Indian new mums report better postpartum wellbeing when their own mum acts as their primary support - while women whose mother-in-law is the primary caregiver instead report significantly lower overal

Educational attainment and intelligence, and to a smaller extent parental education and father’s occupational class, are associated with midlife socioeconomic status, according to a new study published September 10, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Erik Lykke Mortensen of University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Socioeconomic status (SES)—a measure of individual differences in access to material and social resources—has long been linked with health, morbidity, and cognition. Previous studies ...

Northeastern and Midwestern residents tend to have higher physical, social, and financial—i.e., “traditional”—wellness, while Southern residents have higher “existential” wellness, involving a sense of purpose and community identity, per an analysis of survey data from more than 325,000 U.S. residents. David Samson of the University of Toronto, Canada, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on September 10, 2025. A growing body of research explores factors that may be linked with traditional and existential wellness. Many such factors, such as healthcare ...

In a three-year study involving  more than 5,000 residents of Israel before and after the mass traumatic events of October 7, 2023, those who watched extensive media coverage of the attacks were found to be more likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Prof. Erez Shmueli and Prof. Dan Yamin of Tel Aviv University and Wizermed LTD,  in collaboration with colleagues from Tel Aviv University and Stanford University present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS Mental ...

Dogs reportedly became harder to train as the pandemic progressed, though this seemed to improve by the time it was ending, according to a study publishing September 10, 2025, in the open-access journal PLOS One by Courtney Sexton of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, U.S., Yuhuan Li of the University of Washington, U.S., and colleagues. Understanding dog behavior can help owners to improve their relationships with their pets and to monitor their health and welfare. To investigate general patterns of dog behavior, researchers analyzed data from a survey completed ...

The withdrawal of U.S. funding for tuberculosis could lead to up to 2.2 million additional deaths between 2025 and 2030 inclusive, per modelling study across 26 high-burden TB countries.   Article URL: https://plos.io/423TG0g Article Title: A deadly equation: The global toll of US TB funding cuts Author Countries: Switzerland, United States Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work. END ...

An unusual therapy developed at The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) could change the way the world fights influenza, one of the deadliest infectious diseases. In a new study in Science Advances, researchers report that a cocktail of antibodies protected mice—including those with weakened immune systems—from nearly every strain of influenza tested, including avian and swine variants that pose pandemic threats. Unlike current FDA-approved flu treatments, which target viral enzymes and can quickly become useless as the virus mutates, this therapy did not allow viral escape, even after a month of repeated exposure in animals. That difference could prove crucial in future outbreaks, when ...

For many children, the transition from learning to read to reading to learn is a crucial and sometimes nerve-wracking milestone. Reading aloud in class is intended to foster fluency and confidence, but for many students, it may spark anxiety that can hinder literacy development well into adulthood. In response to this challenge, PhD student Lauren Wright led a team of researchers—including collaborators from the University of Chicago, University of Illinois Chicago, and University of Wisconsin–Madison—through an innovative study to explore how technology might assist children in learning contexts where anxiety can be a barrier. This work emerged from Assistant Professor ...

Maintaining an open airway is a critical priority in emergency medicine. Without the flow of oxygen, other emergency interventions can become ineffective at saving the patient’s life. However, creating this airway through endotracheal intubation is a difficult task for highly trained individuals and under the best of circumstances. In the field and in the ER, where seconds matter, emergency medical personnel face many unknowns and wildly challenging conditions which lower their chances of success.   But what if successful endotracheal intubation could be less reliant on ideal conditions and years of specialized training? In a paper published in the journal ...

Study has revealed new insights into Stone Age life and death, showing that stone tools were just as likely to be buried with women and children as with men. The discovery, from Zvejnieki cemetery in northern Latvia, one of the largest Stone Age burial sites in Europe, challenges the idea that stone tools were strictly associated with men. The site was used for more than 5,000 years, and contains over 330 graves, but until now, stone artefacts found in burials had not been studied, with stone tools at Zvejnieki and ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, September 10, 2025 Contact: Gina DiGravio, 617-358-7838, ginad@bu.edu Protein Found in the Eye and Blood Significantly Associated with Cognition Scores May serve as a biomarker for the detection of mild cognitive impairment, early dementia (Boston)—Neurocognitive impairments are classified by pathological changes with potential for destruction of neural tissue. One change known to occur in neurodegenerative disorders is an accumulation of proteins causing pathological damage.   While prior reports have suggested a link between Slit Guidance Ligand 2 (SLIT2) protein levels and late-onset ...