AI Tools May Quietly Erode Professional Skills: As AI tools become routine in medicine, programming, and other knowledge fields, researchers are warning that professional skills may weaken through overreliance. A recent survey found that 70% of nurses and 77% of physicians worry AI could erode their abilities. Evidence is emerging. In Poland, experienced endoscopists who used AI to flag precancerous adenomas performed worse when the system was unavailable, with detection rates falling from 28.4% before AI use to 22.4% afterward. In a small Anthropic trial, software engineers who used an AI assistant completed coding work but scored lower on a follow-up learning quiz than those who worked unaided. Experts say AI can create a gap between performance and understanding, making vigilance, training, and deliberate skill maintenance essential. (Nature)

USB Worm Steals Cryptocurrency Credentials: Microsoft has identified Crypto Clipper, a self-spreading malware worm that moves through infected USB drives to steal cryptocurrency credentials. The malware watches a device’s clipboard for wallet addresses or 12- and 24-word seed phrases, then sends the captured data and screenshots to attacker-controlled servers through Tor. It can also replace copied wallet addresses with the attacker’s own, redirecting crypto payments without the victim noticing. Crypto Clipper spreads through malicious .lnk files on USB drives and disguises them with familiar-looking names. Microsoft says the malware is notable because it combines clipboard theft, screenshot capture, Tor-based communications, and remote code execution without relying on a traditional installer. Defender tools flag it as CryptoBandits.A and detect suspicious scripting, localhost proxy use, and clipboard inspection. (Ars Technica)

Light-Storing Liquid Acts Like a Soft Battery: Engineers have developed a metal-free liquid that can harvest energy from light, electricity, chemical fuel, and even x-rays, then store it for months by transforming into a gel. Reported in Chem, the material mimics the cell cytoskeleton, which repeatedly assembles and disassembles to support movement and division. Samuel Stupp’s Northwestern University team designed molecules containing a light-sensitive ANI unit and an electron-storing methyl viologen unit. When energized, electrons shift and bind the molecules into stable ribbonlike structures, turning yellow liquid into black gel. Exposure to oxygen reverses the process, releasing stored electrons to power chemical reactions. The material remains proof-of-concept, but could someday aid wearable batteries, soft electronics, medical implants, or flexible semiconductors. (Science)

Senolytics Remodel Aging Tissues in Mice: A new Nature Aging study maps how the senolytic combination dasatinib plus quercetin affects aged male mice across multiple tissues. Using bulk transcriptomics, single-cell and single-nucleus sequencing, histopathology, and molecular profiling, the researchers found that D+Q did not act uniformly. Instead, it remodeled immune function, reduced tissue inflammation, improved metabolic profiles, and showed tissue- and cell-type-specific effects on aging hallmarks. The study also suggests timing matters: earlier and longer intervention tended to produce stronger anti-aging readouts than shorter, late-stage treatment. The results support senolytics as a serious geroscience strategy, while also underscoring unresolved concerns about off-target effects, incomplete clearance of senescent cells, and translation from mice to humans. (Nature)

Aging Disrupts the Ovary Before Fertility Ends: Researchers reporting in Nature Aging used Slide-seq spatial transcriptomics to study how aging changes the cycling mouse ovary. The team profiled 22 ovaries across reproductive stages and ages, capturing more than 610,000 spatial spots. Their analysis showed that ovarian aging is not simply a matter of running out of follicles. Instead, aging disrupted the spatial and temporal coordination needed for follicle development, ovulation, and tissue remodeling even before reproductive cycles stopped. The changes included altered immune cell dynamics, inflammatory signaling, and broader tissue disorganization. The work reframes reproductive aging as a breakdown of multicellular coordination across the ovarian niche, offering a more detailed map of where fertility decline begins. (Nature)

Childhood Adversity Leaves Biological Aging Scars: A new paper covered by Aging-US links early-life adversity to cardiometabolic disease and accelerated biological aging decades later. Researchers analyzed 3,385 adults aged 60 and older from the nationally representative SABE-Colombia study, examining childhood emotional abuse, domestic violence, poor health, food scarcity, and forced migration before age 15. Forced childhood migration stood out: affected individuals showed biological ages about 1.5 years older than expected, rising to about 2.7 years among women. Among men, forced displacement was associated with higher risks of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension. The study supports a life-course view of aging, in which childhood stressors can become measurable biological burdens in later life. (Aging-US)

Macular Degeneration May Signal Systemic Aging Risks: A nationwide Korean cohort study highlighted by Aging-US suggests that neovascular age-related macular degeneration may reflect broader systemic aging biology. Researchers analyzed 334,091 adults aged 50 and older, including 83,742 patients with nAMD and matched controls, with up to 10 years of follow-up. Patients with nAMD had a modest but statistically significant increase in overall cancer risk, with elevated risks for thyroid, kidney, pancreatic, lung, bladder, and prostate cancers. The authors caution that the findings do not justify special cancer screening solely because of nAMD. Instead, the disease may mark shared aging-related pathways involving chronic inflammation, vascular dysfunction, immune dysregulation, oxidative stress, extracellular matrix remodeling, angiogenesis, and overlapping genetic susceptibility. (Aging-US)

Late-Life FGF21 Gene Therapy Extends Mouse Lifespan: Lifespan.io reports on a Molecular Therapy study in which researchers used an AAV gene therapy to make skeletal muscle produce fibroblast growth factor 21, a hormone involved in energy metabolism. The intervention began in 13-month-old male mice, raising circulating FGF21 long term. Treated mice lost age-associated excess weight without eating less, improved glucose tolerance, performed better on fitness tests, and showed cognitive benefits. Median lifespan increased from 28 to 34 months, a 20.5% gain, despite treatment starting relatively late in life. The therapy also improved mitochondrial pathways and reduced inflammatory, fibrotic, and amyloid-related changes in organs including liver, kidney, heart, muscle, and brain. Human translation remains distant, and female lifespan data were limited. (Lifespan Research Institute)

Antioxidants May Kill Some Senescent Muscle Cells: A new Lifespan.io summary covers an Aging Cell study examining how antioxidants affect senescent muscle precursor cells. The researchers focused on mTORC1, a nutrient-sensing pathway often overactive in senescent cells. In chemically induced senescent myoblasts, mTORC1 stayed active even under nutrient-poor conditions, apparently driven by Akt and insulin/growth factor signaling rather than autophagy. Antioxidants such as N-acetylcysteine reduced this abnormal mTORC1 activity. Under starvation-like conditions, antioxidant treatment increased DNA damage and membrane stress in senescent cells, killing some while improving differentiation capacity in survivors. The findings are preliminary and cell-based, not animal data, but they suggest senolytic effects may depend strongly on metabolic context and nutrient availability. (Lifespan Research Institute)

Human Cellular Reprogramming Trial Tests Longevity’s Big Bet: Axios reports that the first person has been treated in an early human trial of a gene therapy designed to partially reprogram old cells. The Life Biosciences therapy targets eye disorders such as glaucoma by acting on neurons connecting the eye and brain. Its broader significance is that it tests whether cellular reprogramming, a leading longevity concept, can be performed safely in people. Experts stressed that the current trial is about safety, not proof that aging can be reversed. Even if successful, later studies would need to show disease efficacy, likely for glaucoma rather than aging itself. Still, the trial marks an important bridge between basic aging biology, biotech investment, and clinical reality. (Axios)

R-Loops Implicated in Age-Related Inflammation: Medical Xpress reports on a Nature Aging study from MD Anderson that identifies a new molecular contributor to inflammaging: R-loops, nucleic acid structures that can accumulate and trigger inflammatory signaling. The researchers connected specific proteins involved in R-loop export to senescence-associated inflammation. In preclinical models, blocking export with KPT-330, also known as selinexor, reduced inflammatory signals and improved age-related outcomes including liver damage, fat gain, muscle loss, and lifespan measures. Because selinexor has already been tested in humans for other indications, the finding may offer a faster translational path than entirely new compounds. The work remains preclinical, but it adds a mechanistic target to the search for therapies against chronic age-related inflammation. (Medical Xpress)

Strength Training Sweet Spot Linked to Longer Life: ScienceDaily covers a BMJ Group report on a long-running study suggesting that 90 to 120 minutes of weekly strength training may be a practical longevity target. The study, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, followed more than 147,000 people for up to 30 years. Participants doing 90 to 119 minutes of resistance training weekly had a 13% lower risk of death from any cause after adjustment for other factors. Benefits were stronger when strength training was combined with aerobic exercise. The findings also linked that range to lower cardiovascular and neurological mortality, but more than 120 minutes per week did not add further survival benefit. The message: moderate, consistent resistance exercise matters. (ScienceDaily)

Tyrosine Levels Linked to Shorter Male Lifespan: ScienceDaily reports on an Aging study analyzing the relationship between amino acids and longevity. Researchers examined phenylalanine and tyrosine using cohort data and Mendelian randomization methods, with more than 270,000 people included in the broader analysis. The headline finding was that higher tyrosine levels were consistently associated with shorter lifespan in men, potentially amounting to nearly a year of reduced life expectancy. Tyrosine is common in protein-rich foods and is also marketed in some focus or brain-performance supplements, making the result especially relevant to consumer longevity culture. The study does not mean people should self-adjust amino acid intake without evidence, but it adds caution to simplistic “more is better” supplement thinking. (ScienceDaily)