Staggering Results Show HIV-Transmission Reduced 100% with Twice-Yearly Lenacapavir Injection

A 2-stage trial testing a new and acclaimed HIV-prevention drug has shown almost unthinkable results of no new infections among a sample size of 3,200 participants.

Called PURPOSE 1, the aim of the first trial was testing a subcutaneous injection of the drug Lenacapavir given twice a year to people in a high-HIV-incidence country, which in this case was Uganda or South Africa.

The results were nothing short of extraordinary—100% efficacy, not a single young woman contracted HIV.

This was followed up by PURPOSE 2, which expanded the geographical area significantly to more countries on more continents, and expanded the pool of individuals from beyond just young women to men—and to those of all ages. 5,000 participants took part.

The result was the same: 99.9% reduction in infection rates.

Both were considered phase 3 clinical trials, and were conducted in a randomized, double-blinded protocol, but were not tested against a placebo. Instead, the Lenacapavir injections were compared to the current standard of HIV prevention—a pill called Truvada or Descovy taken daily.

These both were also found to prevent HIV transmission by 99.9% during development, but must be taken every day to achieve this level of protection. As anyone who’s tried to stick to a once-a-day pill regime long-term will agree, it’s not an easy thing to maintain month after month.

By contrast, the twice-yearly injections are much easier to adhere to, and they also come with the added benefit of removing the social stigma of being seen taking a daily pill and therefore at risk of HIV transmission. This can be particularly alleviating in high-HIV-prevalent countries where male homosexuality is illegal, such as Uganda.

Indeed the superiority of a twice-yearly injection was so clear that both PURPOSE trials were halted early over ethical reasons. A 52-week follow-up screened for HIV developments.

Lenacapavir was named by Science Magazine as the Breakthrough of the Year in 2024, and was approved by the FDA for use in humans under the brand name Yeztugo.

It works to break down the HIVs capsid shell by binding to an “highly conserved” protein on the exterior. That means that no matter how many times or into what form the virus mutates, the exterior shell protein remains—presenting the perfect target for the drug.

In layman’s terms, the drug then works through the protein to disrupt the capsid shell, which the virus ‘takes down’ and ‘builds up’ several times during its lifecycle with perfect geometric precision. The disruption prevents the virus from completing its life cycle.

Initial R&D, regulation compliance, and proof of efficacy and safety requirements mean that producing Lenacapavir has cost its developer, Gilead Sciences, an undisclosed total cost that would be reasonable to estimate at well over a billion dollars based on normal pharma development costs.Gilead has nevertheless committed to providing the drug at cost in certain low-income regions and has licensed generic manufacturers to produce it for approximately $40 per year in 120 low and middle-income countries starting in 2027 Staggering Results Show HIV-Transmission Reduced 100% with Twice-Yearly Lenacapavir Injection

Read More........→July 17, 2026

Study Finds Many Older Adults Will Improve Over Time–Depending on Their Mindset

Getty Images for Unsplash +

A new study by scientists at Yale University suggests that older individuals can and do ‘improve,’ in all the senses of that word, over time.

Analyzing the results of a large study of older Americans that ran for a decade, a key data point was that the individual’s mindset toward aging plays a major part in their success.

If they believed aging was a process of decline, they declined. If they believed aging was a process of refinement, they improved.

Lead author Dr. Becca R. Levy, PhD, a professor of social and behavioral sciences at the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) found that nearly half of adults aged 65 and older showed measurable improvement in cognitive function, physical function, or both, over time.

The improvements were not limited to a small group of exceptional individuals and, notably, were linked to a powerful but often overlooked factor: how people think about aging itself.

“Many people equate aging with an inevitable and continuous loss of physical and cognitive abilities,” said Dr. Levy, an international expert on psychosocial determinants of aging health. “What we found is that improvement in later life is not rare, it’s common, and it should be included in our understanding of the aging process.”

The findings are published in the journal Geriatrics.

For the study, the researchers followed more than 11,000 participants in the Health and Retirement Study, a federally supported longitudinal survey of older Americans. The research team tracked changes in cognition using a global performance assessment, and physical function using walking speed—often described by geriatricians as a “vital sign” because of its strong links to disability, hospitalization, and mortality.

Over a follow-up period of up to 12 years, 45% of participants improved in at least one of the two domains, according to the study. About 32% improved cognitively, 28% improved physically, and many experienced gains that exceeded thresholds considered clinically meaningful.

When participants whose cognitive scores remained stable over that period (rather than declining) were included, more than half defied the stereotype of inevitable deterioration in cognition.

“What’s striking is that these gains disappear when you only look at averages,” said Dr. Levy, author of the book 

“If you average everyone together, you see decline,” Dr. Levy continued. “But when you look at individual trajectories, you uncover a very different story. A meaningful percentage of the older participants that we studied got better.”

As for why, Levy and her co-authors hypothesized that an important factor could be participants had assimilated more positive or more negative views about aging by the start of the study. In support of this hypothesis, they found that those with more positive age beliefs were significantly more likely to show improvements in both cognition and walking speed, even after accounting for factors such as age, sex, education, chronic disease, depression, and length of follow-up.

The findings build on Dr. Levy’s stereotype embodiment theory, which posits that age stereotypes absorbed through a range of domains including social media and advertisements eventually become self-relevant and biologically consequential.

Credit: Getty Images for Unsplash+

Dr. Levy’s prior studies have found negative age beliefs predict poorer memory, slower walking speed, higher cardiovascular risk, and biomarkers associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The current study shows that those who have assimilated more positive age beliefs often show improvement, Dr. Levy said.

“Our findings suggest there is often a reserve capacity for improvement in later life,” she said. “And because age beliefs are modifiable, this opens the door to interventions at both the individual and societal level.”

The improvements were not limited to people who started out with impairments. Even among participants who had normal cognitive or physical function at baseline, a substantial proportion improved over time. That challenges the assumption that later-life gains reflect only people getting better after being sick or rebounding from earlier setbacks, the authors said.

The authors hope their findings will reverse the popular perception that continuous decline is inevitable and encourage policy makers to increase their support for preventive care, rehabilitation, and other health-promoting programs for older persons that draw on their potential resilience. https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/new-study-finds-many-older-adults-can-and-do-improve-over-time-depending-on-their-mindset/

Read More........→June 25, 2026

Signs of Breast Cancer Could Be Spotted 3-6 Years Before Diagnosis Using AI Screening, Shows Massive Study

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AI could have detected disease up to 6 years before 2014 breast cancer diagnosis screenings

Early warning signs of breast cancer could have been spotted years in advance using AI, suggests a new study that analyzed 88,963 mammograms performed during a 10-year period on over 31,000 patients.

The researchers showed that the latest artificial intelligence technology can provide an “early alert” for the disease up to six years before a diagnosis.

Swedish researchers tested three commercially available AI-based computer-assisted detection (AI-CAD) radiology systems on the mammogram data.

The findings, published in the journal Radiology, showed that cancer prediction scores issued by AI-CAD were elevated, on average, for people who were eventually diagnosed with breast cancer, while scores were low for those who remained cancer-free.

“Approximately 20% of breast cancer cases demonstrate mammographic signs that are already visible to AI around six years before diagnosis,” said senior co-author Professor Fredrik Strand, of Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm.

“Our study confirms the potential of AI to, in some cases, find signs of cancer in the mammograms much earlier than when radiologists detected it.”

AI-based systems have shown promise for predicting 5-year risk of breast cancer and identifying women at risk of “interval” cancers between regular screening mammograms, but Prof. Strand’s team looked at their potential to flag mammographic signs that were present up to 10 years (in advance), after collecting mammograms from volunteers aged 40 to 74 across Sweden.

After these volunteer screening exams, two radiologists analyzed each mammogram, which was scheduled every two years—taken between 2008 and 2019.

Across that period, 12,072 of the participants (38.5%) were diagnosed with cancer by radiologist readers.

The AI-CAD systems successfully identified many of those cancers at earlier screening points.

It achieved 90% “specificity” (able to distinguish between a true positive and a true negative result) in nearly 20% of participants six years before their recorded diagnosis, up to 25% of individuals four years before diagnosis and up to nearly 40% two years before diagnosis.

“This study aims to add to the growing literature regarding the application of AI in breast cancer screening and how it can help play a role in earlier detection of breast cancer,” said Strand.

“Analyzing the AI scores of screened individuals over time could provide insight into how early detectable changes arise, potentially allowing for earlier intervention.” Signs of Breast Cancer Could Be Spotted 3-6 Years Before Diagnosis Using AI Screening, Shows Massive Study:

Read More........→June 18, 2026

UN report warns AI could soon use 3% of world’s electricity and more water than we need to drink

Amanda Turnbull-McRae, University of Waikato

One argument often used to quell concerns about the rising energy and resource demand of data centres is that artificial intelligence (AI) models will need less in the future as they improve and become more efficient.

But this seemingly logical thinking is a trap, according to a new United Nations report that quantifies the environmental costs of AI.

The report estimates that by 2030, AI’s energy use could double to consume 3% of the world’s electricity, produce emissions to equal the UK and deplete more water for cooling than the annual drinking water need of the global population.

It also anticipates the use of AI will follow an economic principle known as the “Jevons paradox”, which predicts that when technological improvements increase the efficiency of a resource, it leads to a rise, rather than a fall, in the total consumption of that resource.

The paradox is named after economist William Stanley Jevons who observed this effect with the use of coal in 19th-century England. Efficiency gains did not reduce overall consumption. Instead, the lower costs resulted in expanded use and higher overall demand.

As AI models become cheaper and more attractive, the report expects this to encourage new uses and higher volumes of use, eroding and possibly erasing any savings from efficiency advances.

To avoid falling into this trap, it lays out a roadmap for responsible AI use based on guiding principles of transparency, efficiency by design, equity and justice, lifecycle responsibility, global cooperation and sustainable use.

The scale of the problem

Last year, data centres already consumed as much electricity as Saudi Arabia, which ranks as the world’s 11th largest electricity consumer.

If electricity use doubles as projected by 2030, the associated carbon footprint would require 6.7 billion trees grown over ten years to offset this demand.

Data centres would also require 9.3 trillion litres of water and land nearly ten times the size of Mexico City.

Beyond resource use, the report also underscores the structural inequity at the heart of the AI boom, with only 32 nations hosting AI-specific cloud infrastructure and 90% of that capacity located in the US and China.

It warns of a widening digital divide between nations that build and control AI systems and those that consume them, with the latter often bearing a disproportionate environmental burden caused by mineral extraction and e-waste.

Responsible AI use

Two main forces shape AI’s operational footprint: how much we use it and how we use it.

This involves all tasks AI models perform, from text and code generation to image and video. Each of these tasks requires different levels of computational effort.

The model choice also matters as each AI system performs these task with distinct energy and environmental costs.

The report argues responsible AI requires full value-chain governance, from mineral sourcing to recycling and safe disposal.

It calls for a twinning of capability and environmental stewardship – thinking about both what AI can do for us and the protection of the natural environment.

This would mean making environmental disclosures a routine part of AI development, at both the model and task level, and incorporating projected AI demand in climate and energy planning.

Responsible AI is crucial as countries are promoting and adopting AI across government and the public sector.

In Aotearoa New Zealand, the government has launched a national AI strategy and a public service AI framework.

While the framework was informed by the OECD’s values-based AI principles, including inclusive and sustainable development, there is no requirement for environmental disclosures and no regulator compiling energy use or emissions.

Likewise in Australia, improving public services is part of the national AI plan. For example, the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia has created Bowerbird, a machine learning-enabled mass audio and video transcription engine, to document material. The Department of Veteran’s Affairs has developed a proof-of-concept tool to see whether AI can help speed up the processing of claims.

Both countries take a deliberate “light touch” and principles-based regulatory approach to AI. But this approach risks overlooking the growing environmental cost of AI that can’t be solved by improving it.

The natural environment is foundational to the economy, culture and wellbeing. It should be at the centre of our thinking. It’s time to rethink the AI innovation playbook and shift focus toward a sustainable tech future.

Amanda Turnbull-McRae, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Waikato

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→June 05, 2026

Climate change‑related heat increases the risk of premature birth in 13 countries – new study

Dominic Royé, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC); Ana M Vicedo-Cabrera, University of Bern; Aurelio Tobias, Instituto de Diagnóstico Ambiental y Estudios del Agua (IDAEA - CSIC); Carmen Íñiguez, Universitat de València, and Coral Salvador, University of Bern

Picture a sweltering summer’s day. Now imagine enduring the heat while eight months pregnant. Uncomfortable, to say the absolute least.

But in pregnancy, heat is more than just a nuisance, as for many women it can trigger early labour. A premature baby – meaning one born before 37 weeks of gestation – faces a significantly higher risk of mortality, as well as health complications that can affect them for the rest of their lives.

Decades of research has documented the link between exposure to heat and preterm births. However, most studies have been limited to a single city or country, using different methods that yielded results which were difficult to compare.

So how many premature births are actually caused by heat in different parts of the world? Are all pregnant women equally vulnerable? Our new study, published in Environment International, provides the most comprehensive answers to these questions to date.

13 countries, 36 million births

We analysed 36.6 million births that took place during the summer in 250 towns and cities, across 13 countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Estonia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Paraguay, Spain, Switzerland and the United States) between 1979 and 2019. This is the most extensive multi-site analysis conducted on this topic to date.

To estimate the relationship between temperature and the risk of preterm birth, we used cutting edge statistical models that allowed us to see the delayed and non-linear effects of heat exposure in the days leading up to delivery.

The findings are clear: the risk of preterm birth increases linearly as temperatures rise. On days of moderate heat, this risk increases by 2.8%. On days of extreme heat, the increase reaches 3.8%.

855 extra premature births per million

Translating these risks into specific figures provides a clearer picture of the scale of the problem. We estimate that 1.41% of all premature births occurring during the summer are attributable to heat. In absolute terms, this equates to 855 extra premature births per million births.

The magnitude is comparable to that of other well-established factors. For example, it far exceeds the contribution of maternal smoking in low and middle-income countries, and is on a par with that of malaria. And heat is already a major environmental risk factor for reproductive health.

The differences between countries are also revealing. Paraguay has the highest rate, with 1,347 preterm births per million, while Switzerland has the lowest, with 628. Spain falls in the upper-middle range, with 1,080 per million. This variability suggests that climate, the level of socio-economic development, and each country’s capacity to adapt significantly influence the vulnerability of pregnant women.

Not all pregnancies have the same risk

One of our study’s most significant findings suggests that heat may not affect all women equally. Young single mothers with lower levels of education who are in a vulnerable socio-economic situation may be at greater risk of heat-induced preterm birth.

Female foetuses also appear to be more susceptible than male foetuses. However, most of these subgroup analyses were not statistically significant, so further research is needed to confirm them.

There are specific mechanisms behind these differences. People who are economically disadvantaged are more likely to live in particularly hot areas due to the urban heat island effect. They are also more likely to work outdoors, and to lack access to air conditioning or other means of protection against the heat. Social inequality and climate inequality overlap, and the most vulnerable pregnant women pay the highest price.

Heat also speeds up births at term

Perhaps the most surprising finding of our research is that the effect of heat is not limited to preterm births. We have also observed a significant increase in the risk of delivery in pregnancies that would be considered clinically normal, between weeks 37 and 42. Specifically, extreme heat increases the risk of delivery in weeks 37-38 by 3.66%, and in pregnancies of 39 weeks or more by 2.97%.

This means that heat can act as a trigger for labour in foetuses that, under other circumstances, would have continued to develop normally. The most sensitive gestational window is from week 31 to week 40, spanning late preterm and early term births.

Root causes

There are many biological mechanisms at play here. Heat can raise body temperature and trigger uterine contractions. The dehydration caused by heat also disrupts the electrolyte balance and reduces blood flow to the placenta. Furthermore, heat triggers inflammatory processes and oxidative stress, which can compromise foetal development and accelerate cervical ripening.

Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable because their bodies generate more heat than usual due to foetal growth, while also having a reduced ability to dissipate that heat because of weight gain.

Global warming

These findings are particularly worrying in light of climate change. Over the coming decades, heatwaves will become more frequent, more intense, and will last longer. If we fail to act, the burden of preterm births attributable to high temperatures will only increase, undermining decades of progress in neonatal and child health.

A proper response requires action on several fronts. In the clinical setting, health systems must incorporate heat as a risk factor in antenatal care, particularly for socially vulnerable women. In the urban sphere, it is urgent to develop adaptation strategies – green spaces, climate shelters, early warning systems – that protect pregnant women during episodes of extreme heat. And at the policy level, these findings must be translated into ambitious emissions reduction targets.

Extreme heat is no longer just a matter of comfort. It is a question of public health, social equity and climate justice. And pregnant women are on the front line.

Dominic Royé, Investigador Ramon y Cajal, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC); Ana M Vicedo-Cabrera, Head Climate Change & Health research group, University of Bern; Aurelio Tobias, Associate professor, Instituto de Diagnóstico Ambiental y Estudios del Agua (IDAEA - CSIC); Carmen Íñiguez, Profesora en el Departamento de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, Universitat de València, and Coral Salvador, Senior Research Assistant, University of Bern

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→May 27, 2026

First video of immune cells eating live skin cancer in real time

Macrophages (green) engulfing melanoma cells (purple). Keith et al. / Garvan Institute, CC BY-SA Yuki Keith, Garvan Institute and Tri Phan, Garvan Institute

For the past 15 years or so, a class of drugs called immune checkpoint inhibitors have been used to treat melanoma – the most dangerous kind of skin cancer.

For many patients, they produce remarkable results. For others, they do nothing.

We still don’t really know why. But in new research published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, we observed immune cells called macrophages attacking melanoma cells in real time – which may offer clues about how we can make those therapies work for all patients, not just some.

Tumours, hot and cold

One of us (Yuki) treated patients with melanoma in Japan as a dermatologist. The other (Tri Phan) runs a lab at the Garvan Institute in Sydney, where his team specialises in observing the cells of the immune system in real time.

When Yuki wanted to understand why immune checkpoint inhibitors were failing for many patients, she joined Tri Phan’s lab to continue her research.

The treatment fails in what oncologists call “cold” tumours, where the cancer’s environment actively prevents a kind of immune cell called a T cell attacking it. One of our lab’s aims is trying to work out how to make the tumours “hot”, allowing T cells to penetrate and destroy the cancer cells.

Our new findings suggest a different kind of immune cell, called macrophages, may hold the key.

Macrophages (green) engulfing melanoma cells (purple). Yuki Keith, CC BY

The housekeepers we’ve been ignoring

In 1908, Russian zoologist Ilya Mechnikov was awarded a Nobel Prize for the discovery of phagocytosis (“cell eating”) in the immune system, which is carried out by cells he called macrophages (from the Greek for “big eaters”).

These cells engulf and clear away the debris caused by tissue damage and cell death. They are often regarded as the body’s silent, no-fuss housekeepers.

However, their role in cancer has often been overlooked. Unlike other immune cells that move through the blood and patrol the whole body, macrophages are “tissue-resident” and stay in one place.

A microscopic view of a melanoma tumour growing in the skin shows CD169 macrophages in green and yellow forming a biological boundary wall around the tumour. Keith et al. / Garvan Institute, CC BY

Earlier studies of the role of macrophages in cancer assumed these housekeepers were all the same. But when we looked closely in the skin, it became clear that there were many different kinds of macrophages living in different layers.

One particular kind of macrophages (recognised by a protein called CD169) lives in a deeper part of the skin, called the hypodermis.

We found that these macrophages arranged themselves around the edges of a melanoma tumour, as if they were trying to wall it off. When we depleted the macrophages, the melanomas grew bigger, suggesting they were constraining the growth of the tumours.

Watching cancer cells being eaten alive

To understand what these CD169-positive macrophages were actually doing, we used an advanced imaging technique called intravital two-photon microscopy. This allows us to watch biological processes unfold in living tissue in real time.

What we saw was surprising: the macrophages were “nibbling” and actively engulfing live melanoma cells. While we had seen macrophages eat dead cells in our lab before, we had never seen them eat a live melanoma cell in a model organism.

What was even more surprising was that this immune attack was happening without the need for T cells, or antibodies made by another kind of immune cell called B cells – the immune players most commonly credited with fighting cancer.

We also confirmed this is not something that just happens in the lab. Our colleagues at the Melanoma Institute Australia analysed samples from human melanoma patients and found similar populations of CD169-expressing macrophages on the edges of the tumour, suggesting they may play a similar protective role there.

Calling in the cavalry – implications for therapies

Macrophages don’t just clear away debris. They can also alert the immune system to danger. After they have digested the debris, they can display it like a biological “red flag” to direct T cells to find and kill the cancer cells.

What makes a macrophage decide whether to silently dispose of debris without alerting the immune system, or wave the red flags to activate the immune system, is still unclear. Because the CD169-expressing macrophages are strategically positioned around the tumours, we suspect they may hold the key.

Macrophages are widespread in most solid tumours – including glioblastoma, breast cancer and many others. This is an army already in place waiting to be mobilised.

Our next step is to understand precisely how these macrophages eat live cancer cells and how they can communicate the danger to T cells, so we can harness this population with new treatments.

Yuki Keith, Postdoctoral Researcher, Immunology, Garvan Institute and Tri Phan, Program Director – Precision Immunology / Laboratory Head, Garvan Institute

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→May 27, 2026

The cradle of Earth’s rich ocean life was a massive coral reef system 20 million years ago

Oleksandr Sushko/Unsplash Alexandre Siqueira, Edith Cowan University

New research published today in Science Advances reveals that the largest expansion of coral reefs in the past 100 million years happened about 20 to 10 million years ago, between Australia and Southeast Asia.

This vast reef system likely laid the foundations for the extraordinary diversity of marine life we see today.

Coral reefs are among the most diverse ecosystems on Earth. They support about a quarter of all marine species while covering less than 1% of the oceans. Yet scientists have long grappled with the question of how such immense diversity arose in the first place. Where did it begin, and what made it possible?

Our new study uncovers a turning point deep in Earth’s history – a time when reefs didn’t just grow, but expanded on a scale far beyond anything we see today. This expansion may have created the ecological space needed for modern coral reef life to flourish.

Coral reefs are major biodiversity hotspots. Ahmer Kalam/Unsplash

An enduring mystery

Biodiversity simply refers to the variety of life in a given place. On coral reefs, this diversity is staggering: thousands of species of fish, corals and other organisms coexist in tightly packed ecosystems.

However, despite decades of research, the origins of this richness have remained an enduring mystery.

Our new study reveals that changes in environmental, biological and tectonic conditions about 20 million years ago promoted the dramatic expansion of coral reefs across a region stretching between Australia and Southeast Asia.

Today, this area is known as the Indo-Australian Archipelago. It’s recognised as a global hotspot of marine biodiversity, especially in an area called the Coral Triangle.

The expansion of reefs in this area coincided with the emergence of many familiar reef organisms, including plating corals and iconic fish groups like parrotfishes.

To uncover this, we combined evidence from geological records, fossils and genetic data. Together, these independent lines of evidence allowed us to pinpoint when and where modern reef biodiversity began to take shape, without relying on any single source alone.

Results suggest reef expansion itself played a crucial role in generating biodiversity. As reefs grew larger, they likely created new habitats and ecological opportunities, allowing species to evolve and diversify.

We have now named this ancient network of reefs the Great Indo-Australian Miocene Reef System. The large reefs in this system were mostly built by corals and crustose coralline algae, an essential group of algae for holding together reef structures. These reefs also provided very important habitat for fish groups that we see on coral reefs today, such as surgeonfishes and butterflyfishes.

Remnants of an epic reef

Surprisingly, the region where this expansion occurred is not where the largest reefs are found today. Instead, reefs off northwestern Australia – including Ashmore Reef, Scott Reef, and the Rowley Shoals – may be remnants of what was once one of the largest reef systems to have ever existed.

Previous geological work has shown this ancient west Australian barrier reef rivalled the extent of the present-day Great Barrier Reef. The new findings go further, suggesting individual reefs within this system may have been far larger than any modern reef.

In fact, the roots of modern marine fish and coral biodiversity may lie in this unexpected place off Australia’s west coast. Over millions of years, biodiversity spread and accumulated elsewhere, particularly across the Indo-Pacific Ocean.

However, there are still uncertainties. Reconstructing ecosystems from millions of years ago requires combining incomplete records. Some aspects of reef size and how these ecosystems connected remain difficult to resolve, as the geological record only contains the remnants of entire reef systems.

But the overall pattern is clear. A massive expansion of reefs about 20 million years ago coincided with the rise of modern marine diversity.

The message is also simple. To understand where biodiversity is today, we need to look deep into the past. The richest ecosystems on Earth may owe their origins to places that no longer appear exceptional – hidden chapters of Earth’s history that continue to shape life in our oceans.

Coral reefs support thousands of species in a small area. Francesco Ungaro/Unsplash

Alexandre Siqueira, ARC DECRA and Vice-Chancellor's Research Fellow, School of Science, Edith Cowan University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→May 05, 2026

Birds and monkeys in the Amazon share information via ‘internet of the forest’: new research

Ettore Camerlenghi, Deakin University and Ari Martínez, University of California, Santa Cruz

You might go for a walk in the forest to disconnect from work and calm your nerves after a busy week. The chirping and calls of birds in the canopy above might be exactly what allows you to relax.

But what sounds soothing to humans may signal danger to other animals – and trigger fear across the forest.

In our research, published today in Current Biology, we show that when some animals spot a predator they issue a warning cry that is picked up by others and spread through the rainforest canopy. For a time, different species are linked into a shared information network, and parts of the forest briefly fall silent.

Birds and monkeys

During an expedition to a remote area of the Peruvian Amazon, working with a falconer, we used trained raptors to trigger warning calls from birds and primates. We recorded the calls then played them back into the forest and monitored how the community responded.

We already knew that birds sometimes repeat the warnings of others – occasionally even those of different species, or of primates. What we wanted to know was how widespread this behaviour is across the animal community.

Researchers released birds of prey in the Amazon rainforest to study how the alarm calls of other animals travel through the ‘internet of the forest’.

We discovered that alarm calls produced by small bird species – those weighing less than 100 grams – were most often passed on. Other small birds living in the canopy were the most likely to relay the call, but other animals joined in too.

Larger species, including capuchin and spider monkeys, sometimes responded as well. Two canopy species in particular – the black-fronted and the white-fronted nunbirds – stood out as especially likely to repeat and propagate the warnings of their neighbours throughout the forest.

Sounds and silence

Alarm calls from species living in the forest understorey were far less likely to spread and be propagated by other birds or primates.

However, even when these alarm calls were not repeated, they changed the forest’s soundscape. Small canopy birds almost completely stopped singing after hearing a predator alert. At the same time, animals in lower forest layers often continued to make sounds despite the perceived threat.

Together, these findings suggest that the Amazonian canopy is not only the rainforest’s most mysterious layer – largely unexplored and home to much of its biodiversity – but also functions as an information highway, like a fibre-optic network through which animals rapidly share signals of danger.

A new layer of the ‘internet of the forest’

In the past decade, the idea of an “internet of the forest” has become popular through the concept of the “wood wide web”, where plants exchange resources and information via root systems and fungal networks. Our work points to another communication system, one operating high above the ground.

Suspended above our heads is a vast ecosystem where animals constantly listen to one another, forming an eavesdropping network that spreads critical information within seconds.

The vocal activity of birds is usually associated with finding mates and defending territories. However, we now know that sometimes this activity, or lack of it, may represent pulses of a soundscape of fear.

Next time you walk through a rainforest, look up and listen to the birds. A sudden silence may mean a raptor is gliding somewhere above the canopy.

Ettore Camerlenghi, Associate Research Fellow, Avian Behaviour, Deakin University and Ari Martínez, Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→April 21, 2026

First Quantum Battery Prototype Marks Big Step for Technology Expected to Change the World

The prototype quantum battery – credit, CSIRO

Australian researchers have developed and tested the world’s first quantum battery.

Their prototype is far from anything that will be a perspective power source in an EV or storage facility, but the experiment revealed some important directions for future research.

A theoretical concept since 2013, the prototype was charged wirelessly with a laser, one of the special properties that quantum mechanics in battery technology promises if it can be properly understood and harnessed.

Lead researcher Dr. James Quach of CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency which led the study on the device, said it’s the first quantum battery ever made that performs a full charge-discharge cycle.

Dr. Quach explained that in society today, the larger the battery, the longer the charge time.

“That’s why your mobile phone takes about 30 minutes to charge and your electric car takes overnight to charge,” he said, adding that in contrast, “quantum batteries have this really peculiar property where the larger they are, the less time they take to charge.”

Less time really is an almost worthless descriptor in this case, because the prototype created by CSIRO was fully charged within a few quadrillionths of a second.

The problem is that the discharge rate was a few nanoseconds, which despite being 6 orders of magnitude longer, could be of no use to anyone now. Quach provided some interesting relative comparisons to help mere mortals conceptualize why this could be a world-changing innovation if improved.

If it takes 30 minutes to fully charge a mobile phone, and it too had a discharge rate equal to 6 orders of magnitude, that means it wouldn’t need to be recharged even after a decade of use.

“What we need to do next is… to increase the storage time,” Quach said, touching on this point. “You want your battery to hold charge longer than a few nanoseconds if you want to be able to talk to someone on a mobile phone.”

Additionally, the prototype doesn’t hold enough voltage to power anything substantial.

While this might all sound rather pointless, another, non-involved expert in the development of quantum batteries, University of Queensland Professor Andrew White, told the Guardian that the experiment was a huge success in getting the technology off the drawing board and into the real world for the first time.People would be far more likely to adopt EVs if they could be fully-charged in few seconds, even if their range was severely reduced. First Quantum Battery Prototype Marks Big Step for Technology Expected to Change the World

Read More........→April 16, 2026

High-salt diet linked to faster memory decline in men: Study

(Representational photo; source: IANS)

Sydney, (IANS) A diet high in salt may accelerate memory decline in men, Australian research reveals, highlighting the importance of dietary choices in supporting brain health.

The study found that higher sodium intake may impair episodic memory, which enables people to recall personal experiences and past events, such as where you parked your car or your first day of school, said a statement from Australia's Edith Cowan University (ECU) released Wednesday.

Measuring baseline sodium intake and cognitive decline of 1,208 participants over 72 months, researchers found that men with higher sodium intake experienced faster episodic memory decline, while no link was seen in women.

While sodium serves several physiological functions and is inextricably linked to the maintenance of the body, high sodium consumption has consistently been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events and high blood pressure, according to the study published in Neurobiology of Ageing.

Lead researcher Samantha Gardener from ECU said that while the molecular mechanisms behind the process were not yet understood, it was thought that high sodium intake could contribute to inflammation in the brain, damage to blood vessels, and reduced blood flow to the brain.

Meanwhile, a recent Israeli study suggested that while memories themselves may fade, the explanations people give for why they remember events remain detailed and stable over time.

Researchers analysed the self-reported explanations of 421 participants using linguistic tools to track changes in content and detail. They found that while the ability to recall specific events declined over time, the depth and content of participants' justifications remained steady.

The frequency of these explanations and the types of words used were consistent, indicating they may serve as reliable markers of memory accuracy.

Subtle shifts in wording over time, however, suggest that a person's confidence in their memory may decrease as the event recedes into the past.The study, published in Communications Psychology, indicates that even when memories feel "fuzzy," the reasons people give for recalling them remain a relatively dependable way to assess their truthfulness. Still, legal and clinical professionals should note that confidence may waver, even if the justification itself remains strong. High-salt diet linked to faster memory decline in men: Study | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........→April 16, 2026

AI-powered digital stethoscopes show promise in bridging screening gaps

(Photo: Eko Health, US) IANS

New Delhi, As tuberculosis (TB) continues as the deadliest infectious cause of deaths globally, a new study has shown that artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled digital stethoscopes can help fill critical screening gaps, especially in hard-to-reach areas.

In a commentary published in the journal Med (Cell Press), global experts contended that stethoscopes combined with digital technology and AI can be a better option against the challenges faced in screening programmes, such as under-detection, high cost, and inequitable access.

“AI-enabled digital stethoscopes have demonstrated promising accuracy and feasibility for detecting lung and cardiovascular abnormalities, with promising results in early TB studies. Training and validation in diverse, high-burden settings are essential to explore the potential of this tool further,” said corresponding author Madhukar Pai from McGill University, Canada, along with researchers from the UAE, Germany, and Switzerland.

Despite advancements in screening and diagnostic tools, an estimated 2.7 million people with TB were missed by current screening programmes, as per data from the World Health Organization (WHO). Routine symptom screening is also likely to miss people with asymptomatic or subclinical TB.

While the WHO recently recommended several AI-powered computer-aided detection (CAD) software, as well as ultra-portable radiography hardware, higher operating costs and upfront hardware act as a deterrent.

This particularly appeared difficult in primary care settings and or among pregnant women due to radiation concerns.

At the same time, AI showed significant potential for screening, including applications beyond CAD of TB from radiographs, said the researchers.

“One application of AI for disease screening is to interpret acoustic (sound) biomarkers of disease, with potential to identify sounds that appear nonspecific or are inaudible to the human ear,” they added, while highlighting the potential of AI in detecting and interpreting cough biomarkers and lung auscultation to analyse breath sounds.

Studies from high-TB burden countries, including India, Peru, South Africa, Uganda, and Vietnam, highlighted that AI-enabled auscultation could hold promise as a TB screening and triage tool.

"AI digital stethoscopes may become useful alternatives to imaging-based approaches for TB screening, with the potential to democratise access to care for populations underserved by radiography," the researchers said."Importantly, AI digital stethoscopes offer a scalable, low-cost, and person-centered tool that could bring us closer to reaching TB case finding goals," they added. AI-powered digital stethoscopes show promise in bridging screening gaps | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........→April 12, 2026

The future remains bleak for corals – but not all reefs are doomed

 

Christopher Cornwall, CC BY-NC-ND

Christopher Cornwall, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington and Orlando Timmerman, University of Cambridge

A recent report on global tipping points warned that coral reefs face widespread dieback and have reached a point from which they cannot recover.

But in our new research, we show this might not be the case for some reefs if corals can gain tolerance to rising temperatures, or if we can cut greenhouse gas emissions and restore reefs with heat-tolerant corals at scale.

Nevertheless, the outlook likely remains bleak.

 

All coral reefs are under threat but some may be more tolerant to warming waters. Christopher Cornwall, CC BY-NC-ND

Coral reefs provide habitat for thousands of other species in tropical oceans. They deliver economic value through fisheries and tourism and provide shoreline protection from storm surges and extreme weather by dampening the impact of waves.

However, coral reefs are vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Our study combines previously published assessments of climate impacts on different coral reefs and reviews the scientific consensus to examine how long reef structures could persist as climate change intensifies.

Ocean warming, acidification, darkening and deoxygenation all threaten the persistence of coral reefs. Ocean warming brings marine heatwaves, which are the leading cause of mass coral bleaching that has led to a global decline in coral cover.

Marine heatwaves have already led to a global decline in coral reefs. Christopher Cornwall, CC BY-NC-ND

Corals are animals that house microalgae within their tissues that provide sugar in exchange for nitrogen. When temperatures become too hot, corals expel these symbiotic microalgae, leaving behind white skeletons.

Ocean acidification reduces the ability of corals to build their skeletons through a process called calcification. Warming, darkening and deoxygenation can also reduce calcification.

When corals expel their symbiotic algae, all that remains are bleached skeletons. Chris Perry, CC BY-NC-ND

Coral reefs are built by adding calcium carbonate, coming mostly from corals but also coralline algae and other calcareous seaweeds. But as the ocean’s pH (a measure of acidity) is reduced, processes called bio-erosion and dissolution act to remove calcium carbonate.

Our meta-analysis examined how climate change affects the calcification and bio-erosion of coral reefs and we then applied these results to a global data set of reef growth.

There is no scientific consensus on which organisms will build future coral reefs. We explore four most likely scenarios:

1. Present-day extreme reefs represent the future of coral reefs. These are locations where temperatures are already warmer, waters are becoming more acidic and oxygen has dropped to conditions similar to those expected at the end of the century. These reefs are dominated by coralline algae and slow-growing heat-resistant corals.

Some reefs already experience conditions expected at the end of the century. Steeve Comeau, CC BY-NC-ND

2. Presently degraded reefs take over future reefs. These reefs are dominated by bio-eroders such as sponges and sea urchins and have low coral cover.

3. Corals can gain heat tolerance to an extent that keeps pace with low to moderate greenhouse gas emissions scenarios. Under these scenarios, only about 36% of global corals would be lost and there would be a moderate reduction in growth. These heat-tolerant reefs are dominated by faster growing corals with symbiotic microalgae that can evolve heat tolerance.

4. Reefs where restoration practices include using heat-tolerant corals that can then disperse to other regions. These restored reefs would have lower coral cover in remote regions lacking restoration or with unsuccessful restoration practices. This kind of reef restoration would need to cover half of global coral reefs to maintain net growth – an unlikely scenario.

We found coral reefs transition to net erosion under all scenarios, even under low to moderate greenhouse gas emissions, meaning they are dissolving or being eaten faster than they can grow. Only reefs with heat-tolerant corals could prevent this from occurring.

The next step for the scientific community is to determine which reefs can persist in the future using global efforts to combine information. The major issues is that we are missing measurements from large parts of the Pacific, and we do not know how deoxygenation or coastal darkening will impact coral reefs. The processes of reef bioerosion and dissolution are also poorly described.

Although the climate has been altered to the point of threatening the future survival of coral reefs, their fate is not doomed yet if we act now.

Another question is how long reef structures will persist after living corals are removed. We do not have an answer yet. It will take global efforts to rapidly obtain these measurements to better manage and protect coral reefs before climate change intensifies.

It is up to governments everywhere, including New Zealand, to better support these initiatives before it is too late.

Christopher Cornwall, Lecturer in Marine Biology, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington and Orlando Timmerman, Doctoral Candidate in Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→March 16, 2026

Animals can talk over huge distances – but humans might be changing their range

 

Ben JJ Walker / UNSW Sydney, CC BY-NC-ND Ben JJ Walker, UNSW Sydney

Animals are noisy. And their noises can travel a long way.

But making sounds can be a double-edged sword: it can help them communicate, sometimes over long distances, but it can also reveal them to predators.

In new research published in the Journal of Mammalian Evolution, my colleague and I studied how far the sounds of 103 different mammal species travel, and discovered some surprising patterns.

What’s more, these patterns hint at an overlooked impact humans may be having on our fellow creatures: not only changing their sonic landscapes through our own noise, but also changing the world their sounds are travelling through, with unknown effects.

What’s happening in the water?

In aquatic mammals, the relationship between the size of an animal and the farthest distance its call travels is simple. Bigger animals can be heard farther away.

On a perfect day in perfect conditions, the call of a blue whale (the largest animal in history) can travel up to 1,600 kilometres. Its (slightly smaller) cousin the fin whale can be heard over a similar distance.

These are the longest-travelling animal sounds ever reported.

What’s happening on land?

On land, the story is very different. Environmental factors are crucial to how far the sound of a terrestrial mammal travels.

Things that matter include the size of an animal’s home range (the area in which it lives and defends resources), whether a call is territorial (to defend against other animals), whether the environment is open versus densely vegetated, and if the animal is very social or solitary.

On a good day in the savannah, lions and elephants have sounds that travel 8km and 10km, respectively.

Lions call to announce their presence in the landscape and to defend territories. Ben JJ Walker / UNSW Sydney, CC BY-NC-ND

Lions Chorusing. Ben J.J. Walker, CC BY-SA422 KB (download)

How does this work?

Our research is centred around the idea that your sound reveals you to predators, and that revelation leads to a higher risk of injury and death (potentially before you pass on your genes, and hence reducing what evolutionary biologists call “fitness”). This would be because the predator can more quickly locate its calling prey.

There is a delicate balance between using sounds to communicate and using sounds in the wrong place and at the wrong time.

If sound is revealed at the wrong distance, it may mess up the reason an animal uses the sound in the first place.

Animals that cannot adapt to changes in the sound environment may reveal themselves and be eaten, or may be unable to find their friends.

Where does this fit?

In the midst of human-induced environmental and species change, understanding how animals use sounds to communicate and find each other has become valuable to conservation. Many ecosystems are being cleared on land to make way for development and agriculture.

Our finding that land mammals in closed habitats have evolved to have relatively farther sound distances is important because of what happens when the environment changes.

If a possum has evolved in a eucalyptus forest, for example, and the forest is cleared, its sounds will travel farther (because there are fewer trees to muffle it). As a result, the possum may reveal itself to a predator when it doesn’t mean to.

This in turn means the animal’s call leaves it more exposed than it “should” in evolutionary terms. The animal may not have the same tools to escape predators that animals evolved for open environments do, and so may be more easily eaten.

What are humans doing?

Many species have reduced in body size due to things like harvesting activities and climate change.

It’s a well documented fact that many whale species have been getting smaller as a result of human whaling activities and environmental impacts.

Since 1981, for example, the length of northern right whales has become about 7% smaller. Among gray whales, animals born in 2020 are estimated to be 1.65 metres shorter than animals born in the 1980s.

Given our finding that larger body sizes mean farther-travelling sounds in aquatic mammals, smaller whales may not be able to be heard as far away.

This means that when smaller whales call to their friends or family members, their calls may not reach these individuals over the enormous distances the species travel.

What can humans change?

Our findings add a new dimension to our understanding of how humans are affecting animals, and may help inform future conservation decisions.

Do they mean anything in our everyday lives?

For one thing, they remind us to take a moment to listen to the world around us.

Leopards’ sawing call. Ben J.J. Walker, CC BY-SA303 KB (download)

We might find out where an animal is. We might observe a new species.

We might even find a quiet space in the landscapes around us to sit and connect again with the world and ourselves.

Ben JJ Walker, Researcher, UNSW Sydney

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→March 14, 2026

Triceratops Had Huge Nose to Control its Body Temperature, Suggests Curious Scientist

Seishiro Tada with fossilized Triceratops – SWNS

Scientists wanted to know why the iconic triceratops had such an unusually large nose compared to most species—both past and present.

Their new study shows the triple-horned dinosaur had a huge nose to help control its body temperature.

The team used CT scans of fossilized Triceratops skulls and compared their structures with modern animals including birds and crocodiles.

Through direct observation and inference, the research team reconstructed how nerves, blood vessels and structures for airflow fit together in the skulls.

They concluded that horned dinosaurs probably used their noses not just for smelling but also to help control temperature and moisture. Project Research Associate Dr. Seishiro Tada, from the University of Tokyo Museum in Japan, wondered about moisture control while studying a fossilized triceratops.

“I have been working on the evolution of reptilian heads and noses since my master’s degree,” said Dr. Tada.

“Triceratops in particular had a very large and unusual nose, and I couldn’t figure out how the organs fit within it even though I remember the basic patterns of reptiles.

“That made me interested in their nasal anatomy and its function and evolution.”

Horned dinosaurs (or Ceratopsia) had some of the most elaborate skull types—and Triceratops was the most iconic and instantly recognizable.

But due to its relative uniqueness, the internal anatomy of Triceratops skulls has been poorly understood, until Dr. Tada explored the internal soft tissues using modern tools at their disposal.

SWNS

“Employing X-ray-based CT-scan data of a Triceratops, as well as knowledge on contemporary reptilian snout morphology, we found some unique characteristics in the nose and provide the first comprehensive hypothesis on the soft-tissue anatomy in horned dinosaurs.

“Triceratops had unusual ‘wiring’ in their noses.

“In most reptiles, nerves and blood vessels reach the nostrils from the jaw and the nose. But in Triceratops, the skull shape blocks the jaw route, so nerves and vessels take the nasal branch.

“Essentially, Triceratops tissues evolved this way to support its big nose.

“I came to realize this while piecing together some 3D-printed Triceratops skull pieces like a puzzle.”

The findings, published in the journal The Anatomical Record, also revealed a special structure in Triceratops’ nose called a respiratory turbinate, which almost no other dinosaurs are known to possess. Yet modern birds have them, as do modern mammals.

The structures are thin, curled surfaces within the nose that increase the surface area for blood and air to exchange heat.

Dr Tada says Triceratops probably wasn’t fully warm-blooded, but the researchers believe the structures helped keep temperature and moisture levels under control as its large skull would be difficult to cool down otherwise.“Although we’re not 100% sure Triceratops had a respiratory turbinate, as most other dinosaurs don’t, some birds have an attachment base (ridge) for the turbinate. Horned dinosaurs have a similar ridge at the similar location in their nose as well. Triceratops Had Huge Nose to Control its Body Temperature, Suggests Curious Scientis

Read More........→March 13, 2026

Multiple Types of Plastic Are Turned into Vinegar Using Sunlight-Powered Process Without Emissions

Waterloo PhD student Wei Wei, who led the research – credit, University of Waterloo, released

Researchers at the University of Waterloo have discovered a way to turn plastic waste into acetic acid, the main ingredient of vinegar, using sunlight.

The breakthrough offers a promising new approach to reducing plastic pollution through photocatalysis, while simultaneously creating a useful, value-added chemical product through a process inspired by nature.

“Our goal was to solve the plastic pollution challenge by converting microplastic waste into high-value products using sunlight,” said Dr. Yimin Wu, a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering at the University of Waterloo, Canada.

Plastic waste, notably microplastics, has been found across many of the planet’s ecosystems, raising concerns about threats to terrestrial and marine life as well as human health. Plastic recycling rates remain low around the globe.

To tackle this problem, the team developed a bio-inspired photocatalysis process using iron atoms embedded in carbon nitride, a way that certain types of fungi break down organic matter using enzymes.

When exposed to sunlight, the material drives a series of chemical reactions that transform plastic polymers into acetic acid with high selectivity. The reaction takes place in water, making it particularly relevant for addressing plastic pollution in aquatic environments.

Acetic acid is widely used in food production, chemical manufacturing and energy applications. The study shows it can be produced from common plastic wastes, including PVC, PP, PE and PET, and remains effective across mixed plastic compositions.

This makes the approach well suited to real-world waste streams, offering a promising alternative to plastic incineration, and could support more circular approaches to material use while providing a new strategy for upcycling plastics.

“Both from a business and societal perspective, the financial and economic benefits associated with this innovation seem promising,” said Roy Brouwer, executive director of the Water Institute and a coauthor of the article supporting the techno-economic analysis.

“This method allows abundant and free solar energy to break down plastic pollution without adding extra carbon dioxide to the atmosphere,” Wu adds.

The findings also point to new possibilities for addressing microplastics directly. Because the process degrades plastics at the chemical level, it could help prevent the accumulation of microplastics in water systems.While still at the laboratory stage, the team envisions that this approach could be adapted for scalable, solar-driven recycling and environmental cleanup and the photocatalytic upcycling system can be further enhanced through strategic engineering of the materials and manufacturing processes. Multiple Types of Plastic Are Turned into Vinegar Using Sunlight-Powered Process Without Emissions

Read More........→March 11, 2026

AI could help us more accurately screen for breast cancer – new research

Sasun Bughdaryan/Unsplash Carolyn Nickson, University of Sydney; The University of Melbourne and Bruce Mann, The University of Melbourne

At least 20,000 Australian women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. And more than 3,300 die from the disease.

To save women’s lives, we need to detect breast cancer early. Breast screening, which halves women’s risk of dying from breast cancer, is key to that.

A new Australian study published today in The Lancet Digital Health suggests AI could help improve how we screen for breast cancer.

How do we currently screen for breast cancer?

Since 1992, Australia has offered free breast X-rays, known as mammograms, every two years to women aged between 50 and 74. Just over half of eligible women participate.

Of the women found to have cancer, about 25% are diagnosed between the biennial screens. These “interval cancers” are often aggressive and, unfortunately, more likely to be fatal.

In some cases, a more sensitive screening test may have detected them earlier.

The role of AI

Australia’s BreastScreen program was established in response to several major clinical trials conducted between the 1960s and 1980s. The screening technology used by the program has not substantially changed since then.

Researchers are now exploring risk-adjusted screening, which tailors screening to women based on their risk, as a way to detect more cancers earlier. This may include programs offering different technologies for women at higher risk of developing breast cancer.

Currently, we generally assess cancer risk via questionnaires that help identify if a woman has any risk factors associated with breast cancer.

One risk factor is breast density which refers to how much glandular tissue is in the breast. As well as being a risk factor for breast cancer, the higher a woman’s breast density, the harder it is to detect cancer on a mammogram.

We can also use one-off genetic testing to identify women with a higher lifetime risk of developing breast cancer. This involves looking for high-risk gene mutations such as BRCA1 and BRCA2, which are associated with increased breast and ovarian cancer risk. Genetic testing can also help us estimate a person’s lifetime risk of developing breast cancer.

More recently, researchers have been investigating artificial intelligence (AI) as a new approach to assess breast cancer risk. A new Australian study, published in The Lancet Digital Health today, focused on a specific AI tool known as BRAIx.

What did the study involve? And what did it find?

This study used an AI tool, known as BRAIx, trained using BreastScreen Australia data to help radiologists assess mammograms.

The study assessed how well BRAIx predicted women’s risk of developing breast cancer in the next four years, among women who had a clear mammogram.

Of the 95,823 Australian women assessed, 1.1% (1,098) had developed breast cancer in the four years after they received a clear mammogram. Of the 4,430 Swedish women assessed, 6.9% had developed breast cancer within two years of a clear screen.

The study findings show that BRAIx scores were very useful for identifying women who were more likely to develop cancer one to two years after having a clear screen. Findings from the Australian dataset suggest BRAIx scores identified cancers found three to four years later, but with less accuracy.

These findings suggest BRAIx could help identify women who might benefit from additional tests. This may include an MRI (which uses a magnetic field to produce images of organs and tissue) or contrast-enhanced mammography (which uses an iodine dye to improve the visibility of a regular mammogram).

These findings reinforce a 2024 Swedish study that used an AI-based risk assessment to select women for additional testing. The researchers referred 7% of women to have a follow-up MRI, and 6.5% of were found to have cancers missed by mammograms.

Does the study have any limitations?

As with most studies, yes. Here are two.

• it’s difficult to compare BRAIx to genetic testing. This is because BRAIx is trained to find missed or emerging cancers over a four year period. In contrast, genetic testing identifies a person’s risk of developing cancer over their lifetime

• it might not use the best breast density data. This study found BRAIx more accurately predicts breast cancer risk compared to assessments based on breast density. But this breast density data was collected using a different tool to those used by the Breastscreen program. So this finding should be interpreted carefully.

So, where to from here?

The study adds to a growing body of evidence that AI risk assessment could help breast screening programs find cancers earlier.

BRAIx is now being trialled as part of the BreastScreen Victoria program, to help read mammograms. And other states are already using and evaluating different AI tools for reading mammograms.

So it may be time for Australia to conduct a national, independent review of these new tools. As part of a more risk-adjusted approach to breast screening, they could save lives.

Carolyn Nickson, Principal Research Fellow, Cancer Elimination Collaboration, University of Sydney; The University of Melbourne and Bruce Mann, Professor of Surgery, Specialist Breast Surgeon, The University of Melbourne

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→March 10, 2026