Ever suddenly realize you had picked up certain words or ways of speaking from a close friend? It turns out that humans are far from the only animals who copy the sounds of their closest companions — a new study shows that vampire bats do, too. Research published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B shows that female vampire bats match the calls of those closest to them as they forge new friendships.

A new national report has shown for the first time how generative AI (GenAI) is already being used by some universities to assess the quality of their research – and it could be scaled up to help all higher education institutions (HEIs) save huge amounts of time and money.

We all know stress can worsen pain, but new research shows that anger and a sense of injustice may be even more powerful triggers. In a study of more than 700 people living with chronic pain, researchers uncovered four distinct “anger profiles” that help explain why some patients hurt more, and longer, than others. Those who felt wronged or unfairly treated by their condition were the most likely to report severe, persistent pain months later. The findings suggest that learning to understand and manage anger could be essential to healing.