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A surprising new discovery suggests that fear may cause the brain to blur the line between danger and safety rather than distinguish them more clearly. By observing brain activity in mice using augmented reality, scientists found that memories of threatening and harmless environments began to overlap, potentially allowing faster responses to danger. This "better safe than sorry" survival mechanism could help explain why people with anxiety or PTSD sometimes experience intense fear in completely safe situations.

Scientists have uncovered an unexpected connection between inflammation during pregnancy, placental damage, and autism-like traits in male mice, while females appeared naturally protected. The discovery could help explain why autism is diagnosed more frequently in boys and reveal new opportunities for early intervention.

Eating an avocado and a cup of mango every day may provide surprising benefits for heart health, according to a new study involving adults with prediabetes. After just eight weeks, participants experienced significant improvements in blood vessel function and diastolic blood pressure, particularly among men. These benefits occurred without weight gain or changes in calorie intake, suggesting that the nutrient-rich combination could support cardiovascular health through a simple dietary adjustment.

A massive new study reveals that intelligence plays a surprisingly limited role in children's reading success, while visual processing showed no meaningful connection at all. Instead, the strongest predictors are sound recognition, vocabulary, and background knowledge, offering new clues about how to help struggling readers.

Mark Dybul contends the group can finally help countries control malaria, TB, and HIV

More than €55 billion from EU fund has gone to research and innovation, but researchers worry those investments will not be sustained

CONCLUSION: Nicotine attenuated selected D-galactose-associated behavioral and hippocampal alterations. The genotype comparisons support α7-nAChR-associated modulation of platform-site crossings, serum GSH, and hippocampal IBA1. They do not establish that changes in brain GSH or amyloid production mediate these effects, or that all nicotine responses share one receptor-dependent mechanism.

Age-related declines in pulmonary function and immune regulation increase morbidity and mortality in older adults. Physical activity mitigates these effects, but the isolated impact of resistance training (RT) on lung function and immune responses remains unclear. Sixty-nine older adults without participation for at least one year in structured exercise programs (aged 60-85 years) were recruited from a community extension program at a Brazilian university and randomized into an RT group (n = 31)...

CONCLUSIONS: Older adults with higher mortality risk had poorer social wellbeing at baseline and were more likely to become lonely and decrease social participation at follow-up. Prognostic information may help clinicians avoid low-value medical interventions while prioritizing interventions to support meaningful social connection.

ObjectiveTo examine the association between early-life circumstances and healthy aging among community-dwelling older Chinese adults.MethodsData were from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. We used regression methods to identify independent and joint associations of six early-life factors with healthy aging as assessed by the Chinese Healthy Aging Index (CHAI; 0-12), a composite score evaluating six physiological systems.ResultsOf 3,069 participants, 4.82% had the healthiest...

ObjectivesUsing longitudinal data, we investigate changes in coresidence preference of Chinese older adults and, with application of the Andersen-Newman framework, examine factors contributing to coresidence preference.MethodsData come from five waves of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey collected between 2005 and 2018. A random-effect model uses baseline covariates to predict coresidence preference at follow-up between two adjacent waves, controlling for baseline preference and...

Scientists have discovered that a drug originally developed for spinal cord injuries can tackle several key features of Alzheimer’s disease, including DNA damage and inflammation. Already tested for initial safety in humans, the experimental treatment could offer a faster path toward therapies that target the disease at its roots.

A surprising discovery suggests that rejuvenating the liver could help protect against Alzheimer’s disease and heart disease. USC researchers found that an experimental drug restored aging liver cells in rats, cutting levels of an Alzheimer’s-linked protein in half and bringing bad cholesterol down to youthful levels. The treatment also revived a previously unknown communication system that helps liver cells remove harmful substances from the bloodstream.

A major 24-year study involving more than 8,200 adults suggests that excess body weight may accelerate brain aging, leading to faster declines in memory, concentration, and decision-making skills. The connection was particularly strong among people over 65, raising concerns about the long-term effects of obesity on brain health.

Scientists are calling for a major rethink of how we manage high blood pressure, suggesting that eating more potassium could be just as important as cutting back on salt. A new report finds that combining increased potassium intake with reduced sodium consumption may offer greater benefits for blood pressure control than sodium reduction alone.

Researchers have developed a remarkable new electronic implant that could transform type 2 diabetes treatment by lowering blood sugar without insulin or traditional drugs. The device uses a special electrically powered catalyst to convert excess glucose into a substance that the body eliminates through urine, potentially preventing unwanted energy from being stored as fat. In diabetic mice, the implant precisely controlled blood sugar and promoted weight loss.

In a surprising discovery, scientists found that certain diets associated with obesity can make cancer immunotherapy more effective in mice, challenging traditional assumptions about diet and cancer treatment. The findings suggest that the secret may lie in how food interacts with gut bacteria to strengthen the immune system's response to cancer.

There is an urgent global need for affordable, large-scale health screening to enhance preventive care in the ageing population. Using low-cost, non-invasive retinal photographs and leveraging large foundation models, we developed a deep learning-based biomarker, Retinal Mortality Equivalent (RetiME), that directly mapped retinal features to individual mortality risk. Trained on a European cohort and externally validated across three independent external cohorts spanning Southeast Asia, Eurasia...

Assessing and validating circulating biomarkers is essential for developing preclinical measures of biological aging in mice. However, comprehensive serum proteomics are limited by technical challenges and low sample volumes. Here we present a quantitative nanoparticle-based enrichment workflow coupled with data-independent acquisition mass spectrometry for deep proteomic profiling of low-volume mouse serum. This approach increased proteomic coverage by 3-6-fold with median coefficient of...