The bacteria behind chlamydia can colonize the gut, and from that hiding place, they may act as a source of repeated infections, new research using miniature intestines suggests.

Chlamydia is the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI) worldwide. The form of the infection that affects humans is caused by a species of bacteria known as Chlamydia trachomatis.

The disease most often affects the genital region, sometimes causing pain and unusual discharge from the vagina or penis. However, over the years, research in mice and various clinical reports in humans have suggested that C. trachomatis may also be able to infect the human digestive tract. This means that, theoretically, the bacteria could hide in the gut and then cause repeated genital infections, which commonly occur in patients despite treatment with antibiotics.

Yet, until now, scientists haven't been able to test this theory in human cells.

Next, they must formulate a research question and design and conduct an experiment in pursuit of an answer.

Then, they must analyse and interpret the results of the experiment, which may raise yet another research question.

Can a process this complex be automated? Last week, Sakana AI Labs announced the creation of an "AI scientist" – an artificial intelligence system they claim can make scientific discoveries in the area of machine learning in a fully automated way.

Key points

• The hippocampus enables abstract reasoning; LLMs mirror this through pattern-based language prediction.
• Future AI could emulate human inference by integrating multimodal learning and reinforcement methods.
• AI's evolution hinges on bridging prediction and reasoning, moving toward deeper, human-like understanding.

Auf dem Prüfstand: Tausende Klimaschutzmaßnahmen wurden bisher in verschiedenen Ländern umgesetzt – aber nur 63 dieser Maßnahmen trugen in größerem Umfang zur Reduktion der globalen Treibhausgas-Emissionen bei, wie eine Auswertung ergab. Der Erfolg dieser Klimapolitik beruht meist auf einer Kombination von Einzelmaßnahmen, die an die Situation des jeweiligen Landes angepasst waren. Was bedeutet dies konkret?

Ob Stürme, Starkregen oder immer neue Temperaturrekorde: Der Klimawandel ist längst konkret spürbar – auch bei uns. Umso dringlicher wird die Frage, wie wir die globale Erwärmung noch aufhalten können. Zwar gibt es schon seit einigen Jahrzehnten Bemühungen, den Ausstoß von Treibhausgasen zu verringern und von fossilen Brennstoffen auf erneuerbare Energien umzusteigen. In einigen Ländern haben solche Klimaschutzmaßnahmen auch schon erste positive Wirkungen gezeigt. Sie reichen aber nicht aus, um den globalen Klimawandel zu bremsen oder gar zu stoppen.

Das wirft die Frage auf, welche der bisher in verschiedenen Ländern umgesetzten Klimaschutz-Maßnahmen überhaupt wirksam sind und die CO2-Emissionen effektiv senken.

A new study published in Nature Microbiology has pioneered the use of a single-celled parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, to inject therapeutic proteins into brain cells. The brain is very picky about what it lets in, including many drugs, which limits treatment options for neurological conditions.

As a professor of microbiology, I’ve dedicated my career to finding ways to kill dangerous parasites such as Toxoplasma. I’m fascinated by the prospect that we may be able to use their weaponry to instead treat other maladies.

By using brain organoids derived from autistic children’s stem cells, researchers uncovered distinct neural growth patterns, potentially guiding personalized treatments and diagnoses.

Details of the model, which is called RTDetective, are provided in a new paper published in Nature Genetics titled, “Genome-scale quantification and prediction of pathogenic stop codon readthrough by small molecules.” Its developers believe that the tool could be helpful in the design, development, and efficacy of clinical trials of drugs referred to as nonsense suppression therapies.

Understanding these drugs requires some background on truncated protein translation due to premature termination codons. This phenomenon has been linked to approximately 10–20% of inherited diseases including some types of cystic fibrosis and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. It is also a major mechanism by which tumor suppressor genes are inactivated in cancer.

The study found that MS patients had 50% less amyloid plaque accumulation, a key indicator of Alzheimer’s, compared to non-MS individuals. This connection between MS and reduced Alzheimer’s risk highlights potential immune-related mechanisms that may be leveraged for therapeutic strategies.

Key Facts:

• MS patients are 50% less likely to develop amyloid plaques, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s.
• The immune response in MS might help reduce amyloid buildup in the brain.
• This discovery opens up new avenues for Alzheimer’s research and potential treatments.

The rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) offers immense potential for scientific advancements, but it also raises ethical concerns. AI systems can analyse vast data sets, detect patterns, optimize resource use and generate hypotheses. And they have the potential to help address global challenges including climate change, food security and diseases. However, the use of AI also raises questions related to fairness, bias and discrimination, transparency, accountability and privacy. Image-generating AI programs can perpetuate and amplify biases, such as associating the word ‘Africa’ with poverty, or ‘poor’ with dark skin tones. And some technology giants fail to disclose important information about their systems, hindering users’ efforts towards accountability.

The Neolithic farmers and herders who built a massive stone chamber in southern Spain nearly 6,000 years ago possessed a good rudimentary grasp of physics, geometry, geology and architectural principles, finds a detailed study of the site.

Using data from a high-resolution laser scan, as well as unpublished photos and diagrams from earlier excavations, archaeologists pieced together a probable construction process for the monument known as the Dolmen of Menga. Their findings, published on 23 August in Science Advances, reveal new insights into the structure and its Neolithic builders’ technical abilities.

Led by Ludwig Lausanne's Ping-Chih Ho and Alessio Bevilacqua and published in the current issue of Science Immunology, the study identifies PPARβ/δ, a master regulator of gene expression, as that essential molecular switch. Ho, Bevilacqua and their colleagues also show that the switch's dysfunction compromises T cell "memory" of previously encountered viruses as well as the induction of anticancer immune responses in mice.

People tend to have one of two reactions to tarantulas: a sharp, primal terror that author David Foster Wallace described as "the howling fantods," or the kind of attachment more commonly associated with kittens and puppies. People are just not indifferent to tarantulas.

A study from the University of Turku describes newly discovered ecological relationships between the gentle, hairy spiders and amphibians, reptiles and insects. The report includes the actually astounding fact that small frogs often cohabitate with tarantulas, benefiting from the shelter of tarantula burrows and providing a service to their hosts by eating insects that can be harmful to the spider or its eggs.