Debates about whether teenagers’ phone use is healthy are constant — but much less attention has been paid to the impact of others’ device use on adolescents. Now a study looking at the impact of parental figures’ device behaviors on teenagers suggests an unexpected hazard for their future wellbeing. Of the teens surveyed, those who perceived that their parental figures were often distracted by their phones were much more likely to demonstrate an insecure attachment style, which makes it harder to form healthy relationships and is associated with poorer mental and physical health. 

A major global analysis led by the University of Bath in the UK finds policy reform that removes criminal penalties for cannabis possession, or introduces tightly controlled legalisation, is not associated with increased levels of use. However, legalisation that allows cannabis to be sold for profit is followed by increases in use, addiction and psychiatric hospital admissions.

By developing a powerful new tool to decode how the foods we crave may shape our health, scientists discovered that a genetic variant linked to onion preference is associated with lower blood pressure and reduced risk of type 2 diabetes.

International team uses cerebral organoids to better understand virus biology

With tens of millions of annual cases, gonorrhea is the second most frequently reported sexually transmitted infection (STI). Alone in the U.S., over 600,000 cases are reported each year. If left untreated, gonorrhea can result in a plethora of serious health issues. The major challenge in more effectively controlling the disease lies in the ability of the responsible pathogen to rapidly develop resistance against newly available antibiotics.

Now, a new study published in Science Translational Medicine led by Wyss Institute Core Faculty member James Collins, Ph.D. at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, MIT, and Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard offers an exciting new AI-enabled strategy to identify new chemical compounds that could be further developed into antibiotic therapies for N. gonorrhoeae.