The faba bean is an ancient crop. It is particularly valuable because it is high in protein, and can convert nitrogen from the air into a form that can be used by plants in the soil. This makes it a sustainable alternative to soy, particularly in Europe. However, many varieties are not winter-hardy. In cold regions, they do not survive frost. Firstly, the research team succeeded in significantly improving the reference genome of the faba bean. Various methods, such as optical mapping, were used to assemble the genome’s individual sections more precisely. “Our new ...

Can smartphones or smartwatches help detect early signs of neurological or mental illness? Researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) monitored a group of participants wearing connected devices, and used artificial intelligence to analyse data such as heart rate, physical activity, sleep and air pollution. Their findings show that connected devices can accurately predict emotional and cognitive fluctuations, opening new avenues for the early detection of changes in brain health. The study has been published in npj Digital Medicine. Brain health, encompassing both cognitive and emotional functions, is one of the major public health challenges of the ...

Many of the key proteins for modern medicine and science are poorly soluble. These include numerous signalling proteins and protein hormones, as well as all of the receptors anchored in the cell membranes, which are targeted by around 60 percent of the active ingredients currently used in medicines. If the concentration of these proteins exceeds a certain threshold, they clump together and lose their function.   This clumping makes it impossible to produce these molecules synthetically in the lab. As protein production with specialised synthesis robots always requires multiple fragments to be coupled into a complete protein, ...

In the evolutionary history of life, the ability of a cell to separate its inner world from the external environment was an important turning point. The so-called plasma membrane lets cells control what gets in and out and allows them to communicate and cooperate with one another, creating the conditions for complex, multicellular life. This barrier is fragile. Every day, mechanical stress, environmental changes, and bacterial toxins threaten to puncture the membrane, and if the wounds aren’t sealed and healed quickly, the cell dies. Despite its importance to the survival of our cells, the processes of plasma membrane ...

CAMBRIDGE, Cambridgeshire, UNITED KINGDOM, 10 March 2026 — A comprehensive invited review published today in Brain Medicine confronts one of the most persistent paradoxes in modern medicine: psychiatry remains the only major clinical discipline that diagnoses complex illness primarily through conversation and symptom checklists, while fields such as oncology and cardiology long ago embraced laboratory markers, imaging, and molecular profiling. The review, authored by Dr. Jakub Tomasik, Jihan K. Zaki, and Professor Sabine Bahn at the Cambridge Centre for Neuropsychiatric Research, University of Cambridge, synthesizes emerging research across conceptual frameworks, ...

OSLO, Eastern Norway, NORWAY, 10 March 2026 — An insightful mini-review published in Genomic Psychiatry synthesizes the rapidly expanding landscape of molecular genetic research on common epilepsies, assembling evidence from genome-wide association studies, whole-exome sequencing projects, and advanced statistical modeling to illuminate the polygenic architecture that underpins these heterogeneous neurological disorders. The synthesis, led by Dr. Olav B. Smeland of the Centre for Precision Psychiatry at Oslo University Hospital and the University of Oslo, draws a detailed portrait ...

NEW YORK, New York, UNITED STATES, 10 March 2026 — The drugs have names that sound like small planets: semaglutide, liraglutide, lixisenatide. Collectively they belong to a class of glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) analogs that has reshaped the treatment of obesity and diabetes so thoroughly that the word "blockbuster" barely covers it. And yet for all the billions of dollars spent, for all the prescriptions written, a fundamental question has lingered like a low hum beneath the clinical noise: where, precisely, does GLP-1 live inside the brain, ...

CORK, Munster, IRELAND, 10 March 2026 — Something happens when a rat starts running. Not just the obvious things, the faster heart, the warming muscles, the rhythmic percussion of paws against the wheel. Something quieter. Something that begins in the coiled darkness of the gut and travels, through blood and biochemistry, all the way to the hippocampus, that seahorse-shaped sliver of tissue where memories form and moods take root. A new study published in Brain Medicine, a Genomic Press journal, ...

Scientists have successfully reconstructed videos purely from the brain activity of mice, showing what the mice were seeing, in a new study led by University College London (UCL) researchers. The findings, published in eLife, could help shed light on the intricate workings of how the brain processes visual information and open new avenues for exploring how different species perceive the world. Over recent years, there has been a growing interest in understanding exactly how the human brain interprets ...

A new study led by researchers at the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at Institute of Science Tokyo challenges a long-standing assumption about Earth's most extreme ice ages. Using numerical geochemical models, the team showed that chemical weathering may have continued beneath thick continental ice sheets during the snowball Earth event, consuming atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) and potentially prolonging the global glaciation. The findings provide a new explanation for the unusually long duration of some ancient global glaciations. "Our results demonstrate that subglacial weathering represents a previously unrecognised feedback mechanism that could account ...

A simple 5-minute test addressing major endometriosis diagnostic delays and treatment, has been developed by University of Queensland researchers. The Simplified Adolescent Factors for Endometriosis (SAFE) score uses a questionnaire to identify at-risk patients and fast track specialist referrals for further investigation. Professor Gita Mishra AO, Centre Director of UQ’s Australian Women and Girls' Health Research Centre, said the test could prevent years of waiting for a diagnosis. “The test uses 6 questions to detect girls or young women at risk ...

A new study led by researchers at Adelaide University and published in Science Advances has revealed why some cancers can grow and survive in the body, while others cannot. It turns out that intense mechanical pressure experienced by early cancer cells as they grow cramped in a restricted space can benefit some cancer cells, rather than impede growth, as might be expected. Scientists found that early breast cancer cells used this ‘squeeze’ to their advantage. Lead researcher Professor Michael Samuel from Adelaide University’s Centre for Cancer Biology and the Basil ...

An antibody test for the infectious disease Mpox was successfully developed during the new clade 1b outbreak in Rwanda, the first time that an assay of its kind has been validated within this setting.   The test, an IgG ELISA assay, is described in a new paper published in Lancet Infectious Diseases. Developed by a team from the University of Birmingham in collaboration with the Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) and the University of Rwanda, the highly accurate test for Mpox antibodies was successfully ...

LA JOLLA, CA—Alzheimer's disease affects an estimated 7.2 million Americans age 65 and older, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. Current tests often measure the levels of two proteins—amyloid beta (Aβ) and phosphorylated tau (p-tau)—in the blood or spinal fluid, but these markers may not fully capture earlier biological changes linked to disease progression. Now, scientists at Scripps Research have developed a blood-based approach that examines how proteins are folded in the bloodstream rather than simply measuring their concentrations. Their study, published in Nature Aging on February 27, 2026, reports that ...

In a study published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, a team led by Profs. BAO Xinhe, GAO Dunfeng, and ZHANG Guohui from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with Prof. WANG Guoxiong from Fudan University, achieved efficient bicarbonate-mediated integrated carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and electrolysis to CO through an ionomer-driven reaction microenvironment control strategy. Traditional CO2 capture and conversion routes from industrial flue gas typically follow a "capture-release-compression-electrolysis" tandem pathway. ...

A study led by McKenna Litynski, a recent Ph.D. graduate in anthropology and adjunct assistant professor at the University of Wyoming, confirms that ancient needles and awls enabled humans to survive in cold climates and shows these tools served a variety of purposes beyond clothing production, from medicine to ceremony. Some 100,000 years ago, humans began to expand around the globe, including into some of the world’s coldest environments. Scholars have long hypothesized that this remarkable expansion was made possible by a profoundly humble technology: the ...

Most plants allow fungal microorganisms to enter their root cells and provide them with carbohydrates in exchange for a better supply of nutrients and water. Only leguminous plants like peas, beans, and clover enter into an additional, mutually beneficial symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing soil bacteria. The alliance with so-called rhizobia enables them to supply themselves with the nitrogen they need for their growth from the air. Within the context of the Enabling Nutrient Symbiosis in Agriculture (ENSA) ...

Drug discovery is like molecular Tetris. Chemists snap atoms together, adjusting the pieces until everything fits and suddenly, a molecule makes a promising new medicine. Normally, creating better molecules consumes huge amounts of time and money. In a new study, researchers used machine learning to build a smarter prediction system that could speed up the process at a fraction of the cost. “Sometimes we use sophisticated, physics-based computational chemistry tools to understand novel reactions. However, these tools are too expensive to make predictions on thousands of potential new molecules,” said Simone Gallarati, the study’s co-lead author ...

Researchers have developed a practical and low cost method to transform agricultural waste into high quality biochar, significantly increasing its ability to store carbon and help combat climate change. The study demonstrates that a simple treatment using limewater can dramatically improve the efficiency of biochar production while keeping the process accessible for use directly in the field. Biochar is a carbon rich material produced when plant biomass is heated in low oxygen conditions. Because the carbon in biochar remains stable in soil for long periods, scientists consider it a promising carbon negative technology that can help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, traditional ...

New ACP papers say health care must be more accessible and inclusive for patients and physicians with disabilities  Abstract: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/ANNALS-25-04524    Abstract: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/ANNALS-25-04518 Editorial: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/ANNALS-25-05480 URL goes live when the embargo lifts              Two new papers from the American College of Physicians (ACP) address barriers to health care for people with disabilities and offer policy recommendations ...

Over the past century, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased dramatically. This rise has contributed to global warming and led to many harmful effects, including shifting weather patterns and more frequent droughts. There is an urgent need to lower the amount of carbon dioxide in the air to protect ecosystems and reduce future damage to the planet. Paul V. Galvin professor Petra Fromme in ASU’s  School of Molecular Sciences (SMS), and her team, have taken an important step toward improving technologies that pull carbon dioxide directly from the air—an approach considered ...

Ikoma, Japan—The retina is a thin layer of neural tissue at the back of the eye that detects light and converts it into signals, sent to the brain. During development, all the specialized neurons in the retina—including photoreceptors and other cells essential for vision—arise from stem-like cells known as retinal progenitor cells (RPCs). Although RPCs can differentiate into multiple retinal cell types, this capacity is only temporary in mammals. As development proceeds, RPCs gradually lose their flexibility and ultimately transform into supporting cells called Müller glia (MG). Once this transition is complete, the retina ...

Indigenous people in the United States are at higher risk of fatal police violence in and around American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) reservations, according to the first comprehensive national study on the subject from researchers at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health and the University of Washington. The study, using data on the 203 AIAN people killed by police from 2013 through 2024, was published today in the journal PNAS. The authors hope this work will inform policy action to better protect these communities. The ...

Researchers at the University of California San Diego have identified new genetic variants associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by using long-read whole genome sequencing (LR-WGS), an emerging approach that reads large sections of the genome at once, making it easier for scientists to find new genetic variants and understand how genetic variants affect the function of a gene. The team found that compared to traditional short-read approaches, LR-WGS enhanced the discovery of several categories of genetic variants. The findings may pave ...

Herring from different parts of the Baltic Sea belong to distinct populations genetically adapted to local differences in salinity and temperature. However, these populations can also mix with each other, according to a new study by researchers from Uppsala University, Stockholm University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. These results have important implications for the management of the Baltic herring. The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Spring- and autumn-spawning herring in the Baltic Sea as well as in the Atlantic Ocean are genetically distinct. This is well known. “Despite ...