Kyoto, Japan -- When you look at someone, you usually look at their face. It serves as one of the most important sources of social information in primates, so the evolution of face perception has attracted considerable scientific attention. While an abundance of this research has centered on humans and other great apes, very little has focused on gibbons.

Gibbons were the earliest to diverge from the line leading to humans 17 million years ago, and they have developed a distinct social system characterized by small family groups and long-term pair bonding. They provide a particularly valuable model for investigating the relationship between social organization and the evolution of social cognition, motivating a team of researchers at Kyoto University to give gibbons the attention they deserve.

"Understanding the evolutionary origins of the human mind requires comparative studies across the ape lineage," says first author Makiko Uchikoshi. "Despite their evolutionary importance, gibbons remain one of the least studied ape groups in cognitive research."

Researchers recovered five multidrug-resistant Stutzerimonas nitrititolerans isolates from 60 geese fecal samples collected at a farm in Yangzhou, China. Genome sequencing showed that all five carried chromosomal tmexC2D2-toprJ2 and bla_PST-2 resistance-associated determinants. Across 104 available genomes, complete tmexCD-toprJ clusters were uncommon, and only nine genomes carried both a complete tmexCD-toprJ cluster and bla_PST, five of which were the geese isolates.

ARDD 2026 has announced that senior officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will join the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) for a dedicated government and regulatory panel at the 13th Aging Research & Drug Discovery (ARDD) Meeting, taking place October 1–3, 2026, at the David Rubenstein Treehouse at Harvard University.

The session, “Matching Clinical Trials of Therapeutics & Regulatory Mandates,” will bring together Jeffrey Siegel, Director, Office of Drug Evaluation Sciences, Office of New Drugs, CDER, FDA; Justin Penzenstadler, Associate Director, OCHEN/OND/CDER/FDA; and Lowell M. Zeta, Acting Chief of Staff, Office of the Commissioner, FDA. Andrew Brack, Program Manager, Proactive Health, ARPA-H, will moderate the discussion.

As more discoveries in aging biology advance toward clinical translation, the session will provide an important forum for dialogue between government and regulatory leaders and the researchers, clinicians, and biotechnology innovators developing potential therapies to extend healthy lifespan and improve patient outcomes.

Researchers at the University of Maine have discovered that planktonic lobster larvae preferentially feed on Calanus finmarchicus, a tiny, calorie-rich zooplankton species, during one of the most vulnerable stages of their lives. Using a newly developed DNA probe, researchers found that 30% of larval and post-larval lobsters sampled had DNA of Calanus finmarchicus in their digestive tracts, whereas this species comprised only a few percent of the available zooplankton. Scientists have also observed declines in both the availability of this key food source, meaning lobster larvae have to depend on less nutritious resources, threatening their chance of survival.

Researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York have been awarded a $3.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study drug transfer through human breast milk. 

A 30-year conservation effort has helped the critically endangered Galápagos snapdragon (Galvezia leucantha subsp. leucantha) recover from just six individuals to a small, carefully tended wild population. Following tireless conservation efforts and the planting of 94 nursery-propagated plants that were reintroduced to Playa Tortuga Negra and Caleta Tagus, the wild adult population has grown from six individuals in 2007 to 28 healthy adults today – 20 at Playa Tortuga Negra and 8 at Tagus Cove. In 2021, the project recorded its first evidence of natural seedling regeneration in the wild — a significant milestone demonstrating that the reintroduced plants were able to reproduce naturally and generate a new generation under wild conditions. Although these first naturally recruited seedlings did not survive a later drought, their emergence represents an important step toward a self-sustaining population and highlights the value of the long-term restoration effort. Their loss also underscores an important remaining challenge. Water scarcity remains one of the biggest ongoing threats to this critically endangered plant.The full study has been published in Nature Conservation, an open-access journal.

One of the major risk factors for Glaucoma is an increase in intraocular pressure. Intraocular pressure fluctuates throughout the day and is known to rise at night, but the detailed molecular mechanisms on why this happens have not been fully understood. Kyushu University researchers found that norepinephrine raises levels of RHOB in the eye’s drainage system called the trabecular meshwork, leading to the eye’s ‘cleaning function’ weakening and increased intraocular pressure.

The U.S. National Science Foundation has renewed the Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Quantum Sensing for Biophysics and Bioengineering (NSF QuBBE) with a $37.5 million, five-year investment to advance quantum sensing technologies that can reveal biological processes difficult or impossible to observe with conventional tools.