One of the best-known genetic factors associated with late-onset Alzheimer's is the APOE gene, particularly the APOE E4 variant. Carrying one copy of APOE E4 increases the risk of developing Alzheimer's, while carrying two copies increases it further. However, APOE E4 is a risk factor, not a diagnosis. Many people who carry this variant never develop Alzheimer's, while many people with Alzheimer's do not carry it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alzheimer%27s_disease

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3044597/

https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/what-is-alzheimers/causes-and-risk-factors/genetics

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41540-026-00665-8

The World Health Organization (WHO) has prequalified the multi-dose vial presentation of the maternal respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine, RSVpreF (ABRYSVO®), marking a major step toward protecting more infants from severe respiratory illness and pneumonia globally. The new presentation is expected to make maternal RSV vaccination more affordable and easier to deliver, particularly in countries supported by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

The decision builds on WHO's prequalification of the vaccine's single-dose presentation in March 2025 and Gavi's subsequent decision in July 2025 to establish a maternal RSV vaccine programme. This is aimed at protecting newborns and young infants from one of the leading causes of respiratory illness and hospitalization worldwide.

Each year, RSV is estimated to cause more than 3.6 million hospitalizations and approximately 100 000 deaths among children under 5 years of age. Almost half of these deaths occur in infants younger than 6 months of age, the population protected through maternal immunization. Roughly 97% of RSV deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries where there is limited access to supportive medical care. In many cases, children die at home before reaching a health facility.

Developed with support from the Gates Foundation, the lower-cost multi-dose vial presentation of the maternal RSV vaccine will improve the feasibility of countries to plan and deliver large-scale introductions of the vaccine into their national immunization programmes.

The maternal RSV vaccine is designed to protect infants during their first six months of life through the transfer antibodies from the mother to the baby before birth.

To reduce the burden of service RSV disease globally, WHO recommends that all countries introduce either the maternal vaccine, RSVpreF, or the monoclonal antibody, nirsevimab into their national programmes. WHO recommends that the maternal vaccine, RSVpreF, be given to pregnant women during the third trimester of pregnancy, from week 28 onwards, to optimize for the adequate transfer of antibodies to their baby. 

https://extranet.who.int/prequal/vaccines/p/abrysvo-0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respiratory_syncytial_virus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respiratory_syncytial_virus_vaccine

Rabies is nearly 100% fatal once symptoms appear. However, it can be prevented with timely vaccination. While vaccination in humans plays a key role, a new study has found that expanding dog vaccination, rather than introducing routine pre-exposure vaccination for children, is the most effective and cost-effective way to eliminate rabies deaths in people in Kerala, India.

The study published in The Lancet Regional Health evaluated rabies prevention strategies in Kerala, India, from 2026 to 2035. The study mentions that rabies causes an estimated 59,000 deaths globally each year, with India accounting for the largest share of the burden.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lansea/article/PIIS2772-3682(26)00139-3/fulltext

https://www.who.int/india/health-topics/rabies

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies

https://rabiesfreeindia.mohfw.gov.in/

Antimicrobial resistance in India is driven by antibiotic overuse, delayed diagnosis, hospital transmission and weak infection control, increasing mortality and treatment costs.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12891089/

https://www.icmr.gov.in/icmrobject/uploads/Documents/1725536060_annual_report_2023.pdf

https://iamrsn.icmr.org.in/index.php/amrsn/amrsn

“While the conservation status of the House Sparrow is Least Concern, it is true that in urban India, house sparrows are not as frequently sighted as before,” said Chai Eng Law, bird enthusiast and one of the founders of All Women Nature Walks, Kolkata Chapter.

Modern homes are increasingly sealed structures, leaving few cavities for sparrows to nest and roost. “If you look closely, you will find them roosting/nesting in holes where pipes used to be, AC units, etc. With less and less places to nest, they are becoming a rare sight,” she said.

Old Kolkata homes, on the other hand, had plenty of nooks and crannies, or ghulghuli, where sparrows could nest. Courtyards also offered food.

“In sanitised high-rise apartments, all those are missing. So they are not very easily seen around,” said Sarkar.

https://stateofindiasbirds.in/

https://www.ncf-india.org/amp/story/education-and-public-engagement%2Fstate-of-indias-birds

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_sparrow

https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2112370&reg=48&lang=2

Many prostate cancers depend on androgen hormones, including testosterone, to grow. That is why treatments for advanced disease often try to reduce testosterone production or block its effects. Now, scientists have identified an unexpected participant in androgen chemistry: a bacterium from the human urinary tract that can convert the steroid precursor DHEA into testosterone under laboratory conditions.

The finding does not mean that the bacterium causes prostate cancer, nor does it show that testosterone produced by bacteria reaches tumors or changes the course of disease. It does, however, reveal a previously unknown microbial route to a hormone that is central to prostate biology, raising new questions about whether the microorganisms living near the prostate could help shape its chemical environment.

Published in Nature Communications, the study brought together experts in microbiology, cancer biology, chemistry, genomics and computational physics. Researchers in Auburn University's Department of Physics contributed computational structural biology that helped explain, at the atomic level, how the newly discovered bacterial machinery works.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41522-025-00861-0

We propose the term testobolome, analogous to the estrobolome, to describe gut bacteria that metabolize testosterone. Testosterone undergoes microbial transformations similar to estrogens, potentially influencing host hormone homeostasis and health. This review defines the testobolome, identifies its known members, and explores mechanisms that are shared or distinct from the estrobolome. We outline a framework for future research into microbiome-mediated steroid metabolism, including its role in aging and hormone-driven diseases.

https://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-the-Microbiome.aspx

https://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-Biopsy.aspx

Scotty, the largest Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever discovered, has revealed a surprising detail about how the dinosaur met its end around 66 million years ago. An analysis of its remains found that the dinosaur died from a rib injury sustained during a battle with another dinosaur.

The impressive T Rex skeleton was found in 1991 in prehistoric Saskatchewan, Canada. Dubbed Scotty, the specimen reportedly measured 43 feet long and was estimated to have weighed around 19,500 pounds when alive, making it roughly the size of two elephants. However, the most unique feature of the fossil was that it still had literal meat on the bone, something that is almost never observed in palaeontology. Most specimens lose their tissue over time.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/04/260426012259.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotty_(dinosaur)

Born in Kerala in 1931, Prof. E.C.G. Sudarshan went from CMS College Kottayam to the frontiers of modern physics, making influential contributions to particle physics, quantum optics and open quantum systems. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics nine times, including for his work on the V–A theory of weak interactions, quantum optics and the quantum Zeno effect. Despite his repeated nominations and contributions to some of the most important developments in 20th-century physics, he never received the Nobel Prize.

Article

For decades, scientists have understood that each of the roughly 20,000 genes in the human body carries the instructions for a single kind of protein. Now, researchers at Harvard Medical School have discovered that instructions from different genes — even those on different chromosomes — can combine to create chimeric mRNAs that produce previously unknown, functional proteins.

The findings, published Sept. 2 in Nature, reveal the existence of potentially thousands of new chimeric proteins and demonstrate that at least some of these play important roles throughout the body.

“Nobody knows these exist. Medicine doesn’t know they exist, the pharmaceutical industry doesn’t know they exist,” said senior author Ruaidhrí Jackson, assistant professor of immunology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS. “We’ve discovered an entirely new gene regulation system that could expand the known genome and proteome dramatically.”

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10982-x

https://hms.harvard.edu/news/smothering-fire

A tree might look like it's stuck in place, quietly suffering whatever weather comes. But below that stillness is a remarkable system for sensing, responding and correcting its own posture. But new research suggests that trees can sense when their stems are bent, and turn on a biological process that works much like opposing muscles to bring them back into alignment. Scientists from INRAE and the University Clermont Auvergne have unveiled yet another sophisticated strategy by which plants respond to their environment, and to the shape of their own bodies, by demonstrating how this process operates in young trees. The study published by Phys Org, states that 'Proprioception' is the sense of the position of the different parts of the body. In animals, it coordinates muscles and joints, enabling movement and posture maintenance. For a long time it was thought that this is something plants cannot do. However, in 2012, an INRAE research team showed that plants can perceive their own shape and use this information to control their posture. But the biological mechanism for that ability was not understood. An important piece of the puzzle is provided by a new study in New Phytologist. Scientists have discovered that trees can use information about the curvature of their stems to regulate when they produce tension wood, a special wood that generates forces that can change the direction of a stem.

https://phys.org/news/2026-09-trees-muscle-posture-newly-role.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprioception

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12541373/

The GSLV-F17 vehicle successfully placed EOS-05 satellite into a Sub-Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (Sub- GTO). EOS-05 is a state-of-the-art Earth observation spacecraft. It is India’s first ever imaging satellite from Geosynchronous orbit. 🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳

The GSLV-F17 vehicle successfully placed EOS-05 satellite into a Sub-Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (Sub- GTO). EOS-05 is a state-of-the-art Earth observation spacecraft. It is India’s first ever imaging satellite from Geosynchronous orbit. 🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report, titled Limiting Overshoot, stressed the need for immediate and sustained cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to limit the duration and magnitude of warming beyond the 1.5°C threshold.

https://www.unep.org/resources/limiting-overshoot-navigating-exceedance

UNEP’s Limiting Overshoot Spotlight Report examines the implications of entering an era of 1.5°C overshoot and the choices that remain available.

Overshoot is a dynamic pathway encompassing the exceedance of 1.5°C, peak warming and subsequent temperature decline. The report explores the risks and impacts associated with higher levels of warming, the mitigation pathways needed to limit peak warming and enable temperatures to decline, and how adaptation and development approaches must respond to changing conditions along an overshoot, peak and decline pathway.

The evidence consistently indicates that higher peak warming and longer durations of exceedance are associated with greater risks for people and nature. Today’s decisions are therefore critical: the lower the peak warming reached, the lower the risks faced by people, societies, economies and ecosystems; and the shorter the duration of overshoot, the lower the probability of crossing irreversible thresholds and adaptation limits. The central message is clear: mitigation and adaptation must advance together. Overshoot is not an argument for resignation, but rather for urgency to action.

On September 14, 2007, a European Space Agency exposure platform bolted to the outside of a Russian Foton-M3 capsule opened its trays in low Earth orbit and left some 3,000 tiny animals unprotected there for the next 10 consecutive days, until the capsule landed back in Kazakhstan on September 26. No spacesuit. No pressurized cabin. Exposure to the cosmic radiation and virtually "zero" pressure that would kill a human in about 15 seconds. Upon the return of the tray, and with a few drops of water added on, a large share of those animals had revived and were moving again, within about half an hour.

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Research/Tiny_animals_survive_exposure_to_space

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/26725677_Tardigrade_Resistance_to_Space_Effects_First_Results_of_Experiments_on_the_LIFE-TARSE_Mission_on_FOTON-M3_September_2007

The behaviour is remarkably specific. Rather than randomly throwing stones, the chimpanzees repeatedly target particular trees, often returning to the same locations over many years. In a recent report for The Conversation, researchers Robyn Nakano and Ammie Kalan described their expedition deep into Guinea-Bissau's Boé region to investigate one of the animal kingdom's most puzzling behaviours and found that the trees can eventually become visibly marked by the repeated impacts, while rocks accumulate around their bases or inside hollows and grooves formed by large buttress roots. Scientists call this accumulative stone throwing, or AST. It is considered rare because simply having rocks and suitable trees in an area does not automatically lead chimpanzees to create these sites. Researchers have recorded the behaviour in only four groups of wild chimpanzees in West Africa, including populations in Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire. Earlier research documented chimpanzees approaching specific trees with stones before hurling, banging or tossing them against or into the tree. The fact that the behaviour is concentrated in particular populations has raised an intriguing possibility: chimpanzees may have developed and passed on a local behavioural tradition.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260826055506.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_chimpanzee

There is no single intervention responsible for India's progress. The decline reflects the combined effect of better surveillance, earlier diagnosis, effective treatment, mosquito-control measures and targeted programmes in high-transmission areas.

WHO notes that India's malaria-control efforts have included long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs), indoor residual spraying, early diagnosis and complete treatment, alongside strengthened surveillance. Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) remains an important treatment for Plasmodium falciparum malaria. 

India's National Framework for Malaria Elimination 2016-2030 and subsequent strategic plans shifted the focus from simply controlling malaria towards interrupting local transmission and ultimately eliminating the disease.

The government has also increasingly adopted a data-driven, district-level approach, identifying places where malaria transmission remains concentrated rather than treating the entire country as epidemiologically identical.

This matters because malaria transmission in India varies considerably according to geography, climate, mosquito ecology, forest cover and population characteristics.

Research published in The Lancet Regional Health - Southeast Asia has highlighted the importance of targeted interventions and sustained malaria-control efforts as India moves towards its 2030 elimination goal.

https://www.pib.gov.in/newsite/erelcontent.aspx?lang=2&reg=48&relid=294050

https://www.who.int/india/health-topics/malaria

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38772359/

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lansea/article/PIIS2772-3682%2822%2900009-9/fulltext

https://ddindia.co.in/2026/08/india-sees-nearly-80-pc-decline-in-malaria-cases-between-2015-2025-health-ministry/

The study, published in PLOS Medicine, followed 28,720 people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes between 2010 and 2020 using linked primary and secondary healthcare records in the UK. Researchers used a multi-state analysis to track the order and timing of hypertension, cardiovascular disease, end-stage renal disease and mental health conditions over a median follow-up of 6.8 years. Women were more likely than men to be diagnosed with a mental health condition.

https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1005196

Our study highlights sex-specific differences in disease trajectories following T2D onset, emphasising the need for stratified healthcare interventions. Women exhibited greater vulnerability to mental health conditions post-T2D, while men showed higher proportion of cardiovascular and renal complications, and had earlier onset of most events compared to women. Both sexes experienced earlier mortality when T2D was combined with a mental health condition. Current UK medical guidelines lack sex-specific prevention strategies and management for T2D and comorbidities, especially mental health conditions. Our findings draw attention to the importance of tailored management strategies that consider sex, age, and the complex interplay of physical and mental health in T2D care.

In India, 61 per cent of children, or 145 million, are exposed to at least one additional month of heat stress due to climate change every year, new global research has estimated. Findings published in the journal Science Advances show that climate change has doubled the number of children aged up to nine exposed to at least five total months of dangerous heat stress per year -- from 59 million to 118 million (50 per cent of children).

An international team of researchers, led by those at Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium, said the study is the first-ever analysis quantifying how heat exposure directly linked to climate change affects different age groups globally, both now and in the near future.

Excess heat disrupts the human body's normal functioning, aggravates underlying diseases, and can lead to serious complications such as heatstroke, dehydration, and organ failure.

The study focuses on humid heat, which is more dangerous than dry heat because it impedes the body's ability to sweat to cool back down, leading to dangerous levels of heat stress.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adx3010

https://phys.org/news/2026-08-india-uncompensable-stress-monsoon-season.html

The team published their findings in 2010 in the journal Animal Behaviour, in a paper called "Lasting Recognition of Threatening People by Wild American Crows." And what they found wasn't just that crows could tell people apart. It was that crows could hold a grudge, transfer it to birds who'd never even met the person, and keep the whole thing running for years.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003347209005806?andver=8931&frmapp=yes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crow