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Study Uncovers a Surprising New Way Deadly Brain Cancer Spreads

Scientists have uncovered evidence that glioblastoma cells can retain a lasting mechanical memory of their surroundings.

Glioblastoma, one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer, spreads by sending tumor cells into surrounding healthy tissue. Along the way, those cells encounter an unusual physical challenge: fluid at the tumor’s invasive edge can be about eight times more viscous than fluid near its dying center.

New research suggests that prolonged exposure to this thicker environment may actually help glioblastoma cells invade. After spending a month in highly viscous fluid, laboratory-grown cancer cells became smaller, more deformable, and better able to squeeze through narrow spaces. Rather than simply slowing their movement, the increased resistance appeared to produce lasting changes in how the cells behaved.

Scientists Discover a Hidden Electrical Signal in the Heart That Could Predict Sudden Death

Researchers have discovered a previously unrecognized electrical signal in the heart that could help predict sudden cardiac death before it strikes.

Sudden cardiac death can strike without warning, killing people who appear healthy and have no known history of heart problems. For decades, doctors have struggled to identify who is most vulnerable, even though a potentially lifesaving treatment already exists. Now, researchers have discovered that clues to these fatal events may have been hiding in one of medicine’s most familiar diagnostic tests.

Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley developed an artificial intelligence system that detects subtle electrical patterns in routine electrocardiograms (EKGs) associated with an increased risk of sudden cardiac death. In a study published in Nature, the AI outperformed a standard clinical screening method, raising the possibility that doctors could identify more at-risk patients before their hearts suddenly stop.

Scientists May Have Solved a Billion-Year-Old Mystery About DNA’s Evolution

On an early Earth exposed to intense ultraviolet radiation, the evolution of DNA may have depended on an unexpected molecular advantage.

Early life on Earth faced intense ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun without the protection of an ozone layer. Yet DNA came to rely on thymine, a chemical building block that is more prone to UV damage than uracil, its counterpart in single-stranded RNA.

A study at Texas A&M University suggests that thymine may have helped early genetic molecules survive by directing that damage into a form that was easier to reverse. The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), offer a possible explanation for why thymine replaced uracil as genetic systems evolved toward DNA.

Scientists Solve a 30-Year Biological Mystery and the Discovery Could Change How We Treat Inflammation

Scientists have solved a decades-old biological mystery, revealing an unexpected dual role for a key inflammatory signaling pathway.

Scientists have uncovered a surprising function of a molecule that controls inflammation: It not only recruits immune cells to fight infections but also helps protect healthy tissue from damage. The discovery, published October 7 in Nature, solves a biological mystery that puzzled researchers for more than 30 years.

The findings from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) could advance research into cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, and asthma.

Pegasus Spyware Infection Confirmed on Serbian University Rector’s iPhone Days Before Election

The Security Information Agency (BIA), Serbia’s civilian security service, dismissed the September allegations that students and opposition politicians had been spied on as “purely trivial sensationalism” in a statement on September 3, as translated by the broadcaster N1, and said it operates strictly within Serbian law.

The two cases extend a wave that SHARE reported on September 2, when it said at least 14 people in Serbia, including student activists, an opposition MP and a local councilor, had been targeted with spyware since the start of the year. Twelve of them had received Apple Threat Notifications in August, the month Apple warned users in 110 countries.

One was Jelena Kontić, a student whose Pegasus infection the Citizen Lab confirmed. The other two had a new version of NoviSpy, an Android spyware, installed on their phones.

PHP warns admins of two critical flaws, emergency patches coming tomorrow

The PHP security team is warning administrators to prepare for emergency security updates tomorrow to address two critical vulnerabilities, as information about the flaws has reportedly leaked ahead of their scheduled disclosure.

PHP powers many websites and web applications, including content management systems, e-commerce platforms, and custom web services.

In an advisory published Tuesday, the PHP development team announced that it plans to release security updates on Wednesday, October 21, at 14:00 UTC (10:00 AM Eastern), to address two vulnerabilities, each rated 9.2 under CVSS v4.0.

Mozilla, Google, Apple block compromised eMudhra CA certificates

Certificate authority eMudhra revoked eight compromised intermediate certificates after researchers found their private keys were so weak that anyone could recover them almost instantly and use them to forge trusted certificates for legitimate websites.

Major browsers and operating systems trusted the compromised certificates, potentially allowing attackers to impersonate legitimate websites and intercept encrypted communications.

A security researcher known as Wayne discovered the weakness on October 17 while scanning publicly available certificate data.