The study found that the type of land plays a significant role in the density of lightning strikes. Firstly, North India (NI) generally experienced more lightning than Northeast India (NEI). However, the timing differs: NI sees a peak in lightning during the monsoon season (June to September), while NEI is more prone to lightning strikes during the pre-monsoon months (March to May).

Areas with lots of human activity, like farmland and cities, were also shown to have more lightning strikes. Without vegetation covering it around the year, the ground over farmlands heats up quickly, creating the perfect conditions for thunderstorms. Natural landscapes, like forests and grasslands, were shown to have moderate lightning activity, showing us that vegetation, which helps maintain high soil moisture, plays a role in lightning occurrences. Some natural areas, like savannas (grasslands with scattered trees) and wetlands, can also be lightning hotspots.

The mountains also matter. The research revealed that lightning is more common in the foothills of the Himalayas. It is likely caused by surface heating, where moisture-filled air gets pushed upwards, and orographic lifting (mountain formations) in Meghalaya. The height above sea level is also important. Most lightning happens at lower altitudes (below 1600 feet), and the frequency decreases as you go higher up the mountains, especially in North India. Finally, the study found that as farmland and cities expand, lightning activity tends to increase in those areas.

The study shows us that lightning isn't just a random event, instead, it's shaped by the landscape, the vegetation, and even human activities. Understanding these connections can guide safety measures and help farmers and city planners make informed decisions.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S136468262500...

part2

Packets of freeze-dried bacteria can grow bio-cement on demand

Cement manufacturing and repair could be significantly improved by using biocement-producing bacteria, but growing the microbes at construction sites remains a challenge. Now, researchers report a freeze-drying approach in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces that preserves the bacteria, potentially allowing construction workers to ultimately use powder out of a packet to quickly make tiles, repair oil wells or strengthen the ground for makeshift roads or camps.

Soil stabilization and concrete repair are major challenges facing civil engineers. Recently, researchers have shifted their attention to a tiny bacterium called Sporosarcina pasteurii that can produce a form of calcium mineral called biocement. The microbes break down urea and form ammonium and carbonate. Then, with the addition of calcium, the result is calcium carbonate, which glues sand and soil particles together or repairs cracks in existing concrete structures.

To make biocement for construction projects, the bacteria currently must be grown onsite with special equipment and technical know-how. So, researchers wanted to develop a way to preserve S. pasteurii in a shelf-stable format that would be easy for construction workers to use.

They were  inspired by manufacturers who freeze-dry biological components and add them to fertilizers. The researchers suspended the bacteria in different solutions and tested how well the microbes survived freezing. They found that sucrose protected the microbes best compared to other types of protectants. After freezing, the bacteria were dried and then stored in resealable plastic bags. Sucrose-treated S. pasteurii remained viable for at least three months.

Further laboratory testing showed that the sucrose-preserved, freeze-dried bacteria could be used to cement sand in 3D-printed cylindrical molds. The researchers prepared separate columns with play sand, like that used in children's sandboxes, and natural sandy soil taken from the ground. Then, when the columns were sprayed several times with calcium chloride and urea, the bacteria produced biocement. The biocement in the columns made with play sand was stronger than the biocement formed with soil, and most of the biocement samples could be removed from the play sand molds.

Matthew J. Tuttle et al, Shelf-Stable Sporosarcina pasteurii Formulation for Scalable Laboratory and Field-Based Production of Biocement, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (2025). DOI: 10.1021/acsami.4c15381

Bacteria use nano-spearguns to retaliate against attacks

Some bacteria deploy tiny spearguns to retaliate against rival attacks. Researchers  have mimicked attacks by poking bacteria with an ultra-sharp tip. Using this approach, they have uncovered that bacteria assemble their nanoweapons in response to cell envelope damage and rapidly strike back with high precision.

The research is published in the journal Science Advances.

In the world of microbes, peaceful coexistence goes hand in hand with fierce competition for nutrients and space. Certain bacteria outcompete rivals and fend off attackers by injecting them with a lethal cocktail using tiny, nano-sized spearguns, known as type VI secretion systems (T6SS).

Bacteria respond to cell envelope damage. 

Using atomic force microscopy (AFM), researchers have been able to mimic a bacterial T6SS attack. With the needle-like, ultra-sharp AFM tip, they could touch the bacterial surface, and by gradually increasing the pressure, puncture the outer and the inner membranes in a controlled manner.

In combination with fluorescence microscopy, the researchers revealed that the bacteria responded to outer membrane damage.

Within ten seconds the bacteria assembled their T6SS, often repeatedly, at the site of damage and fired back with pinpoint accuracy.

In the microbial ecosystem, survival is all about strategy, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa has certainly mastered the art of defense. Their targeted and swift retaliation against local attacks minimizes misfiring and optimizes the cost-benefit ratio.

This clever tactic gives Pseudomonas a survival advantage, enabling it to incapacitate attackers and thrive in diverse and often challenging environments.

Mitchell Brüderlin et al, Pseudomonas aeruginosa assembles H1-T6SS in response to physical and chemical damage of the outer membrane, Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adr1713

Room-temperature superconductors: Fundamental constants suggest they could exist within our universe

In a new development that could help redefine the future of technology, a team of physicists has uncovered a fundamental insight into the upper limit of superconducting temperature.

This research, accepted for publication in the Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, suggests that room-temperature superconductivity—long considered the "holy grail" of condensed matter physics—may indeed be possible within the laws of our universe.

Superconductors, materials that can conduct electricity without resistance, have the potential to revolutionize energy transmission, medical imaging, and quantum computing. However, until now, they have only functioned at extremely low temperatures, making them impractical for widespread use. The race to find a superconductor that works at ambient conditions has been one of the most intense and elusive pursuits in modern science.

The researchers  reveal that the upper limit of superconducting temperature TC is intrinsically linked to the fundamental constants of nature—the electron mass, electron charge, and the Planck constant.

Constants such as these govern everything from the stability of atoms to the formation of stars and synthesis of carbon and other elements essential to life. The team's finding shows that the upper limit ranges from hundreds to a thousand Kelvin—a range that comfortably includes room temperature.

This discovery tells us that room-temperature superconductivity is not ruled out by fundamental constants.

The results have already been independently confirmed in a separate study, adding weight to the team's conclusions. But the implications go even further. By exploring how different values of these fundamental constants could alter the limits of superconductivity, the researchers have opened a fascinating window into the nature of our universe.

Part 1

Imagine a world where the fundamental constants are different and set the upper limit for TC at a mere millionth of a Kelvin. In such a universe, superconductivity would be undetectable, and we would never have discovered it. Conversely, in a universe where the limit is a million Kelvin, superconductors would be common—even in your electric kettle.

The wire would superconduct instead of heating up. Boiling water for tea would be a very different challenge. It therefore appears that the very reason the community is busy chasing up a room-temperature superconductor is that our fundamental constants set the upper limit of TC in the range 100–1000 K (the range of planetary conditions) where our "room" temperature is.
This research not only advances our understanding of superconductivity but also highlights the delicate balance of the constants that make our universe—and life within it—possible. For scientists and engineers, this work also provides a renewed sense of direction.

 Kostya Trachenko et al, Upper bounds on the highest phonon frequency and superconducting temperature from fundamental physical constants, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter (2025). DOI: 10.1088/1361-648X/adbc39. On arXiv: DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2406.08129

Part 2

Microscopic particles of 'active matter' dance to the tune of electrochemical reactions

A new study has revealed a coordinated dance of microscopic particles—breaking up and clustering back together in just seconds—after receiving electrical and chemical stimuli. This work represents a new class of materials that mimic the behaviors of living organisms, known as "active matter."

Like the skins of chameleons and octopuses, which respond to external stimuli by changing colors, active matter can display dynamic and autonomous behavior including motility, assembly and swarming. The study published in Nature Communications, revealed a new mechanism to activate these properties within seconds.

 Medha Rath et al, Transient colloidal crystals fueled by electrochemical reaction products, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-57333-4

Scientists discover how aspirin could prevent some cancers from spreading

Scientists have uncovered the mechanism behind how aspirin could reduce the metastasis of some cancers by stimulating the immune system. In the study, published in Nature, the scientists say that discovering the mechanism will support ongoing clinical trials, and could lead to the targeted use of aspirin to prevent the spread of susceptible types of cancer, and to the development of more effective drugs to prevent cancer metastasis.

The scientists caution that, in some people, aspirin can have serious side effects and clinical trials are underway to determine how to use it safely and effectively to prevent cancer spread, so people should consult their doctor before starting to take it.

Studies of people with cancer have previously observed that those taking daily low-dose aspirin have a reduction in the spread of some cancers, such as breast, bowel, and prostate cancers, leading to ongoing clinical trials. However, until now it wasn't known exactly how aspirin could prevent metastases.

Scientists  were investigating the process of metastasis, because, while cancer starts out in one location, 90% of cancer deaths occur when cancer spreads to other parts of the body.

The scientists wanted to better understand how the immune system responds to metastasis, because when individual cancer cells break away from their originating tumor and spread to another part of the body they are particularly vulnerable to immune attack.

The immune system can recognize and kill these lone cancer cells more effectively than cancer cells within larger originating tumors, which have often developed an environment that suppresses the immune system.

Part 1

The researchers previously screened 810 genes in mice and found 15 that had an effect on cancer metastasis. In particular, they found that mice lacking a gene which produces a protein called ARHGEF1 had less metastasis of various primary cancers to the lungs and liver.

The researchers determined that ARHGEF1 suppresses a type of immune cell called a T cell, which can recognize and kill metastatic cancer cells.

To develop treatments to take advantage of this discovery, they needed to find a way for drugs to target it. The scientists traced signals in the cell to determine that ARHGEF1 is switched on when T cells are exposed to a clotting factor called thromboxane A2 (TXA2).

This was an unexpected revelation for the scientists, because TXA2 is already well-known and linked to how aspirin works.

TXA2 is produced by platelets—a cell in the blood stream that helps blood clot, preventing wounds from bleeding, but occasionally causing heart attacks and strokes. Aspirin reduces the production of TXA2, leading to the anti-clotting effects which underlie its ability to prevent heart attacks and strokes.

This new research found that aspirin prevents cancers from spreading by decreasing TXA2 and releasing T cells from suppression. They used a mouse model of melanoma to show that in mice given aspirin, the frequency of metastases was reduced compared to control mice, and this was dependent on releasing T cells from suppression by TXA2.
Aspirin, or other drugs that could target this pathway, have the potential to be less expensive than antibody-based therapies, and therefore more accessible globally.
In a small proportion of people, aspirin can cause serious side effects, including bleeding or stomach ulcers. Therefore, it is important to understand which people with cancer are likely to benefit and always talk to your doctor before starting aspirin, the researchers say.

Rahul Roychoudhuri, Aspirin prevents metastasis by limiting platelet TXA2 suppression of T cell immunity, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08626-7. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08626-7

Part 2

When you get hurt matters: Circadian rhythms shown to play a role in muscle repair

The body's internal clock doesn't just dictate when we sleep—it also determines how quickly our muscles heal. A new study in mice, published today in Science Advances, suggests that muscle injuries heal faster when they occur during the body's natural waking hours.

The findings could have implications for shift workers and may also prove useful in understanding the effects of aging and obesity. 

The study also may help explain how disruptions like jetlag and daylight saving time changes impact circadian rhythms and muscle recovery.

"In each of our cells, we have genes that form the molecular circadian clock. These clock genes encode a set of transcription factors that regulate many processes throughout the body and align them with the appropriate time of day. Things like sleep/wake behaviour, metabolism, body temperature and hormones—all these are circadian.

Earlier it was found that mice regenerated muscle tissues faster when the damage occurred during their normal waking hours. When mice experienced muscle damage during their usual sleeping hours, healing was slowed.

In the current study, the researchers sought to better understand how circadian clocks within muscle stem cells govern regeneration depending on the time of day.

They found that the time of day influenced inflammatory response levels in stem cells, which signal to neutrophils—the "first responder" innate immune cells in muscle regeneration.

They  discovered that the cells' signaling to each other was much stronger right after injury when mice were injured during their wake period. This finding  is further evidence that the circadian regulation of muscle regeneration is dictated by this stem cell-immune cell crosstalk.

The scientists found that the muscle stem cell clock also affected the post-injury production of NAD+, a coenzyme found in all cells that is essential to creating energy in the body and is involved in hundreds of metabolic processes.

Next, using a genetically manipulated mouse model, which boosted NAD+ production specifically in muscle stem cells, the team of scientists found that NAD+ induces inflammatory responses and neutrophil recruitment, promoting muscle regeneration.

The findings may be especially relevant to understanding the circadian rhythm disruptions that occur in aging and obesity.

Circadian disruptions linked to aging and metabolic syndromes like obesity and diabetes are also associated with diminished muscle regeneration.

 Pei Zhu et al, Immunomodulatory role of the stem cell circadian clock in muscle repair, Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adq8538

When outplayed, AI models resort to cheating to win chess matches

A team of AI researchers  has found that several leading AI models will resort to cheating at chess to win when playing against a superior opponent. They have published a paper on the arXiv preprint server describing experiments they conducted with several well-known AI models playing against an open-source chess engine.

As AI models continue to mature, researchers and users have begun considering risks. For example, chatbots not only accept wrong answers as fact, but fabricate false responses when they are incapable of finding a reasonable reply. Also, as AI models have been put to use in real-world business applications such as filtering resumes and estimating stock trends, users have begun to wonder what sorts of actions they will take when they become uncertain, or confused.

In this new study, the team in California found that many of the most recognized AI models will intentionally cheat to give themselves an advantage if they determine they are not winning.

The work involved pitting OpenAI's o1-preview model, DeepSeek's current R1 model and several other well-known AI models against the open-source chess engine Stockfish. Each of the models played hundreds of matches with Stockfish as the researchers monitored the action.

The research team found that when being outplayed, the AI models resorted to obvious cheating strategies, such as running a separate copy of Stockfish to learn how it made its moves, replacing its engine or simply overwriting the chessboard with pieces removed or in more favorable positions.

Those models with the most recent updates tended to be more likely to cheat when cornered. This, they reason, was because of programming trends that have pushed AI models to try harder to find solutions to problems they encounter.

It also introduces a worrying aspect of AI engines in general, they claim. If they cheat at chess, will they cheat in other ways when asked to carry out other tasks? 

Alexander Bondarenko et al, Demonstrating specification gaming in reasoning models, arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2502.13295

Bacterial 'jumping genes' can target and control chromosome ends

Transposons, or "jumping genes"—DNA segments that can move from one part of the genome to another—are key to bacterial evolution and the development of antibiotic resistance.

Researchers have discovered a new mechanism these genes use to survive and propagate in bacteria with linear DNA, with applications in biotechnology and drug development.

In a paper published in Science, researchers show that transposons can target and insert themselves at the ends of linear chromosomes, called telomeres, within their bacterial host. In Streptomyces—historically one of the most significant bacteria for antibiotic development—they found that transposons controlled the telomeres in nearly a third of the chromosomes. 

Bacteria are like these little tinkerers. They're always collecting these mobile DNA pieces, and they're making new functions all the time—everything in antibiotic resistance is really about mobile genetic elements and almost always transposons that can move between bacteria.

The researchers identified several families of transposons in cyanobacteria and Streptomyces that, using different mechanisms, can find and insert themselves at the telomere, with benefits for the transposon and their bacterial host.

For one, inserting at the end of the chromosome helps the transposon avoid genes for the cell's core functioning, which reside in the middle of the chromosomes; transposons that can target the ends are less likely to disrupt an essential function or cause cell death.

For any element to survive—a transposon, bacteria—they really need to be able to do those two things: they need to not cause too much damage, and they need a way to move to new hosts. By inserting into the telomeres, they're able to do both.

Transposons have been found clustered at the chromosome ends in eukaryotic cells, but this is the first time it's been documented in bacteria with linear chromosomes, and the researchers found that bacterial transposons (versus eukaryotes) use unique mechanisms to control the telomeres.

Shan-Chi Hsieh et al, Telomeric transposons are pervasive in linear bacterial genomes, Science (2025). DOI: 10.1126/science.adp1973. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adp1973

Antimicrobial resistance in soil bacteria without the use of antibiotics: Predatory interactions drive development

Overuse of antibiotics is currently the primary reason for the rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Researchers,  however, have shown that AMR can surprisingly be found in soil bacterial communities due to microbial interactions too, driven by a species of predatory bacteria.

Published in Current Biology, the study looked at how the presence of the bacterium Myxococcus xanthus affects the number of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in soil samples. M. xanthus is a predatory species which is known to release antimicrobials and other molecules to kill its prey.

The researchers found that the death of M. xanthus in soil bacterial communities increased the frequency of resistant isolates—bacterial cells resistant to antibiotics—in many different species of soil bacteria. These cells also showed resistance to certain antibiotics even without exposure to these drugs. 

When faced with starvation, populations of M. xanthus die en masse. In famine-like conditions, which are very common in soil environments, these bacterial cells form stress-resistant structures called fruiting bodies that are filled with spores.

During the development of fruiting bodies, only a minority of cells succeed in becoming spores, whereas the majority of the bacterial cells undergo lysis (rupture) and release growth-inhibitory substances into the environment.

The researchers think that exposure to these growth inhibitory molecules is the reason behind the increased frequency of resistant isolates in the soil bacterial community. Interestingly, not all strains of M. xanthus triggered enrichment of resistance; it was the ones with higher diversity of biosynthetic clusters that seem to drive it.

When analyzing these inhibitory molecules, the researchers found something even more interesting. They identified multiple different molecules and did a very crude classification. Individually, these molecules might not do anything, but when you put them together, they suddenly do this strange thing where they can enrich other resistant isolates.

The researchers found that resistance was enriched against several antibiotics, which include commonly used drugs such as tetracycline and rifampicin.

It is important to test whether the observations derived from culturable bacteria are also applicable for unculturable microbes, say the researchers.

They found that AMR enriched through this phenomenon could be extended to unculturable bacterial species via similar exposure to growth inhibitory molecules.

The fact that AMR can be maintained by microbial antagonism even in the absence of human-driven contamination of antibiotics is a new and unexpected discovery, the researchers say.

Saheli Saha et al, Mass lysis of predatory bacteria drives the enrichment of antibiotic resistance in soil microbial communities, Current Biology (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.068

Alzheimer's treatment may lie in the brain's own cleanup crew: Harnessing microglia to clear plaques

For more than three decades, scientists have been racing to stop Alzheimer's disease by removing amyloid beta plaques—sticky clumps of toxic protein that accumulate in the brain.

Now, a new Northwestern Medicine study suggests a promising alternative: enhancing the brain's own immune cells to clear these plaques more effectively. The paper was published in Nature Medicine.

The findings could reshape the future of Alzheimer's treatments, shifting the focus from simply removing plaques to harnessing the brain's natural defenses.

The study is the first to use a cutting-edge technique called spatial transcriptomics on human clinical-trial brains with Alzheimer's disease. The technique allows scientists to pinpoint the specific spatial location of gene activity inside a tissue sample.

By analyzing donated brain tissue from deceased people with Alzheimer's disease who received amyloid-beta immunization and comparing it to those who did not, the scientists found that when these treatments work, the brain's immune cells (called microglia) don't just clear plaques—they also help restore a healthier brain environment.

But not all microglia are created equal. Some are quite effective at removing plaques, while others struggle, the study found. Also, microglia in treated brains adopt distinct states depending on the brain region and type of immunization. Lastly, certain genes, like TREM2 and APOE, are more active in microglia in response to treatment, helping these cells remove amyloid beta plaques, according to the findings.

Microglial mechanisms drive amyloid-β clearance in immunized Alzheimer's disease patients, Nature Medicine (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41591-025-03574-1. www.nature.com/articles/s41591-025-03574-1

Wireless pacifier could monitor babies' vitals in the NICU, eliminating the need for painful blood draws

A small but powerful invention could soon make life in the NICU easier for the tiniest patients. Newborns must have their vitals checked frequently, and one of the most critical measures of newborn health is electrolyte levels. Right now, the only way to monitor electrolytes is to draw their blood multiple times a day. This can be painful and frightening for babies, and challenging to perform for medical staff, who can have trouble drawing blood from tiny, underdeveloped blood vessels.

Now, researchers have developed a pacifier that can constantly monitor a baby's electrolyte levels in real time, eliminating the need for repeated invasive blood draws.

https://research.gatech.edu/feature/pacifier

Diet-related brain inflammation: Three days of high-fat eating impair memory in aged rats

Just a few days of eating a diet high in saturated fat could be enough to cause memory problems and related brain inflammation in older adults, a new study in rats suggests.

Researchers fed separate groups of young and old rats the high-fat diet for three days or for three months to compare how quickly changes happen in the brain versus the rest of the body when eating an unhealthy diet.

As expected based on previous diabetes and obesity research, eating fatty foods for three months led to metabolic problems, gut inflammation and dramatic shifts in gut bacteria in all rats compared to those that ate normal chow, while just three days of high fat caused no major metabolic or gut changes.

When it came to changes in the brain, however, researchers found that only older rats—whether they were on the high-fat diet for three months or only three days—performed poorly on memory tests and showed negative inflammatory changes in the brain.

The results dispel the idea that diet-related inflammation in the aging brain is driven by obesity. Unhealthy diets and obesity are linked, but they are not inseparable. 

The researchers now showed that within three days, long before obesity sets in, tremendous neuroinflammatory shifts are occurring.

Changes in the body in all animals are happening more slowly and aren't actually necessary to cause the memory impairments and changes in the brain. We never would have known that brain inflammation is the primary cause of high-fat diet-induced memory impairments without comparing the two timelines.

The research was published recently in the journal Immunity & Ageing.

Michael J. Butler et al, Obesity-associated memory impairment and neuroinflammation precede widespread peripheral perturbations in aged rats, Immunity & Ageing (2025). DOI: 10.1186/s12979-024-00496-3

High temperatures could affect brain function in preadolescents

Exposure to high ambient temperatures is associated with lower connectivity in three brain networks in preadolescents, suggesting that heat may impact brain function. This is the conclusion of a study whose results have been published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

The same research team found that exposure to cold and heat can affect psychiatric symptoms such as anxiety, depression and attention problems. In addition, other studies have linked lower connectivity within the brain's salience network to suicidal ideation and self-harming behaviors in adolescents with depression, as well as to anxiety disorders.

A new hypothesis: high temperatures could decrease the functional connectivity of brain network, indirectly contributing to a higher risk of suicide in individuals with pre-existing mental health conditions.

The researchers, however, do not propose that these connectivity changes, triggered by heat exposure, directly induce suicidal behaviors, they could act as a trigger in vulnerable individuals.

 Laura Granés et al, Exposure to Ambient Temperature and Functional Connectivity of Brain Resting-State Networks in Preadolescents, Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.jaac.2024.11.023

Brain cells compete to shape our minds from development to aging

In a recently published review, researchers explored the ongoing process of neural cell competition (NCC), a fundamental mechanism that shapes the brain across the lifespan.

The review is published in National Science Review, and provides fresh insights into how brain cells continuously "compete" for survival and how this competition impacts brain development, wiring, function, and aging.

Although neural cell competition is widely recognized for its role during early brain development,  the new work demonstrated that this process continues to be vital throughout life. The researchers  revealed that NCC not only helps maintain healthy brain function but also contributes to age-related cognitive decline when disrupted.

The researchers discussed how NCC regulates the balance between different types of brain cells, such as neural progenitors, neurons, and glial cells, ensuring the proper structure and function of neural networks. As we age, this balance can become skewed, potentially leading to cognitive decline and diseases such as Alzheimer's Disease. Disruptions in cellular competition, such as neuronal loss or excessive glial cell growth, have been linked to neurodegenerative diseases.

Additionally, they highlighted how NCC extends beyond neurons, affecting other brain cell types. For example, in the aging brain, oligodendrocyte precursor cells compete to mature into oligodendrocytes. Dysregulation of this process can impair the brain's ability to process information efficiently, contributing to conditions like multiple sclerosis and other white matter diseases.

By understanding NCC's influence across various cell types, the research opens the door to potential strategies for protecting brain cells and slowing the aging process.

One of the most exciting prospects from this research is the possibility of targeting NCC in future therapies to promote brain health in older adults. The review suggests that manipulating the signaling pathways involved in NCC could help protect neurons, enhance cognitive function, and even combat age-related neurodegenerative diseases. This review highlights the dynamic and ongoing battle that occurs inside our brains every day, one that involves complex interactions between different cell types that impact everything from our ability to learn as children to how we remember things as adults. It's a critical step forward in understanding how we can better protect our brains as we age.

 Yu Zheng Li et al, Neural Cell Competition Sculpting Brain from Cradle to Grave, National Science Review (2025). DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwaf057

How the brain turns sound into conversation: Study uncovers the neural pathways of communication

A new study has uncovered how the brain seamlessly transforms sounds, speech patterns, and words into the flow of everyday conversations. Using advanced technology to analyze over 100 hours of brain activity during real-life discussions, researchers revealed the intricate pathways that allow us to effortlessly speak and understand.

These insights not only deepen our understanding of human connection but also pave the way for transformative advancements in speech technology and communication tools.

The study, published in Nature Human Behaviour, recorded brain activity over 100 hours of natural, open-ended conversations using a technique called electrocorticography (ECoG).

To analyze this data, researchers used a speech-to-text model called Whisper, which helps break down language into three levels: simple sounds, speech patterns, and the meaning of words. These layers were then compared to brain activity using advanced computer models.

The results showed that the framework could predict brain activity with great accuracy. Even when applied to conversations that were not part of the original data, the model correctly matched different parts of the brain to specific language functions. For example, regions involved in hearing and speaking aligned with sound and speech patterns, while areas involved in higher-level understanding aligned with the meanings of words.

The study also found that the brain processes language in a sequence. Before we speak, our brain moves from thinking about words to forming sounds, while after we listen, it works backwards to make sense of what was said. 

This research has potential practical applications, from improving speech recognition technology to developing better tools for people with communication challenges. It also offers new insights into how the brain makes conversation feel so effortless, whether it's chatting with a friend or engaging in a debate.

A unified acoustic-to-speech-to-language embedding space captures the neural basis of natural language processing in everyday conversations, Nature Human Behaviour (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-025-02105-9

Could a Tattoo Raise Your Risk of Skin Cancer? Twin Studies Suggest a Link

A twin study suggests the consequences of getting a tattoo could be worse than potential regret, finding tattooed twins more likely to develop skin cancer or lymphoma than their tattoo-free siblings.

A cohort study of 2,367 randomly selected twins compared individuals who had a form of skin cancer with those who didn't, revealing those who had tattoos had nearly four times the risk of skin cancer.

Their case-control study compared 316 individuals with their twin siblings, finding between 33 and 62 percent greater risk of a tattooed twin going on to develop cancer.

This was more pronounced for those with tattoos larger than their palm – a risk three times higher than those without tattoos.

It's important to note, firstly, that cancers like lymphoma are quite rare, so this increase is from a low baseline.

What's more, this is not evidence that tattoos cause cancer. It may be those who get tattoos are more at risk of cancer thanks to factors related to a decision to get tattoos.

But previous research has also found higher risks of lymphoma in people with tattoos than in those without, so these findings call for further investigation.

 Other studies showed that ink can contain potentially harmful substances, and for example, red ink more often causes allergic reactions. This is an area we would like to explore further.

Ink particles accumulate in the lymph nodes, and scientists suspect that the body perceives them as foreign substances. 

This may mean that the immune system is constantly trying to respond to the ink, and we do not yet know whether this persistent strain could weaken the function of the lymph nodes or have other health consequences.

Part 1

A 2016 report for the European Commission found the majority of inks used in tattooing are not even approved for use in cosmetics, and some are known to be carcinogenic during degradation.

If you are considering getting inked, it is worth carefully considering ink types and checking if you are clear of other health conditions, such as psoriasis, that tattooing may exacerbate.
Research like this can be a powerful tool to inform us of potential risks

Tattoo ink exposure is associated with lymphoma and skin cancers – a Danish study of twins

https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-0...

Part 2

3D-printed tissue restores erectile function and aids reproduction in animal study

Erectile dysfunction affects over 40% of men over 40, yet our understanding of the condition remains limited. Research on this issue has mostly relied on real organs, making it difficult to study the detailed interaction between blood flow and tissue during an erection.

In a recent study published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, a team of scientists from China, Japan and the U.S. presented a 3D printed hydrogel-based penile model complete with essential blood vessels to mimic the natural function of a penis.

Once implanted into rabbits and pigs with penile deformities, the bioengineered organ enabled them to mate and reproduce within weeks.
Apart from transporting oxygen and essential nutrients throughout the body, the vascular system also plays a crucial role in penile erection. This is especially true of the corpora cavernosa with its numerous cavernous spaces, with the cavernous artery running through the center of the penis.

During an erection, these spaces get filled with blood and press against nearby veins that block the blood from flowing out, causing the penis to swell and stay firm. Damage to this intricate system of vessels can lead to erectile dysfunction (difficulty achieving an erection) and Peyronie's disease (penile curvature and deformation).

Scientists created a detailed penile system which included the glans (tip of the penis), corpus spongiosum (the tissue surrounding the urethra) with urethral structures and an implantable model of the corpus cavernosum, the sponge-like vascular tissue responsible for erections. This biomimetic corpus cavernosum (BCC) model helped them visualize how different structures and fluids interact during both normal and dysfunctional erections.

The study also explored repairing penile tissue damage in rabbits and pigs. The process began with introducing endothelial cells (lining of blood vessels) derived from the corpus cavernosum of said animals in the BCC model. After 14 days of in-vitro culture, the implantable 3D-printed organ was ready with a fused endothelial layer.

Part 1

Within a few weeks of implantation, the BCC model helped the animals regain normal erectile function both spontaneously and in response to electrical stimulation, allowing them to mate and reproduce successfully.
These results open exciting possibilities for treating penile tissue damage and even making penis transplants a reality using the 3D-printed BCC model. The researchers also think that the findings of this study will support the further development of 3D-printed blood-vessel-rich functional organs for transplantation.

 Zhenxing Wang et al, 3D-printed perfused models of the penis for the study of penile physiology and for restoring erectile function in rabbits and pigs, Nature Biomedical Engineering (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41551-025-01367-y

Part 2

Optimal brain processing requires balance between excitatory and inhibitory neurons, study suggests

The brain's ability to process information is known to be supported by intricate connections between different neuron populations. A key objective of neuroscience research has been to delineate the processes via which these connections influence information processing.

Researchers recently carried out a study aimed at better understanding the contribution of excitatory and inhibitory neuron populations to the brain's encoding of information. Their findings, published in Physical Review Letters, show that information processing is maximized when the activity of excitatory and inhibitory neurons is balanced.

The brain continuously receives and integrates sensory inputs, and neurons do not act in isolation—they are part of complex, recurrent networks. One particularly intriguing feature of these networks is the balance between the activity of excitatory and inhibitory neurons, which has been observed across different brain regions.

Researchers wanted to determine whether the balance between excitatory and inhibitory neurons does more than stabilize neural activity. Specifically, the team explored the possibility that this balance also optimizes information processing.

They analyzed a model that captures the interactions between these two populations and investigated—both analytically and numerically—their response to external signals.

Specifically, by employing tools of information theory, they revealed a fundamental trade-off:  neural networks optimized for accurate encoding over long timescales may be less responsive to rapid changes in the input.

Employing mathematical and theoretical approaches for studying information processing, the researchers showed that information processing is most effective at the edge of stability, a critical state in which the activity of excitatory and inhibitory neurons is balanced. Their results suggest that the fine-tuning of this excitation-inhibition balance could not only stabilize the brain's activity, but could also play a crucial role in its ability to optimally encode information.

Part 1

Moreover, in real neural networks, connectivity is not static—it evolves over time, influenced by both external stimuli and internal network activity. This dynamic nature of connectivity might play a crucial role in shaping how neural populations process and encode information, potentially offering insights into how learning and adaptive properties affect information encoding in neural systems.

 Giacomo Barzon et al, Excitation-Inhibition Balance Controls Information Encoding in Neural Populations, Physical Review Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.068403.

Part 2

Mysterious phenomenon at center of galaxy could reveal new kind of dark matter

A mysterious phenomenon at the center of our galaxy could be the result of a different type of dark matter.

Dark matter, the mysterious form of unobserved matter which could make up 85% of the mass of the known universe, is one of science's biggest manhunts.

In this first of its kind study, scientists have taken a step closer to understanding the elusive mystery matter. They think a reimagined candidate for dark matter could be behind unexplained chemical reactions taking place in the Milky Way.

At the center of our galaxy sit huge clouds of positively charged hydrogen, a mystery to scientists for decades because normally the gas is neutral. So, what is supplying enough energy to knock the negatively charged electrons out of them?

The energy signatures radiating from this part of our galaxy suggest that there is a constant, roiling source of energy doing just that, and our data says it might come from a much lighter form of dark matter than current models consider.

The most established theory for dark matter is that it is likely a group of particles known as Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), which pass through regular matter without much interaction—making them extremely hard to detect.

However, this study, published recently in Physical Review Letters, has potentially revived another type of dark matter with much lower mass than a WIMP.

The researchers think that these tiny dark matter particles are crashing into each other and producing new charged particles in a process called "annihilation." These newly produced charged particles can subsequently ionize the hydrogen gas.
Previous attempts to explain this ionization process had relied on cosmic rays, fast and energetic particles that travel throughout the universe. However, this explanation has faced some difficulties, as energy signatures recorded from observations of the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) where this is happening, don't seem to be large enough to be attributed to cosmic rays. Such a process doesn't seem to be possible with WIMPs either.

The research team were left with the explanation that the energy source causing the annihilation is slower than a cosmic ray and less massive than a WIMP.

Part 1

This finding may simultaneously explain wider mysteries of our galaxy, such as a specific type of X-ray observation found at the center of the Milky Way—known as the "511-keV emission line." This specific energy signature could also be due to the same low-mass dark matter colliding and producing charged particles.

Pedro De la Torre Luque et al, Anomalous Ionization in the Central Molecular Zone by Sub-GeV Dark Matter, Physical Review Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.101001

Part 2

Climate change may reduce the number of satellites that can safely orbit in space

Aerospace engineers have found that greenhouse gas emissions are changing the environment of near-Earth space in ways that, over time, will reduce the number of satellites that can sustainably operate there.

In a study appearing in Nature Sustainability, the researchers report that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases can cause the upper atmosphere to shrink. An atmospheric layer of special interest is the thermosphere, where the International Space Station and most satellites orbit today.

When the thermosphere contracts, the decreasing density reduces atmospheric drag— a force that pulls old satellites and other debris down to altitudes where they will encounter air molecules and burn up.

Less drag therefore means extended lifetimes for space junk, which will litter sought-after regions for decades and increase the potential for collisions in orbit.

The team carried out simulations of how carbon emissions affect the upper atmosphere and orbital dynamics, in order to estimate the "satellite carrying capacity" of low-Earth orbit. These simulations predict that by the year 2100, the carrying capacity of the most popular regions could be reduced by 50–66% due to the effects of greenhouse gases.

There's been a massive increase in the number of satellites launched, especially for delivering broadband internet from space. If we don't manage this activity carefully and work to reduce our emissions, space could become too crowded, leading to more collisions and debris, the experts warn.

William Parker, Greenhouse gases reduce the satellite carrying capacity of low Earth orbit, Nature Sustainability (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41893-025-01512-0. www.nature.com/articles/s41893-025-01512-0

Frame dragging 

Clothes dryers and the bottom line: Switching to air drying can save hundreds

Researchers are hoping their new study will inspire some people to rethink their relationship with laundry. Because, no matter how you spin it, clothes dryers use a lot of comparatively costly energy when air works for free.

Household dryers in the U.S. consume about 3% of our residential energy budget, about six times that used by washing machines. Collectively, dryers cost more than $7 billion to power each year in this country, and generating that energy emits the equivalent of more than 27 million tons of carbon dioxide.

The U.S. also leads the world in dryer ownership, with more than 80% of homes having one, compared with less than 30% in South Korea, just over 40% in Germany and just under 60% in the United Kingdom.

That got researchers in the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability, or SEAS, wondering what it would mean for the average American household if we warmed up to air drying.

In most other places in the world, it's hard to find a clothes dryer. 

 Dryers consume a lot of energy, so what if you used line drying instead? How much could you save? How many CO₂ emissions could you avoid?

Researchers   investigated the costs and emissions associated with different drying technology behaviors in the U.S.

Over the lifetime of a dryer, 100% line drying could save a household upwards of $2,100. That would also cut back CO₂ emissions by more than 3 tons per household over the same time. Though the contrast between dryers and line drying is stark, it's not surprising, the researchers said.

The researchers did find some striking results in its analysis, published in the journal Resources, Conservation and Recycling.

For example, a mixture of line drying and dryer use proved to be the second most economical and eco-friendly option, over changes like upgrading to more efficient dryers. And, in some cases, households that invested in more energy-efficient dryers wouldn't end up saving money in the long run.

"We tend to focus on technological improvements, but a lot of the time, behavioral changes can have larger impacts.
Part 1

Mice help other mice when they are hurt

Humans may not be the only ones who aid their friends when they're hurt. Mice may do it, too, as shown by a new research study  by scientists published recently in Science.

Scientists have been trying to understand why social mammals appear to help injured members of their species. There are numerous factors that determine empathetic behavior and social bonding in mammals. But this study is the first time we're seeing a first responder-like behavior in mice.

The study shows that mice tend to help other mice they know are unconscious. Their response ranges from gentle sniffing and grooming to more forceful actions such as mouth or tongue biting, before finally escalating to pulling the tongue out of the unconscious mouse.

The behavior was especially unique due to its similarity to how humans behave in emergency responses. The urgency with which "helper mice" target the mouth and tongue of their unconscious peers appears to improve the airway of their peer and lead to a faster recovery.

 What the scientists learned the act of tongue-pulling between mice in this study cannot not be interpreted as an aggressive gesture. The social behaviors in the study were significantly more pronounced among familiar pairs of mice and were rarely seen when one of the paired mice was simply sleeping or active. Furthermore, after the unconscious mice regained consciousness, they had regular use of their tongue.

The study utilized advanced neural imaging and optogenetics to investigate the neural mechanisms behind the social behaviors of the helper mice.

 The research team's neural observations was the discovery of the activation of oxytocin neuropeptides. Oxytocin is widely known as a hormone that plays a crucial role in social bonding.

Wenjian Sun et al, Reviving-like prosocial behavior in response to unconscious or dead conspecifics in rodents, Science (2025). DOI: 10.1126/science.adq2677

No evidence for 'wind turbine syndrome' claims

A team of cognitive neuroscientists and acoustic engineers at Adam Mickiewicz University, in Poland, has found no evidence that wind turbine noise causes mental impairment. In their study, published in the journal Humanities and Social Sciences Communication, the group conducted experiments exposing human volunteers to various noises and measured a range of impacts.

Over the past several years, several groups and individuals around the world, most particularly in the U.S., have conceived of the idea of something called "wind turbine syndrome"—a theory that suggests noise from windmills can cause mental illness, or other health problems such as cancer. To date, such claims have not been backed up by research or any other type of proof. In this new effort, the research team in Poland sought to find out if there is any merit to the theory.

The researchers recruited 45 students at a local university who listened to various noises while wearing devices that measured their brainwaves. The researchers intentionally chose young volunteers because prior research has shown they are more sensitive to noise than older people.

None of the volunteers were told the purpose of the study. They were also kept in the dark regarding the source of the noises they heard. Each was exposed to normal traffic noise, silence and windmill noise. None of the volunteers could identify the source of the windmill noise; most described it as some sort of white noise.

Additionally, none of them reported the noise from the windmills as any more bothersome or stressful than the traffic noise. No evidence of mental health issues was found during testing. The researchers were also unable to detect any measurable difference in brain waves as the volunteers listened to the two types of sounds.

The research team says that listening to windmill noise in the short term does not appear to pose a mental health threat. 

 Agnieszka Rosciszewska et al, Cognitive neuroscience approach to explore the impact of wind turbine noise on various mental functions, Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1057/s41599-025-04645-x

Plastic trash dating of bird nests!

Plastic trash in bird nests documents the Anthropocene epoch

We have heard about radio carbon dating (measuring carbon-14 decay in organic materials), dendrochronology (analyzing tree-ring patterns), stratigraphy (analyzing the layers of soil and artifacts), Thermoluminescence (this method dates materials that were heated in the past by measuring the light emitted from mineral crystals), Archaeomagnetism (this method analyzes the direction and intensity of Earth's magnetic field as recorded in baked earth or clay to establish the last time the material was heated),  Potassium-Argon Dating:
This method is used to date rocks and minerals and is often used in conjunction with archaeology, especially when dealing with volcanic or igneous materials, Fission Track Dating (this method is used to date minerals and rocks by measuring the trails left by radioactive decay of Uranium in the past).

But have you ever heard about plastic trash dating?

Expiration dates could tell us more than when something goes bad! Scientists have found that dates on plastic food and beverage packaging can serve as markers of the Anthropocene, a period in Earth's history marked by the widespread impact of human activities on nature. That is what is happening now!

Here is the story:

The Eurasian coot, a round and black waterbird with a white beak, is a common sight in the Netherlands, along the canals of Amsterdam. In the wild, coots usually avoid reusing their nests, as their preferred building materials are typically fast-decaying plant matter.

The urban population, however, have started supplementing their nesting material with something much more long-lasting—plastic trash created by humans. Since plastic never truly disappears, every bit of old nesting material remains as the birds stack new layers of material, one breeding season after another.

In a study published in Ecology, a team of researchers from the Netherlands revealed that plastic waste in bird nests can serve as a time capsule, allowing biologists to determine when the nests were built by examining expiration dates on the plastic food packaging. In one case, the team traced nest materials back to 1991. 

Archaeological finds are dated using both relative and absolute dating methods, with common techniques including stratigraphy (analyzing the layers of soil and artifacts), radiocarbon dating (measuring carbon-14 decay in organic materials), and dendrochronology (analyzing tree-ring patterns).
Here's a more detailed breakdown of these methods:
Relative Dating:
Stratigraphy:
This method examines the layers of earth or strata where artifacts are found, to understand the chronological order of past human activities. The Law of Superposition states that in undisturbed layers, the deeper a layer is, the older it is.
Seriation:
This method involves arranging artifacts in a chronological sequence based on their similarities, helping to establish a relative timeline.
Cross-dating:
This method compares artifacts from different locations with known dates to establish a timeline.
Absolute Dating:
Radiocarbon Dating:
This method measures the decay of radioactive carbon-14 (C-14) in organic materials like wood, bone, and charcoal, to determine the age of the sample.
Dendrochronology:
This method uses the annual growth rings in trees to create a precise timeline and date wooden artifacts and structures.
Thermoluminescence:
This method dates materials that were heated in the past by measuring the light emitted from mineral crystals.
Archaeomagnetism:
This method analyzes the direction and intensity of Earth's magnetic field as recorded in baked earth or clay to establish the last time the material was heated.
Potassium-Argon Dating:
This method is used to date rocks and minerals and is often used in conjunction with archaeology, especially when dealing with volcanic or igneous materials.
Fission Track Dating:
This method is used to date minerals and rocks by measuring the trails left by radioactive decay of Uranium in the past.

https://crowcanyon.org/education/learn-about-archaeology/archaeolog...

Part 1.

Scientists have previously used expiration dates to track seafloor litter and piece together extreme flood events from the Anthropocene. Building on this idea, the researchers of this study collected abandoned common coot nests from central Amsterdam on September 22, 2021, after the breeding season ended.
Each nest was then deconstructed and its contents were divided into piles of natural (twigs) and artificial (near-complete packaging) materials. Each artificial item was then carefully examined for manufacturing dates, expiration dates, or any other markings that could reveal its age. The recovered packaging ranged from items like milk and avocados to chocolate packets and fast food wrappers dating back to 1996.
The researchers discovered that two of the collected coot nests had very distinct layers of plastic, making them ideal for stratigraphy—study and interpretation of the layers. One of the nests, which the scientists named "The Rokin Nest," contained plastic waste that was over three decades old.
Nestled at the base of the nest was a candy bar wrapper promoting the 1994 FIFA World Cup while the upper more recent layers hosted discarded face masks from the COVID-19 pandemic. This process of layered accumulation of contemporary human waste is also known as technostratigraphy.

Based on the stratigraphy results and tracking of nesting activity via analysis of archived Google Street View images, the researchers arrived at the conclusion that the Rokin Nest must have been home to at least three generations of coots, as their lifespan is somewhere between 5 to 10 years.
Plastic waste has enabled coots to reuse their nests, giving them more time to forage for food and defend their territory, but this luxury comes at a cost. The researchers noted that old nesting material can be host to harmful parasites like red mites and too much plastic in the nest increases the risk of entanglement for the birds, sometimes resulting in death.

 Auke‐Florian Hiemstra et al, Birds documenting the Anthropocene: Stratigraphy of plastic in urban bird nests, Ecology (2025). DOI: 10.1002/ecy.70010

Part 3

Hibernating lemurs can turn back the clock on cellular aging

Many age-related changes start within our cells, even our DNA, which can wear and tear over time as we get older. Some creatures have come up with a way to reverse this process, at least temporarily.

Consider the fat-tailed dwarf lemur of Madagascar. This hamster-sized primate can turn back the cellular aging clock and momentarily defy time during its annual hibernation season, according to new research .

The work is published in the journal Biology Letters.

It's thanks to tiny caps on the ends of their chromosomes called telomeres. They work like the plastic tips on the ends of shoelaces that keep them from fraying.

Every time a cell divides, little chunks of its telomeres are lost in the process, such that telomeres get shorter with age.

Things like chronic stress, a sedentary lifestyle and skimping on sleep can make them dwindle even faster. Eventually, telomeres become so stubby that they no longer provide protection, and cells lose the ability to function.

But dwarf lemurs have a way of keeping their telomeres from shortening and even making them longer, effectively rejuvenating their cells, at least for a while, according to the Biology Letters study.

It all happens during hibernation. 

When winter sets in in the wild, dwarf lemurs disappear into tree holes or underground burrows, where they spend up to seven months each year in a state of suspended animation.

It's a survival tactic for making it through times when food is in short supply.

During this period of metabolic slow-motion, their heart rate slows from around 200 beats per minute to fewer than eight, they become cool to the touch, and they only take a breath every 10 minutes or so.

Hibernating dwarf lemurs can stay in this cold, standby state for about a week before they have to briefly warm up, and ironically, this is when they catch up on sleep. Then, they settle back into torpor while waiting for the season of plenty to return.

The researchers followed 15 dwarf lemurs at the Duke Lemur Center before, during, and after hibernation, testing cheek swabs to track how their telomeres changed over time.

Usually, telomere length decreases over time as each round of cell division wears away at them. But genetic sequencing revealed that during hibernation, the lemurs' telomeres weren't shortening—they actually got longer.

It's almost as if, even as the months ticked by, they walked back their cells to a more youthful state.

The results were in the opposite direction of what you'd expect.

Part 1

Overall, telomeres got longer in lemurs that experienced deeper torpor bouts.

By contrast, lemurs that "woke up" to eat had telomere lengths that remained relatively stable during the study.

The lemurs' changes were temporary. Two weeks after the animals made their way out of hibernation, the researchers noted that their telomeres returned to their pre-hibernation length.
Lengthening may be a mechanism to counteract any cell damage that might otherwise occur during their periodic rewarming phases, the researchers say.
By extending their telomeres, lemurs may effectively increase the number of times their cells can divide, thus adding new life to their cells at a stressful time.
It seems to work—dwarf lemurs can live up to twice as long as other primates their size.
figuring out how they do it may help researchers develop new ways to prevent or treat age-related diseases in humans without increasing the risks of runaway cell division that can lead to cancer, the researchers say.

Marina B. Blanco et al, Food deprivation is associated with telomere elongation during hibernation in a primate, Biology Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2024.0531

Part 2

Beneficial genetic changes observed in regular blood donors

Researchers have identified genetic changes in blood stem cells from frequent blood donors that support the production of new, non-cancerous cells.

Understanding the differences in the mutations that accumulate in our blood stem cells as we age is important to understand how and why blood cancers develop and hopefully how to intervene before the onset of clinical symptoms.

As we age, stem cells in the bone marrow naturally accumulate mutations and with this, we see the emergence of clones, which are groups of blood cells that have a slightly different genetic makeup. Sometimes, specific clones can lead to blood cancers like leukemia.

When people donate blood, stem cells in the bone marrow make new blood cells to replace the lost blood and this stress drives the selection of certain clones.

In research published Blood, the research team analyzed blood samples taken from over 200 frequent donors—people who had donated blood three times a year over 40 years, more than 120 times in total—and sporadic control donors who had donated blood less than five times in total.

Samples from both groups showed a similar level of clonal diversity, but the makeup of the blood cell populations was different.

For instance, both sample groups contained clones with changes to a gene called DNMT3A, which is known to be mutated in people who develop leukemia. Interestingly, the changes to this gene observed in frequent donors were not in the areas known to be preleukemic.

To understand this better, the  researchers edited DNMT3A in human stem cells in the lab. They induced the genetic changes associated with leukemia and also the non-preleukemic changes observed in the frequent donor group.

They grew these cells in two environments: one containing erythropoietin (EPO), a hormone that stimulates red blood cell production which is increased after each blood donation, and another containing inflammatory chemicals to replicate an infection.

The cells with the mutations commonly seen in frequent donors responded and grew in the environment containing EPO and failed to grow in the inflammatory environment. The opposite was seen in the cells with mutations known to be preleukemic.

This suggests that the DNMT3A mutations observed in frequent donors are mainly responding to the physiological blood loss associated with blood donation.

Finally, the team transplanted the human stem cells carrying the two types of mutations into mice. Some of these mice had blood removed and then were given EPO injections to mimic the stress associated with blood donation.

The cells with the frequent donor mutations grew normally in control conditions and promoted red blood cell production under stress, without cells becoming cancerous. In sharp contrast, the preleukemic mutations drove a pronounced increase in white blood cells in both control or stress conditions.

The researchers believe that regular blood donation is one type of activity that selects for mutations that allow cells to respond well to blood loss, but does not select the preleukemic mutations associated with blood cancer.

Karpova, D. et al. Clonal Hematopoiesis Landscape in Frequent Blood Donors, Blood (2025). DOI: 10.1182/blood.2024027999

Microplastics could be fueling antibiotic resistance

Microplastics—tiny shards of plastic debris—are all over the planet. They have made their way up food chains, accumulated in oceans, clustered in clouds and on mountains, and been found inside human bodies at alarming rates. Scientists have been racing to uncover the unforeseen impacts of so much plastic in and around us.

One possible, and surprising, consequence: more drug-resistant bacteria.

In a startling discovery, a team of  researchers found that bacteria exposed to microplastics became resistant to multiple types of antibiotics commonly used to treat infections. They say this is especially concerning for people in high-density, impoverished areas like refugee settlements, where discarded plastic piles up and bacterial infections spread easily.

The study is published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

The fact that there are microplastics all around us, and even more so in impoverished places where sanitation may be limited, is a striking part of this observation.

There is certainly a concern that this could present a higher risk in communities that are disadvantaged, and only underscores the need for more vigilance and a deeper insight into [microplastic and bacterial] interactions.

The plastics provide a surface that the bacteria attach to and colonize. 

Once attached to any surface, bacteria create a biofilm—a sticky substance that acts like a shield, protecting the bacteria from invaders and keeping them affixed securely.

Even though bacteria can grow biofilms on any surface, researchers observed that the microplastic supercharged the bacterial biofilms so much that when antibiotics were added to the mix, the medicine was unable to penetrate the shield.

The researchers  found that the biofilms on microplastics, compared to other surfaces like glass, are much stronger and thicker, like a house with a ton of insulation.

The rate of antibiotic resistance on the microplastic was so high compared to other materials, that the researchers performed the experiments multiple times, testing different combinations of antibiotics and types of plastic material. Each time, the results remained consistent.

They conclusively demonstrated that the presence of plastics is doing a whole lot more than just providing a surface for the bacteria to stick to—they are actually leading to the development of resistant organisms.

 Effects of microplastic concentration, composition, and size on Escherichia coli biofilm- associated antimicrobial resistance, Applied and Environmental Microbiology (2025). DOI: 10.1128/aem.02282-24

Scientists discover smart way to generate energy with tiny plastic beads

An international team of researchers has discovered a new method to generate electricity using small plastic beads. By placing these beads close together and bringing them into contact, they generate more electricity than usual. This process, known as triboelectrification, is similar to the static electricity produced when rubbing a balloon against hair.

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) generate electricity through friction between different materials. Typically, this occurs when two distinct materials move against each other. The research now shows that when a surface made up of closely packed small beads comes into contact with another surface containing the same beads, some beads gain a positive charge while others become negatively charged. The more efficiently these electric charges transfer, the more electricity is produced.

Tests with different types of beads reveal that size and material play a crucial role. Larger beads tend to acquire a negative charge, whereas smaller ones are more likely to become positively charged. The most significant effect occurs with melamine-formaldehyde (MF) beads.

This material has low elasticity, meaning it is less flexible and better at holding and transferring electric charge. Additionally, using beads provides a cost-effective alternative to the expensive technology typically used in TENGs to enhance performance. The dry fabrication of particles also makes the process more sustainable by eliminating the need for solvents.

Advancements in triboelectrification could enable new energy-harvesting applications without batteries or power outlets.

Ignaas S. M. Jimidar et al, Granular Interfaces in TENGs: The Role of Close‐Packed Polymer Bead Monolayers for Energy Harvesters, Small (2025). DOI: 10.1002/smll.202410155

How hand shape affects sound while clapping

New research work published in Physical Review Research,  elucidates the complex physical mechanisms and fluid dynamics involved in a handclap, with potential applications in bioacoustics and personal identification, whereby a handclap could be used to identify someone.

The researchers used high-speed cameras to track the hand motion, air flow and sound of 10 volunteers clapping, measuring the different frequencies when the size and shape of the cavity between hands changes: when clapping with cupped hands, flat hands or fingers to palm. They found the larger the cavity between palms, the lower the frequency of the clap, with the hands acting as a resonator—whereby the sound comes from the force of air through the hand's cavity and the opening between the thumb and index finger.

It's the air column pushed by this jet flow of air coming out of the hand cavity that causes the disturbance in the air, and that's the sound we hear.

The researchers compared the human data to that produced with simplified replicas, as well as theoretical projections of how air would move through a traditional resonator, called a Helmholtz resonator.

They confirmed both experimentally and computationally that the Helmholtz resonator can predict the frequency of the human handclap.

It's a confirmation of this unifying principle that may be helpful in other fields, especially bioacoustics, because that principle may help explain all kinds of bioacoustics phenomena, especially those involving soft material collision and jet flow.

Additionally, the researchers studied why claps are so short, compared to sound made through a traditional resonator, finding that the softness of the hands plays a role: the soft tissues of the hands vibrate after impact, absorbing energy and dampening the sound.

When there's more vibration in the material, the sound attenuates much more quickly. So, if you want to get the attention of another person very far from you, and you want the sound to last longer, you might want to choose a certain type of handclapping shape that makes your hand more rigid.

The research further opens the door to the idea of using a handclap as a personal identifier or signature.

The handclap is actually a very characteristic thing, because we have different sizes of hand, techniques, different skin textures and softness—that all results in different sound performances. Now that we understand the physics of it, we can use the sound to identify the person.

Yicong Fu et al, Revealing the sound, flow excitation, and collision dynamics of human handclaps, Physical Review Research (2025). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.013259

Majority of the world's population breathes dirty air, report says

Most of the world has dirty air, with just 17% of cities globally meeting air pollution guidelines, a recent report found.

Switzerland-based air quality monitoring database IQAir analyzed data from 40,000 air quality monitoring stations in 138 countries and found that Chad, Congo, Bangladesh, Pakistan and India had the dirtiest air. India had six of the nine most polluted cities with the industrial town of Byrnihat in northeastern India the worst.

Experts said the real amount of air pollution might be far greater as many parts of the world lack the monitoring needed for more accurate data.

More air quality monitors are being set up to counter the issue, the report said. This year, report authors were able to incorporate data from 8,954 new locations and around a thousand new monitors as a result of efforts to better monitor air pollution.

But last week, data monitoring for air pollution was dealt a blow when the U.S. State Department announced it would no longer make public its data from its embassies and consulates around the world.

Breathing in polluted air over a long period of time can cause respiratory illness, Alzheimer's disease and cancer. The World Health Organization estimates that air pollution kills around 7 million people each year.

Experts say that much more needs to be done to cut air pollution levels. The WHO had earlier found that 99% of the world's population lives in places that do not meet recommended air quality levels.

And the problem is if you have bad water, no water, you can tell people to wait for half an hour a day, the water will come. But if you have bad air, you cannot tell people to pause breathing.

Several cities like Beijing, Seoul, South Korea, and Rybnik in Poland have successfully improved their air quality through stricter regulations on pollution from vehicles, power plants and industry. They've also promoted cleaner energy and invested in public transportation.

Source: News agencies

How nature organizes itself, from brain cells to ecosystems

You'll see it everywhere: the way trees form branches, the way cities divide into neighborhoods, the way the brain organizes into regions. Nature loves modularity—a limited number of self-contained units that combine in different ways to perform many functions. But how does this organization arise?

In findings published in Nature, researchers report that a mathematical model called peak selection can explain how modules emerge without strict genetic instructions. The findings, which apply to brain systems and ecosystems, help explain how modularity occurs across nature, no matter the scale.

Scientists have debated how modular structures form. One hypothesis suggests that various genes are turned on at different locations to begin or end a structure. This explains how insect embryos develop body segments, with genes turning on or off at specific concentrations of a smooth chemical gradient in the insect egg.

Another idea, inspired by mathematician Alan Turing, suggests that a structure could emerge from competition—small-scale interactions can create repeating patterns, like the spots on a cheetah or the ripples in sand dunes.

Both ideas work well in some cases, but fail in others. The new research suggests that nature need not pick one approach over the other.

Part 1

The authors of the research paper propose a simple mathematical principle called peak selection, showing that when a smooth gradient is paired with local interactions that are competitive, modular structures emerge naturally. In this way, biological systems can organize themselves into sharp modules without detailed top-down instruction.

The researchers tested their idea on grid cells, which play a critical role in spatial navigation as well as the storage of episodic memories. Grid cells fire in a repeating triangular pattern as animals move through space, but they don't all work at the same scale—they are organized into distinct modules, each responsible for mapping space at slightly different resolutions.

No one knows how these modules form, but the new model shows that gradual variations in cellular properties along one dimension in the brain, combined with local neural interactions, could explain the entire structure. The grid cells naturally sort themselves into distinct groups with clear boundaries, without external maps or genetic programs telling them where to go.

The new  work explains how grid cell modules could emerge. The explanation tips the balance toward the possibility of self-organization. It predicts that there might be no gene or intrinsic cell property that jumps when the grid cell scale jumps to another module.

Part 2

The same principle applies beyond neuroscience. Imagine a landscape where temperatures and rainfall vary gradually over a space. You might expect species to be spread, and also to vary, smoothly over this region. But in reality, ecosystems often form species clusters with sharp boundaries—distinct ecological "neighborhoods" that don't overlap.

The new study suggests why local competition, cooperation, and predation between species interact with the global environmental gradients to create natural separations, even when the underlying conditions change gradually. This phenomenon can be explained using peak selection and suggests that the same principle that shapes brain circuits could also be at play in forests and oceans.

One of the researchers' most striking findings is that modularity in these systems is remarkably robust. Change the size of the system, and the number of modules stays the same—they just scale up or down. That means a mouse brain and a human brain could use the same fundamental rules to form their navigation circuits, just at different sizes.

The model also makes testable predictions. If it's correct, grid cell modules should follow simple spacing ratios. In ecosystems, species distributions should form distinct clusters even without sharp environmental shifts.

The work adds another conceptual framework to biology. "Peak selection can inform future experiments, not only in grid cell research but across developmental biology.

Mikail Khona et al, Global modules robustly emerge from local interactions and smooth gradients, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08541-3

Part 3

Microplastics may threaten global food supply by disrupting photosynthesis

A team of environmental researchers, Earth scientists and pollution specialists  has found evidence that microplastics have a negative impact on photosynthesis in terrestrial, marine, and freshwater ecosystems.

In their study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group conducted a meta-analysis of data from more than 150 studies involving the impact of microplastics on plants.

Prior research has shown that microplastics have made their way to nearly every ecosystem on the planet, and now contaminate plants and animals, including humans. For this new study, the research team wondered if microplastics might have an unknown impact on plants living in the ocean, in fresh water or growing on land, and they conducted a study of prior research to find out.

The team suspected that microplastics might have a direct impact on the ability of plants to engage in photosynthesis. To that end, they searched the literature using an AI app and found 157 studies that mentioned both microplastics and impacts on photosynthesis, which included 3,286 observations.

Combining the results, the researchers calculated that microplastics reduced photosynthetic efficiency across all three plant types by 7% to 12% and caused reductions in production of chlorophyll. Such percentages, they suggest, result in approximately 4% to 14% harvest yield losses of maize, wheat and rice around the globe. They also suggest that microplastics account for up to 7% of losses in global aquatic net primary productivity.

The research team notes that the problem appears to be worsening, which will impact crop production even more. They further suggest that if the problem is not reversed, the result could be a major increase in the number of people at risk of starvation over the next two decades.

 Ruijie Zhu et al, A global estimate of multiecosystem photosynthesis losses under microplastic pollution, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2423957122

bioRxiv and medRxiv make it official

A new chapter has begun for two of the world’s most popular preprint platforms, bioRxiv and medRxiv, with the launch of a non-profit organization that will manage them. openRxiv, which will have a board of directors and a scientific and medical advisory board, takes over from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. It has “become so important that they should have their own organization running them, which is focused on the long-term sustainability of the servers, as opposed to being a side project within a big research institution,” says Richard Sever, the co-founder of both servers.

Nature | 

Preprint sites bioRxiv and medRxiv launch new era of independence

Coma brain waves hint at who’s waking up

A pattern of brain waves that occurs during sleep might help to predict whether an unresponsive person who experienced severe brain.... Researchers recorded the electrical activity in the brains of 226 people in a coma who had experienced recent brain injury, and homed in on a specific patterns of brain activity called sleep spindles. They found that 28% of people who had well-defined sleep spindles recovered consciousness, compared with only 14% of those who lacked this pattern. “We're starting to lift the lid a little bit and find some signs of recovery as it's happening,” says neurologist and study co-author Jan Claassen.

ScienceAlert
Reference: Nature Medicine paper

A 'Yellow Brick Road' at The Bottom of The Pacific Ocean

An example of ancient active volcanic geology!