Salk scientists uncover new advantages and mechanisms of mitohormesis, a process where mitochondrial stress early in life leads to lasting benefits. By inducing mitohormesis in mice, researchers found they could help the heart build lasting resilience against damage from a common chemotherapy drug—and identified a molecule called citrate as the chemical messenger that carries this protective signal to the rest of the cell. The findings may help explain why antioxidant therapies to counter cellular stress have largely failed and suggest new directions for healthy aging therapies.

With their slender bodies and long front legs, Miracinonyx trumani—often nicknamed the “American cheetah”—was long thought to be a North American analog of the African big cat. But in a new study publishing September 4 in the Cell Press journal Current Biology, researchers reveal that the extinct cat was more closely related to pumas. Some populations living near the Arctic preyed almost exclusively on fish, challenging the long-held assumption that these “cheetahs” chased fast-running prey, such as pronghorns. 

A new study led by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has overturned decades of assumptions about Miracinonyx trumani, the extinct predator popularly known as the American "cheetah.” By analyzing nuclear paleogenomes and stable isotopes from fossils found as far north as the Yukon, scientists have discovered that this iconic cat was not a true cheetah, but a highly adaptable relative of the puma that specialized in eating fish to survive the Arctic.

A Virginia Tech-led study of people who feed birds in the United States and Canada found that most believed feeding and watching birds had a positive effect on their well-being. The study also identified three ways people described that connection: through emotions, engagement, and a sense of meaning.

A study investigated how ingesting expanded polystyrene (EPS) affects wharf roaches, a common shoreline scavenger. EPS-fed animals showed no significant reduction in lifespan, but their guts displayed altered expression of genes involved in chemical defense, DNA repair, and digestion. Gut microbial communities were largely unchanged, although several rare taxa were detected only in EPS-fed specimens. The findings highlight the need for a more comprehensive understanding of how microplastic pollution affects marine ecosystems.

Why do some ants help nestmates in distress while others don't? A research team from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and Tel Aviv University has addressed this question in a new study. The researchers examined worker ants of the species Cataglyphis niger, some of which had shown rescue behavior while others had not. The result, recently published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, suggests that the key difference lies not in body size, morphology, or the animals' energy reserves, but in gene activity in the nervous system.

A revised species inventory updates Hainan’s terrestrial mammal fauna, highlights island‑specific conservation risks and provides baseline data for regional wildlife management.

Autophagy is an intracellular degradation mechanism in eukaryotes. The autophagosome, which encloses damaged or excess cellular material for degradation, is constructed from lipids supplied by the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), via the lipid transfer protein Atg2. Researchers have identified an activation mechanism that enables Atg2 localization to the ER, facilitating efficient lipid transfer. This activation mechanism was found to be conserved across fungi and mammals and may be a crucial part of autophagosome formation.