interesting research articles

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts

Research articles

Characterization of a putative orexin receptor in Ciona intestinalis sheds light on the evolution of the orexin/hypocretin system in chordates

• Maiju K. Rinne
• Lauri Urvas
• Henri Xhaard

Innovative numerical modeling for predicting soil relaxation in the design of twin circular culverts

• Paramita Bhattacharya

Utilizing geospatial artificial intelligence to map cancer disparities across health regions

• Ahmed Fadiel
• Kenneth D. Eichenbaum
• Kunle Odunsi

Prediction model for spinal cord injury in spinal tuberculosis patients using multiple machine learning algorithms: a multicentric study

• Shujiang Wang

Synthesis of N,N′ -alkylidene bisamides and Suzuki–Miyaura coupling reaction derivatives with Pd organometallic catalyst anchored to channels of mesoporous silica MCM-41

• Sulieman Ibraheem Shelash Al-Hawary
• Raed Obaid Saleh
• Maryam Sadat Ghorayshi Nejad

Genetic determinants of plasma protein levels in the Estonian population

• Anette Kalnapenkis
• Maarja Jõeloo

Designing of high entropy alloys with high hardness: a metaheuristic approach

• Ansh Poonia
• Modalavalasa Kishor
• Kameswari Prasada Rao Ayyagari

Multiple factors influence claw characteristics in oribatid mites (Acari)

• Michaela Kerschbaumer
• Tobias Pfingstl

Educational simulator for mastoidectomy considering mechanical properties using 3D printing and its usability evaluation

• Junhyeok Ock
• Yeonjoo Choi

Prestalk-like positioning of de-differentiated cells in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum

• Yuka Shirokawa
• Masakazu Shimada
• Satoshi Sawai

A nomogram for predicting the risk of treatment failure of roxadustat in peritoneal dialysis with renal anemia

• Jiangqing Fan

Simultaneous removal of caesium and strontium using different removal mechanisms of probiotic bacteria

• Satoshi Karasawa
• Hideki Aoyagi

Efficacy of second-line chemotherapy in patients with pulmonary large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma

• Kazushige Wakuda
• Toshiaki Takahashi

Synthesis and biological evaluation of echinomycin analogues as potential colon cancer agent

• Keita Kojima
• Hiroaki Konishi
• Satoshi Ichikawa

Double-gate structure enabling remote Coulomb scattering-free transport in atomic-layer-deposited IGO thin-film transistors with HfO 2 gate dielectric through insertion of SiO 2 interlayer

• Cheol Hee Choi
• Jae Kyeong Jeong

Clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis in patients with monoclonal gammopathy and renal damage in central China: a multicenter retrospective cohort study

• Guolan Xing

Extraction of heavy metals from copper tailings by ryegrass ( Lolium perenne L.) with the assistance of degradable chelating agents

• Weiwei Wang
• Jinchun Xue

A methodology for image-based measurement of plate movement in disengaged wet clutches

• Lukas Pointner-Gabriel
• Simon Flamm
• Karsten Stahl

Competitive adsorption of CO 2 , N 2 , and CH 4 in coal-derived asphaltenes, a computational study

• Farshad Mirzaee Valadi
• Mohammad Pasandideh-Nadamani
• Ayoob Torkian

GPT-agents based on medical guidelines can improve the responsiveness and explainability of outcomes for traumatic brain injury rehabilitation

• Zhang Jingfeng
• Xia Yinshui

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

The Ten Most Significant Science Stories of 2021

Thrilling discoveries, hurdles in the fight against Covid and advancements in space exploration defined the past year

Associate Editor, Science

Covid-19 dominated science coverage again in 2021, and deservedly so. The disease garnered two entries on this list of our picks for the most important science stories of the year. But other key discoveries and achievements marked the year in science too, and they deserve more attention. NASA and private companies notched firsts in space. Scientists discovered more about the existence of early humans. And researchers documented how climate change has impacted everything from coral reefs to birds. Covid-19 will continue to garner even more attention next year as scientists work to deal with new variants and develop medical advances to battle the virus. But before you let stories about those topics dominate your reading in 2022, it’s worth it to take a look back at the biggest discoveries and accomplishments of this past year. To that end, here are our picks for the most important science stories of 2021.

The Covid Vaccine Rollout Encounters Hurdles

Last year the biggest science story of the year was that scientists developed two mRNA Covid vaccines in record time. This year the biggest Covid story is that the rollout of those vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna, and one other by Johnson and Johnson, haven’t made their way into a large proportion of the United States population and a significant portion of the world. As of this writing on December 21 , roughly 73 percent of the U.S. population has received one dose, and roughly 61 percent of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated. An incomplete rollout allowed for a deadly summer surge, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant . Experts pointed out that vaccination rates lagged due to widespread disinformation and misinformation campaigns . It didn’t help that some popular public figures —like Packers’ quarterback Aaron Rodgers , musician Nick Minaj , podcast host Joe Rogan and rapper Ice Cube —chose not to get vaccinated. Luckily, by November, U.S. health officials had approved the Pfizer vaccine for children as young as five, providing another barrier against the deadly disease’s spread, and Covid rates declined. But while the wall against the disease in the U.S. is growing, it is not finished. As cases surge as the Omicron variant spreads around the country, building that wall and reinforcing it with booster shots is critically important. In much of the rest of the world, the wall is severely lacking where populations haven’t been given decent access to the vaccine. Only 8 percent of individuals in low-income countries have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and a WHO Africa report from this fall said that on that continent, less than 10 percent of countries would hit the goal of vaccinating at least 40 percent of their citizens by the end of the year. Globally, less than 60 percent of the population has been vaccinated. The holes in vaccination coverage will allow the virus to continue to kill a large number of individuals, and allow an environment where possibly other dangerous variants can emerge.

Perseverance Notches Firsts on Mars

NASA took a huge step forward in exploring the Red Planet after the rover Perseverance landed safely on Mars in February. Scientists outfitted the vehicle with an ultralight helicopter that successfully flew in the thin Martian atmosphere , a toaster-sized device called MOXIE that successfully converted carbon dioxide to oxygen , and sampling elements that successfully collected rocks from the planet’s floor. All of the achievements will lend themselves to a better understanding of Mars, and how to investigate it in the future. The flight success will give scientists clues on how to build larger helicopters, the oxygen creation will help scientists come up with grander plans for conversion devices, and the rocks will make their way back to Earth for analysis when they are picked up on a future mission. In addition to the rover’s triumphs, other countries notched major firsts too. The United Arab Emirates Hope space probe successfully entered orbit around the planet and is studying the Martian atmosphere and weather. China’s Zhurong rover landed on Mars in May and is exploring the planet’s geology and looking for signs of water. With these ongoing missions, scientists around the world are learning more and more about what the planet is like and how we might better explore it, maybe one day in person.

Is “Dragon Man” a New Species of Human?

The backstory of the skull that scientists used to suggest there was a new species of later Pleistocene human—to join Homo sapiens and Neanderthals—garnered a lot of ink. After the fossil was discovered at a construction site in China nearly 90 years ago, a family hid it until a farmer gave it to a university museum in 2018. Since then, scientists in China pored over the skull—analyzing its features, conducting uranium series dating, and using X-ray fluorescence to compare it to other fossils—before declaring it a new species of archaic human. They dubbed the discovery Homo longi , or “Dragon Man.” The skull had a large cranium capable of holding a big brain, a thick brow and almost square eye sockets—details scientists used to differentiate it from other Homo species. Some scientists questioned whether the find warranted designation as a new species. “It’s exciting because it is a really interesting cranium, and it does have some things to say about human evolution and what’s going on in Asia. But it’s also disappointing that it’s 90 years out from discovery, and it is just an isolated cranium, and you’re not quite sure exactly how old it is or where it fits,” Michael Petraglia of the Smithsonian Institution’s Human Origins Initiative told Smithsonian magazine back in June. Other scientists supported the new species designation, and so the debate continues, and likely will until more fossils are discovered that help to fill in the holes of human history.

Climate Change Wreaks Havoc on Coral Reefs

Increasing natural disasters—forest fires, droughts and heat waves—may be the most noticeable events spurred by climate change; a warming Earth has helped drive a five-fold uptick in such weather-related events over the last 50 years according the a 2021 report by the World Meteorological Organization . But one of the biggest impacts wrought by climate change over the past decade has occurred underwater. Warming temps cause coral reefs to discard the symbiotic algae that help them survive, and they bleach and die. This year a major report from the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network announced that the oceans lost about 14 percent of their reefs in the decade after 2009, mostly because of climate change. In November, new research showed that less than 2 percent of the coral reefs on the Great Barrier Reef—the world’s largest such feature—escaped bleaching since 1998. That news came just two months after a different study stated that half of coral reefs have been lost since the 1950s , in part due to climate change. The reef declines impact fisheries, local economies based on tourism and coastal developments—which lose the offshore buffer zone from storms the living structures provide. Scientists say if temperatures continue to rise, coral reefs are in serious danger. But not all hope is lost—if humans reduce carbon emissions rapidly now, more reefs will have a better chance of surviving .

The Space Tourism Race Heats Up

This year the famous billionaires behind the space tourism race completed successful missions that boosted more than just their egos. They put a host of civilians in space. Early in July, billionaire Richard Branson and his employees flew just above the boundary of space—a suborbital flight—in Virgin Galactic’s first fully crewed trip. (But Virgin Galactic did delay commercial missions until at least late next year.) Just over a week after Branson’s mission, the world’s richest person, Jeff Bezos, completed Blue Origin’s first crewed suborbital flight with the youngest and oldest travelers to reach space. In October, his company Blue Origin repeated the feat when it took Star Trek actor William Shatner up. A month before that, a crew of four became the first all-civilian crew to circle the Earth from space in Elon Musk’s SpaceX Dragon capsule Resilience. More ambitious firsts for civilians are in the works. In 2022, SpaceX plans to send a retired astronaut and three paying passengers to the International Space Station. And beyond that, Bezos announced Blue Origin hopes to deploy a private space station fit for ten—called “Orbital Reef”—sometime between 2025 and 2030.

WHO Approves First Vaccine Against Malaria

In October, the World Health Organization approved the first vaccine against malaria. The approval was not only a first for that disease, but also for any parasitic disease. The moment was 30 years in the making, as Mosquirix—the brand name of the drug— cost more than $750 million since 1987 to develop and test. Malaria kills nearly a half million individuals a year, including 260,000 children under the age of five. Most of these victims live in sub-Saharan Africa. The new vaccine fights the deadliest of five malaria pathogens and the most prevalent in Africa, and is administered to children under five in a series of four injections. The vaccine is not a silver bullet; it prevents only about 30 percent of severe malaria cases. But one modeling study showed that still could prevent 5.4 million cases and 23,000 deaths in children under five each year. Experts say the vaccine is a valuable tool that should be used in conjunction with existing methods—such as drug combination treatments and insecticide-treated bed nets—to combat the deadly disease.

Discoveries Move Key Dates Back for Humans in the Americas

Two very different papers in two of the world’s most prestigious scientific journals documented key moments of human habitation in the Americas. In September, a study in Science dated footprints found at White Sands National Park to between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago. Researchers estimated the age of the dried tracks known as “ghost prints” using radiocarbon dating of dried ditchgrass seeds found above and below the impressions. Previously, many archaeologists placed the start of human life in the Americas at around 13,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age, based on tools found in New Mexico. The new paper, whose results have been debated , suggests humans actually lived on the continent at the height of the Ice Age. A month after that surprising find, a study in Nature published evidence showing that Vikings lived on North America earlier than previously thought. Researchers examined cut wood left by the explorers at a site in Newfoundland and found evidence in the samples of a cosmic ray event that happened in 993 C.E. The scientists then counted the rings out from that mark and discovered the wood had been cut in 1021 C.E. The find means that the Norse explorers completed the first known crossing of the Atlantic from Europe to the Americas.

Humans Are Affecting the Evolution of Animals

New research published this year shows that humans have both directly and indirectly affected how animals evolve. In probably the starkest example of humans impacting animal evolution, a Science study found a sharp increase in tuskless African elephants after years of poaching. During the Mozambican Civil War from 1977 to 1992, poachers killed so many of the giant mammals with tusks that those females without the long ivory teeth were more likely to pass on their genes. Before the war, 20 percent were tuskless. Now, roughly half of the female elephants are tuskless. Males who have the genetic make-up for tusklessness die , likely before they are born. And killing animals isn’t the only way humans are impacting evolution. A large study in Trends in Ecology and Evolution found that animals are changing shape to deal with rising temps. For example, over various time periods bats grew bigger wings and rabbits sprouted longer ears—both likely to dissipate more heat into the surrounding air. More evidence along those lines was published later in the year in Science Advances . A 40-year-study of birds in a remote, intact patch of Amazon rainforest showed 77 species weighed less on average, and many had longer wings, than they used to. Scientists said the changes likely occurred due to rising temperatures and changes in rainfall.

Antiviral Pills That Fight Covid Show Promising Results

Almost a year after scientists released tests showing the success of mRNA vaccines in fighting Covid, Merck released promising interim test results from a Phase III trial of an antiviral pill. On October 1, the pharmaceutical giant presented data that suggested molnupiravir could cut hospitalizations in half. Ten days later, the company submitted results to the FDA in hopes of gaining emergency use. In mid-November, the U.K. jumped ahead of the U.S. and granted approval for the treatment. By late November, advisers to the FDA recommended emergency authorization of the pill, though it was shown by this time to reduce death or disease by 30—not 50—percent. The drug should be taken —four pills a day for five days—starting within five days of the appearance of symptoms. It works by disrupting SARS-CoV-2’s ability to replicate effectively inside a human cell.

Molnupiravir isn’t the only viral drug with positive results. In November, Pfizer announced its antiviral pill, Paxlovid, was effective against severe Covid. By December, the pharmaceutical giant shared final results that it reduced the risk of hospitalization and death by 88 percent in a key group. News about both pills was welcome , as they are expected to work against all versions of the virus, including Omicron. Though the drugs aren’t as big of a breakthrough as the vaccines, a doctor writing for the New Yorker called them “the most important pharmacologic advance of the pandemic.” Many wealthy countries have already agreed to contracts for molnupiravir, and the Gates Foundation pledged $120 million to help get the pill to poor countries. If approved and distributed fast enough, the oral antivirals can be prescribed in places, like Africa, where vaccines have been lacking. The pills represent another crucial tool, in addition to masks and vaccines, in the fight against Covid.

The James Webb Space Telescope May Finally Launch

Get the latest Science stories in your inbox.

Joe Spring | READ MORE

Joe Spring is the associate digital science editor for Smithsonian magazine.

Top Science News

Latest top headlines.

• Wounds and Healing
• Medical Topics
• Today's Healthcare
• Medical Education and Training
• Medical Imaging
• Child Development
• Brain Tumor
• Brain Injury
• Electronics
• Materials Science
• Solar Flare
• Robotics Research
• Artificial Intelligence
• Cell Biology
• Developmental Biology
• Energy and the Environment
• Renewable Energy
• Cows, Sheep, Pigs
• Endangered Plants
• Coral Reefs
• Sustainability
• Extremely Fast Wound Healing: New Treatment
• Clinical Reasoning: Chatbot Vs Physicians
• Understanding People Who Can't Visualize
• Illuminating Oxygen's Journey in the Brain

Top Physical/Tech

• Micro-Lisa! Novel Nano-Scale Laser Writing
• Unlocking Supernova Stardust Secrets
• What Controls Sun's Differential Rotation?
• Robot, Can You Say 'Cheese'?

Top Environment

• Cell Division Quality Control 'Stopwatch'
• A Solar Cell You Can Bend and Soak in Water
• Century-Old Powdered Milk in Antarctica
• New Artificial Reef Stands Up to Storms

Health News

Latest health headlines.

• Agriculture and Food
• Sports Medicine
• Medical Devices
• Heart Disease
• Diseases and Conditions
• Stroke Prevention
• Diet and Weight Loss
• Mental Health Research
• Social Psychology
• Relationships
• Alzheimer's Research
• Alzheimer's
• Mental Health
• Cholesterol
• Sleep Disorders

Health & Medicine

• Are Golfers at Risk from Pesticides On Courses?
• Smartphones Measure Key Marker for Diabetes
• New Advance Against Heart Failure in Men
• Ketogenic Diet for Severe Mental Illness

Mind & Brain

• Virtual Rehabilitation for Stroke Recovery
• Suppressing Boredom at Work Hurts Productivity
• Familial Alzheimer's Via Bone Marrow Transplant
• Younger Women: Mental Health, Heart Health

Living Well

• Sweeteners Unlikely to Increase Your Appetite
• Heart Disease Risk: More Than One Drink a Day
• Premenstrual Disorders and Perinatal Depression
• Why Do Some Memories Become Longterm?

Physical/Tech News

Latest physical/tech headlines.

• Alternative Fuels
• Civil Engineering
• Air Quality
• Computer Modeling
• Mathematical Modeling
• Mathematics
• Extrasolar Planets
• Kuiper Belt
• Black Holes
• Astrophysics
• Asteroids, Comets and Meteors
• Virtual Reality
• Virtual Environment
• Microarrays
• Intelligence
• Quantum Physics
• Quantum Computers

Matter & Energy

• Cleaner Ammonia Production
• Are High-Purity Cathode Materials Necessary?
• Pinpointing Freshwater Pollution Sources
• AI Boosts Super-Resolution Microscopy

Space & Time

• New Molecular Signposts in Starburst Galaxy
• Protostars and Newly Formed Planets
• 'Cosmic Cannibals': Fast-Moving Jets in Space
• Deep Space Objects Can Become 'Ice Bombs'

Computers & Math

• Immersive Projection Mapping
• Artificial Nose for Gas Sensing, Odor Detection
• AI to Locate Damage to Brain After Stroke?
• A New Type of Cooling for Quantum Simulators

Environment News

Latest environment headlines.

• Global Warming
• Early Climate
• Ecology Research
• Wild Animals
• Epigenetics Research
• Evolutionary Biology
• Biochemistry Research
• Environmental Issues
• Mating and Breeding
• Behavioral Science
• Ancient Civilizations
• Origin of Life
• New Species
• Paleontology
• Anthropology
• Human Evolution

Plants & Animals

• Climate, Deforestation: Damage to Animal World
• Canada Lynx Historic Range in US
• The Great Gray Owl in the City
• Social Status Leaves Traces in the Epigenome

Earth & Climate

• Simple Equations Clarify Cloud Climate Conundrum
• Lyrebird: One Real Song-And-Dance Bird
• Variability of Jet Streams in Northern ...
• Manganese: Soil Carbon Sequestration

Fossils & Ruins

• Appearance of a 6th Century Chinese Emperor
• More Heat Likely to Reach Antarctica
• In Paleontology, Correct Names Are Key
• Mystery of Dorset's Cerne Giant

Society/Education News

Latest society/education headlines.

• Endangered Animals
• Energy Issues
• Environmental Awareness
• Child Psychology
• Children's Health
• Educational Policy
• Educational Psychology
• Education and Employment
• STEM Education
• Learning Disorders
• Gender Difference
• K-12 Education
• Video Games
• Sports Science

Science & Society

• The Grey Seal Hunt Is Too Large
• Obesity: Global Study Tracks BMI Measurements
• Heat, Cold Extremes: Solar, Wind Energy Use
• N. American Cities: Major Species Turnover?

Education & Learning

• Most Teens Worry How Sick Days Impact Grades?
• Effective Teachers: Range of Student Abilities
• Students Contribute to Exoplanet Discovery
• 'Transcendent' Thinking May Grow Teens' Brains

Business & Industry

• Pairing Crypto Mining With Green Hydrogen
• Feeling Apathetic? There May Be Hope
• Tensions Between Individual and Team Wellbeing
• AI Can Track Hockey Data
• Simple Brain-Computer Link: Gaming With Thoughts
• DNA Study IDs Descendants of George Washington

Trending Topics

Strange & offbeat, about this site.

ScienceDaily features breaking news about the latest discoveries in science, health, the environment, technology, and more -- from leading universities, scientific journals, and research organizations.

Visitors can browse more than 500 individual topics, grouped into 12 main sections (listed under the top navigational menu), covering: the medical sciences and health; physical sciences and technology; biological sciences and the environment; and social sciences, business and education. Headlines and summaries of relevant news stories are provided on each topic page.

Stories are posted daily, selected from press materials provided by hundreds of sources from around the world. Links to sources and relevant journal citations (where available) are included at the end of each post.

For more information about ScienceDaily, please consult the links listed at the bottom of each page.

Frontiers | Science News

• Science News

Featured news

10 frontiers articles that caught the world’s attention in 2022.

By Frontiers’ science writers

Image: Shutterstock.com

As part of Frontiers’ passion to make science available to all, we highlight just a small selection of the most fascinating research published with us each month to help inspire current and future researchers to achieve their research dreams.

2022 was no different, and saw many game-changing discoveries contribute to the world’s breadth of knowledge on topics ranging from the climate crisis to robotics, and exercise to the lives of our ancestors.

So to round of the year, here are 10 Frontiers articles from this year that got the world’s top media talking.

1. This illusion, new to science, is strong enough to trick our reflexes

Have a look at the image below. Do you perceive that the central black hole is expanding, as if you’re moving into a dark environment, or falling into a hole? If so, you’re not alone: a study published to Frontiers in Human Neuroscience showed that this ‘expanding hole’ illusion, which is new to science, is perceived by approximately 86% of people.

The researchers don’t yet know why a minority seem unsusceptible to the ‘expanding hole’ illusion. Nor do they know whether other vertebrate species, or even nonvertebrate animals with camera eyes such as octopuses, might perceive the same illusion as we do.

“Our results show that pupils’ dilation or contraction reflex is not a closed-loop mechanism, like a photocell opening a door, impervious to any other information than the actual amount of light stimulating the photoreceptor,” said Dr Bruno Laeng, a professor at the Department of Psychology of the University of Oslo and the study’s first author.

“Rather, the eye adjusts to perceived and even imagined light, not simply to physical energy. Future studies could reveal other types of physiological or bodily changes that can ‘throw light’ onto how illusions work.”

Read article: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2022.877249/full

2. A replay of life: What happens in our brain when we die?

Imagine reliving your entire life in the space of seconds. Like a flash of lightning, you are outside of your body, watching memorable moments you lived through. This process, known as ‘life recall’, can be similar to what it’s like to have a near-death experience. What happens inside your brain during these experiences and after death are questions that have puzzled neuroscientists for centuries. However, a study published to  Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience  suggested that your brain may remain active and coordinated during and even after the transition to death, and be programmed to orchestrate the whole ordeal.

When an 87-year-old patient developed epilepsy, Dr Raul Vicente of the University of Tartu, Estonia and colleagues used continuous electroencephalography (EEG) to detect the seizures and treat the patient. During these recordings, the patient had a heart attack and passed away. This unexpected event allowed the scientists to record the activity of a dying human brain for the first time ever.

Read article: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2022.813531/full

3. Eating vegetables does not protect against cardiovascular disease, finds large-scale study

A sufficient intake of vegetables is important for maintaining a balanced diet and avoiding a wide range of diseases. But might a diet rich in vegetables also lower the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD)? Unfortunately, researchers from the Nuffield Department of Population Health at the University of Oxford, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the University of Bristol found earlier this year no evidence for this.

That the consumption of vegetables might lower the risk of CVD might at first sight seem plausible, as their ingredients such as carotenoids and alpha-tocopherol have properties that could protect against CVD. But so far, the evidence from previous studies for an overall effect of vegetable consumption on CVD has been inconsistent.

Results from a powerful, large-scale new study in  Frontiers in Nutrition  showed that a higher consumption of cooked or uncooked vegetables is unlikely to affect the risk of CVD. They also explain how confounding factors might explain previous spurious, positive findings.

Read article: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2022.831470/full

4. Having good friendships may make for a healthier gut microbiome

Social connections are essential for good health and wellbeing in social animals, such as ourselves and other primates. There is also increasing evidence that the gut microbiome – through the so-called ‘gut-brain axis’ – plays a key role in our physical and mental health and that bacteria can be transmitted socially, for example through touch. So how does social connectedness translate into the composition and diversity of the gut microbiome? That’s the topic of a study in Frontiers in Microbiology on rhesus macaques, Macaca mulatta.

The scientists focused on a single social group (with 22 males and 16 females between the ages of six and 20 years) of rhesus macaques on the island of Cayo Santiago, off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico. Macaques originally only lived in North Africa and Asia. But in 1938, a founder population of 409 rhesus macaques was moved from India to Cayo Santiago. Today, more than 1,000 macaques live on the 15.2 hectare island, divided into several social groups. They range and forage freely, although their diet gets supplemented daily with monkey chow. Researchers do behavioral observations on the monkeys each year.

Lead author Dr Katerina Johnson, a research associate at the Department of Experimental Psychology and the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Oxford, said: “Here we show that more sociable monkeys have a higher abundance of beneficial gut bacteria, and a lower abundance of potentially disease-causing bacteria.”

Read article: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2022.1032495/full

5. Robotic arms connected directly to brain of partially paralyzed man allows him to feed himself

Two robotic arms – a fork in one hand, a knife in the other – flank a seated man, who sits in front of a table, with a piece of cake on a plate. A computerized voice announces each action: “moving fork to food” and “retracting knife.” Partially paralyzed, the man makes subtle motions with his right and left fists at certain prompts, such as “select cut location”, so that the machine slices off a bite-sized piece. Now: “moving food to mouth” and another subtle gesture to align the fork with his mouth.

In less than 90 seconds, a person with very limited upper body mobility who hasn’t been able to use his fingers in about 30 years, just fed himself dessert using his mind and some smart robotic hands.

A team led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), in Laurel, Maryland, and the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PMR) in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, published a paper in Frontiers in Neurorobotics  that described this latest feat using a brain-machine interface (BMI) and a pair of modular prosthetic limbs.

Read article: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbot.2022.918001/full

6. Excessive blue light from our gadgets may accelerate the aging process

Too much screen use has been linked to obesity and psychological problems. Now a study has identified a new problem – a study in fruit flies suggests our basic cellular functions could be impacted by the blue light emitted by these devices. These results are published in Frontiers in Aging .

“Excessive exposure to blue light from everyday devices, such as TVs, laptops and phones, may have detrimental effects on a wide range of cells in our body, from skin and fat cells, to sensory neurons,“ said Dr Jadwiga Giebultowicz, a professor at the Department of Integrative Biology at Oregon State University and senior author of this study. “We are the first to show that the levels of specific metabolites – chemicals that are essential for cells to function correctly – are altered in fruit flies exposed to blue light.“

“Our study suggests that avoidance of excessive blue light exposure may be a good anti-aging strategy,“ said Giebultowicz.

The researchers at Oregon State University have previously shown that fruit flies exposed to light ‘turn on‘ stress protective genes, and that those kept in constant darkness lived longer.

“To understand why high-energy blue light is responsible for accelerating aging in flies, we compared the levels of metabolites in flies exposed to blue light for two weeks to those kept in complete darkness,“ explained Giebultowicz. Blue light exposure caused significant differences in the levels of metabolites measured by the researchers in the cells of fly heads. In particular, they found that the levels of the metabolite succinate were increased, but glutamate levels were lowered.

Read article : https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fragi.2022.983373/full

7. Scientific ‘detective work’ reveals South American mummies were brutally murdered

How frequent was violence in prehistoric human societies? One way to measure this is to look for trauma in prehistoric human remains. For example, a recent review of pre-Columbian remains found evidence of trauma from violence in 21% of males. So far, most studies of this kind focused on skulls and other parts of the skeleton, but a potentially richer source of information are mummies, with their preserved soft tissues.

Now in a study in Frontiers in Medicine , researchers used 3D computed tomography (3D CT) to examine three mummies from pre-Columbian South America, conserved since the late 19th century in European museums.

“Here we show lethal trauma in two out of three South American mummies that we investigated with 3D CT. The types of trauma we found would not have been detectable if these human remains had been mere skeletons,” said Dr Andreas G Nerlich, a professor at the Department of Pathology of Munich Clinic Bogenhausen in Germany, the study’s corresponding author.

Nerlich and colleagues studied a male mummy at the ‘Museum Anatomicum’ of the Philipps University Marburg, Germany, as well as a female and a male mummy at the Art and History Museum of Delémont, Switzerland. Mummies can form naturally when dry environments, for example in deserts, soak up fluids from a decomposing body faster than the decay can proceed – conditions common in the southern zones of South America.

Read article : https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2022.962793/full

8. WWII shipwreck has leaked many pollutants into the sea, changing the ocean floor around it

Researchers have discovered that an 80 year old historic World War II shipwreck is still influencing the microbiology and geochemistry of the ocean floor where it rests. In Frontiers in Marine Science , they showed how the wreck is leaking hazardous pollutants, such as explosives and heavy metals, into the ocean floor sediment of the North Sea, influencing the marine microbiology around it.

The seabed of the North Sea is covered in thousands of ship and aircraft wrecks,  warfare  agents, and millions of tons of conventional munition such as shells and bombs. Wrecks contain hazardous substances (such as petroleum and explosives) that may harm the marine environment. Yet, there is a lack of information about the location of the wrecks, and the effect they might have on the environment. 

“The general public is often quite interested in  shipwrecks  because of their historical value, but the potential environmental impact of these wrecks is often overlooked,” said PhD candidate Josefien Van Landuyt, of Ghent University. For example, it is estimated that  World War  I and II shipwrecks around the world collectively contain between 2.5m and 20.4m tons of petroleum products.

As part of the  North Sea Wrecks project , Van Landuyt and her colleagues investigated how the World War II shipwreck V-1302 John Mahn in the Belgian part of the North Sea is impacting the microbiome and geochemistry in its surrounding seabed.

“We wanted to see if old shipwrecks in our part of the sea (Belgium) were still shaping the local microbial communities and if they were still affecting the surrounding sediment. This microbial analysis is unique within the project,” explained Van Landuyt.

Read article : https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.928576/full

9. Verbal insults trigger a ‘mini slap to the face’, finds new research

Humans are a highly social species. We rely on ever-changing cooperation dynamics and interpersonal relations to survive and thrive. Words have a big role to play in these relations, as they are tools used to understand interpersonal behavior. As such, words can hurt, but we know little about how the impact of words comes about as someone processes an insult.

“The exact way in which words can deliver their offensive, emotionally negative payload at the moment these words are being read or heard is not yet well-understood,” said corresponding author of a Frontiers in Communication study, Dr Marijn Struiksma, of Utrecht University.

Because insults pose a threat against our reputation and against our ‘self’, they provide a unique opportunity to research the interface between language and emotion. Struiksma continued:

“Understanding what an insulting expression does to people as it unfolds, and why, is of considerable importance to psycholinguists interested in how language moves people, but also to others who wish to understand the details of social behavior.”

Read article : https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2022.910023/full

10. When should I schedule my exercise? The question is more important than you think

When should I fit exercise within my daily schedule? For most, the answer depends on our family’s schedule and working hours, and perhaps on whether we’re ‘larks’ or ‘night owls’. But over the past decade, researchers have found that much more hangs on this question than these constraints. That’s because recent findings suggest that the effectiveness of exercise depends on the time of day (Exercise Time Of Day, ETOD).

Now, a randomized controlled trial not only confirms convincingly that ETOD affects the effectiveness of exercise, but also shows that these effects differ between types of exercise, and between women and men. The results are published in  Frontiers in Physiology .

Principal investigator Dr Paul J Arciero, a professor at the Health and Human Physiological Sciences Department of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY, US, said: “Here we show for the first time that for women, exercise during the morning reduces belly fat and blood pressure, whereas evening exercise in women increases upper body muscular strength, power, and endurance, and improves overall mood and nutritional satiety.”

“We also show that for men, evening exercise lowers blood pressure, the risk of heart disease, and feelings of fatigue, and burns more fat, compared to morning exercise.”

Read article : https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2022.893783/full

REPUBLISHING GUIDELINES : Open access and sharing research is part of  Frontiers’ mission . Unless otherwise noted, you can republish articles posted in the Frontiers news blog — as long as you include a link back to the original research. Selling the articles is not allowed.

Post related info

December 06, 2022

Frontiers Science Communications

Post categories, related subjects, frontiers highlights, frontiers in aging, frontiers in aging neuroscience, frontiers in communication, frontiers in human neuroscience, frontiers in marine science, frontiers in medicine, frontiers in microbiology, frontiers in neurorobotics, frontiers in nutrition, frontiers in physiology, latest posts.

Frontiers community engagement update – spring 2024

Dogs trained to detect trauma stress by smelling humans’ breath

Scientists discover how caterpillars can stop their bleeding in seconds

Frontiers’ Volunteers: Empowering women and girls in rural communities

Italians’ and Swedes’ gestures vary when they tell stories, which may show cultures think differently about narratives

• April 1, 2024 | This Could Be Forever: New Design Greatly Prolongs the Lifespan of Plasma Torches
• April 1, 2024 | The Invisible Assault: How COVID-19 Clandestinely Ravages the Heart
• April 1, 2024 | Unleashing the Power of Memristors in High-Precision Computing
• April 1, 2024 | The Science of Sleep: 10-Year Study Unlocks the Secret to Overcoming Insomnia
• April 1, 2024 | NASA’s Curiosity Rover Unearths Mars’ Ancient Water Secrets

Science News

Find daily science news and interesting science research articles at SciTechDaily, your all-inclusive hub for the latest breakthroughs, discoveries, and innovations from the ever-evolving world of science. We publish the latest science news and breakthroughs made at top universities and research facilities.

Our expertly curated content dives deep into the complexities of scientific research, unveiling the incredible discoveries and cutting-edge advancements that continue to reshape our understanding of the universe and our place within it. Stay informed, curious, and inspired as we explore the boundless wonders of the scientific realm together.

Learn more about topics such as Climate Change , Computer Science , Geology , Archaeology , Antimatter , Evolution , Neuroscience , Nanoscience , Fluid Dynamics and Energy originating at prestigious institutions like UCLA , Yale , MIT , UC Berkeley , King’s College , Max Planck Institute , Kyoto University , and Oak Ridge National Laboratory .

Science April 1, 2024

This Could Be Forever: New Design Greatly Prolongs the Lifespan of Plasma Torches

Thanks to a new design contributed by a research team led by Prof. Zhao Peng from Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) of Chinese Academy…

Archaeological Study Exposes Secrets of Medieval Horse Trading

Revolutionary Concrete From Drexel Melts Snow and Ice Naturally

Scientists Propose New Method To Detect Consciousness in Infants

Turning Rocks Into Renewable Energy With Hydrogen Breakthrough

Building Resilient Teens: The Essential Role of Reflective Parenting

Science’s Latest Marvel: Electronic Material That Grows Tougher on Impact

More Complex Than Human Genome: Unlocking the Sweet Mysteries of Sugarcane DNA

Named After Kermit the Frog – Paleontologists Discover 270-Million-Year-Old Ancient Amphibian Ancestor

Science March 30, 2024

When Day Turns to Night: What Animals Do During a Total Solar Eclipse

A unique study during the total solar eclipse will analyze behavioral responses of selected animals, exploring evolutionary influences on their reaction to abrupt light changes….

Science March 29, 2024

Neuroscientists Find Key to Language Impairments Deep in the Brain

Research reveals brain abnormalities in children with developmental language impairments, suggesting potential new pathways for diagnosis and treatment based on movement-related brain functions. A rigorous…

Quantum Breakthrough Paves Way for “Unbreakable” Metals

Scientists have developed a quantum mechanics-based method to predict the ductility of metals, proving particularly effective for materials used in high-temperature conditions. This innovative approach,…

How Traditional Chinese Window Patterns Are Redefining Modern Architecture

New research investigates the geometric characteristics of traditional Chinese window designs and their application in modern architectural projects. Chinese ice-ray lattice, or “binglie” as it…

Science March 28, 2024

This Common Backyard Insect Is Helping Scientists Develop Invisibility Devices

Leafhoppers, a common backyard insect, secrete and coat themselves in tiny mysterious particles that could provide both the inspiration and the instructions for next-generation technology,…

Before the Sun Rises: The Surprising Science Behind Waking Up on the Wrong Side of the Bed

It’s always darkest before the dawn for many people, and now, a University of Michigan and Dartmouth Health study has looked into the science of…

Spielberg Was Right: New Research Reveals That Real Triceratops Herds Echo Jurassic Park

Research indicates that a group of five three-horned dinosaurs lived and died together. From The Land Before Time to Jurassic Park, the famous horned dinosaur…

Science March 27, 2024

Sulfur’s Secret Role in the Origin of Life – Scientists Unveil Prebiotic Secrets

A study led by the University of Arizona highlights sulfur, a widely recognized chemical element that has intriguingly defied scientific attempts to understand its role…

Pathway to Power: Self-Control Is the Secret Driver of Leadership Success

New research from UC San Diego’s Rady School of Management reveals that people see those who have more self-control as powerful and want to give…

Subscribe or renew today

Every print subscription comes with full digital access

Science News

These are the chemicals that give teens pungent body odor

Steroids and high levels of carboxylic acids in teenagers’ body odor give off a mix of pleasant and acrid scents.

The smallest known molecular knot is made of just 54 atoms

Here’s how tardigrades go into suspended animation.

Earth’s oldest known earthquake was probably triggered by plate tectonics

Billion-year-old rocks in South Africa hold evidence for the onset of plate tectonics early in Earth’s history.

Climate change is changing how we keep time

How air pollution may make it harder for pollinators to find flowers.

How patient-led research could speed up medical innovation

People with long COVID, ME/CFS and other chronic conditions are taking up science to find symptom relief and inspire new directions for professional scientists.

Here’s what distorted faces can look like to people with prosopometamorphopsia

During a total solar eclipse, some colors really pop. Here’s why

As a solar eclipse approaches totality and our eyes adjust to dimming light, our color vision changes. It’s called the Purkinje effect.

Here’s why some pigeons do backflips

Chickadees use memory ‘bar codes’ to find their hidden food stashes.

How two outsiders tackled the mystery of arithmetic progressions

Computer scientists made progress on a decades-old puzzle in a subfield of mathematics known as combinatorics.

A predicted quasicrystal is based on the ‘einstein’ tile known as the hat

Here’s how much fruit you can take from a display before it collapses, a teeny device can measure subtle shifts in earth’s gravitational field, timbre can affect what harmony is music to our ears, science & society.

The acoustic qualities of instruments may have influenced variations in musical scales and preferred harmonies.

Not all cultures value happiness over other aspects of well-being

‘space: the longest goodbye’ explores astronauts’ mental health, a new image reveals magnetic fields around our galaxy’s central black hole, titan’s dark dunes could be made from comets.

AI learned how to sway humans by watching a cooperative cooking game

New research used the game Overcooked to show how offline reinforcement learning algorithms could teach bots to collaborate with — or manipulate — us.

Why large language models aren’t headed toward humanlike understanding

Could a rice-meat hybrid be what’s for dinner.

Trustworthy journalism comes at a price.

Scientists and journalists share a core belief in questioning, observing and verifying to reach the truth. Science News reports on crucial research and discovery across science disciplines. We need your financial support to make it happen – every contribution makes a difference.

Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions.

Not a subscriber? Become one now .

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

The 10 biggest science stories of 2022 – chosen by scientists

From moon missions to fast-charging batteries and AI-sourced antibiotics, in no particular order, the year’s significant scientific developments

1. The Dart and Orion missions

The year opened with a bang. Or rather, it didn’t. The successful film Don’t Look Up , in which a comet is found to be on a collision course with Earth, had been released just before Christmas 2021. In the bleak days of post-festive gloom, the news media were on an adrenaline high, chasing any and every story about potential asteroid collisions to cheer us all up. Five asteroids were to pass close to the Earth in January alone! Happily for the health and wellbeing of humanity, none was predicted to come within a whisker of hitting the planet. Nonetheless, the possibility of an asteroid colliding with Earth is a reality – the globe is covered in craters from previous impacts, and it is well known that 65m years ago, dinosaurs became extinct following the impact of an asteroid about 10km across. Can anything be done about saving us from this existential extraterrestrial threat? Fortunately, the international space community has taken the first steps towards reducing the risk of an asteroid catching us unawares. The joint Nasa- Esa mission Dart (Double Asteroid Re-Direction Test) was an ambitious attempt to alter the trajectory of a small asteroid (Dimorphos) as it orbited a slightly larger asteroid (Didymos), by sending a spacecraft to crash into it. In October, we learned that the mission had been even more successful than anticipated, and that the orbit of Dimorphos had changed – showing that we could, if given sufficient time, alter the path of an asteroid if it were on a collision course with Earth.

As well as asteroid activity, our moon has been in the news, as a destination of choice for a new generation of astronauts. This year, it is 50 years since the Apollo 17 mission, the last time a human set foot on the moon. So it is a cause for celebration that Artemis, another joint Nasa-Esa programme, has started its operation to return people to the moon. The first phase of the mission, the Orion capsule, was launched in mid-November, and successfully returned to Earth last week. The capsule is designed to hold up to six astronauts – though there were none on board this maiden flight around the moon. We can now look forward to a series of increasingly complex flights of Orion – culminating in a crew of astronauts landing on the moon as soon as 2025.

Monica Grady

Monica Grady is professor of planetary and space sciences at Open University

2. Covid’s boost to immune research

Vaccine technology has seen an unprecedented acceleration in innovation that could soon be benefiting us in a host of ways. A vaccine works by delivering an “infection” signal (something from the germ) and an “alert” signal (to wake the immune response up). As our knowledge of immunology has increased, so too has our capacity to innovate in the vaccines that deliver those signals. Designing any new vaccine takes a long time, significant investment and a lot of eager volunteers, all of which was accelerated during the pandemic, resulting in a host of novel developments.

The autumn Covid-19 booster shots we have just been offered are one such example – these bivalent vaccines target the original strain of Sars-CoV-2 (the virus that causes Covid-19) alongside the Omicron variant. Bivalent vaccines have advantages over the original vaccines as they both top up and broaden our immunity . But what if you could broaden your immunity further – to not just two but multiple strains of virus? So-called multivalent vaccines for Covid-19 and flu are looking very promising. Another approach we could soon see is the use of sniffable or inhalable vaccines – mucosal vaccines . These are already used in China to tackle Covid-19 and may offer long-term protection against respiratory viruses. They are also much more appealing for those of us who are needle-phobic. If these new developments deliver on their promise, then one day soon the calls for annual shots could be a thing of the past. Sheena Cruickshank

Sheena Cruickshank is professor of biomedical sciences and public engagement at the University of Manchester

3. AI reveals new antibiotics

Over the course of the past few years, AI has transformed the field of molecular biology. The revolution started with the AlphaFold algorithm, which rapidly predicts the complex three-dimensional structures of proteins, thus aiding the understanding of protein functions and the identification of drug targets. This year, AI has achieved another breakthrough, this time at the other end of the drug discovery pipeline: several groups in 2022 have reported the first successful applications of AI to identify novel antibiotic drugs.

Antimicrobial resistance is a major global threat. This year, the global research on antimicrobial resistance report published in the Lancet indicated that, worldwide, 4.95m deaths were associated with drug-resistant bacteria in 2019, making untreatable infections one of the leading causes of death.

Developing new drugs that overcome resistance and replenish our arsenal of effective antimicrobials is a continuous struggle. And that is where AI is now beginning to make a major contribution. For example, Yue Ma and colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences used machine-learning techniques originally developed for natural language processing to identify antimicrobial peptides encoded by the genome sequences of microbes in the human gut. The algorithm identified 2,349 potential antimicrobial peptide sequences. Of these, 216 peptides were synthesised by chemical methods, and 181 of them were shown to have antimicrobial activity. This is an impressive success rate, which would not have been possible without the aid of AI.

Even more strikingly, almost half of the peptides discovered were entirely new, without obvious sequence similarity to known antimicrobials, thus increasing the chances of circumventing existing resistance mechanisms. Animal experiments showed that three of the new peptides could be used for the safe and effective treatment of bacterial pneumonia in mice. Studies such as this are good news, promising an unprecedented rapid route towards novel treatment options for some of the scariest pathogenic threats we currently face. Eriko Takano

E riko Takano is professor of synthetic biology at the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology

4. Early weather warnings

In 2022, science was able to see a hurricane hitting the coast of the US before it even formed out at sea. We could visualise the Brisbane River spreading out into Australian homes before a drop of rain had fallen. And we put firefighters on action stations before the spark was lit that burned southern France. We now have the technology to see many of these natural hazards coming, days in advance.

And yet 2022 has been full of lethal events. In Europe, more than 20,000 people died from record-breaking heat this summer, hitting more than 40C (104F) across England for the first time. In August, one third of Pakistan was underwater during a monster monsoon season, killing 1,700 people . Global heating is making these types of disasters worse.

This is why the key scientific story from the past year is not cutting-edge research or hi-tech engineering, but the push by the UN secretary general António Guterres for the world to have equal access to early warnings . Alerting people to danger, so they can take action, is the best way to prevent tragedy. We need equal access to skills and systems that were pioneered years ago. Critical, too, is the leadership to share information and act on the warnings that ensue. Hannah Clo ke

Hannah Clo ke is professor of hydrology at Reading University

5. Inclusive inroads

This year saw a small but important advance in the treatment of sickle cell disease, a group of inherited disorders that cause red blood cells to become sickle shaped and can lead to anaemia. A drug developed to treat an enzyme deficiency (pyruvate kinase) was found to improve anaemia and reduced acute episodes of severe pain in sickle cell disease. While the research is still in its early phases, the researchers point out that their breakthrough came from looking at the characteristics of people with sickle cell disease rather than focusing only on their red blood cells. This development has been found to benefit people with other conditions and brings hope to millions of people worldwide, but predominantly in Africa, the Indian subcontinent and South America.

This was also the year when Nasa’s Artemis mission, which aims “to land the first woman and first person of colour on the moon” by 2025, put female torsos Helga and Zohar into space to test the effects of radiation on the grounds that women appear to be at a greater risk from space radiation than men. This may seem unremarkable, but it was only in 2022 that a Swedish research team designed a new crash test dummy representing an “average woman” , rather than a scaled-down version of the male dummy that is the size of a 12-year-old girl.

Developments such as these excite hope of inclusive science where gender, ethnicity and location neither privilege nor exclude. Ann Phoenix

Ann Phoenix is professor of psychosocial studies at the UCL Institute of Education

6. Elite mathematicians

The Fields medal recognises outstanding mathematical achievement for existing work. Often described as the Nobel prize of mathematics, it is awarded every four years to recipients under the age of 40.

Congratulation to Prof James Maynard, who was awarded a Fields medal this year for his “spectacular contributions” to analytic number theory, “which have led to major advances in the understanding of the structure of prime numbers and in Diophantine approximation”.

One of his standout proofs was to prove the following: there are infinitely many prime numbers whose decimal representation does not contain the digit 7.

Such a simple statement to understand but not very easy to prove. Maynard joins an elite list of British mathematicians who have won the medal.

Congratulations also to one of the other Fields medallists, the Ukrainian mathematician Maryna Viazovska , the second woman to win the award. The mathematician Henry Cohn stated: “Viazovska manages to do things that are completely non-obvious that lots of people tried and failed to do.” She was cited for many mathematical accomplishments, in particular her proof that an arrangement called the E8 lattice is the densest packing of spheres in eight dimensions. Nira Chamberlain

Prof Nira Chamberlain is president of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications

7. Soft cell, hard cell…

When we think about what influences how the cells inside our bodies develop, we often think of biological or chemical factors. But physical forces – what’s known as the “mechanical” environment – can be just as critical to a cell’s journey. The ability of cells to sense and respond to their mechanical environment has been known for several decades: for example, stem cells grown on soft jelly-like gels will become different cell types compared with stem cells grown on stiff glass-like surfaces.

Early signs of diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s are often associated with changes in cell stiffness. However, it has been difficult to measure the stiffness of cells and organs inside our bodies, and how they change during development and disease. Tools to measure cell mechanical properties have relied on applying forces to the cell – essentially poking or cutting a cell and seeing how it responds. This is often invasive and damaging, and isn’t easily performed on living cells or organs inside animals, let alone humans.

This year, two research groups, one from Germany , and one from the US , published separate studies demonstrating groundbreaking improvements in a method to measure cell-stiffness, known as Brillouin microscopy. This optical method is non-damaging, allowing you to “see” the stiffness of a material without having to touch it. Developments in this technique this year have significantly advanced imaging speed and resolution, and reduced photo-damage, making the method now widely applicable for observing changes in cell mechanical properties in living animals.

This method will provide a powerful tool for early diagnosis of diseases such as cancer, atherosclerosis and Alzheimer’s. It will also revolutionise how scientists can measure and track the mechanical changes of our cells during normal development, and critically improve our understanding of the importance of mechanical forces in biology. Yanlan Mao

Yanlan Mao is professor of developmental biophysics at University College London

8. Quantum entanglement untangled

“Spooky action at a distance.” That’s what Albert Einstein called quantum entanglement, which is when two quantum particles have to be considered as a single entity, since influencing one of them affects the other even when they are far apart.

In October this year, the three pioneers of quantum information science, Alain Aspect of the University of Paris-Saclay, John Clauser of JF Clauser & Associates, and Anton Zeilinger of the University of Vienna were awarded the Nobel prize in physics for their contributions to understanding quantum entanglement.

There are many reasons to enjoy this long overdue award. For the sheer beauty of providing new insights into an exciting area of fundamental phenomena. For laying the groundwork for breakthroughs in quantum computers to carry out complex calculations that would be impossible on a conventional computer, and in quantum encryption that could allow secure communications. For spurring more experiments to address one of the great questions of science – how to reconcile quantum mechanics with Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

And finally, for demonstrating another example of the importance of curiosity-driven basic science leading to real-world applications that could change the way we live and work. Saiful Islam

Saiful Islam is professor of materials science at Oxford University

9. Nature positive

A huge moment for biodiversity is still ongoing as I write: the much-delayed 15th meeting of the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal, which will set a course for nature recovery from now until 2050. These international agreements feed into national legislation, such as the UK’s Environment Act. Alongside this, companies are making bold commitments to become “nature positive”, meaning that their activities should, overall, lead to nature being in a better state.

Nature-positive commitments need to translate into real, measurable – and attributable – recovery of nature. This is very challenging, though, partly because many products have tortuous supply chains so that the companies themselves don’t always know what the biodiversity impact of their activities is. For example, nickel is a crucial component of our daily lives, being used in the production of stainless steel. Yet how often do we stop and think about where the nickel in our cutlery or electric car batteries has come from, and how producing it has affected the environment?

One impact is the clearance of forests in areas where nickel ore is mined. Ambatovy nickel mine, the biggest mine in Madagascar, is one of a growing number of businesses to have made a commitment to leave nature in no worse a state as a result of its operations. The mine compensated for its forest clearance by putting measures in place to stop clearance of forest by local people for agriculture elsewhere. This year, Katie Devenish and colleagues at Bangor University published a paper looking at whether they had succeeded. Using sophisticated methods to separate out the effects of the mine’s activities from other factors leading to forest loss, the researchers demonstrated that the mine was on track to prevent at least as much deforestation as it had caused. The study is a model for how scientists can carry out thorough and independent evaluations of companies’ environmental commitments, reducing the temptation to greenwash.

We need many more studies like this, that link the esoteric world of high-level policy-making to realities on the ground, in all sectors from mining, to food, to transport and infrastructure. Then we will have a much better chance to hold our governments and companies to account, and reverse the loss of nature, wherever it takes place. E J Milner-Gulland

EJ Milner-Gulland is a professor of biodiversity at Oxford University

10. Battery charge

It’s one of the greatest unappreciated stories of our time: the incredibly rapid improvements in battery technology that will form the foundation of an electrified world as we wean ourselves off fossil fuels.

Of course there are questions. What about the costs? Will batteries ever really store enough energy for their size to power something like a large plane? And where will we get all the rare metals necessary to build them?

That’s why my story of the year is the October Nature paper by Chao-Yang Wang and co-authors , describing a way to charge energy-dense batteries incredibly quickly – in just a few minutes. It really highlights the phenomenal speed at which battery chemists, engineers and technologists are rising to the challenge. If you can charge a car battery in 10-12 minutes, charging more frequently becomes much less of a problem, allowing for smaller batteries that are cheaper and less resource-intensive to make.

We are also seeing huge progress in battery technologies based on cheap, abundant sodium instead of expensive and relatively rare lithium, as well as methods to make all these batteries far easier to recycle.

The basic principles of a battery haven’t changed, but the potential of the newest versions is astonishing and getting better all the time. Helen Czerski

Helen Czerski is a research fellow at the department of mechanical engineering , University College London

• The Observer
• Artificial intelligence (AI)
• Climate crisis
• Mathematics
• Coronavirus

Comments (…)

Most viewed.

Latest News

Mpox cases are far outpacing last year's numbers, CDC reports

Nicoletta Lanese published 1 April 24

Health officials are encouraging people at risk of mpox to seek vaccination, as cases are on the rise.

Tyrannosaurus rex: Facts and photos of the dinosaur king

Laura Geggel last updated 1 April 24

Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs that ever lived.

Orcas aren't all the same species, study of North Pacific killer whales reveals

Jennifer Nalewicki published 1 April 24

Scientists suggest that killer whales be divided into two distinct species.

See photos of NASA's suitcase-sized rovers that will soon map the moon's surface

Samantha Mathewson published 1 April 24

NASA test drove the mini autonomous rovers that will soon fly to the moon and collectively map the lunar surface.

'You probably didn't inherit any DNA from Charlemagne': What it means when your DNA 'matches' a historic person's

Harald Ringbauer, Shai Carmi published 1 April 24

A genetic match to an ancient person doesn't mean you're more related genealogically.

Why NASA is launching 3 rockets into the solar eclipse next week

Sharmila Kuthunur published 1 April 24

Three rockets ferrying science instruments will be launched into the eclipse's shadow on April 8. Here's what scientists hope to learn.

Planet Earth

How much does Earth weigh?

By Katherine Irving published 31 March 24

Earth's mass took hundreds of years to estimate, and even now, experts don't agree on the exact number.

Largest gold nugget ever found in England unearthed with faulty metal detector

By Jennifer Nalewicki published 27 March 24

A metal detectorist has unearthed a gold nugget that is currently up for auction and expected to sell for over $37,000.

• 2 9,000-year-old rock art discovered among dinosaur footprints in Brazil
• 3 Where does the solar system end?
• 4 Secretive Delta IV Heavy rocket launch postponed indefinitely
• 5 James Webb telescope confirms there is something seriously wrong with our understanding of the universe
• 2 How much does Earth weigh?
• 3 Tardigrade proteins could slow aging in humans, small cell study finds
• 4 'Novel' swine flu virus sickens Pennsylvania child in 1st case of the year

Space photo of the week: James Webb telescope reveals surprising starburst in ancient galaxy

By Jamie Carter published 31 March 24

New infrared observations from the James Webb Space Telescope unveil a galaxy far, far away that's creating new stars.

Where does the solar system end?

By Harry Baker published 30 March 24

The location of the solar system's outer boundary is a point of contention among astronomers. There are three possible candidates, which "all have merit." But which one is best?

archaeology

Uncover the past with our latest special edition magazine 'The Book of Archaeology'

By Orla Loughran Hayes published 31 March 24

Deal The latest special edition from All About History is a great way to learn more about archaeology and ancient civilizations, such as the Vikings and Ancient Greeks.

Fortified 14th-century castle and moat discovered under hotel in France

By Kristina Killgrove published 28 March 24

Archaeologists found a 600-year-old castle with a moat in Brittany, France.

Many kids are unsure if Alexa and Siri have feelings or think like people, study finds

By Joe Phelan published 1 April 24

A small study in Scotland suggests many kids overestimate the agency and intellect of AI assistants like Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant.

Amazfit Balance review

By Anna Gora published 30 March 24

Review The budget-friendly Amazfit Balance is light, sleek, and packed to the brim with health tracking features — but can it deliver performance on par with more premium fitness trackers?

'Novel' swine flu virus sickens Pennsylvania child in 1st case of the year

By Nicoletta Lanese published 29 March 24

The CDC has reported the first human case of swine flu in the U.S. in 2024. There's no evidence of the infection spreading between people.

Skeleton panda sea squirt: The weird little creature that looks like baby panda dressed up for Halloween

By Melissa Hobson published 30 March 24

Scientists discovered this little panda skeleton that lives off the coast of a Japanese island was a new species after scuba divers posted photos of it online.

Cicada double brood event: What to expect when trillions of bugs emerge in Eastern US

By Carys Matthews published 29 March 24

When and where will the double cicada brood emerge? Here's what to expect from this rare phenomenon, which occurs only once every 221 years.

Orca calf refuses to leave a lagoon where its mother stranded and died off Vancouver Island

By Sascha Pare published 28 March 24

Rescuers have been trying to coax a 2-year-old orca from a lagoon off Vancouver Island and back to the ocean for five days, but they only have a 30-minute window every day when waters are high.

Human Behavior

Why did the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima leave shadows of people etched on sidewalks?

By Stacy Kish last updated 27 March 24

The nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of WWII left shadows of people on the ground and buildings. Here's why.

Why do babies rub their eyes when they're tired?

By Ashley Hamer published 18 March 24

Babies usually rub their eyes when they're tired, but why?

Best movies about famous scientists that aren't Oppenheimer

By Erin Macdonald last updated 11 March 24

Oppenheimer cleaned up at the Oscars this year, so what better time to look back at the best biopics based on history's most influential scientists?

Physics & Mathematics

How do lasers work?

By Joanna Thompson published 29 March 24

First predicted by Einstein more than a century ago, lasers have shaped our modern technological landscape. But how do they work?

Scientists made the coldest large molecule on record — and it has a super strange chemical bond

By Victoria Atkinson published 29 March 24

A four-atom molecule has broken the record for coldest large molecule.

Bose-Einstein condensate: The fifth state of matter

By Jesse Emspak last updated 29 March 24

A Bose-Einstein condensate is a strange form of matter in which extremely cold atoms demonstrate collective behavior and act like a single "super atom."

Bismuth is so strongly repelled from magnets, it levitates. How?

By Victoria Atkinson published 23 March 24

The element bismuth can "float" between magnets due to magnetic levitation. What's the science behind this phenomenon?

Best chemistry sets 2024: amazing at-home chemistry sets for kids and adults

By Jake Green last updated 15 March 24

Get the reaction you're looking for with the best chemistry sets for kids and adults.

Can static electricity cause a fire?

By Charles Q. Choi published 3 March 24

It's commonplace to get a jolt from static electricity. But does it have enough electrical charge to start a fire?

Fiber-optic data transfer speeds hit a rapid 301 Tbps — 1.2 million times faster than your home broadband connection

By Keumars Afifi-Sabet published 29 March 24

The researchers hit a rate of 301 terabits per second — equivalent to transferring 1,800 4K movies over the internet in one second — using existing fiber-optic cables.

The 7 most powerful supercomputers in the world right now

By Keumars Afifi-Sabet published 28 March 24

Supercomputers play a vital role in scientific discoveries — from helping us forecast climate change to discovering new drugs. We've rounded up the top fastest on the planet right now.

What is quantum computing?

By Peter Ray Allison last updated 28 March 24

Reference Quantum computing opens the door to ultra-powerful machines that can perform calculations that would take supercomputers millions of years.

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings
• My Bibliography
• Collections
• Citation manager

Save citations to file

Email citations, send citations to clipboard, add to collections.

• Create a new collection
• Add to an existing collection

Add to My Bibliography

Create a file for external citation management software, your saved search, your rss feed, my ncbi filters, results by year.

Table representation of search results timeline featuring number of search results per year.

Text availability

• Free full text

Article attribute

• Associated data
• Article type
• Books and Documents
• Clinical Trial
• Meta-Analysis
• Randomized Controlled Trial
• Systematic Review

Publication date

• Custom Range Start Date End Date Clear Apply

Trending articles

1,000 results.

1 Cite Share Depleting myeloid-biased haematopoietic stem cells rejuvenates aged immunity. Ross JB, Myers LM, Noh JJ, Collins MM, Carmody AB, Messer RJ, Dhuey E, Hasenkrug KJ, Weissman IL. Ross JB, et al. Nature. 2024 Mar 27. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07238-x. Online ahead of print. Nature. 2024. PMID: 38538791 Cite Share Item in Clipboard

2 Cite Share Transketolase promotes MAFLD by limiting inosine-induced mitochondrial activity. Tong L, Chen Z, Li Y, Wang X, Yang C, Li Y, Zhu Y, Lu Y, Liu Q, Xu N, Shao S, Wu L, Zhang P, Wu G, Wu X, Chen X, Fang J, Jia R, Xu T, Li B, Zheng L, Liu J, Tong X. Tong L, et al. Cell Metab. 2024 Mar 23:S1550-4131(24)00082-2. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2024.03.003. Online ahead of print. Cell Metab. 2024. PMID: 38547864 Cite Share Item in Clipboard

3 Cite Share Formation of memory assemblies through the DNA-sensing TLR9 pathway. Jovasevic V, Wood EM, Cicvaric A, Zhang H, Petrovic Z, Carboncino A, Parker KK, Bassett TE, Moltesen M, Yamawaki N, Login H, Kalucka J, Sananbenesi F, Zhang X, Fischer A, Radulovic J. Jovasevic V, et al. Nature. 2024 Mar 27. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07220-7. Online ahead of print. Nature. 2024. PMID: 38538785 Cite Share Item in Clipboard

4 Cite Share Embracing cancer complexity: Hallmarks of systemic disease. Swanton C, Bernard E, Abbosh C, André F, Auwerx J, Balmain A, Bar-Sagi D, Bernards R, Bullman S, DeGregori J, Elliott C, Erez A, Evan G, Febbraio MA, Hidalgo A, Jamal-Hanjani M, Joyce JA, Kaiser M, Lamia K, Locasale JW, Loi S, Malanchi I, Merad M, Musgrave K, Patel KJ, Quezada S, Wargo JA, Weeraratna A, White E, Winkler F, Wood JN, Vousden KH, Hanahan D. Swanton C, et al. Cell. 2024 Mar 28;187(7):1589-1616. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.02.009. Cell. 2024. PMID: 38552609 Review. Cite Share Item in Clipboard

5 Cite Share Oxygen imaging of hypoxic pockets in the mouse cerebral cortex. Beinlich FRM, Asiminas A, Untiet V, Bojarowska Z, Plá V, Sigurdsson B, Timmel V, Gehrig L, Graber MH, Hirase H, Nedergaard M. Beinlich FRM, et al. Science. 2024 Mar 29;383(6690):1471-1478. doi: 10.1126/science.adn1011. Epub 2024 Mar 28. Science. 2024. PMID: 38547288 Cite Share Item in Clipboard

6 Cite Share Tumor-secreted FGF21 acts as an immune suppressor by rewiring cholesterol metabolism of CD8 + T cells. Hu C, Qiao W, Li X, Ning ZK, Liu J, Dalangood S, Li H, Yu X, Zong Z, Wen Z, Gui J. Hu C, et al. Cell Metab. 2024 Mar 26:S1550-4131(24)00092-5. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2024.03.013. Online ahead of print. Cell Metab. 2024. PMID: 38537635 No abstract available. Cite Share Item in Clipboard

7 Cite Share Global fertility in 204 countries and territories, 1950-2021, with forecasts to 2100: a comprehensive demographic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021. GBD 2021 Fertility and Forecasting Collaborators. GBD 2021 Fertility and Forecasting Collaborators. Lancet. 2024 Mar 19:S0140-6736(24)00550-6. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(24)00550-6. Online ahead of print. Lancet. 2024. PMID: 38521087 Free article. Cite Share Item in Clipboard

8 Cite Share Targeting DCAF5 suppresses SMARCB1-mutant cancer by stabilizing SWI/SNF. Radko-Juettner S, Yue H, Myers JA, Carter RD, Robertson AN, Mittal P, Zhu Z, Hansen BS, Donovan KA, Hunkeler M, Rosikiewicz W, Wu Z, McReynolds MG, Roy Burman SS, Schmoker AM, Mageed N, Brown SA, Mobley RJ, Partridge JF, Stewart EA, Pruett-Miller SM, Nabet B, Peng J, Gray NS, Fischer ES, Roberts CWM. Radko-Juettner S, et al. Nature. 2024 Mar 27. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07250-1. Online ahead of print. Nature. 2024. PMID: 38538798 Cite Share Item in Clipboard

9 Cite Share Propofol vs etomidate for induction prior to invasive mechanical ventilation in patients with acute myocardial infarction. Thomas A, Banna S, Shahu A, Ali T, Schenck C, Patel B, Notarianni A, Phommalinh M, Kochar A, Heck C, van Diepen S, Miller PE. Thomas A, et al. Am Heart J. 2024 Mar 28:S0002-8703(24)00074-7. doi: 10.1016/j.ahj.2024.03.013. Online ahead of print. Am Heart J. 2024. PMID: 38554762 Cite Share Item in Clipboard

10 Cite Share A Pragmatic Study of Cardiovascular Disease During Long-Term COVID-19. Howick V JF, Saric P, Elwazir M, Newman DB, Pellikka PA, Howick AS, O'Horo JC, Cooper LT Jr, Deshmukh AJ, Ganesh R, Hurt R, Gersh B, Bois JP. Howick V JF, et al. Am J Med. 2024 Mar 26:S0002-9343(24)00162-1. doi: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2024.03.011. Online ahead of print. Am J Med. 2024. PMID: 38548213 Cite Share Item in Clipboard

• Citation Manager
• Article Language
• Autobiography
• Bibliography
• Case Reports
• Classical Article
• Clinical Conference
• Clinical Study
• Clinical Trial Protocol
• Clinical Trial, Phase I
• Clinical Trial, Phase II
• Clinical Trial, Phase III
• Clinical Trial, Phase IV
• Clinical Trial, Veterinary
• Comparative Study
• Consensus Development Conference
• Consensus Development Conference, NIH
• Controlled Clinical Trial
• Corrected and Republished Article
• Duplicate Publication
• Electronic Supplementary Materials
• English Abstract
• Evaluation Study
• Festschrift
• Government Publication
• Historical Article
• Interactive Tutorial
• Introductory Journal Article
• Legislation
• Multicenter Study
• Newspaper Article
• Observational Study
• Observational Study, Veterinary
• Patient Education Handout
• Periodical Index
• Personal Narrative
• Practice Guideline
• Pragmatic Clinical Trial
• Published Erratum
• Research Support, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
• Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
• Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
• Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
• Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
• Research Support, U.S. Gov't
• Retracted Publication
• Retraction of Publication
• Scientific Integrity Review
• Technical Report
• Validation Study
• Video-Audio Media
• Other Animals
• Azerbaijani
• Greek, Modern
• Kinyarwanda
• Multiple Languages
• Scottish gaelic
• Undetermined
• Child: birth-18 years
• Newborn: birth-1 month
• Infant: birth-23 months
• Infant: 1-23 months
• Preschool Child: 2-5 years
• Child: 6-12 years
• Adolescent: 13-18 years
• Adult: 19+ years
• Young Adult: 19-24 years
• Adult: 19-44 years
• Middle Aged + Aged: 45+ years
• Middle Aged: 45-64 years
• Aged: 65+ years
• 80 and over: 80+ years
• Exclude preprints

NCBI Literature Resources

MeSH PMC Bookshelf Disclaimer

The PubMed wordmark and PubMed logo are registered trademarks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Unauthorized use of these marks is strictly prohibited.

• Data, AI, & Machine Learning
• Managing Technology
• Social Responsibility
• Workplace, Teams, & Culture
• AI & Machine Learning
• Diversity & Inclusion
• Big ideas Research Projects
• Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy
• Responsible AI
• Future of the Workforce
• Future of Leadership
• All Research Projects
• AI in Action
• Most Popular
• The Truth Behind the Nursing Crisis
• Work/23: The Big Shift
• Coaching for the Future-Forward Leader
• Measuring Culture

The spring 2024 issue’s special report looks at how to take advantage of market opportunities in the digital space, and provides advice on building culture and friendships at work; maximizing the benefits of LLMs, corporate venture capital initiatives, and innovation contests; and scaling automation and digital health platform.

• Past Issues
• Upcoming Events
• Video Archive
• Me, Myself, and AI
• Three Big Points

The 10 Most Popular Articles in 2022 (So Far)

Managers are seeking ways to improve employee well-being and build a strong workplace culture.

• Workplace, Teams, & Culture
• Talent Management
• Organizational Behavior

Year three of a global pandemic. A war in Ukraine. Inflation in the U.S. at a 40-year high. Small talk around the watercooler (mainly the virtual one, nowadays) certainly feels heavier than it used to.

Recent Gallup data indicates that in 2022, companies and managers remain challenged by the task of raising employee engagement to pre-pandemic levels. Nearly half of global workers (44%) surveyed reported feeling “a lot” of stress in the previous day. The Great Resignation has demonstrated the power of employees to vote with their feet, and a resurgence of the labor movement in the U.S. has put pressure on even top-tier companies to improve working conditions.

Get Updates on Transformative Leadership

Evidence-based resources that can help you lead your team more effectively, delivered to your inbox monthly.

Please enter a valid email address

Thank you for signing up

Privacy Policy

Companies that have thrived amid the pandemic and worker reshuffling have focused on worker well-being from the start. Unfortunately, for many employees across the globe, this may be the exception rather than the norm. As Gallup’s Jon Clifton put it, “Improving life at work isn’t rocket science, but the world is closer to colonizing Mars than it is to fixing the world’s broken workplaces.”

To begin to fix these issues, managers must focus on two areas in particular: leadership and culture. In the first months of the year, many MIT SMR readers turned their attention to articles focused on workplace culture, talent management, and employee retention.

With many companies now adopting permanent remote and hybrid work policies, other popular articles include data-driven approaches to managing well-being on virtual teams — from scheduling meeting-free days to creating systems for supporting mental health.

The following are the 10 most popular articles of the year so far. We hope they will continue to help managers who are looking to support employee engagement and build thriving workplaces.

#1 Toxic Culture Is Driving the Great Resignation

Donald sull, charles sull, and ben zweig.

In this article, the authors discuss the top five predictors of employee turnover uncovered by their analysis of attrition data during the Great Resignation and share four actions that managers can take in the short term to improve employee satisfaction.

#2 Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

Paul b. lester, ed diener, and martin seligman.

Research has found that happiness, a sense of well-being, and an optimistic outlook are powerful predictors of how well an employee will perform. Managers who consciously promote employee well-being and take steps to eliminate toxic leadership in their business units will reap the benefits.

#3 The Surprising Impact of Meeting-Free Days

Ben laker, vijay pereira, pawan budhwar, and ashish malik.

Spending too much time in meetings can detract from effective collaboration, derail workers during their most productive hours, and interrupt people’s train of thought. No-meeting policies permit team members to excel without breaking their momentum, but specific plans must be tailored to each unique organizational context to maximize the benefits. The authors suggest several ways to deploy a no-meeting policy or adjust an existing one.

#4 Orchestrating Workforce Ecosystems

Elizabeth j. altman, david kiron, robin jones, and jeff schwartz.

Research conducted by MIT SMR and Deloitte examines the challenges companies and managers face in leading and coordinating workforces that increasingly rely on external contributors.

#5 Why Every Leader Needs to Worry About Toxic Culture

Donald sull, charles sull, william cipolli, and caio brighenti.

According to research, the five most common elements of toxic workplace cultures — being disrespectful, noninclusive, unethical, cutthroat, and abusive — contribute the most to employee attrition and can damage company reputation. Being aware of these elements and understanding how they spread can help employers prevent and address them.

#6 Building the Cognitive Budget for Your Most Effective Mind

Jordan birnbaum.

There’s a limit to how much mental energy is available to us on any given day, so it’s essential that we spend it deliberately and thoughtfully. This article details the process of creating a cognitive budget, using techniques from positive psychology, cognitive behavioral therapy, and behavioral economics.

#7 Stop Telling Employees to Be Resilient

Liz fosslien and mollie west duffy.

When it comes to leadership, there’s a difference between demanding that employees be mentally tough and actually helping them take care of their mental health. The authors suggest five actions leaders can take to create a workplace that supports employees and fosters resilience.

#8 Effective Leaders Decide About Deciding

Nancy duarte.

Categorizing decisions by riskiness and urgency helps clarify when employees should move autonomously and when they should pull leaders into decision-making.

Related Articles

#9 leading change means changing how you lead, b. tom hunsaker and jonathan knowles.

Adapting your leadership approach is necessary for achieving the change your organization requires. The authors discuss three tasks — drawing the map, establishing the mindset, and communicating the message — that are essential to becoming a contextually effective leader.

#10 How Well-Designed Work Makes Us Smarter

Sharon k. parker and gwenith g. fisher.

Work that permits autonomy and demands problem-solving can bolster employees’ cognitive skills and ongoing learning. This article looks at how organizations and managers can use good work design to strengthen their workforce’s ability to adapt to new processes, tools, and roles.

About the Author

Ally MacDonald ( @allymacdonald ) is senior editor at MIT Sloan Management Review .

More Like This

Add a comment cancel reply.

You must sign in to post a comment. First time here? Sign up for a free account : Comment on articles and get access to many more articles.

Comment (1)

Peter bheda.

To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.

0, text: error()">

Let's fight boredom together!

Become a member

0, text: error(), css: errorCssClass">

Password reminder

Please provide your email address and we will send your password shortly.

If there's a Bored Panda account associated with , you'll receive an email with instructions.

If you don't receive an email, please check your spam inbox, or enter your email address again .

Please enter your email to complete registration

Activate to continue

Your account is not active. We have sent an email to the address you provided with an activation link. Check your inbox, and click on the link to activate your account.

• Relationships

The Bored Panda iOS app is live! Fight boredom with iPhones and iPads here .

• Partnership
• Success stories
• --> -->