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What if consciousness isn’t limited to brains like ours? Philosophers Eric Schwitzgebel and Jeremy Pober argue that consciousness could arise in many different forms of life, even in beings built from radically different materials than those found on Earth. Drawing on the vastness of the universe and the likely existence of countless alien civilizations, they suggest it would be surprisingly Earth-centric to assume that only Earth-like biology can support conscious experience.

Scientists have discovered a tiny group of neurons in an ancient brain region that acts like a built-in focus filter, helping the brain ignore distractions and zero in on what matters most. When researchers temporarily switched off these neurons in mice, the animals became unusually distractible—similar to what is seen in ADHD—but regained normal focus as soon as the neurons were reactivated.

Scientists have uncovered a surprising new twist in what happens when cells die. As dying cells break apart, they leave behind tiny “footprints of death” packed with newly discovered particles that help guide the immune system to clean up the remains. But researchers found that influenza viruses can exploit this process, hiding inside these microscopic packages and potentially using them to spread to nearby cells.

Investigation finds problems in a key clinical trial that critics said was too good to be true

Analysis of fossil proteins deepens mystery of the enigmatic Homo naledi

Germline deletions of UDP-glycosyltransferase (UGT) UGT2B17 and UGT2B28 genes are common in human populations, yet their association with aging remains unclear. In this exploratory study, we analyzed data from 12,934 participants, mostly Caucasian, in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) to assess cross-sectional and prospective associations between UGT deficiencies and aging-related health outcomes, including mortality, multimorbidity, allostatic load, disease burden and...

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings showed that age, gender, experience, attitudes toward aging, and wisdom were related to attitudes toward dementia. This evidence could serve as a guide of practical implications in stigma-reduction campaigns, dementia education, and policy reform.

CONCLUSION: The findings indicate a high burden of self-reported chronic health problems and functional dependency among older adults in a hilly municipality of Nepal. Marital status, smoking, and physical activity were significantly associated with chronic illness, while age and chronic illness were significantly associated with ADL dependency. These results highlight the need for community-based geriatric screening and targeted behavioural interventions to improve health status among older...

CONCLUSIONS: Elderly patients with multimorbidity who underwent elective surgeries have high aging self‑stereotype scores, which are independently associated with first‑time surgery, multimorbidity burden, and decision‑making preference. A management model that combines multidisciplinary collaboration with family support should be established to reduce negative stereotypes and improve quality of life among these patients.

CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that the psychological consequences of LTCI exposure may be more visible in the upper tail of the depression distribution among older adults with high care needs than in average mental-health indicators, with the signal appearing stronger in women in exploratory analyses. Policy evaluation should therefore move beyond mean-based indicators and strengthen needs-matched, psychologically supportive long-term care for vulnerable older adults.

CONCLUSIONS: In this cross-sectional study in China, exposure to depressive symptoms was associated with IADL disability. This association was modified by age, sex, and outdoor activity engagement. These findings indicate a need to prevent depressive symptoms and a need for an intervention strategy for mental health to reduce the potential risk of IADL disability. Moreover, emphasizing personalized interventions that target individuals with depressive symptoms exposure may minimize the burden of...

Aging is a multifactorial process driven by interconnected hallmarks, including chronic inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, genomic and epigenetic alterations, and dysregulated intercellular communication. Extracellular vesicles (EVs), naturally derived nanoscale membrane vesicles capable of transporting diverse bioactive cargoes across tissues and biological barriers, have emerged as a highly promising platform for regenerative and anti-aging therapeutics. In this review, we systematically...

Analysis of more than two dozen new genomes suggests our closest cousins remained genetically healthy, just before they vanished