Vegan honey with added methylglyoxal and peroxide-generating enzymes killed M. abscessus in culture
Aston University researchers say the best vegan honeys made with methylglyoxal and peroxide-generating enzymes killed a drug-resistant bacterium in culture. The tests used one bacterium, and the cheaper, steadier alternative to mānuka honey that motivates the work is still a stated aim.
Reality
- Evidence40
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence50
Simulated deep-space radiation left rats with heart scarring that doubled in 270 days
Medical College of Wisconsin researchers report that 1.5 gray of simulated deep-space radiation doubled coronary scar tissue in rats by day 270. The rats were tracked about a year, which phys.org equates to 25 human years, so the damage shows up late.
Reality
- Evidence40
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+25
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence45
Mebendazole extends gefitinib's effect on resistant lung tumours in mice
Researchers pairing the deworming drug mebendazole with gefitinib report a median tumour doubling time of 25 days in mice, against 15.5 for gefitinib alone. The data come from one resistant EGFR-mutant model, and the tumours were not eliminated.
Reality
- Evidence40
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence50
Giardia strains that infect people turned up in about 1.2% of 157,616 tested North American cats
Margaret Wingerd and colleagues report in PLOS One that 6.3% of 157,616 North American pet cats tested positive for Giardia duodenalis. Of the positives, 18.5% carried assemblages A or B, the genetic groups that can infect people.
Reality
- Evidence70
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+10
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence66
Tongue bacterium tracks with faster responses on some tests in 60 UK and Belgian adults
Exeter-led researchers, writing in PLOS ONE, linked more Prevotella histicola on the tongue to faster responses on some tests in 60 healthy adults. With 30 people per country and no test of cause, the authors want larger studies to separate biology from noise.
Reality
- Evidence35
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence40
Neanderthal-style birch tar holds back a common wound bacterium in lab tests
Every type of birch tar a University of Cologne-led team made with reconstructed Neanderthal methods inhibited the wound bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. That makes a medical role for the old hafting adhesive plausible, though proof that Neanderthals dressed wounds with it would have to come from their sites.
Reality
- Evidence40
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+35
- Incentives55
- Confidence50
Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Latvia trail an EU whose poverty rates fell from 2015 to 2023
Two Kosice economists find EU poverty fell between 2015 and 2023 on 10 UN goal measures, with the at-risk rate down from 17.4% to 16.2%. Large gaps between member states persisted, so the EU figure says little about how the countries at the bottom are doing.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+10
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence50
Pottery model finds Neolithic complexity pushed decoration styles in opposite directions in Germany and Ukraine
Diachenko and Gronenborn's model of thousands of Neolithic sherds finds rising complexity first diversified pottery in Germany but standardised it in Ukraine. The split means style diversity only signals complexity once you know how production was organised.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives30
- Confidence50
Statistics tested on bison shrink the sex gap in paleontology's classic uintathere example
University of Kansas researchers found that about 30 Uintatherium anceps skulls lack the clear two-group split expected if the sexes differed sharply. Run on known-sex bison, the same tests split the sexes almost perfectly, so the long-cited fossil contrast looks overstated.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence40
Southwestern spotted bats carry the most genetic diversity among 121 bats sampled over two millennia
Northern Arizona University researchers analysed DNA from 121 spotted bats, the oldest about 2,100 years old, and found the most diversity in the US Southwest. The museum and cave samples give a baseline for a bat that is hard to count, though the reported finding maps diversity by place, with northern populations looking more vulnerable.
Reality
- Evidence50
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence45
Surrey simulations suggest lithium-6 and lithium-7 steer a flavin reaction differently through nuclear spin
Surrey simulations predict a lithium-6 versus lithium-7 difference in a flavin-vitamin C radical reaction similar in size to one derived from animal studies. That makes nuclear spin a testable explanation for why the isotopes act differently in animals, though no experiment has checked it yet.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+5
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence55
North Carolina's coastal forest gave way to marsh and ghost forest three times faster per year after 2010
NC State satellite mapping shows North Carolina lost 21% of its coastal forest, about 64,220 hectares, between 1985 and 2021, mostly to rising seas. Measured per year, conversion to marsh, ghost forest and shrub after 2010 ran at about triple the earlier pace.
Reality
- Evidence60
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap−15
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence62
York pooled analysis of 69 studies links sleep outside 7 to 8 hours to higher dementia risk
York University researchers pooling 69 studies linked sleeping under 7 hours to 18% higher dementia risk and sleeping over 8 hours to a 28% higher risk. The authors stress that the pooled cohorts show associations and do not prove cause and effect.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+25
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence50
Countries with more cats show less Toxoplasma exposure in a 93-country happiness analysis
Researchers comparing 93 countries in PLOS One found more cats went with higher national happiness, and more Toxoplasma exposure with lower. Cat-dense countries also had less of the parasite, so pet and wellbeing studies need to measure how cats are kept before crediting or blaming them.
Reality
- Evidence40
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+35
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence40
Four-year map finds 6% of lower-48 river length both healthy and protected
Researchers reporting in PLOS One found only 6% of stream length in the lower 48 both healthy and meaningfully protected. Their map is meant to show where conservation money would do the most good as the climate warms.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence55
Happier countries have more cats and less Toxoplasma, a 93-country study finds
Javier Borráz-León's team found that across 93 countries, national happiness scores run higher where cats are common and lower where Toxoplasma is. Both are country-level correlations that the authors suspect run through income and public health.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence40
Zinc oxide nanorods cut lab fouling by up to 73 percent, depending on the polymer pattern underneath
Sultan Qaboos University researchers cut diatom coverage by up to 72.9 percent in lab flow tests by growing zinc oxide nanorods on patterned polymers. How well the coating worked, and how toxic it was to shrimp larvae, depended on the pattern beneath it.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+10
- Incentives55
- Confidence50
Soil sliding from hillside graves may explain some of Göbeklitepe's scattered bones
Bones from Göbeklitepe's only two intact graves show the same damage as many of its 928 loose fragments, German Archaeological Institute researchers report. Ground slipping off the slope may account for part of the scatter, the team argues, while carved grooves on several skulls still point to deliberate handling.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+5
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence45
Trace lead in ink makes writing stand out in X-ray scans of papyrus burned on purpose
Douglas Seiler's team found lead-bearing ink absorbed up to 25 times more X-rays than charred papyrus, in test scrolls they wrote and burned themselves. How much that helps at Herculaneum depends on how many of the library's scrolls used lead ink, and nobody has counted yet.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+40
- Incentives60
- Confidence50
Bearded capuchins turn predator when fruit thins, and the clearest evidence comes from a second group that was fed daily for an unrelated project and hunted roughly half as often.
Perspective Coverage
3 publishers
- Builder
- Builder 53%
- Operator
- Operator 37%
- Investor
- Investor 10%
Reality
- Evidence68
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence65