Childhood maltreatment leaves a lasting impact that goes far beyond physical injuries or fading memories. Scientific evidence has long shown that children who experience abuse and neglect face increased risk of chronic diseases, mental health disorders, and premature death throughout their lives. Beneath these visible signs lies a deeper truth: childhood maltreatment can fundamentally alter a child’s biology, triggering molecular changes that can last for decades. Recent research is unravelling that childhood maltreatment doesn’t ...

A controlled/“living” click polymerization method developed by researchers at Institute of Science Tokyo and Nagoya University enables precise chain-growth of AB-type monomers—traditionally limited to step-growth processes—by leveraging copper-catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition. The approach achieves well-defined polymers with narrow dispersity and enables the bidirectional synthesis of ABA-type block copolymers, offering a powerful new strategy for constructing functional macromolecular architectures from a wide range of monomers. Traditional polyaddition reactions involving AB-type monomers, which contain both azide and alkyne ...

A new study by investigators from Mass General Brigham adds evidence that the most effective way to prevent preterm birth among patients with a history of cervical insufficiency is to place a cervical stitch higher in the abdomen rather than vaginally. This difference in surgical technique was associated with a 70% reduction in risk of preterm birth (birth before 34 weeks) among patients at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, where approximately 6,200 babies are born every year. ...

New research into the anatomy of blue sharks (Prionace glauca) reveals a unique nanostructure in their skin that produces their iconic blue colouration, but intriguingly, also suggests a potential capacity for colour change. “Blue is one of the rarest colours in the animal kingdom, and animals have developed a variety of unique strategies through evolution to produce it, making these processes especially fascinating,” says Dr Viktoriia Kamska, a post-doctoral researcher in the lab of Professor Mason Dean at City University ...

The candles on your birthday cake don’t tell the whole story. As anyone who ever attended a high-school reunion can tell you, some people age faster than others. Whoever put the candles on your cake probably didn’t have to guess your chronological age. But research has shown that we also have what’s called a “biological age,” a cryptic but more accurate measure of our physiological condition and likelihood of developing aging-associated disorders from heart trouble to Alzheimer’s disease. We all guess people’s actual ages, almost unconsciously, by scanning their faces for wrinkles, baggy eyes and other telltale signs. ...

Osaka, Japan – Weight-loss drugs have surged in popularity, promising rapid results with regular injections. Now, researchers from Japan report a way for the body to make its own weight-loss drugs, doing away with injections in favor of a one-time treatment. In a study due to be published in Communications Medicine, researchers from The University of Osaka have revealed that a modified genome editing approach to tackle noncommunicable, multifaceted diseases. The approach introduced a new protein-coding gene, rather than attempting to correct ...

A new study, led by experts at the University of Nottingham, provides the strongest evidence to date that cancer is extremely rare in turtles, a finding that could offer valuable clues for preventing or fighting cancer in humans.   While previous research had hinted that cancer might be uncommon in turtles, the new analysis, published in BioScience, shows that only about 1% of individuals are affected, far less than in mammals or birds. The study was led by Dr Ylenia Chiari from the School of Life Sciences ...

In the last year, there has been a surge in proteins developed by AI that will eventually be used in the treatment of everything from snakebites to cancer. What would normally take decades for a scientist to create – a custom-made protein for a particular disease – can now be done in seconds. For the first time, Australian scientists have used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to generate a ready-to-use biological protein, in this case, one that can kill antibiotic resistant bacteria like E. coli. This ...

Researchers at Princeton University and the Simons Foundation have identified four clinically and biologically distinct subtypes of autism, marking a transformative step in understanding the condition’s genetic underpinnings and potential for personalized care. Analyzing data from over 5,000 children in SPARK, an autism cohort study funded by the Simons Foundation, the researchers used a computational model to group individuals based on their combinations of traits. The team used a “person-centered” approach that considered a broad range of over 230 traits in each individual, from social interactions to repetitive behaviors to developmental ...

New York, NY [July 9, 2025]—A new study by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and collaborators, suggests that artificial intelligence (AI) could significantly improve how doctors determine the best treatment for cancer patients—by enhancing how tumor samples are analyzed in the lab. The findings, published in the July 9 online edition of Nature Medicine https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-025-03780-x, showed that AI can accurately predict genetic mutations from routine pathology slides—potentially reducing the need for rapid genetic testing in certain cases. “Our ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- For people with Type 1 diabetes, developing hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, is an ever-present threat. When glucose levels become extremely low, it creates a life-threatening situation for which the standard treatment of care is injecting a hormone called glucagon. As an emergency backup, for cases where patients may not realize that their blood sugar is dropping to dangerous levels, MIT engineers have designed an implantable reservoir that can remain under the skin and be triggered to release glucagon when blood sugar levels get too low. This approach could also help in cases ...

When the Empire State Building was constructed, its 102 stories rose above midtown one piece at a time, with each individual element combining to become, for 40 years, the world’s tallest building. Uptown at Columbia, Oleg Gang and his chemical engineering lab aren’t building Art Deco architecture; their landmarks are incredibly small devices built from nanoscopic building blocks that arrange themselves. “We can build now the complexly prescribed 3D organizations from self-assembled nanocomponents, a kind of nanoscale version of ...

Autism is classified as a ‘spectrum’ for a reason: Each case is different. Scientists have struggled to parse through the many ways autism can manifest, much less to link these varying observable traits (called phenotypes) to underlying genetics. A new study in Nature Genetics from researchers at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Biology (CCB) and their collaborators leverages data from SPARK, the largest-ever study of autism, to analyze phenotypic and genotypic data from more than 5,000 participants with autism ...

A new paper published in Nature Communications reveals how the way tree species are arranged in a forest can help optimise ecosystem functioning and productivity. The study was conducted using empirical field data combined with advanced computer models and simulations by researchers at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Leipzig University, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). The researchers simulated virtual forests with multiple arrangements of tree species, such as block ...

Researchers have identified how thyroxine, a human thyroid hormone, can positively influence the life-critical calcification in soft corals, and have developed a unique technique for injecting molecules into coral tissues. “We understand a lot about hormones in vertebrates, but much less about hormones in invertebrate animals such as corals,” says Clémence Forin, a PhD student at the Scientific Centre of Monaco. “We wanted to learn more about how they process hormones to find out how they are involved into the calcification process.” A major barrier to researching the role and regulation of ...

Research into the intestinal cells of Burmese pythons has revealed the existence of a previously unknown cell type, responsible for completely absorbing the skeletons of their prey. Most carnivores eat only the flesh of their prey and avoid eating the bones or pass them undigested, but many snakes and reptiles often consume their prey whole, including the bones. The cellular mechanisms that enable them to do this have remained mysterious until now. Snakes that are fed on boneless prey suffer from calcium deficiencies, and so bones are a required part of their diet. However, absorbing all the available calcium from a skeleton could ...

New study points to Skagerrak as nursery area for the enigmatic Greenland shark The Greenland shark – the world's longest-living vertebrate – is most often associated with cold Arctic waters. However, a new international study led by researchers from the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources and the University of Copenhagen shows that Skagerrak probably serves as a nursery area for young Greenland sharks. The study also points out that Greenland sharks are not born in Greenland or anywhere else in the ...

A combination of sewage overflows and coastal winds could be sending billions of airborne microplastic particles into the world’s coastal towns and cities, a new study suggests. Scientists analysed existing records on two years of combined sewer overflows into Plymouth Sound, alongside same-day and long-term meteorological and satellite data to assess how often conditions for aerosolisation (the transfer of particles from water to air) occurred. They found that on 178 days within the two-year period, ...

A study in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism has identified certain characteristics that might influence people’s weight loss after taking prescription drugs called glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs), such as semaglutide (sold under the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy). After analyzing data on 679 patients with overweight or obesity who initiated GLP-1RAs between November 2022 and October 2024, investigators found that longer duration of GLP-1RA treatment, using semaglutide, not having diabetes, and having a higher percentage of body fat were associated with better weight reduction over ...

Research in Contemporary Economic Policy indicates that well-intentioned renter protection policies may actually increase discrimination against certain minority races and ethnicities. The research applies to a policy implemented in Minneapolis that limits the use of background checks, eviction history, and credit scores on rental housing applications. Investigators submitted fictitious email inquiries to publicly advertised rentals using names manipulated on perceived race and ethnicity before and after this policy was implemented. After ...

Research in Health Economics indicates that introducing school grades—with A as the highest grade and F as a failing grade—at younger ages may negatively affect children’s mental health. In Sweden, students traditionally received individual grades beginning in eighth grade (around 14 years of age), but in the fall of 2012, a reform shifted the introduction of grades to sixth grade (around age 12). By comparing sociodemographic and clinical data on 524,093 children in Sweden in grades 5 through 9 before and after the ...

Investigators have developed an artificial intelligence-assisted diagnostic system that can estimate bone mineral density in both the lumbar spine and the femur of the upper leg, based on X-ray images. The advance is described in a study published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research. A total of 1,454 X-ray images were analyzed using the scientists’ system. Performance rates for the lumbar and femur of patients with bone density loss, or osteopenia, were 86.4% and 84.1%, respectively, in terms of sensitivity. The respective specificities were 80.4% and 76.3%. (Sensitivity reflected the ability of the test to correctly identify people with ...

A large prospective study published in Molecular Nutrition and Food Research reveals that a healthy plant-based diet is linked with a reduced risk of inflammatory bowel disease. For the study, 143,434 individuals in the UK reported on their dietary intake. During an average follow-up of 14.5 years, 1,117 participants developed inflammatory bowel disease—795 cases of ulcerative colitis and 322 cases of Crohn’s disease. A healthy plant-based diet was associated with an 8% lower risk of ulcerative colitis, and a 14% lower risk of Crohn’s disease. An unhealthy plant-based diet was associated with a 15% higher risk of Crohn’s ...

In research published in Social Science Quarterly, the study’s investigator expected that migrants living in cities where local voting rights are extended to non-citizens would be more likely to engage in protests compared with those in restrictive contexts. However, the findings revealed the opposite: migrant protests seem to flourish not where rights are granted, but where they are denied. In an assessment of migrant participation in protests across 4 major European cities with substantial migrant populations (Vienna, Brussels, Berlin, and Amsterdam), the results showed that perceived discrimination increased protest likelihood. Protests were also more common in cities with favorable ...

A new kind of cosmic object could help solve one of the universe’s greatest mysteries: dark matter.   Particle Astrophysicists have proposed the existence of a strange new type of star-like object, called a ‘dark dwarf’, which may be quietly glowing in the centre of our galaxy.   Far from being dark in appearance, these unusual objects are powered by dark matter (the invisible substance thought to make up about a quarter of the universe).   The discovery comes from a UK-US research team and the full research findings has been published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (JCAP).   Using theoretical models, ...