“Sleeping on it,” especially dropping deeper than a doze, might help people gain insight into certain kinds of tasks, according to a study published June 26^th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Anika Löwe, Marit Petzka, Maria Tzegka and Nicolas Schuck from the Universität Hamburg, Germany, and colleagues.

A new fossil discovery technique reveals that squids originated and rapidly became abundant, diverse, and dominant in the oceans 100 million years ago, reshaping our understanding of ancient marine ecosystems.

In a commentary published today (June 26, 2025) in the journal Cell, Arc researchers introduce the independent nonprofit’s first “Virtual Cell Challenge,” a public competition with a grand prize worth $100,000 for the machine learning model that best predicts how cells will respond to genetic perturbations. Arc is introducing the competition to catalyze progress at the interface of artificial intelligence and biology, particularly by accelerating the creation of high quality datasets and sparking a conversation about rigorous standards for assessing how well AI models simulate cellular behavior.

Scientists at USC and Caltech, in collaboration with startup company Calcarea, have developed a promising shipboard system that could remove up to half of carbon dioxide emitted from shipping vessels by converting it into an ocean-safe solution.

Increasing evidence supports the nutritional epigenetics model for autism and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorders that explains how unhealthy diet contributes to the epigenetic inheritance of these disorders. An unhealthy diet characterized by excessive intake of ultra-processed foods results in heavy metal exposures and deficits in zinc that may impact metallothionein gene function. Metallothionein gene malfunction may result in the bioaccumulation of mercury and/or lead in the blood depending on diet. Nutritional epigenetics education may be used as an intervention to reduce the intake of ultra-processed foods and heavy metals in expectant mothers and prevent the development of autism and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorders in children.

The Cambrian explosion was an extraordinary phenomenon in the evolution of life on the planet that led to the emergence of many animal phyla and the diversification of species. During this period, some 530 million years ago, most of the basic body plans of organisms that have survived to the present day emerged. However, this great explosion of life that changed the evolutionary landscape on Earth may have occurred millions of years earlier than previously thought, a hypothesis now reinforced in a study published in the journal Geology.