Seizures fell 90% in a gene therapy trial; long COVID eases for half

The infusion went only to the small patch of tissue responsible for each person's seizures. The virus delivered a gene that made neurons there sensitive to clozapine, and the drug then activates the therapy and quiets the abnormal electrical firing 22. None of the three had a serious side effect 22.

Patients counted as improved once they scored 10 or less at two consecutive visits. By that standard, 36% had improved at two years and 50% at three 9. For 26%, every symptom was gone when surveyed 9. The subtype mattered enormously: about 60% of patients whose main symptom was lost taste or smell improved, against fewer than 20% of those with symptoms across several systems, including heart, nervous system and gut 9.

The scan-guided group had the same observed rate of major cardiovascular events while being recommended statins far less often 1. The surprise was adherence. People advised to take a statin because of their scan were nearly three times as likely to keep taking it 1. The results were presented in a Hot Line session at ESC Congress 2026 1.

Unlike most quakes InSight logged, it came from the far side of the planet, in the western half of Valles Marineris 12. Researchers reanalyzed the seismic waves in Nature Communications and found it started in a fault running beneath the canyon, which stretches up to 2,500 miles, roughly ten times the length of the Grand Canyon 12. Separately, the ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter detected hydrogen chloride over fissured ground near Alba Mons, the largest volcano on Mars by surface area 45. Hydrogen chloride keeps seeping from magma after eruptions end, and a handful of the signals appeared in early northern summer, when Mars sits near its farthest point from the Sun 45.

In PNAS, they report that the added schooling reduced early dementia diagnoses and narrowed the gap between people at high and low inherited risk 93. Twin studies estimate dementia's heritability at as high as 80 percent, which is why a narrowed genetic gap stands out 93.

One development of 114 apartments went up on site in about five weeks 117. The Swedish Wood Building Council's managing director says about 90 percent of new single-family homes use prefabricated timber systems 117. The national statistics agency counts 43 percent of new multifamily apartments as built with fully prefabricated frames and another 46 percent as partially prefabricated 117. Housing economist Joseph Gyourko told the reporter: "It's not trailer parks. It's nice housing" 117. Vox's series on how other places built things that look out of reach in the US also covers Bogotá's bike network, universal childcare in Uruguay, and Chattanooga's municipal fast internet 118.

It measured under 5 inches (12 centimeters). The skull is missing, but its last meal was still in its stomach: a greenish-blue, iridescent cockroach 10. Iridescence is associated with daytime activity, and the team found the same kind of cockroach in sediments a few feet away to identify it 10. The owl's feathers and the stoutness of its upper wing bones also point to a daytime lifestyle 10.