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Category: health

Why Mucus and Phlegm Matter in Health and Disease

It’s mucus season—the time of year this sticky goo makes an appearance in the form of runny noses and phlegmy coughs. While most people are only aware of mucus when they are sick, their organs are blanketed with the stuff year-round. And, when it comes to the microbes living in our bodies, mucus is incredibly important. It provides a spatial and nutritional niche for diverse organisms to thrive, while also preventing them from getting too close to host tissues. Mucus also regulates microbial growth, metabolism and virulence, ultimately controlling the composition of microbial communities throughout the body. As such, scientists are looking at how to exploit mucus-microbe interactions to foster human health.

Mucus is found in creatures spanning the tree of life, from corals to people. In humans and other mammals, the slick goop coats epithelial tissues, including those in the mouth, lungs, gut and urogenital tract. In these regions, mucus protects cells from physical and enzymatic stress, heals wounds and selectively filters particles that can pass through to underlying tissues.

Smartwatch and Hypertension Notification

From JAMA: The US Food and Drug Administration recently cleared the Apple Watch hypertension notification feature.

Researchers applied performance metrics reported by Apple to nationally representative survey data and found that, overall, 69% of individuals who receive a smartwatch alert would have hypertension, while 79% of those who do not receive an alert would not have hypertension. However, these rates vary according to subgroup characteristics, such as age and sex.

Current guidelines recommend cuff-based blood pressure measurement as the standard for diagnosing hypertension. Incorporating cuffless device technologies into public health screening efforts will require additional validation and careful attention to device accuracy to reduce misclassification and the risk of false reassurance.

This cross-sectional study assesses the potential impact of a smartwatch hypertension notification feature for US adults who have not been diagnosed with hypertension.

Blood-based tests show strong promise for dementia diagnosis—but population diversity matters

In a study published today, Friday, February 13, 2026, in the journal Nature Aging, researchers show that blood-based biomarkers can support accurate dementia diagnosis across diverse populations when integrated with cognitive and neuroimaging measures. Blood-based biomarkers are emerging as one of the most promising advances for the global diagnosis of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration. These tests offer a more accessible, scalable, and cost-effective alternative to traditional diagnostic tools such as brain imaging or cerebrospinal fluid analysis.

However, most blood-based biomarkers have been developed and validated primarily in relatively homogeneous populations. Genetic background, overall physical health, and environmental and social exposures can substantially influence biomarker levels, raising concerns about how well these tests perform across diverse populations worldwide.

Dario Amodei — “We are near the end of the exponential”

Predicts significant advancements in AI capabilities within the next decade, which will have a profound impact on society, economy, and individuals, and emphasizes the need for careful governance, equitable distribution of benefits, and responsible development to mitigate risks and maximize benefits ## ## Questions to inspire discussion.

AI Scaling and Progress.

Q: What are the key factors driving AI progress according to the scaling hypothesis?

A: Compute, data quantity and quality, training duration, and objective functions that can scale massively drive AI progress, per Dario Amodei’s “Big Blob of Compute Hypothesis” from 2017.

Q: Why do AI models trained on broad data distributions perform better?

A: Models like GPT-2 generalize better when trained on wide variety of internet text rather than narrow datasets like fanfiction, leading to superior performance on diverse tasks.

Continue reading “Dario Amodei — “We are near the end of the exponential”” | >

Scientists Just Uncovered How Menopause Rewires the Brain

Menopause reshapes the brain in surprising ways — but it may also reveal the brain’s remarkable ability to adapt.

During menopause, many women notice episodes of “brain fog,” which can include forgetfulness, difficulty focusing, and persistent mental tiredness. These challenges are often linked to shifting hormone levels. To better understand what is happening in the brain during this life stage, researchers reviewed previously published studies examining how structural brain changes relate to cognitive, emotional, and physical health outcomes. Their findings were presented at the 2025 Annual Meeting of The Menopause Society.

Structural Brain Changes During Menopause.

Technical advance ✨

Laszlo Nagy & team define unique regulatory programs of placental Hofbauer cells, advancing understanding of their role in pregnancy health and potential disease:

The image shows enrichment of Hofbauer cells by CD163-based cell sorting Placenta Fetal Development.

1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, and.

2Doctoral School of Molecular Cell and Immune Biology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary.

3Institute for Fundamental Biomedical Research, Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA.

Nanolaser on a chip could cut computer energy use in half

Researchers at DTU have developed a nanolaser that could be the key to much faster and much more energy-efficient computers, phones, and data centers. The technology offers the prospect of thousands of the new lasers being placed on a single microchip, thus opening a digital future where data is no longer transmitted using electrical signals, but using light particles, photons. The invention has been published in the journal Science Advances.

“The nanolaser opens up the possibility of creating a new generation of components that combine high performance with minimal size. This could be in information technology, for example, where ultra-small and energy-efficient lasers can reduce energy consumption in computers, or in the development of sensors for the health care sector, where the nanolaser’s extreme light concentration can deliver high-resolution images and ultrasensitive biosensors,” says DTU professor Jesper Mørk, who co-authored the paper together with, among others, Drs. Meng Xiong and Yi Yu from DTU Electro.

A glaucoma drug may help prevent opioid relapse

An existing drug currently used to treat glaucoma, altitude sickness, and seizures may also have the potential to prevent relapse in opioid use disorder, according to a study by researchers at University of Iowa Health Care. The work is published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

The UI researchers led by John Wemmie, MD, Ph.D., focused on the drug known as acetazolamide (AZD) because it blocks the activity of a brain enzyme called carbonic anhydrase 4 (CA4). Wemmie’s team had previously discovered that inhibiting CA4 in the whole brain, or just in its reward center (the nucleus accumbens), of mice, significantly reduced the brain changes that occurred after cocaine withdrawal. In addition, blocking the CA4 enzyme reduced drug-seeking behavior and relapse in the mice.

“What makes this approach promising is that it works in a completely different way from current treatments,” says Wemmie, a professor of psychiatry in the UI Carver College of Medicine. “Instead of targeting opioid receptors, AZD targets a different pathway involved in drug-induced synaptic changes and drug-seeking behavior. This could open the door to new therapies that help people stay in recovery by addressing the brain’s long-term response to drug use.”

Cannabis Access Tied to Big Drop in Daily Opioid Use

Greater access to legal cannabis is associated with a significant drop in daily opioid use, suggesting that cannabis availability may reduce reliance on opioids for pain or other use.

How can cannabis legalization influence opioid use? This is what a recent study published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated behavior connections between cannabis use and opioid use. This study has the potential to help scientists, medical professionals, legislators, and the public better understand the benefits of cannabis, including how it can help the opioid epidemic.

For the study, the researchers analyzed survey data collected from 28,069 individuals designated as people who inject drugs (PWID) during 2012, 2015, 2018, and 2022 across 13 states. The goal of the study was to compare medical cannabis and medical plus recreational cannabis use to opioid use. The respondents were asked to report their past 30-day use for both cannabis and opioids. In the end, the researchers found that users who subscribed to both medical plus recreational cannabis use compared to just medical cannabis use experienced a 9–11 percent decline in opioid use.

The study notes in its conclusions, “Cannabis legalization may shape daily opioid consumption among PWID, potentially reducing drug-related harms. Differences in cannabis use following legalization may reflect disparate impact by race, due to structural racism or other factors. Future research examining whether policy attributable changes in substance use manifest health benefits among PWID is critical to developing evidence-based cannabis reform.”

Scientists Discover a Brain Circuit That Enhances Physical Endurance In Mice

The effects of exercise would not be nearly as powerful without the input of the brain, according to new research.

A study on mice has found a critical signal in the central nervous system that helps build physical endurance in the wider body after repeated exercise.

Traditionally, scientists thought that our body’s extensive response to frequent exercise occurred mainly in the periphery, such as the bones and muscles, and the heart.

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