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Researchers are discovering that mitochondria (blue), known as cells’ power plants, also play parts in cells’ immune responses.Credit: David M. Phillips/Science Photo Library
When a parasite invades a cell, mitochondria — the cell’s energy producers — respond by shedding their outer layer to form new cellular compartments that digest molecular trash. These new organelles help the parasite to proliferate, possibly because the invader can feed off the degraded material inside the tiny compartments, says immunologist and study co-author Lena Pernas. The findings lend credence to the hypothesis that ancient mitochondria gave rise to the first organelles in complex cells by shedding their outer layer to form new membrane sacs.
Nature | 5 min read
Reference: bioRxiv preprint (not peer reviewed)
China’s intellectual-property regulator says that it helped about 80,000 patents from universities and research institutes to get commercialized between 2023 and 2025. The effort is part of the government’s desire to improve the country’s track record of translating research into products and services.
Nature | 6 min read
Baby teeth grow in layers, “just like tree rings do”, says environmental medicine researcher Manish Arora — and each layer tells a story. Arora and his team analysed baby teeth shed by children in Mexico City and reconstructed their weekly exposure to nine metals, from long before birth to years after, as part of a longitudinal study that’s been running since 2007. The researchers found that there are key developmental windows during which higher exposure to certain metals was linked to more behavioural problems and to differences in how individuals’ brains developed.
NPR | 5 min read (or 2 min listen)
Reference: Science Advances paper
Features & opinion
Artificial intelligence “is not just another technology”, says Fields medal-winning mathematician Terence Tao. “It really is forcing us to rethink fundamental questions — what is a mathematical proof? What is a paper? What is the purpose of our profession?” With mathematics generally immune to AI’s biggest failing — unverifiable mistakes — the field is well-positioned to act as a proving ground for the technology, Tao says.
Tao points to Erdős problem #1196 as a notable success story: it was solved by Liam Price, a 23-year-old with no advanced mathematics training, who found a solution with a single prompt to ChatGPT Pro. “Unlike most other Erdős problems solved by AI so far, it was studied intensively by several mathematicians, but it ended up having a fairly short proof that all the humans missed,” says Tao.
Nature | 6 min read & Scientific American | 8 min read
Projects such as the Topological Atlas and Repository for Acupoint Research (TARA), funded by the US National Institutes of Health, aim to understand the ancient practice of acupuncture through the lens of Western science. “We still don’t know a lot about acupoints. The concept of meridians is more philosophical than physiological, and there are all kinds of theories about what they are,” says radiologist Vitaly Napadow, a TARA principal investigator. Among other things, the project maps acupuncture concepts onto Western anatomy, physiology and scientific nomenclature “so people can go and test these concepts”.
Acupuncture needle rotations — with each number representing the number of turns of the needle — cause a ‘whorl’ in rat subcutaneous connective tissue. A 2002 study suggested that connective tissue could have a role in the effects of acupuncture. (Helene M. Langevin & Jason A. Yandow/Anat. Rec.)
The term ‘world models’ has come to describe AI that can produce a consistent, explorable and often interactive world that is reminiscent of a first-person video game. “The more exciting version of a world model is one in which you can take actions,” says computer scientist Jeff Clune. In research, tools such as autonomous chemistry laboratories — ‘robot chemists’ — could quickly accumulate thousands of hours of training in a world model before being deployed to an actual laboratory.
Nature | 7 min read
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