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The interplay between the microbiome and immune cells in metabolic homeostasis and disease

Shapiro et al. review how microbial signals modulate immune responses across tissues to regulate metabolic homeostasis and cardiometabolic diseases. They discuss mechanisms linking the microbiome, immunity, and tissue function and present emerging microbiome-based interventions for disease prevention and treatment.

WILL AI Turn Humanity Into BORG?

The Borg were never terrifying because they had advanced technology. They were terrifying because they erased individuality itself.

As brain-computer interfaces move from science fiction into reality, humanity may be approaching a question once reserved for Star Trek: What happens when technology no longer just helps us… but changes what it means to be human?

In this video, we explore the unsettling possibility that artificial intelligence, neural implants, and human enhancement technologies could eventually create something disturbingly similar to the Borg Collective.

🔹 Brain-computer interfaces and neural implants.
🔹 Human enhancement and transhumanism.
🔹 AI integration with the human mind.
🔹 Social and economic pressure to augment.
🔹 The loss of individuality and autonomy.
🔹 Whether technological evolution can be resisted.

If humanity could become smarter, faster, stronger, and more connected than ever before… would we resist? Or would we choose to become something else?

Resistance… may not be futile, but history suggests that enhancement rarely remains optional for long.

Genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease could depend on how well you sleep

A compelling longitudinal study of over 350 older adults with early beta-amyloid accumulation reveals that the genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease is not strictly deterministic, but is profoundly modulated by sleep quality through the AQP4 gene—a critical regulator of the brain’s glymphatic waste-clearance system. By cross-referencing specific AQP4 variants with multi-year MRI and PET imaging alongside cognitive assessments, researchers demonstrated that poor sleep parameters, such as shorter duration and delayed onset, significantly accelerate neurodegenerative markers like gray matter loss and ventricle expansion in carriers of specific risk alleles. Paradoxically, however, carriers of certain rare variants exhibited slower cognitive decline even in the presence of sleep disturbances. Ultimately, these findings illuminate a complex gene-environment interplay, proving that identical genetic predispositions can either expedite or buffer against brain atrophy depending on sleep architecture, thereby highlighting the critical necessity of personalized, sleep-targeted lifestyle interventions as a highly actionable strategy for Alzheimer’s prevention.


Scientists have discovered an important link between sleep, genetics, and Alzheimer’s disease. New findings suggest that getting poor sleep can accelerate brain shrinkage and memory loss in older adults carrying specific genetic variants.

Space-Filling Aether Theory Makes Comeback

Learn more about your favourite topics in science in the easiest and most engaging way possible with Brilliant! First 30 days are free and 20% off the annual premium subscription when you use our link ➜ https://brilliant.org/sabine.

In the 19th century, scientists came up with the idea of the “aether,” a medium that filled all of space and allowed forces to travel from one place to another. While this was famously proved wrong by the Michelson-Morley experiment, the idea of the aether made a comeback. The new aether is compatible with Einstein’s theories and could explain dark energy and maybe even dark matter. Let’s take a look.

Paper: https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract… video comes with a quiz which you can take here: https://quizwithit.com/start_thequiz/.… 🤓 Check out my new quiz app ➜ http://quizwithit.com/ 💌 Support me on Donorbox ➜ https://donorbox.org/swtg 📝 Transcripts and written news on Substack ➜ https://sciencewtg.substack.com/ 👉 Transcript with links to references on Patreon ➜ / sabine 📩 Free weekly science newsletter ➜ https://sabinehossenfelder.com/newsle… 👂 Audio only podcast ➜ https://open.spotify.com/show/0MkNfXl… 🔗 Join this channel to get access to perks ➜ / @sabinehossenfelder 🖼️ On instagram ➜ / sciencewtg #science #sciencenews #physics.

This video comes with a quiz which you can take here: https://quizwithit.com/start_thequiz/.

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💌 Support me on Donorbox ➜ https://donorbox.org/swtg.
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/ @sabinehossenfelder.
🖼️ On instagram ➜ / sciencewtg.

#science #sciencenews #physics

New Theory Explains How Time Began

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The biggest open problem in the foundations of physics is that Einstein’s theory of gravity, General Relativity, does not cooperate with quantum mechanics. Physicists have tried to solve this issue by coming up with a theory of quantum gravity, but those theories fall apart when you need them most – inside of black holes and at the Big Bang. Recently, though, physicists published a new calculation for the Big Bang, with a theory called quadratic gravity, which lets us skip over quantum gravity entirely, and that could explain the origin of time. Let’s take a look.

Paper: https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract… mugs, posters and more: ➜ https://sabines-store.dashery.com/ 💌 Support me on Donorbox ➜ https://donorbox.org/swtg 👉 Transcript with links to references on Patreon ➜ / sabine 📝 Transcripts and written news on Substack ➜ https://sciencewtg.substack.com/ 📩 Free weekly science newsletter ➜ https://sabinehossenfelder.com/newsle… 👂 Audio only podcast ➜ https://open.spotify.com/show/0MkNfXl… 🔗 Join this channel to get access to perks ➜ / @sabinehossenfelder 📚 Buy my book ➜ https://amzn.to/3HSAWJW #science #sciencenews #physics #gravity This video discusses a new explanation for the beginning of the universe, published in PRL, which addresses quantum gravity and the period before time began. It features a presenter discussing “Asymptotically Safe Gravity” and includes scientific graphics and charts related to cosmological research. This new idea elegantly addresses the origin of the universe and offers a fresh perspective on space time, making it a significant contribution to science news.

👕T-shirts, mugs, posters and more: ➜ https://sabines-store.dashery.com/
💌 Support me on Donorbox ➜ https://donorbox.org/swtg.
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/ @sabinehossenfelder.
📚 Buy my book ➜ https://amzn.to/3HSAWJW

#science #sciencenews #physics #gravity.

This video discusses a new explanation for the beginning of the universe, published in PRL, which addresses quantum gravity and the period before time began. It features a presenter discussing \.

Heisenberg Said Matter Is Made of Forms, Not Objects — Plato Said It 2,300 Years Earlier

Werner Heisenberg (1901–1976) was one of the founders of quantum mechanics — author of the uncertainty principle (1927) and winner of the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics. He was also among the most philosophically engaged physicists of the century. In his late teens he read Plato’s Timaeus in the original Greek (his father was a professor of Greek), and the dialogue’s central idea stayed with him: that the smallest constituents of matter are not material objects but mathematical forms.

In Physics and Philosophy (1958), Heisenberg argued that modern physics \.

Intelligence Without Brains: A Radical New Idea

What if intelligence doesn’t require a brain? Biologist Michael Levin argues that intelligence is not confined to neurons, but exists on a continuum of goal-directed behavior and problem-solving across a wide range of species and systems. Using a framework he calls the “cognitive light cone,” Levin explores diverse forms of intelligence extending all the way down to the cellular level. His research suggests that cells communicate through electrical networks, enabling them to make collective decisions and adapt to unexpected challenges, evidenced by engineered tadpoles capable of seeing through eyes located on their tails. Levin radically challenges the conventional wisdom even further, proposing that forms of intelligence may extend beyond biology to molecular systems and maybe even the weather.

00:00 What is intelligence?
01:03 The field of diverse intelligence.
01:33 Intelligence at the cellular level.
02:08 The cognitive light cone.
03:01 The intelligence of groups of cells.
03:52 The bioelectric language of cells.
04:20 The mind of the body.
04:23 Cells that solve problems.
05:17 The tadpole experiment.
06:25 The cognitive spectrum.
06:48 Can you train a hurricane?
07:03 A new science of intelligence.
07:28 Beyond human biases.

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Quanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation. We focus on developments in mathematics, theoretical physics, theoretical computer science and the basic life sciences.

READ free math and science articles on the Quanta website: https://www.quantamagazine.org.

LEARN about the Simons Foundation: www.simonsfoundation.org.

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Orbital Data Centers Are Seductive on Paper, but They Face Daunting Challenges in Reality

But there is a vast difference between launching satellites and operating an industrial-scale computing infrastructure in orbit. Space is unforgiving. Radiation damages electronics. The electronics generate enormous amounts of heat, and getting rid of that heat is surprisingly difficult in space. Repairs are extraordinarily expensive, and every pound launched into orbit still carries a significant cost.

We are engineering professors who study data-center design and space systems engineering. Building a space-based data center will involve considerations from both sides.

First off, consider what goes into an Earth-based data center, like those that you’ve probably begun to see pop up everywhere. These facilities power cloud computing, video streaming, online banking, scientific computing, and increasingly, artificial intelligence. But a data center is much more than a room full of servers.

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