The controversy around anti-amyloid antibodies for treating Alzheimer's disease : The European Medical Agency's ruling against the latest anti-amyloid drugs highlights the ongoing debate about their safety and efficacy.

The recent rejection of lecanemab by the European Medicines Agency despite its approval in other countries highlights the debate among researchers and regulatory bodies about the efficacy, safety, and underlying scientific basis of drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease. [Image: see text]

Security challenges by AI-assisted protein design : The ability to design proteins in silico could pose a new threat for biosecurity and biosafety.

Scientists and security experts are concerned that the increasing power of AI-assisted protein design and synthesis could be abused by various actors for terrorist or criminal purposes. [Image: see text]

Exogestation for treating premature births and congenital diseases : Artificial womb technology edges towards first trials in humans.

Exogestation has made considerable advances lately to the point that first therapeutic applications in human can be considered. [Image: see text]

The four fronts of immunotherapy: The development of new immunotherapeutic approaches against a wide range of diseases.

Research on harnessing the immune system to fight against diseases from cancer to allergies has been making progress but unintended side effects still pose challenges.

Striking the right balance between youth and experience: An ageing scientific workforce could have unanticipated implications for innovation, creativity, and productivity.

Should more research funding be directed towards scientists' peak years of creativity and productivity?

Scratching the ocean surface: Researchers want to better understand the nature and dynamics of the abundant life living on and in the ocean's surface layers.

Accelerating efforts to understand neuston, mysterious communities of organisms that reside on or near the ocean surface.

Learning tricks from old dogs: Dog studies shed new light on ageing and cognitive decline.

A variety of lifespans, faster ageing processes, and shared social spaces with humans mean studies of our canine friends hold great potential for shining light on ageing and cognitive decline.

Genetics against extinction: New conservation strategies consider genetic diversity and habitat loss.

Improved methods to quantify genetic diversity could inform conservation and restauration measures to protect threatened species.

Of Turing and zebras: Turing diffusion inspires applications in nature and beyond: Turing diffusion inspires applications in nature and beyond.

The Turing diffusion model emerges as an explanation for pattern formation in many species and across biological scales.

The fungal grid: Fungal communication via electrical signals has inspired the hypothesis of a Wood Wide Web of plants and fungi: Fungal communication via electrical signals has inspired the hypothesis of a Wood Wide Web of plants and fungi.

The observation that soil-dwelling fungi seem to exchange information via electrical impulses has raised new interest about their interactions with plants and their ecological significance.

The cancer microbiome: The discovery and study of tumour-specific cancer microbiomes have given rise to new therapeutic options: The discovery and study of tumour-specific cancer microbiomes have given rise to new therapeutic options.

The discovery that tumours have their own specific microbiome, together with more understanding of the role of the gut microbiome, has great potential for cancer diagnostics and targeted therapies.

Autism therapy at crossroads: Autism research requires stronger and more reliable evidence base for efficiently applying therapeutic interventions: Autism research requires stronger and more reliable evidence base for efficiently applying therapeutic interventions.

Various studies that have questioned the scientific evidence for established autism treatments have attracted both criticisms but also inspired new research to apply treatment more efficiently.

Ultimate sacrifice or opportunistic foraging?: The selective forces behind sexual cannibalism: The selective forces behind sexual cannibalism.

The discovery of rare cases of males cannibalising females sheds new light on the selective forces behind sexual cannibalism in the animal kingdom.

Replacing mammals in drug development: Non-mammalian models accelerate translational and pre-clinical research: Non-mammalian models accelerate translational and pre-clinical research.

Driven by economics and pressure to reduce the number of mammals, non-mammalian animal models are becoming valuable alternatives for translational and preclinical research.

Combined measures: Progress against mosquito-borne diseases advances on three fronts: Progress against mosquito-borne diseases advances on three fronts.

The fight against mosquito-borne diseases requires a combination of new vaccines, non-pharmaceutical interventions and novel strategies to target the mosquito vectors.

Harnessing the sun's power: Hybrid photosynthesis might become a key technology to address the energy crisis and food security challenges: Hybrid photosynthesis might become a key technology to address the energy crisis and food security challenges.

Research on artificial photosynthesis has made considerable progress recently by combining natural and man-made systems for higher efficiency of solar energy conversion.

Europe's worst ever bird flu outbreak: This year's epidemic of highly pathogenic avian flu has had a devastating impact on wild and domestic birds and severe economic consequences.

This year's outbreak of avian flu has been the worst ever and prompted much debate and research on developing vaccines for domestic and wild birds.

Gold mining nature for natural products: DNA sequencing and bioinformatics has reinvigorated the search for secondary metabolites for applications in medicine, agriculture and industry: DNA sequencing and bioinformatics has reinvigorated the search for secondary metabolites for applications in medicine, agriculture and industry.

Natural products are highly sought after in medicine, agriculture, and industry. The challenge is to find these and their underlying biochemical pathways and genes.

Animals do count: Research sheds light on the evolution of numerosity across the animal kingdom: Research sheds light on the evolution of numerosity across the animal kingdom.

Understanding how animals' capacity to count evolved and works at the neural level could benefit research on human cognition.

Molecular archaeology and machine learning: Deep learning algorithms help to uncover ancient genes in our genomes and their evolutionary role: Deep learning algorithms help to uncover ancient genes in our genomes and their evolutionary role.

The study of ancient genes in contemporary species is providing new insights about how organisms adapted to new environments during evolution.

Western science funders' response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine: European funding agencies are halting their collaborations with the Russian research establishment: European funding agencies are halting their collaborations with the Russian research establishment.

In the wake of economic sanctions, Western funding agencies are increasingly halting scientific collaboration with Russia.

The return of the seasonal flu and cold: Other diseases are set to rebound as Covid-19 restrictions ease: Other diseases are set to rebound as Covid-19 restrictions ease.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced the incidence of respiratory infectious diseases, its economic repercussions have badly hit the fight against HIV and tuberculosis.

Understanding redundancy and resilience: Redundancy in life is provided by distributing functions across networks rather than back-up systems: Redundancy in life is provided by distributing functions across networks rather than back-up systems.

Understanding how evolution generates and maintains redundancy to cope with damage and loss of function in living systems could inspire applications from new therapies to resilient computer networks.

Fish faeces and ocean life: Better understanding marine carbon cycles could inform sustainable fishing policies: Better understanding marine carbon cycles could inform sustainable fishing policies.

Better knowledge of marine carbon cycles, their effect on global warming, and the important role of fish in both, can convince politics to establish more sustainable fishery policies.

Viral diseases and the brain: Long COVID puts the spotlight on how viral infections affect the brain: Long COVID puts the spotlight on how viral infections affect the brain.

Various viruses can affect the brain directly or indirectly. The specter of Long COVID has focused research on how respiratory viruses can cause infection and inflammation of brain cells.