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Alston's singing mouse has emerged as an intriguing model for the comparative study of vocal control. New work on the species sets the stage to understand the proximate mechanisms and evolutionary roots of novel acoustic communication traits.

Modern artificial intelligence (AI) systems have achieved remarkable capabilities, but at an extraordinary energy cost. Training and running large-scale models can consume vast resources, posing environmental, economic, and societal challenges. In contrast, biological brains perform lifelong learning, adaptive control, and flexible reasoning using orders of magnitude less energy for learning and adaptation over a lifetime. What accounts for this difference - and how can it guide future AI development? In this review, we identify key biological principles that support energy-efficient capacities in biological brains, and consider how they might inform the design of more sustainable artificial systems. We organize our analysis around three domains: architectural constraints, signaling strategies, and learning algorithms. In each domain, we discuss concrete observations from biology, from cell to circuit to cognitive level, and describe how current and emerging AI systems mirror or diverge from these motifs. One striking feature of biological energy optimization is often overlooked: that brains are remarkably stable in their energy usage across heterogeneous modes, suggesting they may minimize energy needs during active environmental processing through maximizing the utility of 'rest-like' background processes. Overall, rather than advocating for biomimicry for its own sake, we argue for biologically informed engineering. Understanding how natural systems minimize energetic cost while maximizing flexibility may help us build AI that is not only powerful, but also efficient, equitable, and environmentally responsible.

Upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) is a rare malignancy arising from the renal pelvis or ureter and is often diagnosed at an advanced stage. Prognosis depends strongly on tumor stage and grade, but remains poorer than that of bladder urothelial carcinoma. This review article summarizes current evidence on the management of locally advanced but resectable UTUC, focusing on perioperative systemic therapy, clinical guideline recommendations, and emerging therapeutic strategies. In high risk cases, radical nephroureterectomy (RNU) with bladder cuff excision is the surgical state of the art. To reduce relapse rates, perioperative systemic therapy is gaining increasing importance. Neoadjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy (+/- durvalumab) has shown promising rates of pathological downstaging, however, high level evidence is still lacking. In contrast, evidence for adjuvant therapy is stronger. Adjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy should be offered to patients with pT2-pT4 or pN+ disease within 90 days after RNU. Immune checkpoint inhibitors show activity in perioperative settings, but potential benefits in UTUC subgroups remain unclear. There are ongoing trials combining immunotherapy, chemotherapy, or targeted agents. Molecular profiling and novel strategies, such as mRNA vaccines and antibody-drug conjugates, may enable more personalized approaches and reshape the therapeutic landscape of UTUC. Management of locally advanced but resectable UTUC is evolving rapidly, driven by advances in perioperative systemic therapies and a growing understanding of the disease's molecular biology. However, prognosis remains poor, underscoring the need to further improve treatment options.

Personalized oncology seeks to selectively block specific dysregulated pathways to arrest cancer development. Increased glutamine metabolism is a hallmark of cancer, and 6-diazo-5-oxo-L-norleucine (DON), a structural analog of L-glutamine, was the first compound used to target the exacerbated nitrogen metabolism observed in cancer cells. However, its clinical application was limited by unacceptable toxicity. With the same goal of blocking glutamine metabolism, several specific glutaminase inhibitors have been characterized in recent decades, showing promising antitumor activity. Nevertheless, this strategy frequently induces adaptive metabolic resistance that must be counteracted. In this context, glutaminase has become a key target in combination therapies for several tumor types aimed at restricting anabolic adaptation when single metabolic therapy fails, emerging as a possible synergistic therapeutic intervention. Consequently, combination therapies that include glutaminase inhibition alongside additional agents to counteract the metabolic plasticity of cancer have emerged as a promising approach in personalized antitumor pharmacology. This review provides a historical-to-translational overview of glutamine-targeted therapies, with particular emphasis on glutaminase inhibitors, including compound 968, BPTES, CB-839, and next-generation inhibitors, as well as DON-derived prodrugs. We discuss their mechanisms of action and their integration with chemotherapy, targeted therapies, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy, highlighting how glutamine metabolism targeting influences tumor metabolic adaptation, redox homeostasis, therapy resistance, and tumor-immune interactions. Finally, we examine current clinical developments, emerging therapeutic combinations, and the challenges that must be addressed for the incorporation of glutamine metabolism targeting into precision oncology.

Much of biology focuses on how genetic changes mediate new functions, but less attention is given to adaptations within the ancient molecular machines that execute the central dogma. Octopuses exhibit complex nervous systems and sophisticated behaviors that rival vertebrates but via an entirely divergent evolutionary history. Here, we serendipitously discovered that octopus ribosomes contain a structural break in the core ribosomal RNA that is unique among all animals. This break site enhances translation fidelity to reduce miscoding and subsequent protein aggregation, even when engineered into evolutionarily distant bacterial ribosomes. Furthermore, high-fidelity translation by octopus ribosomes supports proteomic stability during extensive RNA editing observed in cephalopods, suggesting synergy between distinct non-canonical modes of gene regulation. This adaptation emerged in recently derived octopuses with expanded nervous systems, thereby revealing a mechanism that could broadly support the evolution of novel organismal traits.

Sleep serves a fundamental role in memory consolidation, but this can be influenced by physiological context. For instance, satiated Drosophila require sleep for appetitive memory consolidation, but starved flies that must forage for food switch to sleep-independent memory. As ethanol intoxication alters behaviors such as sleep and memory, we asked how it affects the role of sleep in memory consolidation. Here, we demonstrate that acute ethanol inverts the canonical link between sleep and memory in Drosophila. Ethanol selectively impairs memory consolidation in satiated flies by causing a switch to sleep-independent memory, which then cannot be supported because of ethanol-induced sedation. Under these conditions, sleep deprivation rescues memory and requires the upregulation of neuropeptide F (NPF), which signals through NPF receptors on PPL1 dopaminergic neurons. We suggest that reward-seeking behaviors, induced by starvation or ethanol, invoke sleep-independent memory. However, ethanol has a paradoxical impact, wherein it induces a switch to sleep-independent memory but concurrently promotes sedation, thereby causing sleep to become detrimental to memory consolidation.

A central goal of evolutionary biology is to understand the molecular mechanisms that enable adaptive responses to novel environmental pressures. Extreme weather events like natural disasters can have catastrophic impacts on wildlife via habitat destruction, mortality,1,2,3,4,5,6 population displacement,6,7 and natural selection,1,2,5,8,9 even shaping broad biogeographic patterns of local adaptation on phylogenetic scales.10,11 However, few studies have investigated the functional changes in organismal performance or genomic targets associated with responses to such events.2,12,13,14 Here, we investigate mechanisms of hurricane-mediated selection associated with parallel morphological shifts observed in a small island endemic lizard, the Silver Key Anole (Anolis scriptus), on two islands of the Turks and Caicos struck by hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017.9 These observed changes suggest directional selection on clinging ability in the face of hurricane-force winds.9,10,12,15 Genome scans for parallel selection identified five loci with known roles in musculoskeletal development and function. Among these loci, hs6st1 displayed the most significant genome-wide association with the length of the longest rear toe. CRISPR-induced knockout of hs6st1 resulted in significant toe length reduction and complete toe agenesis. Simulated high wind speeds revealed that shorter rear toe length was associated with greater clinging performance in anoles. This study highlights the interactions between performance, morphology, and genetic variation underlying rapid adaptive responses to extreme weather events in the wild. As extreme weather events become more frequent and severe in the coming decades,16,17 understanding their evolutionary impacts will be critical for assessing their long-term effects on the world's biodiversity.18.

Board games are usually played with other people across the lifespan. They seem to improve executive functions, which are psychological processes key to our daily lives. Therefore, this systematic review aimed to show whether board games could improve executive functions at different ages. At first, 5288 studies were found in four databases (Scopus, WOS, PsycINFO, and Medline). Twenty-four studies met the inclusion criteria for the systematic review, and 16 studies were included in the meta-analytical analysis. In the systematic review, we especially found effects in verbal short-term memory in children. In addition, the meta-analysis showed significant results for visuospatial short-term memory in kindergarten and processing speed in older people. We also assessed heterogeneity and conducted a meta-regression analysis considering the risk of bias. High heterogeneity was observed in some meta-analyses. Overall, the results suggest that the current empirical evidence is not yet sufficient to support a strong recommendation for the use of board games to improve executive functions. However, the findings are promising and highlight the potential of board games as a cognitive intervention. Therefore, future well-designed randomized controlled trials are needed to clarify the effectiveness of such interventions.

Amandine Cornille is Associate Professor of Biology at New York University Abu Dhabi, where she leads the ECLECTIC group on the ecology and (epi)genomics of tree responses to global change. An evolutionary biologist and population genomicist, she studies how biodiversity is generated, maintained, and reshaped by interactions among genomes, environments, and human societies. Her work focuses on trees, including fruit trees and their wild relatives, to understand their domestication, adaptation, and resilience to climate change.

The Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) witnessed extensive trans-Eurasian exchange along its northern frontier, yet the social mechanisms mediating this integration within family units remain elusive.1,2 Here, we present genome-wide data from 38 individuals of an elite clan from the Naobaowan cemetery (713-739 CE), located in the agro-pastoral transition zone of Inner Mongolia. Multi-generational pedigree reconstruction using genomic and inscriptional evidence reveals a patrilineal structure defined by Y-haplogroup O2a2b1a1a1a2a, coupled with the systematic practice of female exogamy, whereby women with high West Eurasian steppe ancestry married into the core lineage. These women were buried following local Central Plains brick-chambered tomb customs alongside their husbands and offspring. Tracing these transethnic unions across the pedigree highlights a shift in marriage strategy, as subsequent generations of admixed male descendants consistently married local East Asian women. While patrilineal principles shaped the clan's social organization, the inclusion of a son-in-law (Zhang Jun) in a prominent tomb illustrates flexibility in elite marriage alliances. Our findings demonstrate how a predominantly patrilineal kinship system strategically employed female exogamy and marital flexibility, providing a family-level perspective on genetic exchange and cultural interaction on the Tang frontier.

3D analyses of epithelial cells are burdensome, leading many researchers to use highly effective 2D approximations of morphogenesis. A new study approaches mouse hair placode morphogenesis in its 3D totality and reveals important features that could not be observed in the simplified 2D investigations.

Honeybees are eusocial, making queen health critical for colony development. Honeybee colonies are frequently exposed to pesticides. New research shows that queens can protect themselves from pesticides by transferring these toxins to their eggs when worker-mediated social buffering is overwhelmed.

Two new studies provide the clearest evidence yet that eye position is actively controlled during avian flight. Pigeons dynamically balance image stabilisation, optic-flow processing and binocular vision, suggesting that gaze control is integral to navigation, obstacle avoidance and landing.

Cellular form and function are inextricably linked. Close integration of experiment and theory in the intensive study of a suctorian ciliate reveals generalizable regulatory principles for precisely yet adaptively controlling the size and number of subcellular structures.

Humans recreating in wilderness areas face a risk of encountering and being harmed by fearsome large wild carnivores. Yet, the risk is exceedingly low, because, it turns out, these fearsome predators become quite fearful when encountering humans.

A new study in placozoans - tiny marine animals that lack neurons - identifies monoamine receptors, biosynthetic machinery, cellular expression patterns, and behavioural effects. Together, these findings suggest that the monoaminergic signalling system predates the emergence of bilaterians.

Birds are in decline globally. However, at finer spatial scales, species often exhibit notable geographic variation in how their populations are changing. Understanding why population trends vary within and across species remains a gap that impedes conservation. Here, we leverage over ½ million bird captures from 356 North American banding stations to derive temporal trends in local abundance and productivity for 46 species and examine whether 11 dimensions of environmental change explain geographic variation in species' population trends. We found that all species had local populations that were increasing, decreasing, or stable. Critically, we show that geographic variation in abundance and productivity trends is linked to changes in the local environment. While individual species vary markedly in their responses to different forms of environmental change, trait-based explanations reveal why this variation exists. Specifically, visual capabilities, aerial lifestyle, thermal niche, vocal characteristics, and life-history traits explain demographic responses to changes in light pollution, air pollution, temperature, human population, and land cover, respectively. These results support recent links between ecological traits and responses to global change, and by elucidating these relationships, we provide key information to forecast how understudied species will respond to environmental change. Furthermore, by identifying the most relevant forms of environmental change to individual species and where their populations are impacted, our results can inform policy. Importantly, multiple forms of environmental change in this study can be mitigated within local municipalities with existing solutions, indicating that high-impact conservation actions that have positive consequences for birds are within reach.

The methane-generating enzyme from methanogenic archaea must be reactivated via a dedicated system. New molecular insights demonstrate that a key component of the reactivation machinery is redox sensitive, binds the methane-forming enzyme via an ATP-dependent switch, and hydrolyses ATP once bound.