The breakthrough proof bringing mathematics closer to a grand unified theory

Hello Nature readers,
Today we discover one potent gene that raises the risk of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other brain diseases. Plus, we learn about the breakthrough proof bringing mathematics closer to a grand unified theory.

One gene to influence them all

A gene variant known to increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease also makes people vulnerable to a host of other age-related brain disorders, from Parkinson’s disease to motor neuron disease. Using a massive, newly-established proteomics database, researchers found that the variant, called APOE ε4, produces a distinct set of proteins that contribute to chronic inflammation. Environmental factors could make the difference between whether people with the gene go on to develop a certain degenerative brain condition or not, says study co-author and neuroscientist Caitlin Finney.

NIH to dismiss incoming grant reviewers

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) will soon disinvite dozens of scientists who were about to take positions on advisory councils that make final decisions on grant applications for the agency. The move will leave advisory councils at most of the NIH’s institutes understaffed for an unknown period of time. NIH staff members have been instructed to nominate replacements that are aligned with the priorities of the administration of US President Donald Trump — and have been warned that political appointees might still override their suggestions and hand-pick alternative reviewers. The disinvited scientists had all passed the vetting process required for someone to take up one of these advisory positions, which will now have to re-start for new nominees.

Health data is fodder for low-quality papers

Data from five large open-access health databases are being used to generate thousands of poor-quality, formulaic papers. Researchers found that the number of studies using such databases rose from around 4,000 to 11,500 between 2021 and 2024. The spike could indicate that these data are being exploited by people using large language models to mass-produce scholarly articles, or even by paper mills that churn out papers to order.

‘Ammonite’ dims hopes of Planet Nine

The discovery of a distant rock at the fringes of the Solar System seems to reduce the likelihood that there’s an undiscovered planet out there. 2023 KQ14, nicknamed ‘Ammonite’, is only the fourth known example of a ‘sednoid’. These small bodies are like the dwarf planet Sedna: they orbit far beyond Neptune, are thought to have originated closer to the Sun, and have weird-shaped paths that suggest they have been ‘herded’ by the gravitational influence of a mysterious ninth planet. Ammonite’s orbit doesn’t align with the other sednoids, suggesting that ‘Planet Nine’ either doesn’t exist, was long-ago ejected from the Solar System, or is very far away — possibly 500 times farther from the Sun than Earth.

Inside mathematics’ ‘theory of everything’

The Langlands programme is a group of interconnected conjectures that is often hailed as the grand unified theory of mathematics — but it remains largely unproven. Last year, researchers unveiled a proof of a key piece — the geometric Langlands conjecture — and that accomplishment is now forging bridges between different mathematical lands. “It’s a huge triumph. But rather than closing a door, this proof throws open a dozen others,” says mathematician David Ben-Zvi.

‘Living with bipolar motivates my research’

Mental illness cost Imtiaz Zafar almost a decade of his academic life. Now he works on a 1-billion rupee (US$12 million) research project at the same mental-health institute where he was once a patient. “In my case, the diagnosis kept changing — from depression, then to schizophrenia, then to bipolar,” says Zafar. “This is why I do research across cell biology, genetics, molecular biology and bioinformatics, because misunderstanding it is so common.”

Prions: the shape-shifting protein

In his new book The Power of Prions, neuroscientist and biochemist Michel Brahic explores the shape-shifting proteins that cause ‘mad cow’ disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), and its human counterpart, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. “It is now believed that every known neurodegenerative disease — from Alzheimer’s to Parkinson’s to ALS to Huntington’s to general dementia — involves a prion-like protein,” writes reviewer Stephen Buranyi. Yet prions remain fiendishly difficult to fully understand, with growing evidence that they do good as well as bad.