Current Biology

Current Biology Current Biology (http://www.cell.com/current-biology/) publishes original research, overview and com Current Biology is published by Cell Press.

Current Biology is a general biology journal that publishes original research across all areas of the life sciences together with an extensive and varied set of editorial sections. Editor: Geoffrey North

Senior Deputy Editor: Deborah Taylor
Senior Reviews Editor: Florian Maderspacher
Senior Editor: Cyrus Martin
Senior Editor: Anne Knowlton
Associate Editor: Christine Cosma

Senior Editorial and F

eatures Administrator, Assistant Features Editor: Maxine Herman-Oakley
Editorial and Features Administrator: Maddie Wilson

Production Editor: Sarah Bryer
Deputy Production Editor: Zyanya Louis

Deep-sea mining risks for sharks, rays, and chimaerasJudah et al. identify 30 species of chondrichthyans that overlap wi...
05/11/2025

Deep-sea mining risks for sharks, rays, and chimaeras

Judah et al. identify 30 species of chondrichthyans that overlap with proposed deep-sea mining activities, nearly two-thirds of which are already threatened with extinction. Precautionary management of deep-sea mining requires updated risk assessments, robust baseline monitoring, spatial protections, and discharge plume depth limits to safeguard sharks, rays, and chimaeras.

đŸ“· Schematic of two potential impact pathways (direct benthic impacts and midwater impacts) of deep-sea mining for polymetallic nodules, polymetallic sulphides, and cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts. The discharge plume is depicted at a depth of 1,000 m for illustrative purposes. Illustration by (https://www.mollywells.ca/).

To find out more check out this open access article linked in our bio and here: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(25)01189-3

Filamentous cheater phages drive bacterial and phage populations to lower fitness🩠Kubota et al. show that bacteria can u...
04/11/2025

Filamentous cheater phages drive bacterial and phage populations to lower fitness🩠

Kubota et al. show that bacteria can use their filamentous phage to outcompete other bacteria, but increased phage production enables the evolution of cheater miniphages with truncated genomes. Miniphages exploit full-length phages and lower total phage production, causing some bacteria to lose their prophages and any associated fitness benefits.

đŸ“· Graphical abstract © Kubota et al.

To find out more, check out the link in our bio and here: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(25)01198-4

Our latest issue is now out!On the cover: A male Victoria’s riflebird (Ptiloris victoriae) in display. Males attract fem...
03/11/2025

Our latest issue is now out!

On the cover: A male Victoria’s riflebird (Ptiloris victoriae) in display. Males attract females to their display perches with conspicuous poses and, when a female visits, perform a dazzling mating dance. In this paper, MacGillavry et al. show that the dances of wild Victoria’s riflebirds are remarkably rhythmically intricate, beginning with a low tempo and accelerating, before leveling off into a tempo plateau. Only during this plateau, males then flash the yellow interior of their gape. The dynamic temporal structure or “sensory trajectory” of this performance appears to guide female choice, where faster dance tempi predict display success. Photograph © Thomas MacGillavry.

Link here and in Instagram bio: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/current

The blood–brain barrierHere, Audrey Chagnot and Axel Montagne discuss the structural and functional features of the bloo...
31/10/2025

The blood–brain barrier

Here, Audrey Chagnot and Axel Montagne discuss the structural and functional features of the blood–brain barrier and the association of its disruption with various pathologies.

đŸ“· Structure and diversity of the blood–brain barrier. (A) Schematic representation of the BBB, which protects the majority of the cerebrovasculature and consists of three layers: endothelial cells, pericytes, and astrocytes (glia). (B) Comparative overview of BBB architecture across different taxa. (C) Immunofluorescence labelling showing the three major BBB components in the adult mouse brain.

Find out more here (also linked in our bio): https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(25)00823-1

Check out the full special issue here: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/issue?pii=S0960-9822(24)X0021-4

Sickness and the brainZuri Sullivan and Catherine Dulac discuss the reciprocal communication between the brain and the i...
30/10/2025

Sickness and the brain

Zuri Sullivan and Catherine Dulac discuss the reciprocal communication between the brain and the immune system in sickness behavior.

đŸ“· Molecular and cellular interactions leading to the generation of sickness. Pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) expressed on innate immune cells detect pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from bacteria and dsRNA from viruses. This leads to the production of soluble inflammatory mediators that signal to the brain to generate a variety of sickness behaviors, many of which are conserved across animals. (Created in BioRender. Sullivan, Z. (2025) https://BioRender.com/oo37rf7.)

Find out more here (also linked in our bio): https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(25)01116-9

Check out the full special issue here: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/issue?pii=S0960-9822(24)X0021-4

29/10/2025

Wolves and their prey all fear the human “super predator”đŸș

Kasper et al. experimentally demonstrate that wolves and their ungulate prey significantly fear humans, thereby verifying that fear of predominantly diurnal humans causes all to be nocturnal. Wolves remained fearful of humans even where legally protected, indicating that accessing human-related foodstuffs—not fearlessness—best explains why wolves ever risk encounters with the human “super predator.”

đŸ“č Seven examples of ungulate prey (wild boar, fallow deer, roe deer, and red deer) running and abandoning the site, or not, in response to hearing humans, dogs, or non-predator controls (birds).

To find out more, check out the link in our bio and here: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(25)01188-1

The evolution of an individual-like dispersive stage in colonial siphonophoresMaƄko et al. show that the life cycle of c...
28/10/2025

The evolution of an individual-like dispersive stage in colonial siphonophores

MaƄko et al. show that the life cycle of certain siphonophores involves programmed fragmentation, producing individual-like eudoxids. They identify a specialized muscle responsible for fragmentation and find that release induces eudoxid maturation. They also show that eudoxids evolved once within siphonophores and that eudoxids occupy different niches from parental colonies.

đŸ“· Graphical abstract © MaƄko et al.

To find out more check out this open access article linked in our bio and here: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(25)01168-6

27/10/2025

Zebra finches produce soft laryngeal whistles during thermal panting that are not adaptive vocal signals

Zebra finch heat calls are suggested to have close-range communicative relevance in the global temperature rise context. Anttonen et al. identify the biophysical mechanism underlying these vocalizations as aerodynamic whistles that are made in the previously thought silent avian larynx at high inspiratory flows during panting.

đŸ“č Video Abstract © Anttonen et al.

To find out more check out this open access article linked in our bio and here: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(25)01120-0

Homeothermic animals, including humans, regulate their body temperature within a narrow range to maintain physiological ...
24/10/2025

Homeothermic animals, including humans, regulate their body temperature within a narrow range to maintain physiological functions and survival. In this review, Aten et al. dissect brain–body interactions required for thermoregulatory control and examine how coordination between the peripheral and central systems produces adaptive changes in the thermoregulatory system that enable survival.

đŸ“· Schematic of adaptive thermoregulatory responses to physiological and environmental stressors. Thermoregulation is a highly adaptive process that allows mammals to maintain physiological function across a range of internal states and environmental stressors. The figure illustrates five key contexts in which thermoregulatory control is engaged, as described throughout this review. At the center, a brain circuit for thermoregulatory control that was identified in rodents exemplifies the likely central pathways that regulate body temperature and adaptive thermoregulatory responses in humans. (Created in BioRender. Aten, S. (2025) https://BioRender.com/51p1a8n.)

Find out more here (also linked in our bio): https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(25)01193-5

Check out the full special issue here: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/issue?pii=S0960-9822(24)X0021-4

Somatosensation and the sense of selfIn this primer, Patrick Haggard and Matthew Longo consider how sensory signals from...
23/10/2025

Somatosensation and the sense of self

In this primer, Patrick Haggard and Matthew Longo consider how sensory signals from receptors throughout the body are integrated to produce the sense of a coherent, continuous, sentient body that forms the basis of self-consciousness.

đŸ“· Weber’s illusion is a perceptual consequence of distorted cortical representations. The same tactile distance feels larger on the skin of the hand dorsum (red colour) than on the forearm (blue colour). The different density of tactile receptors in these two skin regions is thought to underlie this illusion, since the illusion recapitulates the distortions of the ‘homunculus’ in the primary somatosensory cortex. We thank Mihaela Dimova for her help with this figure.

Find out more here (also linked in our bio): https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(25)00999-6

Check out the full special issue here: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/issue?pii=S0960-9822(24)X0021-4

Check out our newest issue where we interview Antonis Rokas, who uses DNA data from fungi, animals, and plants to study ...
23/10/2025

Check out our newest issue where we interview Antonis Rokas, who uses DNA data from fungi, animals, and plants to study the patterns and processes of evolutionary diversity at Vanderbilt University.

Read the interview to find out more about why Antonis decided to train in three different countries, which historical scientists he would like to meet, and his advice to young scientists!

To read the Q&A, check out the link in our bio and here: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(25)01209-6

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