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The new US president, Donald Trump, announced on his first day that the country will leave the World Health Organisation (WHO) within the next twelve months. The reasons behind the decision, according to him, are the ‘mismanagement of the covid-19 pandemic and other global health crises’, as well as ‘disproportionate payments compared to other countries’ dues’.
The use of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs), used to treat diabetes and obesity, may be associated with a wide range of health effects, both positive - such as a reduced risk of cardiometabolic disorders - and negative - an increased risk of gastrointestinal conditions or hypertension. These are the conclusions of an observational study published in Nature Medicine. The findings are based on analysis of data from 2.4 million participants.
A multidisciplinary team of researchers in the United States has implanted a paralysed person with a brain-computer interface capable of detecting and decoding finger movements. The system achieved a degree of accuracy that allowed him to play a video game. The results are published in the journal Nature Medicine.
An international study on public trust in science conducted in 68 countries, including Spain, has found that most people trust scientists and believe that they should be more involved in society and in policy-making. In addition, a majority of survey participants believe that researchers should play a more active role in society and in political decision-making. The Spanish population's confidence in science ranks seventh out of the 68 countries analysed. The research, which surveyed 71,922 people, provides the largest global data set on trust in scientists since the covid-19 pandemic. The study is published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour and has Spanish participation, led by FECYT.
Since the implementation of protective closures in 2022, bottom fishing in European waters has declined by 81% in 87 vulnerable marine ecosystems located at depths of 400-800 metres, a study published in Science Advances reveals. However, according to the authors, these deep-water regions continued to receive many incursions by Spanish and French vessels.
An international team of geneticists and archaeologists has analysed more than 50 ancient Iron Age genomes from an area of southern Britain. Their conclusions are that they belonged to a matrilocal society, in which land was inherited through the female line and husbands moved in with the community of their wives. The results are published in the journal Nature and would be the first such finding in prehistoric Europe.
An artificial intelligence (AI) model led by the company Meta is capable of translating speech and text, including direct speech-to-speech translations, from up to 101 languages in some cases. According to the research team, this model - called SEAMLESSM4T - can pave the way for fast universal translations ‘with resources to be made publicly available for non-commercial use’. The work is published in the journal Nature.
The work of a global commission, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology and endorsed by more than 75 medical organisations worldwide, presents a new approach to diagnosing obesity. This is based on other measures of excess body fat, in addition to body mass index (BMI), and on objective signs and symptoms of poor health at the individual level.
Osteosarcoma is a rare bone tumor that, when it appears, usually affects children and young adults. Due to its complexity, hardly any advances in its treatment have been made in the last 40 years. A team of researchers with Spanish participation has now described the mechanism that would explain its aggressiveness in approximately half of the cases. In addition, they propose a marker that could be used to predict prognosis. The results are published in the journal Cell.
A study led by CNIO and CNIC researchers has identified a new mechanism in mice by which brown fat can be activated and consume energy to be released as heat. The process depends on a protein called MCJ which, according to the researchers, is “a promising target for treating obesity”. The results are published in the journal Nature Communications.