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Microplastics and much smaller nanoplastics enter the human body in various ways, for example through food or the air we breathe. A large proportion is excreted, but a certain amount remains in organs, blood, and other body fluids.

In the FFG bridge project Nano-VISION, which was launched two years ago together with the start-up BRAVE Analytics, a team led by Harald Fitzek from the Institute of Electron Microscopy and Nanoanalysis at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) and an ophthalmologist from Graz addressed the question of whether nanoplastics also play a role in ophthalmology.

The project partners have now been able to develop a method for detecting and quantifying nanoplastics in transparent body fluids and determining their chemical composition. The research is published in the journal Analytical Chemistry.

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Living to 100 may sound like a dream, but thanks to advancements in anti-aging and longevity research, it’s becoming more of a realistic goal than ever before. While genetics play a role, experts say your daily habits have a major impact on how gracefully—and healthfully—you age. From diet and movement to mindset and skincare, there are key lifestyle shifts and science-backed secrets that can help slow the aging process, boost vitality, and support a longer, more vibrant life.

Robert Love, a neuroscientist, shared three anti-aging and longevity secrets you should know about if you want to “slow down aging” and “even help reverse aging.” According to him, prioritizing sleep, avoiding ultra-processed foods, and taking healthy supplements are some of the best options. Read on to learn more.

Prioritizing sleep is one of the most powerful (and underrated) anti-aging tools you have. During deep sleep, your body goes into repair mode—producing growth hormone, regenerating cells, and fixing damage caused by stress and environmental factors. This nightly “reset” helps keep your skin, organs, and even brain functioning optimally.

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The world is full of tips and tricks on how to live longer—some say it’s about eating clean, others swear by cutting stress. But when someone who has crossed the 100-year mark speaks, the world listens. Dr John Scharffenberg, a preventive medicine specialist who lived a rich and active life into his 100s, offered a perspective that turns many popular beliefs on their head.

His message was simple, sincere, and backed by years of real-life observation. The secret, he said, isn’t food or relaxation—it’s something far more practical and often overlooked.

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In an effort to better understand why fruit flies are immediately attracted to our food, a team of scientists developed a device, called Flywalk, to measure the response of insects to odor signals. Researchers discovered males and females of the same species were attracted to different odors and tha

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While CRISPR-mediated gene editing has led to powerful advances across biology, medicine, and agriculture, challenges persist in optimizing the editing efficiency of enzymes, such as the widely used Cas9 nuclease. This is especially true in therapeutic use cases, where the goal is to attain high rates of editing via a relatively low and transient enzyme dose.

In a new study published in the April 2025 issue of The CRISPR Journal titled, “Hairpin Internal Nuclear Localization Signals in CRISPR-Cas9 Enhance Editing in Primary Human Lymphocytes,” researchers from the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, present a strategy to improve editing efficiency in human immune cells for therapeutic applications by leveraging new constructs for nuclear localization signal (NLS) sequences.

“Efficient CRISPR enzyme production is essential for translation. This is one element that allowed the rapid clinical evaluation of Casgevy, the world’s first genome editing drug. Unfortunately, this aspect tends to be overlooked in the basic research performed in academia,” said Ross Wilson, PhD, assistant adjunct professor of molecular and cell biology at UC Berkeley, who led the new study.

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“Vaping and dabbing were most common among young adults aged 18–24 years. Trends in both of these routes of use have increased among adolescents and young adults.”

How does the average U.S. adult consume marijuana? This is what a recent report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) hopes to address as a team of CDC researchers investigated the range of cannabis products that are used by U.S. adults and which products are used more than others. This report has the potential to help scientists, legislators, and the public better understand cannabis use throughout the United States and develop educational and preventive measures for its use.

The report states, “As the availability and types of cannabis products expand, less is known about how persons consume cannabis. Historically, cannabis has most often been smoked; however, additional routes of use are available, including oral ingestion, vaping, and more recently, dabbing (i.e., inhalation of highly concentrated THC-based oils often heated using a blowtorch).”

For the study, the researchers conducted a survey of 138,625 participants to identify how both the frequency and method of cannabis use and broken up into several age groups. In the end, they found that 14,044 (15.3%) used cannabis with 6,848 (7.9%) using it daily. They found that 79.4% smoked cannabis while eating, vaping, and dabbing comprised 41.6%, 30.3%, and 14.6%, respectively. Additionally, 29.3% of non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AN) individuals were found to participate in dabbing, along with 23% of individuals without a high school diploma.

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In a breakthrough with promising real-world applications, a team of Rutgers biophysicists, bioengineers, and plant biologists has captured the first live images.

In a groundbreaking study, researchers at Rutgers University-New Brunswick have captured continuous, 24-hour images of cellulose synthesis, the process by which plant cell walls are built, using living plant cells. This marks the first time the dynamic process of cell-wall construction has been observed in real time, offering critical insights that could lead to the development of more resilient crops, enhanced food production, and lower-cost biofuels.

Published in the journal Science Advances.

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Scientists have unveiled a new food source designed to sustain honey bee colonies indefinitely without natural pollen.

Published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the research from Washington State University and APIX Biosciences NV in Wingene, Belgium, details successful trials where nutritionally stressed colonies, deployed for commercial crop pollination in Washington state, thrived on the new food source.

This innovation, which resembles the man-made diets fed to livestock and pets all their lives, contains all the nutrients bees need. It’s expected to become a potent strategy for combating the escalating rates of colony collapse and safeguarding global food supplies reliant on bee pollination.

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A trio of animal physiologists at the University of Tübingen, in Germany, has found that at least one species of crow has the ability to recognize geometric regularity. In their study published in the journal Science Advances, Philipp Schmidbauer, Madita Hahn and Andreas Nieder conducted several experiments that involved testing crows on their ability to recognize geometric shapes.

Recognizing regularity in geometric shapes means being able to pick out one that is different from others in a group—picking out a plastic star, for example, when it is placed among several plastic moons. Testing for the ability to recognize geometric regularity has been done with many animals, including chimps and bonobos. Until now, this ability has never been observed in any creature except for humans.

Because of that, the team started with a bit of skepticism when they began testing carrion crows. In their work, the testing was done using computer screens—the birds were asked to peck the outlier in a group; if they chose correctly, they got a food treat. The team chose to test carrion crows because prior experiments have shown them to have exceptional intelligence and mathematical capabilities.

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