European farmers concerned about climate change push to ground EU’s ‘Green Deal’ because of it restricts crop gene editing

Leveraging the proposed European Green Deal (EGD) announced in December 2019, the EU aims to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. Growing evidence of a more unstable climate is…

AI Mimics Toddler-Like Learning to Unlock Human Cognition

Summary: A new AI model, based on the PV-RNN framework, learns to generalize language and actions in a manner similar to toddlers by integrating vision, proprioception, and language instructions. Unlike…

Long COVID Impairs Exercise Capacity and Cognition for Years

Summary: A study of nearly 1,000 people with post-COVID-19 syndrome (PCS) revealed that two-thirds still experienced significant symptoms, including reduced exercise capacity and cognitive performance, two years after infection. Persistent…

Carlos Matallana-Puerto ¡Los tricomas resbaladizos influyen en el éxito reproductivo de las flores trampa! (Español) – Functional Ecologists

En este nuevo post, Carlos Matallana-Puerto, doctorando de la Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Brasil), presenta su trabajo “Sex, flies, and flower trap: trapping trichomes and their function in polination“. Habla…

Mole or marsupial? This subterranean critter with a backward pouch is both

Evolving a dig-in-the-dark mole lifestyle comes with radical anatomical changes, making it hard even to guess the animal’s closest relatives. That’s why the true identity of Australia’s most enigmatic and…

Breakthrough Institute report: ‘Why genetically engineered microbes need a pathway to market’

Genetically engineered microbes need a pathway to market. Fertilizer runoff and nitrous oxide emissions remain massive issues for agricultural climate and environmental impacts, and damage from disease, drought, and high…

Targeting Reward Pathways to Treat Depression

Summary: New research highlights how the brain’s reward-learning system can guide personalized treatments for depression. By studying two brain signals, expected value and prediction error, researchers identified markers that predict…

Microglia Act Differently in Male and Female Brains

Summary: Microglia, the brain’s immune cells, play vital roles in clearing toxins and maintaining neuronal health but can also contribute to neurodegenerative diseases if overactive. New research reveals sex-based differences…

GLP-1 Drugs Offer Brain Benefits but May Pose Other Health Risks

Summary: A study analyzing data from over 2 million veterans found that GLP-1 receptor agonists, popular weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, provide significant neurological and behavioral health benefits, including…

Early Exposure to Violent Media Linked to Teen Antisocial Behavior

Summary: A study of nearly 2,000 children found that boys exposed to violent television content at ages 3.5 to 4.5 were more likely to exhibit antisocial behaviors as teens. These…