Infant sugar rationing still shows at 70; dog retinas rebuild

When rationing ended in 1953, average consumption doubled to 80 grams a day within a year 14. Jiazhen Zheng at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and colleagues used UK Biobank data to compare 40,000 adults who spent some or all of their first 1000 days (conception to age two) under rationing with 23,000 whose first 1000 days came just after it 14. The rationed group is more likely to be alive, shows cellular markers of being biologically younger, and has lower organ ages, especially in the heart, lungs and liver. They have also been less likely to develop cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, dementia and many other conditions. Longer time under rationing meant more protection 14. The columnist who reported it, a parent of three, admits his first child got a zucchini puree (not a hit) and his third got whatever was going 14.

Standard care is surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, and the cancer commonly returns. Waldner says he left the hospital after surgery "told, that's it, that's all we can do" 9. He then joined a University of Calgary trial, led by oncologist Gloria Roldan Urgoiti and neuroscientist Wee Yong. The trial adds high-dose vitamin B3 (niacin) to standard treatment, on the theory that niacin can revive immune cells the tumor has suppressed. The idea came from mouse experiments in which niacin extended survival 9. In this small combined Phase I/II trial, 82% of patients were still progression-free after six months 9.

In mice with stiff, failing hearts, treatment improved measures of heart function by up to 80% compared with untreated animals, reduced scarring and kept heart muscle cells from enlarging 36137. In lab-grown human heart tissue made from stem cells, it helped the tissue contract and relax faster 36. The target is heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), where the heart still squeezes normally but is too stiff to refill well 36.

They injected the animals' retinas with a harmless virus carrying a working copy of the gene 33. A single dose stopped the blindness from progressing and substantially improved vision, especially in dim light. Treated regions of the retina degraded less, and the outer plexiform layer, which holds the visual connectors, expanded, as did the synaptic ribbons inside the light-sensing cells 33. Veterinary ophthalmologist Billie Beckwith-Cohen calls the mutation "a typo in a blueprint" and the therapy an editor 33. The paper describes three independent structural changes, including pre-existing abnormalities being repaired 33.

The money came mainly from lower spending on alcohol, transactional sex and gambling 76. Hazardous drinking fell 26% and intimate partner violence fell 15% 76. HIV and STI incidence fell 8%, but that result was not statistically significant 76.

Researchers read a 58-centimeter shell from the lagoon at Jiigurru (the Lizard Island Group) in the northern Great Barrier Reef. Radiocarbon dating put the clam's life between about 1785 and 1827 20. Before industrial-era warming, Jiigurru's summers were cooler than today, while winters were surprisingly similar 20. The study was done in partnership with the Walmbaar Aboriginal Corporation and Nguurruumungu Indigenous Corporation. Jiigurru is culturally important to the Dingaal and Ngurrumungu communities, and shell middens there show at least 6,500 years of Aboriginal occupation 20.

Egyptologists have long argued over whether she ruled in her own right 162. The only text that might settle it is an inscription on 13 mud jar stoppers excavated from an unknown Saqqara tomb in the 1940s. Only one photograph of it survives, in Walter Emery's records, and the original artifact and glass plate are lost 162. The inscription is a row of four royal serekhs. Emery said the first and fourth named Djer and the other two named Meretneith, but his critics pointed to the poor photo quality 162. The authors, working with digital technician Crystal Miller at Macquarie University, isolated the hieroglyphs, inverted the colours and converted them to a scalable vector. The result is a crisp replica, "like a high-tech pencil rubbing over a coin." They say the signs clearly point to Meretneith as one of Egypt's early rulers 162.

All animal proteins must come from producers that avoid cages, crates and ongoing tethering, and animals must be slaughtered by a method that produces instant insensibility. Operators also have to prevent food waste and set up a partnership with a non-governmental organization within 12 months to deliver unused food to those in need 126. The restaurant standard currently covers over 500 restaurants globally 126. The companion hotel standard gives operators 12 months to reach 30%, and asks for at least a 10% cut in food waste in each of the following three years 126.