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We believe that science is more than just a subject to study; it is a way of thinking, exploring, and understanding our world. We are passionate about bringing you the latest breakthroughs, innovations, and discoveries in medical science, astronomy, and technology. From mind-bending physics to cutting-edge biotech, we strive to make science accessible, engaging, and exciting for everyone. So whether you're a scientist, student, or simply curious about the world around you, join us on this journey of discovery, and let's explore the wonders of science together!

🧬 Chronic fatigue syndrome may be written far more deeply into our genes than ever suspected.A new analysis of genomic d...
27/12/2025

🧬 Chronic fatigue syndrome may be written far more deeply into our genes than ever suspected.

A new analysis of genomic data from over 10,500 people with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), drawn from the DecodeME project, has uncovered 22,411 high‑risk combinations of genetic variants, built from 7555 single nucleotide polymorphisms out of more than 300,000 examined. The more of these variant clusters an individual carried, the higher their odds of developing ME/CFS, underscoring the condition’s complex, multi‑gene architecture.

By mapping these variants onto 2311 genes, researchers pinpointed 259 “core” genes most strongly linked to ME/CFS risk, a sixfold jump from the 43 genes reported just four months earlier. Many of these genes appear promising for future therapies, including drug repurposing, in a field where no specific pharmacological treatments currently exist and care largely relies on symptom management and energy pacing.
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The team also compared ME/CFS genetics with those of long covid and found that about 42 per cent of the genes implicated in long covid also recur across multiple ME/CFS cohorts, suggesting the two infection‑triggered conditions are partially overlapping but distinct. Ongoing projects funded at over £1.1 million will now probe how immune dysregulation, latent viruses and the gut microbiome interact with this genetic landscape to drive long‑term, post‑exertional exhaustion.
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📄 RESEARCH PAPER

📌 Steve Gardner et al, “Multi‑locus genetic architecture and shared aetiology of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Long COVID,” medRxiv (2025)

IVF success may depend on how long men abstain from ej*******on.A randomised clinical trial followed more than 450 coupl...
27/12/2025

IVF success may depend on how long men abstain from ej*******on.

A randomised clinical trial followed more than 450 couples undergoing conventional IVF to test how male ej*******on timing affects pregnancy outcomes. Men in one group were asked to ej*****te about 36 hours before giving their s***m sample, aligning this with the 36-hour window after the woman’s “trigger” injection that matures her eggs. The comparison group ej*****ted between 48 hours and seven days before providing their sample, reflecting current broad recommendations.
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Those with the shorter abstinence period achieved an ongoing pregnancy rate of 46 per cent, versus 36 per cent in the longer-abstinence group, suggesting that fresher s***m may give embryos a better chance of making it beyond 12 weeks.

Scientists suspect that storing s***m for too long in the te**es exposes them to reactive oxygen species and other toxins that can damage DNA, even as longer gaps can increase total s***m numbers. Earlier work has also hinted that brief intervals between ej*******ons can reduce DNA fragmentation and improve motility in infertile men.
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Experts caution that this single trial has limits, including the mix of fresh and frozen embryo transfers and a lower fertilisation rate despite better ongoing pregnancy outcomes in the short-abstinence arm. Even so, the findings suggest that a simple behavioural tweak—ejaculating within 48 hours of egg collection—could become an easy, low-cost way to subtly tip IVF odds in favour of success.
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📄 RESEARCH PAPER

📌 Yang Yu et al., “Effect of s***m abstinence duration on pregnancy outcomes in conventional IVF cycles: a randomised clinical trial”, Preprints with The Lancet (2025)

🧠 A subtle traffic jam in the brain’s cholesterol highways may be quietly shaping who develops Alzheimer’s disease.Scien...
27/12/2025

🧠 A subtle traffic jam in the brain’s cholesterol highways may be quietly shaping who develops Alzheimer’s disease.

Scientists in Barcelona have found that in Alzheimer’s, lipoprotein particles in cerebrospinal fluid lose much of their ability to deliver cholesterol from glial cells to neurons, even though cholesterol release by astrocytes appears normal. This defect is especially pronounced in people carrying APOE4, the strongest common genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s, suggesting neurons exposed to this variant struggle to absorb the cholesterol they need for membranes, synapses, and myelin.

Analysing cerebrospinal fluid from 10 patients with Alzheimer’s and 10 controls in the SPIN cohort, the team showed that neuronal uptake of cholesterol is selectively impaired in the disease. Recombinant lipoprotein nanoparticles engineered to contain APOE4 were markedly less efficient at delivering cholesterol to cultured neurons than otherwise identical particles with APOE3, pointing to a direct functional role for the risk variant.
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Proteomic profiling revealed 239 lipoprotein-associated proteins, with 27 altered in Alzheimer’s, mainly linked to inflammation, cell adhesion, and protein degradation rather than classic cholesterol enzymes. The researchers stress this mechanism is likely one contributor among many, but it opens a new line of work on lipid metabolism in APOE4 carriers and in people with Down syndrome, where similar defects may help explain heightened neurodegeneration risk.
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📄 RESEARCH PAPER

📌 Carla Borràs et al, "Cerebrospinal fluid lipoprotein-mediated cholesterol delivery to neurons is impaired in Alzheimer’s disease and involves APOE4", Journal of Lipid Research (2025)

🐕 Could your furry companion be secretly reshaping your social life through invisible microbes?Dogs don't just wag tails...
27/12/2025

🐕 Could your furry companion be secretly reshaping your social life through invisible microbes?

Dogs don't just wag tails—they might enhance human empathy and sociability by transforming the microbiome. Researchers analyzed surveys from 343 Tokyo adolescents aged 12-14, finding that the third who lived with pet dogs showed less social withdrawal, aggression, and peer struggles, even after adjusting for s*x and income. Saliva samples revealed higher levels of Streptococcus bacteria species in dog owners, previously linked to reduced depressive symptoms.
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To test causality, the team transplanted oral microbes from three dog-owning and three non-owning teens into germ-free mice. Stool analysis confirmed microbes colonized the rodents' guts. In behavioral trials, mice receiving dog-owner microbiota chewed tubes and poked noses more through holes to aid trapped cagemates, signaling greater empathy—echoing recent findings on mouse caregiving. They also sniffed unfamiliar mice more, indicating boosted sociability.
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Interactions like licks and jumps likely transfer dog microbes to humans, reaching the gut to produce anti-inflammatory short-chain fatty acids that support mental health, experts note. While promising for probiotics mimicking these effects, further studies across regions are needed due to varying microbial exposures.

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📄 RESEARCH PAPER

📌 E. Miyauchi et al, "Dog ownership during adolescence alters the microbiota and improves mental health", iScience (2025)

🧬 That ink on your skin may be quietly reshaping your immune defences.Tattooing injects pigment deep into the skin, wher...
27/12/2025

🧬 That ink on your skin may be quietly reshaping your immune defences.

Tattooing injects pigment deep into the skin, where particles quickly drain into nearby lymphatic vessels and lodge in lymph nodes, key hubs of the immune system. In mice, standard black, red and green inks travelled to leg lymph nodes within minutes, where immune cells called macrophages engulfed the pigment and sparked intense inflammation.
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These macrophages repeatedly died and were replaced, passing the ink from cell to cell and sustaining chronic inflammation long after the tattooed skin had healed. Two months later, inflammatory markers in the tattooed mice’s lymph nodes were still up to five times higher than normal, suggesting a long‑lasting immune disturbance.
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When researchers injected vaccines into tattooed skin, the immune response shifted in unexpected ways. Antibody responses to a covid‑19 mRNA vaccine weakened, likely because ink‑engorged macrophages processed less of the vaccine, while responses to a protein‑based influenza shot were actually stronger, perhaps due to heightened local inflammation and extra immune cell recruitment.

Human lymph node biopsies from tattooed people showed similarly pigment‑packed macrophages, even two years after tattooing, and the ink is likely to persist for life. Scientists caution that mouse and human skin differ and that the true long‑term health implications—such as possible links to infections or cancers—remain uncertain and urgently need deeper study.

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📄 RESEARCH PAPER

📌 F. Santiago González et al, “Persistent immune modulation in draining lymph nodes following tattoo pigment deposition in mice and humans”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2025)

🌙 Breast cancer may be most dangerous when the body is at rest.Researchers studying women with breast cancer have uncove...
26/12/2025

🌙 Breast cancer may be most dangerous when the body is at rest.

Researchers studying women with breast cancer have uncovered a striking pattern: tumour cells are far more likely to break away from the primary tumour and enter the bloodstream at night, while patients are asleep. These circulating tumour cells, or CTCs, are the seeds of metastasis—the process by which cancer spreads to distant organs and becomes far harder to treat.
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In blood samples taken from 30 women with breast cancer, including nine with metastatic disease, about 78 per cent of all detected CTCs were found in samples drawn at 4 a.m., compared with those taken at 10 a.m. while they were awake. Crucially, none of the women were undergoing treatment, allowing the team to capture the natural behaviour of their tumours across the sleep–wake cycle.

To probe this further, researchers transplanted four types of human breast cancer into mice and tracked CTC release across the animals’ rest and active phases. Depending on the cancer type, 87 to 99 per cent of CTCs appeared in blood taken during the animals’ sleep period, and these night-time cells clustered up to 278 times more, making them markedly more capable of seeding new tumours.
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The work challenges the long-held assumption that tumours shed cells continuously and ignore the body’s circadian rhythm. Instead, it suggests that cancer dynamics, like many immune processes, are tightly linked to internal biological clocks—opening the door to timing therapies so that drugs strike when malignant cells are most vulnerable.

The findings do not imply that people with cancer should sleep less; in fact, disrupted sleep may worsen prognosis, but they do argue that “when” treatment is given could be as important as “what” treatment is chosen.

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📄 RESEARCH PAPER

📌 Zoi Diamantopoulou et al, "Cancer cells spread during sleep and efficiently initiate brain metastasis," Nature (2022)

đŸ§Ș A single spoonful of a traditional spice may offer a modern boost for cholesterol and fat metabolism.​A new study repo...
26/12/2025

đŸ§Ș A single spoonful of a traditional spice may offer a modern boost for cholesterol and fat metabolism.
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A new study reports that black cumin seed (Nigella sativa) extract carries 23 mostly unsaturated fatty acids, along with high phenolic and flavonoid content that signals strong antioxidant potential and links to its key bioactive compound, thymoquinone.

In cell experiments using preadipocytes, the extract did not harm cell viability but markedly reduced lipid accumulation, dampened a triglyceride-forming enzyme, and lowered proteins needed for fully developed fat cells, suggesting anti-adipogenic effects at the molecular level.
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Building on these lab findings, researchers ran an eight-week randomized controlled trial in Bangladesh involving 42 adults with overweight or obesity and borderline or high cholesterol who were not on lipid-lowering drugs.

Participants in the intervention arm consumed 5 grams of black cumin seed powder daily—roughly a spoonful—while the control group received no supplement but followed similar lifestyle guidance. The black cumin group showed reductions in total cholesterol, LDL “bad” cholesterol, and triglycerides, alongside a modest rise in HDL “good” cholesterol, and reported increased appetite without major side effects.

Experts, however, caution that these results, though intriguing, come from a relatively small, single-center trial of about 40 people, analyzed in a way that may overstate statistical significance. The study lacked a placebo, relied on self-reported appetite questionnaires, and included mostly 20–50-year-olds from one region, limiting how broadly the findings can be applied.

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📄 RESEARCH PAPER

📌 Hiroki Hirakawa et al., “Black Cumin Seed (Nigella sativa) Confers Anti-Adipogenic Effects in 3T3-L1 Cellular Model and Lipid-Lowering Properties in Human Subjects,” Food Science & Nutrition (2025)

🧬 A new genetic strategy may turn malaria’s deadliest messenger against the disease itself.In a secure Tanzanian lab, sc...
26/12/2025

🧬 A new genetic strategy may turn malaria’s deadliest messenger against the disease itself.

In a secure Tanzanian lab, scientists have engineered Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes to carry a CRISPR-based gene drive designed to spread malaria-blocking genes through wild populations. The added genes encode two tiny antimalarial proteins, originally derived from honeybees and the African clawed frog, and are linked to an enzyme that helps mosquitoes digest blood, so these proteins flood the gut right after a blood meal.
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Crucially, this trial used local mosquito strains and malaria parasites taken from infected children, rather than long-domesticated lab lines, providing a much more realistic test of the technology’s power. The modified mosquitoes showed robust inhibition of parasite development and efficient copying of the antimalarial genes, suggesting that once a true gene drive is enabled, the construct could rapidly spread through natural populations.
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For now, key components have been kept separate so the gene drive cannot propagate, allowing safety testing inside containment. The next step is a field trial on an island in Lake Victoria, where researchers will release mosquitoes that produce the antimalarial proteins, monitor how they behave in the wild, and continue risk assessments and community engagement, which so far enjoys positive political and public support. If successful, this approach could help eliminate malaria in regions where A. gambiae is the primary vector, reducing the need for massive, repeated releases of genetically modified mosquitoes.
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📄 RESEARCH PAPER

📌 G. Christophides et al, "A CRISPR-based gene drive targeting malaria transmission in Anopheles gambiae", Nature (2025)

🧬 A leukaemia drug already in use may help prevent a common breast cancer from turning deadly once it quietly spreads to...
26/12/2025

🧬 A leukaemia drug already in use may help prevent a common breast cancer from turning deadly once it quietly spreads to the lungs.
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A new mouse study shows that imatinib, a drug widely prescribed for chronic myeloid leukaemia, can slow the growth of secondary tumours from oestrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer, the form that makes up about 80 per cent of human cases and typically affects people over 50. ER+ tumours are notorious for recurring years after apparently successful treatment because some cancer cells slip away early, lodge in distant organs and lie dormant until something in their new environment spurs them back into action.

Researchers induced ER+ breast cancer in young and older female mice and left the primary tumours untreated, then checked secondary sites two to five weeks later. Nearly all animals had disseminated cancer cells, but in young mice the cells stayed quiescent, while in older mice they were far more likely to form tumours, mostly in the lungs.

The team traced this age effect to higher levels of a growth factor called PDGF‑C in older lungs, which rise with age in both mice and humans and may create a more permissive niche for dormant cells to start dividing.

When PDGF‑C was partially blocked with imatinib after cancer cells had already seeded the lungs, secondary tumours grew more slowly, although some lesions still formed. That limitation, together with imatinib’s side effects such as stomach pain and fatigue, and the lack of a reliable way to predict whose ER+ cancer will later metastasise, makes preventive use in patients difficult for now.

The researchers plan to test drugs that act more specifically on PDGF‑C, while other experts emphasise the broader need to decode how ageing tissues and the immune system shape the fate of hidden cancer cells over time.
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📄 RESEARCH PAPER

📌 Frances M. Turrell et al., “Age-related microenvironmental changes in the lung prime metastasis outgrowth of dormant estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer cells,” Nature Cancer (2023)

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