Balancing the promise of health AI with its carbon costs

Lower back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide, yet most treatments offer limited relief. One of the most divisive is acupuncture—recommended in US guidelines for lower back pain but not in the UK. A new study has now examined whether it truly helps.

Being slightly overweight might not shorten your life, but being very thin might. A large Danish study tracking more than 85,000 adults has found that people with a BMI below 18.5 were nearly three times more likely to die early than those in the middle to upper end of the so-called "healthy" range.

In the march of metastasis, a molecular trail of crumbs guides some cancer cells from the primary tumor to establish new colonies within the body. Blocking the cells' ability to follow the trail might halt metastasis but could also meddle with an intricate cellular signaling system critical to immune response. Purdue University scientists are deciphering this signaling system to better understand how it could be used to address multiple diseases, including cancer.

A project at Lund University in Sweden has trained an AI model to identify breast cancer patients who could be spared from axillary surgery. The model analyzes previously unutilized information in mammograms and pinpoints with high accuracy the individual risk of metastasis in the armpit. A newly completed study shows that the model indicates that just over 40% of today's axillary surgery procedures could be avoided.

A University of Houston researcher found that recording brain activity while a person listens to a story may help diagnose primary progressive aphasia, a rare neurodegenerative syndrome that impairs language skills.

A new study has identified a potential new target for treating triple-negative breast cancer, one of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer, which still has very few therapeutic options available. The study was carried out by the Senology Department at Italy's National Cancer Institute Pascale Foundation, in collaboration with the Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine in Philadelphia.

The relationships we form as adults often echo those we had with our parents. According to attachment theory—one of the most influential frameworks in contemporary psychology—this is no coincidence: The attachment between an infant and a primary caregiver shapes the baby's future social ties. Yet little is known about the biological mechanisms underlying childhood attachment, mainly because it is so difficult to study the young brain in natural conditions.

When the federal government threatened to cancel billions in research funds from Harvard University—as it has also done to other research universities—the message was clear: Institutions that speak or think in ways elected officials dislike can expect to pay a price.

Developed by Stanford researchers, NeuroString is a hair-thin multichannel biosensor and stimulator with promising potential applications in drug delivery, nerve stimulation, smart fabrics, and more.

Jakob von Uexküll was a Baltic German biologist ahead of his time, intrigued by the idea that animals inhabit unique perceptual worlds quite unlike our own. In 1934, he described angling for flies by swinging an adhesive-covered pea on a thread, finding that male flies would dive on the pea and be caught. Within the perceptual world of a fly, the swinging pea was a potential mate.

When the first cells appeared on Earth approximately 3.8 billion years ago, viruses were already here to greet them. Ever since, viruses have been devising ways to infect cells, and cells have been responding by evolving ways to stop these infections. This evolutionary dance eventually led to the development of your immune system.

Federal health officials are cracking down on telehealth companies' promotion of unapproved versions of prescription drugs, including popular weight loss medications.

Each year in the U.S., tens of thousands of deaths are categorized as "preventable"—meaning, in theory, they did not need to happen. A missed cancer screening, a fatal asthma attack or a death from untreated infection might all be counted as preventable.

Where a woman lives can shape her health during pregnancy as much as her own medical history, our new study suggests.

DermaRite Industries has widened its earlier recall of hand soaps to include 32 personal care products that could be contaminated with a dangerous bacteria, health officials report.

Recent research that measured fetal movements in pregnant women has found that higher frequencies were strongly linked to greater maternal attachment. Paying conscious attention to these signals may be a non-invasive and effective strategy for strengthening prenatal attachment and promoting more attentive and sensitive caregiving after birth.

Researchers from Karolinska Institutet, the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (Germany), Amsterdam UMC (Netherlands), in collaboration with other international partners, have conducted the most extensive study to date on adults who have never had sexual intercourse. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that lifelong sexlessness is associated with a multifaceted interplay of psychological, social, and genetic factors.

New RMIT research shows participation in outdoor activities helps to overcome loneliness and improve connection among culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) women.