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Policy & Ethics

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 31-May-2026 12:15 ET (31-May-2026 16:15 GMT/UTC)

Thoughts don’t kill people, but study suggests options for keeping guns from doing so

Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A nationally representative survey explores which American adults have had thoughts of shooting others, and factors that might provide opportunities to reduce risk of thoughts becoming reality.

Journal: JAMA Network Open
Funder: University of Michigan

FAU-FWC Study: Endangered smalltooth sawfish make a comeback in a historical Florida nursery

Florida Atlantic University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New research suggests the endangered smalltooth sawfish may be returning to a critical nursery habitat in the Indian River Lagoon after decades of decline. Following mysterious “spinning fish” events that likely killed hundreds in the Florida Keys, scientists tracked juvenile sawfish and found they repeatedly used the same shallow, mangrove-lined stretch of river across seasons and years. The discovery indicates the habitat may again support early survival – and that protecting these specific areas and improving water quality could be key to the species’ recovery.

Journal: Fishery Bulletin
Funder: National Marine Fisheries Service

New study fills research gap in food safety to better protect pregnant people from Listeria

Society for Risk Analysis
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Listeria is the third-leading cause of death among bacterial foodborne pathogens in the U.S. and pregnant individuals bear a disproportionate share of that burden. Yet the scientific models used to set food safety policy have rarely been designed with pregnant people specifically in mind. A new study to be published in Risk Analysis aims to change that.

Journal: Risk Analysis

Impact of Japan's indoor smoke-free laws on the prevalence of smoke-free establishments

University of Tsukuba
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A multi-institutional research team in Japan evaluated the impact of the Revised Health Promotion Law and related local ordinances on indoor smoking policies in restaurants and bars. Their analysis identified a modest but significant increase in the proportion of smoke-free establishments following the full enforcement of the national indoor smoking ban in April 2020. Additional increases were observed in jurisdictions covered by stronger passive smoking prevention ordinances implemented by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Chiba City.

Journal: Public Health

Stablecoins need robust regulation, says cryptoasset expert

University of East London
Business Announcement

Stablecoins will only be able to develop safely as part of the financial system if they are supported by strong and carefully designed regulation, according to Professor Iwa Salami, director of the Centre of FinTech at the University of East London.

Divisive political rhetoric and the pursuit of celebrity by politicians

PNAS Nexus
Peer-Reviewed Publication

American politics is increasingly characterized by high levels of polarization and divisive rhetoric, despite stated preferences among voters for civility and substantive debate. A study of 2.2 million public statements from the 118th US Congress finds that for a subset of legislators, the pursuit of media celebrity has replaced the pursuit of preferred policy, reelection, or even personal wealth as the ultimate motivator for a political career.

Journal: PNAS Nexus

The autonomy of universities in the USA falls far behind peer group

Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
Reports and Proceedings

Institutional autonomy is essential for safeguarding academic freedom. It is comparatively stable world-wide, with notable exceptions in autocratizing democracies. This year’s Academic Freedom Index (AFI) report, based on a collaborative project between scholars at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute at the University of Gothenburg, provides an overview of the global state of academic freedom. It presents data that demonstrate a correlation between universities’ institutional autonomy and individual scholars’ freedom to research and teach. It also analyses the dramatic decline of university autonomy in the United States of America from a comparative perspective.

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