High-intensity sprints can trigger molecular changes in the bloodstream - NPR

Psychological stress has long been associated with worsening symptoms in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, the underlying mechanism connecting psychological stress to the occurrence of joint inflammation has remained poorly understood. In particular, how psychological stress can trigger inflammation in joints that were previously affected, even after the disease has gone into remission, remains an important unanswered question.

IntroductionProstate cancer is the most common malignancy in men that accounts for 10% of male cancer-related deaths and is expected to increase in incidence in the coming decades1. Its clinical trajectory is highly variable, with disease courses ranging from localised disease with long indolent phases that often require no therapy, to early-onset cancer that typically necessitates definitive treatment with curative intent2 and life-threatening metastatic prostate cancer3. The management of newly diagnosed prostate cancer is primarily based on established clinical and pathological information along with small gene or mRNA panels. The most pressing unmet clinical needs include reliable prognostic approaches to minimize overtreatment and the identification of therapeutic targets4. This is especially challenging due to the considerable molecular heterogeneity of the disease. Its genomic landscape is dominated by structural variation (SV) and copy-number alteration (CNA) drivers, while in contrast, drivers involving small mutations including single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) and insertions-deletions (indels) are relatively infrequent5,6.

Researchers used the European XFEL to create X-ray flashes that were not only extremely short but also reached record intensity for this type of pulse. The researchers focused the X-rays to an area roughly 100,000 times smaller than the cross section of a typical human hair. This concentrated the X-ray light into a tiny but extremely powerful spot. The method could enable detailed studies of how electrons behave in atoms and molecules and, in the long term, could even allow researchers to control electrons during chemical reactions. The team has now published the results of the experiment, carried out in April 2026, in the journal Optica.