Sevilla University

A research team identified five major phases of brain topology throughout human life—changes in the structure of neural connections—as detailed in an article published in Nature Communications. Using brain images from 3,802 people between the ages of 0 and 90, it defines four turning points around the ages of 9, 32, 66, and 83.

The power of communication to represent violence against women has been on the table for scientific and social debate for more than two decades. However, after 25 years of manuals on how to address gender-based violence in journalism, inadequate coverage persists, still romanticising it or simplifying its approach as emotional violence.

An investigation published in JAMA Neurology concludes that obstructive sleep apnoea is associated with an increased risk of Parkinson's disease, according to the medical records of more than 11 million American war veterans, mainly men. The article also indicates that this risk can be reduced by early treatment with continuous positive airway pressure, suggesting intervention in sleep-disordered breathing as a strategy for preventing neurological diseases.  

A team at Google DeepMind has developed AlphaProof, an artificial intelligence system that learns to find formal proofs by training on millions of self-formulated problems. According to the authors, the system “substantially improves upon previous-generation results on historical problems from mathematical competitions.” Specifically, in the 2024 International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) for secondary school students, “this performance, achieved after several days of computation, resulted in a score equivalent to that of a silver medalist, marking the first time an AI system has achieved medal-level performance.” The results are published in the journal Nature.

The very functioning of the cell itself or stresses such as those caused by sun exposure can cause breaks in our DNA, which must be repaired. A study developed by the CNIO has completed a catalog of how each of our genes affects the repair of some of these breaks and how they influence the resulting "scars." The catalog, which they have called the "human repairome," will be openly available. According to the researchers, whose work is published in Science, it will have "implications for human health, including the biology and treatment of cancer, as well as for efforts toward total control of CRISPR-Cas gene-editing technologies".

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease characterised by progressive loss of motor neurons. An international team has discovered evidence that ALS may have an autoimmune component, meaning that the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy cells, a hypothesis that had been considered by the scientific community. The study shows that inflammatory immune cells—called CD4+ T cells—attack certain proteins that are part of the nervous system in people with ALS. ‘These findings highlight the potential of therapeutic strategies aimed at improving regulatory T cells,’ the authors note in the research, published in Nature.

If the United States did not change the time twice a year, there would be a lower incidence of obesity and strokes. This is the conclusion of a study by Stanford University (USA) published in PNAS that compared how three different time policies — permanent standard time (winter), permanent daylight saving time, and biannual time changes — could affect circadian rhythms and the health of the population. By modelling light exposure, circadian impacts and health characteristics county by county, the researchers estimate that permanent standard time would prevent about 300,000 cases of stroke per year and reduce the number of people with obesity by 2.6 million, compared to biannual changes. Permanent daylight saving time would also be positive, although with a smaller impact.

Researchers in the United States have used stem cells created from patients with a very rare type of ALS, more prevalent in Brazil, to target a key gene in the stress response and reverse the damage suffered by motor neurons in the laboratory. They believe it is "a promising proof-of-concept for future therapeutic strategies" and "could help lay the foundation for genetically informed clinical trials".

The research article A bacterium that can grow by using arsenic instead of phosphorus was one of the big science stories because it discussed the possibility of arsenic-based life. However, it has been the subject of criticism until now. After nearly 15 years of debate and failed attempts by other groups to replicate the findings, Science has now decided to retract the article, despite finding no evidence of fraud or misconduct on the part of the authors, who disagree with the decision.

Discovered years ago, PINK1 is a protein directly linked to Parkinson's disease, but it was not known what it looks like, how it binds to the surface of damaged mitochondria or how it is activated. A study published this week in Science has for the first time determined the structure of this protein. The authors suggest that this new information could help in finding new treatments.