By combining recordings from single neurons with artificial-intelligence techniques, specific brain cells have been identified that could enable humans to generate language. These cells, which are distributed broadly across the human brain, encode specific aspects of meaning and grammar and reflect how words are assembled into phrases and sentences.

In about 50% of people with colorectal cancer, tumour cells spread to distant organs. The ability of these metastases to grow into the liver tissue shapes prognosis. It emerges that liver fat promotes a form of liver metastasis with a poor prognosis, suggesting that individual-specific traits can inform risk stratification and treatment.

Buchnera bacteria that live in the cells of insects known as aphids secrete a protein called SyeA, which is crucial for colonization. The structural similarity of SyeA to proteins secreted by disease-causing bacteria indicates that the beneficial symbiotic relationship between Buchnera and aphids had pathogenic origins.

High temperatures make cell membranes weak and leaky. Rice plants rapidly counteract this effect by adjusting membrane lipid content, enabling them to resist heatwaves.