- Scientists have, for the first time, used an extremely precise genome editing technique called base editing to study gene function in human embryos.

- Using the technique, they found that a gene called NANOG is essential for forming the future body from an embryo. Without it, the embryo loses its ability to differentiate into different body tissues.

Great apes may have been laughing with a similar rhythm to modern humans for at least 15 million years, a University of Warwick study reveals. The finding offers unexpected clues to how human speech evolved.

Researchers from the EHU-University of the Basque Country have developed a robust protocol to detect the molecules involved in the metabolic reactions of sperm. The new method enables a detailed analysis to be made even with small samples, and the largest number of potential biomarkers identified to date to be detected; this advance could help to diagnose male infertility and develop future clinical solutions.

Markers of a new mechanism for cell death, called karyoptosis, have been found in brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

Cells can spontaneously change shape even without external signals, but the underlying mechanisms behind this form of self-organization have remained unclear. Now, researchers from Japan have discovered self-propelled treadmilling actin filaments (SpTAs), mobile protein assemblies that function as self-propelled particles. Their study shows that even though SpTAs move randomly, they push the cell membrane outward and accumulate to grow protrusions, thereby defining the overall shape of the cell.

As temperatures soar across the Northern Hemisphere, a free tool lets anyone, anywhere check how dangerous the heat really is for their sport and decide whether it is safe to play.

Scientists from the University of Copenhagen, the University of the Witwatersrand, the National Geographic Society’s Rising Star project and 13 collaborating global institutions found no signs of any biological males within the group of Homo naledi remains tested, offering intriguing insights into potential cultural behaviours that may have existed before Homo sapiens.