For decades, families in communities around Johannesburg have been living close to huge gold mining waste dumps. For many residents the dust that is released there is just part of everyday life – but it can contain natural uranium compounds that come to the surface with the mined rock. A new study in the journal Environmental Geochemistry and Health (DOI: 10.1007/s10653-025-02874-2) reveals how this exposure is reflected in children’s hair. An international research team headed by the South African Medical Research Council and involving the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), VKTA – Strahlenschutz, Analytik & Entsorgung Rossendorf e. V. as well as the Wismut GmbH has examined samples of hair and linked them to analyses of soil samples, the test subjects’ body measurements and the evaluation of questionnaires on their living conditions.

A surface capable of responding to chemical signals generated by microorganisms and automatically producing biocidal substances – this is not a futuristic vision, but a description of how the B-STING silica nanocomposite works. The new material, developed at the Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow, acts as a nanofactory of reactive oxygen species, activating itself only when necessary.

RNA viruses' rapid evolution challenges conventional diagnostics like reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction, as mutations can cause detection failures. Researchers from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology prospected a dual-strategy for RNA virus detection in Medicine Plus: mutation-tolerant broad screening and precise variant discrimination. Integrating these into portable, multiplex devices using real-time genomic data is key for effective public health responses.

Researchers led by the University of Vienna and Liège University Hospital Centre have identified genetic variants associated with a rare inherited growth disorder in two prehistoric individuals who lived more than 12,000 years ago. Using ancient DNA analysis and modern clinical genetics, they diagnosed the condition in a mother and daughter buried together in southern Italy. Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the study shows that paleogenomics can now reconstruct ancient population history and diagnose rare genetic diseases in prehistoric individuals.