 | Two patients with therapy-refractory AQP4-IgG–positive neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder achieved >15-year relapse-free remission after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation with full donor immune reconstitution. AQP4-IgG became and remained undetectable, neurological status stabilized or improved, and quality of life increased without ongoing immunosuppression. |
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 | A thermodynamic formulation of gravity modeled as an Otto cycle yields modified conservation laws allowing continuous matter creation. Applied to cosmology, this framework can produce late-time cosmic acceleration without invoking dark energy or a cosmological constant. The approach remains theoretical and requires confrontation with precision cosmological data. |
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 | A high-fidelity digital twin (FEDE) of a 2-year-old brain with autism integrated MRI-based anatomy, myelination, and EEG to jointly model structure and dynamics. The model reproduced individual EEG with high precision and inferred markedly elevated background neural noise and excitation–inhibition ratio, consistent with ASD-linked network dysfunction. This unified pipeline enables patient-specific mechanistic characterization but requires validation in larger cohorts. |
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 | Urolithin A, a gut microbial metabolite of foods such as pomegranates, walnuts, and berries, selectively activates the aryl hydrocarbon receptor in intestinal epithelial cells, triggering NLRP6 inflammasome signaling. This induces controlled release of mediators that repair the epithelium, strengthen the barrier, enhance mucus and antimicrobial defenses, and limit tissue damage. The mechanism was confirmed in cells, organoids, and IBD patient tissue, suggesting therapeutic strategies that boost protective, cell-specific pathways rather than broadly suppressing immunity. |
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 | Asteroid (152637) 1997 NC1, 750–1650 m in estimated diameter, will pass Earth at 2.56×10⁶ km (≈6.6 lunar distances) and ~9 km/s, with no impact risk. The object will be observable with small telescopes or large binoculars, though lunar brightness and local sky darkness will significantly affect visibility across hemispheres. |
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 | A newly described Propostira spider from North Queensland constructs a spring-loaded silk snare specialized to capture single Oecophylla smaragdina workers. The ant’s attack severs an anchor, catapulting it >30 cm at >1,300 m·s⁻² into the spider’s web. The silk bundle stores and rapidly releases elastic energy, representing a highly specialized, prey-triggered, single-species capture mechanism. |
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 | Diarrhea‑predominant IBS is frequently accompanied by anxiety, which correlates with symptom severity and altered amygdala activity. IBS‑D patients and analogous mouse models show depletion of Phocaeicola vulgatus, with lower levels linked to greater anxiety and impaired amygdala function. In mice, supplementation with live P. vulgatus reduced anxiety-like behavior by attenuating amygdala neuroinflammation and neuronal damage, suggesting a potential psychobiotic or postbiotic therapeutic strategy pending clinical validation. |
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 | A plant genome editing system based on the zebra finch R2 retrotransposon inserts large DNA payloads into defined genomic loci with ∼30-fold higher efficiency than CRISPR-based methods. It enables single-step, targeted integration of multigene pathways with durable expression, overcoming the traditional trade-off between insertion efficiency and positional precision in plants. |
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 | Oxygen transfer in corked wine progresses via four mechanisms over distinct timescales: rapid equilibration between headspace and liquid; release of oxygen stored in cork cells (~9 months); oxygen consumption by cork-derived phenolics (4–15 months); and long-term inward permeation through cork and glass–cork gaps, causing a gradual oxygen increase. |
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 | The article discusses a hypothesis that close passages of planetary-mass or dwarf-planet objects could generate strong gravitational tides, triggering giant tsunamis, enhanced volcanism, climate shifts, and redirected impactors, collectively driving some mass extinctions over the past 600 Myr. Correlations with geological and orbital anomalies are noted, but mass, frequency, and detailed evidence for such flybys remain highly uncertain. |
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 | Pigs with complete spinal cord transections treated with a polyethylene glycol–chitosan fusogen gel showed rapid sensory recovery, restoration of bladder control by day 5, and independent walking by day 60, unlike untreated controls. Histology indicated reduced scarring and nerve fibers crossing the lesion, consistent with axonal fusion–mediated neurorepair. |
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 | Cerebellar regions show spatially heterogeneous atrophy with age, with posterior association-linked areas shrinking faster than anterior motor regions. Larger cerebellar volume correlates with better memory and cognition in older adults, supporting a threshold-reserve model in which cerebellar integrity buffers decline until pathology is widespread. Causality and generalizability remain unresolved. |
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 | A dual-memory spiking neural network architecture is introduced that combines fast spiking activity with an explicit slow, low-dimensional memory pathway, stabilizing learning and preserving event-driven sparsity. Co-designed near-memory-compute hardware exploits this compact shared state, yielding over 4× higher throughput and over 5× better energy efficiency on long-sequence tasks than prior SNN implementations. |
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 | Zircon and apatite geochronology from shock-damaged rocks at North Pole Dome (Pilbara, Western Australia) constrain an impact event to ~3.0 Ga. The concordant ages from two mineral systems identify this structure as Earth’s oldest known impact crater and the only securely recognized example from the Archean, extending the well-dated impact record deeper into geologic time. |
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 | Mannose-coated lipid nanoparticles loaded with PTEN mRNA use GLUT1 transport to cross the blood–brain barrier and preferentially accumulate in GLUT1-overexpressing glioblastoma tissue in mice. Densely mannose-coated surfaces, achieved via mannose–cholesterol conjugation, enhanced brain delivery, restored PTEN, induced tumor shrinkage, and increased median survival by 50% without measurable organ toxicity. |
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 | DESI galaxy maps analyzed with the Angular Distribution of Pairwise Distances indicate statistically significant anisotropic clustering persisting to gigaparsec scales, beyond predictions of standard cosmology. The result challenges large-scale isotropy and statistical homogeneity while remaining consistent with the Copernican principle, motivating models with large-scale inhomogeneities or modified structure growth. |
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 | Laughter in humans and all great apes shows a conserved rhythmic structure with evenly spaced vocal intervals, implying this pattern originated in a common ancestor ~15 million years ago. Human laughter retains this rhythm but is faster, more variable, and more context-controlled, indicating progressively enhanced vocal control. Such control is a likely precursor capacity underlying the evolution of speech. |
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 | GLP-1 receptor agonists, originally for type 2 diabetes and obesity, also reduce intake of alcohol, nicotine, stimulants, and opiates. Evidence points to the lateral septum—rich in GLP-1 receptors and integrating hippocampal context with reward signals—as a key site where GLP-1 dampens reward-related neural activity, thereby diminishing cravings and consumption. |
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 | Bright evening light exposure (>1000 lux between 20:00–23:30) is associated with increased incidence of age-related macular degeneration (31%), cataracts (18%), and primary open-angle glaucoma (47%) over ~8 years in 82,826 adults. Risk rose with duration of bright exposure. Disrupted circadian rhythms and blue light–induced oxidative stress are proposed mechanisms. |
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 | Adult marmoset monkeys gradually adjust their trill calls to resemble those of new social partners, with both pair members changing to a similar extent. Modeling indicates continuous, interactive updating of partner call memories rather than simple copying. These results support dynamic vocal learning and suggest socially driven vocal plasticity may be widespread and relevant to language evolution. |
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