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The 'hobbits' mysteriously disappeared 50,000 years ago. Our new study reveals what happened to their home

About 50,000 years ago, humanity lost one of its last surviving hominin cousins, Homo floresiensis (also known as "the hobbit" thanks to its small stature). The cause of its disappearance, after more than a million years living on the isolated volcanic island of Flores, Indonesia, has been a longstanding mystery.

Shining a spotlight on polyploid cells: New tool uncovers spatial patterns of DNA content across tissues

A collaborative effort by the Formosa-Jordan lab from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, Germany, the Fox lab from Duke University, U.S., and the Roeder lab from Cornell University, U.S., developed a new computational pipeline that enables the high-throughput quantification of ploidy, i.e., the copy number of chromosomes, across tissues from microscopy images.

NASA selects two instruments for Artemis IV lunar surface science

NASA has selected two science instruments designed for astronauts to deploy on the surface of the moon during the Artemis IV mission to the lunar south polar region. The instruments will improve our knowledge of the lunar environment to support NASA's further exploration of the moon and beyond to Mars.

China outlines future plans in new video, including finding Earth 2.0

In a recent Hot Take segment, the China Global Television Network recently released an interesting video detailing China's future plans for space. Titled "Earth 2.0? China's plan to find new Earth," the video actually details four missions that the China National Space Agency (CNSA) has planned as part of the country's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030). These missions cover a broad range of next-generation science objectives that space agencies worldwide want to achieve in the coming decades.

Hayli Gubbi's explosive first impression

On November 23, 2025, the Hayli Gubbi volcano in northern Ethiopia erupted in dramatic fashion. The shield volcano in the Danakil (or Afar) Depression began spewing ash and volcanic gases at around 11:30 a.m. local time (8:30 Universal Time) that day, marking its first documented explosive eruption. The plume reached into the upper troposphere and drifted northeast, eventually crossing over northern India and China and disrupting flights.

Novel compound attacks tuberculosis bacteria's ATP synthase, showing promise against drug resistance

Researchers at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) have developed a promising new substance for targeting bacteria that cause tuberculosis. The team have produced a compound that inhibits the pathogens' ability to produce energy and causes them to die. Established drugs work in a similar fashion, but the pathogen is becoming increasingly resistant to these medications. The study was conducted jointly with other researchers from Germany, the USA and Canada and its findings were published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

AI maps gene redundancies to guide crop improvement

As global temperatures rise, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) scientists work to grow stronger, more resilient crops. Yet, this process is challenging. Plants often have several related genes that control desirable traits, such as size or drought resistance. Finding genes with overlapping functions, or "redundant genes," is a near-impossible scavenger hunt.

Tiny turbulent whirls keep the Arctic ocean flowing

In the coming decades, climate change is likely to lead to a loss of sea ice in and an influx of warmer water to the Arctic Ocean, affecting the ocean's vertical circulation. Brown and colleagues recently investigated the forces that drive the Arctic Ocean's vertical circulation to gain insight into how the circulation might change in the future.

Estimating the number of flying insects in the US using weather radar

Although millions upon millions of living creatures fly, feed and reproduce in the air, this habitat has hardly been researched. Insects are under increasing pressure worldwide due to global change and human activities. However, until now, evaluating the large scale effects of this pressure has been challenging because insect monitoring focuses mainly on a small number of species and data is collected at local scales.

FDA Rare Disease Innovation Hub

FDA Rare Disease Innovation Hub On February 2, 2026, the FDA Rare Disease Innovation Hub released its Strategic Agenda, publicly communicating its goals and priorities for the upcoming year to the rare disease community. The Strategic Agenda reflects extensive input from and partnership with the larger rare disease community. Fundamental to the mission of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is to engage patients and caregivers – to understand their unique perspectives and experiences and keep these front of mind as we review medical products for rare disease patients. An estimated 10,000+ rare diseases affect more than 30 million people – approximately one out of every 10 people – in the U.S., and about half of these people are children. Many rare diseases and conditions are life threatening, and most do not have approved treatments. FDA created the Rare Disease Innovation Hub (the Hub) to serve as a point of collaboration and connectivity between Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) and Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) with the goal of ultimately improving outcomes for patients. Although the Hub will work across rare diseases, it will particularly focus on products intended for smaller populations or for diseases where the natural history is variable and not fully understood. The Hub is co-led by the directors of Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) and the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), in close collaboration with the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, Oncology Center of Excellence, and Office of Orphan Products Development. Connect with the Hub Resources - CBER Rare Disease Program - CDER’s Accelerating Rare disease Cures (ARC) Program - FDA Voices: FDA Takes Exciting Steps Toward Establishing the Rare Disease Innovation Hub - FDA Voices: FDA Rare Disease Innovation Hub to Enhance and Advance Outcomes for Patients - Public Meeting: Advancing Rare Disease Therapies Through an FDA Rare Disease Innovation Hub

PNAS Science Sessions: Genetic history of dog domestication

Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode Dec 8, 2025 Genetic history of dog domestication Science Sessions are brief conversations with cutting-edge researchers, National Academy members, and policymakers as they discuss topics relevant to today's scientific community. Learn the behind-the-scenes story of work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), plus a broad range of scientific news about discoveries that affect the world around us. In this episode, researchers explore the impact of domestication on dog genetics and behavior. In this episode, we cover: •[00:00] Introduction •[01:00] Greger Larson explains how the history of gene flow between dogs and their wild relatives differs from what we know about other domestic species. •[02:38] Audrey Lin finds that low levels of wolf ancestry are found in almost two thirds of dog breeds. •[04:18] Linus Girdland Flink documents evidence of two genetic wolves on a remote Scandinavian island that may have been under human control. •[06:13] Clément Car explores how the mating systems of free-ranging village dogs could provide insight into canine domestication •[07:43] Katia Bougiouri explains how she used a statistical method to improve ancient genomes and what her results reveal about the history of inbreeding in dogs. •[09:21] Lachie Scarsbrook explains how he used museum specimens to reconstruct the history of inbreeding in German Shepherd Dogs. •[11:10] Eleanor Raffan analyzes genetic data and owner-submitted behavioral questionaries from 1,343 golden retrievers. •[12:54] Kathryn Lord finds that genetic testing cannot accurately predict canine behaviors. •[14:25] Final thoughts and conclusion. About Our Guest: Greger Larson Professor University of Oxford Audrey Lin Gerstner Postdoctoral Scholar American Museum of Natural History Linus Girdland Flink Lecturer University of Aberdeen Clément Car Postdoctoral Researcher University of Gdańsk Katia Bougiouri Postdoctoral Researcher University of Copenhagen Lachie Scarsbrook Postdoctoral Researcher University of Oxford, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Eleanor Raffan University Associate Professor University of Cambridge Kathryn Lord Postdoctoral fellow University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School View related content here: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2528616122 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2421768122 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2421759122 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2421756122 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2416980122 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2421755122 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2421757122 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2421752122

Moving the Field Forward to Safely Do Less With Febrile Neonates

Newborns with suspected infections are a common source of anxiety for pediatricians. As the adage goes, “never trust a newborn,” and for good reason. Young infants are immunologically vulnerable and at risk for rapid progression of bacterial infections during their postnatal transition. Most pediatricians can vividly describe neonates who rapidly declined despite appropriate therapy, and these experiences inform an understandable bias toward clinical conservatism that prioritizes interventions aimed at minimizing risk. At the same time, there is undeniable evidence of the iatrogenic harm from invasive testing, early antimicrobial exposure, and hospitalization for newborns. How best to balance the common—a young febrile infant who recovers uneventfully—with the catastrophic—the rare case of an infant with invasive bacterial infection—remains the heart of this clinical conundrum. On initial presentation, these infants are often clinically indistinguishable. Emerging evidence allows pediatricians to perennially recalibrate as we strive to determine what neonates can safely receive fewer interventions.

Evidence for Clinical Treatment Decisions Without Randomized Data

Among critically ill patients, serum magnesium levels are commonly checked and repleted. Like many clinical decisions, the rationale for this practice is based on a combination of physiological conjecture and observational data linking lower magnesium levels with worse clinical outcomes. In the absence of better evidence, the 2017 American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology/Heart Rhythm Society guidelines provide a relatively weak recommendation (“it remains quite reasonable…”) without specifying thresholds, doses, or comprehensive indications for repletion for preventing ventricular arrhythmias. Since a major goal of magnesium repletion is to reduce arrythmias, some of which can be lethal, clinicians are reluctant to wait for definitive evidence of benefit.

When climate risk hits home, people listen: Local details can enhance disaster preparedness messaging

A subtle change in how climate risk is communicated—mentioning a person's local area—can significantly increase attention to disaster preparedness messages, according to a new study by researchers at the Stockholm School of Economics and Harvard University, published in Nature Human Behaviour. The findings offer a practical, low-cost strategy for governments, insurers and local authorities seeking to boost climate resilience in vulnerable communities.

Membrane 'neighborhood' helps transporter protein regulate cell signaling

When a cell receives a message from outside, it generates a molecule called cyclic AMP (cAMP) to relay this message. To ensure the signal reaches the correct effector without triggering pathways accidentally, cAMP levels must be maintained around their point of origin and at the right level. ABCC4, a protein that transports cAMP out of cells and also contributes to drug resistance, helps with this local control. Yet, how ABCC4 is held in place at the right spot to perform these functions was not clear.