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The sweetpotato feeds millions worldwide, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where its natural resilience to climate extremes makes it crucial for food security. But this humble root vegetable has guarded its genetic secrets for decades. Now, scientists have finally decoded its complex genome, revealing an intricate origin story and providing powerful tools to help improve this…

You are what you eat, it turns out — even if your last meal was 150 million years ago. While the grub itself may be long gone, a record of dinosaurs’ favorite foods has been stowed away in their ancient tooth enamel over the last eon. When researchers at The University of Texas at Austin…

Researchers including those at the University of Tokyo have made a surprising discovery hiding in people’s mouths: Inocles, giant DNA elements that had previously escaped detection. These appear to play a central role in helping bacteria adapt to the constantly changing environment of the mouth. The findings provide fresh insight into how oral bacteria colonize…

Octopuses are among the most neurologically complex invertebrates, famed for their extraordinary dexterity. Their eight arms allow them to capture hidden prey, communicate, explore, and even mate across varied habitats. Although octopus arms rank among some of the most flexible structures in nature, their full range of movement has rarely been studied in the wild…

One of the ways that per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) earn their “forever chemical” nickname and persist in the environment is their acidity. Many of these toxic chemicals are highly acidic, meaning they easily give up their protons and become negatively charged. This allows them to dissolve and spread in water more easily. Now, new…

When you think of barnacles, you likely picture shell-like creatures stuck to the sides of boats or docks, or even whales. However, did you know that some of the barnacles that attach to other animals are not just hitching a ride — they actually hijack their host? “Instead of gluing themselves to a rock or…

The new class of anti-obesity drugs, glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs), is proving remarkably effective at helping individuals lose weight. However, a new population-wide study being presented at this year’s Annual Meeting of The European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), Vienna (15-19 Sept) finds that half of adults without diabetes who start taking…

Researchers have successfully used artificial intelligence (AI) to predict which patients need treatment to stabilise their corneas and preserve their eyesight, in a study presented today (Sunday) at the 43rd Congress of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (ESCRS). [1] The research focused on people with keratoconus, a visual impairment that generally develops…

Chronic insomnia — trouble sleeping at least three days a week for three months or more — could speed up brain aging. People with chronic insomnia were 40% more likely to develop dementia or mild cognitive issues than people without insomnia. Insomnia with perceived reduced sleep was associated with lower cognition comparable to being four…

Tiny red objects spotted by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) are offering scientists new insights into the origins of galaxies in the universe — and may represent an entirely new class of celestial object: a black hole swallowing massive amounts of matter and spitting out light. Using the first datasets released by the telescope…