Advances in artificial intelligence-assisted protein engineering are enabling breakthroughs in protein design, but they also introduce biosecurity challenges related to potential production of harmful proteins. Though screening software to detect harmful proteins exists, a new multi-month analysis of such software reports that this software has vulnerabilities; some proteins of concern could evade detection. Critically, the study also offers a way to improve detection rates of proteins of concern going forward. AI-assisted protein design (AIPD) enables powerful advances in medicine and biology, enabling researchers to modify existing proteins or design wholly new ones ...

Wildfire disasters worldwide are growing notably in frequency and cost, according to a new study, with nearly half of the most damaging events over the last 44 years occurring in just the past decade, driven largely by increasingly extreme fire weather in vulnerable, densely populated regions. The findings, informed by an analysis of global reinsurance data and international disaster reports, reveal a concerning trend and highlight the need to adapt for a more fire-prone world. Humans have coexisted with wildfires for millennia, but climate change, land mismanagement, and expansion into flammable landscapes ...

Catastrophic wildfires – those causing massive damage and soaring suppression costs – are increasing in frequency and intensity worldwide, a trend expected to worsen with climate change. In a Policy Forum, Robert Gray and colleagues use British Columbia (BC), Canada, as a case study of a government at a crossroads: continue reactive spending on suppression and recovery or invest in strategies to reduce future wildfire risk. “Although we focus on BC, this same tough question, along with lessons learned and our main recommendations, apply to regional ...

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have detected the molecule phosphine beyond our Solar System, according to a new study, finding it in the atmosphere of the cold brown dwarf Wolf 1130C. The presence of the phosphorus-containing molecule phosphine (PH3) is well established in the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn, as well as in some giant stars. Although models predict that PH3 should be similarly common in gas giant exoplanets and brown dwarfs, searches for the molecule in the atmospheres of those objects have shown it to be in very low abundance, if not totally absent. Using the JWST NIRSpec instrument, Adam Burgasser ...

Directed evolution is a laboratory technique that mimics natural selection and allows scientists to evolve genes and the proteins they encode. Traditionally, this technique has been used in microbes, mammalian cells, or in test tubes. Now, researchers led by Prof. GAO Caixia from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (IGDB) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Prof. QIU Jinlong from the Institute of Microbiology of CAS have developed a new system that enables rapid and scalable directed evolution of diverse genes directly ...

The fossil of a tiny fish found in southwestern Alberta provides new insight into the origin and evolution of otophysans, the supergroup of fish that includes catfish, carp and tetras, which today account for two-thirds of all freshwater species. The specimen, studied by researchers at Western University, the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology and international collaborators, is a skeleton of a fish about 4 cm long from the Late Cretaceous period (the age of the iconic Tyrannosaurus Rex, about 100.5 million to 66 million years ago.) A new kind of fish entirely, it ...

When we talk about microbiota, we usually think of the one inhabiting our gut. But there is another, less known and equally vital: the plant microbiota. In an article featured on the cover of Science (October 2, 2025), Professor Niko Geldner and his team at the University of Lausanne (Unil) unveil the subtle alliances and rivalries that unfold between bacteria and roots, hidden beneath the soil. Roots and microbes The plant microbiota, or “phytobiome,” brings together communities of bacterial and fungal microorganisms that can be partners, allies—and sometimes enemies. The part most closely associated with roots is called the “rhizospheric” ...

When saltwater fish long ago evolved to live in fresh water, many of them also evolved a more sophisticated hearing system, including middle ear bones similar to those in humans. Two-thirds of all freshwater fish today — including more than 10,000 species, from catfish to popular aquarium fish like tetras and zebrafish — have this middle ear system, called the Weberian apparatus, which allows them to hear sounds at much higher frequencies than most ocean fish can, with a range close to that of humans. University of California, Berkeley paleontologist Juan Liu has now used the structure of this Weberian apparatus in a newly discovered ...

Phosphorus is one of six key elements necessary for life on Earth. When combined with hydrogen, phosphorus forms the molecule phosphine (PH3), an explosive, highly toxic gas. Found in the atmospheres of the gas giant planets Jupiter and Saturn, phosphine has long been recognized as a possible biosignature for anaerobic life, as there are few natural sources of this gas in the atmospheres of terrestrial planets. On Earth, phosphine is a byproduct of decaying organic swamp matter. Now a team of researchers, led by University of California San Diego Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics ...

Key takeaways: By analyzing rare nitrogen isotopes in 5-million-year-old plankton fossils, researchers reconstructed past Pacific Ocean conditions to better forecast the future. Even during the warmer Pliocene Epoch, nutrient-rich upwelling in the tropical Pacific remained stable, sustaining marine productivity. The findings challenge predictions of a fisheries collapse. TAMPA, Fla. (Oct. 1, 2025) – A team of scientists has uncovered a rare isotope in microscopic fossils, offering fresh evidence that ocean ...

CAMBIRDGE, MA -- At the heart of all lithium-ion batteries is a simple reaction: Lithium ions dissolved in an electrolyte solution “intercalate” or insert themselves into a solid electrode during battery discharge. When they de-intercalate and return to the electrolyte, the battery charges. This process happens thousands of times throughout the life of a battery. The amount of power that the battery can generate, and how quickly it can charge, depend on how fast this reaction happens. However, little is known about the exact mechanism of this reaction, or ...

Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is a synthetic fluorine-based polymer with a wide range of applications, including non-stick cookware production and electrical and optical fiber cable coating, owing to its high durability, thermal stability, and low friction. Ironically, its durability also presents an environmental challenge for its disposal. PTFE is mainly disposed of via incineration, landfilling, and defluorination. However, incineration requires high energy and involves the release of hydrogen fluoride, which is highly corrosive. Meanwhile, landfilling leads to an environmental burden of undegraded PTFE. By contrast, defluorination, in ...

Bioengineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a powerful new technology that can map the entire network of RNA-protein interactions inside human cells — an achievement that could offer new strategies for treating diseases ranging from cancer to Alzheimer’s. RNA-protein interactions regulate many essential processes in cells, from turning genes on and off to responding to stress. But until now, scientists could only capture small subsets of these interactions, leaving much of the cellular “conversation” hidden. “This technology is like a wiring map of the cell’s conversations,” said ...

Adolescence is a period of social reorientation: a shift from a world centered on parents and family to one shaped by peers, schools, and broader networks. This expansion is critical for healthy development, but it also heightens susceptibility to social stressors. When those stressors lead young people to withdraw — choosing solitude more often than connection — the brain itself may be altered. Using brain imaging and behavioral data, Caterina Stamoulis, PhD, and her team in the Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital have found that adolescents who are ...

When University of Texas at Arlington researcher Paul J. Fadel and his colleagues launched a study on vascular health in people with chronic kidney disease, they expected to better understand a long-standing belief. For years, scientists have pointed to a blood marker called ADMA—asymmetric dimethylarginine—as a warning sign for vascular problems. But the team’s findings, recently published in the American Journal of Physiology-Renal Physiology, told a different story. Instead, another blood marker, SDMA—symmetric dimethylarginine—long considered mostly inactive, showed a stronger connection to vascular health than ADMA. “The ...

Since 2022, American companies, consumers, and even the United Nations have used large language models—artificial intelligence (AI) systems such as ChatGPT that are trained to create text that reads like human-generated writing. In a study publishing October 2 in the Cell Press journal Patterns, researchers reveal that AI is used in an average of 17% of analyzed corporate and governmental written content, from job posts to press releases, and this rate will likely continue to increase.   “This is the first comprehensive review of the use of AI-assisted ...

The ‘big bad wolf’ fears the human ‘super predator’ – for good reason Fear of the fabled ‘big bad wolf’ has dominated the public perception of wolves for millennia and strongly influences current debates concerning human-wildlife conflict. Humans both fear wolves and, perhaps more importantly, are concerned about wolves losing their fear of humans – because if they fear us, they avoid us and that offers protection. A new Western University study shows that even where laws are in place to protect them, wolves fully fear the human ‘super predator.’ These findings ...

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects more than 700 million people worldwide and is caused by genetic and environmental factors, as well as existing medical conditions. Known genetic risk factors for CKD include mutations in a gene called APOL1.  These are rare in most populations, but two risk variants are present in as much as 13 percent of people with West African origin and another 38% possess one copy (carriers). The causes for APOL1-mediated kidney disease (AMKD) are currently not well ...

About The Study: This repeated cross-sectional study provides a picture of the evolution of cardiometabolic risk factors in children over the last 30 years, showing that, in Spain, despite the concerning prevalences of excess weight, lipid parameters and blood pressure have improved over the studied period. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Sergio Nunez de Arenas-Arroyo, PhD, email sergio.nunezdearenas@uclm.es. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.35004) Editor’s ...

About The Study: This multicenter quality improvement study found that use of an ambient artificial intelligence (AI) scribe platform was associated with a significant reduction in burnout, cognitive task load, and time spent documenting, as well as the perception that it could improve patient access to care and increase attention on patient concerns in an ambulatory environment. These findings suggest that AI may help reduce administrative burdens for clinicians and allow more time for meaningful work and ...

A new study by the University of California, Davis, shows how cells work together to avoid a sudden drop in blood sugar. Understanding these feedback loops could improve the lives of people with diabetes and help them avoid dangerous hypoglycemia. The work was published Sept. 16 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  People with diabetes must contend with the long-term risks of high blood sugar, such as blindness, kidney failure, and loss of circulation in the legs, which can ...

In a paper published in Nature Communications, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery leveraged two main studies — one focused on behavior and one focused on genetics — to highlight the correlation between participants’ musical rhythm abilities and developmental speech-language disorders.  These disorders include developmental language disorder, dyslexia and stuttering, among others.  Evidence showed that deficiency in musical rhythm perception is a “modest ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:   Dan Verello Mount Sinai Press Office 212-241-9200 daniel.verello@mountsinai.org                           Mount Sinai Study Highlights Sex-Based Pelvic Differences’ Effect on Spinal Screw, Rod Placement During Surgical Procedures Findings aimed at tailoring treatment to patients’ specific anatomy Journal: Spine Deformity Title: Impact of sex on S2-alar-iliac pelvic screw position and lumbosacral rod alignment in adult spine deformity Senior Author: James D. Lin, MD, MS, Assistant Professor of Orthopedics (Spine Surgery), ...

Patients undergoing coronary angiography often experience anxiety both before and during the procedure, often treated by the administration of anti-anxiety medications. A new analysis being presented at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) Middle East 2025 Together with 16th Emirates Cardiac Society Conference found virtual reality (VR) effectively reduced anxiety during the procedure and had more stable vital signs than patients receiving standard care. “Virtual reality offers an innovative solution to manage ...

Foreign born immigrants to the United States have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease than their U.S.-born counterparts; however, that advantage diminishes the longer they live in the U.S., according to a study presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Middle East 2025 Together with 16th Emirates Cardiac Society Conference taking place October 3-5, 2025, in Dubai, UAE. “We see that as immigrants are exposed to U.S. dietary and lifestyle habits for prolonged periods of time, it has a negative effect on their heart health,” said Krishna Moparthi, a medical student at John. F. Kennedy University School of Medicine and co-author of the study. “There ...