Science & Society News

August 2, 2025

Top Headlines

Unwanted Pregnancies Surge With Alcohol, but Not With Cannabis, Study Finds

Aug. 1, 2025 — Women who drank heavily, even though they strongly wished to avoid pregnancy, were 50% more likely to become pregnant than those who drank little or not at all, according to new research. Surprisingly, cannabis use didn t show the same ...

COVID Vaccines Saved 2. 5M Lives Globally—a Death Averted Per 5,400 Shots

July 27, 2025 — Between 2020 and 2024, COVID-19 vaccines saved 2.5 million lives globally, preventing one death for every 5,400 doses. A groundbreaking worldwide study led by researchers from Università Cattolica and Stanford University reveals that most lives ...

Scientists Just Invented a Safer Non-Stick Coating—and It’s Inspired by Arrows

July 27, 2025 — Scientists at the University of Toronto have developed a new non-stick material that rivals the performance of traditional PFAS-based coatings while using only minimal amounts of these controversial ...

Google's Deepfake Hunter Sees What You Can’t—even in Videos Without Faces

July 25, 2025 — AI-generated videos are becoming dangerously convincing and UC Riverside researchers have teamed up with Google to fight back. Their new system, UNITE, can detect deepfakes even when faces aren't ...

Even Without Catching COVID, the Pandemic May Have Quietly Aged Your Brain

July 24, 2025 — Even people who never caught Covid-19 may have aged mentally faster during the pandemic, according to new brain scan research. This large UK study shows how the stress, isolation, and upheaval of lockdowns may have aged our brains, especially in ...

Magic Mushrooms Rewind Aging in Mice—could They Do the Same for Humans?

July 22, 2025 — A surprising discovery from Emory University shows that psilocin, the active metabolite of psychedelic mushrooms, can delay cellular aging and extend lifespan. Human cells lived over 50% longer, and mice treated with psilocybin not only lived 30% ...

Three-Person DNA IVF Stops Inherited Disease—eight Healthy Babies Born in UK First

July 18, 2025 — In a groundbreaking UK first, eight healthy babies have been born using an IVF technique that includes DNA from three people—two parents and a female donor. The process, known as pronuclear ...

Why Trump’s Leg Swelling Could Be a Warning Sign for Millions

July 18, 2025 — President Trump s diagnosis of Chronic Venous Insufficiency (CVI) has brought renewed attention to a frequently overlooked yet dangerous condition. CVI affects the ability of veins especially in the legs to return blood to the heart, often leading ...

1,000-Year-Old Health Hacks Are Trending—and Backed by Science

July 16, 2025 — Medieval medicine is undergoing a reputation makeover. New research reveals that far from being stuck in superstition, early Europeans actively explored healing practices based on nature, observation, and practical experience—some of which ...

Deadly Disguise: How Candy-Like Nicotine Pouches Caused a 763% Spike in Child Poisonings

July 14, 2025 — A massive spike in young children accidentally ingesting nicotine pouches has alarmed poison control researchers, with a 763% rise reported between 2020 and 2023. Unlike other nicotine products, ...

Not All Exercise Boosts Mental Health — It’s the Why That Matters Most

July 13, 2025 — Movement helps your mood, but it's not one-size-fits-all. Exercising for fun, with friends, or in enjoyable settings brings greater mental health benefits than simply moving for chores or obligations. Researchers emphasize that context — who ...

Matching Your Workouts to Your Personality Could Make Exercising More Enjoyable and Give You Better Results

July 9, 2025 — Less than a quarter of us hit WHO activity targets, but a new UCL study suggests the trick may be matching workouts to our personalities: extroverts thrive in high-energy group sports, neurotics ...

Latest Headlines

updated 2:36pm EDT

700,000 Years Ahead of Their Teeth: The Carbs That Made Us Human

Aug. 2, 2025 — Long before evolution equipped them with the right teeth, early humans began eating tough grasses and starchy underground plants—foods rich in energy but hard to chew. A new study reveals that this ...

4,000-Year-Old Teeth Reveal the Earliest Human High — Hidden in Plaque

Aug. 1, 2025 — Scientists have discovered the oldest direct evidence of betel nut chewing in Southeast Asia by analyzing 4,000-year-old dental plaque from a burial in Thailand. This breakthrough method reveals ...

Scientists Modeled Nuclear Winter—the Global Food Collapse Was Worse Than Expected

July 26, 2025 — What would happen if a nuclear war triggered a climate-altering catastrophe? Researchers have modeled how such a scenario could devastate global corn ...

Scientists Analyzed 100,000 Exams and Found the Best Time to Take One

July 24, 2025 — Italian students taking oral exams have a better shot at success if they’re scheduled around midday, according to new research. Analyzing over 100,000 assessments, scientists found a clear bell ...

Optimists Think Alike—and Brain Scans Just Proved It

July 23, 2025 — When imagining the future, optimists' brains tend to look remarkably alike, while pessimists show more varied neural activity. This neurological alignment could explain why optimists are often more ...

11,000-Year-Old Feast Uncovered: Why Hunters Hauled Wild Boars Across Mountains

July 19, 2025 — Ancient Iranians hosted epic feasts with wild boars that had been hunted and transported from distant regions. These animals weren’t just ...

Do Dogs Know Who’s Kind? Scientists Put It to the Test—and Got a Surprise

July 18, 2025 — Despite our strong belief in dogs' ability to sense good from bad in people, new research shows they may not actually judge human character, at least ...

Ancient Recipes or Rituals? Neanderthal Bones Reveal a Prehistoric Culinary Mystery

July 18, 2025 — Neanderthals living just 70 kilometers apart in Israel may have had different food prep customs, according to new research on butchered animal bones. ...

Cognitive Collapse and the Nuclear Codes: When Leaders Lose Control

July 17, 2025 — A shocking study reveals that many leaders of nuclear-armed nations—including US presidents and Israeli prime ministers—were afflicted by serious health problems while in office, sometimes with ...

Butchery Clues Reveal Neanderthals May Have Had “family Recipes”

July 17, 2025 — Neanderthals living in two nearby caves in ancient Israel prepared their food in surprisingly different ways, according to new archaeological evidence. Despite using the same tools and hunting the ...

It’s Not That You Look—it’s When: The Hidden Power of Eye Contact

July 17, 2025 — A groundbreaking study from Flinders University reveals that it's not just making eye contact that matters, but precisely when and how you do it. By studying interactions between humans and ...

Why Monkeys—and Humans—can’t Look Away from Social Conflict

July 9, 2025 — Long-tailed macaques given short videos were glued to scenes of fighting—especially when the combatants were monkeys they knew—mirroring the human draw to drama and familiar faces. Low-ranking ...

Hate Exercise? Neuroscience Maps the Routine Your Personality Will Love

July 8, 2025 — A new UCL study reveals that aligning workouts with personality boosts fitness and slashes stress—extroverts thrive on HIIT, neurotics favor short, private bursts, and everyone benefits when ...

New Research Shows Monday Stress Is Etched Into Your Biology

July 7, 2025 — Feeling jittery as the week kicks off isn’t just a mood—it leaves a biochemical footprint. Researchers tracked thousands of older adults and found those who dread Mondays carry elevated cortisol ...

Multisensory VR Forest Reboots Your Brain and Lifts Mood—study Confirms

July 6, 2025 — Immersing stressed volunteers in a 360° virtual Douglas-fir forest complete with sights, sounds and scents boosted their mood, sharpened short-term memory and deepened their feeling of ...

Pregnancy’s 100-Million-Year Secret: Inside the Placenta’s Evolutionary Power Play

July 6, 2025 — A group of scientists studying pregnancy across six different mammals—from humans to marsupials—uncovered how certain cells at the mother-baby boundary have been working together for over 100 ...

Scientists Just Found a Major Flaw in a Key COVID Drug Study

July 4, 2025 — A promising path to fighting COVID and other coronaviruses may have been based on a serious mistake. Scientists had zeroed in on a part of the virus called the NiRAN domain, believed to be a powerful ...

Avocado Alert! DNA Reveals How Native Plants Keep Brunch on the Menu

July 4, 2025 — Preserving strips of native vegetation beside avocado orchards gives insects a buffet of wild pollen when blossoms are scarce, doubling their plant menu and boosting their resilience. Using ...

Why Anger Cools After 50: Surprising Findings from a New Menopause Study

July 3, 2025 — Anger isn’t just a fleeting emotion—it plays a deeper role in women’s mental and physical health during midlife. A groundbreaking study tracking over 500 women aged 35 to 55 reveals that anger ...

This Sun-Powered Sponge Pulls Drinking Water Straight from the Ocean

July 3, 2025 — In a leap toward sustainable desalination, researchers have created a solar-powered sponge-like aerogel that turns seawater into drinkable water using just sunlight and a plastic cover. Unlike ...

Are Lefties Really More Creative? 100 Years of Data Say No

July 1, 2025 — A sweeping review of more than a century’s research upends the popular notion that left-handers are naturally more creative. Cornell psychologist Daniel Casasanto’s team sifted nearly a thousand ...

Scientists’ Top 10 Bee-Magnet Blooms—turn Any Lawn Into a Pollinator Paradise

July 7, 2025 — Danish and Welsh botanists sifted through 400 studies, field-tested seed mixes, and uncovered a lineup of native and exotic blooms that both thrill human eyes and lure bees and hoverflies in droves, ...

Feeling Mental Exhaustion? These Two Areas of the Brain May Control Whether People Give Up or Persevere

July 7, 2025 — When you're mentally exhausted, your brain might be doing more behind the scenes than you think. In a new study using functional MRI, researchers uncovered two key brain regions that activate ...

New IQ Research Shows Why Smarter People Make Better Decisions

July 4, 2025 — Smarter people don’t just crunch numbers better—they actually see the future more clearly. Examining thousands of over-50s, Bath researchers found the brightest minds made life-expectancy ...

Scientists Just Reconstructed Half the Neanderthal Genome—thanks to Indian DNA

June 29, 2025 — India’s complex ancestry—intertwined with Iranian farmers, Steppe herders, and local hunter-gatherers—has now been decoded through genomic data from 2,762 people. The study uncovers surprising ...

Acid-Busting Diet Triggers 13-Pound Weight Loss in Just 16 Weeks

June 26, 2025 — Swap steaks for spinach and you might watch the scale plummet. In a 16-week crossover study, overweight adults who ditched animal products for a low-fat vegan menu saw their bodies become less acidic ...

This Team Tried to Cross 140 Miles of Treacherous Ocean Like Stone-Age Humans—and It Worked

June 26, 2025 — Experiments and simulations show Paleolithic paddlers could outwit the powerful Kuroshio Current by launching dugout canoes from northern Taiwan and steering southeast toward Okinawa. A modern crew ...

Farming Without Famine: Ancient Andean Innovation Rewrites Agricultural Origins

June 26, 2025 — Farming didn t emerge in the Andes due to crisis or scarcity it was a savvy and resilient evolution. Ancient diets remained stable for millennia, blending wild and domesticated foods while cultural ...

New Test Unmasks Illegal Elephant Ivory Disguised as Mammoth

June 26, 2025 — Poachers are using a sneaky loophole to bypass the international ivory trade ban—by passing off illegal elephant ivory as legal mammoth ivory. Since the two types look deceptively similar, law ...

Scientists Reprogram Ant Behavior Using Brain Molecules

June 25, 2025 — Leafcutter ants live in highly organized colonies where every ant has a job, and now researchers can flip those jobs like a switch. By manipulating just two neuropeptides, scientists can turn ...