Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)

An article reviews evidence on the accumulation of microplastics in human brain tissue recently published in Nature Medicine. The authors highlight practical measures to reduce exposure, noting that switching from bottled water to filtered tap water could reduce microplastic intake from 90,000 to 4,000 particles per year. The paper is a commentary in Brain Medicine. 

According to a modelling study published in Nature Cities, the frequency of some types of fires in cities is expected to increase in the coming decades as a result of climate change. This increase would be seen in vehicle fires and in those that occur outdoors. The conclusions are based on data from more than 2,800 cities in 20 countries and could be useful for future urban planning and emergency response strategies.

Research has analyzed how extreme heat influences the biological age of elderly populations, specifically in the United States. The study, published in Science Advances, used blood samples from more than 3,600 adults with an average age of 68 collected between 2010 and 2016. The team compared epigenetic aging trends with the number of days of extreme heat in the participants' places of residence. The models showed that more days of heat or long-term heat — over a period of one to six years — increased the biological age of the participants by more than two years.

The red colour of Mars corresponds to a type of ferrihydrite that is the dominant form of iron oxide in Martian dust, although previous studies have attributed it to anhydrous haematite. The persistence of ferrihydrite, whose formation requires water, suggests that it formed during a cold, wet period, followed by a transition to the planet's current arid environment. The result, based on ESA and NASA space data and new laboratory experiments, is published in Nature Communications.

One study suggests that conservation efforts are concentrated around a small number of charismatic species, such as elephants. However, there are undervalued species, such as fungi, plants and invertebrates, that are critical to the functioning of ecosystems. The research, published in the journal PNAS, analysed more than 14,000 conservation projects spanning a 25-year period - from 1992 to 2016. Of the nearly $2 billion allocated by the projects, 83% went to vertebrates. Plants and invertebrates each received 6.6% of the funding, while fungi and algae received less than 0.2%.

An international team has analyzed data from nearly half a million people to analyze the influence of genes or environment on mortality, age-related diseases and aging. Although the relationship may vary according to the type of disease, their conclusions are that the environment -especially socioeconomic conditions, smoking habits and physical exercise- has a much greater influence than genetics in all the aspects studied. Among other data, environment explains 17 % of the variation in mortality risk, while genetics is limited to 2 %. The results are published in the journal Nature Medicine. 

A team of researchers from the University of California (USA) has analyzed the presence of hate speech on the social network X (formerly Twitter) since its purchase by Elon Musk in October 2022 until June 2023. Their findings are that this type of racist, homophobic and transphobic speech increased by approximately 50 % throughout this period. In addition, the presence of bots and fake accounts did not decrease, contrary to Musk's own promises. The results are published in the journal Plos One. 

An international team of scientists from the KM3NeT collaboration has detected the signal from the highest-energy cosmic neutrino to date, some 30 times higher than those previously detected. The result suggests that the particle came from beyond the Milky Way, although its precise origin has yet to be determined. The results are published in the journal Nature. 

A multidisciplinary team of US researchers has analyzed the presence of micro- and nanoplastics in 52 human cadavers between 2016 and 2024. The concentrations of these particles were higher in the brain than in the liver or kidneys. They were also higher in the brains of people with dementia, although the researchers acknowledge that causality cannot be established. The results are published in the journal Nature Medicine. 

A meta-analysis that brings together data from 628 species of animals, plants and other organisms in terrestrial and marine ecosystems over the last three decades shows that most are losing genetic diversity, especially mammals and birds. ‘The threats affected two thirds of the populations we analysed and less than half are subject to conservation management measures,’ say the authors of the research, published in Nature.