It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Australia’s oldest underwater archaeology reveals ancient life within a lost landscape
New discoveries from Australia's oldest known underwater archaeological record reveal how First Peoples lived, transported goods and used different places within a vast cultural landscape that was submerged when rising seas transformed the continent after the last Ice Age.
Published in the prestigious journal Quaternary Science Reviews, compelling new evidence shows that significant Aboriginal cultural heritage survives on Australia's seabed. It also shows that earlier discoveries at Murujuga, in north-western Australia, were not isolated finds but part of a broader submerged cultural landscape across this World Heritage-listed region.
The discoveries, which include stone artefacts associated with an ancient freshwater spring, provide insights into a world that existed before rising seas reshaped Australia's coastline.
While the sites were submerged at least 9,000 years ago, the artefacts could be considerably older.
At the heart of this discovery is a partnership between underwater archaeology researchers from Flinders University, The University of Western Australia, James Cook University and University of York (UK) with Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation and its Rangers, who trained as scientific divers and worked alongside archaeologists to locate and document the underwater cultural sites.
“The collaboration demonstrates the value of working beside trained Indigenous Rangers who actively contributed to this challenging scientific research,” says lead researcher and specialist in marine archaeology, Professor Jonathan Benjamin from Flinders University’s College of Human Sciences and Culture.
Malik Churnside and Richard Variakojis – Rangers from the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, Land and Sea Unit and co-authors on the paper – undertook scientific diver surveys and made some of the underwater discoveries.
“The Ngarda-Ngarli people have cared for Murujuga for at least 50,000 years. What this research shows is that our cultural landscape extends far beyond the shoreline and into Sea Country, where important parts of our story remain preserved beneath the sea,” says Vincent Adams, Director, Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation.
“World Heritage recognition brings new responsibilities as well as global recognition. Research like this strengthens our ability to identify, understand and protect the whole Murujuga cultural landscape, including Country that was submerged when sea levels rose thousands of years ago.
More than two million square kilometres of Australia's continental shelf was submerged as sea levels rose following the end of the last Ice Age. Before that transformation, generations of First Nations peoples lived across landscapes that now lie beneath the ocean.
The newly documented sites reveal two distinct parts of this lost world. One site centres on a freshwater spring, a vital resource that would have been a place where people would congregate. The other is associated with a rocky hill overlooking an ancient river channel, showing how people used different parts of the landscape when the archipelago was still connected by dry land.
Analysis indicates some artefacts were made from stone sourced from around Rosemary Island, about 23 kilometres from where they were found, which suggests people moved valuable resources across a landscape that is now seabed.
Underwater archaeological discoveries demonstrate raw material selection and transport of stone artefacts: new evidence from the submerged cultural landscape of Murujuga, Western Australia
Article Publication Date
14-Oct-2026
Asthma medication improved motor skills and strength in children with muscle disease
A common asthma medication improves motor skills and muscle strength in children with congenital myopathies, a group of incurable muscle diseases. In a study, children receiving the drug were able to both walk and stand up more quickly.
"Simply the fact that they had more energy, that they could manage a full day at school followed by activities and homework without becoming completely exhausted and bursting into tears, is very important for these children," says Eva Michael, a doctoral student in pediatric neurology at the University of Gothenburg and a specialist physician at the Queen Silvia Children's Hospital.
Congenital myopathies are a group of rare, inherited muscle diseases that often cause muscle weakness in childhood. This weakness can affect, among other things, the ability to walk, stand up, and use one's arms and hands, and in some cases, it can also affect the respiratory muscles.
Currently, there is no cure or pharmacological treatment for these diseases. Care therefore focuses primarily on alleviating symptoms and preventing complications.
The study investigated whether the substance salbutamol could improve muscle function in children and young people with congenital myopathy. Salbutamol has long been used for asthma, but when administered orally, it also affects skeletal muscle and can, for instance, stimulate the synthesis of muscle protein.
Improved motor function and grip strength
The study included 18 individuals, aged 6–16, with genetically confirmed congenital myopathy. They were randomized to receive either salbutamol in addition to their usual treatment or their usual treatment alone for 24 weeks. They then switched treatments, allowing for a comparison against themselves.
Following the period of salbutamol treatment, the participants' motor function was superior to that observed with standard treatment alone. The difference averaged 3.61 points on a standardized motor function rating scale (MFM-32), a change generally regarded as a clear improvement in the context of neuromuscular diseases.
Muscle strength also improved. Grip strength in the dominant hand increased by the equivalent of approximately 1.5 kilograms during salbutamol treatment compared to standard treatment alone. Increased strength was also observed in other muscle groups examined, though these results were not statistically significant.
In addition, lung function improved. On average, forced vital capacity – a measure of the volume of air exhaled after a maximal inhalation – was approximately 0.2 liters higher during salbutamol treatment than during standard treatment.
Future treatment options
Improvements across several functional tests were observed in the eleven participants who were able to walk. In a six-minute walk test, the children covered an average distance of 435 meters before treatment, whereas with salbutamol, the distance increased to 473 meters. Children of a similar age typically walk about 600 meters in six minutes.
The researchers also assessed how quickly the ambulatory children in the study could rise from the floor to a standing position. On average, it took them 8.29 seconds to stand up, but with salbutamol, that time was reduced to 6.39 seconds. A child with normal strength rises from the floor to a standing position in 1–2 seconds.The treatment was well tolerated, and no serious side effects were reported."The results suggest that oral salbutamol could potentially become a symptom-relieving treatment option for children and adolescents with congenital myopathies in the future, pending the development of other drugs. However, these findings need to be confirmed in larger international studies involving longer treatment periods and follow-up," says Eva Michael.
Effects of oral salbutamol treatment on motor function and muscle strength in congenital myopathies (COMPIS): a single centre, randomised, open-label, blinded-endpoint, crossover trial in Sweden
Cement manufacturing is one of the largest sources of CO2 emissions in the construction industry. At the Department of Architecture, Karen Antorveza Paez, who has just completed her doctorate at ETH Zurich, is researching an alternative that works in a totally different way: instead of firing rocks at over 1,000°C, she is getting bacteria to bond grains of sand together into solid architectural elements.
“We’re using bacteria to produce a sort of mineral glue”, explains Antorveza Paez. When certain types of bacteria are combined with sand or other solid grains, they join the particles together into a solid structure made of interlocking, microscopic calcite crystals.
The process is called microbiologically induced calcite precipitation (MICP), or simply biocementation. It’s nothing new: the bacteria used for this, Sporosarcina pasteurii, have been under research for many years, such as for stabilising loose subsoil. They have also been used in concrete research for “self-healing” concrete, where the introduction of bacterial spores causes cracks to seal over on their own.
Antorveza Paez’s innovation is how the process is controlled: not as an addition to existing building materials, but as an architectural material in its own right. To achieve this, she combined two research fields that had until then been largely separate: biocementation and digital manufacturing. While it has long been known that bacteria can bond sand together into solid objects under certain conditions, Antorveza Paez explains that, “What was missing were manufacturing processes whereby these biological processes can be controlled as required and used to make architectural elements”.
Two ways of making biogenic building materials
In the course of writing her doctoral thesis, three scientific studies were conducted that describe two different manufacturing methods. For the first method, 3D biocement printing, the team developed a “bio-ink” made of a gel based on water and the natural substances alginate and xanthan, as well as sand and live bacteria. As with a traditional 3D printing paste, the bio-ink can be printed into a given desired structure. The printed object is then immersed in a bath containing urea and calcium chloride.
This is where the bacteria start their work by breaking down the urea with an enzyme called urease. This reaction releases carbonate ions and, as a by-product, ammonium. The carbonate and calcium chloride in the solution bond together to form calcium carbonate, also known as limestone – the same mineral that makes up mussel shells and chalk.
The limestone forms wherever the bacteria are located within the printed object. Microscopic crystals form between the grains of sand and “interlock” with each other. This is what gives the process its gluing property: rather than being glue in the traditional sense, it is made up of interlinked mineral crystals that mechanically hold the grains together.
Like baking a cake
The entire process takes two to five days, depending on the desired strength of the architectural component. This involves providing a fresh mineralisation bath every day, so that the bacteria do not deplete the substances required to form the limestone. The object is then left to dry. Once this is done, the process is complete. The structure has turned to solid mineral and the bacteria are no longer active.
Antorveza Paez says, “It’s a bit like baking a cake. You’ve got the dough, which is still very malleable and delicate. Only the oven can turn it into something solid.” In her process, the bacteria play the role of the oven: they slowly set the printed structure until it is solid, bonded and dry at room temperature. No heat sources are used.
This process has been used to create a facade element, among other things. It can be used to provide protection from the sun or as a partition wall, for example.
Fully digital manufacturing
A second approach to applying biocement for architectural purposes is robotic spraying. In this technique, the researchers removed the intermediate stage of the immersion bath. A robotic arm applies bacteria, the mineralisation substances for limestone formation and sand to a surface repeatedly and one after the other, building it up in height layer by layer. This process is inspired by stromatolites, layered sedimentary rock formations that occur in nature when microorganisms deposit minerals over long periods of time.
At the 2025 Biennale Architettura in Venice, the process was left running uninterrupted for six months, letting visitors see the results for themselves. “We have proven that the entire process of biocementation can be automated”, says Antorveza Paez.
The two processes are complementary: “The printing is geared more towards architectural elements, while the spray process is more designed for surfaces”, explains Antorveza Paez. Where the focus of the printing process was on materials science – which bio-ink works and how it can be printed – the spray process was chiefly concerned with the machine itself and how to control three streams of materials. Accordingly, the two processes are at different stages of development. Antorveza Paez reports that the spray process still requires significantly more research into its mechanical properties, such as in terms of how the grains and bonding medium are arranged inside the object.
Fascinated by nature’s ingenuity
For Antorveza Paez, working with microorganisms means one thing above all else: forging a new relationship with building materials. “As an architect, you don’t normally know anything about what went into making a material – it’s manufactured somewhere else”, she says. “I’m fascinated by the fact that nature has found ways of manufacturing very sophisticated materials and that we can make these applicable to the problems we face today.”
The architect is currently working on a third study concerned with the environmental impact of biocementation and finding relevant solutions. The reason for this is that ammonium, which is produced during the reaction involving the bacteria and mineralisation bath, is very damaging to the environment. As Antorveza Paez explains: “If we don’t factor the disposal of this chemical by-product into our designs, then unfortunately using biocement for construction won’t be such a sustainable practice.”
Load-bearing structures still a long way off
The researcher admits that, as things currently stand, biocementation is more along the lines of mortar than concrete. Her comparison with concrete makes it clear how much research is still needed. The formula for concrete– specifying how many grains of each size are combined and in what proportions – has been refined for over a century and continues to be fine-tuned to this day.
In the case of biocementation, this work is only just getting started: while we know that bacteria can, in principle, be combined with certain grain sizes, the question of how to use this to produce a long-lasting material that is as stable as possible is yet to be answered by research. “The big question is no longer whether biocement works, but rather how well its properties can be managed,” concludes Antorveza Paez.
References
Antorveza Paez KA, Kindler RO, Terzis D, Dutto A, Pleij T, Zorzetto G, Studart AR, Dillenburger B: 3D biocement printing: scaling up living mineral structures. NPJ Materials Sustainability 2026, 4: 20, DOI: 10.1038/s44296-026-00110-1
Antorveza Paez KA, Kindler RO, Terzis D, Lin CW, Coulter FB, Dillenburger B: Robotic biocementation spraying: a bioinspired fabrication method for architectural surfaces. Architectural Intelligence 2026, 5: 11, DOI: 10.1007/s44223-026-00120-y
Antorveza Paez KA, Huang S, Yeh KH, Seav K, Dillenburger B. Design workflow for porous 3D-printed biocement geometries. Biotechnology Design. 2026, 4: 40, DOI: 10.1017/s2977905726100286
Multimodal sensing strategies—electrical, electrochemical, transistor-based, and optical—integrated with AI-enabled interpretation establish a systems-level framework for continuous, individualized precision diagnosis across metabolites, electrophysiological signals, and molecular biomarkers in diverse biofluids.
Advanced manufacturing and heterogeneous integration strategies, spanning printing, photolithography, 3D fabrication, and laser writing, enable skin-conformal platforms that unify sensing, signal transduction, power, and wireless communication into compact, long-term wearable diagnostic systems.
Wearable diagnostic platforms demonstrate broad clinical applicability across neurological, cardiovascular, respiratory, ocular, musculoskeletal, oncological, diabetic, and inflammatory conditions; by enabling longitudinal multi-parameter data fusion and personalized physiological baselines, they provide a clinically actionable pathway for early disease detection, risk stratification, and real-time health management.
As chronic diseases continue to pose major global health challenges, conventional medical diagnosis remains largely dependent on intermittent measurements taken in clinical settings, making it difficult to capture dynamic physiological changes and detect early signs of disease. Researchers from the University of South China, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, and Sun Yat-Sen University have reviewed recent advances in wearable electronics, highlighting how advanced manufacturing, heterogeneous integration, multimodal sensing, and artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming wearable devices into promising platforms for continuous, personalized precision diagnosis.
Why This Technology Matters
Traditional diagnostic approaches often provide only snapshots of an individual’s health, potentially overlooking subtle changes that develop between clinical visits. Wearable diagnostic systems address this limitation by continuously monitoring physiological signals and molecular biomarkers directly on the body. By combining information from different sensing modalities and tracking changes against personalized physiological baselines, these systems can help identify abnormalities earlier, improve disease risk assessment, and support more individualized healthcare decisions.
Innovative Design and Mechanism
The review examines four major sensing strategies: electrical, electrochemical, transistor-based, and optical sensing. Each offers distinct advantages, from recording electrophysiological activity and monitoring physical changes to detecting metabolites, proteins, hormones, and other molecular biomarkers in sweat, saliva, tears, interstitial fluid, and other biological samples. Advanced manufacturing techniques—including printing, coating, photolithography, three-dimensional fabrication, and laser writing—enable the precise construction of flexible sensing components. Heterogeneous integration then combines sensors, electronic circuits, power supplies, and wireless communication into compact, skin-conformal systems. AI-enabled algorithms process these complex data streams, extract meaningful features, identify abnormal patterns, and support real-time interpretation.
Outstanding Performance
The reviewed wearable platforms demonstrate broad potential across neurological, cardiovascular, respiratory, ocular, musculoskeletal, oncological, diabetic, and inflammatory conditions. By integrating multiple signals rather than relying on a single biomarker, these systems can provide a more comprehensive picture of physiological status. Examples discussed in the review include wearable platforms for cardiac monitoring, continuous biochemical analysis, and disease-associated biomarker detection. Some AI-assisted devices can also distinguish clinically relevant patterns from background physiological activity, illustrating how wearable electronics can progress beyond simple data collection toward intelligent health assessment.
Applications and Future Outlook
Despite these advances, several challenges must be addressed before widespread clinical adoption. Long-term sensor stability, motion artifacts, biofouling, signal drift, interference from complex biological samples, and differences between individual users can compromise measurement reliability. Integrating flexible sensing materials with rigid electronic components while maintaining low power consumption and dependable wireless communication also remains difficult. Future progress will require scalable manufacturing, robust biointerfaces, improved multimodal data fusion, and AI models validated across diverse populations and real-world conditions. Ultimately, the convergence of advanced manufacturing and intelligent data analysis could help establish wearable electronics as accessible tools for early disease detection, longitudinal health monitoring, and personalized medical management.
Credit: Ben Niu, Yaqi Zhang, Ying Chen, Tingting Liu and Jue Liu
Under universal health coverage, allocating antidepressant benefits requires balancing health costs, clinical efficacy, and patient financial protection. Health insurers must decide on antidepressant inclusion in benefit packages and reimbursement levels, and benefit-package decisions involve both clinical effectiveness and patient out-of-pocket spending. To that end, a new study develops a model for comparing benefit-package options under a constrained healthcare insurance budget.
The study proposes a dual-objective model for the burden of depressive disorder. The model jointly considers clinical efficacy and household out-of-pocket expenditure when designing benefit packages.
“Given the model's high-dimensional non-convex characteristics, we developed the triple-population cooperative particle swarm optimization for the burden of depressive disorder (TPCPSO_BD),” shares corresponding author Jue Liu.
Validated using real-world data from City S, China, TPCPSO_BD was found to perform better than comparison algorithms in small, medium and large test cases. “In the large test case, an optimized benefit package reduced direct household expenditure per unit of societal disease burden by 48.97% compared with the benchmark algorithms,” says Liu.
Notably, the average cost-effectiveness ratio fell from 13.30 under the current value-based procurement formulary to 5.49 under the optimized formulary, representing a 58.72% decrease. A lower ratio indicates lower cost relative to the clinical benefit achieved.
Meanwhile, drug-selection results showed joint effects from drug price, out-of-pocket rate and clinical efficacy. “Sertraline and duloxetine appeared frequently among the nondominated solutions, reflecting favourable combinations of clinical efficacy and cost,” says Liu. “Agomelatine, however, appeared less frequently despite its clinical efficacy, consistent with the higher cost associated with the drug.
“Drug efficacy and household costs should be considered together when benefit packages are designed,” first-author Ben Niu adds. “The model provides several feasible options, so policymakers can choose a package that matches local budgets and reimbursement needs.”
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Contact the author:
Prof. Jue Liu, School of Public Health, Institute for Global Health and Development, Peking University, No. 5 Yiheyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100871, China. Email: jueliu@bjmu.edu.cn
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