EurekAlert! Chinese Academy of Sciences - News Releases from CAS Headquarters

News from CAS Headquarters

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 20-Oct-2026 19:16 ET (20-Oct-2026 23:16 GMT/UTC)

Clinical aging clocks reveal sex-specific aging transitions and metabolic drivers

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study suggests that routine clinical measurements, which are widely available and repeatedly collected, may provide a practical way to assess aging at population scale. The study, which was published in Nature Aging on August 25, analyzed routine clinical data from 104,208 adults aged 18–98 across three centers in China. It established sex-specific clinical aging clocks based on 172 commonly measured indicators and provided a practical approach to estimating physiological aging from routine health examinations.

Journal: Nature Aging

Gut bacterium BP and its metabolite 5-AVAB found to delay aging

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study published in Nature Aging on August 25 reports that a single gut bacterium—Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum (BP)—together with a small molecule it produces, 5-aminovaleric acid betaine (5-AVAB)—can alleviate multiple hallmarks of aging and extend the healthy lifespan in mice, opening a promising avenue toward healthier aging in humans.

Journal: Nature Aging

Hotter tropical pool temporarily slows Antarctic ice loss

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A warming pool of tropical ocean acted like a “regulator,” dialing up snowstorms over East Antarctica and contributing to a brief net ice-sheet mass gain of 695 billion tons, according to a new study published in Nature on August 19.

Journal: Nature

Researchers develop stepwise evaporation method to reduce contact resistance in transistors

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A research team led by Prof. CHU Junhao at the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics (SITP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has developed an atomic-scale stepwise evaporation method called Step-Eva that enables the direct in situ growth of single-crystal metal films on semiconductors. This process greatly reduces contact resistance and potentially redefines how transistors are built at the nanoscale.

Journal: Science

Amphibious stem-insect reveals early history of insect terrestrialization

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An international research team led by Prof. CAI Chenyang from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has discovered a new stem-group insect from the Late Mississippian period, approximately 324 million years ago. They combined this discovery with previously enigmatic fossil material to reconstruct a pivotal stage in the early evolution of insects. The fossils suggest that insects did not immediately become fully terrestrial after colonizing land. Instead, they retained and remodeled ancestral aquatic features and passed through a prolonged semi-aquatic, amphibious phase.

Journal: Nature

Scientists unlock “ancestral code” of banana family

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists have recently reconstructed the ancestral karyotype of the banana family, revealing how chromosome numbers decreased stepwise from 17 to 9–11 over evolutionary time. The study was led by scientists from the South China Botanical Garden (SCBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with researchers from Sichuan University and other institutions. The findings were published in Current Biology.

Journal: Current Biology

Study: Forest trees do little to acclimate to prolonged drought

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new global forest study that better reflects natural conditions has found that trees do not substantially alter their physiological traits to cope with prolonged drought. The study, led by researchers from the South China Botanical Garden (SCBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), is based on 40 throughfall reduction experiments conducted across forests worldwide and represents one of the most comprehensive field-based assessments of drought acclimation to date.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Researchers achieve first experimental demonstration of vacuum-fluctuation-enhanced superconductivity

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers led by Profs. ZENG Changgan and CHENG Guanghui from the University of Science and Technology of China of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with the collaborators, have demonstrated for the first time that the vacuum fluctuations can enhance superconductivity, a significant advance in the control of quantum states of matter.

Journal: Nature

Study reveals how lung tumors hijack ancient marine metabolic axis to promote malignant growth

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS) have shown how a metabolic mechanism underlying thermal tolerance in intertidal oysters sheds light on malignant proliferation in human lung adenocarcinoma.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Topography controls how mountains respond to large earthquakes

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from the Institute of Earth Environment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences found that differences in landscape steepness, hillslope-to-channel connectivity, and river transport capacity determine whether earthquakes mainly erode shallow surface soils or mobilize deeper materials from hillslopes and bedrock into downstream lakes.

Journal: Geology

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