Hamas, Hezbollah coordinate attacks with Iran, IDF warns of rebuilt axis of evil

Bad news, if confirmed!

Where are the coward European powers when you need them!

"Hamas and Hezbollah have begun coordinating their increased activity with Iranian assistance in recent weeks, the IDF has assessed, as the military has identified increased friction between Israeli forces and terrorists on both the northern and southern fronts.

The IDF has expressed that the coordination is likely an effort to rebuild its axis of evil that would increase pressure on Israel. ...

Hezbollah attempts to resupply operatives trapped underground ...

IDF tank drives over explosive device in Gaza Strip ... the device was planted recently. ..."

Hamas, Hezbollah coordinate attacks with Iran, IDF warns of rebuilt axis of evil | The Jerusalem Post

Cuba Must Pay for Incubating Lefty Terror Attacks in America

Why is Cuba still a one-party ruled communist country!

When will Cuba libre finally become reality!!!

Latest since the serious Cuba Missile Crisis of 1962, communist Cuba has been a national security issue for the US. and exporter of communism around the world and in particular in Latin America!

"The State Department published a damning report documenting the Cuban communist regime’s nefarious activities in America.

Among the revelations: Cuba has been training over 10,000 American left-wing activists and funding dissent in this country. They have the ability to organize disruptive demonstrations at most military bases and immigration facilities at a day’s notice. ...

Former Venceremos brigadier Karen Bass managed to get elected as mayor of America’s second-largest city. She has advanced causes favorable to the Cuban regime, such as calling to lift sanctions on the communist regime. When the Cuban tyrant Fidel Castro died, she mourned him as “Comandante en Jefe” — commander in chief. ...

Isra Hirsi, daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), made a trip to Havana in March. She thanked the People’s Forum for organizing the trip, despite concerns that the organization may be a Chinese Communist Party propaganda arm. People’s Forum denies any wrongdoing.

Some Cuban operatives aren’t as overtly revolutionary and work through more conventional political and professional channels, including nonprofit institutions and political organizations such as the Democratic Socialists of America.

Since 2019, the DSA has expanded its activism related to Cuba. The party has intensified this engagement during the second Trump administration. ...

The DSA sent 40 rank-and-file and governing members to Havana. They met with communist officials, including Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Cossío Domínguez. The DSA also participated in the trip that sent Hirsi and far-left streamer Hasan Piker — who recently called Mao Zedong “one of the great leaders of this world” — to Cuba.

Fortunately, the Trump administration has accelerated its efforts against the communist-influence network in America. A federal court is investigating far-left China-based billionaire Neville Roy Singham, a chief financier of the nonprofit network supporting communist activities.

Besides the People’s Forum, Singham is a major contributor to Code Pink. His wife, Jodie Evans, is the co-founder. Its leadership includes some of the country’s most prominent pro-Cuba activists, including Medea Benjamin, Claudia De la Cruz and Vivien Lesnik Weisman. A grand jury is reportedly investigating whether Singham’s activities may have violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act. ...

The Justice Department is also seeking the extradition of another far-left financier, James “Fergie” Chambers, who is living in Spain. ..."

Cuba Must Pay for Incubating Lefty Terror Attacks in America

Cuba must pay for incubating far-left terror attacks and dissidents across the United States

Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism (original report, 100 pages, no executive summary)

Ilsa Hirsi, the daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), stayed in a 5-star hotel during her trip to Havana.

Two Kentucky ‘country hicks’ or country chicks refused $26 million from an AI data center developer. It left their town divided.

I bet this is only a very transitory stumbling block! Somebody else will sell!

What would you do with the $26 million proceeds?

"When an unknown company offered Delsia Bare and her mother, Ida Huddleston, a life-changing amount of money for their Kentucky farmland, they initially agreed. Then they discovered what the plots, which their family had cultivated for nearly 200 years, would be used for: a 2.2-gigawatt hyperscale data center."

The Wall Street Journal What's news

Collagen structure of the porcine eye revealed

Good, but older news!

The fascia consists of collagen.

"Collagen fibers are found in various forms throughout the body, forming the foundational extracellular structure of tissues.

Despite nearly a century of study, high-resolution views of functional, macromolecular collagen fibers have remained elusive because of compositional heterogeneity and data-processing limitations.

Lou et al. analyzed the relatively uniform fibrils from the vitreous body of the eye and were able to determine a high-resolution structure that reveals layers of individual fibrils wrapped in a fourfold symmetric helix.

Sugar modifications are interspersed at defined positions within the fiber and alter packing density and hydration.

The specialized function of vitreous body collagen as a transparent medium is enabled by specific modifications and a composition distinct from that known for structural collagens."

"... 

Composition and Stoichiometry

Type V/XI core: Acts as the internal nucleation center that dictates initial fibril geometry.
Type II shell: Forms an antiparallel outer layer that expands the overall diameter of the fibril.
Type IX and opticin: Decorate the outer surface to regulate spacing, surface properties, and interaction with the surrounding gel.

Stabilization and Assembly

Glycan modification: Abundant galactose-glucose disaccharides attach to hydroxylysine residues within conserved motifs, stabilizing interhelical packing.
Vitreous-specific design: Unlike cartilage counterparts, the type IX collagen in the vitreous lacks the NC4 domain and instead possesses an elongated chondroitin sulfate chain, which preserves the transparent, hydrated gel matrix.

..." (Google Search)

From the abstract:

"Collagen, a fundamental constituent of the extracellular matrix, has long remained elusive to high-resolution structural characterization.

Using a tailored system and optimized cryo–electron microscopy processing for long-period filaments, we determined the structure of native collagen fibrils from the porcine vitreous body, with local resolutions extending from 2.6 to 7 angstroms.

Each 67-nanometer periodic unit contains type II, V/XI, and IX collagen triple helices together with opticin, at a stoichiometry of 8:4:4:4, which reveals their detailed higher-order molecular packing.

Abundant galactose-glucose disaccharides modify hydroxylysine residues in conserved -glycine-X-hydroxylysine- motifs, mediating fibril packing and structural stability.

Our structure uncovers the glycan-mediated assembly principle of collagen fibrils and clarifies the structure-function basis of collagens in the vitreous body."

In Science Journals | Science

The molecular architecture of mammalian vitreous body collagen fibrils (no public access)

The Dimocratic Party is trying the big-tent approach instead of distancing from the far left influence

One more reason why the Democratic Party has become the Dimocratic Party! For years, it is moving from the center to the far left trying to capture extra votes (but loosing traditional votes)!

What a cute sounding approach to deal with the Democratic Socialists of America and their ilk!

The Dimocratic Party urgently needs a new leadership (away with e.g. senile Chuck Schumer and DEI Hakeem Jeffries)! A biparty system like the US is in jeopardy if one of the two political parties constantly fails!

White House released “The Great Transshipment Scam”

Good news!

I bet this was going on especially during the term of the senile, demented and lifelong pathological liar 46th President! China knew too much about the 46th President and his clan!

"... a detailed report documenting how foreign adversaries, primarily China, have routed goods through third countries to falsely certify their origin and evade U.S. tariffs. The report lays bare a years-long fraud against American trade law that has cost domestic manufacturers billions and hollowed out key supply chains."

From the Executive Summary:

"... Illegal transshipment may involve relabeling, repackaging, re-invoicing, minor processing, false country-of-origin claims, or other actions intended to secure tariff treatment that would not apply if the goods’ true economic origin

were declared. ...

China provides the most developed historical example of this conduct. Following the imposition of Section 301 tariffs in 2018, the direct U.S. trade deficit with China fell in 2019 and 2020.

Even today, imports of a number of Chinese products subject to these original duties, like electric vehicles, are much lower in the U.S. than in places like the European Union. But the overall success of these tariffs co-exists with the abuse, by exporters, of the tariff differentials that they contribute to.

After their imposition, Chinese exporters increasingly routed goods through third countries. Products that previously moved directly from China to the United States were shipped through jurisdictions where limited assembly, finishing, repackaging, relabeling, or documentation changes could create the appearance of a different national origin. Over time, these practices contributed to the development of a global network of production hubs, logistics platforms, free-trade zones, bonded warehouses, processing corridors, and re-export centers.

This report identifies more than 40 countries associated with elevated illegal transshipment risk. These jurisdictions vary significantly in economic scale and function. Some are major trading partners with diversified industrial bases and large volumes of overall commerce.

Others are closely integrated into China-linked production and supply networks.

A third group consists of smaller jurisdictions that offer specific advantages, including low labor costs, permissive free-zone rules, strategic port access, bonded warehousing, limited customs capacity, niche assembly operations, or preferential access to the U.S. market. ...

This report reviews five government and private-sector estimates of potential transshipment or related trade-transfer exposure. The estimates range from approximately $40 billion to $303 billion annually, depending on the methodology and definition used. ..."

White House Weekly Briefing | August 10–16, 2026

The Great Transshipment Scam

Largest Naval Expansion Since Reagan: First New US Shipyard in Over 80 Years.

Good news! I bet, President Trump wants to be remembered like President Reagan!

"On August 13, President Trump signed a National Security Presidential Memorandum [NSPM] launching the most ambitious naval expansion since the Reagan era.

The order directs the establishment of the first new naval shipyard in more than 80 years and a new submarine component repair center, while ordering a comprehensive review and reorganization of Naval Sea Systems Command to fix chronic cost and schedule failures across six major programs.

The NSPM adopts a “Finland model” that allows foreign shipbuilders to temporarily build ships in their home yards while investing capital in American facilities and training American workers for future domestic production.

This builds on nearly $9 billion already committed for arctic security cutters and a sweeping buildup of new submarines, destroyers, and aircraft carriers — restoring U.S. naval dominance after decades of underfunding."

White House Weekly Briefing | August 10–16, 2026

Five Years Into the Taliban’s War on Women. Really!

This seems to be one of the subjects du jour! It was repeated all over the news media in recent weeks or so!

Why don't the women in Afghanistan not go on a sex strike? Sometimes women's rights have to be attained by persistent non violent protest, strikes, debates etc. by women. If Afghan women desire more liberty and rights they have to do something about it.

"The most famous fictional example is the ancient Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophanes, written in 411 B.C.E., where women stage a sex strike to force their men to end the Peloponnesian War.

In real life, a famous historical instance occurred in 2003, when Liberian women led by Leymah Gbowee used a sex strike alongside protests to force warlords to negotiate an end to a brutal civil war." (Google Search)

"... Here is what they inherited and destroyed. Between 2001 and 2021, Afghan women did not wait for anyone’s permission to become people. We became judges, close to 270 of them, ruling in courts that would not have let us testify a generation earlier. We [women] became members of parliament, provincial officials, ministers, generals. We built businesses, newsrooms, clinics, schools. I built mine, a media career and a company that let me walk into rooms my own mother was never allowed to enter, rooms I still remember the first time I sat in them, understanding exactly what it had taken to get there ...

Senior Taliban officials, negotiators, ministers, the men who signed the decrees banning Afghan girls from school, have spent the last five years quietly enrolling their own daughters in schools and universities in Doha and Peshawar. One of the men who helped design the architecture of Afghan women’s erasure has a daughter who became a doctor abroad, trained in the exact profession his government forbids Afghan girls at home from ever pursuing. ...

Their financial conduct tells the same story. A movement that claims religious purity as its governing logic has spent five years entangled in the opium and methamphetamine trade, in mineral deals with China cut behind closed doors, and in a mining economy worth an estimated one to three trillion dollars that flows almost entirely to a small circle of men from a handful of provinces, while the country they govern ranks among the hungriest on earth. Call it what you want. I call it a mafia that memorized scripture. ..."

Five Years Into the Taliban’s War on Women "Under armed occupation, gender apartheid [???] has become the governing order in Afghanistan—and the world is increasingly learning to live with it."

Large-scale brain scan study reveals unexpected differences in motor and visual regions linked to depression

Good news!

This study seems to confirm that depression also affects motion and vision, which was, I believe, known for a very long time. They call it "a key surprising finding", which it is not!

"Researchers ... analyzed thousands of brain scans collected from a population sample, including people with subclinical symptoms. The results of their analyses ... identified various changes in the brain that appear to be associated with depression, some of which are inconsistent with earlier observations. ...

Consistent with earlier research, the researchers found that depression was linked to a reduction in gray matter in three brain regions: the frontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex and insula. These areas of the brain are known to play a role in the regulation of emotions, decision-making, motivation and the internal processing of bodily sensations.

"A key surprising finding was that smaller brain regions in motor and visual regions were linked to higher levels of depression," ... "It has been known that reduced brain size in other (e.g., frontal) parts of the brain is linked to depression, but the location of these new results was surprising because we don't usually link symptoms of depression to sensory processing or motor action."

Earlier research had also linked depression to changes in regions in the basal brain, such as the amygdala and hippocampus. ... observed little evidence of this. ...

Toward a better understanding of depression

This study was one of the most detailed and comprehensive explorations of brain changes associated with depression to date. Overall, its findings suggest that depression affects a broad network of brain regions that have been implicated in important mental functions. ..."

"Key points

• Depression’s physical symptoms may have a direct neural explanation.
• A major new study found that motor and visual brain regions shrink in depression, not just frontal regions.
• The hippocampus, long linked to depression, showed no clear changes.

..."

From the abstract:

"Depression has been linked to reduced size of subcortical regions and abnormal functional connectivity in frontal and default mode networks. However, recent meta-analyses have failed to identify significant converging correlates of depression across the literature such that a conclusive mapping of the neuroimaging correlates of depression remains elusive.

We leveraged 23,417 participants across 6 population datasets to comprehensively establish the neuroimaging correlates of depression.

We found reductions in gray matter volume/cortical surface area associated with depression in the frontal cortex, anterior cingulate and insula, confirming previous studies showing the importance of prefrontal and default mode regions in depression.

Our findings demonstrate multiple surprising results, including a lack of depression correlates in subcortical brain regions and significant depression correlates in somatomotor and visual regions.

Overall, these results shed new light on key brain regions involved in the pathophysiology of depression, updating our understanding of the neuroimaging correlates of depression symptoms."

Large-scale brain scan study reveals unexpected differences in motor and visual regions linked to depression

Depression Doesn’t Just Affect the Thinking Brain "A new study of 23,000 people found unexpected brain changes in depression."

The neuroimaging correlates of depression established across six large-scale population datasets (open access)

Fig. 1: Overview of main analysis steps.

Fig 2 Fig. 2: Neuroimaging correlates of depression.

English for trippers: Starry is not scary

A star with scars?

Chemists find a new pathway to luminescence through mechanochemical force

Amazing stuff!

"In brief

• Computational modeling revealed an unexpected order of bond breaking in the core molecular structure that causes bioluminescence in nature.
• Mechanical force ruptures the dioxetane molecule’s carbon-carbon bond first, which is contrary to previous understanding of how the break in the molecule’s bonded square of oxygen and carbon atoms leads to light emission.
• The findings suggest the potential to develop improved stress sensors as well as gain insight into some forms of biological luminescence.

...

Chemists have long used molecules called dioxetanes to create light. These molecules have the same core structure that enables biological luminescence: two oxygen atoms and two carbon atoms bonded together in a square. Heat or mechanical force can break those bonds, causing light emission. ...

But when ... researchers modeled force applied to dioxetanes, they found that the bond between the carbon atoms breaks first, then the one between the oxygens."

From the abstract:

"1,2-Dioxetanes are well-known for their chemiluminescent decomposition initiated by O–O bond scission.

Under thermal conditions, this chemiluminescence has been used for molecular imaging, while mechanochemical triggering of chemiluminescence can be a powerful tool for studying stress in materials.

It has been widely assumed that mechanochemical activation follows the same O–O scission pathway as the thermal case.

However, our first-principles simulations of the mechanochemically triggered decomposition of 1,2-dioxetane show that the traditional O–O scission pathway is largely insensitive to applied force.

Instead, a thermally inaccessible C–C bond scission pathway is stabilized by applied force and becomes energetically favored above a critical force (∼1.8–3.0 nN). This force-induced mechanistic switch is robust across various pulling directions and substituents, including the experimentally tested adamantyl derivative.

These findings establish a new, fundamentally force-dependent pathway for chemiluminescence.

They demonstrate that mechanical force can be used not only to accelerate a reaction, but to fundamentally change its mechanism. This presents significant opportunities for new mechanophore design and mechanochemical sensing applications."

Chemists find a new path to luminescence | Stanford Report "The molecule behind the glow of fireflies and plankton breaks apart in an unexpected order under force – a discovery that could lead to better stress sensors and help illuminate some mysteries of the natural world."

The Force Awakens a Dormant Chemiluminescent Pathway in 1,2-Dioxetane (no public access)

Graphical abstract

Trump EPA wrongly canceled $20B in climate funds, appeals court rules

Good news! Maybe next year the federal funding of global warming/climate change propaganda/demagoguery with taxpayers money will finally stop!

"The Trump administration did not have the authority to terminate and claw back funding that had already been disbursed to climate nonprofits, an appeals court ruled on Tuesday.

Eight nonprofit groups have been seeking to regain access to billions of dollars that had been deposited in their bank accounts after EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, along with the FBI and the Treasury Department, ordered Citibank to freeze their accounts in February 2025.

The decision gives the groups access to their funding while the EPA decides whether to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

However, many of the organizations have had to enact significant cuts while their accounts were frozen.

The judgment upholds an injunction preventing the EPA from taking back money that had already been disbursed to the nonprofits’ bank accounts. Six of 10 judges on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit supported lifting the injunction. ..."

Trump EPA wrongly canceled $20B in climate funds, appeals court rules | TechCrunch

Galactic spins carry fingerprints of the primordial universe

Amazing stuff!

"The origin of spin in spiral and elliptical galaxies has posed a long-standing puzzle for astronomers. One idea, known as tidal torque theory, proposes that galaxies' spins are an imprinted record of the early universe, imparted by gravity long before galaxies first formed and still detectable in galaxies today.

Through new research ... a team ... has put that idea to its toughest test yet. ...

Tidal torque theory suggests the origins of this spin can be traced back to the earliest structures in the universe, when uneven clumps of gas and dark matter pulled on their neighbors. 

If such a primordial clump were slightly elongated, tidal torque theory suggests it would feel gravity's pull more strongly on the end closest to a massive neighbor. This lopsided tug would set it rotating, a motion that its descendant galaxy should inherit. ...

To tackle this challenge, Sheng's team turned to data from the ELUCID project, which reconstructs the distribution of matter in the early universe based on the positions of galaxies we can see today. Using this reconstruction, they traced the pattern of spins seen in currently observable galaxies back to the primordial tidal forces that created them.

They then compared this prediction with real spin measurements gathered using an instrument that maps the motion of gas and stars within individual galaxies, for a substantial sample drawn from the nearby universe. ..."

From the abstract:

"Tidal-torque theory predicts that galaxy angular momenta are imprinted by the primordial tidal field acting on proto-structures and that they can retain information about the early Universe through cosmic evolution.

Here we test this prediction by comparing observed galaxy angular momentum vectors with those predicted from the primordial density field reconstructed by ELUCID for the nearby Universe.

Among the galaxy populations considered, the gas component of central massive elliptical galaxies provides the clearest signal, exhibiting a strong direction correlation at a significance of about 7σ.

These results provide robust observational evidence for tidal-torque theory and open a window for cosmological measurements of neutrino mass and other cosmological parameters."

Galactic spins carry fingerprints of the primordial universe

A high-significance detection of primordial tidal torque imprints (no public access)

A high-significance detection of primordial tidal torque imprints (preprint, open access)

Slavery linked to mortality gap between Black and white Americans today. Really!

This article reeks of junk journalism and junk science! More horrible demagoguery spread by the AAAS and this time also by the National Academy of Sciences! Shame on them!

The term "racial disparities" is ideological and racist! A sign of junk science! This article published in the PNAS seems to be pure ideological junk science! It should be retracted!

What about individual lifestyle of black Americans v. white Americans with similar lifestyles or black Americans who moved away from formerly slave holding counties and so on! What about the age structure between white and black Americans in those counties?

Caveat: I did not read the article.

"... researchers studying racial health disparities in the United States today. A new study finds slavery still casts a long shadow on the country’s well-being, worsening the health outcomes for Black people in certain locations more than 150 years after abolition. ..."

From the significance and abstract:

"Significance

Black–White mortality disparities remain a persistent form of inequality in the United States. This study provides evidence that the proportion of enslaved people across U.S. counties in 1860 [???] predicts contemporary Black–White mortality disparities.

Counties with greater reliance on slavery in 1860 [???] have higher contemporary mortality rates for Black Americans but lower rates for White Americans. The association persists in analyses designed to address confounding from unobserved historical factors and in tests of alternative explanations. Structural inequalities [???] in segregation, economic conditions, and educational access emerge as key pathways linking historical slavery to contemporary mortality disparities [???]. This work underscores the need for interventions [???] that address not only proximal determinants but also the historical and structural foundations, of racial health disparities.

Abstract

We tested whether contemporary Black–White mortality disparities in the United States may be rooted in the historical legacy of slavery and perpetuated through structural inequalities.

Linking county-level data on the proportion of enslaved people in 1860 with structural inequality indicators from 1990 to 2000 and mortality outcomes from 2010 to 2020, we find that historical slavery is robustly associated with contemporary racial mortality gaps.

Our model estimates ~22 additional deaths per 100,000 among Black Americans relative to White Americans for every 10% increase in the 1860 enslaved population.

Path analysis models showed that segregation, economic inequality, and racial disparities in poverty and education statistically mediated this effect.

We test the plausibility of a causal pathway using an instrumental variable analysis and explore the robustness of our theoretical model in multiple supplemental analyses.

Our analyses held even after controlling for a comprehensive suite of historical and contemporary covariates.

These findings are consistent with a model wherein slavery’s legacy continues to shape present-day Black–White racial health disparities via enduring structural inequities."

Slavery linked to mortality gap between Black and white Americans today | Science | AAAS

Historical slavery predicts contemporary disparities in mortality between Black and White Americans (open access)

What a garbage Chart (reminds of the infamous Hockey Stick chart)

Fig 1 Figure displays the estimated relationship between the proportion of enslaved population in 1860 and Black and White mortality rates (2010–2020). 

We still don't know what former, controversial Professor Jason Arday of Cambridge University died of on 8/14/2026

Strange!

Was it suicide? A natural death?

Google Search will not answer this question! This is very strange too! Is this some kind of self censorship?

New Evidence Reveals Antarctica Was Warm & Green some 90-100 million years ago

Global Warming (aka climate change) is nothing new! How often were there actually significan warm periods on Earth over the last let's say 100 million years? 

Like Greenland when the Vikings arrived around 982 AD/CE.

Apparently, 100 million years ago Antarctica was located over the South Pole as it is today. Or in other words, it appears the geographic location of Antarctica did not change and could explain the warming period.  

(139) New Evidence Reveals Ancient Antarctica Was Warm & Green | WION - YouTube

Nigeria: After Trump's Warning Abuja Signs Muslim-Christian Peace Accord

Good news! Blessed are the peacemakers!

(135) Nigeria: After Trump's Warning Abuja Signs Muslim-Christian Peace Accord | Firstpost Africa - YouTube

Mecca Deal Collapses Within 24 Hours as Pakistan Exits Houthi Front with Molly Gambhir

Recommendable! So much for the Islamic NATO!

Maybe the three countries, i.e. Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan, excluded existing conflicts.

(134) Mecca Deal Collapses Within 24 Hours as Pakistan Exits Houthi Front | Top Story - YouTube

Takaichi Is Not Abe 2.0. Here’s Why with Palki Sharma

Recommendable!

(134) Takaichi Is Not Abe 2.0. Here’s Why | The Palki Sharma Show | IGR | India Global Review - YouTube

Russia has been Losing Influence to China in Central Asia

Recommendable!

(133) Is Russia Losing Influence to China in Central Asia? - YouTube

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar: The Man Who Changed India Forever | The Revolutionary

Recommendable! Among other things, he was an advocate for the Dalits.

(131) Dr. B.R. Ambedkar: The Man Who Changed India Forever | The Revolutionary | N18G - YouTube

Scientists capture macrophages immune cells attacking live melanoma

Good news! Cancer is history (soon)!

"... a previously overlooked population of immune cells called macrophages that patrol the edges of melanoma tumours, steadily engulfing cancer cells and slowing tumour growth. ...

“This is the first time anyone has captured a macrophage attacking and engulfing a live cancer cell in real time,” ..."

From the abstract:

"Macrophages in the skin reside in multiple distinct layers and perform various functions. Here, we show that CD169+ macrophages reside in the hypodermis and comprise the major skin myeloid cell population in the steady state.

In a syngeneic melanoma model, CD169+ macrophages encapsulate growing melanomas and directly suppress their growth.

CSF1R blockade depleted CD169+ macrophages in tumors and resulted in unrestrained growth.

This local containment of tumor growth in the skin was independent of CD169+ subcapsular sinus macrophages in the tumor-draining lymph node and did not require B or T cells.

Intravital imaging revealed engulfment and ingestion of live tumor cells by CD169+ macrophages.

This phagocytosis did not require the phosphatidylserine receptor MERTK. CD169+ macrophages are also enriched in the hypodermis in skin biopsies from healthy human skin and melanoma.

These data identify tissue-resident CD169+ macrophages as a potential cellular target to achieve innate immune containment and reinforce adaptive immune control of tumors."

Garvan scientists capture ‘housekeeping’ immune cells attacking live melanoma | Garvan Institute of Medical Research "Macrophage immune cells were imaged engulfing live cancer cells – opening a new approach for melanoma treatment."

CSF1R-dependent CD169-positive macrophages locally constrain melanoma growth in the skin

A highly magnified view of melanoma tumours growing in the skin. CD169+ macrophages are shown in green and yellow forming a biological boundary wall to contain the tumours.

Fig. 2 Skin CD169+ macrophages suppress B16-F10 melanoma growth.

Fig. 4 Skin CD169+ macrophages ingest tumor cells.

Saudi Aramco backs India's Mitti Labs to make Asia's rice farming more water-resilient

Good news, but older news!

Let's not forget Methane is a trace gas! Associations between methane in the atmosphere and climate change/global warming are tenuous!

"As rising temperatures and shifting rainfall patterns put Asia’s water-intensive rice farming under pressure, Mitti Labs, a New York- and Bengaluru-headquartered climate-tech startup, has raised $9.5 million in an investment led by Aramco Ventures, Saudi Aramco’s venture arm, to expand across Asia with a platform that combines satellite imagery, AI, and field operations to help farmers cut water use and methane emissions. ...

Since launching its first programs in 2023, Mitti Labs has sought to tackle the heavy water use and methane emissions associated with rice farming through its platform that fuses satellite radar imagery with years of field data collected by its teams. The startup says the technology creates digital twins of individual rice fields, allowing it to monitor crop conditions, water use, and methane emissions across thousands of smallholder farms, where the average holding is about one hectare.

Mitti Labs’ GeoAI platform uses synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery from commercial and public satellites, with resolutions ranging from 50 centimeters to 10 meters, alongside years of field measurements collected by its teams. The startup’s edge lies less in the satellite imagery itself than in the proprietary datasets it has built to train its AI models, allowing it to monitor crop growth, soil moisture, and flooding across smallholder farms remotely, co-founder Xavier Laguarta said in an interview. ..."

"Rice feeds half the world every day, but growing it is putting an outsized strain on the planet's water supply. As the most water-intensive crop on Earth, rice consumes more than 30% of all irrigation water. Traditional paddies, kept continuously flooded to suppress weeds, also generate huge volumes of methane, a greenhouse gas now responsible for roughly a quarter of the warming the planet [???] has experienced to date. ...

We are proud to announce that we have raised a $9.5 million Series A to accelerate an answer to that problem. The round was led by Aramco Ventures, with participation from Lightspeed India, Godrej Industries Group, Cisco Foundation, Francis Family Fund, and Volta Circle. ..."

Saudi Aramco backs India's Mitti Labs to make Asia's rice farming more water-resilient | TechCrunch

Mitti Labs raises $9.5M to build water resilience in Asia's rice fields (original news release)

Really!

The “ADHD Epidemic” Is Just an Overdiagnosis Epidemic

Food for thought! Possible medical overdiagnosis is a serious issue! Similar to Autism Spectrum Disorder?

ADHD itself is an ambiguous, nebulous disorder!

The more individuals are diagnosed with ADHD, the better for business of doctors and pharma industry!

"The sharp increase in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnoses—nearly doubling among American children between 1997 and 2022, and more than tripling among adults from 2012 to 2023—has been chalked up to better screening, increased awareness, and the corrosive effects of smartphones and social media on developing brains. None of these factors holds up well under scrutiny. 

The diagnostic category itself has been steadily widened by the institutions that define it and the financial structure that rewards every participant for applying the ADHD label. As we have argued in our Cato Institute analysis of how the American healthcare system rewards psychiatric overdiagnosis, subjective diagnostic criteria interact with a payment system that rewards diagnosis to produce predictable inflation across psychiatric categories. The result is labeling ordinary behavior as pathological. ADHD is among the cleanest case studies of that pattern. ...

The youngest children in any classroom are also more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than their older peers, a finding so robust across studies and countries that it points to ordinary developmental variation rather than disease. ..."

The “ADHD Epidemic” Is Just an Overdiagnosis Epidemic "Screen time gets the blame, but the increase in diagnoses comes more from subjective criteria interacting with financial incentives."

The Perfect Storm for ADHD Overdiagnosis "Screen time gets the blame, but the increase in diagnoses comes more from subjective criteria interacting with financial incentives."

How the American Healthcare System Rewards Psychiatric Overdiagnosis

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) to pay $495,000 to employee who accused the General Manager of pulling her hair. Really!

This settlement seems to be insane! What a weird story! This, and other examples like it will certainly lead to more ridiculous lawsuits in the future!

Were there any witnesses to this alleged hair pulling? Did it happen in private or in public?

Was Ms. Mondestin a DEI hire?

Or was there something else going on that was covered up? Did the employee threaten to go public with something?

Was this amount paid because she is a black woman? A form of reparation payment?

Caveat: I am not familiar with the details of this case.

"The MBTA will pay close to half a million dollars to an employee who said General Manager Phil Eng pulled her hair during a work-related event in 2024.

The T will pay $495,000 in supplemental wages, damages and legal fees to MBTA Chief Communication Officer Gabrielle Mondestin, according to the settlement released Friday. Mondestin will resign from her role on Sept. 18, after the T requested she stay on until then "to assist in transitioning her duties and responsibilities." ..."

MBTA to pay $495,000 to employee who accused GM Phillip Eng of pulling her hair (behind paywall)

MBTA worker whose hair GM Eng pulled gets $495,000 in settlement

MBTA names Gabrielle Mondestin as Chief Communications Officer (March 2023) 

Gabrielle Mondestin has been named as MBTA's first chief communications officer.

No bosses, no problem! Pre-Hispanic farmers built giant water system bottom-up in Colombia. Really!

Amazing stuff! However, the claims about no top-down government etc. are most likely exaggerations or speculative!

When wishful thinking enters the minds of researchers! Dreams/bias of a cooperative collective!

It would be great if it can be confirmed that these fields and water management system were achieved through voluntarily cooperation, but this research is too speculative!

"The pre-Hispanic field systems of La Mojana in the Colombian Caribbean are so vast you can see them from a plane at high altitude. Their canals and raised fields – in use from the first centuries BC until the 11th century AD – cover an astonishing 500,000 hectares, roughly the same size as the Grand Canyon National Park, or three times the size of London. ...

archaeological team argues that the work was most likely locally-led, cooperative, and much faster than previously assumed. ...

Our study is the first to show that these sustainable solutions can be organised locally and collectively. Local people may need resources from the state but not necessarily state intervention.” ..."

From the abstract (emphasis added):

"Pre-Hispanic societies of the Colombian Caribbean lowlands built raised field systems spanning over 500,000 hectares. Their re-adoption may offer a potential solution to modern-day water control in the region. Traditionally interpreted as evidence of large-scale projects requiring centralised planning and coordination, the labour organisation behind their construction is nevertheless not fully understood.

To leverage archaeological knowledge in assessing potential for their re-adoption, we examine the function and labour input requirements of pre-Hispanic canal-ridge systems within a 500-hectare study area.

Conservative estimates indicate the entire system could have been built by local inhabitants in a single dry season.

Maintenance requirements were also modest, with full restoration once a generation requiring a few days annual labour.

We conclude that the sheer scale [???] of these systems cannot be taken as evidence of top-down control, and highlight the potential of low-cost, cooperative, sustainable approaches to water and land management in the Colombian Caribbean."

No bosses, no problem! Pre-Hispanic farmers built giant water system bottom-up, archaeologists reveal | University of Cambridge "Communities living in Colombia thousands of years ago achieved an engineering wonder of the world based on cooperation among family groups without top-down government, a new study shows. Archaeologists argue that policymakers in Colombia should now adopt a similar strategy to solve the country’s current water management crisis."

Collective labour and sustainability of pre-Hispanic field systems in La Mojana (open access)

Fig. 1: Areas of human occupation in La Mojana Region in Colombia.

Fig. 2: Aerial photograph of hydraulic systems in La Mojana, composed of canals and ridges (also known as camellones).

Tritium in the quantum sieve: First-ever separation of the three hydrogen isotopes for the fuel cycle of nuclear fusion

Good news!

"... As a result, the isotopes are released at different temperatures when the zeolite is heated: protium desorbs first, followed by deuterium and finally tritium. ...

The decisive step was the experiment using tritium. “It’s the first time anyone has managed to separate a hydrogen isotope mixture of protium, deuterium and tritium using a porous solid material,” ... After contact with the silver-containing zeolite, the mixture that initially contained equal amounts of the three isotopes emerged with an H₂:D₂:T₂ ratio of 1:41:175 . So, tritium was retained much more strongly than deuterium, while protium was hardly retained at all. ...

The material also exhibited high selectivity in experiments with mixtures of two isotopes. The greatest difference was observed between tritium and protium. “These are not just marginal differences,” ... “The separation process is highly efficient even in a single step.” The results also represent an important milestone for fundamental research, as they provide the first experimental validation of theoretical predictions involving tritium.

Another aspect is the stability of the material. Tritium undergoes radioactive decay, emitting beta radiation that could potentially damage the silver sites in the zeolite. However, even after several hours of exposure to tritium, the experiments revealed no measurable decline in separation performance. ..."

Tritium in the quantum sieve: HZDR team achieves first-ever separation of a hydrogen isotope mixture containing tritium using quantum effects - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, HZDR "Fusion power plants of the future will not only require extremely hot plasmas and strong magnetic fields but also a fuel cycle in which the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium can be recovered, separated, and reused. ... a team ... has now demonstrated a highly efficient method for separating hydrogen isotopes using a silver-containing zeolite  ... Zeolite is a porous crystal material with a network of tiny cavities. ... The results represent an important advance in isotope separation and lay the foundation for the efficient recovery and processing of tritium in future fusion fuel cycles. They also open up potential applications in medicine and materials research."

From the abstract:

"Efficient separation of hydrogen isotopologues is crucial for applications such as the recycling of exhaust streams in nuclear fusion reactors.

We report on separation of a ternary 1,2,3H isotope mixture using thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS), achieving an enrichment of 1:41:175 (H2:D2:T2) from an initially equimolar (1:1:1) gas mixture, based on selective adsorption using an Ag(I)-exchanged zeolite type Y.

Further experiments on binary hydrogen isotope mixtures validated numerical predictions of the separation efficiency for T2.

Specifically, the high selectivity for tritium over protium of 244 makes the Ag(I)-exchanged zeolite an excellent candidate for energy-efficient isotope separation at liquid-nitrogen temperature."

Tritium separation from gaseous 1,2,3H isotopologue mixtures by selective adsorption on Ag-exchanged zeolite type Y (open access)

Credits: Recycling für die Kernfusion: Leipziger Team gelingt fast unmögliche Trennung

Recycling der Wasserstoff Isotope für die Kernfusion

Gute Nachrichten!

"Die Bundesregierung nimmt viel Geld in die Hand, damit das erste Fusionskraftwerk der Welt in Deutschland entsteht. Ende Juli wählte Bundesforschungsministerin Dorothee Bär (CSU) drei „Fusionshubs“ aus, in denen Forschung und Industrie gemeinsam an offenen Fragen arbeiten sollen. 125 Mio. € stellt ihr Ministerium dafür bereit.

Zwei Hubs kümmern sich um die beiden Reaktorkonzepte, also Laser- und Magnetfusion.

Der dritte, koordiniert vom Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, widmet sich einem Thema, das noch weniger bekannt ist: dem Brennstoffkreislauf. ...

In einem Fusionsreaktor verschmelzen die Wasserstoffisotope Deuterium und Tritium zu Helium und setzen dabei enorme Energiemengen frei. Doch nur etwa 2 % der Deuterium-Tritium-Kombination werden dabei tatsächlich verbraucht, wie das Forschungsteam in seiner Studie schreibt. Der Rest verlässt den Reaktor unverbrannt. ...

Aus dem Abgasstrom wird so ein Gemisch aus drei Isotopen, das getrennt werden muss, damit der Brennstoff in der richtigen Zusammensetzung zurück in den Reaktor kann. ...

So funktioniert das Quantensieb

Für ihre Suche nutzten die Forscher einen Zeolithen. Diese Kristallmaterialien kommen in der Natur vor, lassen sich aber auch synthetisch herstellen. Ihr Gerüst aus Aluminium-, Silizium- und Sauerstoffatomen ist von winzigen Poren durchzogen, in denen positiv geladene Ionen sitzen. Diese Ionen lassen sich austauschen und verändern dann die Eigenschaften des Materials. Das Ausgangsmaterial dafür kam vom Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim an der Ruhr. Dort wurden die ursprünglichen Natriumionen des Zeolithen vollständig durch Silberionen ersetzt. Mit diesem Material arbeitete das Leipziger Team. ...

An den Silberplätzen läuft der entscheidende Vorgang, eine Adsorption, ab:

Wasserstoff strömt in die Poren

Die Moleküle wechselwirken mit der elektronischen Struktur der Silberionen und bleiben dort haften.

Wie stark, entscheidet die Quantenmechanik. Wegen ihrer unterschiedlichen Masse besitzen die drei Isotope verschiedene Nullpunktsenergien. So heißt die minimale Energie, die ein quantenmechanisches System selbst am absoluten Nullpunkt behält. Je schwerer das Isotop, desto niedriger diese Energie und desto fester sitzt das Molekül am Silber. So lässt sich der Brennstoff-Reststrom laut den Forschenden sehr effizient aufsplitten. ..."

Recycling für die Kernfusion: Leipziger Team gelingt Durchbruch "Bei der Kernfusion geht es meist um Laser, Plasmen und Magnete. Kaum jemand fragt, wie der teure Brennstoff recycelt wird. Ein Team aus Leipzig hat dafür erstmals ein Gemisch dreier Wasserstoffisotope voneinander getrennt."

Tritium in the quantum sieve "HZDR team achieves first-ever separation of a hydrogen isotope mixture containing tritium using quantum effects"