Danger Dust

Ultrafine particulate matter, particularly particles with diameters of 0.3 micrometers or smaller, presents a significant health risk due to their ability to penetrate deep into the respiratory system and even enter the bloodstream. Traditional filtration systems, especially those based on synthetic materials, often face trade-offs between filtration efficiency, airflow resistance, and environmental impact. Wang and colleagues tackled this complex problem by developing a filter derived from naturally abundant biomass, thereby aligning high-performance air purification with principles of sustainability.

At the crux of their findings lies the intricate interplay between host genetic factors and the pathological inflammatory responses that characterize these dental diseases. Pulpal and apical diseases arise when bacterial invasion triggers immune activation within the tooth’s pulp chamber and surrounding apex, leading to tissue necrosis and bone resorption. Yet, why some patients experience aggressive disease progression while others maintain resilience has been a long-standing mystery. The authors’ genomic data reveal that allelic variants in immune regulatory genes, extracellular matrix components, and cellular signaling pathways critically modulate susceptibility and outcomes.

One of the most striking discoveries involves variants in genes encoding toll-like receptors (TLRs), which are pivotal in pathogen recognition and initiation of innate immunity in the oral cavity. Alterations in TLR function can exacerbate or diminish inflammatory signaling cascades, thus shaping the host’s response to bacterial biofilms commonly found in dental caries and periodontal infection. This insight not only elucidates disease mechanisms but also opens avenues for targeted immunomodulatory therapies that may transform clinical management from reactive to preventative.

The body of Anne d'Alegre, who died in 1619, was discovered during an archaeological excavation at the Chateau de Laval in northwestern France in 1988.

Embalmed in a lead coffin, her skeleton – and teeth – were remarkably well preserved.

At the time, the archaeologists noticed that she had a dental prosthetic, but they did not have advanced scanning tools to find out more.

Thirty-five years later, a team of archaeologists and dentists have identified that d'Alegre suffered from periodontal disease that was loosening her teeth, according to a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

A "Cone Beam" scan, which uses X-rays to build three-dimensional images, showed that gold wire had been used to hold together and tighten several of her teeth.

She also had an artificial tooth made of ivory from an elephant – not hippopotamus, which was popular at the time.

But this ornate dental work only "made the situation worse"

The gold wires would have needed repeated tightening over the years, further destabilizing the neighboring teeth, the researchers said.

D'Alegre likely went through the pain for more than just medical reasons. There was huge pressure on aristocratic women at a time when appearance was seen as related to value and rank in society.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the lining of the joints (the synovium), causing pain, swelling, and progressive damage. Approximately 18 million people worldwide live with RA. Early diagnosis and treatment can relieve symptoms, slow disease progression, and help prevent disability.

Current therapies focus on reducing inflammation and preserving joint function, but up to 30% of patients do not respond well.

Key findings

Using gene expression data from single-cell analysis and clinical information, researchers analyzed individual helper T cells from the joint tissue of patients with RA. They identified a distinct subgroup known as Tph cells, which are closely linked to more severe disease.

Notably, these cells produce IGFL2 (Insulin-like Growth Factor-Like Family Member 2), a cytokine found only in primates. IGFL2 was exclusively expressed in helper T cells within synovial tissue, with the highest levels seen in Tph cells......

Taken together, these findings suggest that IGFL2 is not just a marker of disease activity but may also actively drive inflammation in RA, making it a promising target for new treatments.

Tiny shards of plastic called microplastics have been detected accumulating in human brains, but there is not yet enough evidence to say whether this is doing us harm, experts have said.

These mostly invisible pieces of plastic have been found everywhere from the top of mountains to the bottom of oceans, in the air we breathe and the food we eat. They have also been discovered riddled throughout human bodies, inside lungs, hearts, placentas and even crossing the blood-brain barrier.

The increasing ubiquity of microplastics has become a key issue in efforts to hammer out the world's first plastic pollution treaty, with the latest round of UN talks being held in Geneva next week.

The effects that microplastics and even smaller nanoplastics have on human health is not yet fully understood, but researchers have been working to find out more in this relatively new field.

At appropriate temperatures, the tops of many clouds can be composed of either ice crystals or liquid water droplets. This difference affects their radiative properties and their precipitation behavior, which are important factors for climate projections or weather forecasting. Villanueva et al. combined observations and laboratory measurements to demonstrate that the proportion of ice-topped clouds is correlated with the abundance of dust particles in them. This confirms a relationship that has long been suggested but never demonstrated.

At the heart of the methodology lies a sophisticated convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture meticulously designed to extract subtle vascular and structural patterns associated with renal impairment from retinal images. The retina, a uniquely accessible window into the microcirculation, mirrors systemic vascular alterations that correlate with kidney pathology. By detecting and quantifying these microvascular changes—such as vessel caliber, tortuosity, and hemorrhages—the AI system infers the presence and severity of CKD with remarkable accuracy. Notably, the model’s capacity to discern pathological subtypes, including diabetic nephropathy, hypertensive nephrosclerosis, and glomerulonephritis, stems from its ability to identify distinctive retinal vascular signatures linked to each condition.

Lyme disease is a global health epidemic that grows bigger each year. What’s worse is that Lyme is hardly the only serious tick-related disease to worry about now. At least five dangerous pathogens are circulating in deer ticks alone, which expand their range into new territories every year. At the same time, other tick species that can transmit different infections are showing up in ever bigger numbers. It’s a public health concern that’s hard for medical providers to keep up with.

The immune system senses damage to cell membranes caused by pore-forming proteins and mounts a response.

Before this, the mechanism that triggers immune responses to allergens was not really understood. Researchers focused mostly on how a single allergen elicits a reaction, rather than looking for a generalizable mechanism.

The results could also change allergy-treatment strategies, which typically target the allergen directly or downstream immune responses. Now, researchers can start looking for ways to target the hole-creating proteins that are initiating the immune response, Ryan says.

Pore-forming proteins

Researchers based in Beijing, China, identified two proteins in the mould Alternaria alternata, which causes allergic reactions in about 5% of people, that trigger the airway inflammation seen during allergic reactions.

Together, the proteins, called Aeg-S and Aeg-L, create a pore in the membranes of cells lining the nose, throat and lungs. This allows calcium ions to enter the cells and release molecules that alert the immune system to danger. The damage to cell membranes from these pore-forming proteins could be a “common signal that our body uses to recognize something as an allergen”

A Stanford University-led investigation into the COVID-19 vaccination effort reports that it averted an estimated 2.533 million deaths and 14.8 million life-years worldwide between 2020 and 2024.

Amidst much controversy in the public sphere, a worldwide vaccination campaign took place to counter the novel and deadly COVID-19 virus as it spread to every corner of the globe. As the pandemic spread, so did misinformation, disinformation, and real-time updates on risk and prevention that occasionally changed as events unfolded.

Around 7 million people died as a direct result of the virus. Estimating the human toll prevented by vaccines remains a crucial question, both for public education and for future public health planning.

Paper:

Global Estimates of Lives and Life-Years Saved by COVID-19 Vaccination During 2020-2024

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama-health-forum/fullarticle/2836434

The men worked with hand tools in the open moorland with no safety equipment, using only hammers, picks, crow bars and sledge hammers forcing the stone from the rock beds. Imagine the effort of swinging a large sledge hammer all day, it was often said that ‘you would never see an overweight quarryman’, and the hard physical labour ensured that was the case.

In 1908 a man named Foy was crushed between two railway wagons, in shunting operations. He walked home with assistance, to Yate Street, Bacup and was seen by Dr. Brown, who found he was in such a serious condition that to move him to the Infirmary would have brought about his death. He survived until seven o’clock that evening. At the inquest it was stated that the deceased had walked from Back Cowm quarry to Yate Street, Bacup, in a condition as stated by his doctor; the coroner, in his summing up said: “Foy was a hard one”.

If the men were lucky enough to avoid being killed or maimed due to accidents in the quarry there was also the distinct possibility that they would develop silicosis, a serious lung disease due to the silica content of the rock. Silicosis can lead to shortness of breath, fever and eventually death.

The ubiquitous presence of airborne microplastics (MPs) in different indoor environments prompts serious concerns about the degree to which we inhale these particles and their potential impact on human health.

We combine the new MP1–10 µm observations with published indoor MP data to derive a consensus indoor MP concentration distribution, which we use to estimate human adult indoor MP inhalation of 3,200 MPs/day for the 10–300 µm (MP10–300 µm) range, and 68,000 MPs/day for MP1–10 µm. The MP1–10 µm exposure estimates are 100-fold higher than previous estimates that were extrapolated from larger MP sizes, and suggest that the health impacts of MP inhalation may be more substantial than we realize.

Given the time it took to draft, the work involved from organisations and the effort invested by people with ME/CFS, it does presently look like an opportunity missed and the long grass may await it. It is clear that political will is lacking. Its terms neither ‘boost’ nor ‘drive change’ – one can hope that its implementation will. Nothing in the Plan offers more than a glimmer of hope.

Yes, there are warm words aplenty. However, this delivery plan is sorely lacking in detail on how change will be delivered. It is a plan without any actual plan.

The day – the 13th of July 2025 – was chosen as it marks the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of a ‘mystery illness’ at the Royal Free Hospital in London in 1955. This illness was later labelled as ‘benign myalgic encephalomyelitis’ in a 1956 piece published in the Lancet.

Although the outbreak at the Royal Free was not the first time this disease had been observed – or indeed the first outbreak – it is considered to be a seminal moment in the history of ME/CFS.

Therefore, ME Research Day 2025 will highlight the importance of the first major research point in ME/CFS history – the outbreak at the Royal Free.

Ravensbourne University graduate Rahat Rai has created a pair of slippers made using dust collected from a vacuum cleaner that was compressed to form a felt-like fabric.

The Done & Dusted project was completed by Rai during his final year of studies at Ravensbourne University in London, where he decided to focus on sustainability through the lens of material innovation.

The project explores how society might be able to reduce its reliance on new materials by identifying alternative uses for waste. Rai saw potential in household dust, which is present in every home and is treated as having no inherent value.

"I wanted to flip the script on dust," said the designer.

"People constantly clean it up and throw it away without thinking. I decided to explore the potential of turning this overlooked, abundant waste into a usable raw material for creating something new."

Sepsis-associated acute kidney injury remains a formidable clinical challenge, frequently complicating severe systemic infections and contributing significantly to patient morbidity and mortality worldwide. The pathophysiology of SA-AKI is complex and multifactorial, involving inflammatory cascades, microvascular dysfunction, and immune responses that culminate in renal impairment. Conventional biomarkers such as serum creatinine and urine output are limited by their delayed responsiveness and insufficient specificity, underscoring the urgent need for more sensitive and early markers of kidney injury in septic patients.

What sets this study apart is its use of single urinary extracellular vesicle proteomics, a sophisticated approach that delves into the proteomic composition of vesicles shed into the urine by renal cells. These extracellular vesicles serve as miniature information packets, reflecting the molecular state of their parent cells. By isolating and analyzing individual vesicles rather than bulk urine samples, the researchers achieved an unprecedented resolution in detecting subtle changes in protein expression patterns that accompany kidney injury.

Summary

The remarkable longevity of Roman concrete has long fascinated researchers and hinted at its potential as a sustainable alternative to modern concrete formulations. However, rigorous assessment of its environmental impact—particularly in the context of modern production technologies—has been lacking.

Here, we follow the life cycle assessment methodology to systematically quantify the impacts of various Roman concrete formulations relative to modern technologies.

Our findings reveal nuanced insights into the sustainability prospects of Roman concrete, shedding light on its greenhouse gas emissions, energy demand, particulate matter emissions, and water utilization.

Contrary to initial expectations, adopting Roman formulations with current technology may not yield substantial reductions in emissions or energy demand unless used in conjunction with other decarbonization advancements.

Nonetheless, our findings underscore the importance of Roman practices, particularly the reliance on biomass as a fuel source, which presents opportunities for decarbonizing modern cement production.

Tire additives pose a global pollution challenge to human and ecosystem health due to their high emissions via tire wear particles combined with loss from in-use and waste tire materials. Such releases often occur in close proximity to humans, and mobilized material or chemicals are easily transported to habitats where adverse effects are possible. This issue demands a commensurate policy response that remains unaddressed by existing pollution management policies

The Absolute Worst Jobs in History: Chat History

It is nearly impossible to guarantee that mustard gas will never be used in the future, so the best way to prepare for the possibility is to develop a very easy way to detect it in the field.

Effects on human health and communities

Mustard gas damages the body at the cellular level. When it comes into contact with the skin or eyes or is inhaled, it dissolves easily in fats and tissues and quickly penetrates the body. Once inside the body, it changes into a highly reactive form that attaches to and damages DNA, proteins and other essential parts of cells. Once it reacts with DNA, the damage can’t be undone – it may stop cells from functioning properly and kill them.

Mustard gas exposure can trigger large, fluid-filled blisters on the skin. It can also severely irritate the eyes, leading to redness, swelling and even permanent blindness. When inhaled, it burns the lining of the airways, leading to coughing, difficulty breathing and long-term lung damage. Symptoms often don’t appear for several hours, which delays treatment.

When actor Orlando Bloom revealed recently that he’d undergone a procedure to have his blood “cleaned”, many people raised eyebrows. The Pirates of the Caribbean star had turned to a treatment known as apheresis – a medical process in which blood is removed from the body, centrifuged or filtered to extract certain components, then returned in an attempt to flush out microplastics and other toxins.

Apheresis is typically used to treat conditions such as autoimmune diseases or abnormally high levels of blood cells or proteins. Its use as a detox for microplastics, however, is scientifically unproven.

The irony of filtration

It’s tempting to believe, as Bloom seems to, that we can simply “clean” the blood, like draining pasta or purifying drinking water. Just as a sieve filters water from pasta, dialysis machines do filter blood – but using far more complex and delicate systems.

These machines rely on plastic components, including tubes, membranes and filters, which are exposed to sustained pressure and repeated use. Unlike stainless steel, these materials can degrade over time, potentially shedding microplastics directly into the bloodstream.

One of the current goals of space exploration is long-term settlement of the Moon, and in order to achieve that goal, engineers and astronauts will have to deal with one of the thorniest problems on that otherworldly body - dust. Lunar dust is much harder to deal with that Earth’s equivalent, as it is sharp, charged, and sticks to everything, including biological tissue such as lungs, and even relatively smooth surfaces like glass. Several research groups are working on mitigation techniques that can deal with lunar dust, but a new cross-collaborative group from the University of Central Florida is developing a coating, testing it, and simulating all in one project, with the hopes that someday their solution will make it easier for astronauts to explore our nearest neighbor.

While historically most RCS exposures arising from processing common quartz-containing materials such as granite slabs or concrete have proved controllable with adequate application of water and/or local exhaust ventilation or use of appropriate RP, the results of this study demonstrate that RCS remains widely uncontrolled at shops of different sizes and sophistication where ES is fabricated.

For example, the emergence of additional research into the release of nanoparticles during fabrication, interactions with resins and other volatile chemicals released during the fabrication process, and the presence of other elements used as fillers and colorants highlight the importance of exercising the precautionary principle until more is understood about the confluence of these unknown factors.

Our results demonstrate that existing engineering controls provided at the investigated shops are insufficient to protect workers from RCS exposure, and all employees performing similar tasks at comparable shops should wear RP by following applicable OSHA standards until—or unless—sufficient exposure controls—either through slab composition modification or traditional engineered dust collection or suppression techniques—are improved, implemented, and documented with repeatable success.

It emerged that the US military, which has an airbase in the small city of Chievres, had warned the local water company in 2017 about high PFAS levels in drinking water, following an incident involving firefighting foam.

The US base advised its personnel to drink bottled water—but locals were left in the dark for years, even after the regional government was told of the issue in 2018.

PFAS are a family of synthetic chemicals that take an extremely long time to break down.

Chronic exposure to even low levels of the chemicals has been linked to liver damage, high cholesterol, reduced immune responses, low birth weights and several kinds of cancer.

A group of more than 10,000 human-made chemicals that repel heat, water and oil, PFAS are used in nonstick pans, stain-proof carpets, and other products.

But their use is increasingly being restricted across the world due to adverse health effects.

A virus from humble black-eyed peas is showing extraordinary promise in the fight against cancer. Unlike other plant viruses, the cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV) can awaken the human immune system and transform it into a cancer-fighting powerhouse, without infecting human cells. By comparing it to a similar, but ineffective, virus, researchers uncovered that CPMV uniquely triggers potent interferons and immune responses, making it a low-cost, plant-grown immunotherapy on the fast track toward clinical trials.