Daily briefing: A daily multivitamin slows the signs of biological ageing

## Summary
Nature | 4 min read Reference: Nature Medicine paper Read more from ageing researchers Daniel Belsky and Calen Ryan in Nature Medicine News & Views (6 min read) Up to several metres The amount by which sea-level rise has been underestimated , depending on where you live — a difference that puts millions more people in the danger zone. ( The New York Times | 6 min read ) Reference: Nature paper AI ‘societies’ could model human behaviour Researchers have trained artificial-intelligence agents to mimic the behaviours of people in an attempt to replicate the way in which human groups interact. Thanks for reading, Flora Graham, senior editor, Nature Briefing With contributions by Jacob Smith • Nature Briefing: Careers — insights, advice and award-winning journalism to help you optimize your working life • Nature Briefing: Microbiology — the most abundant living entities on our planet — microorganisms — and the role they play in health, the environment and food systems • Nature Briefing: Anthropocene — climate change, biodiversity, sustainability and geoengineering • Nature Briefing: AI & Robotics — 100% written by humans, of course • Nature Briefing: Cancer — a weekly newsletter written with cancer researchers in mind • Nature Briefing: Translational Research — covers biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma Related Articles Daily briefing: How DNA testing can tell identical twins apart Daily briefing: White humpback whale and return of the snail Daily briefing: Galileo’s notes discovered in the margins of an ancient book Daily briefing: Neanderthal dad, human mum was more common than the other way round Jobs Associate or Senior Editor, Nature Cancer Job Title: Associate or Senior Editor, Nature Cancer Location: Beijing, Madrid, Nanjing or Shanghai - Hybrid working model Applications Deadline:... Beijing, Madrid, Nanjing or Shanghai - Hybrid working model Springer Nature Ltd Associate or Senior Editor, Communications Biology Job Title: Associate or Senior Editor, Communications Biology Location: Beijing, New Delhi, Pune or Shanghai - Hybrid working model Applications ... Beijing, New Delhi, Pune or Shanghai - Hybrid working model Springer Nature Ltd Associate or Senior Editor, Communications Chemistry Job Title: Associate or Senior Editor, Communications Chemistry Location: Beijing, New Delhi, Pune or Shanghai - Hybrid working model Application...

## Article Content
Email
Bluesky
Facebook
LinkedIn
Reddit
Whatsapp
X
Sign up for Nature Briefing
You have full access to this article via your institution.
Hello
Nature
readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day?
Sign up here
.
Taking multivitamins daily was associated with changes in epigenetic ageing ‘clocks’.
Credit: Halfpoint Images/Getty
Daily multivitamin slows biological ‘clocks’
Taking a multivitamin every day seems to slow some markers of biological ageing. Researchers found that, in older adults, the daily supplement could slow epigenetic ‘clocks’ — markers that indicate a person’s biological age —
by around four months over two years
. The effect was particularly pronounced in people who were already biologically older than their years, which raises the question of whether multivitamins are slowing these clocks, or can actually roll them back, says epigeneticist Chiara Herzog.
Nature | 4 min read
Reference:
Nature Medicine
paper
Read more from ageing researchers Daniel Belsky and Calen Ryan in
Nature Medicine
News & Views
(6 min read)
Up to several metres
The amount by which
sea-level rise has been underestimated
, depending on where you live — a difference that puts millions more people in the danger zone. (
The New York Times | 6 min read
)
Reference:
Nature
paper
AI ‘societies’ could model human behaviour
Researchers have trained artificial-intelligence agents to mimic the behaviours of people in an attempt to replicate the way in which human groups interact. Companies such as AI start-up Simile hope to
use these AI ‘societies’ to model people’s behaviours
in situations such as conflict resolution, policy decision-making and consumer markets. But other projects, such as the AI social-media platform Moltbook, have revealed that the modes of social interaction shown by people and bots are fundamentally different, presenting a big hurdle in the quest to accurately simulate human behaviours, researchers say.
Nature | 5 min read
Vinay Prasad out (again) at the FDA
Haematologist and oncologist Vinay Prasad is to leave the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where he is chief science and medical officer, and head of vaccines. (He was fired in July 2025, then re-joined a few weeks later.)
Prasad has been a focus of controversy at the agency
and his departure is the latest in a series of tumultuous leadership changes. Chaos at the agency can have a global ripple effect: for example, many countries rely on FDA assessments to guide their own policies.
STAT | 7 min read
Fictional cases fueled baby death theory
In January, a feature in
The New Yorker
raised questions about the validity of reports
that babies can be exposed to opioids from painkillers, such as Tylenol 3, taken by a breastfeeding mother. Case studies in
The
Lancet
,
Canadian Family Physician
and
Canadian Pharmacists Journal
that supported the idea have now been retracted or have an expression of concern attached. In the meantime, the discredited studies have been cited hundreds of times and served as evidence in court cases. Another side-effect of
The New Yorker
coverage:
138 case reports in the journal
Paediatrics & Child Health
have been newly labelled as fiction
. The case reports — including one that fed into the idea that codeine can kill if passed through breastfeeding — were always “a teaching tool”, says the journal.
The New Yorker | 52 min read
&
Retraction Watch | 12 min read
Reference:
The Lancet
paper
(expression of concern),
Canadian Family Physician
paper
(retracted),
Canadian Pharmacists Journal
paper
(retracted) &
Paediatrics & Child Health
paper
(corrected)
Features & opinion
The real science of skincare
The social-media-fuelled pursuit of youthful, glowing skin has made people “much more likely to experiment on themselves” with multi-step skincare routines than they have been in the past, says dermatologist Rajani Katta. But
many viral skincare trends use products with little to no scientific backing
, and misinformation is rife. Dermatologists agree that sunscreen and a well-balanced moisturizer can help to keep skin healthy, but evidence suggests that lifestyle factors — such as eating a nutrient-dense diet — are arguably more important.
Nature | 10 min read
Traces of the past left in the mud
Archaeologists have long focused on bones and other relatively macroscopic artefacts, but they are now teaming up with geochemists, palaeoecologists and biologists to dig ever deeper.
Sediment cores pulled from caves, swamps and permafrost
that have long hosted human settlements reveal the remains of organic material that contain clues about past climates, traces of DNA, pollutants from fires and even enduring molecules from human faeces. But analysing such traces can be fiendishly difficult.
Nature | 17 min read
The ‘queer ecology’ of salt lakes
In
Salt Lakes
, geographer Caroline Tracey uniquely blends an
academic survey of the titular bodies of water, a coming-of-age memoir and an introduction to ‘queer ecology’
— a

---

## Expert Analysis

### Merits
- Dermatologists agree that sunscreen and a well-balanced moisturizer can help to keep skin healthy, but evidence suggests that lifestyle factors — such as eating a nutrient-dense diet — are arguably more important.
- See more of the month’s sharpest science shots , selected by Nature ’s photo team. (Jono Allen) Quote of the day “Switzerland has nurtured many unexpected good things — Albert Einstein’s physics, the world economy and the cuckoo clock leap to mind — and is again helping the world appreciate improbable people and ideas.” The Ig Nobel Prizes — satirical science awards that honour work that “makes people laugh, then think” — will be hosted outside of the United States for the first time because the country has become “unsafe for our guests”, says mathematician Marc Abrahams, founder of the awards. ( The Guardian | 4 min read ) doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-00792-6 Today I’m celebrating the reproductive success of New Zealand’s kākāpōs ( Strigops habroptilus ).

### Areas for Consideration
- Nature | 5 min read Vinay Prasad out (again) at the FDA Haematologist and oncologist Vinay Prasad is to leave the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where he is chief science and medical officer, and head of vaccines. (He was fired in July 2025, then re-joined a few weeks later.) Prasad has been a focus of controversy at the agency and his departure is the latest in a series of tumultuous leadership changes.
- Case studies in The Lancet , Canadian Family Physician and Canadian Pharmacists Journal that supported the idea have now been retracted or have an expression of concern attached.
- The New Yorker | 52 min read & Retraction Watch | 12 min read Reference: The Lancet paper (expression of concern), Canadian Family Physician paper (retracted), Canadian Pharmacists Journal paper (retracted) & Paediatrics & Child Health paper (corrected) Features & opinion The real science of skincare The social-media-fuelled pursuit of youthful, glowing skin has made people “much more likely to experiment on themselves” with multi-step skincare routines than they have been in the past, says dermatologist Rajani Katta.

### Implications
- Researchers found that, in older adults, the daily supplement could slow epigenetic ‘clocks’ — markers that indicate a person’s biological age — by around four months over two years .
- Nature | 4 min read Reference: Nature Medicine paper Read more from ageing researchers Daniel Belsky and Calen Ryan in Nature Medicine News & Views (6 min read) Up to several metres The amount by which sea-level rise has been underestimated , depending on where you live — a difference that puts millions more people in the danger zone. ( The New York Times | 6 min read ) Reference: Nature paper AI ‘societies’ could model human behaviour Researchers have trained artificial-intelligence agents to mimic the behaviours of people in an attempt to replicate the way in which human groups interact.
- Companies such as AI start-up Simile hope to use these AI ‘societies’ to model people’s behaviours in situations such as conflict resolution, policy decision-making and consumer markets.
- The calf — named Mãhina , which means ‘moon’ in Tongan — was born without pigmentation, a 1-in-40,000 occurrence. “It was undoubtedly one of the most extraordinary days I have ever experienced in the ocean — and perhaps ever will,” said Allen.

### Expert Commentary
This article covers nature, briefing, read topics. Notable strengths include discussion of nature. Areas of concern are also raised. Readability: Flesch-Kincaid grade 0.0. Word count: 1560.