NuseReal

December 2025

The riddle of consciousness: new theories on how our brains create subjective experience (LINK) 21 December 2025

Trump signs executive order to reclassify marijuana as a lower-graded Schedule III drug instead of Schedule I. CBS: "one of the most significant changes to drug policy in decades" (LINK) 18 December 2025

'I'm a GI doc — this type of cheese is hands-down the best for your gut': aged cheddar (LINK) 18 December 2025

UN environment report 'hijacked' over fossil fuels, its co-chair says: United States and other countries were unwilling to go along with the scientific findings in the Global Environment Outlook, the result of six years' work (LINK) 9 December 2025

— BBC: At a meeting with government representatives to agree the findings, the US and allies said they could not go along with a summary of the report's conclusions. As the scientists were unwilling to water down or change their findings, the report has now been published without the summary and without the support of governments, weakening its impact.

A sustainable future requires new thinking: UNEP environment report (LINK) 9 December 2025

— The agency calls the report the most comprehensive assessment of the global environment ever undertaken, with input from 287 multi-disciplinary scientists from 82 countries — stretching to well over 1,000 pages. It calls for a transition to circular economy models; a rapid decarbonisation of the energy system; a shift towards sustainable diets, reduced waste and improved agricultural practices; and expanding protected areas and restoring degraded ecosystems — all backed by behavioural, social and cultural shifts that include Indigenous and local knowledge.

Scientists stumble onto possible breakthrough dementia vaccine that was hiding in plain sight: shingles vaccine (LINK) 9 December 2025

— Individuals who received the shingles vaccine reduced their risk of dementia by 20%. Another fascinating discovery from the study was that individuals living with dementia were far less likely to die from it after receiving the vaccine. There was a decrease in mortality over a nine-year period of 22.7%.

Louis XIV's cause of death revealed by DNA from his mummified heart 310 years after he was buried in Paris: longest reigning monarch in European history died four days short of his 77th birthday on 1 September 1715 from fungus infection not bacterial agents in gangrene: the king was in agony for two weeks before his death (LINK) 9 December 2025

Decoding the chemistry of life: revealing how mutations alter enzymes and drive drug resistance through 'maximum entropy' (LINK) 9 December 2025

The US solicitor general, who represents the federal government before the US Supreme Court, has weighed in on the side of Bayer subsidiary Monsanto in the company's efforts to protect itself from a barrage of lawsuits claiming that its glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup causes cancer (LINK) 9 December 2025

Pompeii house frozen mid-renovation reveals secrets of Roman cement: reactive hot-mix method — highly reactive quicklime (dry heated limestone) is mixed with volcanic ash and water, setting off a chemical reaction that produces heat and gives the material self-healing capabilities (LINK) 9 December 2025

Journal retracts weed killer study backed by Monsanto, citing 'serious ethical concerns': highly cited paper was used as evidence that the widely used herbicide Roundup is safe (LINK) 5 December 2025

— In 2017, a lawsuit uncovered internal emails from chemical giant Monsanto that suggested its employees helped ghostwrite an influential paper that claimed to find no evidence the company’s widely used glyphosate herbicide, Roundup, caused cancer. Now, the scientific journal that published the 2000 paper has announced it has been retracted.

62,000 African penguins starving to death as part of the planet's sixth mass extinction event, driven by human activity (LINK) 5 December 2025

CDC advisers vote to overturn decades-long policy on hepatitis B vaccine for infants (LINK) 5 December 2025

The secret language of dolphins decoded by researchers (LINK) 5 December 2025

— Whistles are primarily used for social communication. Burst-pulsed sounds are rapid series of broadband clicks that sound like buzzes, squeaks, or squawks to human ears and appear to convey emotional states or serve as reprimands. One of the most fascinating discoveries is the existence of signature whistles that function similarly to names.

To counter climate denial, UN scientists must be 'clear' about human role in change: IPCC chief (LINK) 4 December 2025

Scientists may have discovered why we gained consciousness: three core functions: plus, second study analyzed birds and found that high levels of consciousness can be achieved in animals with different brain architecture from our own (LINK) 4 December 2025

Leading scientific journal Nature retracts study predicting global economic collapse from climate change (LINK) 3 December 2025

— Annual global climate damage by the middle of the century is predicted to be five times greater than the cost of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, rather than six times greater as previously calculated.

Which countries in Europe do teachers use it the most? (LINK) 2 December 2025

— 2024; highest adoption: Albania leads at 52% of teachers using AI.Lowest adoption: France has only 14% teacher AI usage. Regional averages: EU-22 average is 32%, while OECD average across 27 countries is 36%. The data shows significant variation across 32 countries surveyed, with no clear regional pattern, though Western European countries generally show lower adoption than the Balkans and Eastern Europe.

WHO unveils guidelines for GLP-1 weight-loss drugs: calls for a worldwide obesity treatment “ecosystem” to ensure that drugs are used fairly (LINK) 1 December 2025

Earth's hidden eighth continent is no longer lost: we've finally mapped all of Zealandia, and explained why it is under water (LINK) 1 December 2025