Journalists

Between 2018 and 2020, a pilot programme conducted neonatal genetic screening of children born in Australia for spinal muscular atrophy, allowing treatment to begin early. A study just published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health looks at their condition at two years of age and concludes that they had better movement ability, including the ability to walk, compared to children diagnosed once they develop symptoms. According to the authors, the findings justify further implementation of neonatal screening for the disease.

Available studies show no difference in the risk of different types of fracture between those who take calcium supplements and those who do not, according to a report by the Iberoamerican Cochrane Centre via Nutrimedia. According to the report, these supplements have side-effects and do not provide benefits in the general population and are therefore only recommended for people living in residential homes or other institutions.   

Research published in Science assesses for the first time quantitatively the climate projections made by scientists at oil company Exxon and ExxonMobil Corp between 1977 and 2003. According to the study, most of their projections accurately predicted warming consistent with subsequent observations. However, the authors point out that the company's public statements contradicted its own scientific data.

Ischaemia-reperfusion injury is one of the causes of damage caused by diseases such as myocardial infarction. A study published in the journal Science has used base editors, a gene-editing tool derived from CRISPR, to modify a key protein in the hearts of mice. According to the authors, the intervention allowed them to recover their function after a heart attack and could potentially be used in a wide range of patients, as it does not depend on the presence of a specific mutation.

A study published by the company Rejuvenate Bio claims to have prolonged the life expectancy of healthy older mice, while improving other health parameters. The study used a gene therapy—introducing three genes, known as Yamanaka factors, that are particularly active in embryonic cells. According to the authors, the remaining life expectancy of the mice (whose age was equivalent to about 77 years in humans) was doubled, with a 7% increase in absolute terms. The results have been shared in a pre-print publication and have not yet been peer-reviewed. 

According to estimates by the United Nations Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN-IGME) published by UNICEF, in 2021 some 5 million children died before their fifth birthday, and another 2.1 million children and young people did it between the ages of 5 and 24. Additionally, 1.9 million babies were stillborn during the same period.

New estimates published in Science claim that under the most optimistic scenarios, glaciers will globally lose much more mass and contribute more to sea level rise than current estimates, including those published in the latest IPCC report.

Procrastination in a sample of more than 3,500 students was associated with the development of both mental and physical health problems nine months later, according to a study conducted at several universities in Sweden. The results are published in the journal JAMA Network Open.

A study has analysed the citation patterns of 45 million scientific articles and nearly 4 million patents over the last 60 years. Its conclusion is that scientific and technological innovation is proportionally less and less disruptive, although this characteristic remains constant in absolute terms. The results are published in the journal Nature.