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All known life on earth utilizes the same genetic alphabet, consisting of four letters. Now, researchers at University of California San Diego have demonstrated that one of biology's most essential enzymes can accurately read and transcribe an expanded, eight-letter genetic alphabet.

Hormonal fluctuations associated with fertility are associated with a greater tendency for women to use conspicuous luxury symbols, potentially to be noticed by men, according to a study published September 2, 2026, in the open access journal PLOS One by Aekyoung Kim of Jeonbuk National University of the Republic of Korea, and colleagues.

What if you could map the chemistry inside a human cell - without fluorescent labels or stains?

A Pediatric Investigation study finds that early autism identification can fail after screening, with gaps in referral, diagnosis, service capacity, and support.

People with lung cancer are more likely to have microplastics in their lungs and to have larger quantities of microplastics in their lungs, according to research that will be presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

New research to be presented at the Annual Meeting of The European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Milan, Italy (Sept 28 – Oct 2) shows that, in women that develop type 2 diabetes (T2D), those who had gestational diabetes (GD) when pregnant are developing T2D on average almost 13 years earlier than those who did not.

This review examines how diet-driven changes in the gut microbiota and microbial metabolites may influence cognitive aging through immune, metabolic, neural, endocrine, and barrier-related pathways. It highlights SCFAs, tryptophan-derived metabolites, and bile acids as key signaling mediators while emphasizing that much of the mechanistic evidence remains preclinical and human evidence is largely associative.

When a strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza, HPAI, tore through U.S. poultry farms in early 2025, farmers culled tens of millions of birds and egg prices soared.

A large-scale study in Japan, led by researchers from the University of Osaka and the Osaka Women's and Children's Hospital, has found that certain fertility treatments are associated with an increased risk of Kawasaki disease before age five, although the association differed by treatment type.

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to take notes can change the nature of interactions between patients and clinicians, sometimes missing vital information, according to the results of a new review.

Professional UFC fighters followed highly structured dietary patterns around competition, sharply restricting carbohydrates, fiber, fluids, and sodium before weigh-in before rapidly increasing carbohydrate, fluid, and sodium intake afterward. Despite aggressive post-weigh-in refueling, carbohydrate intake fell again on fight day, suggesting that some fighters may not fully restore glycogen stores before competition.

This review finds that obesity is linked to reciprocal interactions between diet, the gut microbiome, microbial metabolites, and host metabolic pathways that influence appetite, insulin sensitivity, inflammation, and energy balance across the lifespan. It highlights diet as a particularly tractable way to influence this system, while emphasizing that microbiome changes associated with GLP-1 therapies remain difficult to separate from weight loss and that functional multi-omics approaches may help enable more personalized interventions.

A meta-analysis of 46 cohorts involving 611,037 to 1.14 million participants identified 1,260 lead genetic variants associated with the Big Five personality traits, including 824 in previously unlinked genomic regions. The associations were broadly consistent across cohorts and measurement contexts, while polygenic analyses linked personality-related genetics to health, behavior, psychopathology, and life outcomes, although effects were modest and could not predict individual behavior.

Global disease burden is shifting toward aging-related conditions as people live longer, with these diseases now representing the largest expected lifetime health burden for newborns across all income groups. Modeling suggests that reducing aging-related disease could produce unusually large and progressively greater gains in both longevity and healthy life expectancy because improvements in survival and health reinforce one another.

Late-life semaglutide treatment slowed age-related physiological decline, attenuated multiple molecular hallmarks of aging, and extended median lifespan from 742 to 834 days in aged female mice. The drug reproduced many effects of calorie restriction while providing additional benefits in exploratory behavior, spatial memory, and glucose control, suggesting that some effects extend beyond reduced calorie intake alone.

A targeted perspective synthesizes epidemiological and mechanistic evidence examining how caffeine consumption during midlife may influence dementia risk later in life. The authors highlight potential roles for dose, age, CYP1A2 genotype, adenosine signaling and cultural drinking practices, while stressing that current observational evidence cannot establish causality.

In a randomized crossover study of 22 healthy, normal-weight Chinese men, consuming canola oil alone or with spinach before a high-glycemic mashed-potato meal produced flatter post-meal glucose and insulin responses than spinach alone or no preload. The effects were associated with increased GLP-1 signaling and slower gastric emptying, with the findings indicating that the unsaturated oil was the primary driver of the metabolic response.

The Sussex 4-Day Week study is a 14-week UK protocol designed to investigate how reduced working hours affect physical and mental health, wellbeing, sleep, work performance, and potential biological and psychological mechanisms. Researchers aim to combine questionnaires with actigraphy, inflammatory biomarkers, interoception testing, and brain imaging in at least 150 adults, with data collection expected to continue until 2027.

New research reveals a promising new target for treating cancer by harnessing a type of molecule previously thought to do more harm than good.

Aging does not appear to follow the same molecular script for everyone, according to an eight-year study of 335 women.