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When pregnant women develop heart failure, the immune system itself may drive the disease. A new study identifies two proteins as key actors and offers a rare mechanistic explanation for an otherwise poorly understood condition.

A new algorithm can predict type 2 diabetes years before it is normally detected by analysing younger patients’ health data. If the tool is put into use, doctors could use already collected health data to identify disease risk several years earlier in patients under the age of 40. The study illustrates a growing field of research in which artificial intelligence (AI) analyses health records for e…

Artificial intelligence (AI) can help blind and visually impaired people make sense of the world around them – while also exposing where it falls short. The AI systems solve many tasks correctly, but they lack a built-in stop button when the evidence is too thin. In other words, they cannot reliably distinguish between knowledge and qualified guesswork – and often respond without signalling uncer…

Some of nature’s toughest materials – such as woody biomass, other plant fibres and crustacean shells – are built to resist degradation. Vincent Eijsink helped uncover how nature gets around that barrier, opening new possibilities for turning biological resources into fuels, chemicals and materials – work that earned him the 2026 Novonesis Biotechnology Prize.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is caused by mutations in the largest gene in the human genome. Instead of trying to replace it, Francesco Muntoni helped to pioneer a strategy that makes cells skip the faulty segment when reading the gene. The approach – known as exon skipping – can restore production of dystrophin, the missing muscle protein. It has opened a new path in genetic medicine and earned M…

A new antivenom works against the venoms of 17 out of 18 African elapid snake species, including cobras, mambas and rinkhals, in animal studies – pointing towards a future in which knowing exactly which type of snake delivered the bite may no longer be essential. This could prove crucial in regions where thousands of people die each year because the correct antivenom is not available. But a resea…

A large study using wearable data from nearly 100,000 people suggests that lower activity levels do not cause Parkinson’s but are an early sign of the disease – raising the possibility of detecting it years earlier and intervening sooner.

A team of researchers has found that the gut bacteria of people with bowel cancer are more often infected with viruses. This suggests that not only the bacteria themselves but also what lives inside them may decide how the disease develops.

A large meta-analysis – combining results from 110 studies and more than 2.4 million observations – finds that interventions aimed at changing consumer food behaviour have much smaller effects than many had hoped. Nevertheless, some interventions stand out: policies that change the choice environment – such as defaults and availability – consistently outperform information campaigns and labels.

Persistent dental problems in childhood are linked to a higher risk of atherosclerosis later in life. Children with many cavities and inflamed gums are more likely to end up with heart disease. School dental care may therefore be a previously overlooked place to identify signs of disease risk long before illness appears.

If each country in the European Union is required to reach net zero individually, total system costs rise by just 1.4%. In return, investment in renewables and direct air capture increases – and a continent-wide CO₂ transport network becomes central to Europe’s future energy system.

A genetic study of 16,000 teenagers in Norway suggests that vulnerability to heavy screen use may partly be written in our DNA – and overlaps with the genetics of conditions such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression. Some families are cautious around alcohol or gambling because addiction can run in families. Could something similar be true for excessive screen use – n…

Providing school meals for every child in the world will not be free – but the potential benefits could be enormous for both the climate and global health, according to a new study. The idea is simple: children may hold the key to creating a better world, says a researcher.

Methane-consuming microbes help to remove substantial amounts of one of the atmosphere’s most potent greenhouse gases. A new cave study shows that some of these microbes can survive by feeding directly on trace gases in the air – and parallel research from Denmark suggests that similar hidden ecosystems may be quietly filtering methane across entire landscapes.

A Danish–Swiss research group has systematically tested which signalling substances cause stem cells to develop into different types of nerve cells in small artificial “mini-brains”. The results give laboratories a far more reliable starting point for cultivating precisely the types of nerve cells they need for disease models – and, in the longer term, perhaps also for treatments in which new ner…

Analysing the levels of various metabolites in the blood can reveal the risk of type 2 diabetes up to 26 years before diagnosis. A researcher says that this gives scientists an unprecedented opportunity to see what is happening in the body decades before the disease develops – and understanding how this might be prevented much earlier.

A massive analysis of 42 million scientific articles finds that researchers who adopt artificial intelligence (AI) publish more, get cited more and advance faster – but the same tools may also be narrowing the range of scientific questions that attract attention, funding and talent.