Eighteenth-century medical texts document a formative period in the evolution of clinical reasoning, yet their integration into modern medical education is limited. The traditional approach to learning the history of medicine has naturally focused on passive reading, but new approaches using AI could enable learners to interrogate and simulate the historical diagnostic logic and therapeutic paradigms. More specifically, large language models (LLMs) offer an opportunity to create interactive simulations that allow experiential engagement with historical medical reasoning. We developed a historically constrained LLM-based educational platform designed to emulate the diagnostic reasoning, language, and conceptual frameworks of an 18th-century physician. A modern GPT architecture was customized using strict instruction-based constraints and limited exclusively to a curated corpus of six foundational 17th-18th century medical texts. Guardrails were implemented to prevent anachronistic terminology and modern medical concepts. Model outputs were evaluated qualitatively by comparing the model's diagnoses and treatment plans with published diagnoses and treatment from original 18 th century sources. We also applied the simulation to modern clinical vignettes for an illustrative contrast between modern and 18 th century approaches. The model generated responses that closely aligned with 18th-century medical and rhetorical style, as well as therapeutic reasoning. When presented with historical cases, the simulation demonstrated strong concordance with original diagnoses and management strategies. Secondly, when applied to modern cases, the model described period-appropriate reasoning, highlighting clear contrasts with contemporary biomedical reasoning. AI broadly, and more specifically LLMs configured as historically constrained simulators, can function as effective tools for learning in medical history. This approach could enable active engagement with historical clinical reasoning, fostering critical reflection on the contingent and evolving nature of medical knowledge. Such temporal simulations hold promise for medical humanities education and interdisciplinary teaching.
Two century-old maleidrides 1 and 2 were found in the marine-derived fungus Talaromyces trachyspermus. Their structures were established by the analysis of spectroscopic data. Notably, their absolute configurations were unambiguously assigned by X-ray diffraction analysis. Interestingly, compound 1 showed antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli (IC50 = 103.6 mg/mL). This was the first report on the absolute configuration of compound 2, which has not been determined for near a century.
Cadmium sulfur selenide and cadmium zinc sulfide pigments have been widely employed by artists of the twentieth century. A deep knowledge of these artworks, also in view of their conservation and/or restoration, relies on comprehensive and robust databases of reference materials of the pigments to easily detect their composition and their tendency and routes to deterioration. In this work, we initiate the construction of such a database by applying exclusively non-invasive techniques-X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) and Fiber Optics Reflectance Spectroscopy (FORS) in the Vis-SWIR range-to two sets of historical pigments: a group of pure commercial tube paints and a mixed palette representative of artistic practice. To strengthen the interpretative framework, mock-up samples were prepared using modern Cd-based pigments. These reference materials were first analysed using the same non-invasive protocols to ensure full data compatibility. In addition, they were further characterized through synchrotron-based techniques, namely High-Resolution X-ray Powder Diffraction (HR-XRPD) and X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS), providing additional structural and phase information not accessible through laboratory non-invasive methods alone. The integration of non-invasive and synchrotron-based data on the modern reference materials enables a more rigorous interpretation of the spectra collected on historical pigments. This combined approach enhances phase discrimination, compositional assessment, and the understanding of pigment variability, thereby increasing the reliability and internal consistency of the historical database. The resulting dataset establishes a solid foundation for future non-invasive studies of twentieth-century Cd-based pigments in complex stratigraphic and binding media contexts.
Sociological modernization theory predicts that rising meritocracy reduces the influence of family background on education while increasing the role of individual abilities. Sibling correlations are often used as omnibus indicators of family influence, but they reflect both shared environments and shared genetics, complicating interpretation over time. This study examines changes in the genetic and environmental components of educational attainment using administrative data on more than 13,000 Norwegian twin pairs born between 1915 and 1991. We apply a Bayesian hierarchical liability-threshold model to estimate heritability and shared environmental influences across birth cohorts, accounting for changes in educational systems and population distributions. For women, the heritability of educational attainment increased steadily across the twentieth century, while shared environmental influences declined, consistent with expanding educational opportunities and gender equality. For men, neither heritability nor shared environmental influences changed significantly over time. These findings clarify how genetic and environmental contributions to education vary across historical contexts, refining interpretations of long-term trends in family influence.
Citizen science plays an increasingly important role in generating scientific knowledge and supporting environmental and social action. However, its potential to address complex global challenges remains underutilised. This study explores how citizen science can be improved by involving the public in all stages of scientific research. Using participatory research methods, online surveys and group discussions were conducted with researchers, citizen scientists, and Indigenous participants. Thematic coding was used to identify key challenges, opportunities, and best practices to enhance citizen science initiatives. Additionally, nine case studies were reported using the Standardised Data on Initiatives (STARDIT) reporting tool. The study identified key strategies for improving involvement, engagement and retention in citizen science initiatives. Findings underscore the importance of inclusive, evidence-informed approaches such as targeted outreach, fair compensation, tailored support, and co-creation practices. Ensuring data quality and fostering trust require adherence to FAIR data principles (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable), transparent validation and sharing processes, and establishing ethical research partnerships. Persistent challenges include short-term funding, which undermines long-term project sustainability, and the lack of centralised support for ethics and project management. Formal recognition of citizen scientists through co-authorship, standardised training, and professional development opportunities can further strengthen involvement and build capacity. Finally, emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and open data platforms, present opportunities to scale and improve efficiency, provided they are implemented with appropriate ethical safeguards and investment. Drawing together these insights, we provide 10 actionable recommendations for citizen science in the 21st century. These highlight the importance of embedding citizen science in national research infrastructure, education, and policy, alongside consistent evaluation and reporting, to improve its inclusivity, longevity, and impact. We conclude by arguing that as the world confronts climate change, public health crises, and biodiversity loss, broader public involvement in science is key for equitable, efficient and evidence-informed responses.
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In 2026, the American Chemical Society (ACS) is celebrating the 150th anniversary of its founding. The Perspective presents a historical account of the growth of the field of analytical chemistry and the journal Analytical Chemistry, as seen through the lens of the ACS. Beginning with the early influence of analytical chemists on ACS publications, leading to the creation of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Analytical Edition in 1929, readers can follow the evolution of analytical chemistry, the fourth journal published by the ACS. Since its first volume, through 2026, the journal has seen continuous growth. Highlighting the impact of our seven Editors on the journal, this Perspective provides insight into our changing discipline through discussion of the most cited papers published in the journal. In a few years, analytical chemistry will mark its 100th anniversary. It is exciting to speculate about what changes are in store for the journal in the era of AI-enabled science, scientific writing, and publishing.
This article presents KannadaLit4NLP, a large-scale, machine-readable corpus of Kannada literary texts designed to support natural language processing (NLP) research for a low-resource language. The dataset comprises 24,746 literary verses from three major Kannada literary traditions-Vachanas (11th-19th century), Tripadis (16th century), and Kagga (20th century)-along with 22,369 corresponding interpretations curated from scholarly sources. The corpus captures linguistic, stylistic, and semantic variations across historical periods and literary forms. The dataset was developed through a systematic pipeline that included source identification, digitisation via optical character recognition (OCR), manual verification, and structured annotation. Each entry is organised in a structured format that includes the original verse, metadata (literary form, author, and source), and associated interpretation(s), enabling its use in tasks such as semantic textual similarity, textual entailment, information retrieval, and generative modelling. KannadaLit4NLP addresses the limited availability of culturally grounded Kannada datasets by providing a resource that integrates classical and modern literary content with interpretative annotations. The dataset can facilitate the development and evaluation of NLP models in areas such as semantic understanding, translation, and knowledge representation, while also supporting computational studies of literary and cultural texts. The dataset is made publicly available to encourage further research and reproducibility in Kannada NLP.
The history of Greenland is marked by different waves of Paleo-Inuit immigration from North America from 2,500 BC to the 12th century and from the 10th to 15th century, Norse settlers immigrated from Northwest Europe and flourished in Southwest Greenland with the introduction of domestic livestock. The different Inuit and Norse cultures created middens by dumping and accumulating domestic waste; a latent source of microbes, including potential pathogens, that might have been preserved due to the general wet and cold conditions in the region. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether ancient Arctic settlements might be possible hot-spots for pathogenic agents that may spread to the surrounding environment because of current climate changes. Using metagenomics, we compared the microbial communities and resistomes of 78 samples from middens from different ages and locations in West and South Greenland (two Paleo-Inuit, four Norse and one early Colonial-time middens) to 143 soil samples from nearby surroundings. We found that the middens harbor a distinctive microbial signature enriched in human-associated bacteria. Those include opportunistic pathogens such as Clostridium perfringens and Paeniclostridium sordellii. In some early colonial midden layers, C. perfringens and Paraclostridium tenue together accounted for up to ~40%-50% of MetaPhlAn-derived relative abundance in individual samples. Antimicrobial resistance genes representing 17 resistance classes were detected across all sites, dominated by β-lactam and tetracycline resistance. Transect analyses across an actively eroding midden showed that midden-derived bacteria were confined to local erosion layers and were rapidly replaced by native marine communities, indicating limited environmental dispersal.
Vaccination is one of the most effective public health interventions in history, yet resistance to vaccines has persisted across centuries. This narrative historical review examines the evolution of vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccine sentiment from the smallpox era to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sources were identified through PubMed and major public health organizations, including the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, spanning the early 18th century through 2025. Across distinct historical periods, including early smallpox vaccination, mid-20th-century vaccine controversies, the 1998 Wakefield publication, and the COVID-19 pandemic, recurring themes emerge. Concerns regarding vaccine safety, distrust of institutions, and objections grounded in personal liberty have consistently shaped resistance. While these core arguments have remained stable, the mechanisms of dissemination have transformed dramatically. Modern digital platforms enable rapid, large-scale spread of misinformation, often amplified by algorithms that prioritize emotionally engaging content. The COVID-19 pandemic marked a critical inflection point, with vaccine hesitancy becoming increasingly politicized and, in some cases, economically incentivized through monetized online content. Historical examples demonstrate that both genuine safety events and misinformation can produce long-lasting effects on public trust, even after scientific refutation. This review highlights that vaccine resistance is not solely a deficit of scientific knowledge but a complex interplay of social, political, and cultural factors. Effective public health strategies must therefore extend beyond evidence dissemination to include trust-building, transparent communication, and engagement within modern information ecosystems. Sustaining vaccine confidence will require addressing both the historical roots and contemporary drivers of hesitancy.
Oncorhynchus mykiss is among the most extensively farmed fish species globally and simultaneously ranks as one of the most invasive aquatic taxa. Despite its non-native status in Europe, it remains a valued species in recreational fisheries and is frequently used to supplement streams with declining native Salmo trutta populations. In Slovakia, the presence of O. mykiss dates back to the late nineteenth century, with historical introductions into the Okna River basin and Lake Vihorlat occurring in the early twentieth century. Here, we present fish stock data and report the first documented occurrence of natural spawning redds of O. mykiss in the Okna River recorded in April 2025. This evidence confirms the existence of a self-reproducing, spring-spawning population, possibly descended from the original introductions. The spawning redds were located in gravel-sand substrates in shallow, low-flow areas after the period of rising water temperature and during stable discharge. Stock-assessment data indicate that O. mykiss is currently dominant over S. trutta, and comparisons with historical records suggest altered relative abundances of B. barbatula and Phoxinus sp. populations. These findings highlight, ongoing ecological interactions between non-native O. mykiss and native fish fauna in the Okna River.
Long-distance neonatal air transport did not begin in hospitals, but rather in times of crisis, driven by courage, ingenuity, and humanitarian resolve. Early operations transformed aircraft into lifelines, carrying children across borders and conflict zones under austere and often perilous conditions. In early humanitarian flights, the 1939 Czech Kindertransport was the first to demonstrate aviation's potential for child rescue. This was followed by postwar efforts such as Operation Magic Carpet and Cold War evacuations such as Operation Peter Pan. Infants and children were transported with limited medical support, relying on improvisation, speed, and human determination. Operations Babylift, Moses, Joshua, and Solomon increased the scale and ambition of these efforts, incorporating newborns into long-range missions under extraordinary logistical and political constraints. Though primitive by today's medical standards, these flights proved that aircraft could be used for more than war; they could also protect and save lives. Modern neonatal aeromedical transport realizes this vision with dedicated aircraft, incubators, and specialized teams capable of sustaining critically ill neonates across continents. Programs such as the Netherlands' helicopter emergency medical service, the European Air Ambulance, and the United Kingdom's Children's Air Ambulance continue the ethical and humanitarian legacy of these pioneering missions. When an infant's life is at risk, flight is imperative. Each neonatal air mission carries forward a century of courage, innovation, and moral conviction, turning the sky into a corridor of survival for the most vulnerable. Bellini C, Davis A, Stocking JC. From humanitarian airlifts to neonatal intensive care in the sky. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2026; 97(7):550-560.
Discovered in the late 19th century as a heat-sensitive plasma factor called "alexin", complement was first identified for its ability to work with antibodies to destroy microorganisms. Over the past two centuries, research advances have firmly established the complement system as a fundamental component of the immune system, with broader roles in immune surveillance, inflammation, and clearing immune complexes and apoptotic debris, while also bridging innate and adaptive immunity. Due to complement playing a central role in modulating biological processes on a system-wide scale, dysregulation or excessive activation can drive harmful inflammation and self-tissue damage. Despite some initial safety concerns and biological complexity, therapeutic targeting of the complement system has, over the past decade, emerged as a key strategy for controlling disorders in which its unregulated activation becomes pathogenic. However, inhibition of complement, particularly at the level of C3 or C5, predisposes patients to infections, most notably by encapsulated bacteria. These include a markedly increased risk of invasive infections caused by Neisseria meningitidis, as well as susceptibility to Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and other opportunistic viral and fungal pathogens. In this review, we aim to describe the infection risks associated with therapeutic complement inhibition and outline emerging approaches to mitigate their complications. These include optimised vaccination protocols, antimicrobial prophylaxis, patient education, and surveillance programs, as well as next-generation approaches such as pathway-selective inhibitors, personalised risk stratification, and adjunctive immune support. Enhancing these protective measures will be vital to optimising the therapeutic benefit of complement inhibition while reducing infectious morbidity and mortality.
I pose the epistemological question of what makes the transfer of statistical approaches across disciplines, specifically between physics and biology, legitimate and fruitful despite intrinsic differences in their objects of study - a problem that resurfaces in contemporary interdisciplinary research relying on machine learning for statistical model building. I address it through the historical reconstruction of pivotal steps in the development of statistical thinking in the 19th century, where the appeal to the mathematical formalism of the Gaussian distribution acted as the visible trace of the diffusion of statistical approaches from astronomy to biological and social sciences. My analysis positions the wide-reaching, nowadays accepted applicability of statistics as something historically acquired through gradual conceptual and technical elaboration. It expounds the forms of re-sanctioning that accompanied and enabled the cross-domain transfer of the statistical approach, articulating them in terms of re-interpretation of the mathematical descriptions involved, re-formulation of the underlying assumptions, and re-conceptualization of their theoretical status and foundations from theory-related abstractions to approximations. The latter culminated in a shift of attitude that led to perceiving, as is standard nowadays, statistical mathematical descriptions as convenient tools for quantitative analysis, further legitimating and accelerating their interdisciplinary transfer. This work aims to familiarize historians and philosophers of science, as well as physicists, mathematicians and biologists with an interest in the history of their discipline, with these key episodes, and to dissect the epistemological assumptions and implications, as well as the interpretive frameworks, at stake in the application of a statistical approach across disciplines.
In the mid-20th century, dental education in China was in a critical period of transformation from traditional dentistry to modern stomatological education. Based on archival materials, academic works, memoirs and interview data, this paper systematically sorts out the historical contributions of Zhu Xitao to the construction of stomatology in China. It reconstructs how he systematically advanced the disciplinary construction of stomatology through a four-dimensional strategic framework-"laying the foundation through educational reform, empowering through interdisciplinary innovation, building academic communities, and expanding international exchanges"-thereby leading Chinese stomatology through its transformation from tradition to modernization and leap toward internationalization. With forward-looking educational innovation, he consolidated the foundation of talent training and promoted the establishment of textbook systems and teaching models; he activated the endogenous motivation of the discipline through scientific research breakthroughs and took the lead in applying interdisciplinary methods to open up new research fields; he gathered the joint force of the industry by establishing academic organizations and platforms as well as constructed the first nationwide collaborative academic network; he broke the disciplinary barriers through international exchanges and initiated efforts to enhance China's academic discourse power in alignment with global standards. Through his strategic practices with both forward-looking and systematic characteristics, he promoted Chinese stomatology to realize the historic leap from scattered empirical accumulation to a systematic modern discipline, providing historical enlightenment for the development of stomatology in the new era. 20世纪中叶，中国牙科教育正处于从传统向现代口腔医学教育转型的关键阶段。本文基于档案史料、著作文献、回忆录及访谈资料，系统梳理朱希涛在中国口腔医学建设中的历史贡献，再现其通过构建“教育改革筑基—交叉创新赋能—学术团体搭建—国际交流拓展”的四维战略框架，系统性地推进口腔医学学科建设，引领中国口腔医学完成从传统向现代化转型和国际化跃升的历程。他以前瞻性的教育革新夯实人才培养根基，推动创建教材体系与教学模式；以科研突破激活学科内生动力，率先应用交叉学科方法开辟研究新领域；以创建学术团体与平台凝聚行业合力，首次构建全国协同发展学术网络；以国际交流打破学科壁垒，开启对接全球的中国学术话语权提升行动。他以兼具前瞻性与系统性的战略实践，推动中国口腔医学实现从分散的经验积累到体系化现代学科的历史跨越，为新时代口腔医学发展提供历史启迪。.
The [4 + 2] reaction of furan and maleic anhydride is an archetypal, textbook example of Diels-Alder reactivity, whose role as an early and prominent exception from the Alder endo-rule has made it a model in teaching and focus of continuous research for almost a century. Although the kinetics, thermodynamics and the exo-product of this reaction have been extensively studied, the critically important endo-product has remained almost completely unexplored, generally seen only as a fleeting intermediate in solution. By conducting the reaction without an external solvent, we now discover several solid forms of this historically important system, with the combined use of crystal structure prediction (CSP) and X-ray crystallography enabling the exploration of the structures and supramolecular chemistry of the endo-adduct in solidified reaction mixtures. Depending on the temperature, the endo-isomer appears to preferably form either a single-component solid or a cocrystal with the exo-isomer, which offers an explanation for reproducibility challenges reported 60 years ago and can tentatively be further rationalised through state-of-the-art free energy calculations. The observation and complexity of multiple new solid forms of the endo-, as well as exo-isomer, are surprising, long-missing contributions to this frequently visited Diels-Alder reaction.
Silicosis remains a critical, 100% preventable occupational lung disease that continues to persist as a global public health crisis in the 21st century. Despite decades of industrial safety knowledge, the disease is currently seeing a modern resurgence, particularly in the engineered stone industry, where high-intensity silica exposure leads to rapid, fatal disease variants. This review synthesizes current global and national evidence to highlight the staggering burden of silicosis, with a specific focus on India, where over 50 million workers are projected to be at risk by 2026. Epidemiological data from high-risk clusters in Rajasthan and Gujarat reveal localized prevalence rates as high as 69%, often complicated by a devastating "syndemic" of silicosis and tuberculosis. The persistence of this disease is fundamentally attributed to an "implementation gap" in occupational health policy, characterized by weak enforcement in the informal sector, the invisibility of migrant labor and diagnostic failures. While engineering controls and medical surveillance are established gold standards, their adoption remains inconsistent in low-resource settings. This review advocates for a transition toward a rights-based accountability model, mandatory digital reporting, and the integration of occupational health into broader public health strategies. Ultimately, eliminating silicosis requires moving beyond clinical observation toward robust inter-ministerial coordination and strict legal liability for workplace safety failures.
Cities worldwide face increasing threats from Extreme Climate Change, as hazards such as heatwaves, droughts, and floods pose growing risks to urban populations and infrastructure. However, global regional assessments of exposure to extreme climate hazards under worst-case scenarios remain limited. This study presents a global assessment of regional exposure to heatwaves, droughts, and floods by the end of the century using upper-quartile projections from 20 CMIP6 climate models under the SSP5-8.5 emissions scenario. Changes in these hazards were evaluated individually and in combination across thousands of cities. Results indicate heatwave frequency will increase by over 90% in many tropical and coastal urban areas, and temperature extremes up to 12.7 °C above historical values will occur in high-latitude cities. Over 120 cities are projected to exceed critical wet-bulb temperature thresholds for human health. Drought severity is projected to intensify significantly in South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia, becoming up to 3.2 times more severe than historical extremes. Flood risks, measured by river discharge, are projected to increase substantially in South America and Asia, with increases up to 85 times historical levels. Compound hazard analysis further identifies significant overlapping exposure in cities across Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America. These findings highlight substantial regional exposure to extreme climate hazards and emphasise the urgent need for targeted urban adaptation and resilience planning worldwide.
The miniaturization of conventional silicon-based devices is one of the pinnacles of achievement of the 20th century which evolved according to Moore's prediction, demanding a higher number and smaller size of electronic components each year. One path forward is the incorporation of atoms and molecules as small, low-cost, and stable structures in electronic circuits and their integration into complex architectures which have been a desire of the nanoscale community for many decades. At the quantum physics scale, the unique physical and chemical properties of single molecules could lead to numerous new and interesting phenomena that are not accessible using conventional approaches, resulting in the emergence of a wide variety of device functionalities and applications, for example, nano-switches, single-molecule sensors, and spin filters. Although single-molecule electronics is still at an early phase, the investigation of charge transport through molecules and their dynamics at the nanoscale is fundamentally important to understand the relevant scientific concepts and technological applications. We briefly review the history of molecular electronics as well as the fundamentals and theories required to understand charge transport through molecules. We provide an overview of methods to fabricate single-molecule junctions with a focus on STM-based approaches, their advantages, and limitations. The review highlights new insights and the latest progress on the structure-property relationship of single-molecule junctions that includes the effect of anchoring groups, molecular orientation in the junction (anisotropy of conductance), molecule-electrode binding (denticity), and the role of solvent on charge transport at the nanoscale. We also highlight how advances in machine learning and molecular dynamics techniques have impacted theoretical and computation-based approaches to studying molecular electronics. We then summarize the contribution of advanced statistical analysis and machine-based approaches to the analysis of single-molecule conductance data. We wrap up the review with a discussion on new materials for molecular electronics, as well as current challenges and the outlook in the development of practical molecular electronics.
Cheminformatic analysis has been an active field for almost half a century, with considerable innovation accelerating drug discovery. However, the requirement for programming expertise prevents its popular use, often necessitating collaboration between multiple disciplines to integrate cheminformatics tasks into drug discovery pipelines. Various efforts have been made to mitigate this issue at the cost of cross-platform compatibility and preservation of data privacy. We introduce a static web application, QSAR, Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship In The Browser (QITB), that performs various cheminformatic analyses on the user's device, with no external server required. It includes tools to access the publicly available ChEMBL database and tools for users to upload their own data. It automatically processes data, offers a range of interactive tools for data visualization and analysis, and supports the training and evaluation of lightweight machine-learning models. By being hosted on GitHub Pages, the QITB web app is broadly accessible and enables the use of cheminformatics by experts and nonexperts alike.