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Feeling anxious? Social media
might be to blame

The impact of social media on teens has sparked global conversations. New studies, however, indicate that it’s not just teens who experience the consequences of use. It’s the entire human race.

New studies on the physiological effects of Instagram indicate that the platform takes its toll on the body.

The findings, published in Computers in Human Behavior, show physical responses akin to addiction.

During platform use, study participants exhibited decreased heart rates and increased skin conductance, signaling deep attentional immersion and heightened arousal.

When participants stopped using the platform, their heart rate and stress indicators spiked and they reported anxiety and social media cravings. The same indicators were found in both regular and problematic users, challenging the notion that such responses are exclusive to people with compulsive social media behaviors.

The study highlights neurophysiological impacts of social media interactions and the potential stress of disengagement.

More like this: Staying cyber safe

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Some long COVID mysteries solved

The recent advancements in our biosensor technology mark a significant step forward in the fields of diagnostics and environmental monitoring. With its high sensitivity, multiplexing capability, and robust design, the rGO-based biosensor is poised to become a transformative tool in medical and environmental applications.

This is significant because early-stage cancer detection, as enabled by the biosensor’s ability to detect biomarkers like Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA) at clinically relevant levels, can dramatically improve treatment outcomes and patient survival rates.

Similarly, its successful application in detecting SARS-CoV-2 during the pandemic highlighted its potential to respond rapidly to emerging health crises, enabling timely and accessible diagnostics. Beyond healthcare, the biosensor’s role in environmental monitoring, such as detecting trace pollutants and pathogens in water, addresses critical global challenges like water quality and safety. These capabilities underscore its versatility and societal impact, ensuring that it can serve as a cost-effective, scalable solution for pressing issues in healthcare and environmental sustainability. As we move toward commercialization, our focus remains on ensuring widespread accessibility and impact, continuing to innovate in this critical domain.

The global COVID-19 pandemic may be in the rear-view mirror, but the research world is still working hard on the umpteen questions that arose throughout the crisis. Some of these mysteries involve long COVID and why some people get it and others don’t.

People with long COVID continue to exhibit symptoms for months or even years after testing negative for the virus. The most common symptoms include extreme fatigue; brain fog or memory problems; dizziness; and trouble with smell or taste.

A recent study published in npj Digital Magazine might help predict who is most at risk.

The research suggests that individuals experiencing long-term symptoms after a SARS-CoV-2 infection exhibit distinct physiological characteristics detectable through wearable devices.

Twenty thousand people were monitored via wearable devices; the commonality among those with long COVID revealed those individuals had a higher resting heart rate and lower step count.

Long COVID was shown to affect those with generally lower quality of life and overall well-being, suggesting lower fitness levels and/or pre-existing conditions may contribute to the severity of post-COVID-19 conditions.

The research also indicated possible value in wearable technology in tracking health trends and identifying those at higher risk for long COVID.

More like this: What we know about long covid

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New clues to spotting deadliest
prostate cancers

According to the American Cancer Society, one in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and one in 44 will die from the disease. While the number of cases has drastically reduced in previous years, over 35,000 deaths still occur annually. Ongoing research into the prescreening and genetics of these patients is reducing deaths even more.

One of the most common and important modifiers, or chemical changes, in RNA molecules is m6A. When m6A is misregulated, it can cause abnormal cell growth, making cancers more aggressive and difficult to treat. As such, scientists are studying this as a potential target for cancer therapies.

A recent study published in Nature Genetics that mapped out the landscape of m6A in 162 primary prostate tumors revealed that m6A patterns are influenced by genetic mutations, tumor microenvironment and hypoxia.

The findings include that m6A dysregulation is linked to tumor growth and metastasis, in particular through modifications in genes like VCAN, which drives disease aggression and poor clinical outcomes.

This indicates m6A as a potential biomarker for prostate prognosis and treatment classes, opening new avenues for intervention and targeted therapeutics by showing how RNA changes, genes and environment influence prostate cancer.

More like this: A step forward in targeting tumors

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Business is
Mushrooming

Mushrooms like cool, dark, humid growing environments. So it may seem strange that Below Farm is cultivating fungi in hot, sunny Abu Dhabi.

But Liliana Slowinska and her partners at Below Farm are using technology and waste biomass to grow their mushrooms inside specially adapted industrial buildings. Although plenty of other companies are farming indoors, cultivating mushrooms presents specific challenges.

“The key here is this: Mushrooms are not plants,” says Slowinska, the company’s co-founder and business development director. “In fact, they metabolically resemble animals more.

They digest their food, which is the feedstock we create in the form of a growing medium from locally available materials such as date palm leaves.”

These palm leaves come from waste that would otherwise go to landfills.

Home grown

The United Arab Emirates, which traditionally imports most of its food, has ambitious goals, aiming to top the Global Food Security Index by 2051. Part of the strategy is encouraging local, sustainable food production. Read more›››

The first phase aims to encourage domestic production of red meat, eggs, poultry, dairy products, dates, leafy vegetables, tomatoes, peppers and aubergine.

Another campaign called Ne’ma – Arabic for blessing – aims to reduce food waste.

There are about 38,000 farms operating in the UAE. ‹‹‹ Read less

“Then there is the fact that mushrooms breathe out CO2, just like us, and this necessitates appropriate levels of gas exchange,” Slowinska says.

Another issue: Also like animals, the fungi don’t require watering the same way plants do. “They absorb moisture from the environment, and to that end we maintain variety-specific levels of humidity in each fruiting chamber.

Overall, growing mushrooms consistently is more complex than other types of produce,” Slowinska says.

The Below Farm team believes that the operation could be a model for food production in an age of climate change and increased urbanization.

“Businesses like ours are the future of food production,” Slowinska says. “As the world gets hotter, drier and more urbanized, there is a dire need for robust and decentralized food systems.

The UAE is the perfect training ground for our fungi proof-of-concept farm as we know now firsthand how to grow food in arid environments.”

Local businesses have taken notice. Abu Dhabi restaurant Marmellata Bakery uses Below Farm’s mushrooms in some of its top-selling pizzas.

“We choose Below Farm because their mushrooms are amongst the highest-quality ingredients that we source locally, period,” says Marmellata owner Raj Dagastani. “They allow us to participate in our local economy, they help us build a community of like-minded food professionals, their mushrooms arrive fresh and in their prime, there is less waste produced, less environmental impact, less drama. But most importantly, their mushrooms are delicious.”

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Trust your gut?

Many gut conditions are typically diagnosed using invasive, uncomfortable procedures, but new technology aims to offer accurate diagnoses, more simply and without all of the discomfort.

Our guts have many important jobs that contribute to overall health, one of which is allowing only water and nutrients to pass into our bloodstreams. While all guts are semi-permeable to allow for this to happen, some are more permeable than others — and this complicates things for the body.

Picture a long tube with tiny, brick-like structures packed tightly together. The bricks, or cells, have spaces between them that are sealed with “glue” called tight junctions. These allow good stuff in and keep the bad stuff out. When the gut gets inflamed, the “glue” can weaken, allowing things to pass through that should not.

“This work signifies major progress towards the use of non-invasive bioimpedance sensing as a diagnostic tool in ingestible technology and leaky gut identification,”

– Research team at University of Maryland

Checking the strength of the “glue” is often met with endoscopies — invasive tests that are uncomfortable and can’t reach all of the gastrointestinal tract or measure permeability. These tests can be inconclusive.

But not anymore.

A study recently published in Microsystems & Nanoengineering discusses an ingestible device capable of continuously monitoring the epithelial barriers of the gastrointestinal tract.

The research team from the University of Maryland used animal tissue models to validate the findings, measuring how electricity moves (bioimpedance) through the lining of the gut. This allows detection of gaps in the tight junctions.

Identification of these gaps can indicate early signs of diseases like Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis, in which early diagnoses can determine the severity and speed at which the disease progresses.

Crohn’s is a chronic inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract. While a person isn’t likely to die from it, the disease can lead to other life-threatening issues such as severe infections and colorectal cancer.

Prolonged diagnoses can also lead to damage in the intestines like holes or blockages that require surgery to fix.

Dr. Siobhan O’Sullivan talks the gut microbiome

Less threatening symptoms include stomach pain, severe diarrhea, weight loss, malnutrition and fatigue.

With 6-8 million people in the United States alone affected and no cure, early detection and treatment can alleviate a lot of the bodily trauma, pain and life-threatening issues. It can also contribute to periods of remission.

Until the development of this device, detection of dilations in the tight junctions could be achieved only in the esophagus because the electrodes needed to be connected externally. Therefore, “comparable datasets from the small or large intestine are lacking,” the team says.

CAPTION: Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy IMAGE: Shutterstock

But with wireless, bluetooth-enabled technology, this is no longer the case.

And seeing isn’t nearly enough for comprehensive diagnoses. The capsules measure things like temperature and motility, offering real-time and continuous data required for not only diagnoses, but also for treatment-plan adjustments and interventions.

The data needs to be on point, which is complicated with all of the twists and turns in the intestines. Sensor-sensitivity design needs to be targeted.

“This work signifies major progress towards the use of non-invasive bioimpedance sensing as a diagnostic tool in ingestible technology and leaky gut identification,” the researchers say.

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