Enjoy!
Saturday, January 31, 2026
Alkali Treatment Implications for Microwave-Assisted Rare Earth Elements Extraction from Coal Mine Tailings
Good news! Rare earth elements are not rare!
"... discovered a new way to extract rare earth elements out of coal tailings, the cast-off soil and rock left behind by coal mining. Using a chemical treatment and a specially designed microwave reactor to control the temperature, the researchers have doubled the extraction levels previously possible. ..."
"... Pennsylvania alone, where the tailings for their experiment were harvested, contains an estimated 2 billion tons of coal tailings, according to their paper. ..."
From the abstract:
"Coal tailings represent a promising secondary resource of rare earth elements (REEs), yet efficient extraction is limited by their complex mineralogy. This study investigated the impact of alkali pretreatment on aluminosilicate structures in coal tailings and its implications for REE extraction via acid digestion. Precombustion coal refuse was treated with 5 M NaOH at varying solid-to-liquid (S/L) ratios (5, 50 g/L) and reaction times (5, 15 min), including a multistep (five-cycle) treatment under microwave conditions. At 180 °C, XRD, 29Si NMR, and thermodynamic modeling showed kaolinite transformed to hydrosodalite at high S/L ratios, while kaolinite completely dissolved at low S/L ratios.
Quartz maintained crystallinity but slowly transformed to amorphous silica during prolonged alkaline treatment. Compared to untreated tailings, light REE extraction was enhanced by a factor of ∼3 when kaolinite dissolved and by ∼2 when it converted to hydrosodalite; heavy REE extraction increased by ∼2 and ∼1.5, respectively.
Extending pretreatment time produced minimal additional enhancement, indicating that under microwave conditions, kaolinite concentration in alkaline solutions and hydrosodalite solubility in acidic solutions are the primary factors controlling REE release. Alkali pretreatment also promoted uranium removal prior to acid digestion, while REE extraction correlated strongly with Mg, Ca, Fe, and Ti release."
Rare earth element extraction can be doubled with this new technique (original news release) "New Northeastern research has identified a method of extracting rare earth elements from the mining waste product that is two to three times more efficient than previous approaches."
Alkali Treatment Implications for Microwave-Assisted Rare Earth Elements Extraction from Coal Mine Tailings (open access)
Graphical abstract
Advanced ancient stone tools in China are forcing scientists to rethink early humans
Amazing stuff!
"An international research team led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences carried out excavations at Xigou in the Danjiangkou Reservoir Region of central China. Their work revealed evidence of advanced stone tool technologies dating from about 160,000 to 72,000 years ago. ..."
"... The explorations ... revealed hominins in this region were far more inventive and adaptable than previously believed, at a time when multiple large-brained hominins were present in China, such as Homo longi and Homo juluensis, and possibly Homo sapiens. ..."
From the abstract:
"Technological innovations in Africa and western Europe in the later part of the Middle Pleistocene signal the behavioural complexity of hominin populations. Yet, at the same time, it has long been believed that hominin technologies in Eastern Asia lack signs of innovation and sophistication.
Here, we report on technological innovations occurring at Xigou, in the Danjiangkou Reservoir Region, central China, dating to ~160,000–72,000 years ago. Technological, typological, and functional analyses reveal the presence of advanced technological behaviours spanning over a 90,000-year period. The Xigou hominins used core-on-flake and discoid methods to effectively obtain small dimensional flakes to manufacture a diverse range of tool forms.
he identification of the hafted tools provides the earliest evidence for composite tools in Eastern Asia, to our knowledge.
Technological innovations revealed at Xigou and other contemporary sites in China correspond with increasing evidence for Late Quaternary hominin morphological variability, including larger brain sizes, such as demonstrated at Lingjing (Xuchang) in central China.
The complex technological advancements recorded at Xigou indicate that hominins developed adaptive strategies that enhanced their survivability across fluctuating environments of the late Middle Pleistocene and middle Late Pleistocene in Eastern Asia."
Discovery challenges long-held beliefs on early human technology in East Asia (original news release)
Technological innovations and hafted technology in central China ~160,000–72,000 years ago (open access)
Excavation of Xigou site
Fig. 2: Core metric and techno-typological variables.
A new molecular atlas of tau enables precision diagnostics and drug targeting across neurodegenerative diseases
Good news!
"Tau protein aggregation is a shared feature in over 20 neurodegenerative diseases (collectively referred to as "tauopathies"). New research led by Boston Children's Hospital challenges the current "one-size-fits-all" approach to diagnosing and treating these tauopathies. ...
analyzed brain tissue from 203 patients spanning several tauopathies, including Alzheimer's disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). They used a novel mass spectrometry tool called FLEXITau which enables absolute quantification of pathological tau species, measuring both the identities and abundances of disease-relevant chemical modifications. ...
that tau chemistry changes as the disease advances, and that the p217 Tau modification ranked as the most accurate diagnostic for Alzheimer's. p217 is now an FDA-approved diagnostic marker for Alzheimer's disease. ...
Using FLEXITau, the researchers identified 145 post-translational modifications and 195 cleavage sites across tau. Machine-learning models then ranked the molecular features that best distinguished each disease based on quantified chemical changes. ..."
From the highlights and abstract:
"Highlights
• Comprehensive mapping of tau identifies 145 PTMs and 195 cleavage sites in tauopathies
• Provides tau molar abundance and peptide modification stoichiometry in disease
• Machine learning classifies tauopathies using tau molecular features
• Identified disease-specific features are potential drug targets and diagnostics
Summary
In Alzheimer’s disease (AD), pathological tau protein shows a progressive accumulation of post-translational modifications (PTMs), reflecting disease severity, progression, and prion-like activity. Although many neurodegenerative diseases with dementia display tau aggregates, the pathological proteoforms of tau protein from each disease type remain unknown.
Here, using a quantitative mass spectrometry-based proteomics platform, FLEXITau, deep characterization of pathological tau protein isolated from the brains of 203 human subjects with AD, familial AD (fAD), chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), corticobasal degeneration (CBD), Pick’s disease (PiD), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB)—a non-tauopathy symptomatic control—and healthy controls (CTR) is performed. Unsupervised data analyses and supervised machine learning identify distinct molecular features of pathological tau for each disease, enabling molecular disease stratification.
This study identifies potential disease-specific biomarkers and therapeutic targets for tauopathies and provides critical quantitative information for pharmacokinetic modeling required for therapeutic and disease mechanism studies."
Molecular features of human pathological tau distinguish tauopathy-associated dementias (open access)
Graphical abstract
Figure 1 Workflow and quantification of pathological insoluble tau and isoforms across tauopathies and control human subjects
Astronomers reveal new details about dark matter’s influence on universe
Amazing stuff! The reported overlap between dark matter and matter might be an artefact or may not represent the whole picture.
"... Dark matter doesn’t emit, reflect, absorb, or even block light, and it passes through regular matter like a ghost. But it does interact with the universe through gravity, something the map shows with a new level of clarity. Evidence for this interaction lies in the degree of overlap between dark matter and regular matter. According to the researchers, Webb’s observations confirm that this close alignment can’t be a coincidence but, rather, is due to dark matter’s gravity pulling regular matter toward it throughout cosmic history. ...
“Wherever we see a big cluster of thousands of galaxies, we also see an equally massive amount of dark matter in the same place. And when we see a thin string of regular matter connecting two of those clusters, we see a string of dark matter as well,” ...
Found in the constellation Sextans, the area covered by the new map is a section of sky about 2.5 times larger than the full Moon. ..."
From the abstract:
"Ordinary matter—including particles such as protons and neutrons—accounts for only about one-sixth of all matter in the Universe. The rest is dark matter, which does not emit or absorb light but plays a fundamental role in galaxy and structure evolution.
Because it interacts only through gravity, one of the most direct probes is weak gravitational lensing: the deflection of light from distant galaxies by intervening mass. Here we present an extremely detailed, wide-area weak-lensing mass map covering 0.77° × 0.70°, using high-resolution imaging from the James Webb Space Telescope as part of the COSMOS-Web survey. By measuring the shapes of 129 galaxies per square arcminute—many independently in the F115W and F150W bands—we achieve an angular resolution of .
Our map has more than twice the resolution of earlier Hubble Space Telescope maps, revealing how dark and luminous matter co-evolve across filaments, clusters and underdensities. It traces mass features out to z ≈ 2, including the most distant structure at z ≈ 1.1. The sensitivity to high-redshift lensing constrains galaxy environments at the peak of cosmic star formation and sets a high-resolution benchmark for testing theories about the nature of dark matter and the formation of large-scale cosmic structure."
An ultra-high-resolution map of (dark) matter (no public access)
An ultra-high-resolution map of (dark) matter (preprint, open access)
On On Powerful Ways to Generate: Autoregression, Diffusion, and Beyond
Recommendable!
From the abstract:
"Diffusion language models have recently emerged as a competitive alternative to autoregressive language models. Beyond next-token generation, they are more efficient and flexible by enabling parallel and any-order token generation. However, despite empirical successes, their computational power and fundamental limitations remain poorly understood.
In this paper, we formally study whether non-autoregressive generation in Masked Diffusion Models (MDM) enables solving problems beyond the reach of Auto-Regressive Models (ARM).
Our results show that MDM with sufficiently large context length is computationally universal with decoding steps matching the optimal parallel time complexity in PRAM. However, when controlling for other factors, MDM's flexibility to generate in any-order does not expand what ARM can already solve.
To address this, we propose a new form of generation called any-process generation, which extends MDM with capabilities to remask, insert and delete tokens, allowing self-correction, length-variable editing, and adaptive parallelism. Theoretically and empirically, we demonstrate these capabilities enable scalability to significantly harder reasoning problems that are otherwise intractable for ARM and vanilla MDM.
Additionally, they prove essential for generation tasks where objects naturally evolve through non-sequential processes, crucial for extending current LLMs beyond natural language to domains such as coding and science."
Friday, January 30, 2026
South Africa-Israel: SA Expels Israeli Envoy, Israel Hits Back
Certainly not a smart move by the government of South Africa!
U.S.-Iran: U.S. Deploys 'Nuke Sniffer' in UK Amid Iran War Drums
President Trump is serious about Iran!
Panama Court says China-Controlled Ports Unconstitutional: Big Win for US
President Trump is pushing back!
Solar desert power: Inside China's mega farm
What an environmental disaster created by the communist party of China!
Russian Drones Using Starlink? Ukraine Raises Satellite War Tech Alarm with Palki Sharma
How difficult is it to keep Starlink out the hands of the Russian military?
Deadly serpents may be riding railcars in India
Amazing stuff! Hitch a ride!
"Some king cobras, the longest venomous snakes in the world, may be traveling on trains in India. The inadvertent hitchhiking appears to be transporting these deadly snakes into places they don’t normally occur, raising the risk of harm to people and the snakes as well. ...
The new study of dispersal via railway travel—the first such analysis for snakes—was undertaken ... in the state of Goa, where the Western Ghats king cobra lives primarily in forests. Parmar compiled reports on cobra rescues spanning 22 years, which revealed that these serpents had been found in five locations with entirely unsuitable lowland habitat; all were along or within a few hundred meters of railway tracks. Parmar and colleagues suspect the snakes, which are agile climbers, slip onto freight trains when they stop in the cobra’s prime habitat, perhaps on the hunt for rodents, lizards, or other snakes attracted to the train’s edible cargo. ..."
From the abstract:
"We provide the first detailed documentation on the distribution and natural history of the Western Ghats King Cobra, Ophiophagus kaalinga, in Goa State, India, and its interesting apparent interaction with railway infrastructure, which may influence its distribution.
The combination of rescue records, verified sightings, local reports, and historical data allowed us to document a total of 47 georeferenced localities where O. kaalinga has been found in the state, with 18 localities in North Goa District and 29 in South Goa District. These data inform our study of the Goa Gap, a biologically significant region without obvious physical characteristics, and assess the suitability of this area for king cobras.
Using a series of climate and vegetation variables, we were able to model the potential distribution of the species in Goa. It is noteworthy that the five king cobra records that fall along busy railway corridors had the lowest predicted probability, as predicted by our model. Combined with recent reports of snakes on trains in India and of O. kaalinga in a rail yard, entirely unsuitable reptile habitats, we propose the hypothesis that snakes, king cobras included, may inadvertently expand their ranges by accidental transport on trains."
Fig. 1 Predicted distribution of the Western Ghats King Cobra, Ophiophagus kaalinga, in Goa State, India.
Menopause linked to loss of grey matter in the brain, poorer mental health and sleep disturbance with and without hormone replacement therapy
Bad news! Or what is the influence of pre-existing conditions?
"The study ... found that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) does not appear to mitigate these effects, though it can slow the decline in reaction times. ...
The average age of onset of menopause among the participants was around 49.5 years, while the average age that women prescribed HRT began their treatment was around 49 years.
Post-menopausal women were more likely than those pre-menopause to have sought help from their GP or a psychiatrist for anxiety, nerves or depression, and to score more highly on questionnaires for symptoms of depression. Similarly, they were more likely to have been prescribed antidepressants. ...
further analysis showed that these differences in symptoms were already present before menopause. ...
Women post-menopause were more likely to report insomnia, get less sleep, and feel tired. Those on HRT reported feeling the most tired of all three groups ..."
From the abstract:
"Abstract
Background
Menopause is a natural physiological process, but its effects on the brain remain poorly understood. In England, approximately 15% of women use hormone-replacement therapy (HRT) to manage menopausal symptoms. However, the psychological benefits of HRT are not well established. This study aims to investigate the impact of menopause and HRT on mental health, cognitive function, and brain structure.
Methods
We analyzed data from nearly 125,000 participants in the UK Biobank to assess associations between menopause, HRT use, and outcomes related to mental health, cognition, and brain morphology. Specifically, we focused on gray matter volumes in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC).
Results
Menopause was associated with increased levels of anxiety, depression, and sleep difficulties. Women using HRT reported greater mental health challenges than post-menopausal women not using HRT. Post-hoc analyses revealed that women prescribed HRT had higher levels of pre-existing mental health symptoms. In terms of brain structure, MTL and ACC volumes were smaller in post-menopausal women compared to pre-menopausal women, with the lowest volumes observed in the HRT group.
Conclusions
Our findings suggest that menopause is linked to adverse mental health outcomes and reductions in gray matter volume in key brain regions. The use of HRT does not appear to mitigate these effects and may be associated with more pronounced mental health challenges, potentially due to underlying baseline differences. These results have important implications for understanding the neurobiological effects of HRT and highlighting the unmet need for addressing mental health problems during menopause."
Hong Kong to repeal bus seat belt rules over ‘deficiencies’ in law
Seat belts for bus passengers? Which lobby promoted this? How much does this increase the price of a bus?
How often do buses get involved in traffic accidents?
Underwater 3D printing could transform maritime construction
Amazing stuff!
"Since it was invented in the 1980s, 3D printing has moved from the laboratory to the factory, the home and even outer space.
Now, an interdisciplinary group of Cornell researchers is developing a way to bring the technology to the ocean. By 3D-printing concrete underwater, the new approach could transform on-site maritime construction and the repair of critical infrastructure that connects continents. ...
The project got its start in fall 2024, when the Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) issued a call for proposals to design 3D-printable concrete that could be deposited at a depth of several meters underwater – and to do so in a radically truncated timeframe of one year. ...
Underwater printing faces numerous challenges. Chief among them is preventing washout, in which cement particles fail to bind together during deposition, weakening the material. The typical solution is introducing admixture chemicals, but these create complications of their own. ...
DARPA added one more hurdle: The concrete needed to consist primarily of seafloor sediment and only include a small amount of cement. Incorporating material from the bottom of the ocean would minimize the logistical difficulty of transporting large quantities of cement by ship. ..."
For months, the team has been conducting test prints in a large tub of water, monitoring how the layers are deposited and the strength, shape and texture of each sample.
DNA variations explaining up to 50% of longevity differences
Amazing stuff! One reason why twin studies are so important!
"A new study points to a larger role for genetics than previous research had indicated, estimating the contribution of genes to determining human lifespan at about 50%. That is roughly double what prior research concluded, and it mirrors the findings of lifespan studies in laboratory animals. ..."
"... Surprisingly, for decades scientists believed that the heritability of human lifespan was relatively low compared to other human traits, standing at just 20 to 25 percent; some recent large-scale studies even placed it below 10 percent. ..."
From the editor's summary and abstract:
"Editor’s summary
... However, this is a difficult topic to study because it takes a long time to collect data on human life spans, and many different factors can contribute to mortality. One key distinction is between extrinsic mortality (violence, accidents, infections, etc.) and intrinsic mortality due to genetic mutations and/or aging-related diseases.
Shenhar et al. analyzed more than a century’s worth of data from three different Scandinavian twin cohorts and concluded that the current estimates of longevity heritability are much too low (see the Perspective by Bakula and Scheibye-Knudsen). In the late 1800s and early 1900s, when these study cohorts were born, extrinsic causes played a large role in mortality, but once those are excluded, longevity appears to be about 50% heritable, similar to many other traits. ...
Abstract
How heritable is human life span? If genetic heritability is high, longevity genes can reveal aging mechanisms and inform medicine and public health. However, current estimates of heritability are low—twin studies show heritability of only 20 to 25%, and recent large pedigree studies suggest it is as low as 6%.
Here we show that these estimates are confounded by extrinsic mortality—deaths caused by extrinsic factors such as accidents or infections. We use mathematical modeling and analyses of twin cohorts raised together and apart to correct for this factor, revealing that heritability of human life span due to intrinsic mortality is above 50%. Such high heritability is similar to that of most other complex human traits and to life-span heritability in other species."
Rethinking Longevity: Genes Matter More than We Thought (original news release) "Weizmann Institute study finds genetic contribution to human lifespan is about 50 percent – more than double previous estimates"
Rethinking the heritability of aging (open access) "The genetic contribution to human longevity is greater than previously thought"
Heritability of intrinsic human life span is about 50% when confounding factors are addressed (open access)
Credits: The Flyover
Fig. 1. Extrinsic mortality masks life-span correlations in twin cohorts.
Fig. 2. Life-span heritability increases when accounting for extrinsic mortality.
Helping hospital staff address burnout and compassion fatigue through music
What about music for hospital patients?
"... seeks to identify the unique role music could have in relieving health care staff burnout and compassion fatigue.
Substantial evidence exists for the health benefits of music, from supporting pain management to reducing symptoms of depression. But its integration into health care practice remains limited to patient care. Harmonizing for Health is believed to be the first intervention of its kind to help health care staff through music. ..."
Waymo robotaxi hits a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica
I believe, Waymo robotaxi car accidents with humans are very rare!
Maybe the child made a grave mistake?
Would a human driver have been able to avoid this particular accident? Maybe not.
What were the parents doing?
"A Waymo robotaxi struck a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica on January 23, according to the company. Waymo told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that the child — whose age and identity are not currently public — sustained minor injuries. ...
Waymo said its robotaxi struck the child at six miles per hour, after braking “hard” from around 17 miles per hour. The young pedestrian “suddenly entered the roadway from behind a tall SUV, moving directly into our vehicle’s path,” ..."
Japanese semiconductor supplier plans expansion in Arizona
What makes Arizona so attractive for Taiwanese and Japanese semiconductor companies?
Maybe it is the Roadrunner? Just kidding!
"A semiconductor supplier that has operated in Phoenix since the mid-1990s is seeking city approval to build a new industrial facility, with most of the space dedicated to warehouse operations."
Roadrunner
Casualties in Ukraine war could hit 2 million with Russian casualties over 1.2 million, report warns
When will the apathetic and lethargic Russian people finally get rid of Putin the Terrible!
How many more young Russian men have to die in this war of aggression by Putin the Terrible!
"A new report warns that the number of soldiers killed, injured or missing on both sides of Russia’s war on Ukraine could hit 2 million by the spring, with Russia suffering the largest number of troop deaths recorded for any major power in any conflict since World War II.
Tuesday’s report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies came less than a month before the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. ..."
"Despite claims of battlefield momentum in Ukraine, the data shows that Russia is paying an extraordinary price for minimal gains and is in decline as a major power. Since February 2022, Russian forces have suffered nearly 1.2 million casualties, more losses than any major power in any war since World War II. At current rates, combined Russian and Ukrainian casualties could reach 2 million by the spring of 2026. After seizing the initiative in 2024, Russian forces have advanced at an average rate of between 15 and 70 meters per day in their most prominent offensives, slower than almost any major offensive campaign in any war in the last century. Meanwhile, Russia’s war economy is under mounting strain, with manufacturing declining, slowing growth of 0.6 percent in 2025, and no globally competitive technology firms to help drive long-term productivity. ..."
Russia’s Grinding War in Ukraine "Massive Losses and Tiny Gains for a Declining Power"
„Reichensteuer: Aber richtig“ wie Ultrareiche endlich fair besteuert werden können. Wirklich!
Wieder mal Neid und Gier gegen Reiche!
Zahlen nicht Besserverdienende und Reich ehedem schon verhältnismäßig mehr Steuern als der Rest der Steuerzahler? In den USA ist das schon seit Jahrzehnten nachgewiesen worden.
Erhalten Geringverdiener und Arme etc. nicht Sozialleistungen und andere Vorteile?
Apple buys secretive Israeli AI company for $1.6 billion
Was Apple sleeping at the switch or missing the train?
Why did Apple buy an Israeli company?
Thursday, January 29, 2026
Doctor says patients/protesters forcibly removed from hospitals in Iran
Very disturbing! Only monsters do that! Injured protesters are contacting Iranian doctors living in Western countries!
These three doctors were arrested for assisting injured protesters!
Is Thailand ready to become a super-aged society?
Recommendable! Not only Western countries are facing fast aging societies!
“Venice Of Nigeria” Demolished: Thousands Left Homeless In Lagos Clearance
Bad news! Was this necessary?
How Khamenei's Son Built a Secret Global Property Empire with Molly Gambhir
Mullahs and graft in Iran!
China Ready for War to Defend its Latin American Infiltration After Maduro Capture
Food for thought! How much is China active in Latin American countries?
Burkina Faso Clears Legal Hurdle to Boost Nuclear Cooperation with Russia
Serious stuff! This is huge! Were Western countries sleeping at the switch?
This country has uranium deposits! It is the least electrified country in Africa.
Germany and Italy’s Plan for Europe Explained
Very recommendable! What a nice couple - Merz & Meloni!
Elon Musk’s Neuralink enters human trials as 21 patients receive brain implants
Good news! Amazing stuff!
How China is Challenging Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX with Palki Sharma
How serious is the copycat competition from China?
After Venezuela and Iran, Is Cuba Trump’s Next Target? with Palki Sharma
Cuba libre! Which country will come to the aid of Cuba this time?
How your genes influence the microbes and cavities in our mouth
Amazing stuff!
"Highlights
- A new study suggests that our genetics plays a role in determining the microbial community living in our mouths.
- Scientists discovered 11 regions of the human genome that influence the abundances of dozens of bacterial species in the mouth.
- The authors found a relationship between a human gene and oral bacteria that plays a role in dental health.
...
found a surprisingly large effect of human genetics on the abundance of microbes in the mouth. The researchers discovered genome-to-genome interactions between human DNA and the DNA of the oral microbiome. For example, they found that a human gene, AMY1, was strongly linked to the composition of the oral microbial community, and even to dentures use, suggesting that the relationship between this gene and the bacteria in the mouth plays a role in oral health. ..."
From the abstract:
"Human genetic variation influences all aspects of our biology, including the oral cavity, through which nutrients and microbes enter the body. Yet it is largely unknown which human genetic variants shape a person’s oral microbiome and potentially promote its dysbiosis.
We characterized the oral microbiomes of 12,519 people by re-analysing whole-genome sequencing reads from previously sequenced saliva-derived DNA. Human genetic variation at 11 loci (10 new) associated with variation in oral microbiome composition.
Several of these related to carbohydrate availability; the strongest association (P = 3.0 × 10−188) involved the common FUT2 W154X loss-of-function variant, which associated with the abundances of 58 bacterial species.
Human host genetics also seemed to powerfully shape genetic variation in oral bacterial species: these 11 host genetic variants also associated with variation of gene dosages in 68 regions of bacterial genomes. Common, multi-allelic copy number variation of AMY1, which encodes salivary amylase, associated with oral microbiome composition (P = 1.5 × 10−53) and with dentures use in UK Biobank (P = 5.9 × 10−35, n = 418,039) but not with body mass index (P = 0.85), suggesting that salivary amylase abundance impacts health by influencing the oral microbiome.
Two other microbiome composition-associated loci, FUT2 and PITX1, also significantly associated with dentures risk, collectively nominating numerous host–microbial interactions that contribute to tooth decay."
Fig. 1: Oral microbiomes in 12,519 individuals measured by WGS [whole-genome sequencing] of saliva samples.
Details Unveiled for New ‘Trump Accounts’
Economists have debated these kind of plans for several decades!
Even a rapper comes out with a donation!
"President Trump unveiled Trump Accounts on Wednesday, a program that will deposit $1,000 into government-funded investment accounts for American children born between Jan. 1, 2025 and Dec. 31, 2028, with funds available beginning at age 18 for education, housing, or starting a business.
The accounts will be stock-market linked, with families, employers, churches, and states able to contribute up to $5,000 annually in pre-tax dollars. Trump said modest contributions could grow the accounts to $50,000 or more by age 18.
Billionaires Michael and Susan Dell pledged $6.25 billion to provide an additional $250 to 25 million children under 10 in lower-income ZIP codes, while rapper Nicki Minaj announced she would contribute $150,000 to $300,000 for her fans’ accounts."
A rapper and the president!
Physicists uncover hidden magnetic order in the mysterious pseudogap phase
Amazing stuff!
"Physicists have uncovered a link between magnetism and a mysterious phase of matter called the pseudogap, which appears in certain quantum materials just above the temperature at which they become superconducting. The findings could help researchers design new materials with sought-after properties such as high-temperature superconductivity, in which electric current flows without resistance.
Using a quantum simulator chilled to just above absolute zero, the researchers discovered a universal pattern in how electrons — which can have spin up or down — influence their neighbors’ spins as the system is cooled. The findings represent a significant step toward understanding unconventional superconductivity ...
In many high-temperature superconductors, the transition to the superconducting state does not emerge out of a conventional metallic state. Instead, the material first enters a curious intermediate regime known as the pseudogap, in which electrons start behaving in unusual ways, and fewer electronic states are available for electrons to flow through the material. ...
In materials containing an unaltered number of electrons, the electrons arrange themselves in an orderly, alternating magnetic pattern known as antiferromagnetism. In this pattern, neighboring electron spins point in opposite directions — like dancers following a precise left-right rhythm.
But when electrons are removed through a process known as doping, this magnetic order becomes strongly disrupted. For a long time, researchers assumed that doping destroyed long-range magnetic order entirely. The new study in PNAS, however, shows that at extremely low temperatures, a subtle form of organization remains, hidden beneath the apparent disorder. ..."
From the significance and abstract:
"Significance
Understanding strongly correlated fermions constitutes a major challenge of modern physics. Here, we take a significant step in this direction, by the finding of a universal scaling of spin and charge correlations upon entering the pseudogap phase in the paradigmatic Hubbard model, using our ultracold atom quantum simulator. This leads to a quantitative description of how doping suppresses the spin stiffness, concurrent with the emergence of dominant higher-order correlations that we observe in the system. Our characterization of the magnetic properties of the pseudogap in the paradigmatic Hubbard model paves the way for future studies of further collective phases of matter that the pseudogap is believed to give way to at even lower temperatures.
Abstract
In strongly correlated materials, interacting electrons are entangled and form collective quantum states, resulting in rich low-temperature phase diagrams. Notable examples include cuprate superconductors, in which superconductivity emerges at low doping out of an unusual “pseudogap” metallic state above the critical temperature.
The Fermi–Hubbard model, describing a wide range of phenomena associated with strong electron correlations, still offers major computational challenges despite its simple formulation. In this context, ultracold atoms quantum simulators have provided invaluable insights into the microscopic nature of correlated quantum states.
Here, we use a quantum gas microscope Fermi–Hubbard simulator to explore a wide range of dopings and temperatures in a regime where a pseudogap is known to develop. By measuring multipoint correlation functions up to fifth order, we uncover a universal scaling behavior in magnetic and higher-order spin–charge correlations characterized by a doping-dependent temperature scale. Accurate comparisons with determinant Quantum Monte Carlo and Minimally Entangled Typical Thermal States simulations confirm that this temperature scale is comparable to the pseudogap temperature.
Our quantitative findings reveal a qualitative behavior of magnetic properties and spin–charge correlations in an emergent pseudogap and pave the way toward the exploration of charge pairing and collective phenomena expected at lower temperatures."
Hidden Order in Quantum Confusion: The Pseudogap (original news release) "Quantum simulator using ultracold atoms reveals how subtle magnetic patterns shape one of the most puzzling states of matter."
Observation of emergent scaling of spin–charge correlations at the onset of the pseudogap (open access)
Fig. 4 Emergence of extended polarons in the pseudogap. (A) Example of polaron correlations
Linux after Linus? The kernel community finally drafts a plan for replacing Torvalds
What will happen to one of the best free operating systems of the world?
"ZDNET's key takeaways
- If something happens to Linus Torvalds, there's now a succession plan.
- Rather than naming a successor, the plan describes a process for selecting successors.
- However, Torvalds has no plans to retire.
..."
Linus Torvalds
In developing immunity to allergens, a little ‘dirty’ goes a long way
What has been known for long time gets confirmed again and again! The more and early exposure to potential allergens helps to prevent allergies!
How many more times does this need to be confirmed? This seems to be kind of redundant research!
"... Yale researchers have now found an answer. It turns out that exposure to diverse microbes and proteins early in life creates broad immune memory and a specific antibody that helps block allergic reactions later in life. Rather than overreacting to harmless allergens (ragweed, cats, peanuts, etc.), researchers say, an experienced immune system responds in a balanced way. ...
To find out, researchers compared two groups of mice. One group consisted of mice raised in microbe-rich environments — akin to mice living in a natural habitat. The other group consisted of laboratory mice raised in sterile conditions. Researchers exposed both groups to allergens and then measured allergic reactions, antibody production, and immune cell activity in the animals. ..."
From the abstract:
"Allergic diseases are caused by overexuberant type II immune responses mounted against environmental antigens. The allergic state is typified by the presence of allergen-reactive immunoglobulin E (IgE), which triggers mast cell degranulation upon allergen encounter, manifesting in pruritis, oedema and, in severe cases, anaphylaxis.
Over the past century, the prevalence of allergic diseases has increased markedly, suggesting that environmental rather than genetic factors are mediating this change. Although many hypotheses connecting environment to allergy exist, the biological mechanisms that underpin environmentally mediated protection from allergy are unknown.
Here we show, using a mouse model of allergic disease, that exposure to immunostimulatory environments generated cross-reactive adaptive immune memory, which tracked with obstructed type II immune responses upon allergen exposure. We found that engagement of cross-reactive adaptive immunity protected against future allergic sensitization and suppressed established allergic responses.
Cross-reactivity in a tolerogenic context also prevented allergy, with the effect extending across antigenically complex exposures even at low protein sequence similarity. Our findings demonstrate a mechanistic relationship between environment and allergy, with general implications for adaptive immune function in natural settings."
Fig. 2: Pet shop mice have pre-existing immune memory of model antigens.
Palestinian Authority paid over $200M to terrorists in 2025
What else to expect from someone like Mahmoud Abbas (age 90)!
When will the Palestinians finally get rid of lousy leadership like Yassir Arafat or Mahmoud Abbas!
When will the fat Mahmoud Abbas be arrested as a terrorism sponsor?
"The State Department found that the Palestinian Authority paid over $200 million to terrorists and their families in 2025 despite supposedly ending the program, according to a report.
Last year, PA President Mahmoud Abbas claimed that he ended the "pay-to-slay" program, but according to a nonpublic notice provided by the department to Congress, the PA shifted to a new system of payment, the Washington Free Beacon reported Wednesday.
Israeli intelligence determined that the PA funneled $144 million to terrorists and their families in 2024 and committed at least $214 million through 2025, and the State Department found that the payments continued from March to August 2025 under a purportedly reformed welfare system. ..."
Wanted! Official photo
Wednesday, January 28, 2026
'Trump Accounts' are path to American dream, president says
Something like it has been proposed many times over the last 50 years or more!
Ukraine's SURPRISE ATTACK destroys $1billion of military hardware deep inside Russia
When will the lethargic and apathetic Russians get rid of Putin the Terrible!
Beyond Beaches and Temples: The New Map of Indian Tourism with Palki Sharma
Good news! Domestic tourism is taking off in India!
Spain Plans to Grant Legal Status to 500,000 illegal immigrants with Palki Sharma
Certainly, a bold step! Will it attract more immigrants?
Tokenized Real World Assets Cross $20bn
Good news!
"In its review of 2025, Securitize said the tokenized real world asset market (excluding stablecoins) grew to $18.2bn by the end of the year, compared to approximately $5.5bn at the start. Tokenized treasuries increased from $4bn to $9bn over the same period. ..."
"... The broader tokenized real world asset market (excluding stablecoins) scaled from approximately $5.5B at the end of 2024 to $18.2B by December 2025. ..."
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