihood of resistance. Random mutations appear and some build up resistance to external stressors, like antibiotics. Once a resistant mutant is present in a diabetic infection, it rapidly takes over the population, using the excess glucose to drive its rapid growth.

Staphylococcus aureus is uniquely suited to take advantage of this diabetic environment.

Once that resistant mutation happens, you have excess glucose and you don't have the immune system to clear the mutant and it takes over the entire bacterial population in a matter of days.

This was proved in their experiments and models. 

So, what can be done to prevent it? Well, the researchers  showed that reducing blood sugar levels in diabetic models (through administration of insulin) deprived bacteria of their fuel, keeping their numbers at bay, and reducing the chances of antibiotic-resistant mutations from occurring.

Their findings suggest that controlling blood sugar through insulin use could be key in preventing antibiotic resistance.

John Shook et al, Diabetes Potentiates the Emergence and Expansion of Antibiotic Resistance, Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ads1591. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ads1591

The sexome's forensic potential: After intercourse, both partners leave traces of their own unique genital microbiome

Criminal investigations of heterosexual sexual assault often include a DNA analysis of the woman's genitals with the aim of identifying the presence of the perpetrator's sperm for proof of intercourse. However, in cases where no sperm is detected, including in assaults where the perpetrator uses a condom, these exams are often ineffective.

In research published in iScience on February 12, 2025, researchers show that bacterial species are transferred between both individuals during sexual intercourse, and these species can be traced to a sexual partner's unique genital microbiome.

The authors say that analyses of these genital microorganisms—which they called the "sexome"—may be useful in identifying perpetrators of sexual assault.

This research is based on the forensic concept that every contact leaves a trace.

In this study, the researchers confirmed that both men and women have unique populations of bacteria in their genital areas. They then recruited 12 monogamous, heterosexual couples to investigate whether these sexomes are transferred during sexual intercourse, including when a condom is used.

At the beginning of the study, each participant collected samples of their genital microbiome using swabs. The investigators used RNA gene sequencing to determine which bacteria strains were present—down to the sub-species level—and identified microbial signatures for each participant.

Couples were then asked to abstain from sex for varying lengths of time (from two to 14 days) and then to participate in intercourse. Afterwards, samples were collected again from each individual's genital microbiome. Analysis showed that a participant's unique bacterial signature could be identified in their sexual partner's sample following intercourse.

Three of the couples reported using a condom. The analysis found that although this did have some impact on the transfer of microbial content, it did not inhibit it entirely.

When a condom was used, the majority of transfer occurred from the female to the male.

This shows promise for a means of testing a perpetrator post-assault and means there may be microbial markers that detect sexual contact even when a condom was used.

The investigators also looked at whether males were circumcised and whether the participants had pubic hair, but found that neither factor seemed to affect the transfer of bacterial species between partners. However, they did find that the makeup of the vaginal microbiome changed during menstruation, which they note could affect results.

You can escape from police and law but you cannot escape from science and scientists. Can you?

 Bacterial transfer during sexual intercourse as a tool for forensic detection, iScience (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2025.111861. www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext … 2589-0042(25)00121-X

Physicists uncover evidence of two arrows of time emerging from the quantum realm

What if time is not as fixed as we thought? Imagine that instead of flowing in one direction—from past to future—time could flow forward or backwards due to processes taking place at the quantum level. This is the thought-provoking discovery made by researchers , as a new study reveals that opposing arrows of time can theoretically emerge from certain quantum systems.

For centuries, scientists have puzzled over the arrow of time—the idea that time flows irreversibly from past to future. While this seems obvious in our experienced reality, the underlying laws of physics do not inherently favor a single direction. Whether time moves forward or backwards, the equations remain the same.

One way to explain this is when you look at a process like spilled milk spreading across a table, it's clear that time is moving forward. But if you were to play that in reverse, like a movie, you'd immediately know something was wrong—it would be hard to believe milk could just gather back into a glass.

However, there are processes, such as the motion of a pendulum, that look just as believable in reverse. The puzzle is that, at the most fundamental level, the laws of physics resemble the pendulum; they do not account for irreversible processes.

The new findings suggest that while our common experience tells us that time only moves one way, we are just unaware that the opposite direction would have been equally possible."

The study, published in Scientific Reports, explored how a quantum system—the world of the sub-atomic—interacts with its environment, known as an "open quantum system."

Researchers investigated why we perceive time as moving in one direction, and whether this perception emerges from open quantum mechanics.

Part 1

To simplify the problem, the team made two key assumptions. First, they treated the vast environment surrounding the system in such a way that they could focus only on the quantum system itself. Second, they assumed that the environment—like the entire universe—is so large that energy and information dissipate into it, never returning.

This approach enabled them to examine how time emerges as a one-way phenomenon, even though, at the microscopic level, time could theoretically move in both directions.
Even after applying these assumptions, the system behaved the same way whether time moved forward or backwards. This discovery provided a mathematical foundation for the idea that time-reversal symmetry still holds in open quantum systems—suggesting that time's arrow may not be as fixed as we experience it.
'The surprising part of this project was that even after making the standard simplifying assumption to our equations describing open quantum systems, the equations still behaved the same way whether the system was moving forwards or backwards in time', say the researchers.
When the physicists carefully worked through the math, they found that this behavior had to be the case because a key part of the equation, the 'memory kernel,' is symmetrical in time.

They also found a small but important detail which is usually overlooked—a time discontinuous factor emerged that keeps the time-symmetry property intact. It's unusual to see such a mathematical mechanism in a physics equation because it's not continuous, and it was very surprising to see it pop up so naturally.

Thomas Guff et al, Emergence of opposing arrows of time in open quantum systems, Scientific Reports (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-87323-x

Part 2

Can organisms help others around even after their death?

Bacteria evolved to help neighboring cells after death, new research reveals

Darwin's theory of natural selection provides an explanation for why organisms develop traits that help them survive and reproduce. Because of this, death is often seen as a failure rather than a process shaped by evolution.

When organisms die, their molecules need to be broken down for reuse by other living things. Such recycling of nutrients is necessary for new life to grow.

Researchers have shown that a type of E. coli bacteria produces an enzyme which breaks the contents of their cells down into nutrients after death. The dead bacteria are therefore offering a banquet of nutrients to the cells that were their neighbours when they were living.

The study has been published in Nature Communications.

We typically think of death being the end, that after something dies it just falls apart, rots and becomes a passive target as it is scavenged for nutrients.

But what this new work has demonstrated is that death is not the end of the programmed biological processes that occur in an organism.

Those processes continue after death, and they have evolved to do so.

"That is a fundamental rethink about how we view the death of an organism."

The researchers  realized they had stumbled across a potentially new area of biology; processes that have evolved to function after death.

One problem remained; the researchers couldn't work out how an enzyme that functions after death could have evolved.

"Typically, we think of evolution acting on living organisms not dead ones.

"The solution is that neighboring cells which gain nutrients from the dead cells are likely to be clonally related to the dead cell.

Consequently, the dead cell is giving nutrients to its relatives, analogous to how animals will often help feed younger members of their family group.

The finding demonstrates that processes after death, like processes during life, can be biologically programmed and subject to evolution. Biomolecules that regulate processes after death might be exploited in the future as novel targets for bacterial disease or as candidates to enhance bacterial growth in biotechnology.

Bacteria encode post-mortem protein catabolism that enables altruistic nutrient recycling, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-56761-6

Guardian molecule keeps cells on track

A guardian molecule ensures that liver cells do not lose their identity. This has been discovered by researchers. 

The research is published in Nature Genetics.

The discovery is of great interest for cancer medicine because a change of identity of cells has come into focus as a fundamental principle of carcinogenesis for several years. The researchers were able to show that the newly discovered sentinel is so powerful that it can slow down highly potent cancer drivers and cause malignant liver tumors to regress in mice.

As a rule, the identity of cells is determined during embryonic development. They differentiate into nerve cells or liver cells, for example, and their fate is sealed. Only stem cells retain the ability to develop in different directions. However, once cells have differentiated, they usually stay on course.

Cancer cells are different. They have the amazing ability to reactivate embryonic programs and thus change their identity—their phenotype. This ability is referred to as—unwanted or abnormal—plasticity.

It enables tumor cells to break away from the cell network and migrate through the body. Once they have arrived in the target organ, the cells differentiate again, become sedentary again and form metastases at this site.

It is not so long ago that the importance of plasticity as a fundamental phenomenon in cancer was recognized.

The researchers' goal is to reduce the plasticity of cancer cells and thus prevent the development and spread of malignant tumors. To do this, they first need to understand how cell plasticity is regulated.

In principle, almost all cells in the body have an identical genome. But how is it possible then that such different and highly specialized cell types as nerve cells or liver cells arise?

This is only possible because cells have a sophisticated control network.

These ensure that only certain genes are switched on, depending on the cell type, while others are permanently silenced. Master regulators play a central role in this process. They switch on genes that influence specialized cells to change their identity and even acquire stem cell properties.

However, little is known about the antagonists—the control instances that prevent unwanted (re)transformation of differentiated cells by switching off certain genes.

The researchers used a computer program to search for gene switches that could potentially serve as guardians.

Part 1

The research team found almost 30 different guardian candidates and decided to pursue one of them further: PROX1 (Prospero homeobox protein 1).

Studies on the liver cancer model showed that the team had hit the mark.
It turned out that PROX1 is a very influential guard in liver cells. If it is missing, the liver cells change their phenotype. And conversely, the versatility of tumor cells can be reduced by experimentally inducing an increase in the activity of the guard.
PROX1 was able to override the influence of such strong cancer drivers and suppress the formation of tumors despite their presence.
The researchers also found something else: the PROX1 guardian must be constantly active around the clock to fulfill its function. This is different from many other gene switches, which, like a toggle switch, only need to be activated briefly.

Lim B et al, Active repression of cell fate plasticity by PROX1 safeguards hepatocyte identity and prevents liver tumourigenesis. Nature Genetics (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41588-025-02081-w

Part 2

Birds have developed complex brains independently from mammals, studies reveal

Two studies published in the latest issue of Science have revealed that birds, reptiles, and mammals have developed complex brain circuits independently, despite sharing a common ancestor. These findings challenge the traditional view of brain evolution and demonstrate that, while comparable brain functions exist among these groups, embryonic formation mechanisms and cell types have followed divergent evolutionary trajectories.

The pallium is the brain region where the neocortex forms in mammals, the part responsible for cognitive and complex functions that most distinguishes humans from other species. The pallium has traditionally been considered a comparable structure among mammals, birds, and reptiles, varying only in complexity levels. It was assumed that this region housed similar neuronal types, with equivalent circuits for sensory and cognitive processing.

Previous studies had identified the presence of shared excitatory and inhibitory neurons as well as general connectivity patterns suggesting a similar evolutionary path in these vertebrate species.

However, the new studies reveal that, although the general functions of the pallium are equivalent among these groups, its developmental mechanisms and the molecular identity of its neurons have diverged substantially throughout evolution.

Eneritz Rueda-Alaña et al, Evolutionary convergence of sensory circuits in the pallium of amniotes, Science (2025). DOI: 10.1126/science.adp3411. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adp3411

Zaremba B et al. Developmental origins and evolution of pallial cell types and structures in birds. Science (2025). DOI: 10.1126/science.adp5182. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adp5182

Active matter: Scientists create three-dimensional 'synthetic worms'

Researchers have made a breakthrough in the development of "life-like" synthetic materials which are able to move by themselves like worms.

Scientists have been investigating a new class of materials called "active matter," which could be used for various applications from drug delivery to self-healing materials.

Compared to inanimate matter—the sort of motionless materials we come across in our lives every day, such as plastic and wood—active matter can show fascinating life-like behavior.

These materials are made of elements which are driven out of equilibrium by internal energy sources, allowing them to move independently.

Researchers carried out the experiment using special micron-sized (one millionth of a meter) particles called Janus colloids, which were suspended in a liquid mixture.

The team then made the material active by applying a strong electric field and observed the effects using a special kind of microscope which takes three-dimensional images.

When the electric field was turned on, the scattered colloid particles would merge together to form worm-like structures—which creates a fully three-dimensional synthetic active matter system.

The researchers  found the formation of fascinating new structures—self-driven active filaments that are reminiscent of living worms. They were then able to develop a theoretical frame work which enabled us to predict and control the motion of the synthetic worms solely based on their lengths.

 Xichen Chao et al, Traveling Strings of Active Dipolar Colloids, Physical Review Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.018302

Air inside your home may be more polluted than outside due to everyday chemical products

When you walk through a flower garden, the crisp, fresh scent is one of the first things you notice.

But bringing that flower scent or other aromas indoors with the help of chemical products—yes, air fresheners, wax melts, floor cleaners, deodorants and others—rapidly fills the air with nanoscale particles that are small enough to get deep into your lungs, researchers have found over a series of studies.

These nanoparticles form when fragrances interact with ozone, which enters buildings through ventilation systems, triggering chemical transformations that create new airborne pollutants.

A forest is a pristine environment, but if you're using cleaning and aromatherapy products full of chemically manufactured scents to recreate a forest in your home, you're actually creating a tremendous amount of indoor air pollution that you shouldn't be breathing in.

Nanoparticles just a few nanometers in size can penetrate deep into the respiratory system and spread to other organs.

To understand how airborne particles form indoors, you need to measure the smallest nanoparticles—down to a single nanometer. At this scale, we can observe the earliest stages of new particle formation, where fragrances react with ozone to form tiny molecular clusters. These clusters then rapidly evolve, growing and transforming in the air around us.

Even though it's yet to be determined how breathing in volatile chemicals from these products impacts your health, the two have repeatedly found that when fragrances are released indoors, they quickly react with ozone to form nanoparticles. These newly formed nanoparticles are particularly concerning because they can reach very high concentrations, potentially posing risks to respiratory health.

Essential oil diffusers, disinfectants, air fresheners and other scented sprays also generate a significant number of nanoscale particles.

But it's not just scented products contributing to indoor nanoparticle pollution: A study by researchers  found that cooking on a gas stove also emits nanoparticles in large quantities.

Just 1 kilogram of cooking fuel emits 10 quadrillion particles smaller than 3 nanometers, which matches or exceeds what's emitted from cars with internal combustion engines. At that rate, you might be inhaling 10–100 times more of these sub-3 nanometer particles from cooking on a gas stove indoors than you would from car exhaust while standing on a busy street.

Still, scented chemical products match or surpass gas stoves and car engines in the generation of nanoparticles smaller than 3 nanometers, called nanocluster aerosol. Between 100 billion and 10 trillion of these particles could deposit in your respiratory system within just 20 minutes of exposure to scented products.

 Satya S. Patra et al, Flame-Free Candles Are Not Pollution-Free: Scented Wax Melts as a Significant Source of Atmospheric Nanoparticles, Environmental Science & Technology Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1021/acs.estlett.4c00986