Scientists probe link between early brain development and conditions such as autism - Financial Times

Brain beholder: Barbara Finlay, pictured here in the Wilder Brain Collection that she curated at Cornell University, spent her 40-year career studying how the brain develops and evolved. Finlay, who died on 12 September, championed the idea that developmental constraints dictate how evolution sculpts brains, a concept she used to model the timing of hundreds of events and align them across mammalian species.

A mother bat has one crucial challenge: find her own babies among hundreds of other bats in the colony. Making sure she cares for and nurses only her own offspring is important to ensuring their survival. Among Japanese house bats, mothers keep track of their pups using the babies' isolation calls.

One of the very dangerous consequences of global warming is the growing incidence of wildfires. Not only do they cause extensive physical destruction, but they put huge quantities of smoke into the atmosphere, severely impacting human health. This pollution can travel long distances from the direct effects of such fires, as witnessed earlier this year in the northeastern US due to wildfire smoke originating in western Canada and the US. This smoke includes a witches’ brew of gases and particles that can have deleterious consequences for human health. Among these are small particles called PM2.5, which can penetrate lung tissue and cause respiratory and cardiovascular harm, including aggravated asthma, decreased lung function, heart attacks, strokes and increased premature mortality. This has been known for some time. A less well-known but also dangerous component of wildfire smoke is ozone, which is a highly reactive molecule composed of three oxygen atoms (O3), as opposed to naturally occurring two-atom oxygen—O2.

A new optical sensor costing just $10 could bring laboratory-level precision to wearable health monitors, potentially allowing people to track blood glucose without needles. The technology could also transform food testing, industrial quality control, and environmental monitoring. Researchers at the University of Cambridge and GlitterinTech (a start-up founded by the same research group) have developed a new type of optical spectrometer that combines exceptional accuracy with a remarkably small size and low cost. Measuring just centimeters across, the device could be incorporated into portable electronics and wearable health technology. Its potential applications range from monitoring important health markers in real time to identifying materials and detecting changes in chemical composition. Optical spectrometers work by analyzing light to reveal information about the substances it interacts with. They are essential tools in medicine, manufacturing, chemical testing, and environmental research. However, making these instruments smaller has traditionally meant compromising their performance.

The largest collection of exploding white dwarf stars ever compiled is providing fresh evidence that dark energy, the mysterious force responsible for the Universe’s accelerating expansion, may change over time. The findings challenge a central assumption of modern cosmology and could help scientists better understand how the Universe evolves. An international research team led by scientists at the University of Queensland’s School of Mathematics and Physics brought together observations of 2,884 Type Ia supernovae. These powerful stellar explosions serve as important tools for measuring distances across the Universe, allowing astronomers to trace its expansion history.

The largest collection of exploding white dwarf stars ever compiled is providing fresh evidence that dark energy, the mysterious force responsible for the Universe’s accelerating expansion, may change over time. The findings challenge a central assumption of modern cosmology and could help scientists better understand how the Universe evolves. An international research team led by scientists at the University of Queensland’s School of Mathematics and Physics brought together observations of 2,884 Type Ia supernovae. These powerful stellar explosions serve as important tools for measuring distances across the Universe, allowing astronomers to trace its expansion history.