Thursday, October 30, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

The 5:2 diet can help with type 2 diabetes

Published August 5, 2024 – By Editorial staff

Fasting two days a week may be effective for type 2 diabetes, according to new research.

The study, published in JAMA Network Open, involved 405 Chinese adults who had recently been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. The study participants had not used any medication for the disease or weight loss drugs in the past three months. They were then divided into three different groups that received the diabetes drugs metformin and empagliflozin or a 5:2 meal replacement diet for a total of 16 weeks.

In a nutshell, 5:2 means fasting two days a week and eating as usual the other five days.

The meal replacement participants ate one serving of a low-energy product instead of three meals on two consecutive days. For the remaining five days, they ate breakfast and lunch of their choice, but a portion of the meal replacement product for dinner.

At the end of the study, glycated hemoglobin, weight, and anthropometric and biochemical parameters were analyzed.

The fasting participants had the greatest reduction in glycated hemoglobin compared to the other two groups. All participants in the group except those over 60 years of age had lower levels. The researchers saw no difference between those taking metformin or empagliflozin.

About 76% of the 5:2 group had a glycated hemoglobin level of less than 6.5% eight weeks after treatment. For people without diabetes, the level should be around 5.7%. Body weight also decreased more in the 5:2 group than in the other two groups, as did blood pressure.

The researchers conclude that 5:2 fasting can effectively improve glycemic control and reduce body weight in patients with type 2 diabetes, and that it is more effective than the medications tested.

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Study: Testosterone does not control men’s economic risk-taking

Published October 25, 2025 – By Editorial staff
The researchers tested nine different economic behaviors – from risk-taking to generosity – but found no difference between the groups.

Testosterone has no effect on men's economic decisions, according to the largest study to date in this field. One thousand Canadian men who received testosterone made the same decisions as those who received a placebo – a result that challenges previous research.

In the study, published in the scientific journal PNAS, 1,000 Canadian men aged 18 to 45 participated. The men were randomly assigned to receive either an 11-milligram dose of testosterone or a placebo in a double-blind study. Once the hormone began to take effect, the men participated in various experiments to measure risk-taking, generosity, competitiveness, and fairness preferences.

A total of nine different outcomes were measured, and the results showed that both groups behaved on average in the same way, regardless of whether they received testosterone or placebo – across all outcomes.

Our results provide strong evidence that short-term increases in testosterone have no meaningful impact on men's economic decisions, says Anna Dreber Almenberg, professor at the Department of Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden, in a press release.

Largest study in the field

Previous studies have suggested that testosterone can influence the propensity to take risks or compete in economic situations, but this study shows that this is not necessarily the case. This study is also the largest of its kind in the field, with ten to twenty times more men participating than in previous studies.

However, the researchers emphasize that they only tested one dose and one time perspective in the men, which means that other possible effects could occur at different doses or time perspectives. Women were also not included in the trial.

The study is important because it directly challenges the idea that short-term fluctuations in testosterone levels explain why some people take greater economic risks, reject unfair offers, or act more competitively in life, says Justin M. Carré, professor at the Faculty of Arts and Science at Nipissing University in Canada.

Record-breaking dinosaur trackway unearthed in England

Published October 16, 2025 – By Editorial staff
Replica of a Cetiosaurus skeleton. Hundreds of footprints were discovered during the excavation in Oxfordshire, England.

British researchers have unearthed a 220-meter-long dinosaur trackway and evidence that dozens of individuals moved as a herd. It is the longest footprint trail ever found from a dinosaur in Europe.

It was last year that researchers discovered a new paleontological site full of dinosaur footprints. At the location, situated at Dewars Farm quarry near Bicester in Oxfordshire, England, footprints were found from, among others, the nine-meter-long carnivore Megalosaurus.

This year, researchers from the University of Birmingham and Oxford University Museum of Natural History returned to the "Jurassic Highway", as the site is called, to investigate it further. They then discovered hundreds of new footprints from sauropods, commonly known as "long-necks".

Largest trackway site

This site in Oxfordshire is the largest dinosaur track site in the UK, and arguably now the largest mapped dinosaur track site in the world when we consider finds dating back to the 1990s on the same surface nearby, says Kirsty Edgar, professor at the University of Birmingham, to Sci News.

Sauropods are a group of herbivorous dinosaurs and were the largest animals that ever walked on land. The researchers believe the footprints came from a cetiosaurus, a sauropod that can reach approximately 20 meters in length.

In total, four different trackways were discovered that the dinosaurs had walked, dated to 166 million years old. One of these trackways was 220 meters long – making it the longest footprint trail found from a dinosaur in Europe.

What is most exciting about this site is the sheer size and number of footprints. We now have evidence of tens of individuals moving through this area at around the same time, perhaps as a herd, says Dr Duncan Murdock at Oxford University Museum of Natural History in a press release.

Two meters per second

The footprints were up to one meter long, and researchers have analyzed the dinosaurs' direction and pace, calculating that they could move at approximately two meters per second.

The other three trackways are not yet fully exposed, which means they may prove to be even longer. Additionally, smaller finds of marine invertebrates, plant material, and a crocodile jaw have been discovered.

Richard Butler, professor at the University of Birmingham, believes that footprints can provide important information about how dinosaurs lived.

Most of what we know about dinosaurs comes from their skeletons, but footprints and the sediments that they are in can provide valuable additional information about how these organisms lived and what their environment looked like over 166 million years ago, he tells Sci News.

PFAS during pregnancy alters child’s brain

Published October 16, 2025 – By Editorial staff
Research shows for the first time how PFAS in pregnant women can alter children's brain structure several years later.

For the first time, researchers can demonstrate how PFAS in pregnant women affects their children's brains long-term. The Finnish-Swedish study shows that structural changes can be observed in children when they are five years old.

The study, which has been published in Lancet Planetary Health, is a collaboration between Örebro University (Sweden), Åbo University (Finland), and Turku University Hospital (Finland), and is part of the EU project INITIALISE (Inflammation in human early life: targeting impacts on life-course health).

PFAS consists of a range of chemicals that are difficult to break down and have been found not only in nature, but also in humans and animals. Some of these chemicals can be harmful to health. Research has shown that PFAS can affect the immune system and is also suspected to have effects on metabolism, hormonal balance, and brain development.

Because PFAS remains in the body, it can also pass from a pregnant woman to the placenta, which means the child can be exposed. Previous studies have, for example, indicated that if pregnant women have PFAS in their blood, there is a greater risk that the child will become overweight later in life.

Affected brain structure

This study is the first of its kind to examine the entire brain simultaneously in a brain scanner in children in relation to PFAS exposure during pregnancy – several years after birth.

The study was conducted using the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, which was established at Åbo University (Finland) in 2011. It is a long-term study that follows thousands of children and mothers from pregnancy onward. Some of the children underwent brain scans, and these results have been compared with the levels of PFAS measured in the mothers during pregnancy.

The results show that there is a connection between higher levels of PFAS in pregnant women and changes in both the brain's structure and in the connections between different brain regions in their children. These changes were observed five years later.

This is the first time researchers have been able to describe how PFAS in pregnant women can be linked to changes in their children's brains several years later.

This is an important piece of the puzzle in understanding how chemicals can affect children's development. Step by step, we are gaining more knowledge about how different environmental factors interact and can contribute to health problems, says Tuulia Hyötyläinen, professor at Örebro University, in a press release.

Exposure to PFAS during pregnancy and also during early development in the child is considered particularly sensitive, the researchers say, because the brain and other organs grow rapidly and are formed during that time. More research is now needed on how PFAS affects brain function.

Overall, the research shows that PFAS can affect brain development even at low levels. More research is needed on how chemicals affect cognition and brain function in children, what the causes are, and what it leads to, says Hyötyläinen.

Researchers' tips to avoid PFAS while awaiting stronger legislation:

  1. Eat fish, but avoid fish from lakes contaminated with PFAS. For more information about contamination levels, contact your local municipality. Also reduce consumption of takeaway food and microwaveable meals in grease- and water-repellent paper packaging.
  2. Avoid cooking with non-stick products.
    Avoid makeup, soap and beauty products containing PFAS. In ingredient lists, look out for: PTFE, polytetrafluoroethylene, "...perfluoro..." or "...polyfluoro...".
  3. PFAS is often found in water-repellent functional clothing. Since most PFAS is released during production, buying second-hand clothes can help reduce these chemicals in nature.

Vultures collect archaeological finds

Published October 15, 2025 – By Editorial staff
The bearded vulture is an endangered species that lives in mountainous regions of Asia, Africa and southern Europe.

Researchers have discovered hundreds of years old human artifacts in vulture nests – including shoes, crossbow arrows, and a spear.

Many bird species have a habit of collecting various artificial objects, such as plastic pieces, strings, or debris, to bring to their nests. Often this is about building nests and these materials are simply readily available to the birds.

Bowerbirds (Ptilonorhynchidae), found primarily in Australia and New Guinea, also have a habit of decorating their homes with advanced methods to impress females. They build structures and collect colorful items such as shells, flowers, stones, and also plastic objects.

Larger birds such as eagles, falcons, and vultures also collect items for their nests, but something unique to many of these bird species is that the same nest can be reused for generations if it's in a good location. In this way, birds continue to use the same nest, and thus also fill them, for centuries.

Reused for Hundreds of Years

The bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) is a bird species that lives in mountainous areas in Asia, Africa, and southern Europe, and this behavior of reusing nests has been documented in this species.

The endangered species often builds nests in cliff caves, mountain cliffs, or on ledges, and many of these regions are often dry, especially in European mountain ranges where the species frequently resides. Particularly in cave-like structures, conditions can become ideal for long-term preservation, and researchers have now examined this more closely.

Researchers in Spain examined twelve abandoned bearded vulture nests in an area in southern Spain where the species became extinct 70–130 years ago. In total, they found 226 human-made objects in the nest layers.

Natural Museums

Among other things, they found a slingshot, shoes, a crossbow arrow, a spear, a decorated sheepskin, and fragments of a basket that the bearded vultures used as material to build their nests. Many of the objects were made from esparto grass, a traditional fiber plant used in the Mediterranean region for thousands of years. What surprised the researchers was the age of the objects – many of them were hundreds of years old.

One shoe was dated to be 675 years old and the sheepskin was 650 years old. The basket piece was younger and dated to 150 years old. The objects were also in surprisingly good condition.

"Thanks to the solidity of Bearded Vulture nest structures and their locations in the western Mediterranean, generally in protected places such as caves and rock shelters with relatively stable temperature and low humidity conditions, they have acted as natural museums, conserving historical material in good condition", the researchers write in the study published in the journal Ecology.

Time Capsules

In addition to the artificial objects, researchers also found 2,117 bones, 86 hooves, 72 leather remains, 11 hair remains, and 43 eggshells. Bearded vultures actively collect bones and objects for their nests, and these findings provide interesting information about the species' diet since medieval times, as well as about wild animal populations and human-animal interactions in the area.

The eggshells also enable further studies on environmental toxins and pesticides and whether there may be any connection to why the species became extinct in the area. The hope is also that the objects can be used to provide important information regarding reintroduction of the species.

The study shows how old nests can function as time capsules that preserve both natural history and cultural history information. The findings provide not only insights into the bearded vulture's past, but also about people's lives in these mountain areas hundreds of years ago.

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