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Study finds virus ‘socializing’ influences effectiveness of antiviral drugs

Interactions among viruses can help them succeed inside their hosts or impart vulnerabilities that make them easier to treat. Scientists are learning the ways viruses mingle inside the cells they infect, as well as the consequences of their socializing.

Ph.D. student Alexander J. Robertson in the Molecular & Cellular Biology program at the University of Washington is among those scientists.

“I study the evolution of antimicrobial resistance through mechanisms which require interaction between microbes,” he explained.

Scientists shed new light on the shared genetic basis of psychiatric disorders

New research uncovers how shared genes contribute to various psychiatric disorders. This breakthrough highlights the importance of pleiotropic genes—those affecting multiple conditions—and offers new avenues for mental health treatment development.

Children with better musical skills may benefit from a prolonged window of brain plasticity

Children who excel at keeping the beat may possess brains that mature more slowly, extending their capacity for learning. A new longitudinal twin study indicates that this prolonged development is shaped by both genetic predispositions and musical engagement.

China unveils planetary exploration roadmap targeting habitability and extraterrestrial life

Great, but where on earth is the EU in this new space race?


HELSINKI — China is charting a long-term deep space strategy centered on planetary habitability and the search for extraterrestrial life, according to a newly revealed mission roadmap.

A slide titled “habitability and search for extraterrestrial life — guiding the future development of China’s planetary exploration,” was shared on Chinese social media by the country’s Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL), a national-level research institution under the China National Space Administration (CNSA). It outlines a number of planned and potential missions, many with astrobiological implications.

The first mission is the Tianwen-3 Mars sample return mission, already approved and currently scheduled to launch around late 2028. Among its main objectives is investigating potential traces of past or present life on Mars.

Computers Made From Human Brain Tissue Are Coming. Are We Prepared?

As prominent artificial intelligence (AI) researchers eye limits to the current phase of the technology, a different approach is gaining attention: using living human brain cells as computational hardware.

These “biocomputers” are still in their early days. They can play simple games such as Pong, and perform basic speech recognition.

But the excitement is fuelled by three converging trends.

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