Spinal stimulation above and below injury restores leg movement and sensory feedback in clinical trial

Simultaneous electrical stimulation above and below spinal cord injury sites enabled individuals with complete paralysis to regain partial leg movement and receive sensory feedback. Participants could control muscle activation and accurately perceive leg position using patterned stimulation and machine learning-optimized protocols. No device-related adverse effects were reported.

Perilesional neuromodulation replaces lost sensorimotor function in persons with spinal cord injury, Nature Biomedical Engineering (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41551-026-01627-5

Spinal neuromodulation above and below injury restores leg movement and sensory feedback

Mothers' exposure to microbes protects their newborn babies against infection
Newborns are generally protected against severe Escherichia coli infection due to maternal antibodies transferred during pregnancy, which are stimulated by maternal exposure to microbes. Babies with lower levels of these antibodies are at higher risk for infection. Mouse models indicate that maternal probiotic exposure before pregnancy enhances antibody-mediated protection in offspring.

Sing Sing Way, Natural maternal immunity protects neonates from Escherichia coli sepsis, Nature (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10225-z. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10225-z

Mouse brains revived from frozen
Researchers have, for the first time, cryogenically frozen and then revived mouse brains with some of the brain functionality intact. The team used an ice-free method called vitrification, which preserves tissue in a glass-like state, and a thawing process that preserves living tissue. After the brains were warmed up, wafer-thin slices from the hippocampus showed signs that the structures that support learning and memory had survived. Researchers are looking to test the method for human brains and organs, but observers note that the success rate was low for mice and the results might not translate to larger body parts.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00756-w?utm_source=Live+...

Climate change is slowing Earth's spin at unprecedented rate compared to past 3.6 million years

Climate change is lengthening our days because rising sea levels slow Earth's rotation. Researchers now show that the current increase in day length—1.33 milliseconds per century—is unprecedented in the past 3.6 million years. The team reconstructed ancient day-length fluctuations using the fossil remains of single-celled marine organisms known as benthic foraminifera.

An exact 24-hour day is not a given—day length changes due to gravitational effects of the moon, as well as various geophysical processes acting within Earth's interior, at its surface, and in the atmosphere.

Today's climate change also affects day length: prior work showed that from 2000 to 2020 our days were lengthened by a rate equivalent to 1.33 milliseconds per century due to climate-related factors, especially the continental-ocean mass redistribution due to the melting of polar ice sheets and mountain glaciers.

In a new study, appearing in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, researchers demonstrate that this rapid rise in day length is unparalleled over the last 3.6 million years.

The researchers used the fossilized remains of single-celled marine organisms known as benthic foraminifera. From the chemical composition of the foraminifera fossils, they could infer sea-level fluctuations and then mathematically derive the corresponding changes in day length.

To draw more robust conclusions, the team employed a probabilistic deep learning algorithm—a physics-informed diffusion model. This model captures the physics of sea-level change, while remaining robust to the large uncertainties inherent in paleoclimate data.

During the Quaternary (2.6 million years), the growth and melting of large continental ice sheets repeatedly caused significant day-length variations via sea-level changes. Compared with values from the 21st century, however, it is clear that today's increase in day length stands out in the climate history of the past 3.6 million years.

"Only one time—around 2 million years ago—the rate of change in length of day was nearly comparable, but never before or after that has the planetary 'figure skater' raised her arms and sea levels so quickly as in 2000 to 2020", say the researchers. 

This rapid increase in day length implies that the rate of modern climate change has been unprecedented at least since the late Pliocene, 3.6 million years ago. The current rapid rise in day length can thus be attributed primarily to human influences.

By the end of the 21st century, climate change is expected to affect day length even more strongly than the moon. Even though the changes are only milliseconds, they can cause problems in many areas, according to the researchers.

Mostafa Kiani Shahvandi et al, Climate‐Induced Length of Day Variations Since the Late Pliocene, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth (2026). DOI: 10.1029/2025jb032161

Forensic Science: Corpses leave clues behind in the soil long after they're gone

It is not uncommon for a body to be moved after a murder, usually to hide or eliminate evidence. And while a desert may seem like the perfect place to commit such a crime, a new study shows that a cadaver can still leave critical clues behind in that harsh environment. The study is published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences.

Researchers have found that trace elements linger at an original dump site even after an extensive amount of time. These elements can provide insights into postmortem processes, helping forensic investigators uncover clandestine burials and relocate the remains of murder victims.

A lot of times a murderer will kill someone and put the body somewhere, stash it, panic and then move it. And how can you ever trace where they have done this?

The surprising result was that even with a hot  summer, researchers could still tell that there had been something that was dying and decomposing in that spot in a desert!

The study used two 200-pound pig models that were dressed up in jeans and a button-up shirt by students, since murder victims are commonly clothed. They were left to decompose in large cages (to keep scavenging animals away) in various environments and seasons in the Sonoran Desert.

After 25 days, the remains were moved to a secondary burial location. Then, over a period of nine months, the researchers tested the soil where the model was originally placed, where it was moved and in a location adjacent to the original burial as a control.

It's a multifaceted, year-round project to try to determine timing, insects involved, and the humidity and the temperature and many other of these factors.

What they found were distinct microbial fingerprints where death gave way to new life—bacteria and fungi that once lived inside or on the body and were released into the surrounding ground as decomposition occurred.

It's like the murder victim is leaving a signature of themselves in death … almost like leaving breadcrumbs right around the desert (indicating) that they had been there, and those breadcrumbs stayed there in the soil, invisible to the naked eye for a year.

The results definitely opened the door to a novel area of forensic science that has many avenues to explore and to still verify.

Katelyn L. Bolhofner et al, The forensic footprint: Elemental and microbial evidence in relocated remains, Journal of Forensic Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.1111/1556-4029.70092

Selfish sperm hijack Overdrive gene to kill healthy rivals

A new study has discovered the mechanism behind a decades-old evolutionary mystery—how "selfish chromosomes" cheat the rules of genetic inheritance. The researchers found that rogue chromosomes hijack the Overdrive (Ovd) gene to destroy rival sperm.
Selfish chromosomes exploit the Overdrive (Ovd) gene, which normally eliminates abnormal sperm, to destroy healthy rival sperm and increase their own transmission. This mechanism underlies segregation distortion, where inheritance deviates from Mendelian ratios. The phenomenon was observed in two Drosophila species, suggesting independent evolution of similar strategies. Ovd is not essential for fertility but acts as a quality control checkpoint.
The study is the first to identify that the Ovd gene acts as a quality control checkpoint during sperm development. Normally, Ovd detects and eliminates abnormal sperm cells. But selfish chromosomes exploit the system to kill competitors, boosting their chances of passing into the next generation.

The findings, published in Nature Communications, reveal the biology behind segregation distortion, a phenomenon in which genes sway inheritance in their favor to beat the standard 50/50 odds predicted by Mendelian genetics. The team observed the scheme in two Drosophila species, each carrying completely different selfish chromosomes, which suggests that multiple genetic systems may evolve independently to exploit the same Ovd pathway.
Scientists first discovered segregation distortion in the 1920s while studying the fruit fly Drosophila obscura. Since then, the phenomenon has been found across the animal kingdom, from nematodes to mammals.
While humans lack an exact genetic equivalent, a similar quality-control process may exist that uses different machinery. The findings could offer new insights into male infertility and the evolution of reproductive barriers between species.

Jackson T. Ridges et al, Selfish chromosomes exploit a germline checkpoint to eliminate competing gametes, Nature Communications (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-68254-7

Fungi found with ability to freeze water
Fungi from the Mortierellaceae family produce ice-nucleating proteins capable of catalyzing ice formation at high subzero temperatures. These proteins, likely acquired from bacteria via horizontal gene transfer, are cell-free and water-soluble, making them promising for safer cloud seeding, frozen food production, and cryopreservation. Their identification may also improve climate modeling.

Rosemary J. Eufemio et al, A previously unrecognized class of fungal ice-nucleating proteins with bacterial ancestry, Science Advances (2026). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aed9652

How an all-female clonal fish species copied and pasted itself free from extinction

The tiny Amazon molly (Poecilia formosa) has always fascinated researchers because, according to the rules of evolution, it shouldn't have survived as a species, let alone thrive as a species for over 100,000 years. Using advanced genetic mapping and comparison techniques to track how the Amazon molly's DNA has changed over time, a new study set out to uncover the genetic secrets behind this apparent rebellion against evolutionary theory.

The Amazon molly didn't slowly evolve into a new species, it was the result of a 100,000-year-old accident. 

Unlike hybrid animals like a liger or mule, which are sterile and cannot reproduce, the Amazon molly is fully capable of reproducing asexually. Inside the mother's ovaries are specialized cells that undergo a modified version of meiosis—a type of cell division in sexually reproducing organisms—where the pairing up of chromosomes from two parents and swapping genetic information before dividing doesn't occur.

Instead, the mother produces eggs that already contain a full, double set of DNA that develops into new fish that are genetically identical to the mother. This form of cloning is called apomixis.

For a long time, scientists THOUGHT sexual reproduction was essential for long-term survival because it shuffles genes, removing harmful mutations and combining beneficial ones. The Amazon molly, however, gets the same advantages without ever mating.

Previous studies hinted at its high genetic diversity and signs of gene conversion, but detailed, haplotype-resolved genomic data were still missing.

The molly undergoes asexual reproduction and gives live birth to its young, which are its clones, because the species is made up entirely of females.

As per Muller's ratchet, a standard evolutionary theory, they should have gone extinct because clonal organisms accumulate harmful mutations over time due to a lack of genetic diversity.

The genetic evidence from this study, published in Nature, shows that the Amazon molly picks up mutations faster than its sexual relatives, yet somehow avoids the expected genetic decay—the secret behind this surprising act of resilience is gene conversion. This process purges harmful mutations by spotting damaged genes, "copying" a healthy version of the same gene from another part of the fish's own DNA, and "pasting" it over the faulty region to overwrite the mistake.

The study sheds light on long-debated questions about the evolutionary costs of asexual reproduction and establishes gene conversion as a powerful mechanism for effectively offsetting the negative effects. The findings give rise to a new question for future studies to explore: Do other long-lived asexual species avoid Muller's ratchet through the same process or is there something completely different at play?

Edward Ricemeyer, Gene conversion empowers natural selection in a clonal fish species, Nature (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10180-9. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10180-9

Cell death's 'beautiful' rings have implications for biological resilience and immunity
A newly identified ring-shaped protein structure forms on cell membranes during programmed cell death, coordinating targeted immune responses in plants. This structure, composed of membrane-bound proteins and ion channels, may facilitate communication between cells to localize cell death. The mechanism is conserved across species, with implications for enhancing plant resilience and human immunity.
One of the ways individual cells can protect their host organism from disease is by sacrificing themselves to prevent the spread of pathogens. This programmed cell death is an effective but delicate operation, He said. It can stop a disease from advancing if enough compromised cells are eliminated. But an overzealous response can claim healthy cells, which would also harm the larger host organism.
Cell death may sound like a bad thing, but in plants and mammals, it's a marker of resistance. We need to have this defense, but it is also important to have this defense in a limited area.
Scientists are working hard to map out the processes' complete molecular choreography to understand how cells coordinate cell death without it becoming overkill.
Recent studies in immunology revealed a key new move, that proteins involved in the process come together to form channels that can shuttle calcium ions. By themselves, however, these channels weren't sufficient to initiate cell death.
This new study has shown how the channels organize into a beautiful ring structure on the cell membrane.
The ring, which resembles a wreath or a necklace, is a combination of proteins that bind to a cell membrane and six channels that orient themselves to run through the membrane.
The finding invites new questions about what exactly the rings do and how they do it. The team's current hypothesis is that the rings enable communication with nearby cells, sending inflammation signals that can help initiate cell death in a targeted way.

Dongdong Ge et al, Assembly of helper NLR resistosome clusters upon activation of a coiled-coil NLR, Nature (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10215-1

Brain scans reveal link between thinner brain cortex regions and higher psychopathic traits

A team of researchers  was curious to know if people with high psychopathic traits have anomalies in the brain's physical structures, which make them incapable of feeling regret or capable of manipulation and other antisocial behaviour. They conducted an experiment in which they interviewed men convicted of intimate partner violence (IPV) and a control group with no history of violence to measure their psychopathic traits, followed by brain scans.

The results showed that men with thinner cortex in certain brain regions—particularly fronto-temporo-parietal areas—tended to display higher antisocial tendencies, regardless of their history of violence.

Fronto-temporo-parietal cortex regions refer to parts of the brain's outer layer, which houses gray matter and supports functions such as sensory processing, motor control, and higher cognitive activities. The findings further reinforce a broader idea in neuroscience that regions in these brain regions play a major role in shaping behaviours such as callousness, a lack of empathy, and manipulative tendencies.

In recent years, researchers have increasingly tried to understand psychopathy by looking at the brain itself as advances in neuroimaging have made it possible to examine the brain's structure in detail, including the thickness and volume of the cortex.

After sifting through over two dozen previous studies, the researchers found that the frontal, temporal, and parietal areas of the brain were linked to psychopathy.

Psychopathy is a neuropsychiatric disorder that affects how people feel, think, and control their behaviour. Individuals with strong psychopathic traits often show little empathy for others, have shallow emotional responses, and struggle with impulse control. Even though they make up only a small portion of the population, people with psychopathic traits are linked to a surprisingly large share of serious crime.

In their work, the researchers found that higher psychopathic traits were significantly and inversely correlated with reduced thickness in the left orbitofrontal cortex, the left insula, the bilateral superior frontal gyrus, the right dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, and the right anterior cingulate cortex.

Based on these findings and existing neuroscientific evidence, the researchers suggest that changes in gray matter on the left side of the brain may help explain traits such as poor decision-making and impulsivity. Differences on the right side may be linked to emotional and empathy difficulties, while reduced thickness in the insula may affect the ability to understand and interpret other people's perspectives.

The researchers highlight that since brain scans cannot be faked the way answers during an interview or interrogation can, they can give forensic specialists and psychologists a clearer window into the mind. Combining neuroimaging with existing psychology tools can be used to build more accurate profiles of people with psychopathic traits and perpetrators of domestic violence.

Ángel Romero-Martínez et al, Reduced cortical thickness in fronto-temporo-parietal regions associated with high psychopathic traits: Conclusions of a review and an empirical study with intimate partner violence perpetrators, Aggression and Violent Behavior (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.avb.2026.102134

The seven hour cosmic explosion

Gamma-ray bursts are the most violent explosions in the universe. In a fraction of a second, they can release more energy than the sun will emit across its entire 10-billion-year lifetime. Most are over before you've had time to register them, gone in seconds, minutes at most. So when something arrived on 2 July 2025 that kept going for seven hours, fired three distinct bursts spread across an entire day, and then left behind an afterglow lasting months, astronomers knew immediately they were looking at something completely new.

GRB 250702B, detected by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, is the longest gamma-ray burst ever recorded and it dwarfs all others in duration.

A new paper published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society focuses on one of the most intriguing possibilities, an intermediate mass black hole. Black holes come in dramatically different sizes. At one end, you have stellar mass black holes, a few times heavier than the sun, formed when massive stars die. At the other, you have the supermassive monsters lurking at the centers of galaxies, millions or billions of solar masses across. In between sits a largely missing population, intermediate mass black holes, ranging from a few hundred to a hundred thousand solar masses. Theory says they should be common. Finding them has proven stubbornly difficult.

The researchers propose that GRB 250702B was produced when an ordinary star like our sun wandered too close to one of these intermediate mass black holes and was torn apart by its tidal forces. As the shredded stellar material spiraled inward and was consumed, it powered a relativistic jet of particles firing outward at close to the speed of light, generating the extraordinary gamma-ray emission Fermi detected.

Crucially, the repeating nature of the bursts fits this picture neatly. The star wasn't necessarily destroyed in one go. Models suggest it could have been partially stripped across multiple close passes before final disruption, each encounter generating a fresh burst of emission which would explain the near regular spacing of the three Fermi triggers.

Jonathan Granot et al, A milli-tidal disruption event model for GRB 250702B: main-sequence star disrupted by an IMBH, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2026). DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stag328

A brain pathway that allows people to quickly detect scary sounds and respond

Preclinical studies on animals have identified brain pathways that drive quick, protective fear responses to "scary" sounds.
Analysis of human brain imaging data identifies a pathway connecting auditory regions with a fear-related area, associated with both enhanced hearing in noisy settings and higher self-reported fearfulness. This pathway may facilitate rapid, unconscious responses to threatening sounds, similar to mechanisms known for visual fear processing.
Researchers examined links between different pathways in the brain and behavioral measures for emotion and sound processing. A pathway linking two auditory brain areas and a brain region involved in fear was associated with better hearing ability in noisy environments and increased self-reported fearfulness.

While a part of this pathway in the brain was previously described in humans, according to the researchers, this work reveals a new role for this pathway in quickly responding to "scary" sounds.
This pathway may be involved in the unconscious processing of acoustic fear, paralleling an already established pathway for unconscious processing of visual fear.

A Direct Auditory Subcortical Route to the Amygdala Associated with Fear in Humans, JNeurosci (2026). DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1431-25.2026

**

Why some moments endure: Episodic memory encoding fluctuates with brain's theta rhythms

For almost a century, psychologists and neuroscientists have been trying to understand how humans memorize different types of information, ranging from knowledge or facts to the recollection of important events. Past studies consistently showed that humans recall some experiences for longer and in greater detail than others.

Some psychological theories suggest that the encoding and retrieval of past event-related memories is not a continuous process. Instead, these two aspects of memory could be separate and could manifest at different times.

One memory-related theoretical framework, rooted in behavioral science, is the Separate Phases for Encoding and Retrieval (SPEAR) model. This model outlines the idea that the human brain rapidly switches between the encoding of information and the retrieval of stored information.

The switch between encoding and retrieval could be associated with a particular type of brainwaves, known as theta rhythms, which repeat several times per second, typically between 3 and 10 hertz (Hz). These brain waves have been hypothesized to support the coordination of memory processes.

Researchers  recently carried out a study aimed at testing this theory and the possibility that memory processes change moment-by-moment following this rhythmic pattern. Their findings, published in Nature Human Behavior, are aligned with the SPEAR model's predictions and suggest that the brain is only disposed to learn new information during brief time windows.

Why do some experiences endure in memory better than others?

Learning fluctuates rhythmically several times per second, with fortuitously timed experiences being more memorable. Although such fleeting opportunities for encoding would evade our awareness, they are predicted by a prominent model describing how theta rhythms in the brain coordinate memory—the SPEAR model.

The researchers found that memory encoding fluctuated at a theta rhythm (3–10 Hz), that these rhythms were not a by-product of rhythmic attention and that—like theta rhythms in the brain—memory rhythms were modulated by putative markers of acetylcholine. The findings provide behavioural evidence consistent with the SPEAR model of episodic memory.

They found that people's ability to memorize information did not stay constant, but it instead fluctuated rhythmically several times per second. This recorded rhythm was consistent with the frequency of theta brain waves, as predicted by the SPEAR model.

Interestingly, the results gathered by the researchers also suggest that the brain rhythms associated with the encoding of episodic memories are modulated by a chemical known as acetylcholine. This is a neurotransmitter known to play a role in attention, learning and memory processes.

This study offers evidence that supports the SPEAR model, suggesting that the encoding and retrieval of information occurs at alternating phases.

Thomas M. Biba et al, Episodic memory encoding fluctuates at a theta rhythm of 3–10 Hz, Nature Human Behaviour (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-026-02416-5.

Three anesthesia drugs all have the same effect in the brain

When patients undergo general anesthesia, doctors can choose among several drugs. Although each of these drugs acts on neurons in different ways, they all lead to the same result: a disruption of the brain's balance between stability and excitability, according to a new  study published in the journal Cell Reports.

This disruption causes neural activity to become increasingly unstable, until the brain loses consciousness, the researchers found. The discovery of this common mechanism could make it easier to develop new technologies for monitoring patients while they are undergoing anesthesia.

What's exciting about that is the possibility of a universal anesthesia-delivery system that can measure this one signal and tell how unconscious you are, regardless of which drugs they're using in the operating room.

This work could help doctors ensure that patients stay unconscious throughout surgery without becoming too deeply unconscious, which can have negative side effects following the procedure.

Exactly how anesthesia drugs cause the brain to lose consciousness has been a longstanding question in neuroscience. In 2024, a study suggested that for propofol, the answer is that anesthesia works by disrupting the balance between stability and excitability in the brain.

It has to be excitable enough so different parts can influence one another, but if it gets too excited it goes off into chaotic activity.

When someone is awake, their brain is able to maintain this delicate balance, responding to sensory information or other input and then returning to a stable baseline.

"The nervous system has to operate on a knife's edge in this narrow range of excitability

In that 2024 study, the researchers found that propofol knocks the brain out of this state, known as "dynamic stability." As doses of the drug increased, the brain took longer and longer to return to its baseline state after responding to new input. This effect became increasingly pronounced until consciousness was lost. For that study, the researchers devised a computational model that analyzes neural activity recorded from the brain. This technique allowed them to determine how the brain responds to perturbations such as an auditory tone or other sensory input, and how long it takes to return to its baseline stability.

Part 1

In their new study, the researchers used the same technique to measure how the brain responds to not only propofol but two additional anesthesia drugs—ketamine and dexmedetomidine. Animals were given one of the three drugs while their brain activity was analyzed, including their response to auditory tones.

This study showed that the same destabilization induced by propofol also appears during administration of the other two drugs. This "universal signature" appears even though the three drugs have different molecular mechanisms: propofol binds to GABA receptors, inhibiting neurons that have those receptors; dexmedetomidine blocks the release of norepinephrine; and ketamine blocks NMDA receptors, suppressing neurons with those receptors.

Each of these pathways, the researchers hypothesize, affect the brain's balance of stability and excitability in different ways, and each leads to an overall destabilization of this balance.
All three of these drugs appear to do the exact same thing. In fact, you could look at the destabilization measure we use and you can't tell which drug is being applied.
Now that the researchers have shown that three different anesthesia drugs produce similar destabilization patterns in the brain, they think that measuring those patterns could offer a valuable way to monitor patients during anesthesia. While anesthesia is overall a very safe procedure, it does carry some risks, especially for very young children and for people over 65.

Similar destabilization of neural dynamics under different general anesthetics, Cell Reports (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2026.117048. www.cell.com/cell-reports/full … 2211-1247(26)00126-9

Part 2

Scientists discover new heavy proton-like particle at CERN

A new heavy proton-like particle, Ξ_cc⁺, containing two charm quarks and one down quark, has been observed at CERN's LHC using the upgraded LHCb detector. The particle was identified via its decay into Λ_c⁺, K⁻, and π⁺, with a measured mass of 3,619.97 MeV/c², consistent with theoretical predictions and resolving previous uncertainties about its existence.

Details of the Ξ_cc⁺ discovery were presented at the Rencontres de Moriond Electroweak conference.

Hidden mutagens in your lipstick and water

Substances capable of mutating human genetic material—altering and permanently damaging it—are present in many everyday products. Researchers have, for the first time, detected mutagens and concurrently cytotoxic substances in food, meat, smoke flavourings, personal care products, and even water.
To achieve this, they developed a novel screening procedure enabling the determination of the mutagenicity of individual substances within complex mixtures. Furthermore, the new test procedure detects potential detoxification of mutagens in the body via simulated human liver metabolism. It revealed that detoxification within the body is minimal.

Katharina Schmidtmann et al, High-Throughput Testing for Unknown Mutagens and Cytotoxica via Duplex Planar Ames–Cytotoxicity Bioassay Including Metabolic S9 Activation, Analytical Chemistry (2026). DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.5c06690

Heart disease risk tied to certain molecules made by gut microbes

Bloodstream levels of nine specific metabolites produced by gut microbes are statistically associated with the risk of developing coronary heart disease. These associations persist after accounting for factors such as age, family history, and diet, though some differences appear by race or age. The identified metabolites may serve as potential biomarkers or therapeutic targets for coronary heart disease.
In a study involving data from thousands of people, the risk of a new coronary heart disease diagnosis was statistically associated with bloodstream levels of nine specific molecules that are produced by gut microbes.
The human digestive tract naturally contains a large population of microbes. Different people have different proportions of different species of gut microbes, which produce different molecules during their normal, metabolic chemical reactions.

These metabolites can enter the bloodstream and exert a broad range of impacts, good and bad, on human health. Some gut microbe metabolites may be linked with a person's risk of coronary heart disease—the world's leading cause of death.

Using data from nearly 2,000 of the participants, researchers discovered several gut microbe metabolites associated with the risk of developing coronary heart disease. Then, they used the rest of the data to validate and refine these links—including external and quantitative validations, and accounting for many other factors known to be associated with risk of coronary heart disease, such as age, family health history, and diet.

The final analysis revealed nine specific gut microbe metabolites in the bloodstream that were associated with a higher or lower chance of developing coronary heart disease. These links remained consistent across some participants when stratified by lifestyle or family history. However, some differences in links between specific metabolites and heart disease risk were found when individuals were stratified by race or age.
This study underscores the link between gut microbes and heart health. On the basis of the findings, the researchers call for follow-up research into the nine metabolites they identified to determine whether they represent potentially promising avenues for development of novel ways to treat or prevent coronary heart disease.

Zheng Y, et al. Circulating gut microbial metabolites and risk of coronary heart disease: A prospective multi-stage metabolomics study.PLOS Medicine (2026). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1004750

Engineered bacteria deliver cancer drug directly inside tumors in mice

Engineered Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 (EcN) can be modified to produce and deliver the anticancer drug Romidepsin (FK228) directly within tumors in mice. The bacteria selectively colonize tumors and release the drug in situ, resulting in targeted tumor therapy. This approach demonstrates potential for bacteria-assisted, tumor-targeted delivery of anticancer agents.

Ma C, et al. Engineered romidepsin biosynthetic pathways in Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 improve the efficacy of bacteria-mediated cancer therapy, PLOS Biology (2026). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003657

Closing your eyes might not help you hear better after all

Most people will close their eyes when trying to concentrate on a faint sound. Many of us have been told that keeping our eyes closed helps us hear better—that it frees up our brains' processing abilities and increases our auditory sensitivity. However, that strategy may sometimes backfire, particularly in environments with a lot of loud background noise.
Closing the eyes in noisy environments reduces the ability to detect faint sounds, contrary to common belief. Visual input, especially dynamic videos matching the sound, enhances auditory sensitivity. Eye closure leads to neural filtering that can suppress both noise and target sounds, while visual engagement helps the brain separate signals from background noise.
In The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, researchers tested whether a person closing their eyes can really hear better in noisy environments.

To test this, volunteers listened to a collection of sounds through headphones amid background noise. Then, the volunteers adjusted the volume of the sounds until they could barely make them out over the background noise.

This test was conducted first with eyes closed, then with eyes open but looking at only a blank screen, then looking at a still picture corresponding to the sound, and finally, looking at a video matching up with the sound they were trying to hear.
To their surprise, the researchers found that, contrary to popular belief, closing one's eyes actually impairs the ability to detect these sounds! Conversely, seeing a dynamic video corresponding to the sound significantly improves hearing sensitivity.
To find an explanation for this result, the researchers attached electroencephalography (EEG) devices to the participants to monitor their brain activity. They determined that closing the eyes puts a participant's brain in a state of neural criticality, which more aggressively filters noises and quiet sounds, including the target sounds those participants were trying to detect.

In a noisy soundscape, the brain needs to actively separate the signal from the background, The researchers found that the internal focus promoted by eye closure actually works against you in this context, leading to over-filtering, whereas visual engagement helps anchor the auditory system to the external world.
The authors emphasize that this result is unique to noisy environments. With a calmer background, the conventional strategy of keeping their eyes closed likely does help people detect faint sounds. But because so much of our lives are spent surrounded by noise, it might be better to face the world with eyes wide open, say the researchers.

Visual engagement modulates cortical criticality and auditory target detection thresholds in noisy soundscapes, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (2026). DOI: 10.1121/10.0042380

Children shaped clay 15,000 years ago, long before pottery or farming, archaeologists find

Long before pottery, before agriculture, when the first villages took shape, people in the Levant were already molding clay with their hands, carefully, deliberately, and sometimes playfully. Some of those hands belonged to children.

An international team of archaeologists  has uncovered the earliest known clay ornaments in Southwest Asia, revealing a forgotten chapter in the story of how humans began to express identity, belonging, and meaning through material culture. The findings, published this week in Science Advances, push back the symbolic use of clay in the region by thousands of years.

The ornaments, 142 beads and pendants, were made some 15,000 years ago by Natufian hunter-gatherers living in what is now Israel. These communities were the first in the world to settle permanently in one place, millennia before the rise of agriculture. Until now, clay in this period was thought to play little or no ornamental role. In fact, only five clay beads from this era were previously known worldwide.

This discovery completely changes how we understand the relationship between clay, symbolism, and the emergence of settled life.

Perhaps the most striking discovery lies not in the shapes of the beads, but in their surfaces. Preserved fingerprints, 50 in total, allowed researchers to identify who made them. The prints belong to individuals of different ages: children, adolescents, and adults. It is the first time archaeologists have been able to directly identify the makers of Paleolithic ornaments, and the largest such fingerprint assemblage ever documented from this period.

Some objects appear to have been designed specifically for children, including a tiny clay ring just 10 millimeters wide.

The findings suggest that making ornaments was a shared, everyday activity, one that played a role in learning, imitation, and the transmission of social values from one generation to the next.

By documenting one of the world's oldest traditions of clay adornment, the study reframes the Natufians not just as forerunners of agriculture, but as innovators of symbolic culture, people who used clay to say something about who they were, and who they were becoming.

Laurent Davin, Modelling identities among the first-sedentary communities: emergence of clay personal ornaments in Epipaleolithic Southwest Asia, Science Advances (2026). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aea2158. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aea2158

Neanderthals may have used birch tar for its anti-bacterial properties, experiments suggest

Neanderthals probably used birch tar for multiple functions, including treating their wounds, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS One by a team of researchers

Birch tar is commonly found at Neanderthal archaeological sites, and in some cases this tar is known to have been used as an adhesive to assemble tools.

To investigate the medicinal potential of birch tar, researchers extracted tar from modern birch tree bark, specifically targeting species known from Neanderthal sites.

They used multiple extraction methods, including distillation of tar in a clay pit and condensation of tar against a stone surface, both of which would have been methods available to Neanderthals. When exposed to different strains of bacteria, all of the tar samples were found to be effective at hindering the growth of Staphylococcus bacteria known to cause wound infections.

These experiments not only support the efficacy of Indigenous medicinal practices, but also reinforce the possibility that Neanderthals used birch tar to treat wounds.

The authors note that there are other potential uses of birch tar, such as insect repellent, as well as other plants to which Neanderthals had access. Further exploration of the multiple potential uses of these natural ingredients will enable a more thorough understanding of Neanderthal culture.

Siemssen T, et al. Antibacterial properties of experimentally produced birch tar and its medicinal affordances in the Pleistocene, PLOS One (2026). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0343618

**

Hubble Accidentally Catches Comet Breaking Up

How do plants know when to bloom? Spring flowering explained by UW chronobiologist

Scientists create cancer-fighting immune cells right in the body

A new method enables direct reprogramming of T cells inside the body using a dual-particle CRISPR-Cas9 system, precisely inserting CAR genes at targeted genomic sites. In mouse models, a single injection eliminated aggressive leukemia, multiple myeloma, and a solid tumor within two weeks. This approach may reduce costs, manufacturing time, and expand access to CAR-T cell therapies.

For years, one of the most powerful weapons against certain blood cancers, called CAR-T cell therapy, has required an elaborate process: Doctors extract a patient's immune cells, ship them to a specialized facility where they're genetically reprogrammed to fight cancer, then ship them back for infusion back into the patient's bloodstream. This has revolutionized cancer treatment, but it takes weeks and can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, placing it out of reach for many of the patients who need it most.
Now, scientists at UC San Francisco have developed a method to precisely reprogram these cancer-fighting cells directly inside the body, potentially eliminating the manufacturing process, cost, and waiting time that has kept this life-saving therapy out of reach for many patients around the world. The study is published in the journal Nature.

It is the first time that scientists have integrated a large sequence of DNA at a specific site in human T cells that were never removed from the body. Crucially, this targeted approach outperformed the standard method of randomly integrating DNA using viruses, a breakthrough that goes beyond CAR T to advance the fields of cell and gene therapy.

In experiments using mice with humanized immune systems, the researchers used the method to successfully treat aggressive leukemia, multiple myeloma, and even a solid tumor.
Re-engineering immune cells in the body, called in vivo manufacturing, could also eliminate the need for preparatory chemotherapy.

To achieve this, Eyquem and his collaborators, including scientists at the Gladstone Institutes, Duke University, and Innovative Genomics Institute, designed a dual-particle system to carry CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing machinery—the molecular scissors required to alter genes—directly to T cells circulating in the body.

One particle was coated with antibodies against CD3, a protein found exclusively on T cell surfaces, ensuring the editing tools reach only their intended targets.

The second particle carried new DNA encoding the cancer-fighting CAR along with instructions to insert it at a specific location in the T cell genome, a site containing a molecular "on switch" only activated in T cells. Only when the gene lands in this exact spot does it coax the immune cells to make the new CARs. The particles were also engineered to evade immediate destruction by the immune system.

When you manufacture these cells outside the body, you can do a lot of quality control to make sure you only end up with re-engineered T cells.
Inside the body, we can't do that post-manufacturing quality control, so we really needed to optimize the approach upfront to avoid altering any other cells.
Part 1

A single injection of the dual-particle system cleared all detectable cancer in nearly all the mice within two weeks. The engineered CAR-T cells made up as much as 40% of immune cells in some organs and successfully eliminated cancer from both the bone marrow and spleen.

The approach also worked against multiple myeloma and, strikingly, against a solid sarcoma tumor. Solid tumors have historically resisted CAR-T therapy, making this result particularly significant.

The T cells engineered inside the body also unexpectedly appeared to outperform those manufactured in the lab.
The technology still must be scaled up for use in humans, and clinical trials will be needed to assess safety and efficacy.

Justin Eyquem, In vivo site-specific engineering to reprogram T cells, Nature (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10235-x. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10235-x

Part 2

What is 'eye stroke' and why has it been linked to weight loss injections?

Eye stroke, or non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (Naion), involves sudden vision loss due to reduced blood flow to the optic nerve. Recent data indicate a rare but increased risk of Naion with the weight-loss injection Wegovy (semaglutide), especially in men. The risk appears higher with injectable forms and higher doses, though the overall incidence remains very low.

Vaccines facing misinformation spike: WHO experts
Vaccine programs are increasingly threatened by misinformation, uncertain research funding, and global conflicts, which undermine public trust and disrupt immunization efforts. Ongoing polio transmission in conflict zones and limited COVID-19 vaccine options highlight the need for sustained investment and improved vaccines. WHO emphasizes that vaccines do not cause autism and remain essential for disease prevention.
---
Vaccine programs are being challenged by rising misinformation and an uncertain pipeline for research funding, the World Health Organization's immunization experts say.
And the war in the Middle East will likely hamper the fight against polio, the WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) said.

The group held its biannual meeting last week, focusing on COVID-19 jab recommendations, typhoid vaccine dosing schedules and oral polio vaccine doses in routine immunization.

"Emerging challenges for the future include uncertain funding for vaccine research and development, and misinformation and distorted information that erodes public trust in vaccines," said SAGE.

"Protecting trust and countering misinformation will be a central focus in 2026."
Trust in vaccines is being "threatened by misinformation.
Vaccines had saved 154 million lives over the past 50 years, and more than 30 diseases could be prevented through immunization, according to WHO.
The risk is about backsliding, or even countries deciding that they can't afford all of the vaccines that are in their program
Source: News agencies

Space supercharges anti-bacterial viruses

Viruses that infect bacteria, called phages, evolve different strategies to infect their targets on the International Space Station than they do on the ground, which could help create new treatments for antibiotic-resistant infections. Researchers found that the phages took longer to infect E.coli in microgravity, and that the viruses developed microgravity-specific mutations, some of which helped them to better cling onto bacterial receptors. Once they returned to earth, they were able to kill stubborn strains of E.coli responsible for urinary tract infections that tend to be resistant to bacteriophages.

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pb...

Newly-discovered dopamine signal may help the brain steer us in the right direction
A distinct dopamine signal in the striatum encodes trajectory errors, indicating whether movement is directed toward or away from a goal, independent of classic reward-related dopamine responses. This guidance signal, triggered by visual cues and scaling with movement speed, operates alongside value signals in orthogonal spatial gradients, supporting real-time behavioural adjustments.

A Boston University-led research team has discovered a dopamine signal in the brain that helps determine whether you are moving toward or away from a goal, potentially shedding new light on how the brain uses visual information to guide behaviour
.The work shows that when mice encounter visual cues, dopamine in the striatum, located in the basal ganglia, encodes "trajectory errors," or signals that indicate whether the mice's current direction and speed are carrying them toward or away from its goal. These "guidance signals" operate independently from dopamine's classic reward value responses and arise from different sensory and motor inputs.

The findings offer insight into how the brain uses environmental cues to steer behavior and could inform the development of more targeted therapies for conditions involving dopamine dysfunction, including Parkinson's disease, addiction, OCD, and ADHD.
This discovery reveals that dopamine isn't just about how valuable something is.
It's also about whether you're headed the right way. It's a guidance signal, one that tells the brain to keep going or make a correction.

Eleanor H. Brown et al, Striatum-wide dopamine encodes trajectory errors separated from value, Nature (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-10083-1

Ultra-processed foods linked to infertility in US women

Higher intake of ultra-processed foods is associated with lower odds of fertility in US women, independent of age, weight, and lifestyle factors. Women reporting infertility consumed more ultra-processed foods and adhered less to the Mediterranean diet. Chemical exposures from processed foods, such as phthalates and BPA, may contribute to this association.

Angelina Baric et al, Ultra-processed food intake and Mediterranean diet adherence in relation to fertility status in U.S. women: Findings from NHANES 2013–2018, Nutrition and Health (2026). DOI: 10.1177/02601060261433154

Fuel Revolution: Pune’s NCL Scientists Develop DME as a Clean, Indigenous Alternative to LPG

Stress-activated pathway reveals how nervous system contributes to eczema flare-ups

The mystery of how stress exacerbates atopic dermatitis, more commonly known as eczema, may be closer to being understood. A new study published in the journal Science has identified a specific nerve pathway that helps explain the link.

Eczema is a chronic condition that causes dry, itchy skin. It is common in children but can occur at any age, often triggered by environmental irritants, genetic factors, or an overactive immune system. And stress has long been known to make it worse.

To discover exactly how anxious feelings contribute to the intense itching and skin redness characteristic of eczema, researchers studied both human patients and specialized mouse models.

First, they conducted a retrospective analysis of 51 patients who were already diagnosed with eczema. They asked them to complete a questionnaire that categorized their stress levels, measured the intensity and extent of the condition, and took blood samples and biopsies to count different types of immune cells.

They discovered that the higher a person's stress levels, the more eosinophils (a type of white blood cell that triggers and contributes to inflammation and itching) they had, and the worse their eczema was.

To determine whether stress was the cause of these flare-ups, the research team studied mice with eczema like skin and exposed them to various stressful situations, such as being placed on a high platform. Just like human patients, there was a significant increase in eosinophils and more severe skin damage.

Next, the scientists genetically engineered mice to have fewer eosinophils or to lack a specific subset of sympathetic nerve cells known as Pdyn+ neurons that are activated by stress.

Unlike other sympathetic nerves, these connect directly to the skin. When either eosinophils or stress nerves were absent, stress no longer worsened the inflammation. This confirmed that both must be present for a stress-induced flare-up to happen.

Using advanced mapping techniques, the researchers discovered that these nerves sent a direct signal to call inflammatory cells to the skin's surface during stressful moments. Specifically, neurons release a protein called CCL11 that attracts eosinophils to the inflamed skin tissue where an eczema flare-up is occurring.

Once there, the nerves release another signal that triggers these cells to release proteins that cause the skin to become red and swollen.

"These findings reveal a neuroimmunological mechanism underlying psychological stress–induced exacerbation of dermatitis, emphasizing the Pdyn+ sympathetic-eosinophil axis as a crucial interface between the brain and skin inflammation, with potential therapeutic implications," commented the study authors in their paper.

Jiahe Tian et al, A sympathetic-eosinophil axis orchestrates psychological stress to exacerbate skin inflammation, Science (2026). DOI: 10.1126/science.adv5974

An immune signaling pathway drives pain in arthritis, researchers discover

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic autoimmune disease that affects millions of people worldwide. This disease prompts the immune system to mistakenly attack body tissues, particularly joints, leading to inflammation, swelling, stiffness and pain.

While arthritis has been widely studied, the molecular processes underpinning the pain experienced by most affected individuals remain poorly understood. Physical pain is known to be experienced via sensory neurons, specialized cells that carry signals from body tissues to the brain.

Researchers 

 recently studied a mouse model of arthritis with the aim of better understanding how the activity of immune cells influences nerve cells, potentially contributing to the pain experienced by patients with arthritis.

Their findings, published in Nature Neuroscience, uncovered a sequence of chemical reactions that occur inside nerve cells when they receive signals from immune cells (i.e., a signaling pathway) that could drive the pain linked to arthritis.

In their experiments, the researchers induced arthritis-like symptoms in mice using cartilage autoantibodies, proteins that are generally produced by the immune system that attack joint tissues. They then examined nerve cells located along the mice's spinal nerves outside of their spinal cord, in a region known as the dorsal root ganglion.

Cells in this region transmit sensory information, including painful sensations, from the body to the central nervous system (CNS). The team observed these cells as damage to the animal's joints progressed and became more pronounced.

These experimental strategies combined showed convincingly that interferon signalling drives pain in arthritis in the animal model.

During early stages of the arthritis they induced in mice, the team observed an increased activation of immune cells located close to sensory nerves. They also found that immune cells released large amounts of cytokines (i.e., signaling proteins via which immune cells communicate), leading to a severe inflammatory response known as a cytokine storm.

Throughout the course of the disease, they also observed high levels of interferons, proteins that help the immune system to fight viruses and other diseases. Notably, a similar presence of interferons was also detected in patients diagnosed with arthritis.

The researchers' experiments led to the discovery of a signaling pathway via which pain-sensing neurons become excessively active. By blocking this pathway with pharmacological drugs, the team was able to improve limb function and lower the pain experienced by mice.

Jie Su et al, Persistent interferon signaling causes sensory neuron plasticity and pain before and during arthritis, Nature Neuroscience (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41593-026-02234-y.

Microbes make microplastics more likely to form ice in clouds, research reveals

Microplastics coated with microbial biofilms significantly increase the temperature at which ice forms in clouds by about 6.5 °C, enhancing ice nucleation more than microbes or plastics alone. This effect could alter cloud formation, precipitation patterns, and climate by changing how clouds interact with sunlight and heat, highlighting an unexpected link between plastic pollution and atmospheric processes.

Tiny pieces of plastic, called microplastics, are showing up everywhere, even in the water in clouds, rain, and snow—and they may be affecting our weather and temperatures. A study published in Environmental Science & Technology  found that microbes living on microplastics dramatically boost their ability to trigger ice formation in clouds.

In laboratory experiments, the microbial coating increased the temperature at which ice formed by about 6.5 degrees Celsius—a major shift in cloud physics.

To understand this effect, the researchers recreated what happens in nature. They placed microscopic plastic particles in controlled laboratory conditions and allowed naturally occurring bacteria to attach and grow on their surfaces. Over several days, the microbes formed a thin layer called a biofilm—a sticky coating that helps microbes anchor themselves and survive.

Team members then tested how easily these particles could trigger freezing using a specialized set up that slowly cooled tiny droplets of water containing microplastics. By monitoring when each droplet froze, they could measure how effective the particles were at initiating ice formation.

The results revealed something especially surprising. Microbes attached to microplastics were even more effective at forming ice than the same microbes floating freely in water. In other words, the plastic surface enhanced the microbes' ice-making ability.

This suggests that microplastics don't just carry microbes through the atmosphere—they help amplify their environmental effects, highlighting a surprising link between human pollution and natural systems.

Lingzhi Chu et al, Finer Particulate Matter Exposure Disparities Exist but Vary across Pollution Concentrations, Environmental Science & Technology (2026). DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5c06203

Sea creatures reveal the physics behind animal body shape diversity
Variation in animal body shapes is determined by differences in mechanical tissue properties, termed "mechanotypes." In Cnidarians, three mechanical modules explain key shape features—elongation and polarity. Experimental manipulation of these modules in sea anemones confirmed that altering mechanotypes can predictably reshape organisms, highlighting the role of physical forces in morphological diversity.

Animals come in an extraordinary range of body shapes. A starfish looks nothing like an earthworm, a mouse, or a human. Yet even closely related species can appear radically different: corals, jellyfish, and sea anemones all belong to the same biological phylum, but their bodies take strikingly different forms. A new study by EMBL researchers appearing in Cell, shows how such shape diversity is determined by variation in mechanical tissue properties—an idea they termed "mechanotypes."
Genotype—the genetic composition of organisms—plays a central role during growth and development. But genes alone cannot fully explain how tissues bend, stretch, and reorganize to generate body shape—a process called morphogenesis.
Comparing genomes can reveal genetic differences linked to shape diversity, but genes cannot tell us how morphogenesis unfolds.
Even with a genome in hand, we still cannot yet predict the final shape of an organism.
Researchers drew on insights from mechanobiology—the study of how physical forces shape biological processes. During development, morphogenesis is often driven not by individual cells but by forces generated collectively within tissues. They hypothesized that this is the level where different body shapes arise across species.
What matters is how cells work together as a tissue to generate forces and mechanical constraints. If this is where morphogenesis operates, it may also be where shape diversity emerges across evolution, the researchers argue.
Connecting modern biological understanding of morphogenesis to Thompson's ideas of mechanical influences on diversity required cross-disciplinary collaboration. However, to build a framework that explains the physical underpinnings of this process, the study required expertise in theoretical physics and mathematics.
An important idea in physics is that when described on the right scale, emergent features of complex systems can be understood through models involving only a few key parameters.
Part 1

This indeed turned out to be the case for Cnidarian body shape diversity. Based on experimental observations in six different species—two corals, two anemones, and two hydrozoans—the team came up with a list of three "mechanical modules." These modules can be combined to explain two important features of body shape—elongation and polarity.

Elongation is a measure of how stretched or compact a body is along its main axis. Polarity, on the other hand, describes how asymmetric the animal is—whether the top part of the animal, which contains the mouth, is wider or narrower than its base. By adjusting the values of the mechanical modules in their model, like tuning knobs, scientists arrived at different predictions for elongation and polarity. They called this combination, unique for each species, an organism's "mechanotype."

Mechanical changes ultimately arise from molecular changes, but the mechanotype is where that information becomes predictive of form.
Scientists think evolution acts on these modules to generate new forms.
Does this mean that changing the mechanotype would change the shape of the organism? To test this, the scientists performed a series of experiments using the sea anemone Nematostella. Nematostella larvae tend to be elongated and have a narrow oral end. When the scientists introduced genetic changes that affected one of the mechanical modules—nematic order—the larvae ended up being round instead of elongated.

Changing polarity was more difficult though; scientists had to perturb multiple modules simultaneously to get Nematostella to change its polarity to something that resembled another species, Aiptasia.

Together, these "reshaping" experiments showed it is possible to quantitatively predict and manipulate shape using mechanotypes and active surface models. They also demonstrated that different aspects of shape can be more or less complex in how they are determined by combinations of such mechanical modules.

Deciphering mechanical determinants of morphological evolution, Cell (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2026.02.010. www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(26)00175-3

Part 2

Birds are spreading plastic pollution

Gulls and other birds feeding at landfills ingest plastics and other debris, which they later regurgitate at roosting sites, including ecologically sensitive wetlands. In southern Spain, lesser black-backed gulls deposit an estimated 400 kg of plastics and over two tons of other waste annually into key habitats, contributing to microplastic pollution that threatens wildlife and can enter the human food chain.

https://theconversation.com/how-birds-are-spreading-plastic-polluti...

Ryugu asteroid samples contain all DNA and RNA building blocks, bolstering origin-of-life theories

Samples from asteroid Ryugu contain all nucleobases required for DNA and RNA, including uracil, adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine, supporting the idea that such molecules are widespread in the solar system. The study also found a unique correlation between nucleobase ratios and ammonia concentration, suggesting a previously unrecognized formation pathway in early solar system materials.

All the essential ingredients to make the DNA and RNA underpinning life on Earth have been discovered in samples collected from the asteroid Ryugu, scientists said last week.
The discovery comes after these building blocks of life were detected on another asteroid called Bennu, suggesting they are abundant throughout the solar system.
The asteroids that hurtle through our solar system give scientists a rare chance to study this possibility.

In 2014, the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa-2 blasted off on a 300-million-kilometer (185-million-mile) mission to land on Ryugu, a 900-meter-wide (2,950-feet-wide) asteroid.

It successfully managed to collect two samples of rocks weighing 5.4 grams (under a fifth of an ounce) each and bring them back to Earth in 2020.

Research in 2023 showed that these samples contained uracil, which is one of the four bases that make up RNA.
While DNA, the famed double helix, functions as a genetic blueprint, single-strand RNA is an all-important messenger, converting the instructions contained in DNA for implementation.

Last Monday, a new study by a Japanese team of researchers in Nature Astronomy demonstrated that the samples contained all the "nucleobases" for both DNA and RNA.

These included uracil as well as adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine.

This means their presence indicates that primitive asteroids could produce and preserve molecules that are important for the chemistry related to the origin of life.
The discovery also "demonstrates their widespread presence throughout the solar system and reinforces the hypothesis that carbonaceous asteroids contributed to the prebiotic chemical inventory of early Earth," according to the study.
With this and the results from Bennu, we now have a very clear idea of which organic materials can form under prebiotic conditions anywhere in the universe.
Last year, the same building blocks were found in fragments brought back to Earth by NASA from the asteroid Bennu.

Scientists have also detected their presence in the meteorites Orgueil and Murchison, which were part of asteroids that fell to Earth.
Scientists also identified a correlation between the ratios of the building blocks and the concentration of another important chemical for life: ammonia.

Because no known formation mechanism predicts such a relationship, this finding may point to a previously unrecognized pathway for nucleobase formation in early solar system materials.
This discovery has important implications for how biologically important molecules may have originally formed and promoted the genesis of life on Earth.

Toshiki Koga et al, A complete set of canonical nucleobases in the carbonaceous asteroid (162173) Ryugu, Nature Astronomy (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-026-02791-z

Humans in The Andes Appear to Have Evolved a Strange Genetic Ability

For thousands of years, humans living high in the Argentinian Andes have relied on drinking water that would make most people deathly ill.
There, naturally occurring arsenic in volcanic bedrock leaches into the groundwater, contaminating the local water supply with levels of the toxic metalloid that would pose serious health risks to most human populations.

But for one group in northern Argentina, natural selection may have provided an unusual genetic advantage.

According to a DNA analysis of people across western South America, a population in the Argentinian Andes carries a gene variant that likely helps them metabolize arsenic more safely.
Scientific data show that adaptation to tolerate the environmental stressor arsenic has likely driven an increase in the frequencies of protective variants of AS3MT, providing the first evidence of human adaptation to a toxic chemical.

In 1995, scientists noted that women from the Argentinian Andes had a "unique" ability to metabolize arsenic, as evidenced by metabolites in their urine.
When arsenic enters the body, enzymes convert it through several chemical forms. One of these intermediate forms, called monomethylated arsenic (MMA), is particularly toxic. A later form, dimethylated arsenic (DMA), is easier for the body to excrete in urine.

People in San Antonio de los Cobres tended to produce less of the toxic intermediate and more of the easily excreted form, suggesting their bodies were unusually efficient at processing arsenic.
Part 1

Researchers found that a cluster of genetic variants near the AS3MT gene that strongly influenced how the body processes arsenic. These variants were far more common in people from San Antonio de los Cobres than in genetically similar populations in Peru and Colombia.

The variants appear to make the body more efficient at converting arsenic into forms that can be safely excreted in urine, reducing the buildup of the most toxic intermediate compounds – a result that neatly aligns with earlier studies of arsenic metabolites in urine.
While arsenic contamination is common around the world, very few communities have lived with such high levels of exposure for long periods of time.

In San Antonio de los Cobres, people have lived with arsenic in their groundwater for thousands of years – long enough for natural selection to favor traits that reduce vulnerability to arsenic's toxic effects.
Research suggests similar genetic signals may also appear in other Andean populations exposed to arsenic for generations, supporting the findings that long-term exposure can drive genetic tolerance, and hinting that the adaptation may be more widespread across the region.

https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/32/6/1544/1074042?login=false

Part 2

Vivid dreaming makes sleep feel deeper, researchers discover

Researchers  have discovered a key relationship between dreaming and the feeling of having had a good night's sleep. Published in PLOS Biology, the study shows that the feeling of deep sleep is not determined solely by slow-wave brain activity. Rather, immersive dreaming that comes with increases in wake-like brain activity leads to a greater feeling of deep sleep.

Why is it that sometimes we sleep eight hours and don't feel rested, while other times we feel like we had a great night's sleep after only five hours? Research has shown that our feeling of deep sleep is related to a shift from high- to low-frequency brain waves, which is thought to drive unconsciousness. At the same time, other reports indicate that dream (REM) sleep is also perceived as deep, despite its wake-like brain waves.

To better characterize the effects of dream sleep on perceived sleep depth, the researchers analyzed EEG recordings from 44 adults who were repeatedly awoken during non-REM sleep over the course of four nights.

Analysis showed that shifts from faster to slower waves were indeed associated with a feeling of deep sleep. However, this relationship weakened when participants reported having had a dream, even if they could not remember the content.

Perceived sleep depth was thus higher after dreaming, even though this state is associated with wake-like brain activity. Specifically, vivid, bizarre, and emotionally intense dreams were all associated with subjectively deeper sleep, while abstract, reflective thought-like dreams with meta-awareness were related to more shallow feeling sleep.

These findings are contrary to the longstanding view that the feeling of deep sleep is governed solely by slow brain waves and the depth of unconsciousness, and suggest that perceptually immersive dreaming is what allows us to feel well rested—even if we can't remember what we dreamed.

This study suggests that dreams may help shape how we experience sleep by immersing us in an internal world that keeps us disconnected from the external environment.

Understanding how dreams contribute to the feeling of deep sleep opens new perspectives on sleep health and mental well-being.

Michalak A, et al. Immersive NREM2 dreaming preserves subjective sleep depth against declining sleep pressure. PLOS Biology (2026). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003683

Severe infections may raise dementia risk

Severe infections increase the risk of dementia independently of other coexisting illnesses, according to a new study published in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine 

In the new study, researchers used nationwide Finnish health registry data covering more than 62,000 individuals aged 65 or older who were diagnosed with late-onset dementia between 2017 and 2020, along with more than 312,000 matched dementia-free controls.
Taking a broad approach, they examined all hospital-treated diseases recorded during the previous twenty years, identifying 29 diseases that were robustly associated with increased dementia risk. Nearly half (47%) of dementia cases had at least one of the 29 identified diseases before their diagnosis.

Of those diseases, two were infections: cystitis (a urinary tract infection) and bacterial infection of an unspecified site. Among the non-infectious diseases, the strongest associations with dementia were seen for mental disorders due to brain damage or physical disease, Parkinson's disease, and alcohol-related mental and behavioral disorders.

When the researchers then adjusted for all 27 non-infectious dementia-related diseases identified, the association between both infections and dementia remained largely intact. Less than one-seventh of the excess dementia risk among individuals with hospital-treated cystitis or bacterial infections was attributable to pre-existing conditions.

The link between infections and dementia was even stronger for early-onset dementia (diagnosed before age 65), where five types of infection—including pneumonia and dental caries—were associated with elevated risk.

The role of noninfectious comorbidities in the association between severe infections and risk of dementia in Finland: A nationwide registry study, PLOS Medicine (2026). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1004688. plos.io/4qY5nix

CERN hails delicate test on transporting antimatter as a scientific success

CERN successfully transported antiprotons by road for the first time, using a cryogenic, magnetically shielded vacuum trap to prevent contact with matter and annihilation. The test demonstrated the feasibility of moving antimatter safely, enabling future high-precision studies of fundamental symmetries outside CERN, though current containment is limited to about four hours.
Manipulating antimatter, like antiprotons, can be tricky business. As scientists understand the universe today, for every type of particle that exists, there is a corresponding antiparticle, exactly matching the particle but with an opposite charge.
If those opposites come into contact, they "annihilate" each other, setting off lots of energy, depending on the masses involved. Any bumps in the road on the test journey that aren't compensated for by the specially-designed box could spoil the whole exercise.

Scientists in Geneva took some antiprotons out for a spin—a very delicate one—in a truck, in a never-tried-before test drive that has been deemed a success.
If this so-called antimatter had come into contact with actual matter, even for a fraction of an instant, it would have been annihilated in a quick flash of energy. So experts at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, had to be extra careful when they took 92 antiprotons on the road for a short ride on Tuesday.

The antiprotons were suspended in a vacuum inside a specially designed box and held in place by supercooled magnets.

In methodical exercise over about three hours, the nearly 1,000-kilogram (2,200-pound) cryogenic box was craned up slowly and moved through a cavernous lab the onto the truck.

The drive on CERN's campus itself lasted only about a half-hour to test how—if at all—the infinitesimal particles could be transported by road without seeping out.
The antiprotons were then placed back in their usual lab area, and the operation was concluded with applause, claims of success

Source: CERN

Thousands of websites are accidentally broadcasting sensitive data, study finds

Researchers have discovered a major security leak hiding in plain sight on the internet that could expose the personal data and financial records of millions of people. In a paper published on the arXiv preprint server, they  analyzed 10 million websites to see how often API (application programming interfaces) credentials are exposed. These are digital keys or tokens that enable different software programs to communicate and are often used to process bank payments and access cloud storage.

The team used a huge database called the HTTP Archive, which tracks how millions of real websites work. They looked at live, running versions of sites to monitor how data is processed as pages load.

By examining the websites while they were active, the researchers identified API credentials that appear only when a user visits a site. These credentials are specific strings of text that a website uses to identify itself to services like banks or cloud providers.

The researchers found 1,748 active, verified credentials from major service providers (including Amazon Web Services, Stripe and OpenAI). These credentials were found publicly accessible within the live code of websites. The dangers are that anyone who finds the keys and knows what they're doing can gain full access to a company's cloud servers, bank accounts, or customer databases without a password.

The study also revealed that some of these credentials remained exposed for 12 months. In a few rare cases, the sensitive keys had been publicly available for several years without being detected by the companies. Most of the breaches (84%) were found within JavaScript files, the background instructions that tell a website how to behave.

The fault, however, doesn't lie with service providers like Amazon or Stripe, according to the study authors. The problem is with software developers and website operators who accidentally include these private credentials in the final version of a website that is sent to a user's browser.

The results show that the vast majority of leaks are introduced during the build process and materialize exclusively in live production environments (e.g., within JavaScript bundles), making the static scanning methods used in prior work fundamentally insufficient for the web," explain the authors.

The researchers wrote to the affected organizations to alert them of the leaks, and within two weeks, 50% of the exposed credentials were removed or deactivated.

The team suggests a few best practices to help stop the leaks. These include developers scanning the live, running version of their website rather than just the private code, and companies setting strict rules for their automated website-building tools. They also recommend that service providers improve their automated systems to alert customers the moment a secret key is detected on a public webpage.

Nurullah Demir et al, Keys on Doormats: Exposed API Credentials on the Web, arXiv (2026). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2603.12498

Why no individual is like another when epigenetics come into play
Epigenetic modifications—chemical changes to DNA that do not alter its sequence—regulate gene expression and contribute to individual behavioural differences among animals. These modifications can result from both environmental influences and intrinsic factors, creating a dynamic interplay where behaviour and environment reciprocally shape the epigenome. This process enhances individual ecological niches and maintains diversity within populations, influencing adaptation and evolution.

Why do animals behave differently, and what are the consequences of this? A research team now provides a new explanation: epigenetic processes—chemical markings on DNA—may play a key role. The study, published in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution, links individuality, environmental adaptation, genetics, ecology, and evolution in a novel way.
The researchers propose that individuality and epigenetic variation influence each other. This bidirectionality—this mutual interaction—helps us to better understand ecological and evolutionary processes, they say.
At the center of the study is epigenetics. This refers to chemical modifications of DNA in which small molecules attach to the genetic material. These modifications do not alter the genetic sequence itself, but they regulate how frequently a gene is translated into proteins. Proteins, in turn, shape the observable traits and characteristics of an organism.

Thus, the same genetic blueprint—the same genotype—can give rise to different appearances, known as phenotypes. The researchers propose that epigenetic mechanisms contribute to how animals develop their individual ecological niche.

An individual niche is the range of environmental conditions under which a specific individual with a given set of traits could possibly live and reproduce. It is a subset of the species' niche that arises from the interaction of the individual with its environment.
The researchers distinguish between epigenetic changes triggered by environmental factors and those that arise independently, such as genetically determined or spontaneously occurring modifications. All forms play different roles in shaping individual differences.
Part 1

What is particularly noteworthy is the idea that it is not only epigenetic processes that influence an individual's behavior and, consequently, their environment, but that, conversely, the environment altered by individual decisions can also give rise to new epigenetic patterns.

For example, individuals may seek out a new living environment or alter their surroundings by building a nest, which in turn affects the epigenome—the totality of all epigenetic marks. Even without direct inheritance via the germline, the epigenome can thus be altered in offspring.

This has far-reaching consequences: such processes could buffer natural selection and thereby generate and maintain epigenetic diversity within populations.
For understanding ecological and evolutionary processes, this represents a shift in perspective. Rather than examining genetic or phenotypic differences in isolation, researchers should analyze genetic, epigenetic and observable traits of the same individuals together.

This concept helps explain how environmental change is linked to individualization. In times of climate change and biodiversity loss, it provides an important foundation for better assessing the adaptive capacity and resilience of natural populations.

Denis Meuthen et al, Exploring the interplay of epigenetics and individualization, Trends in Ecology & Evolution (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2025.12.010

Part 2

How inflammation may prime the gut for cancer
Chronic gut inflammation can leave lasting epigenetic changes, or "molecular scars," in intestinal cells, making tissues more susceptible to cancer if a cancer-promoting mutation occurs later. These epigenetic alterations persist after inflammation subsides, are inherited by daughter cells, and may accelerate tumor growth, highlighting potential biomarkers and intervention targets for colorectal cancer risk.

Chronic inflammation can raise a person's risk of cancer, and a new study reveals key details about how that might happen in the gut and points to better ways to identify and reduce risk.
revealed in mice that after colitis (chronic intestinal inflammation), seemingly healed gut tissues may retain the memory of earlier inflammation through molecular "scars" that make it easier for cancer to take hold later on. These memories are encoded as changes in the epigenome that are handed down from cell to cell through many generations of cell division, with long-lasting effects on gene activity that can later drive tumor growth.
The work, appearing in Nature, suggests a two-hit process over time in which alterations in the genome—an epigenetic change and a cancer mutation—can accelerate tumor growth. It also points to ways to potentially identify and possibly intervene on these cancer-promoting factors with new biomarkers and therapeutics.

Surya Nagaraja et al, Epigenetic memory of colitis in stem cells promotes tumour growth, Nature (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10258-4. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10258-4

Dengue fever is a growing problem: Why it's so hard to beat with vaccines

Dengue fever, caused by four related viral serotypes, is expanding globally due to climate and urbanization. Vaccine development is challenging because immunity to one serotype can worsen infection with another via antibody-dependent enhancement. Effective vaccines must induce balanced, strongly neutralizing responses to all serotypes. Vaccine performance varies by prior infection, age, and transmission intensity, requiring tailored strategies and ongoing safety monitoring.

https://theconversation.com/dengue-fever-is-a-growing-problem-why-i...

Premature placental separation may increase child's risk of heart disease by age 28

Children born after placental abruption face a 4.6-fold higher risk of early cardiovascular disease or death from cardiovascular disease by age 28 compared to those without this complication. Risks of heart-related hospitalization and stroke are also significantly elevated. The association persists even when accounting for genetic and environmental factors within families.
The risk of developing early cardiovascular disease or dying from cardiovascular disease by the age of 28 was about 4.6 times higher among people born to mothers who had a placental abruption during their pregnancy. This finding was compared to people whose birth did not have this complication, according to new research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Placental abruption occurs when the placenta separates from the uterus before birth rather than after delivery, and this can lead to severe hemorrhaging or other serious complications for the mother and baby. According to the American Heart Association's 2026 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics, most studies have reported an incidence of 0.5% to 1% for placental abruption in the general population.
The study suggests that placental abruption needs to be taken as a very serious complication for the mother and also potentially affecting the baby's cardiovascular health later in life.
Most treatments after a placental abruption focus on following the mother after a pregnancy complication. This study shows it is important that their children are also monitored to identify potential complications due to their increased risk of cardiovascular disease.