Child neglect—or the failure to provide care during early years—is the most prevalent yet understudied form of child maltreatment, often leaving no visible scars but causing long-term harm. Now, researchers from Japan have used advanced neuroimaging to examine the brain’s white matter in neglected children. They identified structural abnormalities in brain regions linked to emotion, behavior, and cognition, offering objective markers for early intervention and highlighting the profound impact of neglect on development.

In Japan, emergency personnel are required to continue resuscitation efforts for cardiac arrest patients, even when there is no electrical activity. This is known as asystole. That policy has created an opportunity for scientists to assess how to treat the most difficult cases in resuscitation science. By analyzing outcomes from a large-scale national dataset, this study raises tough questions about the impact of pre-hospital life support procedures on outcomes in patients with asystole.

A new paper on the science-policy interface by climate experts Svante Bodin and Örjan Gustafsson at the Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, calls for urgent reform to the relationship between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).