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Vitamin D2 Backfires, Alzheimer's Enzyme & Light-Speed AI
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
New science reveals vitamin D2 supplements suppress the more active D3 form, while a discovered enzyme slashes Alzheimer's plaques and Penn physicists build light-matter particles that run AI faster and cheaper. Six stories spanning nutrition, neuroscience, psychiatry, and physics.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
A supplement millions of people take to protect their health may actually be working against them. New findings show that vitamin D2, one of the most commonly recommended forms of the vitamin, suppresses D3 in the body.
The D2 finding isn't isolated. It's part of a broader pattern that's been sharpening in nutrition science.
On the Alzheimer's front, two separate findings from May twentieth are worth holding together. The first identifies an enzyme called IDOL as a potential trigger.
A different kind of therapeutic target is emerging from UC Davis. Researchers there engineered compounds that activate serotonin receptors, the same receptors involved in the therapeutic effects of psychedelics, without producing hallucinations.
Stepping back from biology for a moment, a physics development from Penn deserves attention. Researchers there created hybrid particles called polaritons that combine light and matter.
One more item worth flagging: nuclear startup Deep Fission is pursuing a one hundred fifty-seven million dollar Nasdaq IPO. The company's approach involves drilling deep boreholes for small reactors.
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