University of Valencia

Early this morning, the Minister of Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, declared a state of emergency of national interest in the Community of Madrid and the province of Ávila due to the forest fires in Villa del Prado, San Martín de Valdeiglesias and Burgohondo. According to Carlos Novillo, the Regional Minister for the Environment, Agriculture and the Interior of the Community of Madrid, the fires were beyond the capacity of the fire services to extinguish and posed a serious threat to the population. The Madrid 112 Security and Emergency Agency has reported that, although the night-time firefighting efforts have been effective, the fires have still not been contained or brought under control. More than 10,000 people remain evacuated.

Conspiracy thinking, populist attitudes and passive news consumption are the factors that most contribute to the spread of science-related hoaxes. Furthermore, if we consider the emotions that misleading content provokes in us, our inclination to share it increases whilst our inclination to verify it decreases. The topics on which people believe they receive the most false messages relate to nutrition and wellbeing, climate change, medical treatments and vaccines. Although most people believe that AI facilitates the spread of hoaxes, almost a third use it to find out about science at least once a week. These are some of the findings of the 2026 Study on Scientific Disinformation in Spain, published today by FECYT as part of the IBERIFIER Plus project.

Rising sea temperatures are promoting the spread of Vibrio vulnificus, the marine bacterium nicknamed the “carnivore,” which can cause serious infections. Last summer, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) warned of an increased risk during the summer months, especially in the Baltic Sea. This bacterium has also been identified along the Spanish coast, but experts explain that swimming in the Mediterranean is safe for the general public, as the bacterium thrives in waters with lower salinity. Even so, they recommend that vulnerable individuals remain vigilant and avoid swimming if they have open wounds.

According to an observational study, from which no causal relationship can be inferred, each additional hour per day of sedentary behaviour is associated with a 10% increase in the risk of death from cancer. The association depends not only on total sedentary time, but also on how it is accumulated: if that hour of inactivity is interrupted, the risk is reduced by 19%. In addition, replacing one hour of sedentary behaviour with light physical activity reduces the risk by 12%. The study, published in PLOS Medicine, included nearly 91,300 participants from the UK Biobank who were monitored for seven days using an accelerometer and followed for a median of 12.38 years.

The team led by scientist Kate Adamala of the University of Minnesota has released the news—under an embargo—to several media outlets regarding the creation of a synthetic cell capable of feeding, growing, and replicating, which they have named Spudcell. Their work, which, according to Science News, was rejected by the journal Cell, is published on the team’s website, pending peer review.

An international team has analyzed data collected between 1990 and 2024 from nearly one million people in seven countries regarding their body mass index, cholesterol levels, and blood pressure. The results indicate that, in adults over 40, these levels have been converging, becoming quite similar overall in obese and non-obese individuals, possibly due to the widespread use of treatments. Despite these findings, the authors note that there are other risks associated with obesity not included in the study, such as diabetes, kidney disease, and cancer, among others. The work is published in The Lancet. 

The origin and the process by which eukaryotic cells arose remains one of the great unanswered questions in biology, with Lynn Margulis’s theories regarding the incorporation of a bacterium that would later become the mitochondrion marking a major turning point. Now, Spanish research carried out by IRB Barcelona and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center challenges this view. Without denying the role of mitochondria, it suggests that the process was longer and more complex than previously thought, stretching over hundreds of thousands of years. At least two other different bacteria contributed to the development of eukaryotic cells, and giant viruses appear to have acted as vehicles for genetic transfer. The findings, published in Nature, suggest a much more protracted and gradual process of exchange between microorganisms.

A global analysis of data from more than 232 million people shows that the rise in obesity has slowed or stabilised in some high-income countries since the 1990s among children and adolescents, and, a decade later, among adults. In Spain, this stabilisation or even a slight decline is also observed. In most low- and middle-income regions, the prevalence of obesity continues to increase and, in some cases, has already surpassed that of more developed economies. The study, published in Nature, included 4,050 studies covering the period from 1980 to 2024 across 200 countries.

GLP-1 medicines for the treatment of obesity show considerable variability between individuals. Using data from 23andMe, scientists at this genetic testing company conducted genome-wide association studies in nearly 28,000 people treated with these drugs, analysing self-reported weight loss and adverse effects. Their findings, published in Nature, identified variations in two genes involved in gut hormone pathways that regulate appetite and digestion, although the authors caution that the effects of genetics appear to be modest.

Adopting a healthy diet at age 45 can add between two and three years to life expectancy in men, and between 1.5 and 2.3 years in women, according to a study based on data from more than 103,000 people in the United Kingdom. The positive impact is greater for men who follow a diabetes risk reduction diet (DRRD) and for women who follow a Mediterranean-style diet (AMED), says the article published in Science Advances.