People displaying high problematic (excessive and dependent) social media use are more likely to engage with and believe fake news

Better physical health probably follows religious and spiritual engagement, rather than vice versa, per six year longitudinal U.S. study aiming to tease out this relationship Article URL: https://plos.io/42vnJyK Article title: “Which comes first”: Religious/spiritual engagement or health? Initial observations from longitudinal analyses Author countries: U.S. Funding: Dr. Neal Krause received funding for Wave 1 of this study (Grant ID: 40077), and Dr. Gail Ironson received funding for Wave 2 of this study (Grant ID: 61430), from ...

Excess weight, including overweight and obesity, is linked with experiencing Long Covid neurological symptoms including headaches, vertigo, sleep problems and depression, per meta-analysis of studies comprising almost 140,000 total participants Article URL: https://plos.io/4lNLY2G Article title: Excess weight is associated with neurological and neuropsychiatric symptoms in post-COVID-19 condition: A systematic review and meta-analysis Author countries: Brazil, Australia, China Funding: This research received a grant from the ...

What is the trick to aging successfully? If you’re curious about learning the answer, you might already be on the right track, according to an international team of psychologists including several from UCLA. Their research shows that some forms of curiosity can increase well into old age and suggests that older adults who maintain curiosity and want to learn new things relevant to their interests may be able to offset or even prevent Alzheimer’s disease. Conversely, those who show muted curiosity and disinterest may be at risk for dementia. The finding contradicts prior research that showed that curiosity ...

In Reddit posts about climate change, just 1 in 25 links are to scientific sources - versus mass media and social media sources - evidencing the lack of science-based debate. #### Article URL: https://plos.io/4jZKIYA Article Title: The role of science in the climate change discussions on Reddit Author Countries: Austria, Italy Funding: The authors acknowledge support from the Lagrange Project of the Institute for Scientific Interchange Foundation (ISI Foundation, to PC, MT, KK, DP, YM) funded by Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Torino (Fondazione CRT), Italy. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, ...

4 in 10 mpox social media memes spread misinformation or stigmatize minorities, though the majority are accurate and promote awareness, per analysis of 200 memes circulated during the global public health emergency. 4 in 10 mpox social media memes spread misinformation or stigmatize minorities, though the majority are accurate and promote awareness, per analysis of 200 memes circulated during the global public health emergency.  #### Article URL: https://plos.io/42ZABMv Article Title: Short communication: Mpox memes, the gift that conceals a blade Author Countries: Uganda Funding: The authors received no specific funding ...

(Saunderstown, RI — May 7, 2025) In a groundbreaking study published today in Science Advances, researchers from Ocean Discovery League reveal that only a minuscule fraction of the deep seafloor has been imaged. Despite covering 66% of Earth's surface, the deep ocean remains largely unexplored. The study, "How Little We've Seen: A Visual Coverage Estimate of the Deep Seafloor," is the first to document that, in decades of deep-sea exploration, humans have observed less than 0.001% of the deep seafloor. This total area is roughly the size of Rhode Island or one-tenth the size of ...

Current treatments to prevent organ transplant rejection focus mainly on suppressing T cells, part of the adaptive immune system. However, the innate immune system—the body’s first line of defense that triggers early inflammation after transplantation—has largely remained untargeted by modern therapies. In a new study, researchers from Mass General Brigham identified a natural “brake” within the innate immune system: the inhibitory receptor Siglec-E (SigE) and its human counterparts, Siglec-7 and Siglec-9. This receptor helps prevent overactivation of immune cells that drive rejection. When this brake ...

A majority of individuals who are deaf or have hearing loss face significant communication barriers when accessing care through the National Health Service (NHS), with nearly two-thirds of patients missing half or more of vital information shared during appointments. A team of patients, clinicians, researchers and charity representatives, led by the University of Cambridge and the British Society of Audiology, surveyed over 550 people who are deaf or have hearing loss about their experiences with the NHS – making it the largest study of its kind. Their findings, reported in the journal PLOS ...

A team of researchers at Texas A&M University and the University of Georgia (UGA) has received more than $4 million from federal and non-governmental organizations to support research on Chagas disease prevalence, diagnostics and treatment to benefit both dogs and humans. Chagas disease is a tropical illness caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which is most commonly spread by the fecal matter of triatomine bugs — also known as “kissing bugs” because they bite their hosts to feed on blood. The disease — common in humans and dogs — often goes unnoticed in early stages, but ...

Imagine concrete healing its own cracks like human skin recovering from a cut. That’s the vision behind the latest research of Dr. Congrui Grace Jin, published in Materials Today Communications.  Addressing one of the most persistent and expensive problems in construction, Jin, an assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution, has taken inspiration from nature to develop a synthetic lichen system to enable concrete to self-repair. Concrete is the most widely used building material on Earth, yet it suffers from the dangerous flaw of cracking easily. These cracks, big or small, can lead to catastrophic structural failure, ...