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Researchers identify specific gene linked to female protection from autism

In many cases all it takes is one mutated gene to orchestrate changes across a whole network of genes linked to autism, according to new results published today in Nature by researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital. The finding could explain why different mutations in one or several of the hundreds of genes linked to autism can lead to a similar condition. And further building on this discovery, the investigators also found that one gene in particular, ZFX, is central to a well-known effect whereby females are relatively protected from severe autism symptoms even when they carry autism-associated mutations.

Senior study author Christopher Walsh, MD, PhD, chief of the Division of Genetics and Genomics and Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and lead authors Rebecca Andersen, PhD and Maya Talukdar, PhD, along with colleagues studied a number of genes linked to autism in a human cell model. They observed similar genetic patterns in most cases regardless of which gene was disrupted.

“The point is, if you down-regulate one autism gene, you down-regulate a whole bunch of them,” said Andersen. “This ‘transcriptomic convergence,’ as we call it, gives us a way to understand how hundreds of different genes can cause similar phenotypes, a similar condition.”

A programmable DNA origami nanosyringe for directed membrane translocation

An extremely cool DNA origami nanodevice which can be induced to penetrate lipid membranes and transport/inject molecules of interest. It should be noted that the authors used artificial vesicles (not living cells) for their proof-of-concept. That said, I think the device has potential if it can be modified for robustness in biological environments.

A membrane-anchoring nanodevice that integrates reversible, fuel-driven mechanical actuation enables programmable membrane penetration, cargo delivery and spatiotemporal regulation of biochemical reactions in synthetic cells.

New Research Tests Whether AI Models Know Their Own Thoughts

Yet among philosophers and psychologists, introspection is a subject of active debate. Some think it’s closely related to consciousness. Others argue that it’s an elaborate illusion. It’s tricky to test theories of introspection in the lab — or to pin down a precise definition in the first place.

Now, after over a century of studying introspection in humans and animals, researchers are beginning to explore the phenomenon in unlikely new subjects — large language models. These systems, which are based on mathematical structures called neural networks, excel at cognitive tasks that until recently seemed exclusive to humans. Can they introspect as well?

In 2025, Jack Lindsey, a researcher at Anthropic, devised a way to test introspection in language models by injecting “thoughts” into their neural networks — in a kind of targeted digital neurosurgery. Lindsey’s experiment demonstrated that models could at least sometimes detect and describe these injections. It looked a lot like introspection.

Senescent CD8 T effector memory cells are functionally impaired, enriched in aging and disease, and a barrier to immunotherapy

Senescent cells play important roles in various biological processes that promote fitness and health; however, their timely elimination by immune cells is critical to maintain tissue homeostasis and prevent disease. Despite this, senescent cells accumulate systemically with age, suggesting that certain immune cells also become senescent and dysfunctional during aging. In support of this, we previously demonstrated that CD8 T cells, immune cells capable of targeting senescent cells, increasingly develop characteristics of senescence with advancing age in humans. Here, we characterized the senescence state of human SA-βGal-expressing (SA-βGalhigh) CD8 T effector memory (EM) cells, their functional capabilities, and their enrichment in aging and disease.

Did scientists just find 115-million-year-old dinosaur blood?

Blood cells don’t fossilize very easily. Most break down shortly after death, and certain minerals can mimic the blobby shape of cells under a microscope, making the prospect of finding convincing traces of very ancient blood—say, as old as dinosaurs—far-fetched. Yet that’s what scientists say they’ve uncovered in a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. With multiple lines of evidence, the international team behind the new study claims the remains from a 115-million-year-old dinosaur from Brazil contain the oldest fossilized red blood cells ever discovered. But some experts remain skeptical.

“It’s probably the most comprehensive effort that’s been done so far,” says Maria McNamara, a paleobiologist at University College Cork who was not involved in the new work. But, she adds, “I would be very cautious about interpreting those necessarily as red blood cells.”

For decades, researchers have tried to find irrefutable evidence of dinosaur blood in fossils. Finding and characterizing blood cells from dinosaurs could help paleontologists learn more about how they adapted to their environments, says Mary Schweitzer, a paleontologist at North Carolina State University who in 2005 claimed to have found blood vessels and red blood cell–like structures in a Tyrannosaurus rex bone, but who wasn’t involved in the new study. At least 14 studies have attempted to describe red blood cells found in dinosaur and other very old fossils before. But such claims must rule out contamination and look-alikes, and none of these previous studies has broadly convinced other experts in the field.

Low-voltage capacitor combines rapid switching with a trillion cycles without breakdown

A breakthrough has been made toward overcoming both the speed and endurance limitations of low-power memory. A research team led by professor Min Hyuk Park of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Seoul National University College of Engineering has developed a ferroelectric capacitor that operates rapidly at a voltage as low as 0.6 V and can still distinguish between information states without electrical breakdown after 1 trillion switching cycles.

The achievement is significant because it offers a solution to a longstanding challenge in ferroelectric memory: the difficulty of achieving both fast operation and long device lifetime. By precisely engineering the interface between the electrode and the ferroelectric material, the researchers simultaneously achieved a low operating voltage, rapid polarization switching and high cycling stability. Based on these results, they also demonstrated the potential for the technology to be used in next-generation low-power memory with a structure similar to DRAM.

The research was conducted jointly with researchers from Hanyang University, Pohang Accelerator Laboratory and Samsung Electronics, and the findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.

NASA telescope nears end of era, re-entering earth’s atmosphere on Friday

Pieces of the telescope are expected to hit the earth as well as burn up in the atmosphere.

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Scientists use extracellular vesicles to track source of chronic inflammation

A new technique to diagnose chronic inflammation developed at Nagoya University can read information from the surface and within individual extracellular vesicles in blood and urine. This technique could be used to develop non-invasive tests that can not only detect chronic inflammation but also provide information about the tissues where it occurs.

Whenever our body faces damage from injury, illness, or toxins, it launches an inflammatory response that involves dilating blood vessels to rush fluid and nutrients to the affected site and sending inflammatory cells to destroy pathogens and repair tissue.

But sometimes, the body’s immune system can keep sending inflammatory cells to attack tissues or organs over months or years, even in the absence of any threat. Known as chronic inflammation, it underlies cancers, brain disorders, autoimmune diseases and heart disease, and it gradually causes irreversible tissue damage.