A systematic review and meta-analysis published in JAMA Network Open examines whether there is an association between newborn exposure to SARS-CoV-2 and impaired neurodevelopment compared to those born before the pandemic. Neurodevelopment in the first year of life was not modified by being born or growing up during the covid-19 pandemic or by gestational exposure to SARS-CoV-2. However, the authors appreciated that, regardless of whether maternal infection was present, the pandemic was associated with a risk of delayed communication in these infants.
The Basque Coast Geopark has recently hosted the presentation of the first 100 geological heritage sites of the International Union of Geological Sciences. The flysch of Zumaia (Gipuzkoa), the mercury mines of Almadén (Ciudad Real) and the volcanic relief of La Palma (Santa Cruz de Tenerife) are among those chosen.
A study published in the BMJ looks at the risk of thromboembolic events associated with different covid-19 vaccines, both adenovirus- and mRNA-based. Its results are based on data collected from more than 10 million adults in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK and the US who received at least one dose of a covid-19 vaccine from December 2020 to mid-2021.
Today the European Commission proposed revising the air and water quality directives in line with World Health Organisation recommendations. These would include more than halving the annual limit value for fine particulate matter (PM2.5).
The Spanish Confederation of Scientific Societies (COSCE) has just published a report, submitted to the EU, which proposes and compares different possibilities for reform of the regulatory framework for genome editing techniques.
A study published in the journal Nature Communications in mice has associated the inhalation of e-cigarette aerosols with heart rhythm disorders, including ventricular arrhythmias.
The IceCube collaboration, with its detector located under the Antarctic ice sheet, has used astrophysical neutrinos to search for changes in the structure of space-time. In the research, published in Nature Physics, the team analysed more than seven years of data and found no signs of a modified structure of space-time imprinted in the characteristics of these particles, a further step towards understanding quantum gravity.
On Thursday, president Pedro Sánchez announced an agreement with France and Portugal to create the "green energy corridor", which will connect Spain, Portugal and France to the European Union's energy network. According to the government, the corridor envisages the creation of a maritime gas pipeline connecting Barcelona with Marseille, which will be used to transport natural gas, hydrogen and other gases.
A study published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health shows that 98% of a cohort of trans adolescents in the Netherlands who started hormone treatment before adolescence continued to do so years later.
Research published in Science concludes that mice that feed at night - the active phase of their daily circadian cycle - burn more calories, mitigating the development of obesity.