Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Daniel Hoffmann 🌻 @danielhoffmann1.bsky.social · 1d

Antimicrobial resistance: development in wrong direction. Mis- and overuse of antibiotics in animal farming & medicine, in combination with lack of new effective antibiotics -> more deaths from untreatable infections. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The rise of ‘nightmare bacteria’: antimicrobial resistance in six charts

Data reveal how the global challenge to reduce deaths and infections from drug-resistant bacteria is not going according to plan.

www.nature.com

Daniel Hoffmann 🌻 @danielhoffmann1.bsky.social · 1d

A fifth of adults (~1.4 billion people) are tobacco addicts. Millions of tobacco related deaths each year. www.who.int/news/item/06...

WHO tobacco trends report: 1 in 5 adults still addicted to tobacco

The world is smoking less, but the tobacco epidemic is far from over. A new WHO global report shows the number of tobacco users has dropped from 1.38 billion in 2000 to 1.2 billion in 2024. Yet, tobacco still hooks one in five adults worldwide, fuelling millions of preventable deaths every year.

www.who.int

Daniel Hoffmann 🌻 @danielhoffmann1.bsky.social · 1d

Nature creates its own literary metaphor: tropical butterflies in secondary forest (after human intervention) lose color. Probably due to selection. #biodiversity www.theguardian.com/environment/...

As forests are cut down, butterflies are losing their colours | Butterflies | The Guardian

The insects’ brilliant hues evolved in lush ecosystems to help them survive. Now they are becoming more muted to adapt to degraded landscapes – and they are not the only things dulling down

www.theguardian.com

Daniel Hoffmann 🌻 @danielhoffmann1.bsky.social · 2d

Funding opportunity for young scientists who have worked in Germany before & now want to return & start their group in NRW. Focus of this year's call is, broadly, biosciences. Competitive. Please share. www.mkw.nrw/themen/wisse...

Rückkehrprogramm | Kultur und Wissenschaft in Nordrhein-Westfalen

Mit dem Rückkehrprogramm will das Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft junge Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler zur Rückkehr nach Nordrhein-Westfalen bewegen.

www.mkw.nrw

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Daniel Hoffmann 🌻 @danielhoffmann1.bsky.social · 2d

Small doses of stress may extend life span. Experiments with nematode C. elegans exposed to low-oxygen stress show how nerve cells transmit stress signal, leading to organismic changes & longer life. #aging #longevity elifesciences.org/articles/109...

Aging: Unlocking the longevity code with stress | eLife

Manipulating the neuronal pathway responsible for the hypoxic stress response in the worm C. elegans leads to an increase in lifespan.

elifesciences.org

Daniel Hoffmann 🌻 @danielhoffmann1.bsky.social · 3d

Another interaction of nerve & immune cells: regulatory T cells in the skin produce the opioid enkephalin that calms down excited nerve cells. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Daniel Hoffmann 🌻 @danielhoffmann1.bsky.social · 3d

Yuval Noah Harari, Rory Stewart,& Maria Ressa discuss the good life in difficult times. If you don't have the time to read the whole piece, read at least the last two paragraphs. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...

How to live a good life in difficult times: Yuval Noah Harari, Rory Stewart and Maria Ressa in conversation

From superintelligent AI to the climate and democracy, three leading thinkers discuss how to navigate the future

www.theguardian.com

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Daniel Hoffmann 🌻 @danielhoffmann1.bsky.social · 4d

Normal & malignant cells migrate (#immuneCells, #metastasis, ...). #cellVelocity is important but difficult to quantify. Kitanovski et al have developed a quantitative & reproducible method for data analysis:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Free open source software:
bioconductor.org/packages/cel...

Uncertainty-aware quantitative analysis of high-throughput live cell migration data

Accurate quantification of cell migration velocity is essential for understanding biological processes such as development, immune function, and cancer metastasis. High-throughput migration assays gen...

www.biorxiv.org

Daniel Hoffmann 🌻 @danielhoffmann1.bsky.social · 4d

Some good news for the weekend: creative activities can slow down molecular brain clocks. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Creative hobbies could slow brain ageing at the molecular level

To keep the mind young, dance the tango.

www.nature.com

Daniel Hoffmann 🌻 @danielhoffmann1.bsky.social · 4d

Better use of donor organs: enzymatic removal of sugar structures on cells turns blood group of donor organs to type O, compatible with all recipient blood groups, increasing the number of potential recipients for given organ. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

First human transplant of kidney modified to have ‘universal’ blood type

Recipient diagnosed with brain death received a type-O organ, which is compatible with all blood types.

www.nature.com

Daniel Hoffmann 🌻 @danielhoffmann1.bsky.social · 5d

Good for you and the planet: the science based "planetary health diet" lowers risk for many diseases and is ecologically sustainable. It's also tasty. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘Planetary health diet’ could save 40,000 deaths a day, landmark report finds | Food | The Guardian

Diet allows modest meat consumption and would also slash food-related climate emissions by half, says report by 70 leading experts from 35 countries

www.theguardian.com

Daniel Hoffmann 🌻 @danielhoffmann1.bsky.social · 5d

Detection of treatment resistant ovarian cancer cells in early blood samples by advanced whole genome sequencing. In the future could help to guide treatment decisions. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Evolution of drug-resistant ovarian-cancer clones tracked in patients

Therapy-resistant clones are typically present at diagnosis but are rare and have distinctive genomic features.

www.nature.com

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Daniel Hoffmann 🌻 @danielhoffmann1.bsky.social · 6d

Exhausted T cells fail to do their job as immune cells, e.g. they don't eliminate cancer cells. This study shows that exhausted T cells have an unbalanced protein production. Suggests new targets for immune therapy. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Proteotoxic stress response drives T cell exhaustion and immune evasion | Nature

A proteotoxic stress response specific to exhausted T cells, governed by AKT signaling and accompanied by increased protein translation, represents a mechanistic vulnerability and a new therapeutic target to improve cancer immunotherapies.

www.nature.com

Daniel Hoffmann 🌻 @danielhoffmann1.bsky.social · 6d

Healing diet: amino acid cysteine can help self-repair of small intestine. This study clarifies in mice the mechanism: it involves components of the immune system that are triggered by cysteine to promote stem cell production. It's research, no dietary advice. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Daniel Hoffmann 🌻 @danielhoffmann1.bsky.social · 6d

AI reflects & inquires in a self-determined way about the intent of users. That looks at the surface like an emerging self. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

‘I think you’re testing me’: Anthropic’s new AI model asks testers to come clean | Artificial intelligence (AI) | The Guardian

Safety evaluation of Claude Sonnet 4.5 raises questions about whether predecessors ‘played along’, firm says

www.theguardian.com

Daniel Hoffmann 🌻 @danielhoffmann1.bsky.social · 7d

Why is #colorectal #cancer on the rise in younger people? Association with intake of ultra processed food. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Colon cancer is on the rise among young people – and research points to one major culprit | Devi Sridhar | The Guardian

If smoking was the cancer villain of the 20th century, eating ultra-processed food may be its 21st-century counterpart, says Prof Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh

www.theguardian.com

Daniel Hoffmann 🌻 @danielhoffmann1.bsky.social · 7d

She is immortal.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c9...

Jane Goodall, chimpanzee expert and animal rights campaigner, dies age 91 - follow live - BBC News

The ethologist, a "tireless advocate" for species protection, died while on a speaking tour in California, her institute has announced.

www.bbc.co.uk

Daniel Hoffmann 🌻 @danielhoffmann1.bsky.social · 8d

Better sleep by applying knowledge from circadian science with focus on light exposure and metabolism. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

How to get the best night’s sleep: what the science says

Chuck the gadgets, the fads and the alarm. Circadian research reveals how important your body’s internal clock is to blissful slumber.

www.nature.com

Reposted by Daniel Hoffmann 🌻

Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 9d

When I was at NIH and shutdowns loomed, it was discovered that the administration was planning to shut down PubMed. The head of NCBI called the powers that be and pointed out that this would threaten patient safety

Who knows what will happen now

Just in case, remember Euruope-PMC
(europepmc.org )

a cartoon of donald trump with the words be prepared above him

ALT: a cartoon of donald trump with the words be prepared above him

media.tenor.com

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Daniel Hoffmann 🌻 @danielhoffmann1.bsky.social · 10d

Food production, esp. of meat, contributes about 1/3 of greenhouse gas emissions, but this fact is barely reported. As usual, "we" know the problem & simple solutions, e.g. eat less meat, but fail (div. reasons). #Climatechange as systemic failure of education. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Meat is a leading emissions source – but few outlets report on it, analysis finds | Greenhouse gas emissions | The Guardian

Sentient Media reveals less than 4% of climate news stories mention animal agriculture as source of carbon emissions

www.theguardian.com

Daniel Hoffmann 🌻 @danielhoffmann1.bsky.social · 11d

So far there have been relatively few known human fatalities from #H5N1 bird flu despite significant transmission in mammals. This review summarizes the main theories of why that is. This may change any moment as the virus continues to mutate. www.science.org/doi/full/10....

Daniel Hoffmann 🌻 @danielhoffmann1.bsky.social · 11d

Becoming healthy cyborgs: the continuous monitoring of blood components is standard in precision treatment of diabetes, but in principle applicable to many more diseases. This review describes the state of research. www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Daniel Hoffmann 🌻 @danielhoffmann1.bsky.social · 12d

The seventh of nine planetary boundaries has been crossed: ocean now too acidic. Implications for marine ecosystems and beyond. #PlanetaryBoundaries
#climateChange
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

World’s oceans fail key health check as acidity crosses critical threshold for marine life | Ocean acidification | The Guardian

Scientists call for renewed global effort to curb fossil fuels as seven of nine planetary boundaries now transgressed

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Daniel Hoffmann 🌻

Prof Sheena Cruickshank @sheencr.bsky.social · 14d

This is very exciting! A small clinical trial using gene therapy for Huntington's disease has been successful. microRNAs were used to edit the Huntington mRNA, stopping it making mutant protein that can damage neurons. Huge hopes now for treating such a devastating condition

Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time

One of the most devastating diseases finally has a treatment that can slow its progression and transform lives, tearful doctors tell BBC.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Daniel Hoffmann 🌻

Philippa Matthews @pippa-matt.bsky.social · 15d

Tackling liver #cancer ↔️ tackling viral #hepatitis.
#vaccineswork not only to prevent infection but to prevent cancer.
#HBV vaccine is safe, effective and cheap. A dose at birth, and 3 doses in infancy (together with other vaccines) can prevent lifelong infection & disease.
🧪 #NoHep #vaccination

Hepatitis SA @hepatitissa.asn.au · 15d

A significant development - acknowledgement of hepatitis testing and treatment as part of cancer prevention. Well done! @worldhepalliance.bsky.social
@hepatitisaustralia.bsky.social

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