Humanities articles from across Nature Portfolio

Despite the great diversity of human languages, recurring grammatical patterns (termed ‘universals’) have been found. Using the Grambank database of more than 2,000 languages, spatiophylogenetic analyses reveal that while only a third of 191 putative universals have robust statistical support, there are still preferred feature configurations that have evolved repeatedly — consistent with shared cognitive and communicative pressures having shaped the evolutionary dynamics of languages.

Aging societies around the world face increasing challenges in promoting healthy longevity. The 1st World Longevity Summit in Kyotango, Japan, convened experts to discuss advances in aging biology, lifestyle medicine, and community-based health strategies. The joint declaration outlined four pillars for healthy aging: bonds with communication, dietary fiber, physical activity, and “Ikigai”, a sense of purpose. This report highlights representative summit discussions and presents key insights on healthy longevity.

Despite the great diversity of human languages, recurring grammatical patterns (termed ‘universals’) have been found. Using the Grambank database of more than 2,000 languages, spatiophylogenetic analyses reveal that while only a third of 191 putative universals have robust statistical support, there are still preferred feature configurations that have evolved repeatedly — consistent with shared cognitive and communicative pressures having shaped the evolutionary dynamics of languages.

Aging societies around the world face increasing challenges in promoting healthy longevity. The 1st World Longevity Summit in Kyotango, Japan, convened experts to discuss advances in aging biology, lifestyle medicine, and community-based health strategies. The joint declaration outlined four pillars for healthy aging: bonds with communication, dietary fiber, physical activity, and “Ikigai”, a sense of purpose. This report highlights representative summit discussions and presents key insights on healthy longevity.

We argue that accountability mechanisms are needed in human-AI agent relationships to ensure alignment with user and societal interests. We propose a framework according to which AI agents’ engagement is conditional on appropriate user behaviour. The framework incorporates design-strategies such as distancing, disengaging, and discouraging.

The npj Digital Medicine Editorial Fellowship (https://www.nature.com/npjdigitalmed/editorial-fellowship) is a year-long program that provides trainees and early career researchers with direct exposure to peer review, editorial writing, and journal operations with npj Digital Medicine. Since 2021, the program has graduated 4 fellows, who remain active with the journal as reviewers, editorial board members, and guest editors. As the 2024–25 Editorial Fellow, I discuss the fellowship’s structure, outcomes, and learning experiences.

Most policy proposals aimed at managing the risks of artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled weapons rely heavily on meaningful human control or appropriate human judgment for risk mitigation. This Comment argues that there are various ways humans can exert such control over AI, and that developing a careful taxonomy of these is necessary for building actionable risk-mitigation policies for warfighting AI.