Five ways microplastics may harm your brain

Five ways microplastics may harm your brain
MP’s ability to cross the BBB through phagocytosis and BBB damage Credit: Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry (2025). DOI: 10.1007/s11010-025-05428-3

Microplastics could be fueling neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, with a new study highlighting five ways microplastics can trigger inflammation and damage in the brain.

More than 57 million people live with dementia, and cases of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are projected to rise sharply. The possibility that microplastics could aggravate or accelerate these brain diseases is a major public health concern.

Pharmaceutical scientist Associate Professor Kamal Dua, from the University of Technology Sydney, said it is estimated that adults are consuming 250 grams of microplastics every year—enough to cover a...

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Number’s up: Calculators hold out against AI

In July, AI models made by Google, OpenAI and DeepSeek reached gold-level scores at the annual International Mathematical Olympiad
n July, AI models made by Google, OpenAI and DeepSeek reached gold-level scores at the annual International Mathematical Olympiad.

The humble pocket calculator may not be able to keep up with the mathematical capabilities of new technology, but it will never hallucinate.

The device’s enduring reliability equates to millions of sales each year for Japan’s Casio, which is even eyeing expansion in certain regions.

Despite lightning-speed advances in artificial intelligence, chatbots still sometimes stumble on basic addition.

In contrast, “calculators always give the correct answer,” Casio executive Tomoaki Sato told AFP.

But he conceded that calculators could one day go the way of the abacus.

“It’s undeniable that the market for personal calculators used in business is on a...

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New moonquake discovery could change NASA’s Moon plans

Moonquakes Could Change NASA’s Moon Plans
A computer simulation depicting the seismic waves emanating from a shallow moonquake occurring on the Lee-Lincoln scarp in the Taurus-Littrow Valley on the Moon and interacting with the Apollo 17 Lunar Module landing site. Red and blue are positive (upward ground motion) and negative (downward ground motion) polarities of the wave. Credit: University of Maryland, Nicholas Schmerr

Moonquakes shook Apollo 17’s landing zone—and they could challenge the safety of future lunar outposts. Scientists have discovered that moonquakes, not meteoroids, are responsible for shifting terrain near the Apollo 17 landing site. Their analysis points to a still-active fault that has been generating quakes for millions of years...

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Protein unties tangled DNA linked to hotspots of cancer mutations

Protein unties tangled DNA linked to hotspots of cancer mutations
Genome-wide binding landscape of TOP2B in human cancer cells. Credit: Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-65005-6

New research published in Nature Communications has linked a normal cellular process to an accumulation of DNA mutations in cancer and identified cancer-driving mutations in an underexplored part of the genome.

Led by Dr. Jüri Reimand of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), the study centers around a protein called TOP2B, part of a family of enzymes that serve an important function in cells and are targets of common cancer chemotherapies.

Strands of DNA are long and complex, and they often get looped and tangled. When that happens, TOP2B and other topoisomerase proteins make cuts to DNA strands to help untangle and repair them...

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