Why does metformin blunt exercise benefits? The answer is unclear but may lie in the drug's mechanism of action. Metformin works partly by blocking parts of the mitochondria, which reduces oxidative stress and improves blood sugar control. But that same inhibition may interfere with the cellular adaptations triggered by exercise, including improvements in mitochondrial function and aerobic capacity. In other words, the very process that makes metformin effective may block the body's ability to respond fully to physical training.
Previous research has hinted at similar effects, but this trial is among the first to examine vascular insulin sensitivity, which is a key factor controlling glucose regulation and cardiovascular health.
By showing that metformin can blunt improvements in both large arteries and tiny capillaries regardless of exercise intensity, the study underscores the complexity of combining such treatments.
Now we need to figure out how to best recommend exercise with metformin, the researchers conclude, we also need to consider how other medications interact with exercise to develop better guidelines for doctors to help people lower chronic disease risk.

Steven K Malin et al, Metformin Blunts Vascular Insulin Sensitivity After Exercise Training in Adults at Risk for Metabolic Syndrome, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (2025). DOI: 10.1210/clinem/dgaf551

Part 2

New insights on gut microbes that prevent formation of cancer-causing compounds

Nitrogen metabolism of gut bacteria can provide health benefits. Specifically, gut microbes metabolize dietary nitrates and nitrites and prevent the formation of cancer-causing compounds called nitrosamines. New research published in The FEBS Journal sheds light on these processes and pinpoints which types of bacteria are most important.

Investigators found that Escherichia coli—and to a lesser extent, species of the genera Lactobacillus, Bacteroides and Phocaeicola—can efficiently metabolize different forms of nitrogen, thus preventing carcinogenic nitrosamine formation.

They also demonstrate that this bacterial processing is critical to enable microorganisms to survive and colonize the intestinal tract, likely preventing harmful changes in the composition of the gut microbiota.

The findings highlight the importance of the gut microbiota in preventing the formation of harmful nitrogen metabolites, potentially decreasing the risk of certain cancers. The study also illustrates how the microbiota facilitates crosstalk between our diet and the gut, thus having important implications for both health and disease.

 Distribution and activity of nitrate and nitrite reductases in the microbiota of the human intestinal tract, FEBS Journal (2025). DOI: 10.1111/febs.70299

Coordinated brain network activity during emotional arousal may explain vivid, lasting memories

Past psychology studies suggest that people tend to remember emotional events, such as their wedding, the birth of a child or traumatic experiences, more vividly than neutral events, such as a routine professional meeting. While this link between emotion and the recollection of past events is well-established, the neural mechanisms via which emotional states strengthen memories remain poorly understood.

So researchers now carried out a study aimed at better understanding these mechanisms. Their findings, published in Nature Human Behaviour, suggest that emotional states facilitate the encoding of memories by increasing communication between networks of brain regions.

Emotional experiences tend to be 'sticky,' meaning that they endure in our memories and shape how we interpret the past, engage with the present, and anticipate the future. 

The primary objective of the recent study 's to study the neural processes that make emotional memories become more persistent. To do this, they used brain imaging techniques combined with computational models that can analyze and generate texts, known as natural language processing (NLP) models.

The analyses carried out by the researchers revealed that when participants were emotionally aroused, the activity of various brain networks was more coordinated than when they were in neutral or mild emotional states. Notably, this greater coordination between brain networks was found to predict how well participants remembered the scenes that they viewed during the experiment.

It is more like an orchestra, where different sections work together to create a unified performance, with arousal serving as a conductor that coordinates their activity. This perspective suggests that whether we remember an emotional memory depends not only on the strength of activity in any single region, but also on how effectively different systems communicate and share information.

Overall, the results of this research team's analyses suggest that emotions strengthen the synchronization between brain networks, which in turn supports the encoding of memories. Their paper thus introduces a new way of thinking about emotional memories, suggesting that it is supported by the coordinated activity of various brain regions.

 Jadyn S. Park et al, Emotional arousal enhances narrative memories through functional integration of large-scale brain networks, Nature Human Behaviour (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-025-02315-1.

Urolithin A nudges aging immune cells toward a youthful profile in 28 days

An international research team focused on aging reports that urolithin A at 1,000 mg per day shifted human immune profiles toward a more naive-like, less exhausted CD8⁺ state and increased fatty acid oxidation capacity, with additional functional gains.

Urolithin A is a metabolite produced by gut bacteria after breaking down ellagic acid from certain foods, such as pomegranates and walnuts. While produced naturally through microbial digestion, it is in much smaller quantities than available as a supplement or used in the study.

Aging bodies face reduced production of mature T cells, shrinking naive T cell pools and chronic low-grade inflammation. Mitochondrial dysfunction and waning autophagy sit at the core of these shifts, with mitophagy failure linked to immune dysregulation and disease.

Preclinical evidence identified urolithin A as a potent inducer of mitophagy, clearing out damaged mitochondria, in rodents and humans. Previous clinical trials have reported improved physical performance following supplementation.

Improving mitochondrial quality control with a positive influence on immune function would represent a turning back of the aging biological clock, if it can have a meaningful and prolonged effect in humans.

Conclusion: Short-term urolithin A supplementation modulated human immune cell composition and metabolism and improved selected functional responses, supporting the body's potential to counteract age-related immune decline.

Dominic Denk et al, Effect of the mitophagy inducer urolithin A on age-related immune decline: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial, Nature Aging (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s43587-025-00996-x

A natural compound revitalizes the aging human immune system, Nature Aging (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s43587-025-01012-y

Good Social Interactions Slow Cancer Via an Anxiety-Reducing Neural Circuit

Just an hour of socializing per day helped mice fight tumors. Now scientists have traced the brain circuitry that turns companionship into a cancer-fighting signal.

In the 1970s and ‘80s, scientists began noticing that people who had few or poor social relationships had a higher risk of developing illnesses and all-cause mortality. A slew of follow-up studies suggested that social support could protect people from pathological conditions like arthritis, alcoholism, depression, and even death. This link holds true for cancer as well. Upon analyzing disease progression and survival rates in thousands of breast cancer patients, researchers observed a negative impact of social isolation and a positive impact of interpersonal connections on prognosis.

One of the popular theories explaining these effects states that being social eases anxiety, a well-established driver of tumor growth, and consequently inhibits cancer progression. But how exactly does the body sense these stimuli and pump the brakes on cancer?

In a recent study published in Neuron, researchers uncovered the neural circuitry that drives the therapeutic effects of social connections on cancer, in mice. It demonstrates a real biological pathway by which this nebulous subject of social interaction can influence cancer.

That means that now it's technically targetable, by drugs or by neuromodulation techniques, when before, we wouldn't even know what to target or if there was something to target.

 These findings establish a new paradigm for how psychosocial factors influence cancer via neural circuits and could potentially lead to therapies that complement existing treatments.

Wen HZ, et al. Social interaction in mice suppresses breast cancer progression via... Neuron. 2025;113(20)3374-3389.e9.

First ever atlas of brain development

First-ever atlas of brain development shows how stem cells turn into neurons

Scientists have created the most detailed maps yet of how our brains differentiate from stem cells during embryonic development and early life. In a collection of five papers, they tracked hundreds of thousands of early brain cells in the cortices of humans and mice, and captured with unprecedented precision the molecular events that give rise to a mixture of neurons and supporting cells. It's really the initial first draft of any ‘cell atlases’ for the developing brain.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03641-0?utm_source=Live+...

We're Still Evolving: Human Arms Keep Growing an Extra Artery

Subtle shifts in our anatomy today demonstrate how unpredictable evolution can be. Take something as mundane as an extra blood vessel in our arms, which, going by current trends, could be commonplace within just a few generations.

An artery that temporarily runs down the center of our forearms while we're still in the womb isn't vanishing as often as it used to, according to a study published in 2020 by researchers.

That means there are more adults than ever with what amounts to an extra channel of vascular tissue flowing under their wrist.

Since the 18th century, anatomists have been studying the prevalence of this artery in adults and our study shows it's clearly increasing.

The prevalence was around 10 percent in people born in the mid-1880s compared to 30 percent in those born in the late 20th century, so that's a significant increase in a fairly short period of time, when it comes to evolution

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joa.13224

Neanderthal DNA helps explain how faces form

Every human face is unique, allowing us to distinguish between individuals. We know little about how facial features are encoded in our DNA, but we may be able to learn more about how our faces develop by looking at our ancient relatives, the Neanderthals. Neanderthal faces were quite distinctive from our own, with large noses, pronounced brows and a robust lower jaw.

Now, scientists are using the DNA of our extinct distant relatives to learn more about how faces develop and evolve.

Published in the journal Development, they show how a region of Neanderthal DNA is better at activating a jaw-forming gene than the human counterpart, revealing one potential reason for Neanderthal's larger lower jaws.

Scientists have sequenced the Neanderthal genome using DNA extracted from ancient bone. The Neanderthal genome is 99.7% identical to the genome of modern-day humans and the differences between species are likely responsible for altering appearance. Both human and Neanderthal genomes consist of about 3 billion letters that code for proteins and regulate how genes are used in the cell, which makes finding regions that impact appearance like looking for a needle in a haystack.

But still they decided on a region of the genome that is linked to Pierre Robin sequence, a syndrome in which the lower jaw is disproportionately small. Some individuals with Pierre Robin sequence have large deletions or DNA rearrangements in this part of the genome that change face development and limit jaw formation. They predicted that smaller differences in the DNA might have more subtle effects on face shape.

By comparing human and Neanderthal genomes, the team found that in this region, roughly 3000 letters in length, there were just three single-letter differences between the species. Although this region of DNA doesn't contain any genes, it regulates how and when a gene is activated, specifically a gene called SOX9, a key coordinator of the process of face development.

To demonstrate that these Neanderthal-specific differences are important for the development of the face, the researchers needed to show that the Neanderthal region could activate genes in the right cells at the right time as the embryo develops.

The researchers simultaneously inserted the Neanderthal and human versions of the region into the DNA of zebrafish and programmed the zebrafish cells to produce different colors of fluorescent protein depending on whether the human or Neanderthal region was active.

Watching the zebrafish embryos develop, the researchers found that both the human and Neanderthal regions were active in the zebrafish cells that are involved in forming the lower jaw and the Neanderthal region was more active than the human version.

This led them to think about what the consequences of these differences could be, and how to explore these experimentally.

Knowing that the Neanderthal sequence was more powerful at activating genes, the researchers then asked if the resulting increased activity of its target, SOX9, might change the shape and function of the adult jaw. To test this theory, they provided the zebrafish embryos with extra SOX9 and found that cells that contribute to forming the jaw occupied a larger area.

This research shows that by studying extinct species we can learn how our own DNA contributes to face variation, development and evolution.

Kirsty Uttley et al, Neanderthal-derived variants increase SOX9 enhancer activity in craniofacial progenitors that shape jaw development, Development (2025). DOI: 10.1242/dev.204779

Sodium bicarbonate fails to boost survival in patients with severe acidemia

Severe metabolic acidemia (acidic blood) has been linked to impaired cardiac contractility, arrhythmias, pulmonary vasoconstriction, systemic vasodilation, altered kidney blood flow, cerebral edema, and diaphragmatic dysfunction. Common etiologies in critical illness include hyperchloremic acidosis, lactate accumulation, and endogenous anion accumulation during acute kidney injury.

Now researchers  report no reduction in day 90 all-cause mortality with sodium bicarbonate infusion for critically ill adults with severe metabolic acidemia and moderate to severe acute kidney injury.

In the human body, carbon dioxide combines with water via carbonic anhydrase and forms carbonic acid, which dissociates into a hydrogen ion and bicarbonate. Early 20th century investigators described metabolic bicarbonate as an "alkaline reserve," naturally buffering the body to keep a healthy acid-base balance.

Sodium bicarbonate entered acute care protocols in the 1950s as a staple of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) guidance. Skepticism grew across the 1980s and beyond as routine dosing failed to show outcome advantages and reports raised concerns about potential harms.

Modern evidence, including recent trials, has coincided with removal of routine bicarbonate use from  CPR guidelines, with use retained for select cases of severe acidosis.

Prior work by researchers on bicarbonate outcomes did not show an overall benefit from sodium bicarbonate, though an acute kidney injury intervention suggested benefit, leaving open the possibility that it still might be of benefit under specific conditions.

In the study, "Sodium Bicarbonate for Severe Metabolic Acidemia and Acute Kidney Injury: The BICARICU-2 Randomized Clinical Trial," published in JAMA, researchers conducted an open-label, investigator-initiated, multicenter randomized clinical trial to determine whether sodium bicarbonate infusion reduces day 90 all-cause mortality after severe metabolic acidemia with moderate to severe acute kidney injury in critically ill adults.

Part 1

The findings show that sodium bicarbonate therapy did not affect day 90 mortality in patients with severe metabolic acidemia (pH ≤7.20) and moderate to severe acute kidney injury.

Less frequent kidney replacement therapy use in the bicarbonate group and lower bloodstream infections illustrated significantly better outcomes.

 Boris Jung et al, Sodium Bicarbonate for Severe Metabolic Acidemia and Acute Kidney Injury, JAMA (2025). DOI: 10.1001/jama.2025.20231

Prit Kusirisin et al, Sodium Bicarbonate in Severe Acidemia and Acute Kidney Injury—Turning the Tide or Chasing a Myth?, JAMA (2025). DOI: 10.1001/jama.2025.20457

Part 2

Could mass arise without the Higgs boson?

The Higgs field gives mass to elementary particles through interaction, not the Higgs boson particle itself. The Higgs boson is a quantum excitation of this pervasive field. The strength of a particle's interaction with the Higgs field determines its mass, while particles like the photon that don't interact with it remain massless. 

The geometry of space, where physical laws unfold, may also hold answers to some of the deepest questions in fundamental physics. The very structure of spacetime might underlie every interaction in nature.

A paper published in Nuclear Physics B explores the idea that all fundamental forces and particle properties could emerge from the geometry of hidden extra dimensions.

According to the study, the universe may contain invisible dimensions folded into intricate seven-dimensional shapes known as G₂-manifolds. Traditionally, these structures have been studied as static. But researchers of this new study consider them as dynamic: evolving under a process called the G₂–Ricci flow, where the internal geometry changes with time.

As in organic systems, such as the twisting of DNA or the handedness of amino acids, these extra-dimensional structures can possess torsion, a kind of intrinsic twist, they explain. When we let them evolve in time, we find that they can settle into stable configurations called solitons. These solitons could provide a purely geometric explanation of phenomena such as spontaneous symmetry breaking.

In the Standard Model of particle physics, the Higgs field gives mass to the W and Z bosons. But the authors suggest that mass could instead arise from geometric torsion in extra dimensions, without introducing an additional Higgs field.

"In our picture," they say, "matter emerges from the resistance of geometry itself, not from an external field."

The theory also links torsion to the curvature of spacetime, offering a possible explanation of the positive cosmological constant that drives cosmic expansion. The authors even speculate about a new particle, the "Torstone," that might be observable in future experiments.

The masses of the W and Z bosons come not from the famous Higgs field, but directly from the geometry of seven-dimensional space, they argue.

Richard Pinčák et al, Introduction of the G2-Ricci flow: Geometric implications for spontaneous symmetry breaking and gauge boson masses, Nuclear Physics B (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.nuclphysb.2025.116959

AI evaluates texts without bias—until the source is revealed
Large language models evaluate texts consistently and with minimal bias when no source information is provided, showing over 90% agreement across models. However, when the author’s identity or nationality is revealed, significant biases emerge, notably a strong anti-Chinese bias, and trust in human over AI authors. These findings highlight the need for transparency and safeguards in AI-driven evaluations.

How to avoid LLM evaluation bias Make the LLM identity blind:

Remove all identity information regarding author and source of the text, e.g., avoid using phrases like "written by a person from X / by model Y" in the prompt.

Check from different angles: Run the same questions twice, e. g. with and without a source mentioned in the prompt. If results change, you've likely hit a bias.

Or cross-check with a second LLM model: If divergence appears when you add a source that is a red flag.

Force the focus away from the sources: Structured criteria help anchor the model in content rather than identity.

Use this prompt, for example: "Score this using a 4-point rubric (evidence, logic, clarity, counter-arguments), and explain each score briefly." Keep humans in the loop: Treat the model as a drafting help and add a human review to the process—especially if an evaluation affects people.

 Federico Germani et al, Source framing triggers systematic bias in large language models, Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adz2924

Dinosaur eggshells unlock a new way to tell time in the fossil record

An international team of geologists and paleontologists is pioneering a groundbreaking methodology to reliably determine the age of fossil-bearing rocks—by directly dating fossilized dinosaur eggshells.

Many fossil sites around the world are only coarsely dated. Without precise information on the geologic age of fossils, paleontologists struggle to understand how different species and ecosystems relate across time and space. Usually, researchers rely on dating minerals such as zircon or apatite found associated with fossils, but those minerals aren't always present. Attempts to date the fossils themselves, such as bones or teeth, have often produced uncertain results.

Now researchers  took a different approach. They used advanced uranium–lead (U–Pb) dating and elemental mapping to measure trace amounts of uranium and lead housed inside the calcite of fossilized dinosaur eggshells. These isotopes function like a natural clock, enabling scientists to determine when the eggs were buried.
Fossilized dinosaur eggshells can be directly dated using uranium–lead (U–Pb) isotopes in their calcite, providing geologic ages with about 5% accuracy compared to volcanic-ash dating. This method enables precise dating of fossil sites lacking datable volcanic layers, offering a new tool to reconstruct the timing of dinosaur evolution and ancient ecosystems.

Tests on dinosaur eggs from Utah (U.S.) and the Gobi Desert (Mongolia) showed that the eggshells record ages with an accuracy of about 5% relative to precise volcanic-ash dates. In Mongolia, the team determined the first-ever direct age—around 75 million years old—for a historic locality preserving dinosaur eggs and nests.

 Ryan T. Tucker et al, U-Pb calcite age dating of fossil eggshell as an accurate deep time geochronometer, Communications Earth & Environment (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s43247-025-02895-w

How cells choose their direction without external signals

Cell movement is an essential biological process, whether it's cancer cells metastasizing to other parts of the body or immune cells migrating to heal a wound.

An international joint research team has elucidated the principle by which cells decide their direction and move on their own without external signals, offering a crucial clue for identifying the causes of cancer metastasis and immune diseases and establishing new treatment strategies.
Cells determine their movement direction autonomously through an internal program involving Rho family proteins. The Cdc42–FMNL interaction drives straight movement, while Rac1–ROCK enables directional changes. Disrupting Rac1–ROCK binding impairs turning and environmental adaptation. The INSPECT technique allows direct visualization of these protein interactions in living cells.

Heeyoung Lee et al, A Rho GTPase-effector ensemble governs cell migration behavior, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-64635-0

Chronic kidney disease is now the ninth leading cause of death, global analysis finds

Record numbers of men and women globally are now estimated to have reduced kidney function, a new study shows. Figures rose from 378 million people with the disease in 1990 to 788 million in 2023 as the world population grew and aged, making it for the first time a top 10 cause of death worldwide.

 The analysis explored the rise of the illness, in which the kidneys gradually lose their ability to filter waste and excess fluid from the blood. Mild cases may have no symptoms while the most severe stages can require dialysis, kidney replacement therapy, or an organ transplant.

The findings revealed that about 14% of adults in the world have chronic kidney disease. Results further showed that about 1.5 million people died from the condition in 2023, an increase of more than 6% since 1993 when accounting for differences in countries' age demographics over time.

Another major finding was that impaired kidney function, on top of killing people directly, was a key risk factor for heart disease, contributing to about 12% of global cardiovascular mortality. The results showed further that in 2023, the condition was the 12th leading cause of diminished quality of life from disability. The biggest risk factors for kidney disease were found to be high blood sugar, high blood pressure, and high body mass index (a measure of obesity).

Global, regional, and national burden of chronic kidney disease in adults, 1990–2023, and its attributable risk factors: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023, The Lancet (2025). DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(25)01853-7

AI bias in hiring decisions is often copied by human reviewers, study reveals

An organization drafts a job listing with artificial intelligence. Droves of applicants conjure résumés and cover letters with chatbots. Another AI system sifts through those applications, passing recommendations to hiring managers. Perhaps AI avatars conduct screening interviews. This is increasingly the state of hiring, as people seek to streamline the stressful, tedious process with AI.

Yet research is finding that hiring bias—against people with disabilities, or certain races and genders—permeates large language models, or LLMs, such as ChatGPT and Gemini. We know less, though, about how biased LLM recommendations influence the people making hiring decisions.
In a new  study, 528 people worked with simulated LLMs to pick candidates for 16 different jobs, from computer systems analyst to nurse practitioner to housekeeper. The researchers simulated different levels of racial biases in LLM recommendations for résumés from equally qualified white, Black, Hispanic and Asian men.

When picking candidates without AI or with neutral AI, participants picked white and non-white applicants at equal rates. But when they worked with a moderately biased AI, if the AI preferred non-white candidates, participants did too. If it preferred white candidates, participants did too. In cases of severe bias, people made only slightly less biased decisions than the recommendations.

Kyra Wilson et al, No Thoughts Just AI: Biased LLM Hiring Recommendations Alter Human Decision Making and Limit Human Autonomy, Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society (2025). DOI: 10.1609/aies.v8i3.36749

Talking with our hands: How culture shapes our gestures

New research  shows that gesture is not merely a matter of individual style or habit, but a reflection of cultural expression tied to racial identity.

The research also suggests that mismatched expectations about gesture may influence the dynamics of interracial communication.

We all clearly communicate in very different ways. Some of us may talk differently than others. Some of us may use our hands more than others. It doesn't mean we can't communicate. When we experience that mismatch in communication, maybe we all need to try a little harder to understand each other across group differences, say the researchers.

Their findings show consistent patterns suggesting that what feels natural when speaking can differ across racial groups, and that those differences can shape how people perceive one another.

Collectively, these studies highlight that gesture is not only a personal characteristic but also a culturally grounded mode of expression, deeply linked to identity and group norms. The research also underscores how mismatched expectations about nonverbal behavior may affect perceptions and interactions across racial groups.

Yes, what I say need not exactly be what you comprehend!

Esha S. Naidu et al, Talk to the hand: Black and White cultural differences in gesture use., Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (2025). DOI: 10.1037/xge0001862

Scientists Discover Mysterious Signs of Life in Bizarre Blue Volcanic Goo

Unexpected biosignatures found in a startlingly blue volcanic goo beneath the Pacific Ocean may offer clues to life's origins.
Exhumed from mud volcanoes near the Mariana Trench, at depths of almost 3,000 meters (9,833 feet), the bizarrely colored sediment samples contain fats from mysterious living organisms.

With an extremely high pH of 12 – among the highest recorded in a natural ecosystem – this nutrient-poor ooze would cause severe burns to your skin on contact. Yet researchers have now confirmed that some extremophile microbes live there.

The bottom section of one taken from the Pacman volcano consists mainly of serpentinite with bits of brucite, largely untouched by the seawater above, allowing it to maintain its striking color.

At shallower depths, closer to the mud from the ocean floor, the volcanic sediment pales to a lighter blue-green, and the brucite has been dissolved by salt water.
Within these serpentinite layers, researchers detected fats from bacterial and archaeal cell membranes – the microbes' "first line of defense" against highly alkaline conditions.
The mostly intact state of the fats indicates multiple communities of microbes are currently eking out a living in these extreme conditions, the researchers explain.
Like plants do through photosynthesis, these microbes make their own energy from methane by consuming sulfate, which produces corrosive hydrogen sulfide.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-02667-6

Self-reactive T cells may explain why some patients can't reach undetectable HIV levels

Despite the capability of antiretroviral drugs to suppress HIV to undetectable levels, some people living with the human immunodeficiency virus can't reach the goal of viral imperceptibility even with daily doses of the potent medications.

It is a conundrum that has mystified virologists for years, but new research by a team of investigators It is a conundrum that has mystified virologists for years, but new research by a team of investigators.

Based on a study of eight people whose antiretroviral treatment did not drive down HIV to an undetectable level, the  researchers found that constant HIV in the blood is not the result of patients missing medication doses or the virus becoming drug resistant. It persists, they discovered, because of a population of insidious immune components known as "self-reactive CD4⁺ T cells".

These HIV-infected CD4⁺ T cells can release viral RNA that persists in the bloodstream, a phenomenon called nonsuppressible viremia. Simply put, nonsuppressible viremia refers to an ongoing presence of low levels of HIV in the blood.

Antiretroviral therapy halts HIV replication, reducing plasma virus concentrations to below the limit of detection, but it is not curative because of a reservoir of latently infected CD4⁺ T cells," writes lead author of the study, Dr. Fengting Wu, in Science Translational Medicine.

Even with 100% adherence to antiretroviral therapy, a large fraction of people living with HIV have residual viremia. Clinical options for managing nonsuppressible viremia are currently limited.

Even though the viremia may be low, it cannot be controlled by simply upping the dosage of antiretroviral medication. So, despite doctors' best efforts, viral RNA continues to persist in the blood. And more puzzling still, it may take years, even decades, for the viremia to emerge.

All eight patients examined by the researchers had been on long-term antiretroviral treatment for a median of 23 years before developing persistent viremia.

For the patient with the least amount of time on the therapy, it took nine years before nonsuppressible viremia occurred. Another spent 31 problem-free years on the treatment before viremia loomed as an inescapable fact of life. Yet, during the study period, some research participants who had lab-confirmed evidence of nonsuppressible viremia, had no signs of it at all.

Several possibilities could explain the lack of detectable virus production from infected CD4⁺ T cells in some study participants," write the investigators in their paper. "These include a low frequency of infected self-reactive cells, the antigen of interest not being present in the lysate, or the antigen being present at very low concentrations."

Complicating matters further, CD4⁺ T cells make clones of themselves in HIV infection, a process known as clonal expansion. A small fraction of CD4⁺ T cells infected with HIV survive and divide, creating clones of infected cells that form the viral reservoir, the source of the nonsuppressible viremia.

 Fengting Wu et al, Proviruses in CD4⁺ T cells reactive to autologous antigens contribute to nonsuppressible HIV-1 viremia, Science Translational Medicine (2025). DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.adu4643

How climate change increased the risk of earthquakes in East Africa

Climate change is accelerating continental rifting, the geological process where landmasses slowly pull apart. According to a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports, the East African Rift System (EARS) became more tectonically active after its major lakes shrank due to a drier climate 4,000 to 6,000 years ago. This could have caused more frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Researchers studied the Lake Turkana Basin in northern Kenya. This region is ideal for analyzing how climate and tectonics interact because it lies within the magmatically active eastern part of EARS and has witnessed dramatic lake-level shifts.

Scientists examined 27 underwater faults by comparing two time periods in the South Turkana Basin. The first was the wetter Late African Humid Period (9,631–5,333 years ago) and the second was the Post-African Humid Period (5,333 years ago to present), when the climate was much drier. Using geological data and computer models, they calculated how the reduced weight of the lake water affected fault activity.

The researchers discovered that the speed of faulting in the EARS accelerated significantly after the region's major lakes shrank, showing a mean increase of 0.17 mm/year in their slipping rate.

This work provides  the first empirical evidence of increased fault activity in response to climate-induced lake level changes in the East African Rift System over time scales of 10³–10⁴ years and reveal that climate-tectonic interactions are enhanced in magmatically active rift systems.

https://phys.org/news/2025-11-climate-earthquakes-east-africa.html?...

How climate change increased the risk of earthquakes in East Africa

Climate change is accelerating continental rifting, the geological process where landmasses slowly pull apart. According to a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports, the East African Rift System (EARS) became more tectonically active after its major lakes shrank due to a drier climate 4,000 to 6,000 years ago. This could have caused more frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Researchers studied the Lake Turkana Basin in northern Kenya. This region is ideal for analyzing how climate and tectonics interact because it lies within the magmatically active eastern part of EARS and has witnessed dramatic lake-level shifts.

Scientists examined 27 underwater faults by comparing two time periods in the South Turkana Basin. The first was the wetter Late African Humid Period (9,631–5,333 years ago) and the second was the Post-African Humid Period (5,333 years ago to present), when the climate was much drier. Using geological data and computer models, they calculated how the reduced weight of the lake water affected fault activity.

The researchers discovered that the speed of faulting in the EARS accelerated significantly after the region's major lakes shrank, showing a mean increase of 0.17 mm/year in their slipping rate.

This work provides  the first empirical evidence of increased fault activity in response to climate-induced lake level changes in the East African Rift System over time scales of 10³–10⁴ years and reveal that climate-tectonic interactions are enhanced in magmatically active rift systems.

 James D. Muirhead et al, Accelerated rifting in response to regional climate change in the East African Rift System, Scientific Reports (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-23264-9

Electrostatic defrosting removes ice without heat or chemicals

During winter months, frost can unleash icy havoc on cars, planes, heat pumps, and much more. But thermal defrosting with heaters is very energy intensive, while chemical defrosting is expensive and toxic to the environment.

Now a research team may have found a new and improved method for deicing:

to combat ice by exploiting its own physics instead of using heat or chemicals, creating methods of frost removal that are more cost effective and environmentally friendly.

Their previous work leveraged the small amount of voltage that naturally exists within frost to polarize a nearby water film, creating an electric field that could detach microscopic ice crystals.

Now the team is amping up this concept by applying a high voltage to an opposing electrode to more forcibly dislodge frost from its surface. The result is a new method the team has named "electrostatic defrosting" (EDF). The approach to creating it has been published in Small Methods.

As frost crystals grow, the water molecules arrange into a tidy ice lattice. But sometimes a water molecule lands a little off-pattern—maybe it has an extra hydrogen nearby (H3O+) or is missing one entirely (OH–). These tiny errors create what scientists call ionic defects: places in the frost where there is a bit too much positive or negative charge.

The team hypothesized that when applying a positive voltage to an electrode plate held above the frost, the negative ionic defects would become attracted and "migrate" to the top of the frost sheet, while the positive ionic defects would be repelled and migrate toward the base of the frost.

In other words, the frost would become highly polarized and exhibit a strong attractive force to the electrode. If this attractive force is strong enough, frost crystals could fracture off and jump into the electrode.

Turning up the power further, something curious happened: less frost jumped away, reducing to only 30% removal at 1,100 volts and 20% at 5,500 volts. The results contradicted the theoretical model, which predicted that the performance should continually improve with increasing voltage.

The team found a possible explanation for this plunge in frost removal at higher voltages. When growing frost on an insulating glass substrate, rather than a copper one, the higher voltages performed only slightly worse. This indicated that charge leakage from the polarized frost into the underlying substrate was occurring, especially at high voltages, which could be mitigated by using a more insulating surface.
Upgrading again to an air-trapping superhydrophobic substrate, now the highest voltage removed the most frost, as initially expected. Turning up the voltage now ripped off up to 75% of the frost.
This concept of electric deicing is still in a very early stage.
The research continues, toward the eventual goal of 100% ice removal. Part of this research will include the removal of frost on multiple types of surfaces, expanding the potential applications across both industrial and consumer use.

 Small Methods (2025). DOI: 10.1002/smtd.202501143

Part 2

Brain activity goes to extremes in soccer fans, neuroimaging reveals

Studying brain patterns in soccer fans, researchers found that certain circuit regions of the brain were activated while viewing soccer matches involving their favorite team, triggering positive and negative emotions and behaviors, according to a new study published in Radiology. The researchers say these patterns could apply to other types of fanaticism as well, and that the circuits are forged early in life.

Soccer is a global phenomenon, and its followers exhibit a broad spectrum of behaviors, from spectatorship to intense emotional engagement, providing a useful model for studying social identity and emotional processing in competitive situations.

Rivalries run deep in the history of sports, and fans can be very protective of their "home" team and favorite players. These same fans run the gamut of emotions watching their team succeed or fail over the course of a game or match, cheering when they score or raging at a bad call. Soccer fans are known for their team loyalty and enthusiasm, particularly in Europe and South America.

Soccer fandom provides a high-ecological-validity model of fanaticism with quantifiable life consequences for health and collective behaviour.

For the study, researchers used functional MRI (fMRI)—a technique that measures brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow—to examine 60 healthy male soccer fans (20–45 years) of two historical rivals. Fanaticism was quantified with the Football Supporters Fanaticism Scale, a 13-item scale that measures the fanaticism of football fans, assessing two sub-dimensions: "Inclination to Violence" and "Sense of Belongingness."

Brain imaging data were acquired while participants watched 63 goal sequences from matches involving their favorite team, a rival or a neutral team.

A whole-brain analysis was conducted to compare neural responses when participants viewed their favorite team scoring against an archrival (significant victory) versus when the archrival scored against their team (significant defeat), with control conditions for non-rival goals.

The fMRI results showed that brain activity changed when the fan's team succeeded or failed.

Rivalry rapidly reconfigures the brain's valuation–control balance within seconds. With significant victory, the reward circuitry in the brain is amplified relative to non-rival wins, whereas in significant defeat the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC)—which plays an important role in cognitive control—shows paradoxical suppression of control signals.

Part 1

Paradoxical suppression refers to the attempt to suppress a thought, feeling or behavior and it results in the opposite outcome.

Higher activation in the reward system regions occurred when participants' teams scored against rivals versus non-rivals, suggesting in-group bonding and social identity reinforcement.
The effect is strongest in highly fanatic participants, predicting momentary self-regulatory failure precisely when identity is threatened and accounting for the puzzling ability of otherwise rational individuals to suddenly "flip" at matches.
Clinically, the pattern implies a state-dependent vulnerability whereby a brief cooling-off or removal from triggers might permit the dACC/salience control system to recover.
The same neural signature—reward up, control down under rivalry—likely generalizes beyond sport to political and sectarian conflicts, say the researchers.
The neural results identify mechanisms which may inform communication, crowd management, and prevention strategies around high-stakes events in the reward amplification and control down-regulation under rivalry, they conclude.

Brain Mechanisms across the Spectrum of Engagement in Football Fans: A Functional Neuroimaging Study, Radiology (2025).

Part 2

Pancreatic cancer forms 'synapses,' scientists discover

Pancreatic cancer cells form pseudosynapses that exploit the nervous system by taking up glutamate via NMDA receptors, triggering calcium influx and sustained signaling that promotes tumor growth and metastasis. Blocking these receptors in mice slowed tumor progression and reduced metastases, suggesting a potential therapeutic target. Similar mechanisms may exist in other tumor types.

Lei Ren et al, Sensory neurons drive pancreatic cancer progression through glutamatergic neuron-cancer pseudo-synapses, Cancer Cell (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.ccell.2025.09.003

The flexible brain: How circuit excitability and plasticity shift across the day

Our brains do not react in a fixed, mechanical way like electronic circuits. Even if we see the same scene every day on our commute to work, what we feel—and whether it leaves a lasting impression—depends on our internal state at that moment. For example, your commute may be a blur if you're too tired to pay attention to your surroundings.

The 24-hour cycle that humans naturally follow is one of the factors that shapes the brain's internal environment. These internal physiological cycles arise from the interplay between the body's intrinsic circadian clock and the external light-dark cycle that synchronizes it. Yet how such daily fluctuations influence brain chemistry and affect neuronal excitability and plasticity has remained largely unknown.

Now, researchers  have directly observed time-of-day-dependent changes in neural signal responses in the brains of nocturnal rats. Their findings are published in Neuroscience Research.

Using optogenetics, the team activated neurons in the visual cortexes of rats and recorded the resulting electrical activity. This approach allowed precise quantification of neural responsiveness. They found that identical neural stimuli evoked different responses depending on the time of day. Neural activity was reduced at sunrise and enhanced at sunset. Since rats are nocturnal, sunrise represents the period after a night of activity when they are preparing to sleep.

To explore the underlying mechanism explaining why this was occurring, the researchers looked at adenosine, a neuromodulator that accumulates during wakefulness and makes us feel sleepy.

When the researchers blocked the action of adenosine, neural activity at sunrise became disinhibited and enhanced, showing that adenosine helps regulate cortical excitability across the day.

So neural excitability is not constant; it depends on the brain's internal state. 

The results show that even identical neurons can respond differently depending on the time of day, governed by molecules like adenosine that link metabolism, sleep, and neuronal signaling.

Part 1

The team also examined whether the brain's capacity for long-term potentiation (LTP), a cellular basis of learning and memory, changes with time of day. This represents the brain's potential for metaplasticity (the brain's ability to adjust how easily its networks change). Remarkably, repetitive optical stimulation induced LTP-like enhancement at sunrise, but not at sunset.

This was unexpected, as it suggests that although sleep pressure and fatigue peak at sunrise, the brain's metaplastic potential is heightened at this time. These findings indicate that the brain's ability to reorganize itself follows a daily rhythm, with specific periods more favorable for learning and adaptation.

These results imply that our brains have temporal windows that favor adaptability.
Knowing when the brain is most receptive to changing could help optimize training, rehabilitation, and stimulation-based therapies.
In humans, who are mainly active during daylight hours, the capacity for learning and memory formation may peak during the twilight period approaching sunset. In other words, the best time to study or learn something new may be before bedtime.

The study reveals how daily rhythms fine-tune the balance between excitability and plasticity in the cortex. Because adenosine levels and sleep pressure follow circadian patterns, this mechanism may synchronize brain adaptability with behavioral cycles such as rest and activity. The research provides new insight into how the brain coordinates energy use, neural signaling, and learning capacity across the day.

Yuki Donen et al, Diurnal modulation of optogenetically evoked neural signals, Neuroscience Research (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.neures.2025.104981

Part 2

Age, not sex or location, determines venom yield of India's 'Big Four' snakes, shows study

A new study by researchers from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has shown that the amount of venom produced by the big four snakes is overwhelmingly determined by the snake's life stage (age) rather than its sex or geographic location. The finding could have immediate implications for improving antivenom production and clinical treatment across the subcontinent.

To understand how much venom each snake delivers per bite, the researchers collected and quantified venom from the big four snakes across India's major bioclimatic zones. They collected venom samples from 338 wild-caught snakes during rescue operations coordinated with State Forest Departments and local snake rescuers across 10 states in India between 2021 and 2024. The venom was collected by experienced herpetologists using safe handling methods, encouraging the snake to bite onto a sterile parafilm stretched over a beaker. After extraction, all snakes were safely returned to their natural habitats. The collected crude venom was then freeze-dried (lyophilised) and its dry weight measured using a high-precision microbalance. This systematic, pan-Indian approach to sampling wild populations yielded a vast, diverse dataset.

The findings reveal substantial variation in venom output among the species, a pattern that largely correlates with the snake's overall body size. The two larger species, the Spectacled Cobra and the Russell's Viper, were the high-yield producers, meaning they delivered large quantities of venom with every bite. They averaged 136.10 mg and 106.60 mg of dry venom, respectively. In stark contrast, the smaller Common Krait (Bungarus caeruleus) and the Saw-scaled Viper (Echis carinatus) produced significantly less, with average yields of only 8.95 mg and 2.76 mg.

The most significant factor influencing this yield, however, was the snake's developmental stage. The study found statistically significant differences in venom yield across life stages for the cobra, Russell's viper, and saw-scaled viper. For example, adult Spectacled Cobras had a median venom yield of 125.00 mg, which is nearly three times the 47.60 mg median yield of subadults and almost twenty times the 6.50 mg median yield of juveniles. Similar trends were observed in Russell's Viper, with adults producing the highest median yield (95.69 mg) compared to juveniles (3.00 mg). This pattern strongly suggests that as a snake grows and matures, its capacity to produce and deliver venom increases dramatically.

Interestingly, the researchers found that sex-based differences were statistically insignificant across all four species.

Hiss and tell: What influences venom yields of India’s big four snakes?

https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd....

Did You Know? The "Big Four" are not the only dangerous snakes of India: While the four species are responsible for the most bites, India is home to over 350 snake species, nearly 60 of which are considered clinically relevant to humans.

https://researchmatters.in/news/age-not-sex-or-location-determines-....

Being multilingual es bueno para el cerebro

Want a younger brain? Learn another language

The ability to speak more than one language might slow brain ageing and protect against cognitive decline. In a study of more than 80,000 people, researchers found that people who are multilingual are half as likely to show signs of accelerated biological ageing than are those who just speak one language. The effect was also larger in people that spoke more than one additional language. The researchers hope that their findings will influence policy makers to encourage language learning in education.

I learnt five languages. Can my brain stay forever young?

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-025-01000-2.epdf?sharing_tok...

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03677-2?utm_source=Live+...

Canada ( and entire Americas region) loses measles elimination status
Canada no longer holds measles elimination status after experiencing a cross-country outbreak that has persisted for more than 12 months. By default, this means that the entire Americas region has also lost its status. Infections took hold in undervaccinated Mennonite communities where the COVID-19 pandemic eroded already-shaky trust in the healthcare system — a shared source of recent measles outbreaks in the United States. The number of new cases is going down, but the loss is “a giant wake-up call that we have gaps in our public health infrastructure”, says physician-scientist Isaac Bogoch.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/livestory/canada-measles-elimination...

Computers that run on human brain cells
At a company on the shores of Lake Geneva, clumps of living brain cells are waiting for your call. These blobs, about the size of a grain of sand, are available to research teams studying how brains work or exploring the possibility of making computers with brain-cell processors. These neural cells can receive electrical signals and respond to them — much as computers do. For some scientists, the dream is to build supercomputers that share the astonishing power efficiency of the human brain. What they’re not working on, they emphasize, is ‘brains in jars’: the blobs are not sentient or conscious (yet).

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03633-0?utm_source=Live+...

Bees learn to read simple 'Morse code'

Researchers  have shown for the first time that an insect—the bumblebee Bombus terrestris—can decide where to forage for food based on different durations of visual cues. Their paper is published in the journal Biology Letters.

In Morse code, a short duration flash or "dot" denotes a letter "E" and a long duration flash, or "dash," means letter "T." Until now, the ability to discriminate between "dot" and "dash" has been seen only in humans and other vertebrates such as macaques or pigeons.

Now researchers  studied this ability in bees. They built a special maze to train individual bees to find a sugar reward at one of two flashing circles, shown with either a long or short flash duration. For instance, when the short flash, or "dot," was associated with sugar, then the long flash, or "dash," was instead associated with a bitter substance that bees dislike.

In each room in the maze, the position of the dot and dash stimulus was changed, so that bees could not rely on spatial cues to orient their choices. After bees learned to go straight to the flashing circle paired with the sugar, they were tested with flashing lights but no sugar present, to check whether bees' choices were driven by the flashing light, rather than by olfactory or visual cues present in the sugar.

It was clear the bees had learned to tell the light apart based on their duration, as most of them went straight to the 'correct' flashing light duration previously associated with sugar, irrespective of spatial location of the stimulus.

Since bees don't encounter flashing stimuli in their natural environment, it's remarkable that they could succeed at this task. The fact that they could track the duration of visual stimuli might suggest an extension of a time processing capacity that has evolved for different purposes, such as keeping track of movement in space or communication.

Alternatively, this surprising ability to encode and process time duration might be a fundamental component of the nervous system that is intrinsic in the properties of neurons. Only further research will be able to address this issue.

Many complex animal behaviors, such as navigation and communication, depend on time-processing abilities. It will be important to use a broad comparative approach across different species, including insects, to shed light on the evolution of those abilities. Processing durations in insects is evidence of a complex task solution using minimal neural substrate.

This has implications for complex cognitive-like traits in artificial neural networks, which should seek to be as efficient as possible to be scalable, taking inspiration from biological intelligence.

 Duration discrimination in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris, Biology Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2025.0440. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi … .1098/rsbl.2025.0440

Scientists discover caves carved by water on Mars that may have once harbored life

If there is, or ever has been, life on Mars, the chances are it would exist in caves protected from the severe dust storms, extreme temperatures, and high radiation present on its surface. One place to focus our attention could be eight possible cave sites (called skylights) recently discovered by researchers.

In a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the team presents the first evidence of a new type of cave on the red planet, formed by water dissolving rock. Most Martian caves discovered so far have been lava tubes, but the study authors argue that they have identified the first documented karstic caves on Mars.

"These skylights are interpreted as the first known potential karstic caves on Mars, representing collapse entrances formed through the dissolution of water-soluble lithologies—defining a new cave-forming class distinct from all previously reported volcanic and tectonic skylights," wrote the researchers in their paper.

On Earth, karstic caves are typically formed when water dissolves soluble rock such as limestone or gypsum, creating and enlarging underground cracks and fractures that grow large enough to become caves. The paper proposes a similar process on Mars, where ancient Martian water may have dissolved carbonate- and sulfate-rich rocks on the crust.

The caves are located in the Hebrus Valles, a northwestern region, and are eight pits that were mapped by previous Mars missions. They are deep and predominantly circular depressions, not impact craters, which typically have raised rims and ejected debris around them.

The search for life on Mars feels like looking for a needle in a haystack. But it could be narrowed down and made easier by having well-defined targets that, more than others, could be possible homes for life.

Therefore, the scientists behind this latest study think the eight possible karstic caves should be high-priority targets for future human or robotic missions to the planet. Even if no life is there, they could serve as landing sites and natural shelters for astronauts when they are not exploring the surface.

 Ravi Sharma et al, Water-driven Accessible Potential Karstic Caves in Hebrus Valles, Mars: Implications for Subsurface Habitability, The Astrophysical Journal Letters (2025). DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ae0f1c

Part 2

Gut microbes pass down behavioral traits in mice offspring independent of genes

Gut microbes are essential partners that help digest food, produce vitamins and train the immune system. They can also pass on behavioral traits to their host's offspring, at least in mice. Scientists have discovered that the mouse microbiome can alter the animal's behaviour in just four generations, independent of its genes. The study is published in the journal Nature Communications

Animals and their microbes have coevolved for millions of years. While it was already known that bacteria, viruses and fungi living in the gut can drive inherited changes in some simple creatures, like insects, scientists didn't know till now whether they could be the sole mechanism for passing down a specific trait (like a behavioral tendency) in more complex animals, such as mammals.

Selecting for low activity successfully caused slower movement across the four generations. The researchers analyzed the composition of the microbial community and found that this reduction in activity was linked to higher levels of the bacterium Lactobacillus, which produces the substance indolelactic acid (ILA). They also showed the link was causal. When they independently gave Lactobacillus or ILA to other mice, it was enough to suppress their locomotion.

This work highlights the role of microbiome-mediated trait inheritance in shaping host ecology and evolution," wrote the researchers in a paper.

The novelty in our study lies in experimentally demonstrating that selection on a host trait can lead to changes in that same trait over time purely through microbiome transmission, without any genetic evolution in the host.

 Taichi A. Suzuki et al, Selection and transmission of the gut microbiome alone can shift mammalian behavior, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-65368-w

Part 2

Scientists tie lupus to a virus nearly all of us carry

One of humanity's most ubiquitous infectious pathogens bears the blame for the chronic autoimmune condition called systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus), Stanford Medicine investigators and their colleagues have found.

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which usually resides silently inside the bodies of 19 out of 20 people, is directly responsible for commandeering what starts out as a minuscule number of immune cells to go rogue and persuade far more of their fellow immune cells to launch a widespread assault on the body's tissues, the scientists have shown.

The work is published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

About five million people worldwide have lupus, in which the immune system attacks the contents of cell nuclei. This results in damage to organs and tissues throughout the body—skin, joints, kidneys, heart, nerves and elsewhere—with symptoms varying widely among individuals. For unknown reasons, nine out of 10 lupus patients are women.

With appropriate diagnosis and medication, most lupus patients can live reasonably normal lives, but for about 5% of them the disorder can be life-threatening. 

Existing treatments slow down disease progression but don't 'cure' it.

By the time we've reached adulthood, the vast majority of us have been infected by EBV. Transmitted in saliva, EBV infection typically occurs in childhood, from sharing a spoon with or drinking from the same glass as a sibling or a friend, or maybe during our teen years, from exchanging a kiss. EBV can cause mononucleosis, "the kissing disease," which begins with a fever that subsides but lapses into a profound fatigue that can persist for months.

Practically the only way to not get EBV is to live in a bubble. If you've lived a normal life the odds are nearly 20 to 1 you've got it.

part 1

Once you've been infected by EBV, you can't get rid of it, even if you remain or become symptom-free. EBV belongs to a large family of viruses, including those responsible for chickenpox and herpes, that can deposit their genetic material into the nuclei of infected cells. There the virus slumbers in a latent form, hiding from the immune system's surveillance agents. This may last as long as the cell it's hiding in stays alive; or under certain conditions, the virus may reactivate and force the infected cell's replicative machinery to produce myriad copies of themselves that break out to infect other cells and other people.
Among the cell types in which EBV takes up permanent residence are B cells, immune cells that do a couple of important things after they ingest bits of microbial pathogens. For one, they can produce antibodies: customized proteins that find and bind immune-system-arousing proteins or other molecules (immunologists call them "antigens") on microbial pathogens that have infected an individual, or are trying to.

In addition, B cells are what immunologists call "professional antigen-presenting cells": They can process antigens and display them on their surfaces in a way that encourages other immune cells to raise the intensity of their hunt for the pathogen in question. That's a substantial force multiplier for kick-starting an immune response.

Our bodies harbor hundreds of billions of B cells, which over the course of numerous rounds of cell division develop an enormous diversity of antibodies. In the aggregate, these antibodies can bind an estimated 10 billion to 100 billion different antigenic shapes. This is why we're able to mount a successful immune response to so many different pathogens.

Oddly, about 20% of the B cells in our bodies are autoreactive. They target antigens belonging to our own tissues—not by design, but due to the random way B-cell diversity comes about: through sloppy replication, apparently engineered by evolution to ensure diversification. Fortunately, these B cells are typically in a dopey state of inertia, and they pretty much leave our tissues alone.
Part 2

But at times, somnolent autoreactive B cells become activated, take aim at our own tissues and instigate one of the disorders collectively called autoimmunity. Some awakened autoreactive B cells crank out antibodies that bind to proteins and DNA inside the nuclei of our cells. Such activated "antinuclear antibodies"—the hallmark of lupus—trigger damage to tissues randomly distributed throughout the body, because virtually all our body's cells have nuclei.

The vast majority of EBV-infected people (most of us, that is) have no idea they're still sheltering a virus and never get lupus. But essentially everyone with lupus is EBV-infected, studies have shown. An EBV-lupus connection has long been suspected but never nailed down until now.
Although latent EBV is ubiquitous in the sense that almost everybody carries it, it resides in only a tiny fraction of any given person's B cells. As a result, until the new study, it was virtually impossible for existing methods to identify infected B cells and distinguish them from uninfected ones.
But researchers now developed an extremely high-precision sequencing system that enabled them to do this. They found that fewer than 1 in 10,000 of a typical EBV-infected but otherwise healthy individual's B cells are hosting a dormant EBV viral genome.

Employing their new EBV-infected-B-cell-identifying technology along with bioinformatics and cell-culture experimentation, the researchers found out how such small numbers of infected cells can cause a powerful immune attack on one's own tissues. In lupus patients, the fraction of EBV-infected B cells rises to about 1 in 400—a 25-fold difference.
It's known that the latent EBV, despite its near-total inactivity, nonetheless occasionally nudges the B cell in which it's been snoozing to produce a single viral protein, EBNA2. The researchers showed that this protein acts as a molecular switch—in geneticists' language, a transcription factor—activating a battery of genes in the B cell's genome that had previously been at rest. At least two of the human genes switched on by EBNA2 are recipes for proteins that are, themselves, transcription factors that turn on a variety of other pro-inflammatory human genes.

The net effect of all these genetic fireworks is that the B cell becomes highly inflammatory: It dons its "professional antigen-presenting cell" uniform and starts stimulating other immune cells (called helper T cells) that happen to share a predilection for targeting cell-nuclear components. These helper T cells enlist multitudes of other antinuclear B cells as well as antinuclear killer T cells, vicious attack dogs of the immune system.

When that militia bulks up, it doesn't matter whether any of the newly recruited antinuclear B cells are EBV-infected or not. (The vast majority of them aren't.) If there are enough of them, the result is a bout of lupus.
Part 3

Scientists suspect that this cascade of EBV-generated self-targeting B-cell activation might extend beyond lupus to other autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease, where hints of EBV-initiated EBNA2 activity have been observed.
The million-dollar question: If about 95% of us are walking around with latent EBV in our B cells, why do some of us—but not all of us—get autoimmunity? The researchers speculate that perhaps only certain EBV strains spur the transformation of infected B cells into antigen-presenting "driver" cells that broadly activate huge numbers of antinuclear B cells.
Many companies are working on an EBV vaccine, and clinical trials of such a vaccine are underway. But that vaccine would have to be given soon after birth, they noted, as such vaccines are unable to rid an already-infected person of the virus.

Shady Younis et al, Epstein-Barr virus reprograms autoreactive B cells as antigen presenting cells in systemic lupus erythematosus, Science Translational Medicine (2025). DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.ady0210

Part 4

Bacteria spin rainbow-colored, sustainable textiles

In the future, clothes might come from vats of living microbes. Reporting in the journal Trends in Biotechnology, researchers demonstrate that bacteria can both create fabric and dye it in every color of the rainbow—all in one pot. The approach offers a sustainable alternative to the chemical-heavy practices used in today's textile industry.

The industry relies on petroleum-based synthetic fibers and chemicals for dyeing, which include carcinogens, heavy metals, and endocrine disruptors.

These processes generate lots of greenhouse gases, degrade water quality, and contaminate the soil, so researchers wanted to find a better solution.

Known as bacterial cellulose, fibrous networks produced by microbes during fermentation have emerged as a potential alternative to petroleum-based fibers such as polyester and nylon.

Researchers set out to create fibers with vivid natural pigment by growing cellulose-spinning bacteria alongside color-producing microbes. The microbial colors stemmed from two molecular families: violaceins—which range from green to purple—and carotenoids, which span from red to yellow.

But the first experiments failed. The team learned that the cellulose-spinning bacteria Komagataeibacter xylinus and the color-producing bacteria Escherichia coli interfered with each other's growth.

Tweaking their recipe, the researchers found a way to make peace between the microbes. For the cool-toned violaceins, they developed a delayed co-culture approach by adding in the color-producing bacteria after the cellulose bacteria had already begun growing, allowing each to do its job without thwarting the other.

For the warm-toned carotenoids, the team devised a sequential culture method, where the cellulose is first harvested and purified, then soaked in the pigment-producing cultures. Together, the two strategies yielded a vibrant palette of bacterial cellulose sheets in purple, navy, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red.

To see if the colors could survive the rigors of daily life, the team tested the materials by washing, bleaching, and heating them, as well as soaking them in acid and alkali. Most held their hues, and the violacein-based textile even outperformed synthetic dye in washing tests.

Researchers are  proposing an environmentally friendly direction toward sustainable textile dyeing while producing cellulose at the same time.

Accepting it is in your hands!

Scaling up production and competing with low-cost petroleum products are among the remaining hurdles. Real progress will also require a shift in the consumer mindset toward prioritizing sustainability over price.

But the bacteria-based fabrics are at least five years from store shelves.  

One-pot production of colored bacterial cellulose, Trends in Biotechnology (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2025.09.019

Could altering mosquitoes' internal clocks stop them from biting?

People who live in the tropical areas where Aedes aegypti mosquitoes reside have probably known for centuries, or even millennia—thanks to their itchy bites—that the mosquitoes hunt most often at dawn and dusk.

A new study offers scientific proof of that hunting behavior, and new insight into the biological mechanism behind it. It also offers a potential path to reducing bites and helping stop the spread of deadly, mosquito-borne disease.

The research focuses on Aedes aegypti, a type of mosquito that lives primarily in tropical areas, and that can carry diseases like dengue, chikungunya, and Zika. Although this mosquito species cannot survive harsh winters, in recent years they have made their habitats in new areas as climate change enables them to thrive in more temperate climates.

There are many reasons people could, in theory, get more bites from these mosquitoes at dawn and dusk. It could be that they're just outside more, or that humans are more attractive to them at these times. This study focused on understanding if this biting pattern is also influenced by mosquitoes' own daily rhythm.

Suspecting that what was changing was not the mosquitoes' ability to sense us at these times of day, but the persistence, or aggressiveness, of their response, the research team used CRISPR-Cas9, a gene editing tool, to mutate a gene that controls mosquitoes' internal clocks..
They found that mutating the gene changed their behavioral timing, making the mosquitoes less persistently responsive to carbon dioxide in the morning. Normally, biting rates are high in the mornings, but when they disrupted the clock gene, the mutant mosquitoes were less successful at feeding during that time.
This is the first time we've found that there's an internal rhythm in the mosquito's behavior that could be driving these bites at dawn and dusk. Their internal clocks make them more persistent and predatory in their response to humans at these times of day.
Scientists could, in theory, find ways to lock mosquitoes in a state that prevents them from effectively seeking out humans. This could mean fewer uncomfortable bites and less disease.
But the mosquitoes in our place bite us all the time, not only during dawn and dusk.
When we try to protect ourselves at dawn and dusk, they evolve to bite us all through the day!
Hmmm! Researchers are you listening?

Linhan Dong et al, Time-of-day modulation in mosquito response persistence to carbon dioxide is controlled by Pigment-Dispersing Factor, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2520826122

Part 2

Can't sleep? Your microbiome may play a role

Sleep is an absolute necessity but most of us aren't getting enough of it.

Sleep is required to consolidate memories, regenerate tissue and build up energy for emotional regulation and alertness during the day. Sleep deprivation disrupts these processes, increases stress and predisposes people to heart, psychiatric and neurological problems.

Factors like stress, jet lag, work, diet and screen time all interfere with our ability to get the 7–9 hours of solid slumber needed to recover from the physiological pummels of the day.

But there's more to this story than travel and cellphones. How much sleep we get, and its quality, may have ties to the microbial variety your body harbours!

Indeed, a more diverse microbiome is generally correlated with increased sleep efficiency and total sleep time. Better sleep is also associated with a higher abundance of bacteria with health-promoting metabolic functions, like production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), whereas conditions like insomnia are linked with lower abundances of these microbes. Whether insomnia causes these alterations, or vice versa, is still unclear—likely, they feed into one another.

Like many of the chemicals and processes powering our bodies, the composition of the microbiome naturally fluctuates throughout the day. These changes are linked to host circadian processes, and alterations in sleep (e.g., jet lag) can disrupt microbiota rhythms, resulting in important health implications.

"[What] we find in stress-related disorders, [and] in many mental health disorders in general, is that they're often associated with disordered sleep and dysregulation of sleep and circadian rhythms.
Researchers recently showed in animal models that daily fluctuations in stress pathways closely linked to sleep (e.g., cortisol levels) are modulated by the microbiome. 

They found  that there are circuits in the brain that are sensitive to microbial signals. Now, they  are seeking to identify the mechanisms that underlie those sensitivities.

https://asm.org/articles/2025/november/cant-sleep-your-microbiome-m...

Part 2