Not much in the way of science news this month that is particularly worth highlighting. The AI scene is still moving very quickly of course with new models released weekly but that wouldn’t be of interest to the general public.

• One paper that may turn out to be significant is this one that claims to offer a new perspective on the causes of the obesity epidemic. Put simply a person gets obese when more energy goes into the body than goes out. Everyone knows of course that less exercise means less energy being spent. But the authors here argue that there is a difference between energy expenditure from reduced physical activity and the basal energy expenditure (BEE) just from living. They claim that the data show that BEE has dropped over the past three decades. Exactly why this is so is unclear but it may be linked to a lowering of human average body temperatures over time. I’m wary of this seemingly letting people who simply don’t exercise enough off the hook but it is an important consideration to take into account.
• Another important article is this overview of phage therapy. Most people will be aware that the effectiveness of antibiotics diminish over time as bacteria evolve resistance. Without new classes of antibiotics being developed, this leads to increasingly many superbug infections that are untreatable. As this article explains, one solution is bacteriophages, viruses that infect and kill bacteria. Bacteriophages were little studied in the Western world however but they continued to be developed in the former Soviet states making the current centers of expertise in this field. The best part of this is that viruses can evolve just like bacteria to match their defenses.
• Finally this counts as one of those announcements that is exciting to know but likely will have no real consequences at all. This is about the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting LP 791-18, a dwarf star about 86 light years away. What makes this particular planet is that it is Earth-sized and about the same mass and has an equilibrium temperature that makes it possible for water to present in liquid form. Combined with tidal heating and strong volcanic activity, it is a fantastic candidate for searching for extraterrestrial life.