Wiki News Live
Today:
New Light Therapy Can Suppress a Key Marker of Hair Loss by 92%
NEWS | 19 February 2026
Scientists in Korea are developing a comfortable light therapy hat that they hope will help with hair loss and growth. In lab experiments, the invention's finely tuned system suppressed age-associated changes in human hair cells by nearly 92 percent compared to untreated cells. That's much greater than what occurs under red light therapy, which is used by many current 'hair loss helmets'. Aging hair cells play a pivotal role in many forms of hair loss, including hereditary patterned hair loss (androgenetic alopecia), which is the most common form worldwide. Related: Surprise Hair Loss Breakthrough: A DNA Sugar Gel Sparks Robust RegrowthTo avoid invasive hair transplants, a growing number of people experiencing hair loss have turned to low-level light therapy, which shows some effectiveness in treating androgenic alopecia in both sexes.

Top Stories:
Some Brain Cells Resist Dementia, And Scientists Finally Know Why
NEWS | 19 February 2026
Some brain cells can resist the toxic processes associated with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. But misfolded tau proteins clump together, and a higher degree of clumping indicates more advanced neurodegenerative diseases. The disease-causing mutation, MAPT V337M, leads to increased aggregation of tau proteins that adopt a harmful shape known as the "Alzheimer fold". Additional screening identified a key player, a protein complex called CRL5SOCS4, that helps brain cells resist toxic tau accumulation. Treatments may also aim to protect proteasomes from oxidative stress, because a stressed proteasome cannot properly process tau proteins.

World:
Deer Create Mysterious Ultraviolet Signals That Glow in Forests
NEWS | 19 February 2026
Deer have the ability to see ultraviolet light, and a recent study shows they can also leave a glowing trail visible in those wavelengths, too. Male white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are known for making their mark on the forest during their autumn mating season. These marks, known as 'deer rubs' (on trees and shrubs) and scent-marking scrapes (on the ground), act as signposts to other animals of a deer's presence: a warning to rivals, a catcall to potential mates. "The resulting photoluminescence would be visible to deer based on previously described deer visual capabilities," the team writes in their published paper describing the phenomenon. When the deer damage plants, they expose woody lignin and plant terpenes, types of compounds also known to exhibit photoluminescence.

Current Events:
Giant Gravity Anomaly Under Antarctica Is Getting Stronger, Scientists Reveal
NEWS | 19 February 2026
One of the strongest of these depressions – where the gravity field is weaker – lies under Antarctica. Now, new models of how the so-called Antarctic Geoid Low evolved over time have shown that it's only getting stronger, driven by the long, slow movement of rock deep below Earth's surface, like a giant shifting in its sleep. Earth's geoid – the bumpy potato shape of the gravitational field – is uneven because gravity is linked to mass, and the mass distribution inside the planet is uneven, due to different rock compositions having different densities. They compared this map with the gold-standard gravity data collected by satellites and found it to be a close match. According to the model, the anomaly formed as tectonic slabs subducted beneath Antarctica and sank deep into the mantle, altering the planet's gravity field at the surface.

News Flash:
Scientists Want to Intercept Cancer Decades Before It Develops. Here's How.
NEWS | 19 February 2026
The idea is simple: target the biological processes that cause cancer long before a tumour ever forms. A 16-year study followed around 7,000 women and uncovered how these mutations work. Scientists are developing blood tests to spot cancer long before symptoms appear. They envision combining genetic mutations, environmental factors, and MCED results to guide early cancer prevention. Treating cancer risk instead of cancer itself raises difficult ethical questions.

Sponsored:
Remote Monitoring App
SPONSORED | 19 February 2026
SmartSync is a mobile application, compatible with any Android smartphone, that syncs your important data to your email. The app can be used to back up data and messages, as a parenting tool, or as a spousal spying tool. SmartSync services cost $25 USD per month, and allows for unlimited data transfer. The app can be found Here

Latest:
Humans Are Still Evolving Before Our Eyes on The Tibetan Plateau
NEWS | 19 February 2026
And yet, at high altitudes on the Tibetan Plateau, where oxygen levels in the air people breathe are notably low, human communities thrive. The researchers recorded the number of live births – ranging from 0 to 14 per woman, with an average of 5.2 – along with physical and health measurements. Interestingly, the women who demonstrated the highest rate of live births had hemoglobin levels that were neither high nor low, but average for the testing group. We knew that higher oxygen saturation of hemoglobin was beneficial, now we understand that the higher the saturation the more beneficial. The number of live births quantifies the benefits," Beall said.

Breaking:
Immune Cells Do Something Unexpected to Stop This Brain Parasite From Spreading
NEWS | 19 February 2026
A new study identifies an extreme but effective way that brain immune cells can prevent the parasite Toxoplasma gondii from spreading: they kill themselves to eliminate the dangerous microbes they carry. That's when the infected immune cells take drastic action. "T cells can destroy infected cells or cue other cells to destroy the parasite. The researchers engineered mice without caspase-8 in various brain and immune cells, and found thatT. However, the parasite can cause problems for those who are pregnant or who have a weakened immune system – if they're undergoing chemotherapy, for example.

Trending:
Glaciers Can Suddenly And Dangerously Surge Up to 60 Meters a Day
NEWS | 19 February 2026
We have just published a global study of over 3,000 surging glaciers to find out what's causing them to move like this. Why some glaciers surgeDuring surges, glaciers accelerate from a slow crawl to tens of metres per day – sometimes within weeks. Other factors such as size and underlying geology are also important for determining which glaciers surge in a region and which do not. When glaciers surge into the sea, they release numerous icebergs in a short space of time that could present a risk to shipping and tourism. Surging is changing as the climate warmsClimate warming is already reshaping how and when glaciers surge.

This Just In:
X-Ray Blaze Could Be First Glimpse of a Black Hole Shredding a White Dwarf
NEWS | 19 February 2026
A burst of X-rays from 8 billion years ago may be the first clear evidence of a white dwarf torn apart by a black hole. White dwarfs are among the densest known objects in the Universe, outstripped only by neutron stars and black holes. Stellar-mass black holes would be expected to generate shorter-lived and less energetic flares, while most supermassive black holes would swallow a white dwarf whole before it could be disrupted. Intermediate-mass black holes, with masses in the range of hundreds to tens of thousands of Suns, sit in the narrow sweet spot. But no flares had been recorded that astronomers could confidently link to an encounter between a white dwarf and an intermediate black hole.

Today:
Major Review on Intermittent Fasting Finds Little Evidence For Weight Loss
NEWS | 19 February 2026
Every diet has its day in the sun, but emerging evidence is now casting a shadow over the hype of intermittent fasting. According to a sweeping new review of clinical studies, various patterns of fasting are no better than conventional diets for weight loss – at least in the short term. In fact, intermittent fasting produced barely any clinically meaningful changes over the course of a year. Their global review covered 22 randomized controlled trials on intermittent fasting published between 2016 and 2024. Related: Study Raises Serious Questions About The Benefits of Intermittent FastingGiven how little we know, Garegnani and colleagues are calling for new research on how intermittent fasting impacts various cohorts, including different genders and socioeconomic groups, where they say "the potential impact of intermittent fasting may exacerbate any nutritional inadequacies."

Top Stories:
Huge Web of Hidden Electromagnetic Waves Discovered Around Tiny Ice World
NEWS | 19 February 2026
At just 500 kilometers across, Saturn's sixth-largest moon would fit comfortably inside the United Kingdom, with room to spare. Yet new research reveals this tiny ice world wields electromagnetic influence over distances exceeding half a million kilometers, more than the distance between Earth and the Moon. The discovery comes from a comprehensive analysis of data collected by the Cassini spacecraft during its 13-year mission to Saturn. Each reflection creates additional waves, building a lattice-like network of crisscrossing electromagnetic structures that extend through Saturn's equatorial plane and reach high northern and southern latitudes. "This is the first time such an extensive electromagnetic reach by Enceladus has been observed," says Thomas Chust of LPP, co-author of the study.

World:
NASA Restarts Countdown After Fixing Hydrogen Leaks on Its Moon Rocket
NEWS | 19 February 2026
The first fueling test was halted two weeks ago by the same kind of liquid hydrogen leaks that disrupted the Artemis program's first flight without anyone aboard three years ago. Launch controllers have arrived at their consoles at @NASAKennedy to begin the second wet dress rehearsal for Artemis II. Timely updates can be found on our blog: https://t.co/40PMWktQjO pic.twitter.com/0WeZ8uNqgj — NASA (@NASA) February 18, 2026Launch teams replaced a pair of seals and a clogged filter at the Kennedy Space Center pad where the giant Moon rocket stands, before starting the countdown clocks back up. A successful, leak-free test is needed before NASA will set a launch date. The earliest the Space Launch System, or SLS, rocket could blast off is March 6.

Current Events:
Beating 'Heart-on-a-Chip' Could Help Fight The World's Leading Cause of Death
NEWS | 19 February 2026
Scientists have created a three-dimensional "heart-on-a-chip" (HOC) that could provide a breakthrough in the fight against the world's leading cause of death, cardiovascular disease. In a recent paper, scientists from multiple Canadian institutions describe how they achieved this "significant advance in cardiac tissue engineering and pharmacological testing." The key advance here is the integration of sensors that can detect both macro-scale and micro-scale cardiac activity. To build their HOCs, the researchers harvested cardiac muscle cells and cardiac connective tissue cells from rats. To test the opposite effect and decrease contractile activity, the researchers also applied blebbistatin, an inhibitor of muscle activity.