Comment

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

AI linked to boom in suspect health papers
Analysis flags hundreds of studies that seem to follow a template, reporting correlations between complex health conditions and single variables based on publicly available data sets.
A flood of papers making misleading health claims is probably the product of artificial intelligence tools scraping openly available data. In an analysis of papers that used data from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, researchers spotted over 300 papers that linked one variable, such as vitamin D levels or sleep quality, with a complex disorder, such as depression or heart disease, ignoring the fact that these conditions have many contributing factors. The papers were “extremely formulaic”, says biomedical scientist and study co-author Matt Spick, and “could easily have been generated by large language models”.

The scientific literature is at risk of becoming flooded with papers that make misleading health claims based on openly available data that are easy to process using artificial intelligence (AI) tools, researchers have warned.

In a study published in PLoS Biology recently, scientists analysed more than 300 papers that used data from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), an open data set of health records. The papers all seemed to follow a similar template, associating one variable — for example, vitamin D levels or sleep quality — with a complex disorder such as depression or heart disease, ignoring the fact that these conditions have many contributing factors.

They  found that the associations in many of the papers did not hold up to statistical scrutiny, and that some studies seemed to have cherry-picked data.

And Youtubers and Tic-Tokers are using this data to make silly claims!

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pb...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Skin fungus keeps bacteria at bay with acid

Malassezia sympodialis — a fungus found in our skin microbiome — produces a type of fatty acid that keeps Staphylococcus aureus bacteria at bay. S. aureus is a normal resident of our skin microbiome, but it can cause dangerous infections if it isn’t kept in check. Researchers found that the fungus-produced molecule, called 10-HP, isn’t toxic to bacteria under normal lab conditions, but has antibacterial properties in a more acidic environment such as the surface of healthy skin.

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(25)00371-9?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982225003719%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

Science Alert 

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Skin bacteria protect us from sun damage

Some People think that the bacteria on our skin is bad. Body odor is largely caused by bacteria on your skin interacting with sweat. While sweat itself is odorless, the bacteria that live on your skin metabolize the sweat and produce the smells we perceive as body odor.

While most bacteria are harmless, some can be pathogenic and cause infections when they enter the body.

A balanced skin microbiome is important for healthy skin, and it can be disrupted by factors like harsh skincare products or environmental pollution, leading to issues like dryness, redness, or breakouts.

Bacteria on our skin could have a protective effect against a type of ultraviolet (UV) radiation in sunlight. When UV-B radiation hits our skin, it converts a molecule called trans-urocanic acid into another form: cis-urocanic acid. This form dampens the activity of immune cells in our skin’s outer layer, which can leave it more vulnerable to infections or cancer-causing mutations. Researchers found that bacteria such as Staphylococcus epidermidis in the human skin microbiome can break down cis-urocanic acid, which curbs the molecule’s immunosuppressive effects.

https://www.jidonline.org/article/S0022-202X(25)00405-1/fulltext

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

A soil predator’s death is boosting drug resistance, without antibiotics

Research reveals how the natural demise of Myxococcus xanthus helps antibiotic-resistant bacteria thrive

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science studying microbial interactions in soil have stumbled on an ecological twist: the death of a bacteria hunter was helping drug-resistant bacteria flourish.

At the centre of it was Myxococcus xanthus, a predatory slime bacterium known for its pack-hunting prowess. In soil across the world, M. xanthus swarms its microbial prey and kills en masse. But when researchers introduced it into soil samples and let it die off, they found that in the absence of antibiotics, bacteria resistant to drugs like tetracycline and rifampicin multiplied rapidly.

The researchers  kept seeing the same result over and over again. 

Repeated experiments confirmed it: the breakdown of M. xanthus cells — a process called lysis — during fruiting body formation, released a cocktail of biomolecules, including proteins and phosphodiester compounds.

The findings challenge the dominant narrative that antimicrobial resistance in the environment is mainly driven by pollution from sewage, pharmaceutical waste, or agriculture. Instead, the team shows that natural ecological dynamics, like bacterial predation and death, can promote resistance without human interference.

Chemical analysis confirmed the presence of growth-inhibiting substances in the lysed bacterial mix — the same substances that M. xanthus once used to kill its prey. The phenomenon seems to offer resistant strains a survival edge. “It’s almost like the predator clears the competition before dying, so its spores, — and other resistant organisms, — face less of a fight.

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(25)00131-9?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982225001319%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Microplastics are 'silently spreading from soil to salad to humans'

According to a new  review work agricultural soils now hold around 23 times more microplastics than oceans. Among the revelations in the comprehensive evaluation is that plastics in soil may be exposed to up to 10,000 chemical additives, most of which are unregulated in agriculture.

These microplastics are turning food-producing land into a plastic sink.

Both microplastics and nanoplastics have now been found in lettuce, wheat and carrot crops. This happens through various means, from plastic mulching, fertilizers and even through being dropped by clouds.

This is particularly concerning when combined with findings of these plastics in the human lungs, brain, heart, blood, and even placenta.

And BPA-free does not equal risk-free. Replacement chemicals like BPF and BPS show comparable or greater endocrine-disrupting activity. 

The challenge is that regulations are slower than science, and industry is faster than both.

In addition to this, assessing additive toxicity is often overlooked  due to the lack of transparency in the plastic industry and the large number of additives produced.

 This makes the plastic crisis unchecked, and human health exposed.

Alongside endocrine disruptors, the review pinpointed other additives in soil such as phthalates (linked to reproductive issues), and PBDEs (neurotoxic flame retardants).

These additives have been linked with neurodegenerative disease, increased risks of stroke and heart attack and early death.

These are not distant possibilities—they are unfolding within biological systems—silently and systematically, say the reviewers. 

This review highlights the urgent need for coordinated scientific and regulatory efforts.

 Joseph Boctor et al, Microplastics and nanoplastics: fate, transport, and governance from agricultural soil to food webs and humans, Environmental Sciences Europe (2025). DOI: 10.1186/s12302-025-01104-x

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Ammonia made from air, water and sunlight: Catalysts mimic photosynthesis for cleaner production

Ammonia is a chemical essential to many agricultural and industrial processes, but its mode of production comes with an incredibly high energy cost. Various attempts have, and are, being made to produce ammonia more efficiently.

For the first time, a group including researchers from the University of Tokyo combined atmospheric nitrogen, water and sunlight, and, using two catalysts, produced sizable quantities of ammonia without a high energy cost. Their processes mirror natural processes found in plants utilizing symbiotic bacteria.

The work has been published in Nature Communications

They succeeded in developing a novel catalytic system for producing ammonia from abundant molecules found on Earth, including atmospheric nitrogen and water. The key lies in a combination of two kinds of catalysts, intermediate compounds which enable or speed up reactions without contributing to the final mixture, made especially for ammonia production, and which are driven by sunlight.

Yasuomi Yamazaki et al, Catalytic ammonia formation from dinitrogen, water, and visible light energy, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-59727-w

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Hawaiian volcanic rocks reveal Earth's core contains vast hidden gold reserves

Earth's largest gold reserves are not kept inside Fort Knox, the United States Bullion Depository. In fact, they are hidden much deeper in the ground than one would expect. More than 99.999% of Earth's stores of gold and other precious metals lie buried under 3,000 km of solid rock, locked away within Earth's metallic core and far beyond the reaches of humankind.

Now, researchers  have found traces of the precious metal ruthenium (Ru) in volcanic rocks on the islands of Hawaii that must ultimately have come from Earth's core. The findings were published in Nature.

Compared to Earth's rocky mantle, the metallic core contains a slightly higher abundance of a particular Ru isotope: 100Ru. This is because part of the Ru, which was locked in Earth's core together with gold and other precious metals when it formed 4.5 billion years ago, came from a different source than the scarce amount of Ru that is contained in the mantle today. These differences in 100Ru are so tiny that it was impossible to detect them in the past.

Now, new procedures developed by researchers  make it possible to resolve them. The unusually high 100Ru signal they found in lavas on Earth's surface can only mean that these rocks ultimately originated from the core-mantle boundary.

New  data confirmed that material from the core, including gold and other precious metals, is leaking into Earth's mantle above. 

This means that at least some of the precarious supplies of gold and other precious metals that we rely on for their value and importance in so many sectors such as renewable energy, may have come from Earth's core.

Nils Messling et al, Ru and W isotope systematics in ocean island basalts reveals core leakage, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09003-0

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Climate change may make it harder to reduce smog in some regions

Global warming will likely hinder our future ability to control ground-level ozone, a harmful air pollutant that is a primary component of smog, according to a new  study.

The results could help scientists and policymakers develop more effective strategies for improving both air quality and human health. Ground-level ozone causes a host of detrimental health impacts, from asthma to heart disease, and contributes to thousands of premature deaths each year.

The researchers' modeling approach reveals that, as the Earth warms due to climate change, ground-level ozone will become less sensitive to reductions in nitrogen oxide emissions in eastern North America and Western Europe. In other words, it will take greater nitrogen oxide emission reductions to get the same air quality benefits.

The researchers found that eastern North America and Western Europe are especially sensitive to increases in nitrogen oxide emissions from the soil, which are natural emissions driven by increases in temperature.

Due to that sensitivity, as the Earth warms and more nitrogen oxide from soil enters the atmosphere, reducing nitrogen oxide emissions from human activities will have less of an impact on ground-level ozone.

However, the study also shows that the opposite would be true in northeast Asia, where cutting emissions would have a greater impact on reducing ground-level ozone in the future.

The researchers combined a climate model that simulates meteorological factors, such as temperature and wind speeds, with a chemical transport model that estimates the movement and composition of chemicals in the atmosphere.

By generating a range of possible future outcomes, the researchers' ensemble approach better captures inherent climate variability, allowing them to paint a fuller picture than many previous studies.

Future air quality planning should consider how climate change affects the chemistry of air pollution. We may need steeper cuts in nitrogen oxide emissions to achieve the same air quality goals, say the researchers.

Emmie J. Le Roy et al, Impact of Climate Variability and Change on the Surface Ozone Response to NO_x Emissions Reductions, Environmental Science & Technology (2025). DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5c01347

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Based on these ancient and modern genomes, the divergence from the bacteria's tick-borne ancestor happened during the transition from the Neolithic period to the Early Bronze Age. This was a time of change in human lifestyles, as people began to domesticate animals and live in more dense settlements. This may have helped B. recurrentis spread from person to person more easily.
The researchers also raise the possibility that the development of sheep farming for wool at this time may have given an advantage to louse-borne pathogens, as wool has better conditions for lice to lay eggs.
They conclude that the evolution of B. recurrentis highlights that a combination of genetic and environmental changes can help pathogens spread and infect populations more easily.

Ancient Borrelia genomes document the evolutionary history of louse-borne relapsing fever., Science (2025). DOI: 10.1126/science.adr2147

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Ancient DNA used to map evolution of fever-causing bacteria

Researchers  have analyzed ancient DNA from Borrelia recurrentis, a type of bacteria that causes relapsing fever, pinpointing when it evolved to spread through lice rather than ticks, and how it gained and lost genes in the process.

This transition may have coincided with changes in human lifestyles, like living closer together and the beginning of the wool trade.

B. recurrentis bacteria cause relapsing fever, an illness with many recurring episodes of fever, which is typically found today in areas with poor sanitation or overcrowding, such as refugee camps. It is a distant cousin of the bacteria that today cause Lyme disease.

Only three known species of bacteria, including B. recurrentis, have transitioned from being carried primarily by ticks to lice, changing the potential severity of the disease. Until now, it was unknown when B. recurrentis made the jump from ticks to lice and what impact this had on disease transmission and severity in humans.

In research published in Science, the scientists sequenced the whole genome from four samples of B. recurrentis. Ranging from 2,300 to 600 years ago, their samples include the oldest B. recurrentis genome to date. These ancient samples were obtained from the skeletons of people who were infected hundreds of years ago. The DNA is a shadow of the bacteria that once circulated in their blood and has been captured in bones and teeth.

The individuals' teeth contained traces of B. recurrentis DNA. Two samples had relatively high amounts of the pathogen, suggesting these individuals may have died from a severe, acute infection, or that the DNA was particularly well preserved.

The researchers looked at differences in the ancient genomes and modern-day B. recurrentis to map how the bacteria have changed over time, finding that the species likely diverged from its nearest tick-borne cousin, B. duttonii, about 6,000 to 4,000 years ago.

They compared the B. recurrentis genomes with B. duttonii, finding that much of the genome was lost during the tick-to-louse transition but that new genes were also gained over time. These genetic changes affected the bacteria's ability to hide from the immune system and also share DNA with neighboring bacteria, suggesting B. recurrentis had specialized to survive within the human louse.
Part 1

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