University of Valencia

More than three-quarters of the earth's land surface experienced drier climates between 1990 and 2020 compared to the previous three decades, according to a new report by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. Over the past 30 years, 40.6 percent of the global landmass, excluding Antarctica, is classified as drylands, three percentage points more than the previous three decades. The report, which is being presented at the COP16 on desertification being held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, also shows that 2.3 billion people were living in drylands in 2020, a population that could rise to 5 billion by 2100 under a worst-case climate change scenario.

A team of researchers led by the Center for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona has mapped the human spliceosome for the first time. This complex and partially unknown cellular machinery is responsible for cutting and splicing the RNA fragments encoded by genes in different ways, making it possible to obtain a wide variety of proteins from the same sequence. Its alteration is related to processes such as cancer, neurodegenerative processes or various rare diseases. According to the researchers, who publish the results in the journal Science, “by knowing exactly what each part does, we can find completely new angles to address a broad spectrum of diseases”.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2024 to researchers John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton for discovering the foundations that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks. Hinton for discovering the foundational basis that enables machine learning with artificial neural networks. This technology, inspired by the structure of the brain, is behind what we now call ‘artificial intelligence’. 

An international team of researchers publishes a review of the complex environmental impacts of genetically modified crops in the journal Science. According to the study, widespread adoption by some of the world's largest agricultural countries has had mixed results for biodiversity, deforestation and human health, depending on the specific characteristics of these crops and the regions involved. 

A healthy diet during pregnancy is associated with a lower likelihood of children being diagnosed with autism or communication difficulties, according to a study. The research team did not find a correlation between prenatal diet and repetitive and restricted behaviors (characteristic of these disorders). The analysis is published in JAMA Network Open and gathers data from more than 96,000 mother-child pairs in England and Norway.

About one in 5,000 people have a genetic variant in the SMIM1 gene that results in a particular type of blood type called Vel negative. An international team of researchers now describes the same variant as being associated with a predisposition to obesity, metabolic disturbances and lower resting energy expenditure. Women studied with the variant weigh, on average, 4.6 kg more, while in men the difference is about 2.4 kg. The results are published in the journal Med, published by the Cell group. 

Research led by ISGlobal has analysed more than 11 million hospital admissions in 48 Spanish provinces during the months of June to September between 2006 and 2019. The results, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, show that high temperatures increase admissions for obesity-related issues and renal and urinary insufficiency, among other causes. 

A study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives has analysed hospital admissions in 48 Spanish provinces during the months of June to September between 2006 and 2019. Its results, discussed at a briefing organised by Science Media Centre Spain, show that high temperatures increase admissions for issues related to obesity and renal and urinary insufficiency, among other causes. 

A "large fraction" of groundwater samples are contaminated by perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) and would be considered unacceptable for drinking water, a study claims. The analysis, published by Nature Geoscience, brings together data from 273 studies of surface and groundwater samples from around the world since 2004. The exact proportion of samples exceeding the thresholds varies according to the standards considered. For example, 69% of groundwater samples with no known source of contamination exceed the Canadian threshold, but the figure is only 6% if the EU criterion for the sum of all PFASs is considered.

A meta-analysis by the University of Valencia has studied the links between leisure reading habits on digital devices and the reading comprehension of students of different ages. The research - which is based on 25 studies published between 2000 and 2022 involving some 470,000 students from different countries - concludes that in the early stages (primary and 1st and 2nd ESO in the Spanish case) there were small negative relationships between digital leisure reading and reading comprehension, while in later stages (3rd and 4th ESO, baccalaureate and university) the relationship became slightly positive. The research is published in Review of Educational Research.