Aggregator
California to vote on spending $16 billion to boost research after Trump cuts
State initiatives this fall and in early 2028 will gauge voters’ appetite for science, but controversy has grown around one proposal
Bland new world: is AI making us all think the same?
My four-step workflow for reading scientific papers (without trying to read them all)
Who is responsible when AI helps to write science?
From Trojan horses to AI-proof exams: how professors are tackling students’ AI use
India has an ambitious plan to lure scientists back — will it work?
Europe should adapt, not copy, China’s practical PhD
The global plastics treaty must account for conflict-driven energy insecurity
When AI does science, who is accountable for mistakes?
China’s regulatory innovation for new biomedical technologies
Scientists identify early signal of dangerous pregnancy complications
Low levels of a placenta-made protein predict preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction and could offer new target for prevention
Popular sweeteners may leave effects that last for generations
Two widely used zero-calorie sweeteners, sucralose and stevia, may have effects that linger far longer than the sweet taste itself. In mice, researchers found that both sweeteners altered the gut microbiome, reduced beneficial compounds produced by gut bacteria, and changed the activity of genes involved in metabolism and inflammation. Some of those changes were also detected in later generations that had never consumed the sweeteners themselves.
One injection could keep osteoarthritis drugs working for weeks
Scientists have created an injectable gel that can remain inside arthritic joints for weeks, slowly releasing medication while also improving lubrication. The approach could make it easier to deliver disease-modifying drugs directly where they are needed while limiting exposure elsewhere in the body.
Your waist size may reveal health risks BMI misses
A simple waist measurement may be nearly as effective as more complicated methods for detecting unhealthy levels of body fat. Researchers also found that BMI alone missed many people with obesity, suggesting waist size could provide an important warning sign.
Scientists challenge a 70-year-old “lizard brain” myth
A long-standing picture of brain evolution as newer, rational layers stacked on top of an ancient “lizard brain” may be deeply misleading. Researchers found that evolution instead appears to balance two competing styles of brain wiring, expanding one while shrinking the other depending on what an animal needs to survive.
Will Meta’s settlement in social media addiction case be a boon for research?
A new foundation could help scientists assess the effects of fresh safety measures—if the company agrees to share its data
Scientists find why the liver may not heal even after you stop drinking
Alcohol-related liver disease may trap damaged liver cells in a regenerative limbo, preventing the organ from rebuilding itself even after drinking stops. Researchers linked the problem to inflammation-driven RNA errors and identified a pathway that could potentially be targeted to restore liver repair.
Repositioning of polyubiquitin alters the pathologic tau filament structure
Structurally diverse tau filaments form proteinaceous aggregates in a heterogeneous group of neurodegenerative diseases called tauopathies. The factors extrinsic to the highly ordered core structure that influence tau filament stability are not well understood. Here, we found that polyubiquitinated tau filaments from Alzheimer disease and vacuolar tauopathy human brain tissue exhibit distinct seeding patterns in mice, in association with differences in tau filament ultrastructure determined by...
Mapping structural aging across human tissues reveals tissue-specific trajectories and coordinated deterioration
Organ structure, including the organization of cells, vasculature and extracellular matrix, underpins its function, yet how structure changes with age remains mostly unknown. Here we developed PathStAR, a framework that quantifies tissue structural aging from routine histopathology images, without being trained to predict chronological age. Applying PathStAR to 25,306 post-mortem biopsies from 40 tissues in 970 donors aged 21-70 years revealed that organ structural aging progresses via distinct,...
Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors are associated with reduced circulating activin A and modulation of BMP/activin signaling in ischemic cardiomyopathy with high echocardiographic probability of pulmonary hypertension
Pulmonary hypertension (PH) frequently complicates heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), worsening prognosis despite limited therapeutic options. Whether sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) improve PH beyond their established hemodynamic effects remains unclear. Seventy-four patients with ischemic HFrEF after acute myocardial infarction and a high echocardiographic probability of PH were prospectively enrolled in a single-center, non-randomized study. Patients...