Danger Dust

Lyme disease, a bacterial infection transmitted through the bite of infected ticks that affects more than 400,000 Americans each year, can manifest in a range of symptoms that evolve over time. In its early stages, the hallmark sign is a distinctive rash known as erythema migrans (EM).

If left untreated, Lyme disease can progress to its second stage, known as early disseminated Lyme disease, bringing more severe complications. These may include multiple rashes across the body, neuropathy, paralysis of facial muscles (Bell’s palsy), and heart block, which disrupts the heart’s electrical signals.

Lyme Disease

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyme_disease

The team's new device is a small plastic chip whose specially designed chambers are filled with human blood stem cells and the surrounding support cells with which they interact in a hydrogel to mimic the intricate process of bone marrow development in the human embryo. This biologically inspired platform makes it possible to build living human marrow tissue that can generate functional human blood cells and release them into culture media flowing in engineered capillary blood vessels.

The bone marrow-on-a-chip allows researchers to simulate and study common side effects of medical treatments, such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy for cancer patients. When connected to another device, it can even model how the bone marrow communicates with other organs, like the lungs, to protect them from infections and other potentially life-threatening conditions.

Of all the chessmen, knights are considered the most difficult and require the most skill to carve. While pawns and other pieces can be shaped under lathes, the knights—resembling horse heads usually with wild flowing manes—are carved completely by hand. A chess carver won’t graduate from pawn to knight or any easier piece to harder ones, but instead will learn his craft from the start of his career, usually from their father or a mentor from one of the well-established chess companies.

Our data demonstrate a marked increase in Pb pollution at 2150 cal. years BP that left an imprint across terrestrial and marine settings of the Aegean region. This first manifestation of marine pollution coincides with maximum deforestation and agricultural expansion, signaling pervasive human impact on ecosystems connected to the advanced monetized societies during the Hellenistic and Roman periods in Ancient Greece.

One of the reasons it's so hard to understand and treat sepsis is that it is multifaceted. Sepsis arises when the immune system fails to control an infection and malfunctions, causing multi-organ failure. Many different infections can cause sepsis, and its symptoms and progression vary between patients and over time in the same patient. Its early symptoms are similar to those of many other illnesses, which makes it difficult to diagnose quickly and initiate timely treatment, contributing to high mortality.

Systems immunology offers a potential solution to this diagnosis problem by using mathematical and computational modeling to study the immune system in the context of all the body's other systems. It does this by using different types of clustering analysis to identify patterns in large volumes of omics data, ranging from transcriptomic data (what genes show altered expression) to proteomic and metabolomic data—data that tell us about the body's reaction to its physical circumstances, in this case sepsis, in incredibly fine-grained detail.

MPA is a necrotizing vasculitis without immune deposit accumulation, and it progresses with small vessel involvement. Necrotizing arteritis, rapidly progressive pauci-immune GN, and pulmonary capillaritis or alveolar hemorrhage are common, and granulomatous inflammation is not usually present.

It is accepted that environmental factors, such as exposure to Staphylococcus aureus; the drugs hydralazine, minocycline, propylthiouracil, levamisole-adulterated cocaine, allopurinol, or rifampicin; or the toxins lead mercury and silica can trigger the emergence of ANCA-associated vasculitis

Conclusion

Considering that the use and therefore frequency of exposure to silica is increasing with industrial development, awareness should be raised of not only the pulmonary effects of silicosis but also the renal damage. Silica exposure should be avoided, especially in patients with a familial history of autoimmune diseases, as in our patient. In individuals who cannot avoid exposure, routine screenings for renal function should be conducted in addition to other systemic screenings and algorithmic evaluation that should be performed.

The project focused on workers without pre-existing skin abnormalities, genetic skin diseases, or a family history of skin disorders. Although it was not a criterion of selection for us, many of them claimed to have developed skin lesions gradually during their employment.

Workers who had prolonged exposure to silver and silica nanoparticles and developed skin lesions had higher genes expression of inflammatory cytokines compared with normal subjects who had no exposure to silver and silica nanoparticles. The genes expression of inflammatory cytokines continuously increased with the length of exposure, suggesting the role of chronic exposure to silver and silica nanoparticles in immune dysregulation.

Necessary measures must be considered to protect workers in nanoparticle industries against the detrimental effects of these nanoparticles. A network pharmacology study has presented suggestions for corresponding biochemical pathways for these disorders.

Conclusion

Silica and certain pesticides were significantly elevated in the urine of sugarcane workers with or without KFD. Future work should determine whether long-term occupational exposure to silica and pesticides across multiple seasons contributes to CKD in these workers.

Overall, these results confirmed that multiple exposures are occurring in sugarcane workers and may provide insight into early warning signs of kidney injury and may help explain the increased incidence of CKD among agricultural workers.

Most exposures to black widow spider venom are accidental, but in a rare medical case, the exposure was intentional.

The patient: A 37-year-old woman in California

The symptoms: The woman visited the emergency room with severe cramps and muscle pain, primarily in her back, abdomen and thighs. She also reported having a headache and feeling anxious. Her pulse, respiratory rate and blood pressure were elevated, and she had a temperature of 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit (37.5 degrees Celsius), a little below the typical threshold for a fever.

What happened next: Upon admission to the ER, the patient — who had a history of heroin use — told her doctors that she had tried to get high by grinding up a black widow spider (Latrodectus genus), mixing it with 0.35 fluid ounces (10 milliliters) of distilled water, and then injecting it intravenously. Her symptoms appeared one hour later. Several hours after arriving at the hospital, the woman began to have trouble breathing. Her wheezing became so severe that she was moved to the intensive care unit (ICU).

This enzyme is used by trillions of microbes in our soils and waters. These microbes consume CO for their own survival, but in the process inadvertently help us," Ms. Kropp said.

Co-first author Dr. David Gillett, who completed his Ph.D. research in the Greening Lab, said this was a fantastic example of microbial 'ingenuity': how life has evolved ways to turn something toxic into something useful.

"These microbes help clean our atmosphere," Dr. Gillett said. "This counteracts air pollution, which kills many millions of people each year, and also reduces global warming given CO is indirectly a greenhouse gas."

Source:

Quinone extraction drives atmospheric carbon monoxide oxidation in bacteria

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41589-025-01836-0

While our study has focused on SARS-CoV-2, the epidemiological model that we have developed is very general. The same methodology could be applied to study the transmission of other pathogens such as influenza. Combined with thorough genomic surveillance data, our model provides a powerful method for rapidly identifying more transmissible viral lineages and quantifying the contributions of individual SNVs to changes in transmission.

The patient, a man in his 40s, told the doctors that the nodules had appeared three weeks prior to his hospital visit. After questioning, they determined that the patient had adopted the so-called carnivore diet approximately eight months prior to the appearance of the nodules.

The carnivore diet is a fad diet based on eating large amounts of animal fats and very little of anything else. The patient in this case reported eating nearly 10 pounds of butter, cheese and other fatty foods every day since embarking on the diet—even going so far as to add fat to the hamburgers he consumed daily.

Blood tests showed the patient's cholesterol was approximately four times normal levels. The doctors diagnosed the patient with xanthelasma, a condition in which yellowish deposits of cholesterol build up in various parts of the body—in this case, on the palms, the soles of his feet and his elbows. His case had progressed to the point that some of the cholesterol was pushing through cracks in the skin.

Human health is being threatened by environmental microplastic (MP) pollution. MPs were detected in the bloodstream and multiple tissues of humans, disrupting the regular physiological processes of organs.

Nanoscale plastics can breach the blood-brain barrier, leading to neurotoxic effects. How MPs cause brain functional irregularities remains unclear. This work uses high-depth imaging techniques to investigate the MPs within the brain in vivo. We show that circulating MPs are phagocytosed and lead these cells to obstruction in the capillaries of the brain cortex.

These blockages as thrombus formation cause reduced blood flow and neurological abnormalities in mice.

Our data reveal a mechanism by which MPs disrupt tissue function indirectly through regulation of cell obstruction and interference with local blood circulation, rather than direct tissue penetration.

This revelation offers a lens through which to comprehend the toxicological implications of MPs that invade the bloodstream.

An unprecedented tuberculosis (TB) outbreak in Kansas has reached historic levels, becoming the largest recorded in U.S. history.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) has reported 67 active cases since 2024, with 60 in Wyandotte County and 7 in Johnson County.

Additionally, 79 latent infections—77 in Wyandotte County and 2 in Johnson County—have been identified.

The production of fake research is now a thriving industry, thanks to paper mills. These networks sell paper authorships and poor-quality or fabricated scientific manuscripts to researchers, or violate the peer-review process by providing fake reviews. And they have become so prolific that current self-correction mechanisms no longer work.

The first evidence of authorships for sale was reported in 2013. The paper-mill industry has since mushroomed (see ‘Paper mills explode’). One estimate suggests that the problem might have started even earlier — at least 400,000 papers published between 2000 and 2022 show the hallmarks of having been produced by paper mills.

Yet only 55,000 were retracted or corrected in the same period, according to the database of the website Retraction Watch.

Fraudulent research pollutes the literature, slows down scientific progress, delays the discovery of therapies and reduces public trust in science.

Despite this clear connection, most smokers do not develop lung cancer. Recent studies suggest that some smokers possess protective mechanisms limiting DNA mutations, offering new insights into cancer prevention and early detection.

Understanding Risk Factors and Molecular Mechanisms

Epidemiological studies have long associated lung cancer risk with factors like total smoking dose, duration, and timing of cessation. Yet, 80-90% of lifelong smokers never develop lung cancer, with most smoking-related deaths occurring in older populations. To unravel this paradox, researchers have shifted their focus to molecular and genetic factors, seeking to identify specific mechanisms that protect some individuals from carcinogenesis.

Published 2015:

Silicosis is suspected to be an immune disease, involving activation of primitive highly conserved genes, like those involved in the Toll-Like Receptor (TLR) pathway. Following these hypothesis, progression from silica dust deposition in lung parenchyma to diffuse fibrosis, silicotic nodule formation and, finally, honeycombing, would be accelerated in presence of favourable genetic pattern, explaining the presence of rapidly progressive pattern also for low environmental or occupational silica dust exposure.

IgA nephropathy, the most common type of glomerulonephritis worldwide, is also suspected as an immune disease. Genetic or acquired abnormalities of immune system would be a trigger for increased production of IgA, which deposition in glomerulus induces and propagates renal disorder.

London's Most DANGEROUS Job (Season 2)

As space travel gains traction and astronauts spend increasing amounts of time in space, studying its effects on health has become increasingly critical.

Is space travel truly safe? Far from it – research has shown that the effects of space radiation and microgravity on the human body are both detrimental and long-lasting. Creating space conditions on Earth, however, could potentially help researchers treat cancer.

The water and sewerage companies (WaSCs) in England are majority-owned by a range of global investors. The industry is under intense scrutiny for widespread failure in its environmental performance, discharging 12.7 million monitored hours of untreated wastewater and sewage into English waterways between 2019 and the end of 2023.

At the time of writing, multiple investigations by environmental and financial regulators are in progress, and regulatory oversight is under review by the recently formed Office for Environmental Protection.

While limited monitoring hid the full extent of underperformance, we argue that the WaSCs have prolonged this environmental disaster through strategies that mirror those of other large polluting industries in the past.

We test this hypothesis for the nine major WaSCs in England against a published framework of 28 ‘greenwashing/deception’ tactics of large industries.

We identified 22 of these tactics that could be seen as disinformation, greenwashing and manufacturing doubt. The financial exploitation of water resources in England, alongside long-term degradation of infrastructure and ineffective regulation, raises globally important issues around water security, ethics and environmental stewardship.

Much greater scrutiny of both industry performance and industry communication is required.

Results

PFAS in drinking water was associated with increased cancer incidence in the digestive, endocrine, oral cavity/pharynx, and respiratory systems.

Incidence rate ratios (IRRs) ranged from 1.02 to 1.33.

The strongest association was observed between PFBS and oral cavity/pharynx cancers (IRR: 1.33 [1.04, 1.71]).

Among males, PFAS was associated with cancers in the urinary, brain, leukemia, and soft tissues.

Among females, PFAS was associated with cancers in the thyroid, oral cavity/pharynx, and soft tissue.

PFAS in drinking water is estimated to contribute to 4626 [95% CI: 1,377, 8046] incident cancer cases per year based on UCMR3 data and 6864 [95% CI: 991, 12,804] based on UCMR5.

The team found CBD in the fruits and flowers of a plant known as Trema micrantha blume, a shrub which grows across much of the South American country and is often considered a weed.

Neto said chemical analysis had found "Trema" contains CBD but not THC, raising the possibility of an abundant new source of the former – one that would not face the legal and regulatory hurdles of cannabis, which continues to be outlawed in many places, including Brazil.

"It's a legal alternative to using cannabis," he said.

"This is a plant that grows all over Brazil. It would be a simpler and cheaper source of cannabidiol."

Scientists had previously found CBD in a related plant in Thailand, he said.

According to the study, published in JAMA Cardiology and led by researchers at Harvard, blood pressure readings measured while lying down were significantly better at indicating risks of cardiovascular disease, stroke, heart failure, and death than were seated blood pressure readings alone.

For instance, people who had high blood pressure readings while lying down but not while seated had an estimated 53 percent higher relative risk of coronary heart disease than people with normal blood pressure. They had a 51 percent higher risk of heart failure, a 62 percent higher risk of stroke, a 78 percent higher risk of fatal coronary heart disease, and a 34 percent higher risk of all-cause mortality.

Pokhara, Nepal – 

Cars speeding along a smooth, black-colored street in Nepal's Pokhara are also driving over heaps of discarded plastic, transformed into an ingredient in road construction.

Nepal's urban areas generate about 5,000 tonnes of solid waste per day, according to the World Bank, of which 13% is plastic waste dumped in landfills.

While high-value plastics, like bottles, are absorbed by the recycling industry, low-value plastics — such as multilayered packaging — pose a significant challenge because they don't fit into a single recycling category.

For a group of young Nepali entrepreneurs, the vast accumulation of this low-value plastic waste presented an opportunity.

"A plastic road can use even low-value plastics."

A chronic shortage of National Health Service (NHS) hospital beds in the UK sees patients increasingly receiving treatment in corridors, and other unsuitable spaces, including cupboards and toilets.

As well as corridors, patients are being treated in storage rooms and even car parks. Lacking critical facilities such as oxygen, suction or monitoring equipment, staff describe a system that has normalised indignity and unsafe care.

The shortage of beds is coupled with chronic understaffing, leaving nurses overwhelmed and often looking after more than 10 patients in unsafe conditions. Many are considering leaving the profession, reporting feelings of shame and helplessness in face of such grim conditions.