In a small study, dogs experienced both stabilization and destabilization of their balance upon hearing angry or happy human voices, but angry voices were linked to the biggest destabilizing effects. Nadja Affenzeller and colleagues at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria, present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on January 28, 2026. For humans and animals alike, stable posture underpins the ability to stand still, walk, and perform other activities without falling. To maintain stability, our muscles rely on visual cues as well as the body’s sense of its own position. Recent research in humans suggests that external sounds may also ...

A third of fish living in the remote coastal waters of the Pacific Island Countries and Territories are contaminated with microplastics, with especially high rates in Fiji, according to an analysis publishing January 28, 2026 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Jasha Dehm at the University of the South Pacific and colleagues. Microplastic pollution in marine environments is a global issue impacting ecosystems and human health. Despite their remoteness, the Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) may be particularly vulnerable to microplastic pollution because of rapid urbanization ...

Professor Nisreen Alwan calls to de-stigmatize self-reported data in health care research, highlighting Long COVID as one setting where it has unique strengths over 'objective' data.  Article URL: https://plos.io/4qBRszB Article Title: The Stigma of self-report in health research: Time to reconsider what counts as “Objective” Author Countries: United Kingdom Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work. END ...

A new analysis of 471 U.S. counties has found that, for everyday travel, people from counties with particularly strong political leanings—whether liberal or conservative—are more likely to visit like-minded destinations. Zhengyi Liang and Jaeho Cho of the University of California, Davis, U.S., present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on January 28, 2026. Prior research has shown that U.S. residents increasingly live in areas where their neighbors share similar political leanings. This clustering can limit how often people of differing political views cross paths with each other, further deepening political polarization. In ...

The cycling of water within Earth's interior regulates plate tectonics, volcanism, ocean volume, and climate stability, making it central to the planet's long-term evolution and habitability and a key scientific question. While subducting slabs are known to transport water into the mantle, scientists have long assumed that most hydrous minerals dehydrate at high temperatures, releasing fluids as they descend. Whether water can survive the extreme conditions of the deep lower mantle, however, has remained an open question. To fill this knowledge gap, a research team from the Institute of Geochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences ...

Cardiovascular disease continues to be the leading cause of death worldwide. To save lives, constantly improving diagnostic and risk assessments is vital. One researcher from the University of Missouri School of Medicine is exploring ways to do just that by using machine learning, which is a type of artificial intelligence (AI). Some assessments use traditional statistical analysis to predict a patient’s risk. These predictive models have already been implemented across ...

While current clinical trials for cardiac regeneration using induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs) employ immunosuppressive regimens used in heart transplants, the precise immunosuppressive regimen needed remains elusive. Now, researchers have identified optimized immunosuppressive strategies that allow transplanted iPSC-CMs to survive without immune rejection in non-human primates. These findings advance the clinical potential of regenerative therapies for severe heart failure, addressing a major challenge in translating stem cell science into effective human treatments. Heart failure remains one of the most pressing global health challenges, ...

UBC researchers have engineered gut bacteria that dim their fluorescent glow in the presence of illness.  Their findings, published in Cell today, could improve how we diagnose problems in the gut by using bacteria that already live there.  “Our biosensors could improve the ability to predict how diseases in the gut progress, identifying early changes that could aid preventative interventions,” said co-first author Juan Camilo Burckhardt (he/him), a doctoral candidate in the department ...

About The Study: In this nationwide cohort study of patients with diabetes and prior major adverse limb events, treatment with glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) was associated with significantly lower risks of recurrent limb events, cardiovascular events, all-cause mortality, and kidney disease progression compared with dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors. These findings support the preferential use of GLP-1 RAs for secondary prevention in this high-risk population. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding ...

About The Study: In this cohort study, exposure to adverse experiences throughout life was associated with increased risks of dementia and stroke, with depression mediating these associations. These findings highlight the importance of implementing life-course interventions that address both psychological trauma and mental health to reduce the burden of neurovascular diseases. Corresponding Authors: To contact the corresponding authors, email Jianhui Zhao, MPH, PhD, (jzhao40@mgh.harvard.edu) and Shan Liu, PhD, (graystar92@163.com). To ...

For almost 60 years, scientists have tried to understand why DNA doesn’t replicate wildly and uncontrollably every time a cell divides – which they need to do constantly. Without this process, we would die. These essential, ongoing cell divisions involve a cell copying its unique genetic material, DNA, and then forming new cells. Cells know exactly when and how to do this during the roughly 24 hours it takes to complete a division, and they also know what type of cell they should become: a liver cell, a brain cell, or a skin cell. If cells were to launch into random DNA replication, they would quickly run out of resources, and the timing ...

Young adults with complex chronic childhood-onset conditions such as sickle cell disease and cystic fibrosis experience longer hospital stays, higher readmission rates and greater use of resources in adult hospitals, according to a new study in JAMA Network Open.  More children with medically complex conditions are surviving into adulthood, but researchers have had limited visibility into how these conditions influence adult hospital care.   Led by a team at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), the study shows that while this group represents 6.7 ...

UCLA Health researchers have created a comprehensive map showing how eight different genetic mutations associated with autism spectrum disorder affect early brain development, providing new insights into the ways diverse genetic causes may lead to shared features and symptoms of the disorder. Genetic studies performed over the past two decades have identified more than 100 genes harboring rare mutations linked to autism. This genetic heterogeneity has raised a fundamental question: if autism can be caused by so many different ...

Light does a lot of work in the modern world, enabling all types of information technology from TVs to satellites to fiber-optic cables that carry the internet across oceans. Stanford physicists recently found a way to make that light work even harder with an optical amplifier that requires low amounts of energy without any loss of bandwidth, all on a device the size of a fingertip. Similar to sound amplifiers, optical amplifiers take a light signal and intensify it. Current small-sized optical amplifiers need a lot of power to function. The new optical amplifier, detailed in ...

A light has emerged at the end of the tunnel in the long pursuit of developing quantum computers, which are expected to radically reduce the time needed to perform some complex calculations from thousands of years down to a matter of hours. A team led by Stanford physicists has developed a new type of “optical cavity” that can efficiently collect single photons, the fundamental particle of light, from single atoms. These atoms act as the building blocks of a quantum computer by storing “qubits”  – the quantum version of a normal computer’s bits of zeros and ones. This work enables that process for ...

Seventy percent of soils in Europe are contaminated with pesticides. A Europe-wide study co-led by researchers of the University of Zurich now shows that their effects on soil life are substantial, as pesticides suppress various beneficial soil organisms. To protect soil biodiversity, the findings should be taken into account in current pesticide regulations. Life beneath our feet is essential for maintaining critical ecosystem functions and services like food production, carbon storage, erosion control and water regulation. An international study now provides the first comprehensive quantitative evidence of the prevalence and impact of agricultural pesticides in European soils. According ...

Sleep is essential for much of the animal kingdom. During the night, neuron and tissue repair mechanisms are activated to aid recovery from daily activity. This is risky: organisms that sleep are more vulnerable to predators. However, the phenomenon extends from mammals to invertebrates. Nevertheless, until now it was not known whether other, more ancient groups without neurons, such as corals, engage in any kind of nocturnal rest. A study led by the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE), a joint research center of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), has revealed ...

Around 540 million years ago, Earth's biosphere underwent a pivotal transformation, shifting from a microbe-dominated world to one teeming with animal life, as nearly all major animal phyla appeared abruptly in the fossil record over a very short geological time interval. This landmark evolutionary event is known as the Cambrian Explosion. However, this surge in animal diversity was cut short around 513 million years ago by the Phanerozoic eon's first mass extinction, the Sinsk Event—with an extinction rate on par with the planet's five most severe mass extinctions, the so-called "Big Five." In its aftermath, global biodiversity ...

Stuttgart – Building things so small that they are smaller than the width of a human hair was previously achieved by using a method called two-photon polymerization, also known as 2PP – today’s state-of-the-art in 3D micro- and nanofabrication. Tiny sculptures such as a miniature replica of the Eiffel Tower or the Taj Mahal made the headlines. While such creations are impressive to look at, their impact reaches much further. 3D micro- and nanofabrication techniques are important for many scientific fields, such as medicine, engineering and of course robotics. However, there has been one major limitation up to now: miniature 3D objects can usually only be made ...

UVA Health scientists are reporting promising success as they pioneer a new way to create vaccines far more quickly, nimbly and inexpensively than ever before. The University of Virginia School of Medicine’s Steven L. Zeichner, MD, PhD, is optimizing a vaccine-development platform he has created to accelerate how quickly life-saving vaccines can be designed and deployed during infectious-disease outbreaks such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Zeichner’s approach could be even speedier than mRNA vaccines, and those were already far faster than traditional approaches. His platform also could ...

Background and Aims Hepatic iron deposition (HID) in the reticuloendothelial system (RES) is associated with histological severity in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). This study aimed to assess the interaction between the transferrin (TF)-rs1049296 C>T variant and HID patterns on the risk of significant liver fibrosis in MASLD. Methods We analyzed 406 adults with liver biopsy-confirmed MASLD. HID was categorized as hepatocellular, RES, or mixed, based on Perl's ...

(WASHINGTON — Jan. 28, 2026) — The American Society of Hematology (ASH) released guidelines on the diagnosis of light chain (AL) amyloidosis, a rare and life-threatening disease of the bone marrow. The guidelines, published in the Society’s peer-reviewed journal Blood Advances, were developed following a rigorous review process and aim to improve and accelerate diagnosis for individuals living with the disorder.   “These guidelines will be a valuable resource not only for hematologists, but for clinicians across other specialties who care for patients with AL ...

Oak Brook, IL (USA) — The Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) has been awarded a $199,884 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to lead a multi-year initiative to develop education standards for laboratory automation, addressing a growing gap between the rapid adoption of automation technologies and formal training pathways for the scientific workforce. The project, Standards for Automated Science Education, will establish evidence-based, interdisciplinary guidelines to help educators prepare students for the technical competencies required in modern laboratory ...

Background and Aims Infections are frequent and lethal complications of acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF). Reliable biomarkers to distinguish fungal from bacterial infections remain limited. Given the central role of immune dysfunction in ACLF, we aimed to evaluate the diagnostic value of serum cytokines in differentiating invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) from bacterial pneumonia (BP) in HBV-associated ACLF. Methods This retrospective case-control study enrolled ACLF patients admitted to the Tongji Hospital, between 2018 and 2022. Patients were categorized into IPA, BP, and non-infection groups. The BP and non-infection groups were propensity score-matched ...

Desire on the Couch is a thought-provoking exhibition coming to San Francisco January 28th. Co-organized by the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and the Kinsey Institute, the exhibition traces a century-long struggle over how sexuality is measured, medicalized, and experienced. Visitors are invited to explore rarely-seen letters, photographs, and archival materials that reveal how ideas about sexuality and desire have long been argued over, resisted, and reimagined. “Sexuality is an important topic because the way in which ...