Science

The appearance of thousands of formulaic biomedical studies has been linked to the rise of text-generating AI tools.

Data from five large open-access health databases are being used to generate thousands of poor-quality, formulaic papers, an analysis has found. Its authors say that the surge in publications could indicate the exploitation of these databases by people using large language models(LLMs) to mass-produce scholarly articles, or even by paper mills — companies that churn out papers to order.

Researchers have been sneaking secret messages into their papers in an effort to trick artificial intelligence (AI) tools into giving them a positive peer-review report.

The Tokyo-based news magazine Nikkei Asiareported last week on the practice, which had previously been discussed on social media. Nature has independently found 18 preprint studies containing such hidden messages, which are usually included as white text and sometimes in an extremely small font that would be invisible to a human but could be picked up as an instruction to an AI reviewer.

ETH Zurich researchers have developed a groundbreaking "living material" that actively captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through two mechanisms: biomass production and mineral formation[^1][^2].

The material combines cyanobacteria (photosynthetic bacteria) embedded within a printable hydrogel matrix. The cyanobacteria convert CO2 into biomass through photosynthesis while simultaneously triggering the formation of solid carbonate minerals - a process called microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP)[^1].

Key achievements of the material include:

• Sequestered 2.2 mg of CO2 per gram of hydrogel over 30 days
• Captured 26 mg of CO2 per gram over 400 days in mineral form
• Maintained viability for over one year
• Required only sunlight and artificial seawater to function
• Can be 3D printed into various structures[^1]

The research team demonstrated practical applications by creating:

• A 3-meter high tree-trunk structure at the Venice Architecture Biennale that can bind 18kg of CO2 annually
• Building facade coatings that could capture carbon throughout a building's lifecycle
• Lattice structures that passively transport nutrients through capillary action[^2]

"As a building material, it could help to store CO2 directly in buildings in the future," said Mark Tibbitt, Professor of Macromolecular Engineering at ETH Zurich[^2].

The material represents a low-maintenance, environmentally friendly approach to carbon capture that operates at ambient conditions using atmospheric CO2, contrasting with industrial methods requiring concentrated CO2 sources and controlled conditions[^1].

[^1]: Nature Communications - Dual carbon sequestration with photosynthetic living materials

[^2]: ETH Zurich - A building material that lives and stores carbon

A groundbreaking study published in July 2025 demonstrates that African savannah elephants use intentional gestures to communicate their goals, similar to great apes[^1]. The research team presented semi-captive elephants with desired and undesired items, recording their communication attempts when experimenters met, partially met, or failed to meet their goals[^1].

The study identified 38 different gesture types that elephants used almost exclusively when a visually attentive experimenter was present[^1]. The elephants showed three key criteria for intentional communication:

1. Audience directedness - signaling only when someone was watching
2. Persistence - continuing to gesture when goals were partially met
3. Elaboration - using new signals when communication failed

The research was conducted at the Jafuta Reserve in Zimbabwe, where elephants combined specific vocalizations with gestures in greeting behaviors[^6]. They used different types of signals including:

• Silent-visual gestures
• Audible gestures
• Tactile gestures
• Rumble vocalizations

The findings reveal that elephants, like apes, assess the communicative effectiveness of their gesturing and adjust their signals based on the audience's visual attention[^6]. This expands understanding of intentional communication beyond the primate lineage[^9].

[^1]: Royal Society Open Science - Investigating intentionality in elephant gestural communication

[^6]: Nature - Multimodal communication and audience directedness in the greeting behaviour of semi-captive African savannah elephants

[^9]: Pangea Trust - Gestures and greetings used by elephants show intentional multimodal communication

• Nerve cells can be grown from stem cells in Petri dishes, enabling scientists to research diseases. Previously, it was only possible to create a few dozen different types of nerve cell.
• Using a new method, researchers have now managed to produce over 400 different types of nerve cell.
• Cell culture models with cells of this kind are of interest for research into diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, as well as for testing new drugs in pharmaceutical research.

A university in France says nearly 300 American researchers have applied for a space in its "Safe Place for Science" program that was created to lure U.S. researchers seeking "scientific asylum" amid aggressive academic spending cuts and other actions against colleges by the Trump administration.