Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 06 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02371-4
Clarity in clearance pathways
Author Correction: A route for cerebrospinal fluid flow through leptomeningeal arterial–venous overlaps enables macromolecule and fluid shunting
Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 06 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02385-y
Author Correction: A route for cerebrospinal fluid flow through leptomeningeal arterial–venous overlaps enables macromolecule and fluid shunting
Author Correction: Prefrontal engrams of long-term fear memory perpetuate pain perception
Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 06 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02386-x
Author Correction: Prefrontal engrams of long-term fear memory perpetuate pain perception
STAT+: Vertex acquires Crinetics Pharmaceuticals for $10 billion as biotech M&A booms
Vertex Pharmaceuticals will spend $10 billion to acquire Crinetics Pharmaceuticals and its drug for a rare endocrine disorder, the companies announced Monday.
Through the deal, Vertex will pick up Crinetics’ commercial drug, Palsonify, which was launched last year and which treats a rare endocrine disorder called acromegaly, as well as other drug candidates that have blockbuster potential if approved. The company is also in the late stages of developing a therapy for congenital adrenal hyperplasia.
The $10 billion price tag for Crinetics amounts to roughly $85 per share of the company’s stock. Following the news, Crinetics shares rose 101% in after-hours trading.
Obamacare rolls shrank dramatically in many states over the past year, new federal data shows
NEW YORK — States across the country saw steep drops in the number of people covered by the Affordable Care Act over the past year, with Ohio and Oklahoma each losing nearly one-third of enrollees, according to new federal data that provides the first complete 50-state breakdown of sharp enrollment declines following the January expiration of enhanced subsidies.
The data, posted in late June by the Trump administration and first reported on by The Associated Press, reveals how changes in each state’s insured population led to around 2.6 million fewer Americans having Obamacare plans in February compared with the same time last year.
<![CDATA[Open-label phase 2 trial tests IV Briumvi alongside antipsychotics for treatment-resistant schizophrenia, targeting B-cell depletion to improve symptoms and assess safety.]]>
Your family’s $300 stake in OpenAI
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s oft-discussed promise that Americans will share in the wealth AI creates was in the news again last week. On Thursday, the Financial Times reported that Altman is in talks with President Trump about giving the US government a 5% stake in OpenAI.
In some ways, Altman’s plan is old news. He wrote about a more radical version of this back in 2021, proposing that all companies above a certain valuation (not just AI companies) pay 2.5% of their market value each year into a fund that sends Americans annual disbursements. In April this year, OpenAI described a narrower proposal that closely resembles what Altman is reportedly discussing with Trump now. And the notion has broad political appeal: Senator Bernie Sanders has proposed giving Americans a 50% stake in top AI companies.
What’s the logic here? For would-be recipients, it’s twofold. First, AI learns directly from human-generated work—books, movies, art—but AI companies generally never pay the authors of that work. A free equity stake could serve as a form of belated compensation. Second, the payout could mitigate the widespread anxiety that AI will cause a collapse of the labor market (even if economists disagree) by providing a safety net.
How large a safety net is up for debate. Details of OpenAI’s latest proposal are sparse, but let’s say the government were to distribute this equity stake directly to Americans. After its funding round in March the company was valued at $852 billion, making a 5% stake in OpenAI worth about $42.6 billion today (the company is reportedly delaying its IPO until it can reach a $1 trillion evaluation, a tall order given that it’s spending heavily on data centers and still has not turned a profit). Distributing that $42.6 billion equally among the roughly 133 million American households would give each about $320 in equity. But if it were to operate like other wealth funds, the government would not give equity directly to Americans but rather let the fund grow and then share a portion of the returns with everyone, perhaps delivering a bigger payout, if and when AI companies can ever start sustainably turning a profit.
If this dividend does materialize, what’s in it for tech companies? Altman might hope the promise of payouts could help swing public opinion a bit more back toward AI companies. (A majority of Americans don’t trust companies to use AI responsibly and oppose construction of data centers in their area, and half are more concerned than excited about the increased creep of AI into their daily lives.)
But the bigger prize for OpenAI might be that the Trump administration loves making tech deals—like its equity stake in Intel and its share of Nvidia’s sales to China, among others. Staying on the administration’s good side is pretty essential for AI companies right now (just ask Anthropic). It could mean not having your models deemed a supply chain risk, or getting more help from the White House in stopping your rivals from China.
My main takeaway is that these plans currently function more as a story than a policy. Altman has been talking about some version of this idea for five years and reportedly pitched it to President Trump soon after he took office, yet there is still little indication that a concrete plan is taking shape. The more ambitious proposal from Sanders is even less likely to gain traction.
But what these plans do reveal is just how up for debate the future of AI still is. Altman drew inspiration for his plan from the Alaska Permanent Fund, which was set up in the 1970s to give Alaskans a share in oil profits. The idea was based on two premises: that oil is a shared resource, and that eventually it will run out. Altman seems happy to concede the first claim about AI. But he’d balk at the second, having promised that AI will generate extraordinary wealth for decades to come. Whether Americans ever receive a check is beside the point; the proposal’s real purpose may be to convince them that the AI boom will be large enough to share.
STAT+: Online GLP-1 prescriptions are often fast, easy — and low on clinical oversight
A secret shopper study has pulled back the veil on the practices of nearly 50 telehealth sites that prescribe popular GLP-1 medications for weight loss.
Direct-to-consumer telehealth companies have grown rapidly in response to patients’ demand for GLP-1s like semaglutide and tirzepatide, especially after shortages created a market for compounded versions that aren’t approved by the Food and Drug Administration. As online prescribing has grown, clinicians and public health experts have raised concerns about the potential for lax virtual care practices to put patients at risk.
In a study published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, one researcher at Yale University set out to document those online prescriptions by posing as a patient. The results capture what many Americans have learned in the last few years: It is extraordinarily fast and easy to get a GLP-1 online.
STAT+: Four major biotech updates to catch up on
Happy post-fourth. Hope you had a nice extended weekend, and hi from San Francisco!
Today, we’re reading about Medicare proposing staggering cuts to 340B payments, Republicans moving to preserve diversity in clinical trials, and a former surgeon general, Jerome Adams, offering counsel on peptides regulation.
The need-to-know this morning
- Novartis is buying the privately held Myricx Bio for $1.1 billion upfront, picking up an antibody-drug conjugate platform designed to create cancer-fighting drugs for different solid tumors and overcome some of the limitations of existing ADCs. The deal for the U.K.-based Myricx includes milestone payments of up to $400 million and extends Novartis’ recent acquisition spree.
Anthropic CEO understands biology’s stubborn limitations
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is tempering his own bold predictions about AI transforming biotechnology, STAT’s Matt Herper writes. While, sure, AI could eventually compress decades of scientific progress into years, biology’s inherent complexity and glacial timelines mean that future remains years away.
The Download: South Korea’s hottest bachelors, and advancing eye transplants
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.
South Korea’s hottest new bachelors are chip workers
Baek, a 35-year-old manager at the South Korean semiconductor titan SK Hynix, was enrolled in a matchmaking company a year ago. In a move typical of anxious South Korean parents, his mother signed him up, hoping to find a good wife for her son.
Lately, says Baek, he and his coworkers are having better luck finding dates—perhaps because of the dazzling bonuses they just got. Flush with eye-popping profits from the AI chip boom, SK Hynix agreed to pay 10% of operating profits to employees, which translates to an extra $476,000 per employee this year. Samsung workers received a similar deal this May.
With their newfound wealth, chip workers like Baek have become the most sought-after bachelors and bachelorettes in South Korea.
Discover how AI chip profits are transforming South Korea’s dating market—and stoking anxieties.
—Michelle Kim
A device that revives eyeballs from dead donors could make eye transplants possible
It’s not easy to transplant a whole human eye. The surgery is difficult, and eyes start to degenerate as soon as they’ve left the body. When surgeons attempted it a few years ago, the newly transplanted eye couldn’t see.
But researchers believe they might have a solution: a device that maintains and revives freshly removed eyeballs using a technique called perfusion. Treated eyes don’t degrade as quickly and appear to retain the ability to transmit electrical signals—and potentially see.
The device could one day make whole-eye transplants a viable possibility. Here’s how it works.
—Jessica Hamzelou
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 The UN’s chief has warned that AI is outpacing global rules
He’s called for globally harmonised guardrails. (Reuters $)
+ The UN also said AI could worsen global inequality. (Guardian)
2 An Israeli battlefield system identified 850,000 targets in Gaza and Lebanon
Elbit Systems says it detected targets in real time. (Guardian)
+ Congress wants to permanently integrate US and Israeli defence tech. (Intercept)
+ How AI turned the Iran conflict into theater. (MIT Technology Review)
3 EU transparency rules have exposed Microsoft’s tax haven tactics
A new report shows how it shifts profits around to reduce tax bills. (NYT $)
+ Other US companies will soon need to provide similar reports. (Engadget)
4 A spacecraft has launched an audacious mission to rescue a NASA telescope
LINK will try to tug the SWIFT observatory to a higher orbit. (New Scientist $)
+ It will attempt to grab the telescope with three robotic arms. (BBC)
+ The observatory studies gamma-ray bursts. (NBC News)
+ We’re putting more stuff into space than ever. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Chinese tech giants are disabling humanlike AI due to new regulations
ByteDance and Alibaba have shut down the features. (SCMP)
+ Beijing is tightening its AI regulations. (Nikkei Asia)
6 Anthropic wants to develop its own drugs
The company says it will pursue treatments for “neglected” diseases. (Verge)
+ It’s also got a new AI for science product. (MIT Technology Review)
7 India is testing an alternative to Silicon Valley’s AI playbook
It’s based on small, offline, multilingual, open-source AI. (Rest of World)
+ India’s AI infrastructure is also attracting investors. (CNBC)
8 Big Tech has suddenly flipped on the AI jobs wipeout scenario
Negative public opinion has sparked a more optimistic public stance. (WSJ $)
+ The AI jobs hysteria needs a reality check. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Midjourney has accused Hollywood studios of covertly using AI
It’s escalated its legal fight with Disney, Universal, and Warner. (Gizmodo)
10 A martian rock has lots of carbon on it, and it’s not clear why
Scientists cannot yet tell whether biology played a role. (Ars Technica)
Quote of the day
“It’s just his AI and my AI going back and forth.”
—An anonymous employee explains why she’s struggling to develop a good working relationship with her boss, Fortune reports.
One More Thing
The AI relationship revolution is already here
AI is everywhere, and it’s starting to alter our relationships with our spouses, kids, colleagues, friends—and even ourselves.
Although the technology remains unpredictable and sometimes baffling, individuals from all across the world and from all walks of life are finding it useful, supportive, and comforting too.
People are using large language models to seek validation, mediate marital arguments, and help navigate interactions with their community. They’re using it for parenting support, self-care, and even to fall in love.
Explore how AI is changing our relationships.
—Rhiannon Williams
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun, and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line.)
+ Radiohead’s seminal album “OK Computer” has been reimagined as a Nintendo 64 soundtrack.
+ Graphic design history meets stamp collecting in this beautifully curated archive of postage stamp design.
+ As Lionel Messi lights up another World Cup, his former coach breaks down his style of play in this fascinating analysis.
+ Armchair engineers will enjoy the brilliant product teardowns of everyday items like clicky pens and lighters on Mechanical Pencil.