High-tech techniques, including Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy, revealed that tiny, irregular plastic fragments floating in blood storage solutions were PVC particles shed from the bags. Raman spectroscopy identified the particles' chemical fingerprints, while scanning electron microscopy captured microscopic changes in blood transfusion bags. The microscopy also showed that plastic particles attached directly to the outer membranes of stored red blood cells.

Tests revealed that storing blood bags at room temperature caused significantly more plastic to break off than storing them at 4 °C did. Simulated transport placed additional physical stress on the bags, causing the plastic to crack and peel and releasing significantly more particles into the liquid than in bags that remained still.

When healthy red blood cells were exposed to these microplastic-containing fluids for 30 days, their intracellular ATP—the chemical energy that keeps them alive and maintains their shape—gradually declined. Some cells also lost their disk shape and became spiky over time.

The researchers also identified a potential solution—ultrafiltration, which passes the storage liquid through extremely fine filters before it is added to blood. It removed 78%–85% of the microplastics. With most of the particles filtered out, red blood cells retained their normal shape, maintained their energy levels and were protected from shape changes.

The findings provide direct evidence that microplastics contaminate blood storage systems and can affect the quality of stored blood.

Ning Li et al, Microplastics Released from Blood Storage Bags: A Hidden Contribution to Red Blood Cell Storage Lesions, Environment & Health (2026). DOI: 10.1021/envhealth.6c00110

Part 2

Decades of data reveal who's most at risk of snakebites and how to prevent them

Snakebites aren't random but are predictably correlated with a variety of environmental and socioeconomic factors, according to a study published Aug. 6, 2026, in the journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases .
Snakebite is considered a neglected tropical disease, responsible for as many as 1.4 million deaths per year and disproportionately affecting rural populations in low- and middle-income countries. However, limited information is available on the environmental and socioeconomic factors influencing snakebite incidence.
Across 142 studies (>200,000 cases), nearly 70% of snakebites occurred during outdoor work, especially farming and construction. Risk increased during rainy seasons and evening hours and was associated with poverty-related factors including inadequate footwear, insecure housing, and limited health education. Prevention should complement antivenom through workplace safety, housing, rural development, and education.
In the study, researchers synthesized data from 142 studies documenting more than 200,000 snakebites worldwide dating to the 1800s. The review found that snakebite is strongly related to occupation, with nearly 70% of cases occurring during outdoor work such as farming and construction. It is also related to timing, with most cases occurring during rainy seasons and during the evening and early-night hours. Snakebite cases were also correlated with factors related to poverty, such as lack of adequate footwear, poorly secured homes and limited access to health education.
These results highlight areas where targeted policies might significantly reduce the risk of snakebite, including workplace safety, rural development, housing improvement and health education. The authors note that the dataset is limited because it is mostly focused on South Asia and has inconsistent reporting of variables involved in each snakebite incident.
The authors say, "The scoping review told us something we needed to hear: limiting ourselves to antivenom will never address the behavioural and environmental factors that put people at risk in the first place. The inverse care law is particularly relevant to snakebite; the people most exposed to snakes—because of where they live and the work they do—are also the people furthest from a hospital that can treat them. You cannot fix that gap with antivenom alone; antivenom sits at the wrong end of the problem."

Behavioural and environmental risk factors associated with snake–human conflict: A scoping systematic review, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases (2026). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0014505

Why do people's pupils dilate when they're surprised?

When people encounter new information that challenges their expectations, their pupils are likely to dilate. This physiological response is a sign that something is happening in the brain to help the person adapt to the new situation, according to a new study.
Surprising events elicit activity in the part of the brain known as the locus coeruleus, which is the primary source of norepinephrine, the chemical messenger that drives the body's fight-or-flight stress response. This activity is correlated with a change in pupil diameter as well as with specific brain waves measured by electroencephalography (EEG).
The researchers found in their experiments that surprising colours—those that didn't match predictions—elicited pupil dilation and amplified certain brain waves. They also found that these measurements were related to reductions in bias and adjustments in learning: When images looked like what the participants thought they were going to see, participants were biased toward their expectations. Yet pupil and brain measurements showed that participants were also able to learn from unexpected results and adjust their subsequent predictions accordingly.

In surprising situations, the researchers found, the norepinephrine spike is almost like a refresh mechanism—it's a sign the brain is adjusting to new information that changes expectations.
The brain holds on to some mental context, and then when it recognizes that you're in a new situation, you replace that context. Changes in pupil diameter, as well as specific EEG readings, are external markers showing that the brain is loading that new context. This both limits the effect that the previous context has on perception and also provides a clean slate, unencumbered by previous expectations, thereby allowing one to learn faster.

Tiantian Li et al, Fluctuations in arousal reflect latent state transitions that facilitate behavioural optimization, Nature Human Behaviour (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-026-02533-1

Scientists discover a brain cycle that may explain why learning eventually stalls

For many who have struggled to learn a new language or instrument, it's a familiar pattern: They make rapid progress at first, then hit a plateau that no amount of diligent practice or concentration seems to break.

Biologists identified a physical mechanism in the brain that may help explain why such plateaus occur: A scaffold-like structure surrounding brain cells, called the extracellular matrix, helps control when the brain can change during learning. In the auditory cortex, this matrix loosens within hours of a practice session and rebuilds itself within about a day—a cycle that lets the learning from a session take hold before the next one. As a skill is mastered, the rebuilding cycle fades and eventually stops altogether, as if the brain has decided that learning is finished and it's time to protect what's been gained.
In the adult auditory cortex, extracellular matrix loosens within hours of training and rebuilds by about 24 hours, supporting learning and consolidation. This remodelling declines and ceases as skills are mastered. Enzymatic matrix disruption impaired learning and degraded retained performance, indicating roles in both plasticity and stability.

Caras, Melissa L., Experience-dependent modulation of extracellular matrix integrity supports perceptual skill learning and memory, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2026). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2601801123

Dry needling is different from acupuncture. So what's involved? And is it effective?
Dry needling inserts solid needles into painful muscle areas, unlike acupuncture’s traditional point selection. It may provide short-term relief for neck, shoulder, and low-back pain but appears no more effective than exercise or other treatments, with uncertain placebo-independent benefit. Minor adverse effects are common; rare serious harms include pneumothorax and infection.

 original article.

Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer's. How complex mental maps and spatial reasoning protect your brain
Taxi and ambulance drivers had among the lowest Alzheimer’s mortality rates, potentially because continual navigation engages hippocampal spatial-memory systems. Intensive navigation is associated with hippocampal structural changes, and complex environments correlate with lower Alzheimer’s risk. Whether screen-based spatial work provides similar protection remains untested.

original article.

Is Morbi's Mysterious 'Dancing Water' : Mystery Finally Solved

An 18-foot-deep farm well in Virparda village of Gujarat's Morbi district has gone viral after producing continuous, tide-like waves since August 2. While the unusual sight sparked fears of seismic activity, experts have ruled out any connection to an earthquake. The phenomenon is reportedly caused by heavy upstream rainfall rapidly recharging underground aquifers. The increased groundwater pressure forces trapped air out of rock pores, creating rhythmic bubbling and oscillating waves inside the well. Trapped air beneath the water may be causing the ripples.

Morbi District Collector Swapnil Khare has ordered a scientific assessment.

And the above explanation is what science gives!

Mushroom behind 'tiny people' hallucinations identified

People in communities thousands of miles apart have described the same strange experience after eating a mysterious mushroom: vivid visions of tiny humans moving through and interacting with the physical world around them. Known as Lilliputian hallucinations—a reference to the 6-inch-tall inhabitants of "Gulliver's Travels"—the phenomenon has long been thought to stem from cultural influences rather than biology.

A new study suggests otherwise.

Using DNA sequencing, researchers confirmed that a single mushroom species, Lanmaoa asiatica, is responsible for these hallucinations in Southwest China and the northern Philippines.

Three completely independent cultures have reported the same specific type of hallucination, and two cases are attributed to the same DNA-verified mushroom species. That indicates that these bizarre psychological effects aren't cultural manifestations or coincidences—they must have a shared underlying chemical and neurological basis.
People pretty much always report seeing dozens or hundreds of little people, about 3 to 30 centimeters tall (1 to 12 inches), in incredible detail, like they're actually there. About 90% of people describe them as little elves or clowns or other fairy-like figures dressed in colorful clothes.

What's fascinating is they interact with the physical world using the laws of physics that govern us. They're not walking through walls or anything. They're falling off the edge of tables, walking around objects. One person told me that while they were eating soup, the little people were jumping off their spoon into the bowl and swimming around. As they scooped a bite, the little people remained in their mouth.

They also discovered that the mushroom contains none of the psychoactive compounds known to science, including psilocybin. Instead, the findings point to an entirely new hallucinogenic compound that could offer new insights into neurological disease and how the brain shapes perception and consciousness.
However, Lilliputian hallucinations predate this mushroom. There are myths about tiny people in pretty much every culture's folklore. People have also reported these hallucinations from alcohol withdrawal, dementia, macular degeneration and other neurological conditions. So, it seems like this phenomenon is fundamental to how the human mind and brain work.
That's what makes this mushroom different—it reliably produces this effect, whereas those conditions very rarely trigger it.

Colin Domnauer et al, Phylogenomic systematics of Lanmaoa (Boletaceae) reveals cryptic diversity, resolves global evolutionary relationships, and suggests a novel psychoactive lineage, Mycologia (2026). DOI: 10.1080/00275514.2026.2670968

Early-life stress leaves a 'scar' inside brain cells

More than half of the world's children are exposed to early-life stress from abuse, household dysfunction such as violence or drug use, or other traumatic experiences. Accumulation of four or more such experiences can trigger much higher risks for long-term mental and physical health challenges in adulthood.

Experiencing severe stress during childhood can make a person more vulnerable to anxiety, depression and other mood disorders when faced with hardships as an adult. Researchers have uncovered how trauma early in life can leave a lasting effect on the brain.
Scientists already knew that stress early in life changes the activity of genes in the brain. In a new study, the research team discovered that this is due to alterations in how brain cells package DNA, leaving the brain's genetic stress response vulnerable to being easily turned on and reducing tolerance to stress.
This new finding reveals a physical scar left by trauma experienced during development inside brain cells, providing scientists with a concrete biological target to develop new treatments and interventions.
The researchers set out to understand how trauma during early development physically changes the brain to make it more sensitive to stress later in life. They focused on a region of the brain called the ventral tegmental area, where brain cells that produce dopamine—a chemical messenger—are responsible for processing important things in the environment, including rewards and adversity.
When these brain cells are activated abnormally, which can happen in response to stress, they disrupt how the brain processes rewards, leaving individuals vulnerable to anxiety and depression.

Within dopamine-producing neurons, the researchers zoomed in on the epigenome, a set of molecular tags that direct the cell's machinery to turn genes on and off, which in turn affects cells' activity.

Inside cells, DNA is coiled like a slinky. The DNA coils are wrapped around histone proteins that help determine how tightly or loosely the coil is wound.

When the genetic slinky is compressed, its genes are turned off. As the DNA slinky stretches and opens, genes are more easily accessible to be turned on.

The researchers found that an enzyme called SETD7 was more abundant in the dopamine neurons of young mice that had experienced stress compared with mice reared in a typical environment. SETD7 helps place a chemical tag—H3K4me1—on the genetic slinky, marking the structure for uncoiling, which in turn makes the cell more reactive to everything going on in the environment.
The researchers then artificially boosted SETD7 in young, stress-free mice. Even without early-life stress, these mice grew up with a stretched-open DNA structure in their dopamine-producing brain cells, making it easier to turn on the genes that respond to stress. Such mice had a lower tolerance for stress in adulthood.

The researchers found that, as adults, mice whose SETD7 levels had been boosted when they were young had more reactive dopamine neurons and more anxious behavior compared with mice with normal levels of SETD7 throughout their lives.
Part 1

Conversely, when the researchers blocked the SETD7 enzyme from adding too much of the H3K4me1 tag after early-life stress, the slinky remained closed, shielding mice from becoming hypersensitive to stress later in life. Despite experiencing both early-life and adult stress, mice with their SETD7 levels dampened were able to remain as social and exploratory as unstressed mice, and their dopamine neurons were active at normal levels.

There are currently no treatments for what early-life stress does to the brain, partially because we have not had a clear picture of what molecular mechanisms to target.
This work is exciting because it reveals a clear mechanism and also helps explain why the impact of stress is both latent and broad. Additionally, if we can step in with supportive care, therapy or social resources to buffer children during those sensitive windows of development, we may be able to protect the epigenome—preventing the genetic slinky from locking into an open position and perhaps giving the developing brain a chance to build natural resilience.

Kim HJJ, et al. Early-life stress alters H3K4me1 in VTA to prime stress sensitivity, Neuron (2026).

Part 2

Meta says its AI model hacked another company, adding to worries about bots going rogue
A Meta AI model gained unintended internet access during cybersecurity testing and exploited a third-party vulnerability; the incident is under investigation. Related tests reported unsanctioned online actions by AI agents under reduced safeguards, highlighting containment needs for cyber-capability evaluations.
source: News agencies

Brain activity reveals two stages of visual processing before conscious perception
EEG decoding indicated early occipital activity (~200 ms) encoding individual visual offsets and their temporal order without conscious separation. Later central-parietal activity (~450 ms) represented the integrated percept and behavioural reports, consistent with sequential unconscious encoding followed by conscious visual integration.

Maëlan Q. Menétrey et al, Sequential neural dynamics underlie unconscious integration and conscious perception of visual stimuli, PLOS Biology (2026). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003894

How to keep the Earth habitable when the sun dies

In a billion years, the sun will start to run out of fuel and expand to become a red giant. Earth's oceans and atmosphere will be burned away, and Earth will likely be engulfed by the sun altogether. The sun will then shrink to a dim white dwarf, and all light and warmth in the solar system will diminish. In a hundred trillion years, the galaxy's ability to produce stars will be exhausted, and everything will turn dark. However, there's a way for life to escape this fate—and what's more, we wouldn't need to leave the planet to do it. We just need to build some safeguards.

A proposed long-term strategy uses a sunshade, artificial fusion power from gas giants, and orbital adjustment to protect Earth during solar evolution. Antimatter-driven core heating could sustain tectonics, while directed mass beams could alter Solar System motion. The concept remains highly speculative and requires extreme resources.

Gabriel Harry, Retaining Earth's Habitability Beyond the Life of the Sun, Journal of the British Interplanetary Society (2026). DOI: 10.59332/jbis-079-07-0230. On arXiv: DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2607.13084.

Brain turns listening inward during REM sleep, EEG recordings suggest
Across wakefulness to phasic REM sleep, EEG responses to external sounds progressively decreased, while responses to heartbeats were preserved or strengthened in 25 participants. This indicates a selective shift from external to internal sensory processing rather than global sensory suppression. An audio–cardiac response index may help characterize altered consciousness.

Sensory processing reallocation from auditory to cardiac signals in REM sleep, Current Biology (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2026.07.024

A baby's lungs may begin responding to vitamin D sooner than once thought
Many pregnant women around the world are low in vitamin D. This is a very common issue that has prompted inquiries over the years. It is believed that low levels in pregnant women can cause harm to foetal development. Currently, scientists are asking a controversial question. What if the key time for vitamin D effects is before a woman knows that she's pregnant? By week 16 of pregnancy, the structural makeup of their developing airways—that is, the blueprint of breathing—is complete.
This timing begs an interesting question. According to a recent review published in Nutrients, it is not the amount of the nutrient that is important. Rather, it is the timing of the availability of vitamin D.

In short, this is the most important factor that would help us understand childhood asthma. New research suggests that there should be more focus on supplementation during the initial weeks, even before conception. The bulk of the early lung development generally occurs by the time clinical trials first start taking place.
All earlier vitamin D studies were conducted after conception, never before.
A 2025 Cochrane review affirms this trend. The research found that giving a high dose of vitamin D during pregnancy probably protects against wheezing in childhood, though it probably makes "little to no difference" to doctor-diagnosed asthma. Giving more vitamin D to pregnant women lowered wheezing in toddlers on average but did not convincingly prevent an asthma diagnosis.

Notably, these studies pointed out that all these trials started quite late and usually measured vitamin D only once. The researchers say that these designs yield only "weak evidence against the periconceptional hypothesis because they were not designed to test it."
The main takeaway is this: taking vitamin D before pregnancy might matter more than taking huge doses afterwards.

In the early weeks, when the fundamental branches of the lungs are established, it is likely that vitamin D benefits airway programming the most.

The review noted that none of the large trials, in fact, tested giving vitamin D pre-conception or in the first trimester. If timing matters, starting the supplements after 20 weeks may have been too late. The researchers argue that focusing on a higher dose in late pregnancy won't uncover an asthma-prevention effect if it was needed earlier.

Looking to the future, the researchers call for new trials that begin several weeks before conception and continue through early pregnancy. They also suggest measuring vitamin D repeatedly (not just once) and following children longer, with objective lung tests. Such studies could identify if a "vitamin D vacuum" in early pregnancy leaves lungs more vulnerable to asthma.

Oana Raluca Temneanu et al, Timing over Dose: Maternal Vitamin D, Periconceptional Window, and Early-Life Respiratory Programming, Nutrients (2026). DOI: 10.3390/nu18142333

People carrying a rare gene variant have naturally low body fat, healthier livers and better blood sugar levels

There are people around us who can maintain their weight despite what they eat. This has led scientists to believe that a person's metabolism and tendency toward obesity may have genetic factors behind them. A large study sequencing the genomes of more than 1 million people across three continents, found genetic clues that could drive this tendency. The findings are published in Nature.
They used exome sequencing to identify the specific parts of DNA responsible for building proteins, looking for rare gene variants and their associations with the ratio of triglycerides to HDL cholesterol (TG) in the blood (TG: HDL), a marker linked to several heart and metabolic risk factors and diseases.

They pinpointed 59 genes associated with this marker that help regulate how the body balances, stores and burns energy. One of the major players is the FNIP1 (folliculin-interacting protein 1) gene, which essentially acts as a brake on energy expenditure, stopping cells from burning too much energy.

About 1 in 7,000 people carry a rare, naturally occurring genetic mutation that switches off one copy of the FNIP1 gene. This anomaly appeared to come with its share of metabolic advantages, including significant protection against obesity and liver fat, a more favourable distribution of body fat and around 60% lower odds of cardiometabolic disease, among others.
In this study, the researchers built a massive data set that allowed them to identify meaningful patterns in genetic variants associated with healthier metabolism. The team collected genetic data and health records from 1,032,116 people across 11 study groups spanning North America, Europe and Asia.

To read the participants' DNA, they focused specifically on the exome, the 1% of our DNA that contains the instructions for making proteins. Then they looked at TG: HDL in their blood and matched those results with advanced diagnostic data. Using a powerful software program called REGENIE, they searched for genetic variants associated with higher or lower TG: HDL.

The study showed that a simple blood measurement like the TG: HDL ratio, which is the ratio of triglycerides to HDL, the "good" cholesterol, can act as a highly accurate indicator of full-body metabolic health. A higher TG: HDL ratio was strongly associated with excess body fat, dangerous fat buildup around vital organs, insulin resistance and higher blood pressure.

Fifty-nine independent genes were found to directly shape how the body balances energy, stores fat and manages metabolism. Nearly all of them operate in the liver and fat tissue, the body's core metabolic hubs. Of these, 23 genes—close to 40%—already had drugs targeting them, either approved or being tested in clinical trials.

They found that carriers of the rare FNIP1 gene variant had a very healthy metabolic profile. Compared with noncarriers, they showed lower levels of blood fats, including triglycerides and bad cholesterol; lower body weight and body-fat percentage; and a healthier distribution of body fat. They also had lower blood sugar and significantly less fat stored in the liver.
Part 1

The researchers then tested the effect in mice by disabling the FNIP1 pathway in the liver. Even when fed a high-fat, high-sugar junk-food diet for up to 30 weeks, these mice were strongly protected against weight gain and fat buildup in the liver.

The results identify FNIP1 as a key player in how the human body manages energy and metabolic biomarkers. Researchers are hopeful that blocking it therapeutically could eventually be used to tackle heart disease, obesity and diabetes.

George Hindy et al, FNIP1 variants are associated with favourable metabolism in 1 million humans, Nature (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10864-2

Part 2

Most people are unaware of the environmental effects of sunscreen

UV filter compounds enter the marine environment directly or indirectly. Direct pathways include swimming or other water-based recreational activities, and indirect pathways include washing towels that have been used to dry sunscreen-coated skin, washing off residue during showering and even in urine.

Traditional sewage and water treatment technologies cannot effectively remove most UV filters, and organic UV filters have been reported in 95% of wastewater effluents and 86% of surface waters globally. They have also been detected in marine environments worldwide, from busy tourist locations to remote areas such as Antarctica and the Arctic, highlighting the extent of this contamination.

UV filter pollution has also been linked with agricultural practices, where recycled wastewater and sludge biosolids used as fertilizers can transfer UV filters onto crops and into runoff that eventually reaches rivers and coastal waters.

New research has revealed a striking gap in awareness about the environmental impacts of sunscreen, with more than half of people never having considered that the products they use to protect their skin from the sun's rays could be harmful once they enter the ocean.
That is despite extensive scientific evidence showing that sunscreen ingredients—particularly ultraviolet (UV) filters—can pose a number of risks to marine organisms, including fish, algae and coral reefs.

The research also showed that more than 8 out of 10 people were unaware of the existence of reef-safe sunscreen, an unregulated marketing term often used by brands to imply reduced harm to marine life, despite this not always being the case. This inconsistency is another issue explored within the study.
The researchers say their findings highlight a clear gap between scientific evidence and public awareness and have direct implications for future marine policy and regulation, product labeling and consumer guidance.

That, they add, is because public opinions are essential in encouraging manufacturers to develop choices that balance human and environmental safety.
A key piece of data is that 55% of participants had never considered that sunscreen may be harmful to the marine environment. This demonstrates just how vital clear and accessible communication is in bridging the gap between research and public awareness.
In the study, 281 participants voluntarily responded to a set of five questions on the topic, and 89% reported using sunscreen at some point within the year. However, 81% were unfamiliar with the term reef-safe, and 55% had never considered sunscreens harmful to the marine environment.
The researchers say these findings emphasize the need for clear public messaging and more transparent and regulated product information.

Anneliese A. Hodge et al, User habits and public perceptions of sunscreen pollution: A global review and case study of Britain's Ocean City, Marine Policy (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2026.107244

One million years without sex fails to erase stick insects' unused biological system
In Timema stick insects reproducing asexually for ~1 million years, X-chromosome dosage compensation remains functional in rare males. Its persistence despite prolonged absence of sexual reproduction indicates that sex-chromosome regulatory mechanisms may not rapidly decay after their original selective role is removed.

Darren J. Parker et al, Dosage compensation and meiotic sex chromosome inactivation are maintained under relaxed selection, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2026). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2531501123

Why a doctor saying 'it's normal' can backfire

A new study suggests that when physicians try to reassure patients by saying their symptoms are "normal," patients may infer that treatment isn't necessary—and become less inclined to seek it. Doctors may think they're saying "Don't panic." But many patients hear "Don't bother" instead.
Doctors use "normal," it seems, to mean common and well understood. Patients often interpret it as meaning acceptable—or not worth treating.
Published in Nature Human Behaviour, the findings of 14 experiments involving 9,371 participants and a wide range of health conditions, from menopause and migraines to dental pain, seasonal allergies and elevated blood glucose levels.

The findings come amid broader conversations about patients feeling dismissed in health care settings, sometimes described as "medical gaslighting." The study identifies a communication gap that may contribute to those experiences, even when doctors are trying to help.

The good news is that miscommunication isn't inevitable. The researchers also tested two simple ways to reduce it: pairing normalizing language with an explicit recommendation for treatment and explaining that "normal" was meant in a statistical, not normative or prescriptive, sense.

Both approaches helped close the communication gap.
The key takeaway for patients: If you're unsure what your doctor means when they say a symptom is "normal," don't assume it means treatment isn't recommended and you should just live with it. Ask.

Common symptoms can still deserve attention—and treatment.

Seyi Lawal et al, Reassurance through normalization inadvertently suppresses treatment, Nature Human Behaviour (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-026-02542-0

Genome study reveals centromeres as one of the fastest-changing regions in human DNA
A centromere is a specific region on a chromosome that ensures that, when a cell divides, the chromosome separates accurately so each new cell receives the correct amount of genetic material. Despite their essential role, centromeres remain one of the last major blind spots in the human genome.

A recent study published in Nature set out to reveal what had been hidden inside human centromeres, using advanced long-read sequencing and custom-built computational tools to piece together 2,110 complete centromeres. The researchers sampled individuals from 28 population groups across five continents, then compared their centromeres with 5,747 assembled by the Human Pangenome Reference Consortium to trace how these regions differ and evolve.

They discovered 226 major centromere haplotypes—distinct genetic patterns—and 1,870 new genetic variants. By studying a four-generation family, they were able to follow centromeres as they changed from parent to child, tracking genetic changes across generations.
They discovered that centromeres mutated faster than any other part of the human genome, with certain chromosomes accumulating changes at up to 20 times the rate of others.

The kinetochore attachment site, the anchor point where the chromosome attaches to the cell machinery during division, mutated faster than any other part.
The results revealed that centromeres have far more genetic and structural diversity than previously appreciated. When a cell divides, it attaches each chromosome to a protein handle called a kinetochore. For years, scientists assumed there was only one handle per chromosome.

This sequencing found that some centromeres break that rule: Around 6% have two kinetochores, and about 1% have three. Even more importantly, these multi-handled centromeres run in families, passing from parents to children across generations.

While mapping centromeres, the researchers noticed something remarkable: On chromosomes 10 and 21, some people carried centromeres that were separated by more than a million years of evolution from the other modern versions.

Comparing these sequences with ancient genomes indicated that modern humans outside Africa might have inherited these unique centromeres from ancient human relatives through interbreeding with Neanderthals and Denisovans.
Based on the findings, the researchers proposed a kind of evolutionary tug-of-war between centromere DNA and its binding proteins. The anchor point mutates so often that they keep changing both the DNA sequence and the chemical markers that control how it's used, driving rapid evolution in these critical regions of our genome.

Shenghan Gao et al, A global view of human centromere variation and evolution, Nature (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10841-9

Female Brains Wake Up from Anesthesia Differently Than Male Brains
Ketamine anesthesia drives female-specific microglial activity in mice, offering insight about the anesthetic and highlighting the need to study sex as a biological variable.
All over the world, doctors perform more than 300 million surgeries each year. While some procedures require local anesthetics, other ones and people undergoing them go under general anesthesia .
While doctors must ensure that patients go under anesthesia for the procedure, it is equally important that they wake up after the surgery. Researchers have previously found that male and female animals respond differently to the general anesthetic ketamine, but they did not fully understand its underlying molecular basis.
Now, scientists found that sex differences in ketamine recovery arise due to distinct dynamics of neurons and immune cells called microglia in male and female brains. Their findings, published in Science Advances, offer a deeper understanding of ketamine anesthesia recovery and highlight the need to study sex as a biological variable.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adz6517

Growing rice on the moon

The Moon's surface is a tough place to farm. It has no organic material, and the nitrogen sources that plants need, like ammonia and nitrate, are essentially absent.

Scientists in Japan have created a portable plasma device that can turn air into fertilizer, helping rice grow in simulated lunar soil.

It may sound like science fiction, but a team of researchers from Japan have made it possible to harvest fresh rice on lunar soil. 

The researchers developed a portable plasma device that converts ordinary air into nitrogen fertilizer, When applied to soil designed to simulate the Moon's surface, it neutralized the soil's harsh alkalinity and released trapped nutrients like calcium, magnesium and potassium. This enabled the researchers to grow rice seedlings in the lunar soil.

Beyond its off-world potential, the researchers note that their low-power, fossil-fuel-free technology could help make farming on Earth more sustainable too. 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41526-026-00602-3

Too Cool To Care? Air Conditioning Weakens Climate Action Support: behavioural insulation

Study finds that the more people rely on air conditioning to stay cool, the less likely they are to support broader efforts to cool cities and cut energy use.
As global temperatures rise, air conditioning has become essential to protect people from extreme heat. But a new study has found that widespread reliance on private cooling may be creating a paradox in cities: the more effectively households cool themselves indoors, the less urgency they feel to support the broader climate measures needed to cool cities.
The study has found that households that depend heavily on air conditioning are less likely to adopt energy-saving habits or support community-wide heat mitigation strategies. The findings, published in Sustainable Cities and Society, describe this phenomenon as “behavioural insulation”, where effective indoor cooling dampens the perceived urgency to address heat through collective action.
Heat awareness does not always change behaviour

To explore how people respond to rising temperatures, the researchers analysed survey responses from 967 adults across 416 households in Singapore, together with spatial heat indicators and household electricity consumption records.

The results revealed a clear divide. People who felt more affected by heat were more likely to discuss climate issues and encourage others to act. But this rarely translated into lower household energy use. Those who relied most on air-conditioning tended to consume more electricity and were less likely to adopt energy-saving habits.

One of the key findings is that experiencing heat does not automatically translate into lower-energy behaviour or stronger collective climate action.
The researchers also observed that heavy air-conditioning users showed less support for public heat mitigation measures such as expanding urban greenery, increasing tree cover and improving neighbourhood shading, even while spending more on keeping their own homes cool.
According to the researchers, the findings point to something more systemic than individual indifference — a gradual shift in which widespread private cooling may weaken the behavioural conditions associated with support for collective climate action.
The researchers say they are not arguing against air-conditioning, as cooling is essential for comfort, health and wellbeing. Rather, they argue that cooling should be complemented by urban design strategies which include shading, greening, improved ventilation, reflective building materials and climate-sensitive planning, that reduce outdoor temperatures in the first place.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2210670726003318...

Eye contact may help babies learn
Have you ever noticed how babies get hooked the moment someone makes eye contact with them? That eye contact is not only cute; it may also send a powerful message to a baby. For years, scientists have been investigating whether social messages like eye contact and baby talk do more than engage babies. They may help synchronize babies' brains with adult brain waves. But the biggest question remained: Does it actually help babies learn?
A new study, published in Nature Communications, offers an answer. Scientists found that 9-month-old infants were able to learn a novel language when the face in a video looked directly at them with fully visible eyes.

Using electroencephalography, or EEG, brain scanning, scientists detected a kind of "neural handshake" between the adult's and infant's brains, synchronized through eye contact.
The results showed how vital eye contact may be for babies' learning. When the person in the video made eye contact while their eyes were fully visible, the infants succeeded in learning the invented language. They recognized which combinations of sounds formed "words" and demonstrated this understanding by spending more time looking at novel sound combinations than ones they had heard before.
The findings provide support for a key assumption of developmental psychology: "Adults curate infants' information selection through ostensive marking of valuable content using social cues such as eye contact." In other words, adults not only provide information for infants but also help them select what to learn.

However, when the speaker's eyes were partly obscured by dark glasses or entirely covered by opaque ones, the babies did not learn. It was as if the switch for learning was off. This was not because they stopped paying attention; the babies looked at the screen for roughly the same amount of time whether the speaker's eyes were visible or not.

Although their eyes were glued to the screen, hiding the speaker's eyes appeared to "scramble" the message, and the participants did not acquire the new language.

The intriguing pattern held for all infants, regardless of whether they were from Singapore or the UK. Babies in both groups were selective learners only when learning from a speaker making visible eye contact.
Part 1

What made the visible-eyes videos different? To answer that question, researchers used EEG readings. The adult speaker's EEG readings were recorded in advance during video production, while the babies wore EEG caps as they watched the videos. Analyzing brain signals allowed researchers to determine the degree of matching between the adult's and baby's brain activity.

Researchers found that adult-to-infant neural coupling—the one-way matching of adult brain waves to infant brain waves—predicted the infants' ability to learn. Only adult→infant neural coupling, not the infants' own rhythmic brain activity, predicted learning ability.

"The key insight," the authors point out, "is that speaker-to-listener neural coupling is a better predictor of selective learning than infants' own neural activity." Statistical tests supported this: Once researchers accounted for the strength of adult-to-infant coupling, the direct effect of gaze on learning essentially vanished. In short, eye contact drove a brain-to-brain signal that explained the learning boost.

Wei Zhang et al, Adult-to-infant unidirectional neural coupling mediates selective social learning in infants from the United Kingdom and Singapore, Nature Communications (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-75831-x

Part 2

What if there's a star inside a black hole?
A dark-matter halo with an exotic pressure–density relation can mathematically surround a neutron star with an event horizon while leaving the star nonsingular and structured inside. Such configurations exist only within a narrow halo-density range and require dark-matter densities far above expected astrophysical values, so they remain theoretical.

Chen Tan et al, A Neutron Star Hidden Inside a Black Hole, arXiv (2026). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2608.06224

Arthritis origins may begin before birth

Researchers have discovered that some joints may be more susceptible to inflammatory arthritis before birth, offering new insight into why rheumatoid arthritis attacks particular joints while sparing others.
"The embryonic origins of site-specific arthritis", published in Nature Immunology, provides new insight into one of the long-standing mysteries of rheumatoid arthritis: why inflammation targets certain joints while leaving others relatively unaffected.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that causes pain, swelling and stiffness when the immune system attacks the synovium, the tissue lining the joints. Over time, this inflammation can damage cartilage, bone and surrounding tissues.

The study compared two finger joints that differ in their susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis. Researchers compared proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joints, which are commonly affected by the disease, and distal interphalangeal (DIP) joints near the fingertips, which are usually spared.

They found that the PIP joints contained larger synovial volumes and higher levels of PI16-positive (PI16+) fibroblasts, a specialized type of connective tissue cell. These differences were established before birth, suggesting that the tissues themselves may play an important role in determining where disease occurs.

The embryonic origins of site-specific arthritis. Credit: NDORMS

Part 1

For decades we have known that rheumatoid arthritis selectively targets particular joints, but one of the great unanswered questions is why?
These new findings suggest that the answer lies not only in the immune system but also in the tissues themselves. The cellular and structural characteristics established during development may help determine where inflammation takes hold later in life.
Researchers found that the developing joints were made up mainly of structural cells, including cartilage-forming cells and fibroblasts, rather than immune cells. They then investigated what drives these cells to develop into their different specialized forms.

One population that drew particular attention was the synovial lining fibroblasts. These cells produce substances that lubricate the joint to help protect and maintain smooth movement, yet they can also behave abnormally in arthritis. Further analysis suggested that the lining may come from two different sources, both the cartilage and surrounding joint fibroblasts.

The process appeared to be influenced by specific localized signals such as low oxygen levels. This may provide insights into the mechanisms driving their function and help identify ways to restore their normal protective role in disease.
The researchers found important differences between the PIP and DIP joints. A bespoke image analysis tool showed that PI16+ fibroblasts that were enriched in the PIP joints were specifically located around blood vessels and at sites where tendons and ligaments connect with surrounding tissue.

They also showed that PI16+ fibroblasts responded differently to inflammatory signals compared with other fibroblast populations. While PI16+ fibroblasts shared a common pro-inflammatory response with PI16- fibroblasts, they also displayed distinct changes in pathways linked to tissue organization and immune regulation.

The team also identified striking structural differences between the joints. Using high-resolution 3D imaging at Diamond Light Source at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, they found that the synovial tissue surrounding PIP joints was larger and organized differently from that seen in joints that are not usually affected by rheumatoid arthritis. Together, these cellular and structural differences may help explain why inflammation develops in some locations but not others.
Together, the findings suggest that the tendency of rheumatoid arthritis to affect particular joints may be shaped by tissue architecture established during development. Rather than being determined by immune activity alone, vulnerability to inflammation may depend on the local cellular and structural environment of each joint.

Sarah Davidson et al, The embryonic origins of site-specific arthritis, Nature Immunology (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41590-026-02542-2

Female gut muscles reshape to meet the demands of reproduction, preclinical study suggests

Organs don't just grow in early life; they can change in response to physiological or environmental challenges in adulthood. Researchers have now identified an active role for the intestinal muscles in remodelling the gut after reproduction.
Reproduction remodels intestinal smooth muscle in female fruit flies and mice, elongating contractile filaments without increasing cell number and reducing contractility. In flies, mating lowers juvenile hormone receptor signalling in muscle, permitting growth, while epithelial growth is promoted by the same hormone. These changes may enhance nutrient absorption during reproduction.

Alessandro Mineo et al, The sex and reproductive plasticity of intestinal muscles instruct gut size, Cell (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2026.07.024

A 236-million-year-old fossil challenges the story of mammalian live birth

Some cynodonts may have been giving birth to live young much sooner in evolutionary history than previously assumed. A new Frontiers in Mammal Science study has offered the first compelling evidence that cynodonts may have been viviparous—a reproductive mode characterized by live birth.

Researchers showed for the first time that live birth was present in at least one mammalian ancestor, Chiniquodon theotonicus, which lived approximately 236 million years ago. This implies that viviparity among early cynodonts originated in the mammalian lineage at least 95 to 90 million years earlier than previously thought.

Cynodonts thrived in the Triassic, a period of recovery and restructuring of ecosystems after one of the most devastating mass extinctions in life history. This meant high competition for resources and strong predatory pressures. Combined with a trend toward aridity and strong seasonality, embryos of viviparous species would be better protected than those of egg-laying species.

Until now, giving birth to live young was considered a relatively modern evolutionary acquisition in the mammalian lineage. The finding raises questions about which other traits believed to have appeared much later were already present among cynodonts, the researchers say.

Early Origin of Viviparity in the Mammalian Lineage, Frontiers in Mammal Science (2026). DOI: 10.3389/fmamm.2026.1845319

Nature's original bioplastic may have fed animals for hundreds of millions of years

Long before humans discovered biodegradable plastics, microorganisms had already invented their own. Many bacteria and archaea produce natural bioplastics called polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), storing them inside their cells as reserves of carbon and energy.
Until now, scientists thought that only microorganisms themselves could break down these substances. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, have now overturned that long-standing assumption.

In a study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, they show that animals ranging from marine worms and starfish to terrestrial species, including earthworms, have enzymes capable of degrading microbial PHAs. The findings reveal a previously overlooked way in which microbial carbon can enter animal food webs.
Microbial PHAs occur naturally in soils, sediments and aquatic environments worldwide. They are produced whenever microorganisms store excess carbon for later use and are among the few naturally occurring plastics that are completely biodegradable. Because PHAs are increasingly manufactured as sustainable alternatives to conventional plastics, understanding how they are degraded in nature has become an important area of research.
The new findings suggest that animals, together with microorganisms, may contribute to the breakdown of these natural bioplastics. More fundamentally, they reveal that animals can exploit a microbial carbon reserve that had previously been thought to be inaccessible to them.

Animal degradation of microbial storage polyhydroxyalkanoates, Nature Ecology & Evolution (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41559-026-03153-8

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Fungal age remains elusive as underground networks continually grow, split and recycle
Fungal age is difficult to define because mycelial networks continually grow, recycle tissue and fragment into genetically identical units. Longevity likely varies among species and lifestyles, requiring genetic tracking, long-term experiments and microfluidic systems to characterize persistence and life cycles.

Exploring the concept of longevity in fungi, Trends in Microbiology (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.tim.2026.07.001

Fridge-free vaccines

Scientists have successfully trialled vaccines that do not need to be refrigerated or frozen, which could slash the number of vaccine doses that are wasted each year. Sixty volunteers received a tetanus-diphtheria vaccine that had been kept as a dry powder for a year at room temperature before it was dissolved and injected. The jab was “safe and well tolerated” and gave “equivalent” immune responses to the conventional vaccine. The team will launch a larger trial of 160 people in the coming months.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(26)00369-X/fulltext?utm_source=Live+Audience&utm_campaign=e2b449d6f7-nature-briefing-translational-research-20260812&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-928f7c52f0-50323416

AI agents struggle to perform original scientific research

Among the many predictions about the future of artificial intelligence is that models will one day be able to conduct scientific research on their own, leaving humans out of the equation. Already, they can write code, run experiments and search scientific literature, but carrying out open-ended research would require a significant leap in ability.
In a paper posted on the arXiv preprint server, researchers tested AI's ability to conduct open-ended research and found that it came up short.
The study authors gave frontier agents (cutting-edge, state-of-the-art AI tools designed to carry out complex, multi-step tasks autonomously) six days to conduct research and write papers based on two then-unpublished AI conference submissions. This ensured they couldn't just find the answers online.

The agents had full access to the internet, dedicated computing power and approximately $3,000 in model-use credits, meaning they had a budget to conduct open-ended exploration and run experiments. The topics they had to research and write about were the structure and controllability of language-model personas and designing a detector for distribution shifts in tabular foundation models.

Once the six days were up, human researchers reviewed the AI-written papers and graded them as they would papers submitted to a top-tier AI conference.

The frontier agents did not do well at all. Both papers received unambiguous rejection scores (2/6 and 1/6 overall) from the expert human reviewers. Although the AI understood the research questions and proposed some directions that closely mirrored those of the original researchers, its scientific reasoning suffered from major flaws. Experimental designs were weak, and the agents handled negative feedback poorly, often adding caveats to existing findings rather than redesigning their studies.

They also managed their time poorly and spent less than half of their allocated API budget. Despite having time, they rushed through their work and submitted papers that fell far short of publishable standards.

The reviewers did not hold back on their assessments of the agents:

"The experiments and methodological choices were bizarre and hard to understand. The results seem clearly a result of post hoc choices."—David Africa, expert reviewer.
"Upon testing a few unsuccessful signals using a PFN's internals, going from there to 'there are no signals we can use that leverage a model's internals' is a huge leap, a kind of 'proof by example' fallacy that is highly non-scientific."—Viet Nguyen, expert reviewer.
While these results are a sobering reality check on AI's ability to perform scientific research, they do not mean models have no place in the lab. In the near term, they are more likely to serve as assistants handling routine tasks rather than being deeply involved in the process of discovery.

Peter Kirgis et al, Can AI agents conduct open-ended AI research? Early evidence from two case studies, arXiv (2026). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2607.27191

Curiosity has its own neural signal: Brain separates valuable information from water rewards in mice
Often, humans and other animals seek information that can help them complete tasks and attain desired rewards. In some cases, however, they seek information driven simply by curiosity and a desire to obtain knowledge for its own sake, even if it does not lead to external rewards. Scientists know this better.
Researchers recently created a new experimental paradigm for studying the neural processes associated with curiosity and the desire for knowledge in mice. This paradigm, outlined in a paper in Nature Neuroscience, allowed them to gain new insights into how the brain represents the value of information regardless of physical rewards.
Previous studies offered some initial clues about how the mammalian brain attributes value to information. However, the process through which it recognizes stimuli that can provide interesting information and represents their value has not yet been elucidated.

This is a higher-order process of cognition, since what is most valuable as information depends on what we already know, and we can't detect and know how good information is by physiological processes in our body, the way we can with food or many other better understood types of reward that motivate our actions.
Researchers offered thirsty mice the choice of poking their noses into two holes.
One hole revealed with a short puff of odor whether they would receive a water reward, and the other revealed nothing but, critically, offered them the exact same chance and amount of water. Prior to making their decision, the mice had to poke in a third hole that presented them with an odor that either directed them to the information- or non-information-providing hole or offered them the choice. In this way, the mice learned that individual odors each predicted a certain amount of information or water reward.
Interestingly, the researchers observed that the mice predominantly preferred poking their noses into the hole that gave them information. This occurred even if the information-providing hole contained less water than the other hole. These findings suggest that mice are often willing to exchange water (i.e., a reward) for information. This, in turn, implies that the mice attribute value to the information itself.
Part 1

As the mice were learning this behavioral task, the researchers recorded their brain activity using miniaturized microendoscopes. These are ultrathin, lightweight imaging devices that can measure activity in hundreds of neurons simultaneously. The team observed activation patterns in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), a brain region involved in evaluating decisions guided by reward value.
The researchers chose to look at the orbitofrontal cortex because it has been shown to represent the value of options when humans and other animals are making decisions and previous experiments using mice had shown that it represents reward value that is signaled by odors in particular.
To understand how the brain represents the prospect of obtaining information, the researchers compared cases in which, based on the odor they sniffed, the mice expected to receive information with trials in which the reward outcome would remain unknown.

They identified a representation of the predicted value of information in the mouse orbitofrontal cortex.
Approximately 20% of the cells in the OFC showed different neural activity in response to odors that predicted information versus those that predicted no information, and the magnitude of that activity difference scaled with the duration of time the mice had knowledge of the reward outcome. This indicates that they identified a representation of information value that depended on its resolution of uncertainty, which is intrinsic to information and cognition.
The team's findings suggest that the mouse brain processes a desire for knowledge and the drive for physiological rewards differently.

The representation of the predicted value of information was discernible across the neural population in a way that was orthogonal to the representation of the predicted water value, which they observed in response to separate odors in their experiments. Given that they observed this pattern in the OFC, a brain area intimately involved in generating representations of the world to guide decisions, the representation of information value could be a critical signal that allows animals to take actions to gain information and increase their knowledge of the world.
The researchers pursued neural processes underlying curiosity and the drive to seek knowledge, with the goal that their work will also be applicable to humans.
Understanding how we evaluate sources of information and how wanting to gain knowledge drives our behaviour would have important implications for helping people navigate our information-rich modern world, including through learning during childhood development.
Not only could a better understanding of curiosity, the drive to gain information, improve people's success in learning, given the pleasurable, rewarding nature of acquiring knowledge, it could offer us access to more joy and fulfillment—something we all could use.

Jennifer J. Bussell et al, Representations of the intrinsic value of information in mouse orbitofrontal cortex, Nature Neuroscience (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41593-026-02377-y.

Part 2

Cells use a little-known molecule to protect themselves from iron overload

Iron is essential. Our cells need it to produce energy, carry oxygen throughout the body and power countless chemical reactions that sustain life. But this metal has a dark side. When too much of it is left free inside cells, it can trigger destructive reactions that break down DNA, proteins and even cell membranes.
Now researchers have discovered that cells rely on an unexpected protector against this threat: small molecules called polyamines.

The researchers' detailed findings, published in the journal Cell, reveal that polyamines act like storage lockers for iron, safely holding the metal in a nonreactive state until cells need it.
These findings solve a decades-old mystery about why cells maintain such extraordinarily high levels of polyamines and uncover a previously unknown defense mechanism that protects cells from toxic iron overload.

This work could also help scientists develop better cancer treatments by allowing iron overload to trigger cancer cell death. It could also offer new clues about diseases like early-onset Parkinson's disease, in which mutations affect polyamine levels within neurons.

Polyamines buffer labile iron to suppress ferroptosis, Cell (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2026.07.040. www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(26)00872-X

Organs age at different speeds: A blood test might soon tell which ones

Some people seem to age more slowly than others, looking and acting like 45 at 60. Others appear to have gotten ahead of the calendar. But why is that, and what is actually happening inside the body?
AI-based "tissue clocks" can estimate the biological age of human organs from histological images, researchers showed. By analyzing more than 25,000 tissue samples across 40 tissue types, their study reveals that organs age at different rates throughout life and that these changes can even be detected from blood samples. The findings, published in Nature Medicine, provide a new framework for understanding aging and may open new avenues for disease monitoring and early diagnosis.
the researchers turned to the Genotype-Tissue Expression Project (GTEx), which collected tissue samples from 983 individuals across 40 different tissue types, ranging from the brain and heart to the lung, pancreas, skin and intestine. These were transformed into high-resolution digital images of tissue slices, each revealing the microscopic architecture of the organ in question. The scale is staggering: 25,712 images, representing about 480 million individual image tiles, analyzed with state-of-the-art vision models.

They found that the architecture of organs keeps a silent diary of time: Even without explicitly teaching the AI about it, age turned out to be the single strongest factor shaping tissue appearance across all 40 tissue types. Building on this, the research team developed so-called "tissue clocks"—predictive models that estimate a person's biological age from the appearance of their tissue, for each organ independently.

These clocks achieved a mean prediction error of just 4.9 years and outperformed existing DNA-based aging estimates in capturing tissue-specific pathology. Importantly, the predicted biological age was strongly linked to known hallmarks of aging, including telomere shortening, tissue pathology and the number of chronic diseases an individual had.
Part 1

Our tissues carry a remarkably detailed record of the aging process.
By combining histology images with artificial intelligence, we can detect patterns of biological aging that are invisible to the human eye and begin to understand how aging unfolds differently across the body.
The analysis revealed that aging does not occur uniformly: Some tissues, such as the lung, kidney, pancreas and adrenal gland, showed signs of accelerated aging between the ages of 20 and 40. Others followed more complex trajectories, with peaks of accelerated aging appearing later in life. The uterus displayed a particularly striking shift around the age of menopause.

The researchers also identified strong links between tissue-specific aging and medical conditions or lifestyle-associated factors. For example, kidney failure was associated with accelerated aging signals in multiple tissues, while diabetes showed pronounced effects in the pancreas.

What stands out is how differently each organ ages, and how that shows up in tissue architecture.
Deep learning lets us read these spatial patterns, capturing aging as architectural remodelling, not just molecular drift. While the tissue clocks captured the normal pace of aging across organs, they also highlighted outliers—individuals whose tissues showed pronounced structural shifts ahead of their chronological age.
However, tissue samples cannot always be collected. By linking blood-based gene expression profiles with the histologically derived tissue age gaps of the same individuals, the researchers built predictors of tissue-specific biological age from blood samples alone.
These blood-based predictors successfully identified aging patterns linked to several diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Crohn's disease, cystic fibrosis, vasculitis, diabetes and stroke. In Alzheimer's disease, for example, the strongest aging signal was detected specifically in the brain, whereas Crohn's disease showed accelerated aging across the gastrointestinal tract.

Histological aging signatures for monitoring tissue-specific aging and disease, Nature Medicine (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41591-026-04566-5

Part 2

What are chalk streams and why are these rare rivers under threat?
Chalk streams are groundwater-fed rivers with clear, cool, mineral-rich water and stable flows; seasonal headwaters called winterbournes support specialised aquatic and terrestrial species. Their biodiversity is threatened by water abstraction, pollution, channel modification, drought and heat. Reducing pollution and restoring natural flows can improve resilience.

What happens when someone's chromosomes, sex hormones and body don't align?
Differences of sex development arise when chromosomes, gonads, hormone production, or hormone responsiveness diverge from typical pathways. Conditions such as congenital adrenal hyperplasia, androgen insensitivity, 5-alpha-reductase deficiency, and sex-chromosome variations can affect anatomy, puberty, fertility, and health. Individualized specialist care, clear information, and psychological support are important.

original article.

Boiling Liquid Does Something in Near-Zero Gravity
Out in deep, dark depths of space, electronics and fuel can still get hot – very hot.

As plans are made for longer missions and more advanced tech systems, one of the key areas scientists want to understand better is what happens to ultra-cold, cryogenic liquids when they boil.

These liquids are used as rocket fuel and to cool electronics, for example, but at the moment, we don't know enough about their boiling behavior in microgravity.

A new study investigating just that, in a series of airborne experiments, has turned up some surprising results. The findings are published in npj Microgravity

We know boiling liquids behave strangely in space; we've seen it happen before.
With less gravity, convection doesn't circulate heat through liquids as readily. And bubbles don't detach from surfaces as easily; they are less buoyant, so they don't float up as they do on Earth.
So it might reasonably be assumed that low gravity would also reduce the cooling capacity of those space bubbles because they can't carry heat away as fast.

But the researchers found the opposite: reduced gravity improved heat removal under certain conditions.

That is, until a heat threshold was exceeded and boiling became unstable.
Researcher s found that bubbles started forming sooner, and heat transfer was improved under near-zero-gravity conditions. The researchers think it's because in microgravity, the bubbles stick closer to the heated surface, which improves heat removal efficiency.
Their hypothesis is that bubbles stop floating away, so they linger on the surface.
When bubbles are on the surface, there is a small liquid gap between the bubble and the heater, and that liquid layer is so thin that it can improve heat transfer.
While that sounds beneficial, the cooling systems reached their limit faster in the simulated space conditions.

The maximum amount of heat that the liquid nitrogen coolant could handle dropped by 65 percent in microgravity compared to the lab tests.

Part 1

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Essentially, the lingering bubbles begin to link together, dry out the surface faster, and cause the cooling mechanism to collapse. Reduced gravity is an advantage for heat transfer, right up until it isn't.

There are limitations to consider here: only nitrogen was tested, and on short parabolic flights.

However, the data gathered will be useful for future modeling as researchers devise equipment for more efficient, safer space travel.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41526-026-00631-y

Part 2

A Common Plastic Increases Risk of Fatty Liver Disease

One of the world's most common plastics – used in food packaging, plastic wraps, storage containers, and takeaway cups – may be partially responsible for your risk of fatty liver disease.

The disease, as we know it today, was first described in 1980.

But physicians have known since the 19th century that fatty infiltration of the liver is somehow related to diet, long before formal studies began.

A new study in mice suggests modern food conveniences might be adding to the problem.
People often aren't aware they have fatty liver disease (the non-alcoholic kind) until it is detected incidentally when they get a scan for some other condition.

When people do experience symptoms, they may present with fatigue, feeling generally unwell, and discomfort under the right side of their ribs.

Excess fat builds up in the liver cells, which can eventually lead to inflammation, then fibrosis (an accumulation of scar tissue), and even cirrhosis (serious damage), if untreated.
You're more at risk for fatty liver disease if you're carrying extra weight, especially around the middle.

Other risk factors include high blood fat levels (LDL cholesterol or triglycerides), type 2 diabetes or prediabetes, and high blood pressure.
All of these risk factors involve food and metabolism, but a new study in mice shows there may be an important aspect of people's diets that has been overlooked: exposure to microplastics, specifically polyethylene.

It's one of the most important plastics for food convenience: it packages takeaways, cling-wraps leftovers, stops your single-use cup from dissolving in your hand.

And, compared to many other polymers, polyethylene has kind of been considered a lesser concern.
Studies suggest that microscopic polyethylene can trigger signs of fatty liver disease, even with a standard diet. Regardless of diet, the addition of microplastics appeared to exacerbate the condition – even among the mice who ate a relatively healthy diet.
Part 1

Levels of ALT, an enzyme indicative of poor liver health, and liver triglycerides were higher in both groups of mice in the experiments whose diets were laced with microplastics than in animals fed the same corresponding diet without polyethylene.

The same went for liver cell inflammation and ballooning, and steatosis (fat buildup in the liver).
Genes encoding proteins PPAR-alpha (which regulates liver fat production) and Annexin A2 (which, in the liver, is involved with tissue repair) were both in overdrive in the microplastics-affected livers.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aec8681

Part 2

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Faecal transplant soothes peanut allergy
Six people with a severe peanut allergy can tolerate the nut after a transplant of gut bacteria from the stool of people without the allergy. Four months after the transplant, five participants could eat 600 milligrams or more of peanut protein — the equivalent of about two and a half peanuts — without triggering a severe immune response. The potential of this type of therapy to have a lasting benefit is really, really exciting, because available treatments for food allergies are limited and short-lived.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.aee3263

Taking screenshots makes you more likely to forget information

Snapping a photo or taking a screenshot to remember something? According to recent cognitive research, the practice may make you more likely to forget.

Research has consistently shown that if you take photographs or screenshots during an experience, your memory of the information or event is degraded.

Taking photos or screenshots can impair memory for captured information, particularly when images are not later reviewed. Across seven experiments, capture showed no memory benefit and was associated with poorer recall and source memory. Divided attention, cognitive offloading, and attentional disengagement may contribute.

Known as the photo-taking impairment effect, the phenomenon occurs for material that the picture-taker doesn't review afterward. According to other research, using photographs to retrieve and review memories may benefit long-term retention.
However, many of us take more photos and screenshots than we can use—about 20 photos a day, with about 2,000 photos stored on the average smartphone, according to estimates.

Unless you are actively reviewing those images as cues for elaborative memory retrieval, it is unlikely to benefit you.

Another study suggests that our memory isn't impaired when photographs are captured automatically using a wearable clip camera. This indicates that there's something about the act of taking a photo or capturing a screenshot that impairs memory, rather than the knowledge that something is being saved.
One possible mechanism behind digital amnesia is divided attention: The act of capturing an experience takes away cognitive resources that would otherwise be dedicated to encoding the information in memory. While divided attention plays a role, it's unlikely to be the main source of memory impairment. People show a comparable deficit when extra time is provided to view artwork before or after taking a photograph and when the capture task is made less difficult, which should minimize its effects.

Another possibility is cognitive offloading, in which we do not allocate cognitive resources to remember information if it's stored externally. Offloading allows us to redirect those conserved cognitive resources toward aspects of an experience that weren't captured or toward unrelated tasks.

Individuals should only employ the strategy if the information is reliably saved and accessible. However, research has shown that memory remained impaired even when picture-takers knew their images would be immediately deleted. With screenshots in particular, people were less likely to remember whether they captured an image or viewed a piece of art, and had worse memory for the art itself when it was captured.

A third hypothesis is attentional disengagement, in which the act of taking a photograph or screenshot causes us to unconsciously distance ourselves from the experience.
This unconscious detachment may be sparked by a longstanding association between capturing images and the ability to offload information.
Part 1

A better option for remembering information: Break out a pen and paper. Writing something down—for example, taking notes during a lecture—forces us to process and organize the information into manageable bullet points and draw connections. Known as "desirable difficulty," the mental effort in this kind of processing may make us more likely to remember the information.

However, it's not foolproof; sometimes, writing something down can lead to cognitive offloading—such as forgetting a friend's birthday after we add it to our calendar and set reminders. Like the phone numbers in your contact list, you may no longer be able to remember the specific information.

Screenshotting can potentially supplement your memory if you take only a few intentional shots and review them later—similar to how a calendar reminder can support your memory of an upcoming event. But taking frequent screenshots and letting them accumulate unreviewed has the opposite effect, research shows.
The results of the current study suggest that we are likely harming our memory for information and experiences with the press of a button, and that this impairment may even extend beyond what is captured.

Sophia P. Fabrizio et al, Digital amnesia: The aftermath of a screenshot, Memory & Cognition (2026). DOI: 10.3758/s13421-026-01921-2

Part 2

Scientists have designed a functioning virus from scratch using AI. What you need to know
AI-generated genomes for the bacteriophage ΦX174 produced 16 functional phages among 285 synthesized designs, demonstrating that sequence models can generate viable viral genomes based on existing biological patterns. The system remains limited to a simple bacteriophage; clinical phage applications and biosecurity require further validation and oversight.

original article.