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Category: health – Page 6

Specially designed material combines light and electricity to remove PFAS from water without harmful byproducts

Researchers at Clarkson University have reported a breakthrough in tackling per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a group of widely used “forever chemicals” that are difficult to remove from water and have raised growing environmental and public health concerns. The study, published in Nature Communications, was led by Associate Professor Yang Yang and his team in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. It presents a new method for breaking down PFAS that could improve the treatment of contaminated water in real-world conditions.

Detecting multiple cancers and other diseases from a single blood sample

UCLA scientists have developed a simple and cost-effective blood test that, in early studies, shows promise in detecting multiple cancers, various liver conditions and organ abnormalities simultaneously by analyzing DNA fragments circulating in the bloodstream. The test, described in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could offer a powerful and more affordable approach to early disease detection and comprehensive health monitoring.

“Early detection is crucial,” said Dr. Jasmine Zhou, the study’s senior author, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and investigator at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. “Survival rates are far higher when cancers are caught before they spread. If you detect cancer at stage one, outcomes are dramatically better than at stage four.”

How the MethylScan blood test works The new method, called MethylScan, works by analyzing cell-free DNA (cfDNA), tiny fragments of genetic material released into the blood when cells die. Because cells from every organ shed DNA into the bloodstream, cfDNA carries molecular signals that reflect what is happening throughout the body.

CERN’s Medipix3 technology on track to help more patients

Originally derived from a technology developed to explore the fundamental nature of the Universe, Medipix3 technology now powers a medical scanner that is on track to benefit an increased number of patients. MARS Bioimaging Ltd has received 510(k) clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its portable photon-counting CT scanner for upper-limb imaging, allowing the system to enter the US health sector and enable broader clinical adoption.

Medipix technology is based on hybrid pixel detectors, which were originally designed at CERN for particle detection in high-energy physics experiments. This technology was adapted to create the Medipix family of pixel detector readout chips, enabling a new approach to medical imaging.

Unlike conventional CT (computed tomography) systems – which combine X-ray measurements taken from different angles to produce a 3D image – photon-counting technology measures individual X-ray photons and their energy. This produces detailed, three-dimensional images that help clinicians to distinguish between different types of tissue and materials, better informing their decision making. As Dr John Carrino, a prominent musculoskeletal radiologist involved in clinical trials with MARS Bioimaging, notes: “Photon-counting CT is going to be the future of CT for medical imaging.”

Hydraulic brain: Body motion linked to fluid movement in the brain

The brain is more mechanically connected to the body than previously appreciated, scientists report in Nature Neuroscience. Through a study using mice and simulations, the team found a potential biological mechanism underlying why exercise is thought to benefit brain health: abdominal contractions compress blood vessels connected to the spinal cord and the brain, enabling the organ to gently move within the skull. This swaying facilitates the surrounding cerebrospinal fluid to flow over the brain, potentially washing away neural waste that could cause problems for brain function.

According to Patrick Drew, professor of engineering science and mechanics, of neurosurgery, of biology and of biomedical engineering at Penn State, the work builds on previous studies detailing how sleep and neuron loss can influence how and when cerebrospinal fluid flushes through the brain.

“Our research explains how just moving around might serve as an important physiological mechanism promoting brain health,” said Drew, corresponding author on the paper. “In this study, we found that when the abdominal muscles contract, they push blood from the abdomen into the spinal cord, just like in a hydraulic system, applying pressure to the brain and making it move.

The fake disease that fooled the internet, and what it says about all of us

Until a few years ago, no one had heard of bixonimania. Then, in 2024, a group of scientists posted findings online announcing the condition, which they claimed affected the eyes after computer use. However, the scientists had made it up—not just the work, but the authors’ names, affiliations, locations and funding, which was the University of Fellowship of the Ring and the Galactic Triad.

Large language models like ChatGPT and Gemini treated it as real anyway, and in doing so, helped turn a fictional disease into a legitimate-sounding health concern.

Bixonimania is not an isolated case. Being deceived—whether you are a person or an AI model—is concerningly common, in science and beyond. Whether we’re talking about AI hallucinations, state-backed disinformation or just everyday lies, humans have a remarkable knack for naivety, owing to our biases and increasing need to outsource learning to others. These are problems we—individually and collectively—urgently need to better understand and overcome.

Gerard k. O’neill Was Not Honored as Deserved, so Far… But Maybe It’s Not Too Late!

While doing research during the works of the SRI 4th World Congress, I am trying to deepen my knowledge of the immense work done by Gerard K. O’Neill and his Space Studies Institute (SSI) during the second half of the past century.

Gerry took the work where Tsiolkovsky, Oberth, von Braun, and others had left it, on the great theme of rotating habitats in free space. And more, the SSI, founded by him, has developed an incredible amount of very high-profile studies about space manufacturing [1], covering many aspects of living in free-space habitats. Not only scientific and technical issues. According to the O’Neill teachings—as his main references, like Krafft Ehricke and others, had done—human requirements, attention to life and health protection, human rights, and social needs informed all of the developed studies and conceptual design.

Great outreachers like Isaac Asimov, Arthur Clarke, and Stanley Kubrick were ready to follow O’Neill and promote his concepts in their artworks and in their interviews to TV and media magazines.

🧠 The Emotional Brain Under Stress: How the Amygdala Connects Chronic Stress to Chronic Disease

We often think of stress as something that just “gets on our nerves,” but what if it’s actually reshaping our brain — and our long-term health?A recent scientific review published in Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy by Juhyun Song (2023) highlights a fascinating and urgent connection between the brain’s emotional hub — the amygdala — and our rising burden of metabolic diseases, dementia, and mental health disorders. This tiny almond-shaped structure deep in our brain does more than generate fear or

HEPA air purifiers may boost brain power in adults over 40

Using an in-home HEPA purifier for one month spurs a small but significant improvement in brain function in adults age 40 and older. That’s the result of a new study we co-authored in the journal Scientific Reports.

HEPA purifiers—HEPA stands for high efficiency particulate air— remove particulate matter from the air. Exposure to particulate matter has been connected to respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses as well as neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Environmental health researchers increasingly recommend that people use HEPA air purifiers in their homes to lower their exposure to particulate matter, but few studies have examined whether using them boosts mental function.

We analyzed data from a study of 119 people ages 30 to 74 living in Somerville, Massachusetts. Somerville sits along Interstate 93 and Route 28, two major highways, resulting in relatively high levels of traffic-related air pollution. This makes it an especially good location for testing the health effects of air purifiers.

High-resolution imaging shines light on nanoscale nuclear organization

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have implemented an advanced microscopy technique to visualize multiple biomolecules inside the nucleus of a cancer cell simultaneously at incredibly high resolution. The biomolecules they visualized include critical components of the cell’s transcription machinery and proteins that provide structural support to the nucleus—providing one of the first detailed maps of nuclear organization.

The human body is composed of trillions of cells. Each cell is an intricately organized meshwork of millions of proteins, nucleic acids, and many other molecules vital for the cell’s health. “Building novel technologies to visualize many biomolecules in individual cells is crucial to push the boundaries of biological research,” says Mahipal Ganji, Assistant Professor at the Department of Biochemistry (BC) and corresponding author of the study published in Nature Communications. Conventional imaging techniques, however, allow scientists to visualize only two or three biomolecules in each cell at a time.

In the study, the researchers turned to a microscopy technique called DNA-Points Accumulation for Imaging in Nanoscale Topography (DNA-PAINT), which allows for the visualization of biomolecules inside cells at incredible detail—far beyond the limits of conventional microscopes. It uses small fluorescent DNA fragments or tags that briefly attach to specific targets inside the cell and light up like tiny, blinking signals when a laser beam is shined on them.

Boosting good gut bacteria population through targeted interventions may slow cognitive decline

The origin of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s or dementia isn’t limited to the brain. The state of your gut can quietly set off a cycle of chronic, system-wide inflammation that nudges the brain toward cognitive decline. But how does the pathogenesis of a disease that seems purely brain-based begin in the gut—an organ that is mostly busy producing chemicals for digesting food?

It turns out these two entities are linked by the gut-brain axis, a two-way communication superhighway that constantly sends signals between the digestive tract and the central nervous system. It runs on chemical messengers like neurotransmitters and fatty acids, sharing information that shapes our memory, mood, and inflammation triggers.

An analysis of 15 studies involving more than 4,200 participants found that the gut-brain highway can be put to work as a drug-free route to support cognitive health. Tuning the gut microbiota through diet, supplements, or medical interventions such as fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) can help improve memory, executive function, and overall cognitive performance, particularly in early or mild cases of cognitive impairment.

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