Discover the latest science in 100 words.

Longevity

Do your genes decide how long you live?

Much less than how you live. An Oxford team followed nearly half a million people in the UK. It weighed their genetic risk for 22 major diseases against 164 factors in how and where they lived. Genes explained less than 2 percent of the differences in who died early. Lifestyle and environment explained 17 percent, more than eight times as much. Smoking, income, exercise and living conditions mattered most. Your DNA isn’t your destiny: your habits and surroundings matter more.

Argentieri et al. · 2025 · Nature Medicine↗

Artificial intelligence

Can a brain implant give back a lost voice?

It already has. ALS had left a man barely able to speak. At UC Davis, surgeons placed 256 tiny electrodes in the part of his brain that controls speech. A computer turned his brain signals into speech almost instantly, in his own voice, rebuilt from old recordings. Listeners understood nearly 60 percent of his words, versus 4 percent without the implant. He could even raise his pitch at the end of a question and sing short melodies. For people who lose their voice to illness or injury, talking again now looks within reach.

Wairagkar et al. · 2025 · Nature↗

Relationships

Do opposites attract?

Rarely. Researchers pooled 199 studies covering millions of couples, going back to 1903, and checked 79,000 more couples in the UK. On more than 80 percent of the traits they looked at, partners were more alike than chance would predict. They matched most closely in political and religious views, education, and drinking or smoking habits. Even height and weight tended to match. In love, similar beats opposite.

Horwitz et al. · 2023 · Nature Human Behaviour↗

Longevity

Is your brain older than you?

It might be, and that matters. Stanford scientists used almost 3,000 blood proteins from 44,498 people in the UK to estimate the biological age of 11 organs, from heart to brain. Within one person, organs often aged at different speeds. In the years that followed, people with a youthful brain were 40 percent less likely to die than those with a typical one. An especially old brain tripled the risk of Alzheimer’s. The team hopes a blood test will soon tell you how old your brain really is, and what to do about it.

Oh et al. · 2025 · Nature Medicine↗

Artificial intelligence

Can AI talk people out of conspiracy theories?

Surprisingly often. In a study, 2,190 people each described a conspiracy theory they believed in and why. Then they chatted with GPT-4 for just eight minutes, and the AI answered their specific reasons with facts. On average, belief fell by 20 percent, and one in four people stopped believing the theory. Two months later, the effect still held. Many believers aren’t beyond reach: facts change minds when they answer the reasons people actually have.

Costello et al. · 2024 · Science↗

Relationships

Are people more caring than you think?

Yes, and underestimating them can leave you lonely. Most of us think others care less than they actually do. In a study of more than 5,000 Stanford students, this gap had a real cost: those who saw their peers as less caring held back from reaching out and grew more isolated over time. But when researchers showed students how caring their peers said they were and nudged them to make the first move, their social circles grew within months. So next time you hesitate to get in touch, assume the other person cares.

Pei et al. · 2025 · Nature Human Behaviour↗

Longevity

Does stress make you age faster?

It can, but only for a while. Biological age can be read from chemical marks on DNA. When a Harvard team tracked these marks in older patients who had emergency surgery for a broken hip, biological age jumped, then returned to normal within about a week. It also rose during pregnancy and recovered after birth. Young mice that shared blood with old mice aged quickly, then recovered once separated. A rough patch can age you, but recovery can wind the clock back.

Poganik et al. · 2023 · Cell Metabolism↗

Artificial intelligence

Can a robot learn 1,000 tasks in a day?

Yes, with the right trick. Robots usually need hundreds of demonstrations to learn a single task. An Imperial College London team split each task in two: first the robot lines up with the object, then it copies the closest demonstration it has seen. That way, a single demonstration can be enough, and a robot arm learned 1,000 everyday tasks in under 24 hours. One day, you might teach a home robot a new chore, like loading the dishwasher or watering the plants, just by showing it once.

Dreczkowski et al. · 2025 · Science Robotics↗

Relationships

Can you see a breakup coming?

The data can, months or even years ahead. Psychologists followed thousands of people in Germany, Australia, the UK and the Netherlands for up to 21 years. In couples who later split, relationship satisfaction first slipped slowly. Then, between seven months and two years before the breakup, it hit a turning point and dropped sharply. Couples who stayed together showed no such drop. The partner who was left reached the turning point later, then fell even faster. Help, like couples therapy, can work best before that point.

Bühler & Orth · 2025 · J. Pers. Soc. Psychol.↗

Longevity

Do your genes decide how long you live?

Much less than how you live. An Oxford team followed nearly half a million people in the UK. It weighed their genetic risk for 22 major diseases against 164 factors in how and where they lived. Genes explained less than 2 percent of the differences in who died early. Lifestyle and environment explained 17 percent, more than eight times as much. Smoking, income, exercise and living conditions mattered most. Your DNA isn’t your destiny: your habits and surroundings matter more.

Argentieri et al. · 2025 · Nature Medicine↗