Awesome! I never knew anyone so knowledgable of Tolkien lore as Stephen Colbert. This will be a dream come true for him. And a paying job he will soon be in need of!

https://www.facebook.com/reel/962516223003204

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20...024302.htm

EXCERPTS: For more than 100 years, scientists have pursued the idea of insulin in pill form, often described as a "dream" treatment for diabetes. The challenge has been the body itself. Enzymes in the digestive system break down insulin before it can work, and the intestine lacks a natural way to absorb it into the bloodstream. As a result, many patients still depend on daily injections, which can take a toll on their quality of life.

A team at Kumamoto University, led by Associate Professor Shingo Ito, has now developed a promising solution. Their approach uses a cyclic peptide that can pass through the small intestine, known as the DNP peptide. This platform allows insulin to be delivered orally in a way that was not previously possible.

[...] The findings were published in the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics. The researchers are now moving forward with additional studies, including testing in larger animal models and systems that replicate the human intestine, as they work toward eventual clinical applications.... (MORE - missing details)

https://iai.tv/articles/reality-cannot-b..._auid=2020

INTRO: For centuries, scientists and philosophers—from Leibniz to today’s AI visionaries—have dreamed of mathematizing reality, fully describing the world in equations that a machine can compute. But this is a dangerous illusion, argue mathematician and biochemist Jobst Landgrebe and philosopher Barry Smith, whose work on scientific modelling has been utilized by institutions like the US military and the National Institutes of Health, making him one of the world’s most highly cited philosophers.

Natural systems like the climate and the human brain, they contend, can never be fully captured by models, because they are fundamentally irregular and unpredictable. True progress depends on flexible heuristics, which allow us to intervene in reality without needing an exhaustive description of it. (MORE - details)

https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/cryoge...ouse-brain

INTRO: Long-term cryosleep and reawakening may no longer be completely in the realm of science fiction thanks to the results of a new study published in the journal PNAS. Researchers from the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU) and the University Hospital Erlangen succeeded in freezing brain tissue from mice and then restoring its function once thawed.

While only a small portion of brain tissue was revived, the neurons were able to share electrical signals and even maintained the complex processes required for memory and learning.

“Before doing the experiment, I was not convinced this would work,” lead author Dr Alexander German, a researcher in the Molecular Neurology Department at the University Hospital Erlangen, told BBC Science Focus. “The public takeaway should probably shift from ‘pure science fiction’ to ‘a serious long-term scientific and engineering problem.’” (MORE - details)

"You may have heard about the benefits of living at higher altitudes. Availableevidence suggests that inhabitants enjoy reduced mortality from cardiovascular diseases, stroke, and certain types of cancer, as the body is forced to adapt to a life with less oxygen.

But dwelling at higher elevations may be a double-edged sword. As strong as the evidence is for altitude’s physical benefits, there’s equally impressive data showing that living at higher altitudes has mental costs, particularly an increased risk of suicide. In a systematic review published in May, researchers pored over all available published studies on the topic. Of the 19 studies conducted, 17 found a link between higher altitude and suicide.

In one, Hoehun Ha, an assistant professor of geography at Auburn University at Montgomery, and his colleagues compared U.S. suicide rates at the county level with the average altitude in each county. Since suicide is heavily affected by a multitude of variables, they also controlled for socioeconomic and demographic factors, such as unemployment rate, rates of substance abuse, ethnicity, and the ratio of population to primary care physicians.

“We found that, for every increase of 100 meters in altitude, suicide rates increase by 0.4 per 100,000,” he wrote.

Another study published just this month examined the association between altitude and suicide rates in American veterans. Critically, the researchers behind it controlled for population density, among a variety of other potential confounders. Higher altitude areas are often more sparsely populated, so perhaps loneliness is what’s leading to higher suicide rates, not elevation. But even when factoring in population density, they found a strong correlation between altitude and suicide.

“We also analyzed the 50 counties with the highest suicide rates and the 50 counties with the lowest suicide rates for the U.S. veterans population and found that there was a 3-fold difference in the mean altitude between these two groups of counties,” they added.

Given that the link between altitude and suicide has been so thoroughly vetted, researchers’ next task is to explain it. They have focused on one leading hypothesis: hypoxia. Oxygen concentrations are lower at higher altitudes, meaning that the blood might not be able to deliver enough of the life-essential element to the body’s tissues, particularly the brain. While organs like the heart and lungs appear to adapt to this dearth over time, the brain may not be so amenable.

Experiments in animals have demonstrated that chronic hypoxic conditions decrease the production of serotonin in the brain. For a long time, it was thought that reduced levels of serotonin are linked to depression, though that finding now has been cast into serious doubt. Still, it is reasonable to hypothesize that reduced oxygen levels interfere with brain activity, possibly in a nefarious way.

Despite the link between altitude and suicide, on the whole, living at higher altitudes reduces all-cause mortality. The reduction in cardiovascular disease and cancer outweighs elevated suicide rates. That is good news for anyone pondering a move to the Mountain West."---- https://bigthink.com/health/altitude-suicide/

Low-income students and girls are steered away from “risky” creative careers at school
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1120569

INTRO: Schools, families and social pressures are channelling young people – especially girls and poorer students – away from studying creative subjects because they are considered low-status or financially “risky”, a report says.

The University of Cambridge study argues that the underrepresentation of women and people from lower-income backgrounds in the creative industries reflects a “narrowing pathway” that begins at school, and steers students away from subjects like art, music and drama as their education progresses.

The study, funded by the social and economic well-being charity, the Nuffield Foundation, used the educational records of 1.7 million students in England, longitudinal data about 7,200 young people’s progress into work, and interviews and surveys with people studying and working in creative fields.

Although almost half of 14-year-olds said they enjoyed creative subjects, just one in 25 was working in a creative occupation by their early 30s. In between, the study found that participation drops at every stage: at GCSE, post-16 and in higher education. The fall-off is especially steep among poorer students and girls, with girls from lower-income backgrounds facing a “double disadvantage”.

The report is particularly critical of underlying educational “hierarchies” – the low status of both creative subjects, and of creative qualifications from further education (FE) colleges.

Professor Sonia Ilie, from Cambridge’s Faculty of Education, said: “If you have a university degree in a creative subject, you are much more likely to end up in a creative career. Young people from low-income families, however, and especially girls, are less likely to reach the point where studying for a creative degree is even an option.”

“That reflects wider societal structures, inequalities, cultural messaging and pressure on schools to deliver academic results. We need a more thoughtful conversation about the value of creative subjects – and frankly about the snobbery that still surrounds certain qualifications.”

While class inequalities in the creative sector have been raised in previous reports, the Cambridge study explored the problem’s underlying educational dynamics. The researchers mapped young people’s trajectories into and out of creative subjects such as art, dance, design, drama, media studies, music and photography; among others... (MORE - details, no ads)

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1117457

INTRO: People often downplay being offended during online arguments to appear more rational, according to new research from the University of East Anglia (UEA). A new study reveals how social media users navigate, negotiate and often reject accusations of being offended during heated online exchanges, even when their language suggests strong emotional involvement.

Recent debates illustrate the pattern. For example, when YouTuber and professional boxer Jake Paul criticised singer Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show, he faced backlash and repeatedly reframed his comments as ‘clarifications’ rather than emotional reactions.

Similarly, heated reactions around singer-songwriter Billie Eilish’s Grammys comments saw users choose wording such as “I’m not offended”, presenting themselves as rational while clearly deeply invested in the discussion. These high‑profile moments reflect the same patterns of denial, moral positioning, and emotional management uncovered in the UEA study.

The team, which included researchers from the University of Kent, analysed a network of real X (Twitter) exchanges that began with a woman telling a joke and quickly spiralled into a heated argument. One male participant was repeatedly accused of being “offended” but strongly denied it, even as his own language revealed frustration and moral judgement.

Dr Chi‑Hé Elder, from UEA’s School of Media, Language and Communication Studies, said: “Without the benefit of facial expressions or tone of voice to draw on, interactions in the digital world can quickly become complicated. People may claim that they aren’t offended, but if they simultaneously describe comments as toxic or morally wrong, this looks very much like offence‑taking behaviour.”

The study shows that offence isn’t just an emotional reaction, it also performs a social function. It can be used to signal disapproval, make a moral point, or shape how we want to be seen by others. That makes everyday phrases like “being offended” ambiguous – they can refer to feeling upset, or to the public performance of appearing offended.

But why do people deny being offended? According to the researchers, admitting to offence carries negative connotations. It can make someone appear overly emotional or undermine their credibility in a debate. By rejecting the label, people can try to take the moral high ground, presenting themselves as calm and rational even when their behaviour suggests otherwise... (MORE - details, no ads)

11% rise in maternal deaths in US aid-dependent countries under Republican administrations
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1120798

INTRO: Maternal deaths rise by around 11% in countries that rely on US aid following a switch from a Democratic to a Republican administration, suggest the findings of a data analysis published in the open access journal BMJ Global Health.

This is equivalent to around 45 additional deaths for every 100,000 live births, eroding a fifth of the decline in global maternal deaths that has been achieved since 1985, conclude the researchers.

US foreign aid for family planning and reproductive health services has been heavily influenced by changes in the implementation of the Mexico City Policy—first introduced as the US Policy on Population Assistance under the Reagan administration in 1984, and often referred to as the Global Gag Rule (GGR), explain the researchers.

The policy prohibits disbursal of US aid for family planning to overseas non-governmental organisations that provide, make referrals to, or promote abortion-related services or information, even when these services are financed through non-US funds.

The policy was rebranded as the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance policy and expanded to apply to all US global health assistance during President Trump’s first term of office in 2017.

To estimate the impact of shifts in funding on maternal deaths, the researchers used data from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators for every year between 1985 and 2023 to measure the maternal mortality ratio for 150 countries... (MORE - details, no ads)