For several decades now, one medication has been the primary drug used to treat type 2 diabetes, but research shows there’s still a lot we can learn about how it works inside the body.
During that time, metformin has been well known for its strong glucose-lowering effects. But a study published in 2025 in Science Advances revealed the drug also affects a part of the body we had never realized – the brain.
Protein-fortified foods are popping up everywhere, from cereal and coffee to even protein water. But a new review covering over 350 papers on protein restriction and aging-publishing July 31 in the Cell Press journal Cell Press Blue-suggests that consuming less protein could have greater health benefits and could, in some cases, extend lifespan. The authors describe how protein restriction slows aging by improving metabolism, changing how cells respond to nutrients, reducing cellular damage, and preserving healthy cell function.
“It’s absolutely crystal clear that there are benefits of protein to muscle growth and exercise response of active individuals,” says Dudley Lamming, the paper’s corresponding author, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “But because most people are relatively sedentary, many people are likely consuming more protein than they actually need, which probably has negative health consequences.”
For decades, scientists have known that eating less calories can extend lifespan in many organisms and reduce the risk of age-related diseases like cancer. But maintaining a calorie-restricted diet is difficult for most people.
Every time a cell divides, it must accurately copy and distribute its DNA between two new cells. However, in some cases, chromosomes do not fully separate, leaving behind thin strands of DNA known as DNA bridges that connect the two newly formed cells.
These fragile structures can be vulnerable to damage and, if not properly managed, can have severe consequences for genome stability. Researchers from King’s, in collaboration with research teams at the University of Utah and biotechnology company Altos Labs, have now revealed how cells protect themselves from this threat.
Published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, the study shows that ESCRT-III proteins, previously known for helping cells reshape and repair membranes, have an unexpected role in protecting DNA bridges during cell division.
Futurist and author Calum Chace returns to examine how artificial intelligence is beginning to reshape employment, investment, infrastructure and the commercial economy. Calum is the author of The Economic Singularity and Surviving AI, a co-founder of the AI company Conscium, and co-host of the London Futurists podcast.
In this interview, we separate three very different stories that are often grouped together as “AI layoffs”: workers directly displaced by automation; employees cut or reallocated when companies restructure or abandon AI projects; and conventional layoffs that may be “AI-washed” to make ordinary cost reductions sound like technological transformation.
We also explore the growing AI backlash. Is today’s anxiety simply part of the normal adoption cycle surrounding a disruptive technology, similar to earlier resistance to the internet, e-commerce and electric vehicles? Or is AI fundamentally different because it can compete directly with human cognitive labor, creativity and professional expertise?
Calum shares his predictions for AI agents, artificial general intelligence and artificial superintelligence, along with the commercial AI applications most likely to generate real value. We examine whether the enormous investment in AI infrastructure represents a speculative bubble, a necessary technological overbuild, or some combination of the two.
The use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has expanded for severe respiratory and circulatory failure. Acute kidney injury (AKI) is one of the most frequent complications. Up to 85% of ECMO patients develop AKI and approximately half of them require renal replacement therapy (RRT) making a comprehensive understanding of both therapies and their interaction essential for patient management. However, evidence to guide ECMO-specific RRT strategies remains limited.
ECMO-related AKI arises from a complex interplay between patient and circuit factors that promote inflammation, endothelial injury, and tubular damage. Timing of RRT initiation in ECMO patients often relies on criteria used in the general critically ill population. Fluid overload is consistently associated with worse outcomes, and observational data suggest that earlier RRT, primarily to control fluid balance, may improve survival although randomized trials in ECMO patients are lacking. All RRT modalities can theoretically be used, but continuous techniques are preferred. RRT can be delivered via a parallel circuit using a dedicated venous catheter or integrated into the ECMO circuit. Integrated configurations reduce the need for additional vascular access and may prolong filter lifespan but require careful pressure management and team expertise to avoid alarms, hemolysis, and air embolism.
Alcohols are among the most abundant building blocks in chemistry. Fluorinated compounds, meanwhile, are essential for many modern medicines, crop protection products and advanced materials. Converting one into the other, however, has traditionally relied on toxic, thermally unstable reagents such as DAST (diethylaminosulfur trifluoride) that make large-scale manufacturing operationally demanding.
Researchers are therefore seeking safer and more practical ways to carry out these fluorination reactions. One major goal is to use simple, inexpensive and widely available fluoride sources such as potassium fluoride in order to make the process safer, more scalable and more sustainable.
Infants use eye contact with speakers to work out what to pay attention to and synchronise their brainwaves, helping them learn language, scientists have shown.
Infants are surrounded by a vast range of stimuli that compete for their attention – sights, sounds, voices – and must somehow work out which things are worth paying attention to and learning from. To do this, they often rely on social cues – eye contact, ‘baby speak’ or someone calling their name, for example – but how this helps with learning is not clear.
The researchers have previously shown that when an infant and adult make eye contact, their brainwaves synchronise with each other.
