Day May 18, 2026

Credit: Image generated by the editorial team using AI for illustrative purposes. The digital transformation of pathology is opening up new possibilities for cancer diagnosis. Today’s artificial intelligence (AI) techniques now go far beyond mere automation: they make it possible…

A new study finds that large language models (LLMs), used with straightforward prompting, perform poorly on routine number-crunching tasks that hospital administrators depend on every day to track patients and allocate resources. The findings have been published in PLOS Digital…

Schematic Overview of the PanPep Reusability Workflow. Credit: DOI: 10.21203 Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used to help scientists accelerate drug discovery and search for new treatments. But for AI tools to work effectively, researchers need to know whether they…

Images generated using artificial intelligence (AI) depict more stereotypes and stigmas around depression than images used by the media to illustrate the disease. This is the main conclusion of a study on the perception held by different groups—including associations of…

Credit: Image generated by the editorial team using AI for illustrative purposes. Artificial intelligence can now outperform doctors at diagnosing patients in the emergency department, according to a new study in Science. The AI was given written notes from real…

Embodying surgical robots with next-gen AI can safely augment practice if ethical and regulatory questions are addressed, say experts writing in Frontiers in Science. A team of pioneering surgeons and researchers from King’s College London says AI-enhanced surgical robotics could…

Millions of people around the world now use AI companions—for friendship, emotional support, mental health counseling and romantic interactions. This includes 72% of adolescents, according to one study from the United States. Meanwhile, human-caused climate change has already led to…

Credit: Image generated by the editorial team using AI for illustrative purposes. Ask an AI model the same political question in two different languages, and you may get two very different responses. A new study in Nature suggests one reason…

Prototype Screenshot (1/7): Home page of the signed in user showing their lesson progress. In this image, all lessons are still locked as the participant has not opened the initial form yet by clicking the “Open Form” button. Credit: Proceedings…

Researchers used AI to analyze whole-body MRI scans from more than 66,000 participants to create the most detailed reference map to date of how fat and muscle are distributed in the human body across age, sex, and height. The study…

Example of segmentation visualization in the CrossSegmentationExplorer system. After selecting the image volume, segmentation models or files are chosen from the drop-down menus. For each selected model and file, the corresponding segmentations are automatically displayed in one 3D view and…

Cyber-ecological approach to understanding the interaction between real and digital worlds for older people. Credit: DIGITAL HEALTH (2026). DOI: 10.1177/20552076261418907 As Australia and the world face rapidly aging populations, technology is increasingly promoted as the answer to helping older people…

Health workers walk with a boy suspected of having the Ebola virus at an Ebola treatment center in Beni, eastern Congo, Sept 9, 2018. Credit: AP Photo/Al-hadji Kudra Maliro, File Africa CDC, the continent’s top public health body, on Friday…

Perioperative medicine is emerging as a transformative, comprehensive, system-wide approach to patient care before, during, and after surgery—that reduces complication rates and hospital days, provides better health outcomes, and improves health system performance, according to a special article in Anesthesiology.…

New research presented at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2026, Istanbul, Turkey, 12–15 May) suggests that no matter where people live, eating out instead of preparing meals at home is linked to weight gain and obesity. Using nationally representative…

Credit: Mayo Clinic When Mayo Clinic researchers sequenced the genomes of 484 seemingly healthy adults, they found that about 13% carried a serious, previously unrecognized genetic risk—conditions those patients did not know about and that standard care would likely miss.…

ADHD is usually associated with being careless, impulsive and having difficulty concentrating. New research focused on ADHD in adults indicates a greater number of cognitive and motor symptoms, and that the effects of medication vary depending on the severity of…

Increasing the heating rate when making lithium-ion cathodes promotes liquid-solid contact and uniform lithium incorporation. After extended battery operation, particles synthesized with slow heating show severe microcracking (left), whereas those synthesized with faster heating show markedly reduced cracking (right). Credit:…

Researchers have identified the best dosage for each ADHD medication using data from thousands of people with the condition. The new study published in The Lancet Psychiatry provides the most comprehensive view of dosage effects for five commonly used medications…

The World Health Organization issued a strong warning Friday over the rapid global expansion of nicotine pouch products, decrying the tobacco industry’s aggressive marketing tactics to hook young people. Nicotine pouches, which are small sachets placed between the gum and…

Credit: adrian vieriu from Pexels A new study published in JAMA Network Open on May 7, 2026, engaged 42 national experts in hospital-based addiction treatment in a consensus-building process to develop best practices for hospital-initiated medications for opioid use disorder…

Current nutrient content labels used in this study. Credit: BMC Nutrition (2026). DOI: 10.1186/s40795-026-01255-x New research led by the Health Policy Center at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) has shown that placing sugar warning labels on…

In Africa there is alarmingly high post-fracture mortality of 20–30% and hip fractures alone are projected to double by mid-century. Despite the evidence of rising fracture burden, preventable disability, and premature mortality, bone health remains largely absent from national health…

Arthroscopic view of a right knee depicting composite graft mixture injected in the femoral tunnel prior to pulling graft through tunnel. Credit: Arthroscopy, Sports Medicine, and Rehabilitation (2026). DOI: 10.1002 New research from orthopedic specialists at Marshall Health Network and…

A mythical army of genetically engineered raccoons has helped Australian researchers show that belief in conspiracy theories may be less common than previously thought. Findings from a Macquarie University study suggest many opinion poll surveys make belief in conspiracies look…

Weight gain during menopause is common, with abdominal obesity being especially common and unhealthy. A new study based on data from the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN) has found that in addition to its adverse physical health…

Using the PM-HIP process, the canister was filled with metal powder, vacuum-sealed and subjected to high heat and pressure to form a dense metal component. Credit: Fred List III/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s…

3D-printed scaffolds that mimic the chemical composition and architecture of natural bone tissue. Credit: Jonne Renvall, Tampere University Researchers at Tampere University, Finland, have developed a groundbreaking 3D-printed ceramic implant material that closely mimics real human bone. The findings advance…

Whooping cough, medically known as pertussis, is a highly contagious bacterial infection that affects the airways. It gets its common name from the “whoop” sound that some infected children make when they take a deep, gasping breath after a severe…

Nearly one-third of Australian adults are getting less than the recommended seven hours of sleep, with young adults (ages 18–34) emerging as the most sleep deprived and most affected by the consequences of poor sleep, reveals a new study by…

Credit: Artem Podrez from Pexels Small abnormalities in blood sugar, blood lipids and inflammation several years before pregnancy are linked to an increased risk of high blood pressure during pregnancy and preeclampsia, according to a study from Karolinska Institutet published…

A microscopic close-up of a natural killer (NK) immune cell. In a healthy immune system, toxic granules (seen here in magenta) are deployed to destroy infected cells. In patients with MKD, these granules remain trapped inside the cell. Credit: James…

Credit: Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels Partial meniscectomy does not improve patient symptoms or function, reveals a 10-year follow-up of the FIDELITY, a placebo-surgery controlled trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Trimming a degenerated meniscus, or partial meniscectomy,…

Credit: Unsplash.com, Hartono Creative Studio The internet and social media platforms have given rise to a rising wave of misinformation, with many users now posting fake news, AI-generated photos or videos and other types of misleading content online. Over the…

A new randomized clinical trial provides some of the clearest evidence to date that what we eat can meaningfully reshape both human health and the health of the planet. Researchers have found that a low-fat vegan diet reduced food-related greenhouse…

A new review paper in Nicotine and Tobacco Research, finds that while research has previously found that vaping is associated with subsequently quitting smoking, that may not always be true. In fact, it appears studies limited to people who actually…

Credit: AI-generated image Researchers at Mass General Brigham Heart and Vascular Institute and collaborators have developed and validated a new genetic risk test that can estimate a person’s inherited risk for eight common cardiovascular conditions, offering a more comprehensive approach…

Melissa Rothstein, who recently completed her Ph.D. in behavioral science psychology, conducted a study on drinking and emotion in the HARP Lab, a simulated bar lab in Chafee Hall. Credit: University of Rhode Island While, historically, men in the United…

Highly used words stay closer to other highly used words, defining semantically popular regions. Left: intuitive cartoon. Right: scatter plots calculated using Word2vec and wordfreq datasets. Credit: Guo et al. (Proceedings B, 2026). Human languages are known to have grown…

Credit: Pexels When we think about the causes of climate change, the usual suspects often come to mind: coal-fired power plants, traffic-choked roads, industrial agriculture. Rarely do we picture hospitals. Yet if global health care were a country, it would…