Ph. Academic pressure to achieve at age 15 can predict depressive symptoms that persist into adulthood. Juan Algar/Moment via Getty Images Erin Clabough, University of Virginia Temporary anxiety can often surface before the first day of school. Sometimes, that can help kids get in the right mindset for a big day. But when
Pim Edelaar, Lund University; Universidad Pablo de Olavide Evolution is a fact of life. So much so that even the theory of evolution is evolving. Lately, a centuries-old discredited idea has been making a strong comeback. It helps us explain scientific observations that according to standard evolutionary theory should be impossible. I’m referring
During conversation, our brains are constantly predicting which word comes next. That ability helps us understand speech in a noisy café, or anticipate a friend’s next sentence. This skill for prediction is also linked closely to our enjoyment of music. For Professor Shihab Shamma, an auditory neuroscientist at the École Normale Supérieure in
Ph. People try to stay cool on the sweltering streets of Manhattan during a heat wave in July 2025. Spencer Platt/Getty Images Kevin T. Smiley, Louisiana State University ; Deepti Singh, Washington State University; Jennifer Marlon, Yale University, and Jim Hurrell, Colorado State University When a devastating heat wave, hurricane, flood or wildfire
Ph. New World screwworm flies lay their eggs in the living tissue of warm-blooded animals. Ramdan Fatoni/iStock via Getty Images Sarah Tomlinson, Colorado State University New World screwworm, a concerning pest that mainly impacts livestock and wildlife, was detected in South Texas in June 2026. It has since expanded northward in Texas, and
Geoffrey Howarth, University of Cape Town Some of the most extraordinary gems ever found belong to a rare class of diamonds known as CLIPPIRs (Cullinan-like, Large, Inclusion-Poor, Pure, Irregular, Resorbed). They make up less than 1% of all diamonds on Earth, and include three of the largest diamonds ever recovered, the Cullinan, at
Nature has spent billions of years perfecting the art of building with living cells. A team of researchers is now learning from that process – and finding ways to speed it up. For Massimo Vassalli, professor of bioengineering at the University of Glasgow, the goal is to understand not only how living tissues
Ph. Senegalese peacekeepers on patrol in Bamako, Mali. Flickr, CC BY-NC Tilman Brück, Humboldt University of Berlin; Karen Devries, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine; Marcella Vigneri, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine; Olusegun Fadare, University of Greenwich, and Vegard Iversen, University of Greenwich Political violence refers to the use of
Ph. Robert Harding Video/Shutterstock Jules B. Kajtar, National Oceanography Centre and Zoe Jacobs, University of Southampton A dip in the sea can provide welcome relief after long stretches of hot weather – especially when the water is an inviting 20°C or more, as it has been recently across southern parts of the UK.
For decades, economic growth has been treated as the clearest measure of progress. Yet rising GDP does not always translate into happier, healthier lives, and the environmental and social costs of growth are becoming harder to ignore. Martijn Burger, a professor of happiness economics at Open Universiteit in the Netherlands, believes it is