Nighttime light exposure linked to higher heart attack and stroke rates

A new study has found that being exposed to bright light at night can significantly increase the chances of developing serious heart problems, including heart attacks, strokes and heart failure.

Published in JAMA Network Open, the research is the largest study of its kind to explore how personal light exposure affects heart health using data from nearly 89,000 people.

Using wrist-worn sensors, researchers from FHMRI Sleep Health tracked over 13 million hours of light exposure and followed participants for up to 9.5 years.
The study found that people who were exposed to the brightest light at night were much more likely to develop heart problems, with a 56% higher chance of heart failure and 47% more likely to have a heart attack.

These risks remained high even after accounting for other factors like exercise, diet, sleep habits and genetics.

the study highlights a risk factor that many people aren't aware of, but one that's easy to address.

This is the first large-scale study to show that simply being exposed to light at night is a strong and independent risk factor for heart disease.

Disrupting your body's internal circadian clock by repeatedly exposing yourself to bright light at night, when it would typically be dark otherwise, will put you at a higher risk of developing dangerous heart issues, say the researchers.

By using blackout curtains, dimming lights, and avoiding screens before bed, we can help to reduce the health risks associated with light at night.

The study also found that women and younger people were especially vulnerable to the impact of light exposure at night.

Women may be more sensitive to the effects of light disrupting their body clock.

In fact, women exposed to high levels of night light had similar heart failure risks to men, which is unusual because women typically have some natural protection against heart disease.

We need to take our body clocks seriously. Protecting our natural sleep rhythms could be a powerful way to fight heart disease, the researchers conclude.

Light Exposure at Night and Cardiovascular Disease Incidence, JAMA Network Open (2025). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.39031

A new human clinical trial has shown that a special procedure to deliver oxygen through the rectum is safe.

The study involved 27 healthy male volunteers in Japan who were tasked with holding between 25 and 1,500 milliliters of perfluorocarbon liquid in their rectum for an hour.

The ‘butt-breathing’ procedure passed its first safety hurdle with flying colors.
Now researchers hope to test what happens when that liquid contains a very high concentration of oxygen.

The hope is that one day, a procedure like this could help people who are struggling to get enough oxygen through their lungs.

Pigs, rodents, turtles, and some fish can breathe through their butts, so why not us?

linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2666634025003149

Pathogen disables plant ‘alarm’ to break in
Phytophthora infestans — a fungus-like mold that causes the devastating disease potato blight — infects plants by disabling their ‘alarm system’. Researchers found that P. infestans secretes enzymes called AA7 oxidases. These enzymes damage the molecules plant cells produce to alert the immune system of an infection, which lets the microbe sneak in without being detected. “It’s like burglars cutting the wires to your home alarm before breaking in,” says biochemist and study co-author Federico Sabbadin. “The microbe has learned the plant’s own language and uses it against it.”

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-64189-1?utm_source=Live+...

'Forever Chemicals' in Mothers' Blood Linked to Brain Changes in Their Kids

'Forever chemicals' already have a shocking reputation, and now new research has linked these substances – named for the way they stick around in the environment for so long – to brain changes in children born to mothers exposed to common PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances).
To reach that conclusion, researchers looked at 51 mother-and-child pairs, measuring PFAS levels in the mother's blood during pregnancy, and then running brain scans on the kids once they reached 5 years old.
These records meant the research team was able to compare different types of PFAS against changes in brain structure and connections between brain regions. Several distinct patterns were revealed, enough to suggest (but not prove) a strong influence.
They were able to measure seven different PFAS in this study, and found that individual compounds had specific associations with offspring brain structure.
In some cases two different PFAS had opposite relationships with the same brain region
For example, perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) were linked to changes in the corpus callosum, the tract of white matter that connects the brain's left and right hemispheres.
Substantial changes connected to PFAS levels were also detected in the hypothalamus, a part of the brain that controls many of the body's core functions, and in the volume and surface area of posterior grey matter in the occipital lobe, the brain's visual processing centre.
The researchers also found certain types of PFAS more likely to influence brain structure and brain connectivity than others, based on their chemical composition. It's not immediately evident what these changes might mean – but the changes are there.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(25)00187-1/fulltext

Astrocyte-derived vesicles could link stress to intestinal inflammation

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs), such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, are chronic and autoimmune conditions characterized by the inflammation of the intestinal tract. This inflammation can cause nausea or vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain and cramping, fatigue, fever, and various other debilitating symptoms.

While the underpinnings of IBDs have been widely investigated, the factors that can contribute to its emergence have not yet been clearly elucidated. Past findings suggest that the symptoms of these diseases are often exacerbated by psychological and emotional stress.

Researchers recently carried out a study aimed at shedding new light on the neurobiological mechanisms via which stress could worsen IBDs. Their findings, published in Molecular Psychiatry, hint at the existence of a brain-to-gut communication pathway that is mediated by small communication vehicles known as small extracellular vesicles (sEVs), which are released by astrocytes.

The researchers now hypothesize that psychological stress regulates intestinal inflammation through the release of small extracellular vesicles derived from astrocytes (AsEVs).

The researchers carried out various experiments involving rats, aimed at understanding how stress affected immune responses in their gut. Their study specifically focused on the role of astrocytes, star-shaped glial cells that help to maintain a balanced and healthy environment in the brain, and of small EVs released by these cells.

They  marked astrocytes with a special "tag" protein, using a technique known as in-utero electroporation. This technique allowed them to monitor where signals originating from these cells traveled within the rats' body.

"In-utero electroporation performed to selectively express an AsEV-associated membrane recombinant protein in rat forebrain astrocytes reveals that this protein is transferred to the gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT)," wrote the authors.

Similarly, AsEVs isolated from primary astrocyte cell cultures that were stimulated with vehicle or corticosterone (to emulate a stress condition) trafficked to the GALT. Interestingly, the membrane gut homing receptor CCR9 is present on AsEVs and mediates their association with the CCR9-endogenous ligand CCL25."

Interestingly, the researchers discovered that signals originating from astrocytes traveled to immune tissues in the rats' gut. Subsequently, they grew astrocytes in their lab and increased the levels of corticosterone within them. This is a hormone that is naturally released in the animals' body when they are stressed.

The team then injected vesicles released by these cells, as well as vesicles released by "non-stressed" astrocytes into rats and observed their gut responses. They found that vesicles derived from "stressed" astrocytes led to greater gut inflammation, while those released by 'non-stressed' astrocytes helped to calm the gut's immune system.

At the histological level, inflammatory parameters (such as lymph vessel diameter or cell number in them), induced by a stress protocol based on movement restriction, increased by treatment with AsEVs from corticosterone-treated astrocytes.

Part 1

Furthermore, while AsEVs from control astrocyte cultures tend to favor an anti-inflammatory profile of the GALT (i.e., increased Treg/Th17 ratio), AsEVs derived from corticosterone-treated astrocytes have an opposite action. Similarly, in vitro experiments with disaggregated mesenteric lymph nodes reveal the immunomodulatory functions of AsEVs from corticosterone-treated astrocytes."

The results of this recent study uncover a new brain-to-gut communication pathway mediated by AsEVs via which stress could worsen the symptoms of IBDs.

Liliana Yantén-Fuentes et al, A novel brain-to-gut communication pathway mediated by astrocyte-derived small extracellular vesicles modulates stress-induced intestinal inflammation, Molecular Psychiatry (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41380-025-03289-2.

Part 2

Rewriting history using modern technology

DNA from Napoleon's 1812 army identifies pathogens likely responsible for the army's demise during retreat from Russia

It's very exciting to use a technology we have today to detect and diagnose something that was buried for 200 years

In the summer of 1812, French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte led about half a million soldiers to invade the Russian Empire. But by December, only a fraction of the army remained alive. Historical records suggest that starvation, cold, and typhus led to their demise.

In a new study published in Current Biology, a team of microbial paleogenomicists extracted DNA from the soldiers' teeth and found no trace of typhus. Instead, they identified two pathogens known to cause enteric fever and relapsing fever—ailments which likely contributed to the army's downfall.

For centuries, historians have debated the factors that contributed to Napoleon's army's demise. Accounts from doctors and army officers suggested it was likely the result of typhus, an infectious disease that was common among armies of the time.
The discovery of body lice—the main vector of typhus—on the remains of Napoleon's soldiers, and the DNA of Rickettsia prowazekii—the bacterium responsible for typhus—further bolstered this assumption.

With new technology in hand capable of analyzing ancient DNA, researchers set off to reanalyze samples from Napoleon's fallen soldiers to see whether typhoid was indeed the culprit.

The researchers extracted and sequenced DNA from the teeth of 13 soldiers buried in a mass grave in Vilnius, Lithuania, which was along the route of the French army's retreat from Russia. They then removed all environmental contamination to isolate and identify DNA fragments from bacterial pathogens.

Part 1

Instead of pathogens for typhus, the team found traces of Salmonella enterica, a bacterium that causes enteric fever, and Borrelia recurrentis, responsible for relapsing fever, which is also transmitted by body lice.

The researchers did not detect R. prowazekii or Bartonella quintana, the cause of trench fever, which has been identified in previous research on different soldiers from this site. Researchers say this discrepancy could be explained by the usage of different sequencing technologies. Earlier studies relied on polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, a technology that makes many copies of a specific DNA segment from limited starting material.
Ancient DNA gets highly degraded into pieces that are too small for PCR to work. New method now used is able to cast a wider net and capture a greater range of DNA sources based on these very short ancient sequences.

Paratyphoid Fever and Relapsing Fever in 1812 Napoleon's Devastated Army, Current Biology (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.09.047. www.cell.com/current-biology/f … 0960-9822(25)01247-3

Part 2

How the brain's activity, energy use and blood flow change as people fall asleep

A new study by investigators  has used next-generation imaging technology to discover that when the brain is falling asleep, it shows a coordinated shift in activity.

The researchers found that during NREM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep, parts of the brain that handle movement and sensory input stay active and keep using energy, while areas involved in thinking, memory and daydreaming quiet down and use less energy. Their results are published in Nature Communications.

This research helps explain how the brain stays responsive to the outside world even as awareness fades during sleep.

By revealing how brain activity, energy use, and blood flow interact during sleep, these findings, and the imaging tools scientists used to uncover them, offer new insights into the mechanisms of neurological and sleep-related diseases.

The body cycles through two types of sleep several times each night: NREM and REM (rapid eye movement). NREM is the deep, restorative stage of sleep that plays a key role in physical health, brain function and disease prevention. Yet, many of its underlying processes and impacts on long-term health remain poorly understood. Previous studies have suggested that NREM helps clear waste from the brain.

Using a new tri-modal EEG-PET-MRI technique that combines EEG to study brain activity, fMRI to analyze blood flow, and functional PET (fPET)-FDG to monitor glucose metabolic dynamics, researchers examined the brains of 23 healthy adults during brief afternoon sleep sessions.

The researchers found that energy use and metabolism decrease as sleep deepens, while blood flow becomes more dynamic, especially in sensory areas that stay relatively active. At the same time, higher-order cognitive networks quiet down, and cerebrospinal fluid flow increases. Together, these findings support the idea that sleep helps clear waste from the brain while maintaining sensitivity to sensory cues that can trigger awakening.

Simultaneous EEG-PET-MRI identifies temporally coupled and spatially structured brain dynamics across wakefulness and NREM sleep", Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-64414-x

Physicists create the smallest pixel in the world 

Smart glasses that display information directly in the field of vision are considered a key technology of the future—but until now, their use has often failed due to cumbersome technology. However, efficient light-emitting pixels are ruled out by classical optics if their size is reduced to the wavelength of the emitted light.

Now, physicists  have taken a decisive step toward luminous miniature displays and, with the help of optical antennas, have created the world's smallest pixel to date.

With the help of a metallic contact that allows current injection into an organic light-emitting diode while simultaneously amplifying and emitting the generated light, they have created a pixel for orange light on an area measuring just 300 by 300 nanometers. This pixel is just as bright as a conventional OLED pixel with normal dimensions of 5 by 5 micrometers.

To put this into perspective, a nanometer is one millionth of a millimeter. This means that a display or projector with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels could easily fit onto an area of just one square millimeter. This, for example, enables integration of the display into the arms of a pair of glasses from where the light generated would be projected onto the lenses.

Cheng Zhang et al, Individually addressable nanoscale OLEDs, Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adz8579

Life's Ingredients Found Frozen Beyond The Milky Way For First Time

For the first time, astronomers have seen life's building blocks in ice beyond the borders of our galaxy.
Among a mix of complex organic molecules trapped in ice circling a newborn star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, researchers found ethanol, acetaldehyde, and methyl formate – compounds that have never before been spotted in ice form outside the Milky Way.
Moreover, another identified compound, acetic acid, has never before been conclusively identified in ice anywhere in space.

The discovery by astrophysicists suggests that the ingredients for the chemistry that gives birth to life are widespread and robust across the cosmos, and not limited to our own galaxy.
Complex organic molecules (COMs) in an astrophysical context are molecules with at least six atoms, at least one of which is carbon. The category includes molecules such as ethanol (CH₃CH₂OH), methyl formate (HCOOCH₃), and acetaldehyde (CH₃CHO), as well as larger molecules such as iso-propyl cyanide ((CH3)2CHCN).

They're important to scientists because they're the chemical precursors to the molecules that build life, such as amino acids, sugars, and nucleobases. Finding them in space, therefore, sheds light on the origins of prebiotic chemistry and where those precursor compounds were likely forged before Earth was even born.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae0ccd

Why earthquakes sometimes still occur in tectonically silent regions

Earthquakes in some parts of stable world should not be able to occur even if the subsurface has been exploited for decades. This is because the shallow subsurface behaves in such a way that faults there become stronger as soon as they start moving. At least that is what geology textbooks teach us. And so, in theory, it should not be possible for earthquakes to occur. So why do they still occur in such nominally stable subsurfaces?

Geosciences researchers  considered this question. They discovered that as a result of millions of years of inactivity, extra stress can build up on the faults which can result in a single release. This research, recently published in the journal Nature Communications, is vitally important in the search for safe locations for applications such as geothermal energy production and energy storage.

Faults can be found almost everywhere. Faults in the shallow subsurface are usually stable, so we do not expect shock movements to occur along them. Nevertheless, shock movements often do occur in the stable first few kilometers of the subsurface. In such instances, we generally find a correlation with human activities. What exactly explains that paradox of shallow faults, which become stronger with movement, but then suddenly become weak and are subsequently released with a tremor?

Induced earthquakes (those caused by human activities) often take place on inactive faults that have not moved for millions of years. Although these faults do not move, we still observe a very slow growth of the surface that connects them. This sort of 'fault healing' gives rise to additional strength. It is this extra fault strength that can cause an acceleration once a fault has been set in motion. This acceleration is what causes earthquakes to occur in stable subsurfaces, despite textbooks telling us that this ought not to happen there.

As such areas do not have a history of earthquakes, the people living there are more at risk as infrastructure has not been built to withstand earthquakes. "Furthermore, these earthquakes take place at a depth where human activities occur, in other words, no more than several kilometers deep. That is considerably less deep than the majority of natural earthquakes." Therefore, they can be more hazardous and cause more ground shaking.

Interestingly, this potential acceleration, in the form of an earthquake, occurs only once. As soon as that extra fault strength, which has been built up over millions of years, finds a way out, the situation becomes stable again.

As a result, there is no more earthquake activity at that spot. This means that, although the subsurface in such areas will not settle immediately after human operations stop, the strength of the earthquakes—including the maximum expected magnitude—will gradually decrease.

Part 1

If faults do indeed become stronger when they move, then these already broken pieces will quietly slip past each other, and in doing so, act as a barrier. That makes it harder for earthquakes to increase in size. This makes it possible to lower the estimated risk of an earthquake, as this risk is primarily determined by the maximum magnitude of an earthquake.

Meng Li et al, Frictional healing and induced earthquakes on conventionally stable faults, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-63482-3

Part 2

Study links cockroach infestations to higher household allergens and endotoxins

Researchers have shown a link between the size of cockroach home infestations and the levels of both allergens and endotoxins in those homes, with lowering roach infestation numbers through pest control triggering significant declines in the levels of allergens and endotoxins. The study's findings suggest that eliminating cockroach infestations could help improve indoor environmental health by greatly reducing allergens and endotoxins.

Endotoxins are bacterial cellular components that get released when bacteria die. As omnivores that will eat just about anything, cockroaches have a rich and diverse gut microbiome. Previous research has shown that cockroaches shed a lot of endotoxins through their fecal matter, although house pets – and humans – can also shed endotoxins. The researchers in this study found that a large amount of the endotoxins found in household dust was associated with cockroach feces.

Endotoxins are important to human health, as inhalation of these components has been shown to provoke allergic responses. 

The researchers found significant amounts of endotoxins in infested homes, with female cockroaches excreting about twice the amount that males excreted. Female cockroaches eat more than males, so more endotoxins are shed from their fecal matter.  More endotoxins were found in kitchens than in bedrooms, as more cockroaches live in kitchens where they find more food.

When you eliminate cockroaches, you eliminate their allergens. Small decreases in cockroaches don't lower allergen levels because the remaining live cockroaches deposit more allergens. Endotoxins significantly decreased in homes where cockroaches were eliminated. This research shows that the cockroach is the most important depositor of endotoxin in infested homes.

Researchers  also saw that allergens and endotoxins can be airborne. 

There exists the implication that asthma can be worse due to interactions between allergens and endotoxins.

Cockroaches?! Eeek!

I don't have a single cockroach in my home. Because I don't like them, I see to it they don't come inside my home. 

 Madhavi L. Kakumanu et al, Indoor Allergens and Endotoxins in Relation to Cockroach Infestations in Low-Income Urban Homes, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: Global (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.jacig.2025.100571

How a coral stiffens its skeleton on demand

Touch the branches of Leptogorgia chilensis, a soft coral found along the Pacific coast from California to Chile, and its flexible arms stiffen. Researchers have discovered the mechanism underlying this astonishing ability, one that could advance fields as varied as medicine, robotics and manufacturing.

In a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,

they describe how the coral's skeleton—made of millions of mineral particles suspended in a gelatinous matrix—compacts itself to ward off danger.

When stimulated, the coral's tissues expel water, shrinking the gel and squeezing the particles closer together until they jam in place.

Physicists have long studied this phenomenon, known as "granular jamming," by manipulating grainy substances like sand and coffee grounds, but this marks the first time granular jamming based on hard particles has been observed in a living organism.

They're basically made of chalk- calcium carbonate, the same cheap and plentiful white powder that forms eggshells, sticks of chalk, marble, limestone and pearls. What gives their skeletons interesting properties is how the calcium carbonate is structured and organized.

While marine biologists recognized long ago that soft corals like L. chilensis have skeletons containing granular particles, the grains' shapes had primarily been used to classify different species.

Li, Ling, Mineralized sclerites in the gorgonian coral Leptogorgia chilensis as a natural jamming system, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2504541122. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2504541122

Humanity rises as wildlife recedes: Two studies show the extent of human domination over nature

Wolves roaming the Mongolian steppes cover more than 7,000 kilometers a year. The Arctic tern flies from pole to pole in its annual migration. Compared to these long-distance travelers of land, sea and sky, humans might seem like the ultimate couch potatoes. But a new study shows otherwise.

In a paper published recently in Nature Ecology & Evolution,  researchers report that the total movement of humans is 40 times greater than that of all wild land mammals, birds and arthropods combined. Since the Industrial Revolution some 170 years ago, human movement has skyrocketed, while animal movement in nature has dwindled to levels that could endanger ecosystems.

Life, by its very nature, is always in motion, shaping both the natural world and human society. Yet until now, no comparison has been made among different species as to the magnitude of their overall movement. Birds, for example, cross vast distances but their overall body mass is tiny. By contrast, deep-sea fish may travel only short distances, but their combined biomass is enormous—about a thousand times greater than that of all birds.

Researchers  have now quantified and compared the movement of different species, shedding light on the power dynamics between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom.

The index they created, called the biomass movement metric, is calculated by multiplying the total biomass of a species—that is, the combined mass of all its members—by the total distance that species travels in a year. Calculating this metric globally made it possible, for the first time, to quantify global movement across animal species—and then compare it to that of humankind.

Part 1

The researchers broke down human movement by mode of transportation. They found that about 65% of human biomass movement is by car or motorbike, 10% by airplane, 5% by train and 20% by foot or on a bicycle. Remarkably, the biomass movement of humans walking is six times greater than that of all wild land mammals, birds and arthropods combined.

On average, each person travels about 30 kilometers a day by various means—slightly more than wild birds. By comparison, wild land mammals (excluding bats) travel only about 4 kilometers a day. In the air, human biomass movement by airplane is ten times greater than that of all flying wildlife.

We often marvel at the power of nature compared to how small we are. But in practice, even the great migrations we see in Africa in nature documentaries—some of the largest land migrations on Earth—barely compare to the human biomass movement associated with people gathering from around the world for a single World Cup tournament.
Animals spend a large portion of their energy on movement, and measuring their biomass movement enabled the scientists to compare the energetic cost of transport across species. Scientists found, for example, that a single airline burns as much energy as all wild birds combined. It may be hard to grasp just how much humankind affects nature, but the biomass movement metric does provide a quantitative measure that reveals the true balance of power on Earth.
This power balance is dramatically changing. Humanity continues to develop and expand while nature is in decline. Most biomass movement occurs in the oceans, but even those vast habitats are severely affected by human activity now.
Since the Industrial Revolution, human biomass movement has soared by 4,000%, while that of marine animals has dropped by about 60%.
Today we know that animal movement is critical for ecosystems to function properly and that ecosystems must remain connected to one another to survive. The global decline in animal movement is a warning sign to us all, say the researchers.

Yuval Rosenberg et al, Human biomass movement exceeds the biomass movement of all land animals combined, Nature Ecology & Evolution (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41559-025-02863-9

Lior Greenspoon et al, The global biomass of mammals since 1850, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-63888-z

Part 2

Chimpanzees in Uganda use flying insects to tend their wounds, study reveals

Animals respond to injury in many ways. So far, evidence for animals tending wounds with biologically active materials is rare. Yet, a recent study of an orangutan treating a wound with a medicinal plant provides a promising lead.

Chimpanzees, for example, are known to lick their wounds and sometimes press leaves onto them, but these behaviors are still only partly understood. We still do not know how often these actions occur, whether they are deliberate, or how inventive chimpanzees can be when responding to wounds.

Recent field observations in Uganda, east Africa, are now revealing intriguing insights into how these animals cope with wounds.

In  research published in Scientific Reports, based in Kibale National Park, Uganda, chimpanzees have been seen applying insects to their own open wounds on five occasions, and in one case to another individual.

Behaviors like insect application show that chimpanzees are not passive when wounded. They experiment with their environment, sometimes alone and occasionally with others. While we should not jump too quickly to call this "medicine," it does show that they are capable of responding to wounds in inventive and sometimes cooperative ways.

Each new insight reveals more about chimpanzees, offering glimpses into the shared evolutionary roots of our own responses to injury and caregiving instincts.

In all observed cases, the sequence of actions seemed deliberate. A chimpanzee caught an unidentified flying insect, immobilized it between lips or fingers, and pressed it directly onto an open wound. The same insect was sometimes reapplied several times, occasionally after being held briefly in the mouth, before being discarded. Other chimpanzees occasionally watched the process closely, seemingly with curiosity. Part1

Most often the behavior was directed at the chimpanzee's own open wound. However, in one rare instance, an adolescent female applied an insect to her brother's wound. A study on the same community has shown that chimpanzees also dab the wounds of unrelated members with leaves, prompting the question of whether insect application of these chimpanzees, too, might extend beyond family members. Acts of care, whether directed towards family or others, can reveal the early foundations of empathy and cooperation.

 Kayla Kolff et al, Insect applications to open wounds by chimpanzees in the wild: first insights from East African chimpanzees, Scientific Reports (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-16582-5

Part2

Exploring mechanisms behind attachment issues

Stoicism says attachment is not good. But  overcoming biochemistry is extremely difficult. Especially when you are young. 

And then not giving enough care also makes people detached. 

Children can sometimes develop health, behavioral, and attachment issues that persist when their needs are not met by their caregiver. Now from eNeuro, researchers explored whether mouse pups also experience these issues from early life adversity.

Their discoveries provide an opportunity for researchers to explore the mechanisms of health and behavioral deficits from early life adversity.

When the researchers limited bedding for making nests, this impaired maternal care and increased stress hormone signaling in pups after just one week. Offspring also experienced long-term stunted growth trajectories.

Behaviorally, while some attachment behaviors remained unchanged, many were affected: Pups vocalized less when they were separated from their mothers after one week, did not approach their mothers after about two weeks, and had anxiety-like behavior by week three.

Giving credit where credit is due, work in rats relates an increased stress response from impaired maternal care to attachment deficits. But this work was only done in one age group. Researchers used thorough, 24/7 videotape footage of moms and their pups to show how impaired maternal care leads to attachment deficits at different timepoints.

This isn't a linear relationship. It seems that there is a threshold for how bad maternal care must be to disrupt the offspring's behavior. This supports an existing hypothesis that you don't have to be a perfect parent, you just need to provide adequate care.

Erratic Maternal Care Induces Avoidant-Like Attachment Deficits in a Mouse Model of Early Life Adversity, eNeuro (2025). DOI: 10.1523/ENEURO.0249-25.202

Rapid tooth loss linked to higher risk of death in older people

In older adults, tooth loss may be linked to serious health risks. A team of  researchers analyzed data from 8,073 older participants and found that people who lost their teeth more quickly had a higher risk of dying, regardless of how many teeth they started with.

The researchers emphasize the need to closely monitor the progression of tooth loss among older adults, as it is an important indicator of broader physiological decline.

Modifiable habits like regular brushing, avoiding smoking, and routine dental checkups play a key role in how quickly teeth are lost. Studies show that consistent oral care can lower mortality rates among older adults with missing teeth. Making oral health a stronger focus of public health efforts could be an easy way to improve overall well-being, suggests the study published in BMC Geriatrics.

Old age or not, oral health is a major problem in humans across the globe. In 2022, the World Health Organization released a "Global Oral Health Status Report," which showed that almost half of the world's population (~3.5 billion people) has some form of dental disease. It highlighted tooth loss as one of the most common problems.

While losing teeth with age is often inevitable, its impact can be far-reaching. It not only affects quality of life by making it harder to chew and enjoy food, but has also been linked to higher death rates—not just overall mortality, but from specific causes like heart disease, lung cancer, and pneumonia.

Part 1

Over 3.5 years, the team studied 8,073 older adults aged 73 to 91. They tracked how quickly participants lost teeth over time, measuring this as the average number of teeth lost per year. Based on the tooth loss pattern, the participants were divided into four groups: stable (no teeth lost per year), slow loss (more than zero but less than two teeth lost per year), moderate loss (two to under four teeth lost per year), and rapid loss (4 or more teeth lost per year).

The data were then entered into a Cox regression analysis—a statistical method that accounts for the relative risk of an event—to determine whether faster tooth loss was associated with a higher mortality risk. They found that those with rapid tooth loss had a 33% higher risk of death compared to those who lost none. Also, with each tooth lost per year, the risk increases by 4%.

The researchers note that further investigation into the mechanisms underlying this relationship is needed to develop effective interventions. Until then, raising awareness of the hidden health risks of rapid tooth loss among both health care professionals and the public could go a long way toward encouraging habit modification.

Linjia Duan et al, Tooth loss progression and mortality among older adults: results from the Chinese longitudinal healthy longevity survey (CLHLS), BMC Geriatrics (2025). DOI: 10.1186/s12877-025-06419-1

Part 2

Fat breakdown in skin cells restarts hair growth in mice

Researchers  report that adipocyte lipolysis activates epithelial hair follicle stem cells and drives hair regeneration via monounsaturated fatty acid signaling.

Healthy hair follicles are still present in balding men, but they are often miniaturized, producing thinner, weaker hairs that eventually stop producing. For a while, even though the follicles stop growing visible hair, previous studies show they still contain stem cells and could, theoretically, be reactivated.

Skin is a lipid-rich organ where fatty tissue cushions, insulates, and secretes endocrine factors. Previous studies have linked inflammation after minor injury to hair regrowth and have described crosstalk between dermal white adipose tissue and hair follicle stem cells with both stem cell activation and dormancy. Specific roles for adipocytes in regeneration remained unclear.

In the study, "Adipocyte lipolysis activates epithelial stem cells for hair regeneration through fatty acid metabolic signaling," published in Cell Metabolism, researchers employed mouse models of skin injury to determine whether inflammation-triggered adipocyte lipolysis promotes hair regrowth and to define the downstream metabolic pathway in epithelial hair follicle stem cells.

Mouse experiments were conducted using topical sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) irritation and controlled dermal laser injury, with female mice used predominantly. Mice were shaved on postnatal day 49 to synchronize with the start of the second telogen phase, when hair follicles are naturally resting and hair doesn't normally regrow for about six weeks.

Investigators applied 7.5% SDS to induce contact dermatitis, tracked timing of epidermal and follicular responses by histology, EdU labeling, lipid testing and immunostaining, and profiled transcripts with bulk and spatial transcriptomics.
Skin irritation produced rapid skin redness and scaling at the surface, outer skin thickened and immune cells flooded in. Several days later, growth of new hair was observed.
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Dermal white fat beneath the skin shifted into lipolysis. Lipid droplets in adipocytes shrank, staining showed less stored fat, phosphorylated PLIN1 increased, triglycerides fell, and free fatty acids rose. Blocking the rate-limiting lipase ATGL with a drug or by genetic deletion prevented lipolysis and halted hair regeneration. A deeper thermal injury model showed the same dependence on adipocyte lipolysis.

Measurements of norepinephrine and chemical sympathectomy indicated no required role for sympathetic nerves.

Inflammatory signals in the skin rose after irritation. Single knockouts of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) and Interleukin-1 (IL-1), cytokines required for activating the innate immune response, did not stop lipolysis or hair regrowth. Broad anti-inflammatory steroid treatment to dampen cytokine induction blocked adipocyte lipolysis, and prevented hair renewal.

Macrophages emerged as key drivers. Transcriptomic analyses pointed to macrophage signatures, with spatial data showing infiltration into dermal fat.

Depleting macrophages with clodronate liposomes reduced serum amyloid A3 (SAA3) induction, suppressed lipolysis, and stopped hair regrowth, while neutrophil depletion and loss of adaptive immunity did not block regrowth.

Authors conclude that a macrophage-to-adipocyte-to-stem cell axis converts injury signals into localized metabolic communication that activates epithelial hair follicle stem cells. Topical monounsaturated fatty acids promoted hair growth in mice, suggesting therapeutic potential for hair loss.

Validation with human skin was not tested and the suggested mechanistic linchpin found is SAA3-dependent lipolysis in mice, whereas human skin mainly uses SAA1/2.

Kang-Yu Tai et al, Adipocyte lipolysis activates epithelial stem cells for hair regeneration through fatty acid metabolic signaling, Cell Metabolism (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2025.09.012

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Caught on camera: Rats snatching bats from the sky 

For the first time, brown rats have been filmed actively hunting bats, snatching some from the air and capturing others on the ground. The rodents were caught on camera at bat hibernation sites in northern Germany. According to a paper published in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation, researchers think this predation could be significant enough to threaten local bat populations.

This study is the first to systematically document brown rats hunting in urban Europe. Scientists set up infrared and thermal imaging cameras to monitor bats at two hibernation sites in the towns of Segeberg and Lüneburg-Kalkberg. Observations were made during peak bat activity over several months between 2020 and 2024.

The cameras revealed two distinct hunting strategies. Some rats stood upright, using their tails for balance as they grabbed the bats while they were flying. Others attacked them when they were resting on the ground. At the Segeberg site, the team recorded 13 confirmed kills over five weeks and found a cache of 52 bat carcasses. Similar remains and evidence of bat predation were also discovered at the Lüneburg-Kalkberg site.

The number of kills may not sound large, but the researchers calculated that even a small rat colony could kill up to 7% of the roughly 30,000 bats at the Segeberg site in a single winter. The attacks also occurred at a time when the bats were most vulnerable—during swarming and hibernation—meaning even limited predation could threaten the long-term survival of the population.

The study highlights the importance of bat conservation strategies. The flying mammals help control insect populations and support healthy ecosystems by pollinating plants and dispersing seeds. But protecting bats is not only good for the environment; it also benefits human health, as the researchers point out.

Florian Gloza-Rausch et al, Active predation by brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) on bats at urban mass hibernacula in Northern Germany: Conservation and one health implications, Global Ecology and Conservation (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.gecco.2025.e03894

Sinking Indian megacities pose 'alarming' building damage risks

Sinking land is quietly destabilizing urban infrastructure in India's largest cities, putting thousands of buildings and millions of people at risk, according to Virginia Tech scientists.

Groundwater overuse is a critical driver of the problem, say the researchers in their paper published in Nature Sustainability.

When cities pump more water from aquifers than nature can replenish, the ground quite literally sinks. This study shows that this overexploitation of groundwater is directly linked to structural weakening in urban areas.

Using satellite radar data from 2015–23, the research team assessed differential ground sinking, or subsidence, in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and Bengaluru, covering more than 13 million buildings and home to nearly 80 million people.
Results revealed that 878 square kilometers of urban land, or about 339 square miles, is sinking, with nearly 1.9 million people exposed to subsidence rates greater than 4 millimeters per year.
The study estimates that 2,406 buildings in New Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai are already at high risk of structural damage. If current subsidence trends continue, over 23,000 buildings could face a very high risk within the next 50 years.

Land subsidence compounds the threats from flooding and earthquakes. When the ground beneath a city sinks unevenly, it weakens foundations, damages utility lines, and amplifies structural vulnerability.

The silent strain we see today could lead to tomorrow's disasters if cities do not adapt their infrastructure and groundwater management policies, say the researchers.

The study demonstrates the value of cutting-edge satellite techniques in preventing tragedy.

The findings extend beyond India, warning that subsidence-driven building damage is an emerging global urban challenge. As more cities depend on stressed aquifers and expand rapidly, subsidence will continue to erode infrastructure resilience worldwide.

 Building damage risk in sinking Indian megacities, Nature Sustainability (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41893-025-01663-0.

How harmful bacteria know where to cluster and cause infection

The bacterium known as Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an unwelcome visitor in the human body. Serious infections can result when a bunch of these bugs settle together on a surface to form a biofilm—a community of microbes like the slime on spoiled food, but in this case residing inside a person.

The grouped-up bacteria attack the lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis and conditions that require the use of ventilators, such as severe COVID-19. Worse still, the World Health Organization lists Pseudomonas among the antibiotic-resistant bacteria presenting the biggest threat to human health.

Now, however, new findings by researchers reveal just how Pseudomonas goes from exploring a surface to committing to it and building a community—a key finding that can help pave the way to understanding how to tackle these types of infections.

The new study revealed how Pseudomonas detects and binds to specific sugars left behind by others from its species that arrived earlier. The cell senses these sugar trails using proteins on its body, and then identifies the sugars using hairlike appendages called pili. These pili are normally used to crawl along a surface, but in this case double as mechanical sensors that test the strength of the sugar bonds.

All of this information is translated into chemical signals inside the cell that guide the operation of other bacterial machinery, such as the controlled secretion of more sugars to make biofilms.

Reported in the journal Nature Microbiology, the results may inform applications in human health and industry. For Pseudomonas, the findings could lead to better approaches for undermining the dangerous bugs' ability to resist drug treatments.

William C. Schmidt et al, Pseudomonas aeruginosa senses exopolysaccharide trails using type IV pili and adhesins during biofilm formation, Nature Microbiology (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41564-025-02087-4

How Plantago asiatica plants communicate with each other to respond to salt stress

Plants exchange adaptive information, helping them to adjust to environmental challenges. Salt stress in plants, caused by soil salinity, often results in water loss. Plants often cope with this situation by closing the stomatal aperture.

In a study appearing in Plant Signaling & Behavior, the scientists wanted to understand how Plantago asiatica plants utilize both above- and below-ground communication to differentially respond to salt stress cues perceived from neighbors with variable genetic identities.
Interplant cueing or communication is a fascinating method through which neighboring plants exchange adaptive information. Plants can send and receive information through both aboveground and belowground pathways: via the shoot system (involving stems and leaves) and the root system, respectively.
Communication usually relies on volatile organic compounds aboveground and fungal networks in the soil of the root system. This exchange of information helps plants to respond quickly to certain stress situations and enhance their resistance by activating adaptive mechanisms.
Plants exchange information regarding altered nutrient availability, impending competition, neighbor proximity, drought stress, and salt stress. Plant stomata refer to microscopic pores on leaf surfaces that control gas exchange and transpiration. Closure of stomata due to salt stress was previously recorded as a stress response in many plants.
Some studies also reported that unstressed plants show this adaptive mechanism, which is a result of communication with stressed plants.

Plantago asiatica plants communicate salt stress signals through both aboveground and belowground pathways, the new study shows. Aboveground cues induce stomatal closure in neighboring plants regardless of genetic relatedness, while belowground signaling is more effective among genetically similar individuals, suggesting root-mediated communication depends on genetic background.

Kai Ito et al, Integrated above- and below-ground interplant cueing of salt stress, Plant Signaling & Behavior (2025). DOI: 10.1080/15592324.2025.2542560

Scientists find flatworm can grow two heads and flip its body axis

The microscopic flatworm (Stenostomum brevipharyngium) is one of nature's weirder creatures. Chop off its head, and it'll grow one back. Cut it in half, and it'll become two separate healthy worms. And now scientists have discovered an even stranger trick. These unsegmented, soft-bodied invertebrates can grow two heads, a normal one and a backward-facing one, in the middle of their bodies where their tail should be. This developmental error lets the worms permanently reverse their head-to-tail body axis without any noticeable harmful effects.

Scientists have long known how to create double-headed flatworms by applying electrical currents. But this is the first time the two-headed variety has been observed occurring naturally and spontaneously. 

To rule out a permanent genetic cause of the error, the researchers monitored the offspring of the double-headed worms and found that they were all normal. This proves that their axis reversal was due to developmental flexibility rather than genetic mutations.

These findings suggest that whole body regeneration based on pluripotent stem cells provides a flexible developmental framework in which even a reversal of the A-P axis of the adult bilaterian body can be accommodated.

While a genetic mutation has been excluded, the cause of the unusual two-headed creature has yet to be determined. It could be an environmental trigger or even a random developmental error. It's also unknown whether this occurs in the real world. The scientists observed this in the lab, and so we'll have to wait for other research to see if it is a trick the flatworms use in the wild.

Katarzyna Tratkiewicz et al, Spontaneous ectopic head formation enables reversal of the body axis polarity in microscopic flatworms, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2025.1941

Malaria parasites are full of wildly spinning iron crystals—scientists finally found out why

Every cell of the deadly Plasmodium falciparum parasite, the organism that causes malaria, contains a tiny compartment full of microscopic iron crystals. As long as the parasite is alive, the crystals dance. They spin, jolt, and ricochet in their little bubble like change in an overclocked washing machine, too fast and chaotic to even be tracked by traditional scientific techniques. And when the parasite dies, they stop.

The iron crystals have long been an important target for antimalarial drugs, but their motion has mystified scientists since they were first detected.

Now, scientists have finally found what makes the crystals dance: the same chemical reaction that powers spacefaring rockets. The findings could reveal new targets for malaria treatments and provide new insights for creating nanoscale robots. The results are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The crystals, which are made of an iron-based compound called heme, move by triggering the breakdown of hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen, the researchers discovered. The reaction releases energy, giving the crystals the "kick" they need to spin into motion.

It's a form of propulsion common in aerospace engineering, where peroxide fuel launches satellites into orbit, but previously unknown in biology.

Hydrogen peroxide is found at high levels inside the microscopic compartment that contains iron crystals, and parasites make the compound as a waste product, so it had stood out to the researchers as a potential chemical fuel that might power the crystals' motion. Indeed, the scientists found that hydrogen peroxide on its own was enough to set purified crystals spinning—no parasite required. Conversely, when the researchers raised malaria parasites at unusually low levels of oxygen, which lowers the amount of peroxide parasites produce, the crystals decelerated to about half their normal speed, even though the parasites were otherwise healthy.

The researchers suspect that the frenetic motion of the crystals may be important for malaria parasites to stay alive, and they have a few ideas why. Peroxide itself is extremely toxic to cells. The spinning crystals might be a way for the malaria organism to "burn off" excess toxic peroxide before it can cause harmful chemical reactions and damage the parasite.

The spinning motion might also help the parasite quickly deal with excess heme by keeping crystals from clumping together. Clumped-up crystals would prevent the parasite from storing additional heme as quickly, because they'd have less available surface to add new heme to. By keeping the crystals in constant motion, the malaria parasite may ensure that it's able to sequester additional heme efficiently.

The spinning crystals are the first known example in biology of a self-propelled metallic nanoparticle, the researchers say. But they suspect that this phenomenon is much more widespread.

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The new findings could inspire improved designs for microscopic robots, the researchers add.

Nano-engineered self-propelling particles can be used for a variety of industrial and drug delivery applications, and scientists think there are potential insights that will come from these results.

The results could also eventually lead to better antimalarial drugs.

 Erica M. Hastings et al, Chemical propulsion of hemozoin crystal motion in malaria parasites, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2513845122

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Nanobody-based antivenom shows effectiveness against 17 African snake species

Snakebite envenoming is among the world's deadliest yet most overlooked tropical diseases. The WHO has classified snakebite envenoming as one of 21 neglected tropical diseases, resulting in between 100,000 and 150,000 deaths worldwide each year. Three times as many survive with serious disabilities, including amputations and permanent tissue damage.

In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 300,000 snakebite cases are recorded annually. More than 7,000 people lose their lives, while around 10,000 undergo amputations. The actual extent—also globally—is probably much greater, as many cases go unreported.

Now, an international team of researchers  has developed a broad-spectrum antivenom against snake venoms, which shows impressive potential in laboratory studies. The antivenom covers a total of 17 different African snake species (including cobras, mambas, and rinkhals), provides better protection against tissue damage, has a lower risk of immune reactions, and, according to the researchers, can be produced at a lower cost than existing antivenoms.

The results have just been published in the journal Nature and mark the culmination of several years of intensive research with a clear goal: to develop an antivenom that can make a real difference for snakebite victims.

Existing antivenoms are produced by immunizing horses with snake venom and extracting antibodies from their blood. The result is a large, undefined mixture of antibodies, only a small proportion of which target and neutralize the most dangerous toxins. This method produces a product with great variation in quality and a risk of serious side effects.

The horses' blood is purified slightly and then given to people who have been bitten by a venomous snake. The antivenom works, but can cause harmful side effects—it's similar to a blood transfusion from a horse. At the same time, the quality varies because different horses are used in each production.

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Instead, researchers have developed an antivenom that does not require them to constantly extract antibodies from animals. Instead, they used phage display technology to develop their antivenom. This method makes it possible to select and copy effective antibody fragments (nanobodies) and later produce them on a large scale and with consistent quality. This means that they would be able to produce the antivenom in large quantities without compromising on quality.
There is also no single antivenom that covers all relevant African snake species. This can be particularly problematic if a person is bitten somewhere in Central Africa, where several venomous species live side by side. For example, the venom of the cape cobra and the spitting cobra contain very different toxins: the cape cobra's venom consists primarily of neurotoxins that paralyze the nervous system, while the spitting cobra's venom is rich in cytotoxins, which, among other things, break down tissue and can lead to amputation.
This great variation means that an antivenom that works against one species does not necessarily work against another—and therefore, it is crucial to develop an antivenom that covers several species.

The researchers have now developed a more effective and broadly effective antivenom by combining eight carefully selected nanobodies into a cocktail that targets venom from 18 medically relevant African snake species. Nanobodies are a special type of antibody that originates from antibodies found in animals in the camel family. Nanobodies are both smaller and more stable than ordinary antibodies.

The researchers developed these nanobodies to bind strongly and precisely to many different similar toxins, which enables the antivenom to neutralize venom from multiple species.
During in vivo testing, the antivenom has shown promising results and covered a wide spectrum of snake species, increasing its potential for effective treatment in real-life cases. In experiments where the antivenom was mixed directly with the venom before being injected, it successfully neutralized venom from 17 out of 18 tested different snake species, with the exception of one of the green mambas.

The new antivenom also shows promising results against local tissue damage. Nanobodies penetrate tissue faster and deeper than the larger antibodies in current antivenoms. Even with delayed treatment, nanobodies appear to effectively reduce tissue damage, whereas current antivenoms have only a limited effect.

At the same time, nanobodies carry a much lower risk of serious immune reactions compared to today's antivenoms. This means treatment could be started earlier, without waiting for clear symptoms—unlike current practice, where clinicians often delay administration to avoid triggering dangerous side effects.
Although the antivenom shows promising results, it has not yet been tested on humans, and there is still some way to go before it reaches the market.
The researchers are still working on fine-tuning and improving the content of the antivenom so that the final version can provide even better protection for snakebite victims and increase the chance of saving lives.

Andreas Laustsen, Nanobody-based recombinant antivenom for cobra, mamba and rinkhals bites, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09661-0. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09661-0

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Climate change inaction being paid for in millions of lives every year, global findings suggest

New global findings in the 9th annual indicator report of The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change reveal that the continued overreliance on fossil fuels and failure to adapt to climate change is being paid in people's lives, health, and livelihoods, with 12 of 20 indicators tracking health threats reaching unprecedented levels.

The report says failure to curb the warming effects of climate change has seen the rate of heat-related deaths surge 23% since the 1990s, to 546,000 a year. In 2024 alone, air pollution from wildfire smoke was linked to a record 154,000 deaths, while the global average transmission potential of dengue has risen by up to 49% since the 1950s.

Authors say 2.5 million deaths every year are attributable to the air pollution that comes from continued burning of fossil fuels. This is also straining national budgets—as fossil fuel prices soared, governments collectively spent 956 billion US dollars on net fossil fuel subsidies in 2023. Meanwhile, oil and gas giants keep expanding their production plans—to a scale three times greater than a livable planet can support.
While some governments backtrack on climate commitments, the report also exposes the life-saving impact of action already underway. An estimated 160,000 lives are being saved annually from the shift away from coal and the resultant cleaner air, while renewable energy generation reached record-highs.

The report reveals the emerging leadership of local governments, communities, organizations and the health sector, and calls for "all hands on deck" to accelerate progress.

As health threats from climate change reach unprecedented levels and political backsliding on climate action threatens to stall progress, the 2025 Report of The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change issues a fresh clarion call for "all hands on deck" to accelerate and intensify efforts to simultaneously reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and adapt to climate change.
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This year's health stocktake paints a bleak and undeniable picture of the devastating health harms reaching all corners of the world—with record-breaking threats to health from heat, extreme weather events, and wildfire smoke killing millions. The destruction to lives and livelihoods will continue to escalate until we end our fossil fuel addiction and dramatically up our game to adapt, the report warns.

The 2025 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change, The Lancet (2025). DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(25)01919-1

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Study finds EVs quickly overcome their energy-intensive build to be cleaner than gas cars

Making electric vehicles and their batteries is a dirty process that uses a lot of energy. But a new study says that EVs quickly make up for that with less overall emissions through two years of use than a gas-powered vehicle.

The study also estimated that gas-powered vehicles cause at least twice as much environmental damage over their lifetimes as EVs, and said the benefits of EVs can be expected to increase in coming decades as clean sources of power, such as solar and wind, are brought onto the grid.

The work offers insight into a transportation sector that makes up a big part of  emissions. It also comes as some EV skeptics have raised concerns about whether the environmental impact of battery production, including mining, makes it worthwhile to switch to electric.

While there is a bigger carbon footprint in the very short term because of the manufacturing process in creating the batteries for electric vehicles, very quickly you come out ahead in CO₂ emissions by year three and then for all of the rest of the vehicle lifetime, you're far ahead and so cumulatively much lower carbon footprint, confirms the  study .

Pankaj Sadavarte et al, Comparing the climate and air pollution footprints of Lithium-ion BEVs and ICEs in the US incorporating systemic energy system responses, PLOS Climate (2025). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pclm.0000714

'Hallucinated' cases are affecting lawyers' careers. They need to be trained to use AI

Generative artificial intelligence, which produces original content by drawing on large existing datasets, has been hailed as a revolutionary tool for lawyers. From drafting contracts to summarizing case law, generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Lexis+ AI promise speed and efficiency.

But the courts are now seeing a darker side of generative AI. This includes fabricated cases, invented quotations, and misleading citations entering court documents.

It is vital that lawyers are taught how, and how not, to use generative AI. Lawyers need to be able to avoid the risk of sanctions for breaking the rules, but also the development of a legal system that risks deciding questions of justice based on fabricated case law.

On 6 June 2025, the high court handed down a landmark judgment on two separate cases: Frederick Ayinde v The London Borough of Haringey and Hamad Al-Haroun v Qatar National Bank QPSC and QNB Capital LLC.

The court reprimanded a pupil barrister (a trainee) and a solicitor after their submissions contained fictitious and inaccurate case law. The judges were clear: "freely available generative artificial intelligence tools… are not capable of conducting reliable legal research."

As such, the use of unverified AI output can no longer be excused as error or oversight. Lawyers, junior or senior, are fully responsible for what they put before the court.

AI "hallucinations"—the confident generation of non-existent or misattributed information—are well documented. Legal cases are no exception. Research has recently found that hallucination rates range from 58% to 88% in response to specific legal queries, often on precisely the sorts of issues lawyers are asked to resolve.

These errors have now leapt off the screen and into real legal proceedings.

https://academic.oup.com/jla/article/16/1/64/7699227?login=false

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In Al-Haroun, a solicitor listed 45 cases provided by his client. Of these, 18 were fictitious and many others irrelevant. The judicial assistant is quoted in the judgment as saying: "The vast majority of the authorities are made up or misunderstood."

These incidents highlight a profession facing a perfect storm: overstretched practitioners, increasingly powerful but unreliable AI tools, and courts no longer willing to treat errors as mishaps. For the junior legal profession, the consequences are stark.

Many are experimenting with AI out of necessity or curiosity. Without the training to spot hallucinations, though, new lawyers risk reputational damage before their careers have fully begun.

The high court took a disciplinary approach, placing responsibility squarely on the individual and their supervisors. This raises a pressing question. Are junior lawyers being punished too harshly for what is, at least in part, a training and supervision gap?
Law schools have long taught research methods, ethics, and citation practice. What is new is the need to frame those same skills around generative AI.
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https://techxplore.com/news/2025-10-hallucinated-cases-affecting-la...

An industrial microbe converts carbon monoxide into biofuel

How do you turn toxic waste into fuel? Ask the microbe. A team of scientists  experimentally demonstrates the molecular tricks used by the gas-converting microbe Clostridium autoethanogenum to transform industrial waste gases into ethanol—a finding with enormous implications for sustainable fuel and chemical production.

First isolated from rabbit droppings, Clostridium autoethanogenum can thrive on pure carbon monoxide, a deadly gas for most organisms, including human beings. This extraordinary microbe consumes the poison to build cellular materials from the carbon and derives its energy through successive chemical reactions. These reactions can help to produce valuable chemicals and fuels, perfect for driving sustainable biotechnology.

While the organism is currently widely used in industrial plants to produce ethanol, the exact mechanism behind its ethanol production remains unclear. A key step suspected in the reaction was the reduction of acetate to acetaldehyde. However, some scientists did not believe this was possible to carry out for organisms. This study, published in Nature Chemical Biology, now settles this dispute and solves the mystery.

The enzyme putatively responsible for the challenging chemical reaction is known as the aldehyde: ferredoxin oxidoreductase (AFOR). It contains tungsten, the heaviest atom found in biology. In addition, there is a cluster of iron and sulfur, giving it a pretty dark brown colour.
Using advanced techniques, the scientists purified the enzyme from C. autoethanogenum and determined its atomic structure through X-ray crystallography. With the three-dimensional structure, the scientists depicted the tungsten-containing element and described its surroundings with outstanding precision. However, there was a problem: the enzyme was inactive.

However, with long and hard work researchers found a way to reactivate it.

Scientists knew that the enzyme would not reduce acetate easily because of the laws of thermodynamics, so they looked for inspiration in the tricks used by the microbe when growing on carbon monoxide. 

The solution was to mix different enzymes on top of the AFOR. The scientists built an "artificial pathway" in a tube and successfully produced ethanol from acetate, confirming that the full reaction sequence is biologically feasible inside the cell.

The process can also be transferred to other organisms. This will drastically enlarge the potential sources of microbial biofuel production.

This is another step forward in green energy production through gas bioconversion.

Carbon-monoxide-driven bioethanol production operates through a tungsten-dependent catalyst, Nature Chemical Biology (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41589-025-02055-3.

How age affects vaccine responses and how to make them better

 Scientists are learning why vaccines can trigger a weaker response in older adults, around age 65, and what can be done to improve them. These insights open the door to designing more effective vaccines.

In the largest study of its kind, published in Nature, scientists discover that our T cells—key players in coordinating immune responses—undergo profound and specific changes as we age. These changes, far from being random or a byproduct of chronic disease and inflammation, are a fundamental feature of healthy aging and will happen to all of us as we get older.

Inflammation is not driving healthy aging. Scientists think inflammation is driven by something independent from just the age of a person.

This is important because there's been research showing similar findings that inflammation and aging don't go hand in hand, and your immune system is just changing with age.

The changes also point to why vaccines, including the annual flu shot and COVID-19 boosters, tend to be less effective in older adults.

T cells are a critical part of our immune system that help "train" white blood cells, called B cells, to produce antibodies in response to viruses and vaccines. But this study found that memory T cells in older adults undergo a dramatic shift toward what is known as a "Th2-like" state, which is a change in gene expression that fundamentally alters how these cells respond to threats.
Researchers found this shift directly affects B cells' ability to generate strong antibody responses. In other words, the flu shot might still deliver the right viral components, but if the memory T cells aren't functioning properly, the body struggles to respond effectively.
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With this insight, doctors may be able to use a person's immune profile to predict how well they'll respond to a vaccine. Now that scientists can pinpoint how T cells become less effective with age, they can also start designing new vaccine formulas or immune-boosting treatments to address these issues.
Since T cells in older adults function differently, scientists could reformulate vaccines to compensate specifically for age-related cellular changes rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach. Gene-editing tools like CRISPR could also be used to reprogram a person's T cells before vaccination, essentially re-programming older immune cells to make them respond to vaccines like younger cells do—like CAR-T cell therapy that reprograms immune cells to fight cancer.
Researchers say this work goes beyond just vaccines and reveals how our immune systems change in all of us as we get older and how our bodies fight age-related disease and viruses. It also opens the door to interventions like new therapies to restore key immune cells.

Claire Gustafson, Multi-omic profiling reveals age-related immune dynamics in healthy adults, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09686-5. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09686-5

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Mathematical proof debunks the idea that the universe is a computer simulation

It's a plot device beloved by science fiction: our entire universe might be a simulation running on some advanced civilization's supercomputer. But new research  has mathematically proven this isn't just unlikely—it's impossible.

Researchers  have shown that the fundamental nature of reality operates in a way that no computer could ever simulate.

Their findings, published in the Journal of Holography Applications in Physics, go beyond simply suggesting that we're not living in a simulated world like The Matrix. They prove something far more profound: the universe is built on a type of understanding that exists beyond the reach of any algorithm.

It has been suggested that the universe could be simulated. If such a simulation were possible, the simulated universe could itself give rise to life, which in turn might create its own simulation. This recursive possibility makes it seem highly unlikely that our universe is the original one, rather than a simulation nested within another simulation. This idea was once thought to lie beyond the reach of scientific inquiry. However, the recent research has demonstrated that it can, in fact, be scientifically addressed.

The research hinges on a fascinating property of reality itself. Modern physics has moved far beyond Newton's tangible "stuff" bouncing around in space. Einstein's theory of relativity replaced Newtonian mechanics. Quantum mechanics transformed our understanding again. Today's cutting-edge theory—quantum gravity—suggests that even space and time aren't fundamental. They emerge from something deeper: pure information.

This information exists in what physicists call a Platonic realm—a mathematical foundation more real than the physical universe we experience. It's from this realm that space and time themselves emerge.

Here's where it gets interesting. The team demonstrated that even this information-based foundation cannot fully describe reality using computation alone. They used powerful mathematical theorems—including Gödel's incompleteness theorem—to prove that a complete and consistent description of everything requires what they call "non-algorithmic understanding."

Think of it this way. A computer follows recipes, step by step, no matter how complex. But some truths can only be grasped through non-algorithmic understanding—understanding that doesn't follow from any sequence of logical steps. These "Gödelian truths" are real, yet impossible to prove through computation.

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Here's a basic example using the statement, "This true statement is not provable." If it were provable, it would be false, making logic inconsistent. If it's not provable, then it's true, but that makes any system trying to prove it incomplete. Either way, pure computation fails.
So researchers have demonstrated that it is impossible to describe all aspects of physical reality using a computational theory of quantum gravity.
Therefore, no physically complete and consistent theory of everything can be derived from computation alone. Rather, it requires a non-algorithmic understanding, which is more fundamental than the computational laws of quantum gravity and therefore more fundamental than spacetime itself."
Since the computational rules in the Platonic realm could, in principle, resemble those of a computer simulation, couldn't that realm itself be simulated?

No, say the researchers. Their work reveals something deeper.

Drawing on mathematical theorems related to incompleteness and indefinability, they demonstrate that a fully consistent and complete description of reality cannot be achieved through computation alone.
It requires non-algorithmic understanding, which by definition is beyond algorithmic computation and therefore cannot be simulated. Hence, this universe cannot be a simulation, the researchers conclude.
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This research has profound implications. "The fundamental laws of physics cannot be contained within space and time, because they generate them. It has long been hoped, however, that a truly fundamental theory of everything could eventually describe all physical phenomena through computations grounded in these laws. Yet we have demonstrated that this is not possible. A complete and consistent description of reality requires something deeper—a form of understanding known as non-algorithmic understanding.
The team's conclusion is clear and marks an important scientific achievement.
Any simulation is inherently algorithmic—it must follow programmed rules. But since the fundamental level of reality is based on non-algorithmic understanding, the universe cannot be, and could never be, a simulation.
The simulation hypothesis was long considered untestable, relegated to philosophy and even science fiction, rather than science. This research brings it firmly into the domain of mathematics and physics, and provides a definitive answer.

Mir Faizal et al, Consequences of Undecidability in Physics on the Theory of Everything, Journal of Holography Applications in Physics (2025). DOI: 10.22128/jhap.2025.1024.1118. On arXiv: DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2507.22950

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Babies' gut bacteria may influence future emotional health

A child's early gut microbiome may influence their risk of developing depression, anxiety or other internalizing symptoms in middle childhood, according to a new UCLA Health study. The effect appears to be related to the way bacteria are linked to communication across emotion-related brain networks.

Published in the journal Nature Communications, the observational study found that young children whose gut microbiome had a higher representation of bacteria in the Clostridiales order and Lachnospiraceae family were at higher risk of experiencing internalizing symptoms—an umbrella term that includes symptoms of depression and anxiety—in middle childhood. The connection appeared to work indirectly: The early microbiome composition was associated with differences in connectivity across different emotion-related brain networks that were linked to anxiety and depression later in childhood.

The findings suggest that early gut bacteria could play a role in programming brain circuits tied to emotional health in later childhood. If unaddressed, symptoms of depression and anxiety can carry a higher risk of mental health challenges persisting as children develop into adolescence and adulthood.

The study provides early evidence that  git microbes could help shape mental health during the critical school-age years.

Childhood gut microbiome is linked to internalizing symptoms at school age via the functional connectome, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-64988-6

How a chorus of synchronized frequencies helps you digest your food

Synchronization abounds in nature: from the flashing lights of fireflies to the movement of fish wriggling through the ocean, biological systems are often in rhythmic movement with each other. The mechanics of how this synchronization happens are complex.

For instance, in the vasculature of the brain, blood vessels oscillate, expanding and contracting as needed. When there is neural activity, the arterioles expand to increase blood flow, oxygen and nutrients. These oscillations are self-sustained, but the arterioles also work in concert with each other.

To uncover the answer, researchers looked to another part of the body: the gut. Here they found that oscillators operating at similar frequencies lock onto each other in succession, creating a staircase effect. Their work appears in Physical Review Letters.

It is known in the scientific community that if you have a self-sustained oscillation, such as an arteriole, and you add an external stimulus at a similar but not identical frequency, you can lock the two, meaning you can shift the frequency of the oscillator to that of the external stimulus. In fact, it has been shown that if you connect two clocks, they will eventually synchronize their ticking.

Researchers now found that if they applied an external stimulus to a neuron, the entire vasculature would lock at the same frequency. However, if they stimulated two sets of neurons at two different frequencies, something unexpected happened: some arterioles would lock at one frequency and others would lock at another frequency, forming a staircase effect.

The researchers found they could use a classical model of coupled oscillators with an intestinal twist to explain this.

The gut oscillates naturally due to peristalsis—the contracting and relaxing of muscles in the digestive tract—and provided a simplified model over the complex network of blood vessels in the brain. The intestine is unidirectional, meaning frequencies shift in one direction in a gradient from higher to lower. This is what enables food to move in one direction from the beginning of the small intestine to the end of the large intestine.

Coupled oscillators talk to each other and each section of the intestine is an oscillator that talks to the other sections near it. 

Normally, coupled oscillators are studied in a homogeneous setting, meaning all the oscillators are at more or less similar frequencies. In our case, the oscillators were more varied, just as in the intestine and the brain.

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In studying the coupled oscillators in the gut, past researchers observed that there is indeed a staircase effect where similar frequencies lock onto those around it, allowing for the rhythmic movement of food through the digestive tract. But the height of the rises or breaks, the length of the stair runs or frequencies, and the conditions under which the staircase phenomenon occurred—essential features of biological systems—was something which had not been determined until now.
This new mathematical solution answers two longstanding biological questions at the same time: how food moves through the digestive tract and how it is churned. The team hopes this work will support further research into peristalsis-related digestive health issues known as gastrointestinal motility disorders.

The mathematics had been solved in an approximate way before now, but not in a way that gave you these breaks and what happens at the breaks. That's a critical discovery.
Now that they've solved the question of oscillations in the gut, they're back to studying the complex vasculature of the brain. If the gut is unidirectional, the vasculature in the brain has hundreds of directions. While they both feature staircases, the one in the gut goes from one level to the next, one at a time. The stairs in the brain go along different paths at different lengths all at once.

The brain is infinitely more complicated than the gut, but this is science at its best. You ask one question, it leads you somewhere else, you solve that problem, then return to your original question.

Marie Sellier-Prono et al, Defects, Parcellation, and Renormalized Negative Diffusivities in Nonhomogeneous Oscillatory Media, Physical Review Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1103/8njd-qd14. On arXiv: DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2502.09264

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Why pumpkins accumulate pollutants

Pumpkins, squash, zucchini and their relatives accumulate soil pollutants in their edible parts. A  research team has now identified the cause, making it possible to both make the produce safer and create plants that clean contaminated soil.

The gourd family of plants comprising pumpkins, zucchini, melons, cucumbers and more are known to accumulate high levels of pollutants in their edible parts.

The pollutants don't easily break down and thus pose a health risk to people who eat the fruit. Interestingly, other plants don't do this.

In previous studies, researchers identified a class of proteins from across the gourd family that bind to the pollutants, thus enabling them to be transported through the plant. Earlier this year, they discovered that the shape of the proteins and their binding affinity to the pollutants influence the accumulation in the aboveground plant parts. Their study was published in Plant Physiology and Biochemistry.

However, these proteins exist in many other plants, and even among the gourds, there are varieties that are more prone to accumulating pollutants than others. Researchers then noticed that in the highly accumulating varieties, there are higher concentrations of the protein in the sap.

In the same journal, the  same research team has now published that they could show that the protein variants from the highly accumulating plants are indeed exported into the sap, whereas other variants are retained in the cells.

They could also pinpoint that this is likely due to a small difference in the protein's amino acid sequence that acts as a tag that tells the cell which proteins to retain within. The team proved their point by showing that unrelated tobacco plants in which they introduced the highly accumulating protein versions also exported the protein into the plant sap.

Only secreted proteins can migrate inside the plant and be transported to the aboveground parts. Therefore, this seems to be the distinguishing factor between low-pollution and high-pollution plant varieties.

Understanding the mechanism behind pollutant accumulation is crucial to creating safer produce.

Minami Yoshida et al, Extracellular secretion of major latex-like proteins related to the accumulation of the hydrophobic pollutants dieldrin and dioxins in Cucurbita pepo, Plant Physiology and Biochemistry (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2025.110612

Hideyuki Inui et al, Binding affinity of major latex-like proteins toward polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons influences their aboveground accumulation in the Cucurbitaceae family, Plant Physiology and Biochemistry (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2025.110280

Synthetic biology to supercharge photosynthesis in crops

 Researchers have created tiny compartments to help supercharge photosynthesis, potentially boosting wheat and rice yields while slashing water and nitrogen use.

How can we make plants fix carbon more efficiently? Scientists ask this question most of the time. 

So they engineered nanoscale "offices" that can house an enzyme called Rubisco in a confined space, enabling scientists to fine-tune compatibility for future use in crops, which should allow them to produce food with fewer resources. Their research is published in Nature Communications.

Rubisco is a common enzyme in plants that is essential for "fixing" carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, the chemical process that uses sunlight to make food and energy for plants.

Rubisco is very slow and can mistakenly react with oxygen instead of CO₂ which triggers a whole other process that wastes energy and resources. This mistake is so common that important food crops such as wheat, rice, canola and potatoes have evolved a brute-force solution: mass-produce Rubisco.

In some leaves, up to 50% of the soluble protein is just copies of this one enzyme, representing a huge energy and nitrogen expense for the plant. It's a major bottleneck in how efficiently plants can grow.

Some organisms solved this problem millions of years ago. Algae and cyanobacteria house Rubisco in specialized compartments and supply them with concentrated CO₂. They're like tiny home offices that allow the enzyme to work faster and more efficiently, with everything it needs close at hand.

Scientists have been trying for years to install these natural CO₂-concentrating systems into crops. But even the simplest of these Rubisco-containing compartments from cyanobacteria, called carboxysomes, are structurally complicated. They need multiple genes working in precise balance and can only house their native Rubisco.

Researchers in the current study 

took a different approach, using encapsulins. These are simple bacterial protein cages that require just one gene to build. Think of it like Lego blocks that automatically snap into place, rather than assembling complicated flat-pack furniture.

To load Rubisco inside, the researchers added a short "address tag" of 14 amino acids to the enzyme that, like a zip code, directs the enzyme to its destination inside the assembling compartment.

This worked well. 

Crops with this elevated CO2-fixing technology could produce higher yields while using less water and nitrogen fertilizer. These are critical advantages as climate change and population growth put pressure on global food systems.

Taylor N. Szyszka et al, Reprogramming encapsulins into modular carbon-fixing nanocompartments, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-65307-9

How parasitic cuckoos lay host-matching eggs while remaining a single species

European cuckoos lay very different eggs depending on the host species. Genetic analyses have revealed how this adaptation is inherited without leading to speciation.

Bright blue, white, greenish, speckled, or striped—cuckoo eggs exhibit an extraordinary variety. This range of colors is the result of an evolutionary race with over 100 avian host species. Cuckoos famously do not incubate their eggs, but secretly lay them in the nests of other bird species.

To ensure that the host does not recognize the cuckoo egg and throw it out of its nest, the egg must closely resemble the eggs of its host parent. However, every female cuckoo is tied to lay eggs of a specific color and pattern. This suggests that various evolutionary lineages of the European cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) exist, with each of them adapted to a specific avian host species.

An international team has now deciphered the genetic basis of these adaptations and shown how the cuckoo remains a single species. This calls for explanation, because as cuckoos evolve specialized adaptations to exploit new hosts, these populations could begin to genetically diverge to the point of forming new species.

For their study, the researchers analyzed some 300 genomes of the European and 50 of the Oriental cuckoo (Cuculus optatus), its eastern sister species. Subsequently, they checked which gene variants corresponded to the egg coloration.

The paper is published in the journal Science.

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