Medical assistance can help women suffering from severe nausea and vomiting during pregnancy, but insufficient recognition of Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) means that many are not getting the help they need to overcome this severe and debilitating form of morning sickness.

Scientists were stunned when they discovered a fossilized tooth from a capybara that lived in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile almost 9 million years ago.

Salk scientists find B cells can promote killer T cell function in a mouse model of an aggressive breast cancer, and that the antitumor benefit of CD40 agonist treatment depends on B cells. Findings help address the major gap in research around B cells that has limited their clinical application; explain why B cell responses are associated with favorable patient outcomes; and provide a foundation for testing B cell-centered immunotherapy strategies.

USC Researchers have developed a new, noninvasive way to examine how blood flow and cellular organization align across the layers of the living human brain. Their study, published in Nature Communications, introduces the cerebral blood flow–cell-body staining intensity similarity index, or CCSI. It may help scientists understand how blood vessels, cells, and energy-producing machinery work together to support brain function. The hope is that CCSI may eventually offer insight into early signs of disease and potential treatments. The researchers used arterial spin labeling, or ASL, a noninvasive MRI technique that magnetically labels water in the blood and tracks it into brain tissue. A powerful 7 Tesla MRI scanner measured blood flow throughout the brain at a resolution of one cubic millimeter. The study included 30 healthy adults; 14 returned for a second scan to test the consistency of the measurements. The team divided the cortex into 360 regions and examined blood flow at multiple depths. They compared those patterns with cell-body staining data from BigBrain, a detailed three-dimensional digital reconstruction of a human brain that maps how densely cells are packed throughout the cortex. The resulting CCSI score measured how closely blood flow and cellular density followed the same pattern across cortical depth. Higher scores indicated that cell-dense layers tended to receive more blood flow. Blood flow and cellular organization aligned in most cortical regions, meaning that within a given region, blood flow tended to be highest in the layers with the most cells, although the strength varied across the brain. Alignment was strongest in primary visual and sensorimotor areas, which support vision, movement, and touch. To clarify what CCSI represents biologically, the researchers compared it with maps of mitochondrial activity, cell types, and gene expression. Together, the findings suggest that the alignment of blood flow and cellular structure reflects a coordinated system involving blood vessels, supporting cells, and energy production.

Right whales forage near the water’s surface at night, putting them at greater risk of potentially fatal collisions with boats, Jay Kirkham at Dalhousie University, Canada, and colleagues report on September 16, 2026, in the open access journal PLOS One.

It’s no secret that plastic and other human trash are a problem for marine life, but our understanding has long focused on the ocean’s surface. Now, a more complete picture is coming into focus, revealing that even some of our planet’s greatest depths have become home to our debris. As described in a study published on September 16, 2026 in the open access journal PLOS One, an international team led by Dr. Daniel Lauretta of Argentina’s natural science museum surveyed the Mar Del Plata Submarine Canyon in the southwestern Atlantic, finding that our trash has accumulated in a part of the planet we typically consider pristine.

The study, published in Science Advances, finds that Australopithecus, the group of hominins that includes Little Foot, combined regular tree-climbing with walking on two legs on the ground. However, by about 1.8 million years ago, early members of the genus Homo appear to have shifted much more strongly towards a life on the ground.

Jun Takahashi, MD, PhD, has been awarded the 2026 Ogawa-Yamanaka Stem Cell Prize by Gladstone Institutes. He was selected for pioneering the translation of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell biology into regenerative therapies for Parkinson’s disease, culminating in the world’s first clinical approval for iPS cell-derived cell transplantation.