When it comes to taking action on major societal issues like climate change or a pandemic, scientists and the public’s joint endorsement has the greatest influence on Americans across a host of important social issues, while signals of support or opposition from the government and industry hold relatively less impact, according to a study by researchers from Boston College and Princeton University. The findings suggest that opposition from major institutions like the federal government or large corporations does not have to produce public paralysis: when a consensus between scientific experts and the general public is present and made visible, they can mobilize public action even when top-down leadership falters.

Tropical forests are essential for biodiversity, climate regulation and carbon storage. Yet they continue to disappear at an alarming rate. 

PRIME-6G (Pilot for Resilient Industrial Manufacturing Environments with 6G Technologies), a EUR 7.76 million project funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe programme through the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU), has officially launched. This pioneering initiative, with the participation of IMDEA Networks, aims to bring next-generation 6G technologies into real industrial manufacturing environments, laying the foundation for a new generation of intelligent industrial manufacturing.

Researchers have created a digital therapy platform to help people caring for family members with dementia. 

Family carers of those living with dementia are at higher risk of mental health problems - with around one in three carers experiencing anxiety or depression.

To address this, the UEA team created a digital therapy platform (to be used on a mobile device or computer) to help people handle difficult or troubling thoughts and feelings.

And after testing it on hundreds of volunteers, they found that users reported lower levels of anxiety and depression.

“The improvement wasn’t just statistically significant - it was meaningful in real life. People genuinely felt better," said lead researcher Dr Naoko Kishita.

It is now hoped that the platform will be rolled out nationally and internationally to support carers in their important work.

A new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the American Enterprise Institute found that insurance denials of first attempts to fill prescriptions for brand-name prescription drugs with no generic competitors increased more than two-thirds between 2018 and 2024.

Many companies rely on AI for recruitment. A new study shows that job applicants mostly trust the avatars conducting their interviews – but only until they receive a rejection. How fair this decision is perceived to be depends on the avatars’ identity characteristics. The test subjects who felt treated the most unfairly were not those who differed most from the avatar – but rather those who matched it in either gender or skin color.