A large cross-sectional study of 8,412 first-grade children in Shanghai, led by Southeast University researchers, found that dietary preferences may influence asthma risk. Children who favored pickled and smoked foods were nearly twice as likely to develop asthma, and girls preferring fried foods showed a particularly strong association. Conversely, seafood preference in normal-weight children was linked to reduced asthma risk. The findings highlight diet as a potential target for childhood asthma prevention strategies.

The Hebrew University team has developed the first binder-free method for 3D printing glass, using light to trigger a chemical reaction that directly forms silica structures without the need for organic additives or extreme heat. This breakthrough makes glass printing faster, cleaner, and more precise, with potential to revolutionize fields from optics to medicine by enabling custom, high-performance glass components that were previously impossible to manufacture.

New research offers potential good news for those who’ve lapsed at the gym. The study found that mice that voluntarily ran on an exercise wheel for four weeks, stopped for four weeks and ran again for another four weeks saw unexpected gains. The second bout of wheel running led to a bigger increase in the size of muscle fibers than the first, even though the retraining effort was less intense than the initial bout, researchers report.

A collaborative team led by Ana Boskovic and Jamie Hackett at EMBL Rome explored how different paternal preconception environments influence embryonic development. Their findings revealed that:

- An imbalanced paternal gut microbiome or altered diet disrupts the expression of key genes involved in extra-embryonic tissue development or growth.

- Genetic background modulates these effects, indicating that a complex interaction between genetics and environmental influences underlies inheritance.

- Paternal age impacts offspring development at the earliest stages of embryogenesis.