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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 39 minutes ago

The global water cycle and how is it amplifying climate disasters

The global water cycle, involving evaporation, precipitation, and runoff, is intensifying due to rising temperatures. This leads to faster evaporation, increased atmospheric moisture, and more frequent extreme events such as floods, droughts, and heatwaves. These amplified fluctuations, sometimes termed "climate whiplash," are destabilizing ecosystems and societies worldwide.

 original article.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 41 minutes ago

Tibetan Plateau-Himalayan uplift shaped Asian summer monsoons

The uplift of the Tibetan Plateau, particularly when it exceeded 3.5 km elevation around 27–38 million years ago, was crucial in intensifying and expanding the Asian summer monsoon. This topographic change shifted rainbelts northward and increased rainfall over South and Southeast Asia, with tectonic uplift playing a more dominant role than atmospheric CO2 in shaping monsoon evolution.

S. Abhik et al, A brief history of Asian summer monsoon evolution in the Cenozoic era, npj Climate and Atmospheric Science (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41612-025-01259-7

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 45 minutes ago

Spaceflight causes astronauts' brains to shift, stretch and compress in microgravity

Spaceflight takes a physical toll on astronauts, causing muscles to atrophy, bones to thin and bodily fluids to shift. According to a new study published in the journal PNAS, we can now add another major change to that list. Being in microgravity causes the brain to change shape.

Here on Earth, gravity helps to keep the brain anchored in place while the cerebrospinal fluid that surrounds it acts as a cushion. Scientists already knew that, without gravity's steady pull, the brain moves upward, but this new research showed that it is also stretched and compressed in several areas.

The study authors found significant differences between the brains of astronauts and those of the volunteers. While both groups experienced a shift, the astronauts' brains moved further upward. And the longer they stayed in space, the more pronounced these changes became. The supplementary motor cortex (which helps to control movement) moved upward by about 2.5 millimeters in astronauts on one-year missions.
The brain movement isn't uniform. The team discovered that as the brain moves, it becomes compressed at the top and the back while other areas stretch. This has a noticeable effect on balance and coordination. In tests, astronauts who experienced the largest brain shifts struggled the most to stay steady on their feet after returning to Earth.

While the brain mostly returns to its normal position after several months back on Earth, scientists still need to know more to ensure safer conditions for longer missions, such as those to Mars.

Tianyi Wang et al, Brain displacement and nonlinear deformation following human spaceflight, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2026). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2505682122

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa 48 minutes ago

Immune stress during pregnancy changes how fetal brain cells communicate

Research has found that immune-related genes vary by location and cell type across the developing mouse brain before birth. Maternal immune activation and maternal microbiome depletion shifted parts of that immune signaling pattern, with differences observed between male and female embryos.

Immune molecules, including cytokines, chemokines, and cognate receptors, are critical regulators of synapse development, cellular communication, and neural precursor cell migration in the developing brain. During development, nerve cells are born in one area, move to their destinations, and settle into stacked layers, especially in the cortex. Those layers line up in an ordered way, with different types of neurons ending up in different layers.

Changes to the maternal immune system and microbiome have been linked to abnormal fetal neurodevelopment, influencing neurogenesis, cell fate, and precursor cell migration. Knowledge of immune signaling networks within the developing brain is needed to understand the mechanisms of how the mother's stressors impart influence.

In the study, "Spatial transcriptomics of the developing mouse brain immune landscape reveals effects of maternal immune activation and microbiome depletion," published in Nature Neuroscience, researchers used multiplexed error-robust fluorescence in situ hybridization (MERFISH) to measure immune activity in embryonic mouse brains during mid and late gestation to see how maternal immune activation and maternal microbiome depletion altered those patterns.

Embryonic mouse brain single-cell RNA sequencing data supported identification of spatially restricted cell populations, followed by cell clustering, differential gene expression analyses, and ligand–receptor analyses.

The research connects maternal immune activation and maternal microbiome depletion with sex-specific shifts in immune gene expression, ligand–receptor signaling, and cell spacing within the embryonic brain. Specifically, CXCL12 and CXCR7 signaling stood out as an important mediator of abnormal neural differentiation and migration after maternal immune activation and maternal microbiome depletion.

Bharti Kukreja et al, Spatial transcriptomics of the developing mouse brain immune landscape reveals effects of maternal immune activation and microbiome depletion, Nature Neuroscience (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41593-025-02162-3

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

AI shows bias against some Indian castes

Popular large language models (LLMs) often reproduce harmful stereotypes about Indian castes — hereditary groups traditionally associated with specific occupations and social status. Researchers used a custom-designed tool to detect ‘caste bias’ in LLMs and found that every model they tested exhibited some bias. GPT-4o and GPT-3.5, created by OpenAI, had some of the highest bias scores. Information on minority groups might be less likely to appear in prestigious journals or other outlets, and might be written in local languages, which could result in it being filtered out of AI training data who studies cultural biases in LLMs.

[2508.03712] How Deep Is Representational Bias in LLMs? The Cases o...

[2510.02742] IndiCASA: A Dataset and Bias Evaluation Framework in L...

[2505.14971] DECASTE: Unveiling Caste Stereotypes in Large Language...

AIs are biased toward some Indian castes — how can researchers fix ...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa yesterday

Tire rubber decays into a potentially dangerous chemical cocktail, research shows

Crumb rubber from recycled tires, commonly used in artificial turf, generates hundreds of transformation chemicals as it decays under sunlight and environmental conditions. Some of these chemicals, such as 6PPD-quinone, are highly toxic to aquatic life, while others are known human health hazards. The long-term effects of most transformation products remain unknown.

The small, spongy black beads used as fill material in most artificial turf fields are called crumb rubber, which has long been touted as a major win for recycling. However, conflicting studies have alternately identified crumb rubber as either safe for people to play atop or dangerous to human health.

New research out of Northeastern University investigated the decay cycle of crumb rubber, which is fashioned out of old tires. By simulating the conditions in which the rubber decays, like strong sunlight, they discovered that crumb rubber is highly reactive, generating hundreds of previously untracked chemicals as it decays, some of which are hazardous to humans.

The work is published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Madison H. McMinn et al, From the Road to the Field: Decoding Chemical Transformation in Aging Tire and Artificial Turf Crumb Rubber, Environmental Science & Technology (2025). DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5c08260

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Sunday

Why some people are more resistant to developing blood cancer even when they carry cancer-risk mutations

Blood cancer is an umbrella term for a variety of diseases that affect the blood, bone marrow and lymphatic system. Like most cancers, the cause is usually mutations in the DNA, which are genetic errors that accumulate as we age. However, some people are more resistant to developing blood cancer even when they carry cancer-risk mutations.

In a new study published in the journal Science, researchers discovered why. They identified a rare genetic variant that reduces the risk of several blood cancers, including leukemia, by slowing down a process called clonal hematopoiesis (CH).

CH occurs when a hematopoietic stem cell, which can develop into any type of blood cell, mutates and grows into a large population of identical mutated cells.

In their study, the team performed a large-scale analysis (known as a GWAS meta-analysis) of more than 640,000 individuals. By comparing 43,000 people with CH mutations to 600,000 without them, they pinpointed the genetic variant that protects against CH.

The researchers identified a noncoding regulatory variant, rs17834140-T, on chromosome 17q22.

The experiments revealed that rs17834140-T reduces the amount of a protein called MSI2, which acts as a growth booster in stem cells. In cancer, MSI2 causes mutated cells to multiply rapidly and take over the bone marrow. However, the protective variant results in lower levels of the protein, forcing these mutated cells to grow much more slowly and reducing their chances of progressing to leukemia. According to the study authors, people with the variant have up to a 30% lower risk of developing CH.

The research could lead to new ways to prevent cancer even before it starts. Now that we know that lowering MSI2 is protective, scientists may be able to develop drugs or other therapeutic approaches that mimic or enhance this natural protection.

Gaurav Agarwal et al, Inherited resilience to clonal hematopoiesis by modifying stem cell RNA regulation, Science (2026). DOI: 10.1126/science.adx4174

Francisco Caiado et al, Genetic resistance to leukemia, Science (2026). DOI: 10.1126/science.aed5244

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Sunday

Patient-reported fatigue before cancer treatment was associated with increased risk of severe, life-threatening, and fatal adverse events during treatment.
Pre-treatment fatigue assessments could be seen as an early marker of vulnerability that could inform treatment strategies and symptom monitoring.

Joseph M. Unger et al, Baseline Fatigue and Severe Toxic Effects in Patients With Cancer Receiving Systemic Therapy, JAMA Oncology (2025). DOI: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2025.5549

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Sunday

Fatigue before cancer treatment linked to adverse events

Investigators found that higher patient-reported fatigue before cancer treatment aligned with higher odds of severe, life-threatening, and fatal treatment-related toxic effects.

Cancer-related fatigue harms quality of life and is a persistent tiredness or exhaustion tied to cancer or cancer treatment. It interferes with usual physical and mental functioning and does not match the patient's normal recent activity. Patients report that fatigue is among the most distressing symptoms of cancer and its treatment, yet physicians routinely underreport fatigue.

Some studies have suggested prevalence ranging from 25% to 50%. Separate estimates place moderate fatigue at 25% and severe fatigue at 15% to 20%, levels often associated with poor performance status.

In the study, "Baseline Fatigue and Severe Toxic Effects in Patients With Cancer Receiving Systemic Therapy," published in JAMA Oncology, researchers pooled baseline fatigue data to evaluate associations between pretreatment fatigue and subsequent adverse events in cancer treatment trials.

Across 17 trials, 103,738 adverse events were recorded. Higher baseline fatigue aligned with higher odds of severe toxic effects. Some or greater baseline fatigue, compared with less than some fatigue, yielded an odds ratio of 2.11 for grade 3 or higher toxic effects and 1.98 for life-threatening toxic effects.
Comparison between quite a lot or very much fatigue and no baseline fatigue produced an odds ratio of 4.99 for grade 5 toxic effects.
Fatal toxic effects were uncommon, though risk rose with higher fatigue to an odds ratio of 2.35.
Severe or worse toxic effects occurred in 34.2% of patients reporting no fatigue, 39.4% reporting a little fatigue, 52.8% reporting some fatigue, and 58.3% reporting quite a lot or very much fatigue.
Subset analyses did not show statistically significant differences in the fatigue to adverse event association by age, sex, race, ethnicity, or obesity status.
Cancer stage mattered in subgroup patterns. Advanced-disease trials showed clearer monotonic relationships between baseline fatigue and adverse events, while adjuvant or early-stage trials did not show statistically significant associations for grade 3 or higher or grade 4 or higher adverse events.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on Sunday

Researchers modeled four mitigation approaches that included plastic substitution or recycling, critical-metal substitution, modular designs for reuse and replacement, and a transition to green energy.

Chuanwang Yang et al, Quantifying the global eco-footprint of wearable healthcare electronics, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09819-w

Part3

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