Welcome to eLife Magazine Highlights – a fortnightly newsletter featuring some of the latest content published in our magazine. In today’s newsletter, read about promising research on new ways to treat opioid overdoses, insulin production and the relationship between chronic pain and memory loss. Plus, discover the articles in our latest Special Issue on reproductive health. 

— Elsa Loissel, Associate Features Editor

Investigating reproductive health requires research on a wide range of biological processes, from gamete formation to fertilisation and pregnancy. Credit: Vivid Biology (CC-BY-NC 4.0)

Opioids: Finding new ways to treat overdoses

Naloxone is one of the few life-saving treatments available to quickly reverse an opioid overdose, but its administration can also cause brutal withdrawals and painful side effects. In this Insight article, Jill Turner and Jocelyn Martin examine results from an eLife study in rodents that investigates a promising alternative.

4-minute read

Vision: The inner workings of a miniature eye

Parasitoid Megaphragma wasps are amongst the smallest insects on earth, with many species barely reaching 200 microns. How their visual system copes with the limitations that such tiny size imposes is the focus of a paper recently published in eLife, which provides the first complete 3D map of the wasps’ compound eyes. Insight author Gregor Belušič unpicks the surprising biological adaptations uncovered by this work.

4-minute read

Predicting individual traits from dynamic brain activity

What can you infer about someone’s cognitive abilities simply based on information about their brain? Most approaches attempt to answer this question using data on brain structure and average levels of electrical activity. An innovative method now makes it possible to instead rely on activity patterns as they unfold over time.

2-minute read

How to grow a worm

Correctly building an organism relies on a complex interplay of signals that activate networks of genes precisely where and when these are needed. This study examines how two molecular actors, Schnurri and Smad, work together across the genome to ensure a developing worm reaches just the right size.

2-minute read

A closer look at insulin-producing cells

In fruit flies, a group of neurons controls the release of the hormone that regulates sugar levels in the body. By examining how these cells perform their role in live insects, new research reveals striking similarities with the control of blood sugar in humans.

2-minute read

Pain-Related Memory Impairment: How does chronic pain lead to memory loss?

In many – but not all – patients, chronic pain can lead to debilitating memory deficits. This Insight article discusses research published in eLife that reveals some of the molecular mechanisms behind this variability.

4-minute read

Special Issue: Reproductive health

Despite reproductive issues affecting hundreds of millions of people around the world every year, research in this field has long been underfunded and overlooked. In this Editorial, Senior Editor Wei Yan introduces a Special Issue of eLife on reproductive health. 

What the eLife Magazine team is reading

Preprints often make news. Many people don’t know what they are

News outlets are increasingly reporting on results published in preprints, often acknowledging that these are yet to be peer-reviewed. But what do readers make of this information? In this ScienceInsider story, Jeffrey Brainard examines the conclusions of several studies that investigate this question, and their recommendations for                best journalistic practices.

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