When survivors of the October 7th attacks returned to what was left of their homes, many carried with them more than grief or post-traumatic stress. A new study shows that the trauma also fueled an unexpected surge in obsessive-compulsive disorder, offering the first direct evidence that acute trauma can trigger the disorder’s onset.

A Bangor University study has new shed light on the impact of stress on baby lizards. 

Research led by Dr Kirsty Macleod from its School of Environmental and Natural Sciences, found that lizards whose mothers experienced stress during pregnancy grew more slowly and behaved differently. 

Surprisingly, the paper, published in the Journal of Animal Ecology revealed that these stressed offspring were actually more social. They spent more time with other lizards, including their mother and siblings.  

However, the research also found that unlike some other animals (including humans), baby lizards spending time with their mother after birth did not reduce the effects of the prenatal stress. 

Early scientific theories—such as those explaining basic phenomena like gravity, burning, and the movement of molecules in water—centered on presumed inherent properties rather than external factors, thereby misleading famous philosophers and scientists, from Aristotle to Scottish botanist Robert Brown, in their theorizing. A new study by a team of psychology researchers has now found that this tendency is in fact common in the history of science. Moreover, through a series of experiments and surveys, the paper’s authors conclude these misfires were likely driven by cognitive constraints, among scientists and non-scientists alike, that have acted as a bottleneck to discovery and shaped the trajectory of scientific theories over millenia.