u/VCardBGone

Conservation comebacks for wild tigers, tuna and green sea turtles prove that global nature loss can be reversed, scientists have said. But a report warns food production must be the next “positive tipping point” if the world is to avert biodiversity collapse.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) analysed nearly 36,000 animal populations and more than 5,000 species, producing the largest ever database of vertebrate wildlife. Scientists found populations had declined by an average of 73% since 1970, showing that “nature continues to be degraded at an alarming scale”, with “no sign of losses slowing”.

Nature loss is no longer just an environmental challenge but a direct threat to the global economy, the report says, noting that about half of global GDP – roughly $58tn (£44tn) in 2023 – depends on nature and its ecosystem services. The authors write that species collapse now poses an “existential threat to economic stability, geopolitical security and human wellbeing”.

Animal populations were found to be falling most sharply in tropical, biodiversity-rich regions, while trends in northern temperate parts of the world appeared much gentler.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, land and freshwater wildlife populations fell by an average of 95% between 1970 and 2022, while the equivalent declines were 80% in Africa and 23% in Europe and Central Asia.

https://livingplanet.panda.org/en-IN/

https://www.worldwildlife.org/about/wwf-annual-report/

Regions of the universe that would be friendly towards life are known as habitable or Goldilocks zones – they’re just right.

Whether life is actually there is another question. As astronomers and biologists explore how life could form on exoplanets (planets outside the Solar System), astrophysicists follow the structure and evolution of the universe to identify the nicest places, as well as those where life could be snuffed out in an instant.

So, where should we look for life?

For example, there is a Goldilocks zone in the immediate neighbourhood of stars. Too hot or too cold will not do. This “circumstellar habitable zone” is just right for liquid water instead of steam or ice.

https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/552/3/stag1750/8864745?login=false

https://science.nasa.gov/resource/goldilocks-zone/

https://theconversation.com/beyond-the-habitable-zone-exoplanet-atmospheres-are-the-next-clue-to-finding-life-on-planets-orbiting-distant-stars-267498

https://theconversation.com/new-model-helps-to-figure-out-which-distant-planets-may-host-life-256427

https://theconversation.com/life-beyond-earth-there-may-be-thousands-more-exoplanets-in-our-galaxy-38996

https://astro.dur.ac.uk/ICC/Eagle/

https://theconversation.com/for-life-to-form-on-a-planet-it-needs-to-orbit-the-right-kind-of-star-33477

https://www.esa.int/Science\_Exploration/Space\_Science/Space\_for\_you/Gamma-ray\_bursts\_are\_we\_safe

https://theconversation.com/this-mysterious-exotic-stellar-peacock-may-open-the-door-to-a-realm-of-physics-only-ever-glimpsed-147911

The World Health Organization (WHO) today released its first guidelines addressing the sharp rise in obesity among children and adolescents, setting out how health systems and health workers can deliver timely, evidence-based and people-centred care.

In 2024, 170 million children and adolescents aged 5–19 years were living with obesity, including 70 million children aged 5–9 years and 100 million adolescents aged 10–19 years. Obesity prevalence in this age group has quadrupled since 1990, rising from 2% to 8%.

Obesity is a chronic, relapsing disease that can be managed with effective care. Its consequences can begin early in life, increasing the risk of noncommunicable diseases, including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Children and adolescents living with obesity may also experience stigma, discrimination and bullying. Preventing and managing obesity is essential to protect the physical and mental health of children and adolescents and support their healthy growth, education, social well-being and quality of life.

For children and adolescents with obesity, WHO strongly recommends structured dietary, physical activity and behaviour-changing interventions delivered individually or as part of a multimodal programme. Digital health interventions are conditionally recommended with parent or caregiver supervision.

WHO does not recommend pharmacological treatment, bariatric surgery (weight-loss surgery that changes the stomach or digestive tract) or weight-loss devices for children aged 0–9 years.

For adolescents aged 10–19 years, treatment with approved medicines may be considered only when a supervized multimodal lifestyle programme has not achieved the desired results. Bariatric surgery may be considered under strict conditions for adolescents with severe obesity.

“The foundation of obesity care for children and adolescents is not medicine or surgery, but access to comprehensive support that enables healthy eating, physical activity and sustainable behaviour change,” said Dr Luz María De Regil, Director of the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, WHO. “Our priority must be to ensure that every child and adolescent can access quality care and supportive environments from an early age, helping them achieve and maintain a healthy weight and laying the foundation for lifelong health and well-being.”

While not the primary focus of the guidelines, the recommendations also emphasize the importance of addressing mental health alongside obesity. Anxiety, depression, low self-esteem and emotional dysregulation can contribute to unhealthy eating behaviours, physical inactivity and social withdrawal, and children and adolescents living with obesity may experience stigma and bullying that harm their emotional well-being. Health workers should address both obesity and mental health conditions early and together, using inclusive, developmentally appropriate and family-engaged strategies.

The guidelines stress that obesity management should go beyond weight loss and aim to improve health, functioning and well-being. Care should be person-centred, age-appropriate and responsive to the needs of each child and family, ensuring long-term follow-up and continuity.

Treatment alone cannot reverse the rise in obesity. WHO continues to call for policies and measures that make healthy diets and physical activity more accessible and affordable, including regulatory and fiscal measures and action across education, urban planning, transport and social protection.

Together with WHO’s existing recommendations for adults, these new guidelines form part of a life-course approach to obesity care, providing evidence-based recommendations for the management and treatment of obesity from childhood through adolescence to adulthood. The guidelines are part of WHO's broader response to the global obesity epidemic, including the WHO acceleration plan to stop obesity.

https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240075634

A sharp increase in human activity is having an impact on the way a Himalayan bird lives and communicates, two studies by Indian researchers have found.

The monal, a pheasant native to Himalayan mountain forests, is deeply woven into the region's cultural, folklore and identity. The eye-catching monal - the male has distinctive green, blue and copper feathers - is the state bird of India's Uttarakhand state and the national bird of Nepal, reflecting its cultural significance across the Himalayas.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0376635725000981

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monal?wprov=sfla1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan\_monal?wprov=sfla1

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-11729-w

The origin of prebiotic replicators has traditionally been explored with reference to the RNA World, in which RNA molecules precede both DNA and proteins because they can act both as heritable stores of genetic information and as chemical catalysts. But it’s tough to see how RNA-based systems could give rise to metabolism, forcing us to suppose that RNA replicators must have been able to draw on some nonequilibrium energy source in their environment rather than having an autonomous metabolic cycle.

The notion of replicating single molecules as a kind of proto-organism never looked very convincing to me. But in the 1990s, the evolutionary biologists John Maynard Smith and Eörs Szathmáry argued that there are other kinds of chemical replicator, including autocatalytic cycles or networks: groups of molecules mutually able to catalyse one another’s formation.1 In the simplest case, A would catalyse the formation of B, and B catalyse the formation of A.

Such autocatalytic sets, postulated theoretically many decades ago by complexity theorist Stuart Kauffman, look like metabolic cycles, which are also series of catalytic reactions that return the system to its initial configuration, supplying work and dissipating energy in the process. Indeed, Kauffman, evolutionary biologist Bill Martin, and their collaborators have argued that autocatalytic chemical networks sit at the very origin of prebiotic metabolism.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/43519446

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article/287/1922/20192377/85490/Autocatalytic-chemical-networks-at-the-origin-of

https://www.jstor.org/stable/3066897

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2621400123

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-023-01276-0

Scientists who worked out how to control brain cells with light have won this year’s Nobel prize in physiology or medicine. Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel were honoured for their research into “light-gated ion channels and optogenetics”.

Peter Hegemann, at Humboldt University of Berlin, and Georg Nagel, at the University of Würzburg, wanted to understand how a tiny, single-celled alga called Chlamydomonas senses light. Light-sensing is not unique to animals with eyes: organisms throughout the living world use light to detect their surroundings and respond to changes in their environment. Even single-cell organisms have proteins that respond to light. These proteins are used to move towards or away from light, to generate energy and to respond to the various demands of a 24-hour day.

Hegemann and Nagel discovered that Chlamydomonas has a beautifully ingenious mechanism of light detection that relies on a single protein called channelrhodopsin.

Channelrhodopsin is built into the outer membrane of the algal cell. Part of the protein faces the water outside the cell and part faces the inside. The protein also contains a small molecule called retinaldehyde, which is able to absorb light.

When light hits the retinaldehyde inside channelrhodopsin, it changes shape. This makes the channelrhodopsin protein change shape too. That change opens a tiny passage through the cell membrane. Positively charged particles, including sodium, can then flow from the water outside the alga into the cell. This movement of charged particles sends a signal inside the alga that helps it swim.

How fantastic to have solved such an interesting biological question, but why the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine? The answer lies in the way nerve cells work. Nerve cells use the movement of charged particles (called “ions”) across their membranes to control their activity. When positively charged particles flow into a nerve cell, they can make it more active.

The researchers realised that if they could put channelrhodopsin into nerve cells, they might be able to switch those cells on simply by shining a light on them. That is exactly what Hegemann, Nagel and the third Nobel-prize winner, Karl Deisseroth, a psychiatrist and bioengineer at Stanford University in California, went on to do.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14615590/

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11028

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01351-4

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6941740/

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnins.2017.00663/full

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2026/press-release/

High in the Peruvian Andes, where thin air, cold temperatures and barren rock make survival a daily challenge, scientists have identified a remarkably small new inhabitant. Measuring no more than eight centimetres, the newly described lizard has adapted to a landscape where even the smallest advantages can mean the difference between surviving and disappearing, states the latest report by Gulf News. The species, named Liolaemus archipensis, was discovered at more than 4,800 metres above sea level in Peru's southern Arequipa region, placing it among the reptiles living at some of the highest elevations in the country, adds the news report.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liolaemus\_archipensis?wprov=sfla1

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/diversity

Chickenpox can begin with symptoms such as fever, tiredness, headache and loss of appetite. In children, however, the rash may sometimes be the first noticeable sign of infection. "Chickenpox is a highly contagious viral infection caused by the varicella-zoster virus and is particularly common among children who have not been vaccinated or previously infected," said Dr Pallav Mishra, Director, Internal Medicine, ShardaCare - Healthcity. The characteristic rash often starts as small red spots that develop into raised bumps and then fluid-filled blisters. These eventually burst or dry and form scabs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chickenpox?wprov=sfla1

https://www.thehindu.com/children/why-do-we-get-chickenpox-only-once/article70730659.ece?tpcc=THGPNR&gad\_source=1&gad\_campaignid=22962063277&gbraid=0AAAAADiKiyrYlqjIDYuZX-3eeltCVhXvm&gclid=CjwKCAjwlY3WBhANEiwApsNrLZgZXzEycd1Hhb5\_NwepWTaGZrByAHqqWDflD2BWZWetI2yCUWyRShoCDE8QAvD\_BwE

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2722564/

In 2016, the Government of India started a project to revive Rajasthan’s state bird, the Great Indian Bustard, through captive breeding in Jaisalmer. By June 2026, the captive population had reached 98, of which 38 were born through artificial insemination.

On Sunday, that effort entered a new phase when two captive-bred GIBs were released into the wild at the Desert National Park, at Sam in Jaisalmer.

“With this, we have entered a new era of GIB conservation,” said Ashok Singh, assistant conservator of forest at Jaisalmer.

https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2318629&reg=48&lang=1

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/great-indian-bustard-chick-goes-missing-in-kutch-forest-officials-101777560933841.html?\_gl=1\*ks2994\*\_ga\*UEFSRlhsNUtiQ2MwS1BTbWRWLVhVVFhIak9GRGw1OVhpNXZxRXlTLS0wSk9nOVB2RFZFc05ueklTQXVxbEhvVA..\*\_ga\_9CYSK4EP0B\*MTc5MTE4OTk1Ny4xOC4xLjE3OTExODk5NjQuMC4wLjA.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/videos/rajasthan-two-male-great-indian-bustards-released-into-jaisalmer-s-desert-101791105977069.html?\_gl=1\*9epbdw\*\_ga\*UEFSRlhsNUtiQ2MwS1BTbWRWLVhVVFhIak9GRGw1OVhpNXZxRXlTLS0wSk9nOVB2RFZFc05ueklTQXVxbEhvVA..\*\_ga\_9CYSK4EP0B\*MTc5MTE4OTk1Ny4xOC4xLjE3OTExODk5NjQuMC4wLjA.

A new study from the University of Cologne has discovered that leucine, an essential amino acid, has the ability to increase energy production in cells by protecting key proteins in mitochondria from degradation. This finding reveals a new link between nutrition and metabolism, which could lead to new approaches for treating metabolic disorders and cancer.

Mitochondria, known as the “powerhouse” of cells, produce the energy the body needs to function. According to the research, leucine helps stabilize proteins on the surface of mitochondria, allowing these organelles to produce energy more efficiently. Dr. Qiaochu Li, the lead author of the study, emphasized that the level of leucine in cells directly affects energy production.

The study, published in the journal Nature Cell Biology, shows that leucine helps maintain certain proteins that are important for metabolism. These proteins assist in transporting molecules into mitochondria, where they are used for energy production. This discovery suggests that modifying leucine levels could be a strategy to enhance energy production in cells.

Researchers also found that leucine affects a protein called SEL1L, which is involved in protein quality control in cells. Leucine appears to reduce the activity of SEL1L, allowing more mitochondrial proteins to remain in place and support mitochondrial function. However, the researchers caution that increased energy production is not always beneficial, as the cellular system also helps eliminate damaged proteins.

Additionally, the research examined the impact of leucine metabolism on fertility and cancer cells. In a model used, Caenorhabditis elegans, it was found that issues with leucine metabolism affected mitochondrial function and were linked to fertility problems. This could have significant implications for cancer research, as treatments that alter leucine metabolic pathways might differently impact healthy and tumor cells.

This discovery underscores the importance of nutrition not only as an energy source but also as a signal influencing cell function. This new connection between leucine, protein quality control, and mitochondrial metabolism opens up new possibilities for treating diseases affecting energy production in cells, including cancer and metabolic disorders.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41556-025-01799-3

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41174002/

A school-based screening programme by doctors at Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has found that an estimated 3-5 per cent of adolescent girls screened may have polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), according to preliminary findings of the ongoing study.

The screening, which began around 2023, has covered more than 4,000 children in seven government and private schools in Delhi. The findings are yet to be published.

The doctors say the exercise has also brought into focus a bigger challenge, identifying PCOS in teenagers when symptoms such as irregular periods and acne can be part of normal puberty.

https://www.indiascienceandtechnology.gov.in/research/study-pcos-and-its-awareness-among-adolescents-15-19-years-attending-gynecology-opd-aiims?language=en?field\_area\_id=2356

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/polycystic-ovary-syndrome

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/8316-polycystic-ovary-syndrome-pcos

Hollong is Assam’s state tree and one of India’s tallest native rainforest species. Across the Northeast, Hollang can grow up to 50 metres tall.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipterocarpus\_retusus?wprov=sfla1

https://www.econe.in/post/hollong-the-forgotten-tree