Autism has long been viewed as a condition that predominantly affects male individuals, but a study from Sweden published by The BMJ shows that autism may actually occur at comparable rates among male and female individuals.   The results show a clear female catch-up effect during adolescence, which the researchers say highlights the need to investigate why female individuals receive diagnoses later than male individuals.   The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has increased over the past three decades, with a high male-to-female diagnosis ratio of around 4:1.   The increase in prevalence is thought to ...

Testing menstrual blood for human papillomavirus (HPV) could be a “robust alternative or replacement” for current cervical cancer screening by a clinician, finds a study from China published by The BMJ today.   The researchers say using menstrual blood for HPV testing is convenient and non-invasive, allowing women to collect samples at home, and therefore could offer a practical pathway to expand access to screening.   Certain types of HPV infection can develop into cervical cancer and HPV testing is a key part of cervical screening. But not all women attend screening appointments for reasons including fear of pain, concerns about privacy and ...

More images available via the link in the Notes Section Summary: Some Argentinian penguins are experiencing high levels of predation from pumas recolonising their historical territory. A new study has quantified the risk on long-term penguin population survival. Over four years, pumas at a national park on the Argentinian Patagonia coast are thought to have killed over 7,000 adult penguins (7.6% of the colony’s adult population) – but left many uneaten. Long-term, however, puma predation alone is unlikely to threaten colony viability, while low breeding success and reduced juvenile survival appear to be ...

IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON PRESS RELEASE Under embargo until 00:01 GMT Thursday 5 February Peer-reviewed / Observational study / People  Exposure to burn injuries played key role in shaping human evolution, study suggests  Humans’ exposure to high temperature burn injuries may have played an important role in our evolutionary development, shaping how our bodies heal, fight infection, and sometimes fail under extreme injury, according to new research.  For ...

ANN ARBOR—The fastest land animal in North America is the American pronghorn, and previously, researchers thought it evolved its speed because of pressure from the now-extinct American cheetah. But recently, that theory has come under fire. Now, a University of Michigan study examining fossilized ankle bones of ancient relatives of the American pronghorn has shown that the pronghorn was evolving to be faster more than 5 million years before the American cheetah appeared on the continent. The study, ...

Scientists have developed an improved method to convert municipal wastewater sludge into higher quality renewable fuel while significantly reducing harmful nitrogen compounds, offering a promising pathway for cleaner energy and sustainable waste management. Municipal sludge is a by-product of wastewater treatment that is produced in massive quantities worldwide. Managing this material remains a growing environmental challenge. Traditional treatment methods often involve high costs, pollution risks, and limited resource recovery. ...

A new study reveals that soil acidity plays a critical role in determining how wheat competes with soil microorganisms for nitrogen, a nutrient essential for plant growth and global food production. The findings provide new insight into how farmers may optimize nitrogen use efficiency and improve crop productivity by considering soil chemical conditions. Nitrogen is one of the most important nutrients limiting plant growth worldwide. Plants typically absorb nitrogen from the soil in two primary forms: ammonium and nitrate. However, plants are not the only organisms that rely on these nutrients. Soil microorganisms ...

Researchers have developed a new algae-based biochar material that shows remarkable ability to break down perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), one of the most persistent and hazardous members of the PFAS chemical family. The new material combines advanced nanotechnology with sustainable biomass resources and may provide a promising strategy for removing difficult contaminants from water. The study, published in Biochar, introduces a unique photocatalytic nanoreactor constructed from biochar derived from Ulva, a common marine algae. The material forms a cage-like structure ...

Washington (Feb. 4, 2026) -- Radiologists are struggling to balance the pressure to provide high-quality, high-volume care while training the next generation of physicians. With this in mind, the Journal of the American College of Radiology's Focus on Economics of Education issue explores a range of related topics, including radiology education funding, resident teaching while maintaining productivity, alternative approaches to resident education, trends in radiology residency applications, and investing in radiology medical education in the pre-clinical years. “Healthcare delivery is changing rapidly, leading to alterations in how radiologists function ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4:00 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2026 Highlights: Following a Mediterranean diet is associated with a lower risk of all types of stroke among women, according to a new study. The study does not prove that the diet causes the lower risk; it only shows an association. Women with the highest adherence to the Mediterranean diet were 18% less likely to experience any stroke, including a 16% lower risk of ischemic stroke and a 25% lower risk of hemorrhagic stroke. The Mediterranean diet emphasizes high intake of vegetables, legumes, fruits, fish, ...

How to reduce suffering in children with advanced cancer remains an ongoing but urgent question. A Mass General Brigham-led study examined whether systematically surveying children with advanced cancer and their parents about their symptoms and quality of life, providing feedback to children, families, and clinicians—and acting on that information by implementing personalized palliative care—could improve patients’ experiences. Their findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, suggest that integrating feedback along ...

Every year, millions of newborns undergo routine screening as a preventive strategy to detect inherited disorders before symptoms emerge. Newborn screening (NBS) programs have traditionally relied on biochemical markers to identify specific groups of treatable conditions, achieving remarkable success at a population level. However, as researchers increasingly uncover genetically driven diseases that manifest early in life, questions are emerging about whether existing screening frameworks are adequate ...

Researchers from The University of Texas at Dallas and their international colleagues have determined the molecular signature of human sleeping —­ or silent —­ nociceptors: sensory neurons that are unresponsive to touch or pressure yet are key culprits in neuropathic pain. The findings suggest a potential pathway for finding drug targets to relieve chronic pain, said Dr. Ted Price BS’97, Ashbel Smith Professor of neuroscience in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS) ...

Selecting the healthiest embryo is one of the most important steps in in‑vitro fertilization (IVF), yet it remains one of the most uncertain. Roughly 15 percent of couples worldwide experience infertility, and IVF success rates often remain below 33 percent. A major challenge is that embryologists must choose a single embryo to implant, relying on what they can see under a microscope. Even small visual details, such as how cells divide or how the embryo’s internal structures form, can signal whether it is likely to lead to a healthy pregnancy. Clear imaging, therefore, is essential. With that goal in mind, researchers have explored newer “well‑of‑the‑well” ...

Chlamydia pneumoniae—a common bacterium that causes pneumonia and sinus infections—can linger in the eye and brain for years and may aggravate Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study from Cedars-Sinai. Published in Nature Communications, the discovery suggests this bacterium can amplify Alzheimer’s disease and points to potential interventions including inflammation-limiting therapies and early antibiotic treatment. The study shows for the first time that Chlamydia pneumoniae can reach the retina—the tissue lining the back of the eye—where it triggers ...

People with a relatively neurotic personality report having more frequent sexual fantasies, while people who are relatively conscientious or agreeable report less frequent fantasizing. Emily Cannoot of Michigan State University, U.S., and colleagues present these findings from their new 5,225-person study in the open-access journal PLOS One on February 4, 2026. Prior research suggests that sexual fantasies are common and might benefit people’s happiness and relationships. A deeper understanding ...

The ideal scent detection dog is confident, persistent and resilient, without insecurities or neuroticism, according to a study featuring Dutch police dog handlers Article URL: https://plos.io/3Nsw2Gv Article title: Exploring ideal scent detection dog characteristics for successful professional deployment as derived from face-to-face structured interviews with professional scent detection dog handlers Author countries: The Netherlands Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work. END ...

Elusive beaked whales off the Louisiana coast may sometimes be diving right to the seafloor, finds new 3D acoustic technology which accurately pinpoints their locations using their echolocation clicks Article URL: https://plos.io/4qHMqBy Article title: Beaked whale dive behavior and acoustic detection range off Louisiana using three-dimensional acoustic tracking Author countries: U.S. Funding: Funding for this study (sites GC 01 and 02) was part of the “Assessing long-term trends and processes driving variability in cetacean density throughout the Gulf using passive acoustic ...

The vulnerable Amazonian manatee is most often found where human activity is low, with a new eDNA-based method most commonly detecting the freshwater mammal in the remote western Amazon Article URL: https://plos.io/4pYyIZW Article title: Survey of vulnerable Amazonian manatees using environmental DNA (eDNA): A method for survey in remote field settings Author countries: U.S., Brazil Funding: Donation to the International Sportfish Fund from the estate of George and Carolyn Kelso (KR and KOW), and a productivity research fellowship from the Brazilian National and Technological Development Council—CNPq: IPF (CNPq #316531/2023-5), and TH (CNPq #316532/2023-1). ...

Dogs who scored well on the Wesen test, which is used to analyze a dog’s temperament, tended to have lower levels of cortisol, often called the “stress hormone,” and higher levels of serotonin, often called the “happiness hormone”, according to a study published February 4, 2026 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Minjung Yoon from Kyungpook National University, Republic of Korea, and colleagues. In the new research, twenty-four dogs (of various breeds) were analyzed with a version of the Wesen test, in which a human observer judges a dog’s temperament by watching their reaction ...

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine report in Science Advances a breakthrough in human norovirus (HuNoV) research. Norovirus is a leading cause of acute viral gastroenteritis worldwide with severe outcomes mostly among young children, the elderly and people with weakened or compromised immune systems. There are currently no approved vaccines or antiviral therapies, and management strategies rely solely on supportive care, including fluid and electrolyte replacement. Until now, HuNoV research has been limited by the amount of virus scientists could grow in the lab. In the current study, the Baylor team has overcome ...

The journal Big Earth Data was first launched in 2017 and has since stood out as the world’s first scholarly journal dedicated to Earth-related big data, emerging as a flagship platform at the intersection of Earth science, space science, information science, and sustainability science. Over the past decade, we have witnessed and fostered transformative advancements, from multi-source data fusion to large-model-driven analysis and from cloud computing platforms to digital twin Earth, while upholding a commitment to supporting ...

A new study, jointly led by Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the Centre for Research in Infectious Diseases (CRID) in Cameroon, has detected a DNA marker in a gene encoding for a key enzyme, known as cytochrome P450, that helps mosquitoes to break down and survive exposure to pyrethroids, the main insecticides used for treating bed nets. This new finding, published in Science Translational Medicine, will help to better implement insecticide resistance management strategies and contribute to reducing the burden of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, home to 90% of cases globally.  Professor Charles Wondji, Professor of Genetics and Vector Biology at Liverpool School of Tropical ...

Large increases in PM2.5 exposure from wildfires have exaggerated progress in reducing inequities in traditional sources of PM2.5 in California, especially across racial groups and in years with severe wildfires like 2018.    Article URL: https://plos.io/45zJHSm Article Title: The diverging role of increasing wildfire smoke to ambient PM2.5 exposure disparity in California, 2006 to 2018  Author Countries: France, United States Funding: This work was supported by the National Institute on Aging (RF1AG071024 to JAC; RF1AG071024 to TB). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation ...

A team of researchers from Peking University, Beijing Institute of Technology, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a new optical device capable of asymmetrically transmitting and transforming images in two opposite directions. Dubbed the “Janus meta-imager,” the device is based on diffractive deep neural networks (D²NNs) and metasurfaces, and operates without external power or nonlinear materials. Unlike conventional asymmetric imaging systems that rely on active components or limited unidirectional functions, the Janus meta-imager can perform different imaging tasks in forward and backward directions. For example, in simulations, ...