Why butterflies are so hard to catch

Butterflies are incredibly evasive insects, with no predators that specialize in hunting them as they fly. Why this is has been a bit of a mystery, but now new research suggests that the patterns on their wings create optical illusions to mislead predators. This finding not only explains butterflies nimble dodging, but may also help researchers understand why many animals have stripes and patterns.

Partial Vision Restored in Some Blind Patients With New Experimental Treatment
Night vision often fades first, followed by a narrowing of peripheral vision. In retinitis pigmentosa, this progressive loss can eventually lead to blindness.

An experimental treatment has now helped some patients recover limited visual abilities.

The approach combines a gene injection with special goggles. In a small trial involving 10 people with profound vision loss in both eyes, some participants became better able to detect objects, locate them, and reach toward them while using the device.
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Retinitis pigmentosa is a group of inherited disorders in which genetic changes damage the retina's photoreceptors, the cells that normally detect light.

Symptoms can begin in childhood or later, and progression varies. People without known affected relatives can also develop the disease.

Variants in more than 100 genes can cause it, complicating efforts to develop treatments for each genetic cause. This approach, called optogenetic therapy, gives nerve cells that survive the disease a new way to respond to light.

Each participant received one injection into their worse-seeing eye. A modified virus delivered instructions for producing a light-sensitive protein called ChrimsonR into retinal ganglion cells, the nerve cells that transmit visual signals toward the brain.

The gene therapy delivers a light sensor to the blind retina, making it light-sensitive again. The goggles provide light stimulation at the wavelength to which this sensor responds.
A camera in the goggles captures changes in brightness. A processor turns those changes into patterns of amber light, which a projector directs onto the retina to activate the protein.
In addition, the goggles adapt to outside light conditions and modify the signal to ensure optimal stimulation of the retina.
Participants practiced using the goggles. During visual tests, their untreated eye was covered.

The trial primarily assessed safety, but researchers also examined light sensitivity and object detection.

They measured the dimmest light participants could detect through the goggles before and after treatment. Seven showed increased sensitivity, ranging from about twofold to 62-fold. Six reached roughly a fourfold increase or more, which the team considered clinically meaningful.
Differences between patients in the increase in sensitivity may reflect how well the gene therapy vector reaches the retinal cells, or how many retinal cells remain, or other variables such as training to wear the goggles.
Brain recordings from five selected participants supported the possibility that visual signals reached the brain. Four had already responded in behavioural tests. For some estimates, the confidence interval included zero.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa2602215

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 Creatine may help shield the brain from damage linked to gut inflammation

The gut-brain axis is a two-way biochemical hotline, with messages zipping back and forth all day long. When the gut is chronically inflamed, inflammatory signals travel through the body to the brain and trigger neuroinflammation. The hippocampus, which governs memory, learning and mood, is especially vulnerable, so its disruption can affect how you think, remember and feel.

A recent study published in Brain, Behaviour, and Immunity investigated how chronic ulcerative colitis, a type of inflammatory bowel disease, impacts the brain and whether oral intake of creatine, a popular supplement in sports nutrition, can protect against brain damage. The researchers chemically induced chronic colitis in rats and observed their recovery with or without creatine. The creatine group received the supplement in drinking water, starting 10 days before colitis induction and continuing throughout the experiment.

Chronic colitis fueled inflammation in the hippocampus and activated immune cells in the brain in both sexes, but males took a harder hit. They showed greater hippocampal inflammation, along with clear neuronal damage and impaired neuronal activation. Daily oral creatine supplementation brought energy stores back to normal control levels. It also prevented the rise in inflammatory cytokines and stopped activation of brain immune cells in both sexes.

Inflammatory bowel disease such as ulcerative colitis is primarily a gastrointestinal disorder, but many patients living with this condition also experience neurological problems like mood disorders, cognitive difficulties and memory issues. Due to the gut-brain axis, inflammatory molecules such as cytokines released in the gut enter the bloodstream and cross into the brain. These chemicals then activate brain immune cells (microglia), triggering neuroinflammation.

Brain cells need huge amounts of energy in the form of ATP to survive and function, but chronic gut inflammation can leave the hippocampus struggling to meet those energy demands. Creatine, an organic compound the body naturally makes from amino acids, acts like a rapid-recharging battery, creating an energy buffer that quickly restores cellular ATP and helps brain cells survive inflammatory stress.

The experiments revealed a clear sex difference in how hippocampal nerve cells, known as CA1 pyramidal neurons, responded to gut inflammation. Male rats suffered structural damage and neuronal loss, reflected in reduced levels of proteins that help maintain neurons. Their surviving nerve cells also became electrically leaky and harder to activate, requiring stronger currents to fire electrical signals.

Part 1

Female rats, however, proved more resilient. Despite gut inflammation, their neurons retained their structure, membrane integrity and normal electrical signaling. They adapted at a molecular level by selectively increasing calcium ion channel levels, which protected against damage.

In rats given daily oral creatine, hippocampal creatine concentrations increased by 20%–30%, reaching normal levels in both sexes. In males, creatine prevented structural neuron loss, stopped electrical membrane leaks and normalized the neuron firing threshold.

Creatine selectively repaired colitis-altered parameters without disrupting normal, healthy brain functions. Before creatine can be recommended as a brain supplement.

Alejandro Ruiz-Calero et al., Modulating effects of creatine prevent sex-dependent hippocampal neuroinflammation, neuronal damage, and electrophysiological dysfunction induced by chronic colitis, Brain, Behavior, and Immunity (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2026.106929

Part 2

Intensive blood pressure control protects the heart—with no added kidney failure risk detected

High blood pressure forces the heart to work harder to pump blood. Over time, this extra strain can thicken the heart muscle and narrow the arteries, further complicating cardiovascular health. Even in people with no other health conditions, a 20 mmHg rise in blood pressure doubles the risk of dying from heart disease.
Lowering high blood pressure protects the heart and blood vessels, but how low should it go? Doctors have long debated whether more aggressive targets, such as a systolic blood pressure below 120 or 130 mmHg, offer additional protection or cause harm, particularly in people with chronic kidney disease (CKD).

A recent meta-analysis screened multiple prior clinical trials to assess the effects of intensive blood pressure lowering (below 120 or 130 mmHg) versus standard blood pressure targets (below 140 mmHg).

Across the trials, intensive treatment reduced major cardiovascular events by 15% for each 10 mmHg reduction in systolic pressure in adults with or without chronic kidney disease. While the treatment did not increase the risk of kidney failure compared with standard treatment, it did make temporary or mild declines in eGFR more likely. This measure, based on a blood test, indicates how well the kidneys filter waste from the blood.

Fotini Iatridi et al., Intensive vs Standard Blood Pressure Lowering in People With and Without Chronic Kidney Disease, JAMA Cardiology (2026). DOI: 10.1001/jamacardio.2026.4445

Fine particles from aircraft exhaust become more harmful over time, lab tests suggest

Fine particulate matter consists of tiny particles with diameters in the nanometer range. They are produced, for example, by fuel combustion, remain suspended in the air and can penetrate deep into the respiratory tract. There, they can trigger oxidative stress, a process that promotes inflammation and, over the long term, can lead to serious health problems such as respiratory or cardiovascular diseases. Scientists call this harmful property the particles' oxidative potential.
However, fine particles usually remain in the atmosphere for hours or even several days before people inhale them. Little is known about how these particles' harmful properties change over time. A research team investigated how the oxidative potential, and thus the toxicity, of fine particles emitted by a small aircraft jet engine and a marine diesel engine develops over time.
Simulated atmospheric aging over 1–12 days significantly increased the oxidative potential of aircraft exhaust particles, while marine diesel particles remained largely unchanged. Chemical changes during aging indicate that fresh emissions alone may not capture particles’ potential health hazards.
The World Health Organization estimates that more than 7 million premature deaths occur annually due to exposure to high concentrations of air pollution particles—more than twice the number of global deaths from AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.

Alexandre Barth et al., Online characterisation of oxidative potential and reactive oxygen species of fresh and aged aircraft turbine and ship engine particulate emissions, Environmental Science: Atmospheres (2026). DOI: 10.1039/d5ea00174a

A new Fingerprint authentication uses ultrasound without storing biometric information as digital data

A research team has developed a new biometric authentication technology that can identify users without storing their fingerprint information as digital data. The study is published in Nature Sensors.
Fingerprint recognition is widely used in everyday applications, from unlocking smartphones to financial transactions and access control. Unlike passwords, however, fingerprints cannot easily be changed once compromised.

Conventional biometric authentication systems first convert a fingerprint into digital data and then compare it with previously stored fingerprint information. Even when the stored information is encrypted, the authentication process still requires access to biometric data, leaving potential security vulnerabilities.
Instead of sending fingerprint data to a computer for analysis, the system completes the required computation through the physical interaction between ultrasound and the fingerprint.

To achieve this, the team proposed a metasurface-driven loop-diffractive neural network, or loop-DNN. A metasurface is an artificial structure capable of precisely controlling the direction, intensity and phase of ultrasound and, in this study, functions similarly to elements in an artificial neural network.

The researchers designed the system so that ultrasound passing through the metasurface is directed to different locations depending on the fingerprint.

When a registered fingerprint is presented, the acoustic energy is concentrated in a "registered" region, whereas an unregistered fingerprint directs the energy toward a "non-registered" region. Authentication can therefore be determined simply by comparing the signal intensities in the two regions, without reconstructing a fingerprint image or extracting fingerprint features through separate digital computation.
The researchers further controlled the phase, amplitude and switch states of the ultrasound, allowing a single metasurface to process fingerprint information with expanded degrees of freedom for wave manipulation.

An ultrasound metasurface authenticated fingerprints through physical wave processing without storing digital fingerprint data. Accuracy was 97.92% across 192 samples from four people; numerical analysis reached 99.75% for one registered user. Practical use requires miniaturization to MHz frequencies and support for multiple registered users.

Seokho Lee et al., All-wave computational ultrasonic fingerprint identification with metasurface-driven loop-diffractive neural network, Nature Sensors (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s44460-026-00102-7

Skin has a gender: Females and males do not renew their skin in the same way

Researchers have discovered that in females skin cells renew the skin in a more coordinated way than in males. This difference, controlled by sex hormones, goes hand in hand with faster wound healing in female mice. This research could eventually pave the way for personalized treatments taking into account patients' sex.

For a long time, differences between females and males were mainly associated with the reproductive organs. Yet organs that have nothing to do with reproduction, such as the skin, can also be shaped by sex. This question, essential for better preventing and treating inflammatory diseases and cancer, has long been underestimated by some in the scientific community.
The researchers also observed that a wound on the skin of the back closes markedly faster in female mice, especially during the first few days. This head start is partly explained by an earlier activation of stem cells, which also work in a more coordinated way. The gap then narrows as the wound closes.
In mice, female skin stem cells showed greater coordination and earlier activation during wound healing, accompanying faster wound closure than in males. Estrogens promoted stem cell proliferation and coordination, while androgens accelerated differentiation. Testosterone also accelerated differentiation in laboratory-reconstructed human skin.

Dan Engelman et al., Sexual dimorphism in epidermal stem cell dynamics, Nature (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-11159-2

AI designs working molecular scissors that recognize and cut selected protein targets
Proteases are naturally occurring enzymes that break down proteins into peptides and even single amino acids. They are useful in medicine and industrial processes, where they clean tissue, digest waste and help in the manufacture of everyday products. Now scientists have used artificial intelligence to design new versions from scratch.
AI tools have already successfully generated new protein shapes and structures, but using AI to create functional proteases is a significant leap forward. That's because the resulting enzyme has to both recognize a chosen protein sequence and cut it efficiently.

To see if it could be done, researchers combined several advanced artificial intelligence tools to create both cysteine and zinc proteases.

First, they used a version of RFdiffusion2 called RFD2-MI to design the 3D shape and core backbones of the proteins. Next, they applied ProteinMPNN and a related program called EnhancedMPNN to select the amino acid sequences needed to build the enzymes and their targets, helping them fit together correctly.

To find options that actually worked, the researchers repeated this process dozens of times for both types of protease. They then used AlphaFold 3 to predict the final shape of these digital versions of proteins and check how closely they matched the intended designs.

With that done, it was time to test the designs. That involved using bacteria to produce a single, long protein chain that linked the candidate enzyme to its intended target sequence and a glowing marker protein.

The team tested 69 versions of the cysteine protease and 135 of the zinc protease. An enzyme design would be deemed workable if it chopped the target sequence and set the marker free.

So how well did they do?

Their findings on cysteine proteases and zinc proteases are detailed in two papers published in Nature.

Out of the 69 cysteine protease candidates, 13 successfully cut their targets. The zinc protease designs performed even better, with 36% of the 135 candidates cutting their matching peptide targets.

The scientists then used AI to refine the most promising options further. This boosted the cutting speed of the top zinc protease by 30 times. It also led to the design of a cysteine protease that cut its target at precisely the intended site.
As well as demonstrating proof of concept, some of the engineered enzymes showed therapeutic promise. For example, one of the AI-designed proteases successfully cut full-length TDP-43, a protein that builds up abnormally in ALS, the most common type of motor neuron disease, and some types of dementia.

Other customized versions chopped targeted fragments of amyloid-beta, which is linked to Alzheimer's disease, and serum amyloid A, which is associated with severe organ damage in systemic amyloidosis conditions.

Although the enzymes have not yet been tested in human clinical trials, the study authors think using AI to design proteases could open up new possibilities in medicine, biotechnology and industrial chemistry.

Anqi Chen et al., Computational design of metalloproteases, Nature (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-11167-2

Hojae Choi et al., De novo design of cysteine proteases, Nature (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-11143-w

A rare cancer spread between twins before birth

Two identical sisters came into the world carrying the same rare cancer. They lost their lives to an undifferentiated sarcoma, a soft-tissue cancer driven by a unique gene fusion (MN1::ZNF341). The story began before they were born, when pregnancy imaging picked up a tumor on Twin A's face. Then came the birth, when cancer deposits were found in both Twin A and Twin B. Researchers now had to work out how the cancer reached both girls. Did the cancer start on its own in each sister, or did it begin in one and pass to the other while they were still in the womb?

The researchers sequenced the entire genetic code of healthy and tumor tissues, along with placental samples, to trace the cancer's journey between the twins. All tumor samples from both twins carried a distinctive genetic signature belonging to Twin A.

The cancer likely began as a facial tumor in Twin A at the end of the first trimester, which was visible on scans before birth. The cancer then crossed the placenta to reach Twin B late in the second trimester.

Beyond tracing the cancer's spread, the findings challenged the classical model of how identical twins develop from an early embryo. These findings are published in Nature Communications.

Identical twins share the same starting point, developing from a single fertilized egg, but it is extremely unusual for both to develop the same cancer. This can happen if each twin develops a tumor independently, particularly when both carry an inherited cancer-causing mutation. In rarer cases, cancer cells from one twin can cross the placenta and establish a tumour in the other while they are still in the womb.

Part 1

As healthy cells divide, they accumulate subtle genetic marks that act like a cellular record of their history. By examining normal tissues from both twins alongside placental samples, researchers can unlock these genetic clues to retrace the earliest cell divisions and uncover how the embryo split to form identical twins.

In this study, the researchers used a genetic method called DNA lineage tracing, which essentially builds an evolutionary family tree for the cells of both twins, their tumors, and the placenta.

The team collected 23 normal tissue samples—six from each twin and 11 from the placenta—and 10 tumor samples from both twins. They then performed high-depth whole-genome sequencing on all samples to map complete DNA sequences, along with RNA sequencing to verify the specific gene fusion driving the sarcoma.

To trace the cancer's evolution, researchers sorted 212 tumour mutations into 13 distinct genetic clusters, revealing the steady pace at which mutations accumulated in the cells.
It spread from A to B
Every tumor sample from both children carried Twin A's distinctive genetic signature, revealing that the soft-tissue sarcoma originated in Twin A before crossing the placenta to Twin B. The genetic evidence pointed to a single transfer of cancer cells, suggesting that this kind of transmission between twins before birth is extremely rare.

In addition, the researchers uncovered evidence of blood-cell exchange during pregnancy, with about 75% of the cells in Twin A's spleen originating from Twin B.

The findings also raised questions about how identical twins begin to form. The traditional view is that twins sharing a placenta develop when an embryo splits around day six after conception, at the blastocyst stage, when it contains roughly 100 cells. The twins, however, shared only one early mutation, while each carried distinct genetic labels. This pointed to a much earlier split, possibly when the embryo contained as few as four cells.

The sequencing also revealed that early embryonic cells contributed unevenly to the placenta and the two twins, with each twin arising almost entirely from a different set of early cell lineages.
The researchers note that this study does more than follow a cancer's path through the womb. It offers a powerful way to reconstruct the earliest moments of life, from a single fertilized egg to the point where two separate twins take shape.

Barbara Walkowiak et al., Embryonic origin of cancer in newborn twins, Nature Communications (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-78178-5

Part 2

Duct tape kept out more floodwater than sandbags in laboratory tests
In laboratory tests, exterior duct tape reduced water leakage through household doors by 97%–98%, compared with a maximum reduction of 70% for sandbags with plastic sheeting. Tape offers temporary protection at door gaps but cannot prevent entry through other routes or replace property-specific flood protection.

https://zenodo.org/records/23220942

original article.

How bionic eyes are becoming a reality

Researchers have developed bionic eyes that can restore some lost vision. These devices' capabilities are currently basic, but they have been steadily improving in recent years.

Bionic retinal implants restore limited vision but face durability and surgical challenges. In a small trial, Prima restored functional central vision in 81% of patients with dry age-related macular degeneration. Cortical implants may bypass retinal and optic nerve damage, but achievable resolution and long-term effectiveness remain uncertain.

 original article

High-speed video reveals how honey bee stingers keep pumping venom after detachment

A stinger that works independently
After a worker bee lands and thrusts its stinger into the target, it flies away, leaving the stinger behind in a process called "autotomy." The stinger then continues to penetrate the target tissue and inject venom under its own power.

Scientists have used high-speed video to uncover the unique mechanism that allows a honey bee's stinger to continue to pump venom into its target even after it has separated from the bee's body.

Australian scientists have used high-speed video to uncover the unique mechanism that allows a honey bee's stinger to continue to pump venom into its target even after it has separated from the bee's body.

A new study, published in the journal PNAS, reveals for the first time that the tiny 2-millimeter (0.08-inch) stinger of the honey bee (Apis mellifera) works as a sophisticated double-piston micropump.

Detached honey bee stingers deliver venom autonomously using two reciprocating lancets with collapsible valves that act as pistons. The valves seal during pumping strokes and collapse during return strokes, limiting backflow and sustaining continuous flow. High-speed imaging and a scaled-up model confirmed this mechanism.

The stinger contains several different components, including a venom sac and pumping chamber, muscles and nerves. It also has two sharp, pointed lancets that slide backward and forward on a system of rails (called the olistheter) in a motion similar to that of a reciprocating saw; the lancets are responsible for working the stinger deeper into the skin and also pumping the venom.

Each of the long lancets has a valve attached that sits inside the pumping chamber. The researchers found these valves dynamically change shape to form a seal during the downstroke and collapse during the upstroke, generating pressure for pumping while minimizing backflow during refilling.
High-speed video showed that the valves inflate like a parachute on the downstroke, functioning as pistons to apply downward pumping pressure on the venom in the chamber, then deflate on the upstroke.
Finally, and perhaps most dramatically, as the valves meet in the middle of the stroke, they change shape again to push past each other.
This is a remarkable strategy to pump fluid since maintaining a seal is vital to effectively transmit pressure.

The unique geometry of the valves is the key; they act as collapsible pistons and—by pumping in opposite directions—they're able to deliver a continuous flow of venom.

The honey bee stinger: An unusual pump with collapsible double pistons, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2026). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2603916123

A poorly understood brain region tracks the gap between expectations and reality

Adapting to changing situations requires people to continuously revise their expectations about what might happen next when new information becomes available. These expectations are believed to be represented by mental models that help the brain predict outcomes and plan future behaviour.
The contribution of different brain regions to the updating of expectations in changing circumstances has not yet been clearly delineated. One brain region that could play a role and yet remains poorly understood is the claustrum, a thin sheet of nerve cells deep inside the brain.

Researchers recently carried out a study investigating the possible contribution of the claustrum to aversive learning, the process through which humans and other animals learn about unpleasant outcomes in specific situations. Their findings, published in Nature Neuroscience, suggest that neurons in this brain region track uncertainty about outcomes and prediction error (i.e., the difference between an expected outcome and what ultimately happens) during aversive learning.
The claustrum, which is reciprocally connected to nearly the entire neocortex, is uniquely positioned to influence cortical processing.
Researchers recorded the activity of individual neurons using electrodes that had been implanted in the brains of seven patients with epilepsy as part of clinical monitoring to identify where their seizures began. They specifically monitored neurons in the claustrum, the anterior cingulate cortex, which helps to monitor outcomes and guide behaviour, and the amygdala, which contributes to processing emotions and learning about threats. Not every participant had recordings from all three regions.
While they were collecting their recordings, the participants were asked to play a game on the computer.
Part 1

The team then analyzed the activity of neurons in the claustrum, anterior cingulate cortex and the amygdala in conjunction with the changing conditions in the game and the participants' ability to avoid asteroids. Using a mathematical model of how expectations are updated with new evidence, they estimated participants' uncertainty and prediction error at specific moments.

"Claustrum and anterior cingulate neurons displayed structured, task-related responses," wrote the authors. "Distinct subpopulations encoded stimulus onset and action-contingent outcomes, with outcome representations diverging between regions."

Essentially, the researchers found that different neurons responded to distinct events. Some changed their activity when a stimulus (i.e., an asteroid belt) appeared on the screen, while others appeared to respond to outcomes associated with a participant's actions in the game.
The team's findings suggest that neurons in both the claustrum and the anterior cingulate cortex track hidden quantities, or more specifically, estimated uncertainty and prediction error. However, during the experiment, signals in the two regions appeared at different stages of the task.

"Critically, both regions encoded model-derived latent variables, including uncertainty and prediction error, but with different temporal profiles; only the anterior cingulate carried uncertainty signals during the intertrial period, whereas both regions encoded uncertainty and prediction error during the active-avoidance period," wrote the authors. "By contrast, the amygdala showed minimal latent-variable modulation."

The researchers observed that neurons in the anterior cingulate cortex carried uncertainty-related signals between trials as well as during the active-avoidance phase. In the claustrum, however, signals linked to uncertainty and prediction error were evident primarily during the active-avoidance phase.
These findings provide evidence that human claustrum neurons track higher-order cognitive variables not directly observable from sensory input and reveal dissociable roles for the claustrum and anterior cingulate cortex in tracking latent task states," wrote the authors in their research paper.

Mingyue Hu et al., Human claustrum neurons encode uncertainty and prediction errors during aversive learning, Nature Neuroscience (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41593-026-02475-x.

Part 2

Second-ever case of rare fungus resistant to four antifungal drug classes detected in Kenya

Candidozyma auris is a yeast that can cause invasive infections and has been flagged in World Health Organization lists as a top-priority threat, as it spreads easily in hospitals. This notorious fungus survives for long periods on surfaces and often resists major classes of antifungal medications used to treat fungal infections.

A recent study uncovered an extremely rare fungal strain that can withstand all four major classes of antifungal drugs—azoles, echinocandins, polyenes and flucytosine.

Researchers isolated the pan-drug-resistant strain from a 28-year-old patient who developed a surgical wound infection while hospitalized in Nairobi, Kenya. This is the first time a pan-drug-resistant strain of the fungus has been identified in Africa and only the second documented case worldwide. The first case was reported in New York.

Genetic testing traced the fungus to a lineage already circulating in Kenya and identified a specific combination of drug-resistance mutations that could explain why the antifungal medicines failed.

Erick Odoyo et al., Emergence of pan-drug resistant Candidozyma auris in Kenya, the second globally documented case, Scientific Reports (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-70653-9

Who really made China's Terracotta Army? Fingerprints reveal new clues

The Terracotta Army near Xi'an, China, is a breathtaking sight: thousands of life-size terracotta figures created in the third century B.C. to guard the tomb of Emperor Qin Shihuang. They were discovered in 1974, and people have assumed they were built exclusively by men. But new research on this underground army and its chariots, horses and weapons suggests women and children lent a helping hand.
To find out who really did the work, researchers led by Xiaoxi Li at the Mausoleum Site Museum in Xi'an searched for clues on the figures themselves.

The team studied 79 fingerprints from 36 figures in a single excavation pit. These prints were pressed into the clay in different parts of the statues, including the arms, body armor and heads. The scientists photographed them and measured the distance between the fingerprint ridges, which tends to increase as children grow older.

Previous studies struggled to tell the difference between adult women and teenage boys based on the fingerprints they left behind. So in this research, the scientists turned to a clever statistical model.

Called a Bayesian mixture model, the technique analyzes the entire group of prints at once rather than trying to classify every single mark individually. And it compares ancient prints with modern fingerprint data for different ages and sexes.

The results, published in the Journal of Cultural Heritage, suggested a far more diverse workforce than expected. "The model results indicate that the artisan community was not exclusively composed of adult males," the study authors wrote in their paper.

In fact, the model estimated that adult men accounted for only about 45% of the fingerprints. Adult women made up nearly 33%, while juveniles under 15 were estimated to have left 22%.

While these results suggest the involvement of women and children, they may not tell the whole story for the entire site. The sample size is small and only from a single spot within this vast burial complex. Additionally, multiple prints could belong to a single individual, which could skew the overall demographic results.

"Unit T23 represents only a localized area of Pit 1, so the results may reflect the labour structure of a specific phase or production group rather than the entire project."

But even with all these caveats, the findings challenge long-held assumptions about the labour force at this historic site.

Xiaoxi Li et al., Who produced Emperor Qin Shihuang's Terracotta Army, China? A Bayesian mixture model approach to fingerprint age and sex determination, Journal of Cultural Heritage (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.culher.2026.09.014

When LLMs are trained on frivolous online content, they can get brain rot like humans do

As humans and AI models roam the internet, they encounter lots of junk: clickbait headlines, misinformation, hashtags. Research indicates that this junk-filled environment could be a cause for concern.
"Brain rot" has emerged as a term to describe cognitive changes—like diminished attention spans—in humans who engage with an abundance of frivolous, attention-grabbing content.

Training four LLMs on low-quality, attention-grabbing Twitter posts impaired reasoning and memory, increased skipped reasoning steps, and weakened ethical safeguards. Subsequent training on higher-quality data did not fully restore performance, underscoring the importance of training data quality.
The main message from this research is that the language models can pick up some bad cognitive habits from the low-quality information from social media, similar to how people can be influenced by trivial, clickbait content.
Junk data is popular, short and written to grab attention rather than inspire deep thought. Posts that are considered junk data may include words like "WOW" or "TODAY ONLY" written in all caps, or they may focus on superficial lifestyle content, unsupported claims or conspiracy theories.

In addition to diminished attention spans, prior research has linked brain rot in humans to changes in memory processes and personality. Similarly, the researchers in this study found the main cognitive change in LLMs trained on junk data was thought-skipping, meaning the model will skip steps, or not "think" at all, before providing an answer.

The researchers also found that once brain rot takes hold, it is difficult to root out. "Even after we use some higher-quality data to train the model or deploy some techniques to improve the model's response, it is very hard to recover the model's performance.
Their findings highlight the importance of data quality when training LLMs.

Shuo Xing et al., LLMs Can Get "Brain Rot": A Pilot Study on Twitter/X, arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2510.13928

Scientists discover a way to reverse coral bleaching at record speed

For the first time, scientists have observed bleached corals on the brink of death fully recover through brief contact with healthy clones. Ghostly white corals returned to full health in a laboratory setting within seven weeks, the fastest documented recovery to date, according to a study published in Science Advances.
Bleached coral fragments recovered within seven weeks in laboratory tests after 5–7 days of contact with healthy, genetically identical fragments; those without contact died. Contact enabled transfer of beneficial algae, which then multiplied rapidly. Requiring healthy clones limits reef-scale application.
The findings could inspire the development of new methods to rapidly restore corals, which, by some estimates, could disappear within a few decades as climate change drives more frequent and intense marine heat waves.

When waters warm, corals expel colorful, beneficial algae that live in their tissues and provide the energy that corals need to grow. The loss of their algae partners leaves corals pale, starving and vulnerable to the invasion of harmful algae. If corals survive these bleaching events, it can take months to years for them to fully recover.

"While bleached corals may be dying, they are not dead yet".
So scientists asked, 'why can't we make them recover again?'

Sometime back these scientists observed something curious about coral biology in their research lab. Two coral fragments—one bleached, one healthy—sampled from the same colony had tipped over in a tank and were now touching. Where they made contact, colour returned to the bleached fragment, signalling the return of beneficial algae.
So they set up an experiment.
They assembled 10 pairs of coral fragments—one bleached, one healthy—from the same animal. They arranged five pairs close enough to touch and left gaps of just a few millimeters between the remaining pairs. The bleached fragments in touching pairs fully recovered within seven weeks, while those without contact died.

Genetically identical corals recognize one another when they come into contact.
Their tissues fuse if they are from the same clone. We see something similar in humans. Organ transplants are often successful if the donor is your identical twin.
Part 1

The team used a powerful microscope to discover that microscopic channels in coral tissues align shortly after contact, creating a pathway for transport between corals. Beneficial algae and the nutrients they produce then flow through these channels. The team observed that beneficial algae moved from healthy to bleached fragments within three days of contact.

The team also tested how different contact durations influenced recovery rates. They separated coral pairs at varying time intervals and found that after one week of contact, and in some cases after just five days, bleached fragments received enough beneficial algae to complete recovery on their own.

After separation, recovery took just seven weeks, matching the recovery time of coral pairs left in continuous contact. This led the team to realize that algae replicating within the bleached fragment, rather than traveling from the healthy fragment, primarily drove continued recovery.

Once beneficial algae enter bleached corals, they don't just spread out. They flood in and start dividing at the fastest rates seen in corals.
During the second week of contact with healthy corals, algae within bleached fragments doubled every four days, roughly 10 times faster than the rate observed in wild corals.

Daniel S. Collins et al., Rapid coral bleaching recovery via symbiont transfer from healthy corals, Science Advances (2026). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aeh1580

Part 2

Forgotten particle could answer mystery of why we exist, say physicists

Scientists have unveiled a new theory on the birth of the cosmos, suggesting the early universe was shaped by an ancient particle that has been overlooked for decades.
Their research tackles one of the greatest conundrums in modern physics—how matter triumphed over antimatter in the aftermath of the Big Bang.

According to current theories, both should have annihilated each other after a colossal explosion, leaving nothing but an empty universe of pure energy. But physicists say they found a clue in a neutrino, one of the lightest particles in the universe.
The team discovered that an often-ignored relative of these particles, known as a 'decoupled' heavy neutrino, could have helped matter dominate over its counterpart.
This decoupled heavy neutrino has long been dismissed as an irrelevant background detail in particle physics.

However, it decays incredibly slowly. As the cosmos cooled after the Big Bang, the particle lived long enough that it temporarily took over the energy density of the universe and triggered a matter-dominated period.
Most theories on why matter won over antimatter ignored the decoupled heavy particle because experts deemed it too weak to have any impact on others.
However, the researchers of this study found that the forgotten particle could affect the particle–antiparticle asymmetry essential for our existence.

The fact that we are here at all proves that an asymmetry between matter and antimatter occurred.
The decoupled neutrino shifted the temperature in the early universe at which fundamental particles—like electrons and other leptons—interacted with their antiparticles with the help of the Standard Model Higgs boson.

"This temperature acts like a switch that shapes how the matter-antimatter imbalance was built up."
This offers us a new explanation for how matter won.

Rishav Roshan et al., Delayed Charged Lepton Yukawa Equilibration in Minimal Seesaw, Physical Review Letters (2026). DOI: 10.1103/nfkx-q6z7

AI model hunts down fake news

Researchers have developed an automated system for detecting fake news that achieved accuracy rates above 98% in tests on two datasets; in other words, it missed just one or two fake news items in every 100. They provide details of their approach in the International Journal of Information and Computer Security.
The new system uses a transformer encoder, an artificial intelligence (AI) model that identifies relationships between words and their context. This is combined with a deer-hunting optimization algorithm (DHOA), a computational technique for finding effective model settings, based on modeling the way in which human hunters track and pursue prey. The researchers removed web addresses, punctuation and common, or "stop," words before applying their analysis to the text. The DHOA component automatically fine-tunes the model's settings rather than requiring manual selection and calibration.

Automated detection could accelerate manual fact-checking, which is often expensive and time-consuming, allowing social media platforms to screen out misleading claims quickly to avoid their rapid spread.

The next step will be to test the system on real-world social media content to see whether it can distinguish deceptive material from the legitimate reporting it closely resembles. As it stands, the approach is limited to text, rather than checking for the manipulation of images, deepfake videos or inconsistencies between text and visual evidence.

Yamini Devi Jonnala et al., Automatic fake news detection using an optimised transformer with deer hunting optimisation algorithm, International Journal of Information and Computer Security (2026). DOI: 10.1504/ijics.2026.156919

Soil minerals might throw off radiocarbon dating of groundwater, leading to underestimation of its true age
New research reveals that soil carbonates contain active radiocarbon rather than being "dead," meaning decades of groundwater age estimates have systematically underestimated how old underground water really is.
A new study suggests that groundwater dating methods used worldwide to manage scarce water resources may be flawed. Researchers from the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) Ahmedabad, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Gandhinagar found that standard techniques for calculating the age of underground water supplies miss key details, leading scientists to systematically underestimate the age of young-to-intermediate groundwater systems. By analysing soil and water samples across semi-arid regions in western India, the research team found that soil minerals long assumed to be completely devoid of radioactive carbon actually carry a significant, active radiocarbon signature. This oversight means that calculations tracking how long water has been trapped underground have been inaccurate.
The error arises from how radiocarbon dating is traditionally applied to groundwater. When rain and irrigation water seep through soil, they absorb carbon dioxide produced by plant roots and microbes, which carries a modern radiocarbon signature. As this water moves downward, it dissolves minerals in the soil, like carbonates. For decades, standard correction models assumed these dissolved carbonates were completely dead, meaning they contained zero radiocarbon because of their ancient origins. Under this old assumption, carbonate dissolution simply diluted the modern carbon dioxide, lowering the initial radiocarbon count and requiring a specific age adjustment.

However, the new measurements call this baseline assumption into question. The researchers found that soil carbonates significantly influence recharge-zone water and affect the dissolved inorganic carbon pool in unsaturated-zone soil water, contributing an average of about 13% to DIC. Unlike conventional groundwater dating models that assume soil carbonates contain no radiocarbon, the pedogenic carbonates in the study area have active radiocarbon ages ranging from 3,500 to 14,000 BP. Conventional groundwater models introduce biases because soil carbonates contain active radiocarbon rather than dead carbon; assuming a zero-carbon endmember systematically overestimates groundwater age, particularly for younger systems under 10,000 years.

While previous studies acknowledged that carbonates dissolve into groundwater, many assumed a zero-radiocarbon endmember. By measuring radiocarbon in unsaturated-zone soil water and soil carbonates, this study bridges a major gap in hydrogeology. It shows that groundwater chemical evolution is a direct mix of modern soil gas and finite-age pedogenic carbonate.

The researchers, however, note that they faced technical hurdles during sample processing, as strong acid treatments occasionally released trace carbon from organic matter alongside the targeted inorganic carbon. Furthermore, insufficient carbon recovery in some samples left certain datasets incomplete, highlighting the extreme analytical challenges of isolating micro-quantities of carbon in complex, dryland soils.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/radiocarbon/article/abs/rad...

Synchronized bodily responses do not always reflect cooperation, study finds

Sometimes, while people are interacting with each other, their movements and physiological responses can fall into step. Some past studies have linked synchronized bodily responses to cooperation and being attuned to the emotions of others.
A common way of detecting physiological synchrony entails measuring people's skin conductance, or in other words, how easily small electrical currents pass through the skin. This measure reflects the activity of sweat glands, which can become more active when people are more aroused, physically active or stressed.

Researchers recently set out to further explore the link between skin conductance synchronization during face-to-face interactions and cooperation. The results of their experiments, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, suggest that matching bodily responses are not always associated with greater reciprocity (i.e., giving something back in response to receiving something) and cooperation.
Some past research focusing on physiological synchrony suggested that greater synchrony is associated with people feeling more "connected" or attuned to each other. This could in turn promote trust, reciprocity and cooperation.

Since trust is the very backbone of human society, and many daily life situations require us to put our trust in complete strangers (e.g., asking someone to look at your purse while you are going to the bathroom), the primary objective of this study was to research whether this synchrony could also be one of the reasons why people who do not know each other trust one another.
When they analyzed the physiological responses, game outcomes and video recordings they collected, the researchers found that the skin conductance responses of paired participants were more synchronized when they could see each other. Notably, differences in facial expressivity, or how expressive participants' faces were, did not appear to account for the greater synchrony during face-to-face interactions.
These findings suggest a complicated story. Synchrony may work less like a 'connection button' and more like an emotional amplifier: it can make us feel what the other person feels. And that is not always a good thing.
Part 1

The team found that greater skin conductance synchrony was associated with reduced reciprocity, but only when partners could see each other. Exploratory analyses also suggested that this relationship depended on participants' level of arousal (i.e., bodily activation).

Crucially, this effect showed up in participants' bodily responses. Their bodies seemed to register the shared state of the interaction, and this bodily resonance helped explain why they later behaved less reciprocally. In short: it is not simply whether we synchronize that matters, but what we synchronize on.
The results of this study challenge the assumption that physiological synchrony consistently supports cooperation and reciprocity. Instead, they suggest that the relationship between synchrony and cooperation depends on the circumstances of an interaction and participants' bodily activation.

If synchrony is not simply a force for connection, but a way of bodily tuning into another person, then it may also be one of the tools we use to understand them.
When we fall into rhythm with someone, we may pick up subtle information about their intentions, emotions and likely actions, sometimes before they say or do anything explicit. In other words, synchrony could be part of what makes humans good social predictors. It may allow us to anticipate whether someone is about to cooperate, withdraw, become aggressive or offer support.

Fabiola Diana et al., Physiological synchrony predicts reduced reciprocity only in face-to-face interactions, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2026). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2025.3224.

Part 2

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When a few people break the rules, bad behaviour spreads quickly

The old saying that one bad apple spoils the barrel suggests that an individual behaving badly can have a negative influence on the entire group. The idea now has some fresh scientific backing.
Researchers wanted to test whether seeing someone break a rule makes people copy them or go even further.

So before the 2024 presidential election in the United States, the team recruited 750 participants, roughly evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, to take part in an online experiment.

Each participant watched an animation of a shooting star zip across a screen divided into 100 squares. Clicking on the square that lit up most intensely was the rule of the game, and it earned them a real monetary reward.

So far, so straightforward. But the researchers added a little temptation to the mix. Participants could pocket some extra cash if they selected squares farther to the right. This created a clear conflict between following the rule and helping themselves.

Then came the twist. After making their initial selection, volunteers were shown how a previous participant had acted and whether they had followed the rule, broken it slightly or committed a major violation. They were also shown the political affiliation of this anonymous person before being asked to make a second choice.
The contagious nature of bad behavior
So did people play it straight or indulge in a little rule-breaking?

The study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, found that nearly a quarter of initial choices (23%) involved breaking the rule to earn more cash. But things soon took a turn for the worse.

Bad behavior proved contagious. Watching someone commit a major rule violation caused a substantial increase in rule-breaking, especially when that rule-breaker belonged to the participant's own political party.

However, observing someone play strictly by the rules did almost nothing to inspire better behaviour. Good behaviour had very little influence.

[What?!]

Part 1

Small violations become bigger ones
When volunteers saw a minor violation, many followed suit. But in about 4% of cases, participants went even further to grab a bigger payout.

To see how some of this might play out in larger groups, the team ran computer simulations testing a range of scenarios. When they built in the tendency to occasionally escalate small violations, things quickly got out of hand, with limited infractions turning into widespread, collective rule-breaking.

"Our data suggest that minor violations invite imitation and can sometimes trigger escalation," said the study authors.

But even knowing how small infractions can lead to more widespread rule-breaking, the researchers caution against stamping them out completely. "However, this should not be taken to imply that all minor violations should be suppressed."

They note that breaking conventions can be beneficial, often fostering creativity and learning.
But should we break rules that are beneficial for the society? NA!
We are already seeing how people break traffic rules in this part of the world and how that 's creating chaos on the streets!

Lucas Molleman et al., Contagion and escalation of rule violations, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2026). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2026.1940

Part 2

How many insects are there—and why do we need them?
There are an estimated 10 quintillion insects alive on Earth at any given time. But how many species are there, why do we need them, and what would happen if their numbers continued to fall?
An estimated 10 quintillion insects live on Earth, supporting pollination, pest control, decomposition and food webs. Habitat loss, pesticides, climate change and pollution contribute to insect declines, threatening ecosystems and food production. Protecting habitats and reducing harmful chemicals can support insect populations.
More than a million insect species have been described, but there are many more left to discover. Estimates of the total number of insect species range from 5.5 million to over 7 million.

To put that into perspective, there are around 6,500 mammal species—the group that includes humans. In comparison, the number of insect species is enormous.

The numbers become even more mind-boggling when we consider individual insects rather than species. The commonly cited estimate is that around 10 quintillion individual insects are alive on Earth at any given time.
That is 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 insects.

With more than 8 billion people on the planet, that works out to approximately 1.2 billion insects for every person.

That is a lot of insects. But why do we need so many?

Why do we need insects?
Insects are not simply abundant; they are integral to the complex web of ecosystems that keeps the planet functioning.

They provide food for other animals, recycle waste and help keep pest populations under control, preventing potential disease outbreaks.

For humans, these benefits are known as ecosystem services. One of the best-known examples is pollination.

A vast number of our crops depend on insects for pollination, helping to ensure good yields and a secure food supply. Insects can also help maintain a healthy balance of pest species that might otherwise damage those crops.
How did insects and flowering plants become connected?
Some insects, including bees, have coevolved with flowering plants. As insects visit flowers to collect nectar, they transfer pollen between them.

This relationship developed long before humans existed.

Primitive insects were feeding on pollen and plant secretions before flowering plants became dominant on Earth. When flowering plants diversified around 140–100 million years ago, they provided reliable food resources in the form of pollen and nectar.

This created a selective pressure favoring insects that could efficiently find and exploit flowers. In return, plants benefited from insects transferring pollen between individual plants.

The relationship remains an important example of how insects support the natural world—and our own food supply.
Part 1

How do insects help control pests?
Not all insects have a beneficial relationship with other organisms. Many are parasites, including a group known as parasitoids.

Parasitoids rely on other animals to reproduce, laying their eggs in or on a host. Their young then emerge and kill the host.

Although this may sound gruesome, it provides an important ecosystem service. Many parasitoids help keep insect crop pests below the levels at which they would become a serious problem for agricultural yields.

Without these natural controls, crops could become more vulnerable to pest damage.

Why are insects important for breaking down waste?
Death and decay are natural parts of life. When organisms die, microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi break down their remains. Some of these microorganisms have the potential to cause disease.

Insects also play a role in this process by feeding on dead and decaying material. This helps break down organic waste and can reduce the potential for disease-causing bacteria to accumulate in the environment.

Many fly species, for example, depend on dead flesh to complete their life cycles.

Insects therefore help maintain the natural processes on which ecosystems depend.
Are insect numbers declining?
In recent years, there have been alarming reports of insect losses around the world.

Some research in the U.K. has suggested a decline of around 60% in insect numbers over the last 20 years or so. Globally, 40% or more of insect species are estimated to be threatened with extinction.

These figures highlight the scale of the challenge facing insect populations and the importance of understanding what is driving their decline.
What would happen if insect numbers fell?
Given the abundance of insects and the many roles they perform, a substantial loss of insect life would have serious consequences—not just for humans, but for the planet as a whole.

Crops that depend on insect pollination could fail, potentially contributing to a food crisis. Crops that remained could also face greater damage from pest species if natural controls, including parasitoids, were lost.

Waste management could become another problem. Without insects helping to break down organic material, the processes of decomposition could be disrupted, potentially allowing disease-causing bacteria to flourish.

The consequences would extend well beyond the insects themselves. Their loss would affect the wider ecosystems in which they live, including the animals and plants that depend on them.

Why are insect numbers declining?
There are many reasons why insect populations are declining. Some have direct effects on insects, while others affect them by changing their habitats or the resources they depend on.

The main factors include:

Climate change: Rising temperatures and changing weather patterns can disrupt insect life cycles, alter where species can live and create mismatches between insects and the plants or other resources they depend on.
Pesticides: The widespread use of pesticides can kill both target pests and other insect species. Pesticides can also affect insect behavior, reproduction and survival.
Land-use change: Agriculture, urbanization and infrastructure development can cause habitat loss and fragmentation. This reduces the availability of suitable places for insects to live and makes it harder for populations to remain connected.
Pollution: Chemical, light and atmospheric pollution can damage habitats, contaminate food resources and interfere with important biological processes, including navigation, development and reproduction.
Together, these pressures pose significant challenges for insect survival.
Part 2

Can insect populations recover?
One important characteristic of insects is their ability to reproduce quickly. This is part of the reason they are so abundant, and many species can produce multiple generations in a single year, even in temperate climates.

This reproductive capacity offers hope for recovery.

How can we help insects?
The first step is changing how we think about insects and recognizing their importance.

Many people are drawn to larger, more familiar or charismatic animals. But insects can be just as remarkable.

From the beautiful golden scarab beetle Chrysina resplendens in Costa Rica to the violet ground beetle Carabus violaceus, which can be found in U.K. gardens, there are striking insects all around us. Sometimes, all that is needed is a shift in perspective.

We can also make changes to the environments around us. More wildlife-friendly gardening, allowing space for plants to grow wild and reducing the chemicals and pollutants entering the environment can all help support insect populations.

Understanding the serious threats insects face, including climate change, is also essential.

Insects may be small, but their importance is enormous. They pollinate crops, help control pests and contribute to the natural processes that keep ecosystems functioning.

We need to recognize their value and act quickly to give them a better chance of survival.

https://www.ntu.ac.uk/about-us/news/news-articles/2026/10/how-many-...

Author:  Dr Alex Dittrich

Part 3

The same novel can spark very different inner worlds in readers

Every storybook opens a window for our imagination to be freed from the reality of the world around us and escape into the fictional world. While the author's words act as a guide, everyone experiences fiction in their own way, creating vivid mental pictures and even forming an emotional connection with the characters.
A new study explored how differently each of us imagines while reading. It asks readers what goes on inside their heads as they turn the pages: whether they visualize scenes, hear character voices or think about how characters would act in real-life situations.
The survey results pointed to a much more complex picture of reading imagination than just seeing the story in your mind's eye. It is a combination of four separate subscales: space and vision, voice and language, people models, and perspective.

How people perceived fiction also gave insight into other psychological traits. For instance, readers who pictured scenes more vividly and built detailed mental models of characters tended to feel more immersed in the story and engage in constructive daydreaming. Character modelling, on the other hand, was associated with more intrusive or unwanted thoughts in study samples.
The researchers highlighted that even when two people engage with the same text, reading can spark very different imaginative experiences, depending on how they picture its world, get inside its characters' heads and respond to its language.

Georgia Punton et al., The forces of the imagination: exploring dimensions of mental imagery using the ReaderBank Imagination Quiz, Royal Society Open Science (2026). DOI: 10.1098/rsos.260390

Scientists send aromas over the internet

One day, you may be able to easily smell what you are looking at when browsing online. Sending smells over the internet has long been a dream, and while it may seem far-fetched, researchers have now taken a major step toward making it a reality.
Previous attempts have relied on bulky desktop boxes, static scratch-and-sniff cards or VR headsets, sometimes requiring a person to manually trigger a scent. What is new about this approach is that researchers at The Ohio State University and Zhejiang Laboratory in China created a fully automated, hands-free system.

Instead of having to press a button to trigger a scent, the system uses an artificial intelligence e-nose to detect and analyze an odor. It then transmits that scent data across the web to a receiver called Scentronic, which can be built directly into wearable devices like bracelets or necklaces and recreates the smell for the user.
But how accurate can a digital scent really be? Can it really come close to the real thing?

The research team trained and tested its system on five distinct everyday odors: coffee, beer, red wine, cake and orange. Once the AI identified a scent, it sent the digital data over the internet to a Scentronic device. The researchers also tested the device with 14 healthy volunteers who were asked to identify different smells.

They correctly identified individual scents from the mists released by the device about 73% of the time. When smells were sent over in pairs, such as coffee and orange or beer and cake, the volunteers correctly identified them roughly 71% of the time.

As for speed, the system could respond to signals from the smell sensor in just 0.6 seconds. However, classifying more complex food odours took several to tens of seconds.
The scientists also created a prototype cup that dispenses both scents and flavoured liquids. Wearing a mixed-reality headset, users could select a virtual drink and trigger the release of corresponding flavours and smells in the real world.
Despite the generally good results, the researchers highlighted the limits of their technology in their paper published in Science Advances. "In the current implementation, odour information is classified at the category level and reconstructed through preloaded odour channels, rather than reproduced with full chemical compositional precision."

They also point out that further testing is needed to see how the system performs outside a controlled lab.

Chunyu Yang et al., Scentronic: An artificial intelligence–assisted olfactory interface for remote odor sharing and transmission, Science Advances (2026). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aee9266

Rebalancing the body's cellular communication system could slow aging

Researchers have outlined a plan for slowing aging by targeting one of the body's most important cellular communication systems. In a new paper published in Frontiers in Science, scientists describe how novel therapies that modulate GPCR signalling could one day help delay multiple age-related diseases at once—potentially extending healthy years of life.
GPCRs are widespread throughout the body and regulate many essential biological processes. Age-related changes in GPCR signalling are linked to multiple hallmarks of aging and many major chronic diseases. The authors propose that therapies designed to rebalance GPCR signalling across tissues could therefore help counter some of the key biological processes that drive aging and age-related disease.
What's most exciting about this network-level GPCR approach is its ability to influence many of the biological systems that change with age at the same time.

This network-level approach—targeting multiple GPCR pathways across the body rather than a single receptor or disease—could give rise to personalized treatments based on individual aging biomarkers, the researchers say, as well as advanced strategies that modulate GPCR signaling across different tissues and pathways.

These interventions could also complement other emerging longevity strategies—such as metabolic therapies, regenerative medicine and treatments that reduce chronic inflammation—to help preserve health and function by acting on several aging processes in parallel.
Rather than targeting a single disease or pathway, GPCR-based network therapies could help us address some of the fundamental mechanisms that drive declining health throughout the body. While much research remains to be done, this represents a promising new direction for longevity science.
Part 1

Why GPCRs matter in aging
GPCRs play an essential role in regulating hormones, metabolism, brain function, immune responses and many other biological processes. While individual GPCRs are already important drug targets for specific diseases, the authors believe that their potential extends far beyond treating conditions individually.

As humans age, GPCR expression and signaling can change in ways that disrupt healthy cellular function. These age-related changes are linked to several fundamental processes associated with aging, including chronic low-level inflammation, reduced cellular energy production, genomic and epigenetic dysregulation, impaired cellular communication, reduced ability to maintain healthy proteins and the accumulation of dysfunctional cells.

Because GPCRs influence so many critical systems, their dysfunction is linked to a wide range of chronic, age-related diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, endocrine and metabolic disorders, and neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

Taken together, the vast network of GPCRs in the human body is proposed to act as a central regulator of health and resilience throughout life. Since GPCRs are highly 'druggable' and can be targeted by medicines, they could provide a platform for developing therapies aimed at extending health span and preventing age-related diseases.

The international team argues that advances in artificial intelligence, systems biology and precision medicine are opening the door to a new generation of GPCR-based therapies that could target biological mechanisms underlying aging.
One of the most promising aspects of this field is its potential for personalization.
By leveraging advances in biotechnology, systems pharmacology and AI, future GPCR-based therapies could transform the way we approach aging, bringing us closer than ever to a world where diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases are no longer seen as inevitable, but as preventable or treatable conditions, say the researchers.

Network-level control of G protein-coupled receptors: a panacea for chronic diseases?, Frontiers in Science (2026). DOI: 10.3389/fsci.2026.1891819

Part 2

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Global warming may have halted an emerging ice age, study suggests

Two thousand years ago, the Arctic remnants of a once-vast ice sheet started to grow again. It was the beginning of a new glacial period, more conversationally known as the next ice age—but by the 1960s, summer temperatures were already so high that the ice sheet started to shrink. In other words, global warming ended a period of glaciation that had already begun.
Radiocarbon-dated plants indicate that the Barnes Ice Cap, a Laurentide remnant, reached its minimum extent about 3,000 years ago and began expanding about 2,000 years ago. Warming reversed this growth by the 1960s. The expansion is interpreted as the onset of a glacial period subsequently interrupted by modern warming.

Nicolás E. Young, Late Holocene re-expansion of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, Science (2026). DOI: 10.1126/science.aed3379. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aed3379

**

AI gets more diagnoses right than generalist doctors in medical challenge

One of the many challenging parts of being a doctor is diagnosing exactly what is wrong with a patient. This is because numerous illnesses often have overlapping symptoms, which can make the diagnostic journey a long one.
In addition to asking patients questions, doctors may need to order tests and consult medical references or even other professionals. Obviously, for the individual patient, the sooner a diagnosis is reached, the sooner they can start receiving the most appropriate treatment.

Now, in yet another breakthrough for AI, Microsoft researchers claim they have developed a tool that can outperform individual generalist physicians in diagnosing complex medical cases.

It is called DxO, which stands for Diagnostic Orchestrator, and simulates a panel of clinical experts who collaborate to reach a diagnosis.

To see how well DxO performs and how it compares with medical professionals, researchers developed a testing framework called SDBench, which was essentially an interactive quiz.

The team took 304 published diagnostic cases from the New England Journal of Medicine and 325 emergency department admission records. They turned each of these patient files into a step-by-step test.

At the start of each test, a doctor or DxO was given a summary called a clinical vignette. This included basic details like the patient's age and sex and their main symptoms.

For example, one case started with: "A 29-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital because of sore throat and peritonsillar swelling and bleeding. Symptoms did not abate with antimicrobial therapy."

An AI system acted as a gatekeeper, providing information from the original case file in response to questions and test requests. Once a doctor or DxO felt they had enough information, they submitted a final diagnosis. An AI judge graded the diagnosis against the one recorded in the original case file.
The difference between AI and real doctors was striking, as the team reports in a paper published in the journal Science.

Regarding the complex published cases, DxO made an accurate diagnosis 83.2% of the time and achieved 80.3% accuracy on emergency department admission cases. Human doctors, on the other hand, averaged 36.1% and 46.8%, respectively.

There were also clear differences in approach. DxO asked more questions about the patient's background upfront before ordering tests, which could help reduce testing costs.

While AI appears to have come out on top, the researchers state that it doesn't mean it is better than doctors in real-world practice. "These comparisons do not establish superiority over specialists, multidisciplinary teams, or real-world clinical practice."

Additionally, the Microsoft team did not conduct the testing in everyday health care settings. As a result, SDBench measures diagnostic reasoning under idealized information conditions rather than bedside performance or patient outcomes.
The study authors say future work should explore how doctors and AI systems could work together. They also suggest the technology could be used in medical education and training.

Harsha Nori et al., Sequential diagnosis with language models, Science (2026). DOI: 10.1126/science.aeh7930

Cancers evade chemotherapy by entering a 'zombie-like state'

Scientists have made a breakthrough in understanding how cancer cells can evade the cell-killing effects of chemotherapy and enter a "zombie-like state," called premature senescence, that can attract the wound-healing properties of the immune system.
Although our immune system protects us from infection, it also plays a critical role in coordinating repair and replacement of damaged tissue, which is a process called wound healing. The wound-healing capabilities of the immune system stimulate cell division within damaged tissue to replace cells that have been lost through injury and bring extra nutrients and oxygen into the injured tissue by triggering the growth of new blood vessels. This is a complex and highly coordinated process, which ensures that new cells are only produced where and when they are needed.

However, cancers can exploit these wound-healing capabilities for their own ends by masquerading as damaged tissue and tricking the immune system into helping malignant cells to divide and acquire extra oxygen and nutrients rather than killing them. For these reasons, cancers have been described as "wounds that do not heal".
In research published in the journal Science Advances, scientists have found that molecules called inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs) can enable tumours to escape the cell-killing effects of commonly used chemotherapeutic drugs.
They found that IAPs functioned in this setting by neutralizing the cell-killing effects of molecules called "death receptors" that were switched on in response to DNA damage provoked by chemotherapy.
Part 1

Furthermore, rather than simply allowing tumors to escape the cell-killing effects of chemotherapeutic drugs, IAPs enabled surviving tumor cells to enter a highly unusual zombie-like state called "premature senescence" that converts cells into coordinators of wound healing that can orchestrate a beneficial immune response and help tumors bounce back from chemotherapy.

Senescent cells are nondividing zombie-like cells that undergo dramatic changes within a few days of exposure to chemotherapy, including becoming almost 10 times bigger than a normal cell and ramping up genes associated with wound healing. These changes endow them with a greatly increased ability to secrete inflammatory mediators, which attracts cells of the immune system. The accumulation of senescent cells in tissues as we age is also thought to contribute to the inflammatory processes associated with aging, as well as a decline in the normal function of many tissues.

The scientists also found that senescent cells formed in response to chemotherapy are highly dependent on IAPs for their continued survival. Accordingly, compounds that neutralized IAPs (called IAP antagonists) selectively eliminated senescent cells by reactivating the death receptor self-destruct program within these cells.
These new findings suggest ways in which we may be able to lower the defenses of tumours by neutralizing IAPs after the delivery of chemotherapeutic drugs, which should block their entry to senescence and kill more cells of the tumour.

Gokhan Gunay et al., Death receptors regulate entry to therapy-induced senescence and orchestrate addiction to IAPs, Science Advances (2026). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aed4541. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aed4541

Part 2

Plastic tea bags are releasing BPA, plasticizers and up to 2,500 microplastic particles into your cup of tea

Microplastics are now impossible to avoid. They have made their way into everything from agricultural soils to freshwater systems. So, it is unsurprising that they end up in most foods and drinks. However, some methods of packaging or serving these items can increase microplastic exposure even more. One such example is the plastic tea bag. While many tea bags are still made of a cellulose material, some brands use a plastic mesh, despite the well-established fact that plastics can break down in hot water.
Studies have reported particle release from tea bags, along with the migration of other plastic-related chemicals, such as phthalate esters (PAEs) and bisphenol A (BPA), which are added during production for increased flexibility, durability and thermal resistance. One study even reported that a single plastic tea bag releases billions of microplastic pieces at normal brewing temperatures.

Now, a new study, published in npj Science of Food, has analyzed plastic tea bags from four different brands to break down their average microplastic release, the types of microplastics they contain and the PAE and BPA content in the average cup. The study compares tea brewed with plastic tea bags to bagless bulk tea.
Researchers involved in the new study screened four bagged-tea brands with plastic tea bags. The plastic bags were brewed for three minutes at approximately 95°C (203 degrees Fahrenheit). Bulk leaves underwent direct chemical digestion rather than an equivalent brewing experiment. The researchers used microscopy to count suspected particles, infrared spectroscopy to identify a subset and chromatography to measure chemicals in bagged-tea infusions. Health risks were then modelled.
The plastic-bag brands produced averages of between 555 and 2,498 microplastic particles per cup under the tested brewing conditions, with some brands producing significantly more than others. The methods used only identified particles greater than 100 micrometers, so these concentrations don't include smaller particles that may be present. The particles from these bags were all identified as polyamide fibers, consistent with the bag material.

BPA and plasticizer compounds were also found in all four bagged-tea infusions. The team says that the modeled BPA intake from the bags reached between 4.55% and 21.70% of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) daily intake benchmark for BPA.

The bulk tea leaves contained between 146 and 1,178 particles per kilogram. This converts to approximately 0.3–2.4 particles per 2-gram (0.07-ounce) serving of tea leaves. The comparison is not direct, since the bulk tea was not brewed, but the results still point to a far lower concentration of microplastics in the bulk tea. In contrast to the tea bags, the polymer distribution of bulk tea consisted of a mixture of polymer types.

The study authors write, "The primary drivers for this mixed polymer profile are the use of plastic sacks and bundles (PE/PP) in agricultural activities, combined with the deposition of atmospheric dust, which typically contains PET and PA fibers. Furthermore, during industrial processing, tea leaves maintain intensive contact with plastic-laden equipment, including loading machinery, conveyor belts and rolling (twisting) stations. This mechanical interaction facilitates MP transfer or plasticizers from the machinery to the leaf surface.

"During the withering stage, leaves are exposed to ambient air for extended periods, making the gravitational settling of airborne MPs (microplastics) a significant contributory factor to the overall pollutant load."
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The researchers conducted a health risk assessment based on toxicological parameters. In general, the expected intake of microplastics and plasticizers based on average daily tea consumption is negligible. However, the study authors do exhibit some concern about the concentration of BPA found in the tea brewed with plastic bags.

Some studies suggest BPA disrupts hormone levels, but it is somewhat unclear what levels may be safe and suggested limits vary. While the amount of BPA was only 4.55%–21.70% of the EFSA daily intake benchmark, the team notes that this accounts for only a part of the total daily intake and the benchmark may be exceeded with higher tea intake or with BPA from other sources.

The study authors write, "Our study found that BPA intake could reach 21.7% of the EFSA TDI value, a finding that serves as a critical warning, particularly for vulnerable groups such as pregnant women and children."
The research team suggests limiting consumption of microplastics, BPA and other plastic-related chemicals when possible. Avoiding plastic tea bags is a relatively simple way to do this.

Necla Pehlivan et al., Microplastic release from plastic tea bags versus bulk tea and migration of bisphenol A and plasticizer esters, npj Science of Food (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41538-026-01175-x

Part 2

Scientists reveal hidden world of living cells in human milk

Human milk is a complex biological system containing many different types of living cells.

Advanced nanoscale imaging technology has revealed the diversity of living cells in human milk and uncovered new insights into how these cells are structured, what they contain and how they use nutrients.
Researchers examined major cell populations found in human milk, including milk-producing cells, known as lactocytes, and different types of immune cells such as neutrophils, macrophages and dendritic cells.
Nanoscale imaging, isotope tracing and single-cell analysis identified distinct metabolic profiles in human milk cells. Macrophages incorporated glucose into lipid droplets, lactocytes showed active protein production and energy metabolism, and neutrophils contained high sulfur and iron levels.

Qiongxiang Lin et al., Multimodal Nanoscale Imaging Reveals Cellular and Metabolic Complexity of Human Breast Milk, ACS Nano (2026). DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.6c12691

Comets probably didn't seed life on Earth after all, new study suggests
The theory that comets delivered the molecular building blocks for life on Earth is a long-standing one, since comets are known to carry many of these molecules. However, a new study challenges this idea.

Researchers found the cometary delivery of these building blocks would be—at best—a 'one-off fluke,' and not the steady rain of prebiotic molecules that had been theorized.

Using computer modelling, the researchers determined that comets travel too fast and at too sharp an angle to Earth's atmosphere for the fragile organic molecules to survive: they would almost certainly vaporize on impact with the surface. However, the researchers also found that another planet in our system—Mars—could be a slightly more promising candidate for cometary delivery of prebiotic molecules, although this is still highly unlikely. The results are published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Cometary impacts an unlikely pathway towards the origins of life on Earth, Scientific Reports (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-74214-y

Night shifts during pregnancy linked to heightened risk of young child's neurodevelopmental abnormalities
Working night shifts during pregnancy is linked to a heightened risk of neurodevelopmental abnormalities detected by screening in the child by the age of 4, finds research published online in Occupational & Environmental Medicine.
But nightly prenatal sleep length during this period may modify this observed association, exploratory findings suggest.

Night shift work during pregnancy has been associated with unfavourable health outcomes for both mother and child, including neurodevelopmental issues, potentially related to body clock and sleep disturbances, note the researchers.
During the study researchers noted that compared with the children of mothers who didn't work night shifts, the children of those who discontinued night shift work were more likely to have developmental screening abnormalities, but only in the fine motor skills domain (24% higher risk).

But the children of mothers who continued night shifts during their pregnancy had higher risks of developmental abnormalities in three domains compared with children whose mothers didn't work night shifts.

These were in the domains of communication skills (29% higher risk); fine motor skills (34% higher risk); and personal–social functioning (31% higher risk).

Only the fine motor skills domain showed a significant association, regardless of whether night shifts were continued or discontinued.

"One possible explanation is that maternal inflammation associated with persistent night work may preferentially affect neural pathways involved in fine motor function," suggest the researchers.

A separate exploratory analysis showed that the observed association between night shift pattern and the child's neurodevelopmental risk differed according to how long the mothers slept.

Prenatal sleep duration of 10 or more hours was associated with an 80% heightened risk of abnormalities in any of the five domains compared with prenatal sleep length of 6–9 hours.

Long prenatal sleep duration may also reflect underlying fatigue, subclinical depression, inflammation, or anemia, rather than representing a harmful exposure in itself, suggest the researchers.
In light of the findings, it may be worth employers considering flexible work schedules for pregnant night shift workers, they say.

Maternal night shift patterns during pregnancy and offspring's development at 4 years of age: the Japan Environment and Children's Study, Occupational and Environmental Medicine (2026). DOI: 10.1136/oemed-2026-111018

Long-distance flights can throw seabirds' internal clocks out of sync, causing navigation errors
A new study has found that seabirds flying long distances across the Atlantic can experience a mismatch between their internal body clocks and local time (the same process that leads to jet lag in humans), causing them to make predictable errors when navigating by the sun. The results have been published in the journal Science.
Many animals, including birds, use the sun to find their way. But because the sun moves across the sky throughout the day, they need an accurate internal clock to interpret its position correctly.

Normally, birds reset their internal clocks using sunrise as a cue. However, when they travel rapidly east or west during the day, their internal clocks may temporarily become out of sync with local solar time. This could cause them to misjudge the sun's position and fly slightly off course.

To investigate whether this happens in the wild, researchers analyzed 20 years of GPS tracking data from 1,045 Manx shearwaters, covering 3,688 foraging trips.
Manx shearwaters (Puffinus puffinus) breed on islands off the western coasts of the U.K. and Ireland. They regularly travel hundreds of kilometers out to sea in search of food, sometimes reaching feeding grounds around 1,000 km (621 miles) west of their breeding colonies.

When returning to their nests, the birds can travel rapidly eastward across lines of longitude, moving into places where the sun rose earlier (just as we do when we fly into earlier time zones). As a result, their internal clocks may lag behind local solar time by up to around one hour.

The researchers found that the birds' flight directions showed systematic deviations consistent with the predicted effects of these time shifts on their sun compass. As the birds traveled eastward, they tended to deviate clockwise from their expected direction, as would be predicted if their internal clocks were running behind local time.

The team used statistical models to compare the observed deviations with those predicted from the birds' movements and the changing position of the sun. The results supported the sun-compass explanation, which also fit the data better than an alternative explanation based on changes in the Earth's magnetic field.
The researchers found that these navigational errors persisted even when the birds were flying along visible coastlines, where landmarks could help guide them. When the predicted compass error pointed toward land, the shearwaters tended to fly closer to the coast. When it pointed away from land, they tended to fly farther out to sea.

This suggests that the birds continued to rely on their sun compass even when other navigational cues were available, rather than simply following the coastline.
So billions of migratory animals look up to the sun for direction, relying on clocks silently ticking away inside them, and that errors in those clocks can cause them to take tiny shifts off course.

The navigational errors were relatively small, reaching approximately 15° in the shearwaters studied. Because these birds appear able to reassess their position and adjust their route home continuously, the additional distance travelled is likely to be modest.
However, the findings could have wider implications for animals that travel long distances without being able to correct their position continuously. For example, in birds undertaking their first migration, small compass errors could potentially accumulate, shifting their eventual destination by hundreds of kilometers.

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Because internal clocks regulate many aspects of animal behaviour and physiology, the researchers suggest that similar time shifts could potentially have effects beyond navigation. In humans, traveling rapidly across time zones can cause jet lag, which involves a mismatch between the body's internal clock and local time and can lead to disturbed sleep, fatigue and other symptoms.

Patrick Lewin et al., Rapid longitudinal flights cause time shifts and sun compass error, Science (2026). DOI: 10.1126/science.adz2542. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adz2542

Part 2

Microplastic shape can influence viral disease severity in rainbow trout
Continuous nylon microfiber exposure approximately doubled the odds of death in rainbow trout infected with infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus, while rounded nylon particles did not significantly increase mortality. These laboratory results indicate that microplastic shape can affect viral disease severity; effects in natural environments remain uncertain.

Meredith E Seeley et al., Microplastic fibers can alter viral disease severity, contingent on particle shape and exposure timing, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (2026). DOI: 10.1093/etojnl/vgag233

Is it a boy or a girl? For alligators, it may come down to one degree

The future of the alligator species could come down to a one- or two-degree temperature difference, according to new research .
A small change on the thermometer could determine whether a gator develops as a male or female. And that could have ramifications for alligator populations as temperatures rise.

Typically, incubations at cooler temperatures (think 86 to 88 degrees Fahrenheit) and hot spells (97 degrees Fahrenheit and above) result in more female gators. Moderate temperatures (90 to 92 degrees Fahrenheit) yield more males.

But these trends largely reflect controlled experiments in laboratories in which alligator eggs are incubated under constant temperatures.

Nests in the wild don't experience constant temperatures; instead, temperatures fluctuate due to heat waves or just going from day to night.

The present study gives scientists a better understanding of real-world nest conditions.
Whenever a population is out of balance, it can impact population growth. Whenever you start to lose females, then the population can really get in trouble.
The researchers' new model closely matched previous sex outcomes at cooler temperatures. But at higher temperatures, even a change of one or two degrees made a big difference in whether alligator embryos developed as male or female.
A small difference can lead to mostly males or mostly females being produced.
That's really relevant for how the environment is going to be changing in the near future. If temperatures are biasing sex ratios, that's a big issue.
The eggs' swap back to a female outcome occurred at a lower temperature threshold than anticipated. Whereas some previous models expected the flip to happen around 97 degrees Fahrenheit, the new model suggests that sex was more likely to be female starting at 93 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures between the two female-producing ranges still produce mostly males.

Karin R. Ebey et al., A sex ratio by incubation temperature reaction norm for the American alligator ( Alligator mississippiensis ) based on fluctuating thermal regimes, Journal of Experimental Biology (2026). DOI: 10.1242/jeb.252972

First patient undergoes pioneering stem-cell treatment for Parkinson's

The first patient received iPS cell-derived dopamine neuron precursors for Parkinson’s disease after conditional approval in Japan. In an earlier seven-patient trial, no major adverse effects occurred over two years, and four patients showed symptom improvement. Full approval requires confirmation of safety and efficacy.

Collective human metabolism produces 2 billion metric tons of CO₂ a year, global study estimates

A new study has estimated that the carbon dioxide produced by humans as our bodies turn food into energy rose by 74% between 1985 and 2015, reaching 2.05 billion metric tons a year. Researchers say the findings could help scientists better understand where carbon comes from, where it goes and how human activity fits into the bigger picture.
Crucially, the CO₂ people breathe out is not the same as emissions from burning fossil fuels. The carbon we exhale comes from the food we eat and is largely carbon that plants have recently taken from the atmosphere. Fossil fuels, by contrast, release carbon that has been stored underground for millions of years.

The study found that the amount of CO₂ produced by people worldwide rose from 1.18 billion metric tons in 1985 to 2.05 billion metric tons in 2015. Population growth accounted for more than 60% of the increase.
What this study does is give us a much clearer picture of how much CO₂ people produce around the world, and how that is changing as the population grows. This understanding can help improve the accuracy of predictions of carbon reduction programs.

Javier T Gonzalez et al., Accounting for global carbon dioxide production from human metabolism between 1985 and 2015: a modelling study, The Lancet Planetary Health (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.lanplh.2026.101546