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Science X Newsletter Dear olivier hartmanshenn, To everyone who has already supported our work—thank you! Your contributions make a real difference and help us continue delivering accurate, reliable science news every day. Knowing that so many readers value what we do motivates us to keep improving and to stay focused on what matters most. If you haven’t had a chance to contribute yet, we’d be grateful for your support. Every donation—no matter the size—helps sustain independent science journalism and keeps our work accessible to all. Make a donation — Ad-free account included. — Andrew Zinin Chief Editor Here is your customized Science X Newsletter for week 26: Two patients with severe autoimmune disease remain relapse-free for over 15 years after stem cell transplant Two patients with therapy-refractory AQP4-IgG–positive neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder achieved >15-year relapse-free remission after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation with full donor immune reconstitution. AQP4-IgG became and remained undetectable, neurological status stabilized or improved, and quality of life increased without ongoing immunosuppression.   A thermodynamic approach to gravity could explain cosmic acceleration without dark energy A thermodynamic formulation of gravity modeled as an Otto cycle yields modified conservation laws allowing continuous matter creation. Applied to cosmology, this framework can produce late-time cosmic acceleration without invoking dark energy or a cosmological constant. The approach remains theoretical and requires confrontation with precision cosmological data.   Anatomically accurate digital twin of 2-year-old's brain uncovers neural signatures linked to autism A high-fidelity digital twin (FEDE) of a 2-year-old brain with autism integrated MRI-based anatomy, myelination, and EEG to jointly model structure and dynamics. The model reproduced individual EEG with high precision and inferred markedly elevated background neural noise and excitation–inhibition ratio, consistent with ASD-linked network dysfunction. This unified pipeline enables patient-specific mechanistic characterization but requires validation in larger cohorts.   Scientists unlock gut-healing power of fruits and nuts paired with the right gut microbes Urolithin A, a gut microbial metabolite of foods such as pomegranates, walnuts, and berries, selectively activates the aryl hydrocarbon receptor in intestinal epithelial cells, triggering NLRP6 inflammasome signaling. This induces controlled release of mediators that repair the epithelium, strengthen the barrier, enhance mucus and antimicrobial defenses, and limit tissue damage. The mechanism was confirmed in cells, organoids, and IBD patient tissue, suggesting therapeutic strategies that boost protective, cell-specific pathways rather than broadly suppressing immunity.   Asteroid zooming past Earth on Saturday visible to stargazers Asteroid (152637) 1997 NC1, 750–1650 m in estimated diameter, will pass Earth at 2.56×10⁶ km (≈6.6 lunar distances) and ~9 km/s, with no impact risk. The object will be observable with small telescopes or large binoculars, though lunar brightness and local sky darkness will significantly affect visibility across hemispheres.   Newly described Australian ballista spider builds a spring-loaded snare to catch a single ant species A newly described Propostira spider from North Queensland constructs a spring-loaded silk snare specialized to capture single Oecophylla smaragdina workers. The ant’s attack severs an anchor, catapulting it >30 cm at >1,300 m·s⁻² into the spider’s web. The silk bundle stores and rapidly releases elastic energy, representing a highly specialized, prey-triggered, single-species capture mechanism.   A species of gut bacteria could ease anxiety and diarrhea-predominant IBS Diarrhea‑predominant IBS is frequently accompanied by anxiety, which correlates with symptom severity and altered amygdala activity. IBS‑D patients and analogous mouse models show depletion of Phocaeicola vulgatus, with lower levels linked to greater anxiety and impaired amygdala function. In mice, supplementation with live P. vulgatus reduced anxiety-like behavior by attenuating amygdala neuroinflammation and neuronal damage, suggesting a potential psychobiotic or postbiotic therapeutic strategy pending clinical validation.   Bird-derived gene tool inserts plant DNA 30 times more efficiently than CRISPR A plant genome editing system based on the zebra finch R2 retrotransposon inserts large DNA payloads into defined genomic loci with ∼30-fold higher efficiency than CRISPR-based methods. It enables single-step, targeted integration of multigene pathways with durable expression, overcoming the traditional trade-off between insertion efficiency and positional precision in plants.   How oxygen sneaks into a corked wine bottle long before the first pour Oxygen transfer in corked wine progresses via four mechanisms over distinct timescales: rapid equilibration between headspace and liquid; release of oxygen stored in cork cells (~9 months); oxygen consumption by cork-derived phenolics (4–15 months); and long-term inward permeation through cork and glass–cork gaps, causing a gradual oxygen increase.   Did gravitational tides cause Earth's extinctions? The article discusses a hypothesis that close passages of planetary-mass or dwarf-planet objects could generate strong gravitational tides, triggering giant tsunamis, enhanced volcanism, climate shifts, and redirected impactors, collectively driving some mass extinctions over the past 600 Myr. Correlations with geological and orbital anomalies are noted, but mass, frequency, and detailed evidence for such flybys remain highly uncertain.   Hope for spinal injuries as pigs walk again after experimental gel treatment for severed spinal cords Pigs with complete spinal cord transections treated with a polyethylene glycol–chitosan fusogen gel showed rapid sensory recovery, restoration of bladder control by day 5, and independent walking by day 60, unlike untreated controls. Histology indicated reduced scarring and nerve fibers crossing the lesion, consistent with axonal fusion–mediated neurorepair.   Uneven cerebellum aging may partly explain why some older adults stay mentally sharp Cerebellar regions show spatially heterogeneous atrophy with age, with posterior association-linked areas shrinking faster than anterior motor regions. Larger cerebellar volume correlates with better memory and cognition in older adults, supporting a threshold-reserve model in which cerebellar integrity buffers decline until pathology is widespread. Causality and generalizability remain unresolved.   Brain-inspired AI architecture could compute faster while using far less power A dual-memory spiking neural network architecture is introduced that combines fast spiking activity with an explicit slow, low-dimensional memory pathway, stabilizing learning and preserving event-driven sparsity. Co-designed near-memory-compute hardware exploits this compact shared state, yielding over 4× higher throughput and over 5× better energy efficiency on long-sequence tasks than prior SNN implementations.   Oldest known asteroid impact on Earth dated to 3 billion years Zircon and apatite geochronology from shock-damaged rocks at North Pole Dome (Pilbara, Western Australia) constrain an impact event to ~3.0 Ga. The concordant ages from two mineral systems identify this structure as Earth’s oldest known impact crater and the only securely recognized example from the Archean, extending the well-dated impact record deeper into geologic time.   Sugar-coated nanoparticles show promise for treating most aggressive form of brain cancer Mannose-coated lipid nanoparticles loaded with PTEN mRNA use GLUT1 transport to cross the blood–brain barrier and preferentially accumulate in GLUT1-overexpressing glioblastoma tissue in mice. Densely mannose-coated surfaces, achieved via mannose–cholesterol conjugation, enhanced brain delivery, restored PTEN, induced tumor shrinkage, and increased median survival by 50% without measurable organ toxicity.   The universe should look the same in all directions at large scales, but DESI data suggest otherwise DESI galaxy maps analyzed with the Angular Distribution of Pairwise Distances indicate statistically significant anisotropic clustering persisting to gigaparsec scales, beyond predictions of standard cosmology. The result challenges large-scale isotropy and statistical homogeneity while remaining consistent with the Copernican principle, motivating models with large-scale inhomogeneities or modified structure growth.   Apes and humans have been sharing a laugh for 15 million years Laughter in humans and all great apes shows a conserved rhythmic structure with evenly spaced vocal intervals, implying this pattern originated in a common ancestor ~15 million years ago. Human laughter retains this rhythm but is faster, more variable, and more context-controlled, indicating progressively enhanced vocal control. Such control is a likely precursor capacity underlying the evolution of speech.   Weight‑loss drugs like Ozempic could work for addiction too—and we finally know how GLP-1 receptor agonists, originally for type 2 diabetes and obesity, also reduce intake of alcohol, nicotine, stimulants, and opiates. Evidence points to the lateral septum—rich in GLP-1 receptors and integrating hippocampal context with reward signals—as a key site where GLP-1 dampens reward-related neural activity, thereby diminishing cravings and consumption.   Exposure to bright evening light linked to higher risk of age-related eye disease Bright evening light exposure (>1000 lux between 20:00–23:30) is associated with increased incidence of age-related macular degeneration (31%), cataracts (18%), and primary open-angle glaucoma (47%) over ~8 years in 82,826 adults. Risk rose with duration of bright exposure. Disrupted circadian rhythms and blue light–induced oxidative stress are proposed mechanisms.   Marmoset monkeys adapt their voices to sound more like their social partners, study finds Adult marmoset monkeys gradually adjust their trill calls to resemble those of new social partners, with both pair members changing to a similar extent. Modeling indicates continuous, interactive updating of partner call memories rather than simple copying. These results support dynamic vocal learning and suggest socially driven vocal plasticity may be widespread and relevant to language evolution.   This email is a free service of Science X Network. You received this email because you subscribed to our list. If you do not wish to receive such emails in the future, please unsubscribe here. You are subscribed as ohartmanshenn@yahoo.fr. You may manage your subscription options from your Science X profile.