August 13, 2026
(Nature) – Jaw-dropping patient videos and miraculous testimonials ignited a frenzy in China over a technique that aims to improve drainage from the brain. Now it is entering trials worldwide. Now, as controlled studies get under way around the world, … Read More
August 12, 2026
(Nature) – US biomedical agency no longer considers policymakers ‘mission relevant’, leaving dozens of grants in limbo. The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has begun turning away research grant applications for which the “primary function” is informing policymakers and … Read More
August 11, 2026
(WSJ) – Artificial-intelligence systems have been displaying some eye-opening new abilities in recent weeks: breaking out of their enclosures, hacking other companies, lying to people. And now, for the first time, an AI model has created a new virus. A … Read More
August 10, 2026
(NYT) – Almost every doctor has a tragic story that sticks with them. For Dr. Suchitra Rao, a pediatrician in Colorado, it was a teenager with a congenital heart defect and a weakened immune system who got a flu vaccine … Read More
August 10, 2026
(Nature) – The technology is proving adept at finding faults in decades-old papers and reference databases. For decades, chemists have relied on handbook values for a molecule’s boiling point to identify substances and plan processes such as distillation. But an … Read More
August 7, 2026
(Nature) – Research suggests that the combination of incentives to publish and the use of large language models will lead to more papers, but they will be less refined. Scientists who use large language models (LLMs) to help them with their … Read More
August 7, 2026
(Science) – Trial failed of supposedly potent antibodies that the leading vaccine candidates aim to trigger Rio de Janeiro—Powerful anti-HIV drugs took another step forward at the 26th International AIDS Conference, held here last week. Among the most exciting findings … Read More
August 7, 2026
(Nature) – Privacy attacks can reveal whether someone’s medical data was used to train an AI model. People who differ from the majority are the most vulnerable to such attacks. The use of artificial-intelligence tools in medicine has hinged on … Read More
August 7, 2026
(NYT) – Scientists trained artificial intelligence on libraries of DNA and then asked the model to create recipes for viral genomes. Sixteen of them were viable, yielding new viruses. Synthesizing viruses from scratch is hardly new. Researchers long ago learned … Read More
July 29, 2026
(NYT Magazine) – The human microbiome is essential to our health, but scientists still know very little about it. Two researchers set out to map this largely uncharted terrain. Scientists refer to this vast, unexplored terrain as biology’s dark matter. … Read More
July 28, 2026
(Nature) – People who give tissue samples for biomedical research might have no idea that their cells are being used for biocomputers. The workings of the brain are often compared to those of a computer. Some researchers are testing this … Read More
July 24, 2026
(Nature) – Nature asked readers of the Nature Briefing what they like about their job and don’t want to hand over. With artificial-intelligence tools speeding up and taking on ever more steps in science, Nature canvassed opinions on tasks that … Read More
July 20, 2026
(Axios) – Artificial intelligence is dramatically speeding up drug development — and a proprietary survey shows how it’s priming a bigger automation push that’s changing the trajectory of early stage pharma research. Why it matters: The TD Cowen survey of … Read More
July 15, 2026
(The Guardian) – Scientists are trying to recreate the biology that lets animals survive months without food or water, in hopes of making deep-space travel possible Long-term space travel is bad for your health. Very bad. Being in space exposes … Read More
July 15, 2026
(Nature) – Sci-fi procedure generates immature human sperm from stem cells, nurturing them on a mouse’s kidney. It sounds like science fiction: collecting a person’s blood cells, engineering them so they eventually transform into immature sperm, and then incubating them … Read More
July 14, 2026
(CNN) – A newer, more precise form of CRISPR, known as base editing, can change a single letter (or base) of DNA at a time. Base editing was used for the first time in a 2022 clinical trial to modify … Read More
July 13, 2026
(WSJ) – Western biotechs get new playbook with tighter controls to stay ahead of ultraefficient pharmaceutical pipeline overseas For decades, young biotechs broadcast their science publicly to attract investment. Today, more are going dark to keep rivals, many of which … Read More
July 10, 2026
(MedPage Today) – Two Chinese studies related to liver transplantation published more than a decade ago in the Journal of Hepatology were retracted by the journal’s editors. The editors said concerns were raised that the transplants described in both studies … Read More
July 10, 2026
(NYT) – The human microbiome is essential to our health, but scientists still know very little about it. Two researchers set out to map this largely uncharted terrain. Poyet and Groussin suspected that the answers to those questions lurked not … Read More
July 8, 2026
(Nature) – Tool directs text-generation systems to remove constructions associated with artificial intelligence in research papers and grant proposals. A new academic ‘humanizer’ tool aims to personalize the tone of research papers written with an artificial-intelligence program, in part by … Read More
July 8, 2026
(The Atlantic) – Now the reckoning they want appears to have arrived. An expert on the flu got hauled off by the FBI. A coronavirus researcher was indicted in Detroit. Two prominent virologists stepped down or were removed from senior … Read More
July 2, 2026
(NYT) – Scientists have long dreamed of discovering the alchemy by which chemicals can be turned into life. On Wednesday, a team at the University of Minnesota announced that it had taken a major step toward that vision. Blending together … Read More
June 30, 2026
(Nature) – A handful of start-up firms are testing therapies that target specific epigenetic markers to treat everything from high cholesterol to a rare muscular disorder. The idea is to remove or add epigenetic markers — essentially chemical groups that … Read More
June 30, 2026
(Nature) – Ethical discussions are urgently needed as genome-editing science advances, some researchers say. For the second time this month, a team of researchers has reported harnessing a precise gene-editing technique to alter the DNA of human embryos. This time, … Read More
June 26, 2026
(Science) – After tumultuous Fable 5 takedown, scientists fear AI safety rules could reshape open research For many scientists, the lesson was hard to miss: They’re becoming increasingly dependent on AI research tools they do not control. That access instead … Read More
