Prof Sam Illingworth

I've just been published in @nature.com ! 🤯

My short piece argues for a culture of Slow AI, one that values reflection, care, and collective scrutiny over speed.

Read it here: rdcu.be/eLZhH

#SlowAI #Ethics #HigherEducation #GenAI #SciComm 🧪

Aboveground biomass in Australian tropical forests now a net carbon source - Nature A transition from carbon sink to source for the aboveground woody biomass of moist tropical Australian forests has occurred, driven by increasingly extreme climate anomalies.

🌳 Tropical forests now releasing carbon

Long-term data show Australia’s tropical forests have shifted from storing carbon to emitting it, as rising heat and extreme weather increase tree deaths.

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#ClimateCrisis #SciComm 🧪

Populist narrative power in a globalised infosphere: a cross-language analysis - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications Humanities and Social Sciences Communications - Populist narrative power in a globalised infosphere: a cross-language analysis

💬 How populists reshape global narratives

Analysing 4 million tweets on China’s anti-COVID protests, researchers found Western populists reframed the events to claim democracies act like dictatorships.

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#Politics #SciComm 🧪

Fear of supernatural punishment can harmonize human societies with nature: an evolutionary game-theoretic approach - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications Humanities and Social Sciences Communications - Fear of supernatural punishment can harmonize human societies with nature: an evolutionary game-theoretic approach

🌿 How belief can protect nature

A new model suggests that fear of supernatural punishment for harming nature can evolve to curb overuse of resources, helping societies live sustainably.

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#Sustainability #SciComm 🧪

🥛 Probiotics reshape the future of food

A new review highlights how adding probiotics to dairy, grains, and plant-based foods can boost gut health and flavour, but stability and regulation remain challenges.

🔗 doi.org/10.3390/food...

#FoodScience #SciComm 🧪

Winning with misinformation: New research identifies link between endorsing easily disproven claims and prioritizing symbolic strength Conversations around misinformation that assume everyone cares about literal truth may be missing the point.

🧠 Why some people defend obvious falsehoods

New research finds that some endorse disproven claims as a show of “symbolic strength,” valuing independence over truth, and making fact-checks seem weak.

🔗 doi.org/10.64628/AAI...

#FakeNews #SciComm 🧪

Impact of intermittent lead exposure on hominid brain evolution Lead exposure, as influenced by NOVA1 expression, affected brain function in multiple hominid species.

🧬 Ancient lead exposure and human evolution

Fossil and lab evidence show early hominids were exposed to lead for over 2 million years, which may have shaped brain genes linked to speech and behaviour.

🔗 doi.org/10.1126/scia...

#Lead #Evolution #SciComm 🧪

Molecular and cellular characterization of planarian stem cell microenvironments Mann et al. reveal that stem cells in the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea reside in a diverse, broadly distributed stem cell niche and lack stable contacts with neighboring differentiated cells. Thes...

🪱 How flatworms rebuild themselves

Using spatial transcriptomics, scientists found planarian stem cells rely on signals from nearby gut cells (not fixed niches) to drive powerful regeneration.

🔗 www.cell.com/cell-reports...

#FlatWorms #SciComm 🧪

Worried about turning 60? Science says that’s when many of us actually peak Perhaps it’s time we stopped treating midlife as a countdown and started recognising it as a peak.

🧠 Midlife is a mental peak, not a decline

A new study finds overall psychological functioning peaks between ages 55–60, when reasoning, emotional balance, and judgement combine at their best.

🔗 doi.org/10.64628/AA....

#Psychology #SciComm 🧪

Implications of a New Obesity Definition Among the All of Us Cohort This cohort study examines how the application of a new definition of obesity, which uses anthropometric measures and traditional body mass index measures, affects the prevalence of and outcomes assoc...

⚖️ Rethinking obesity diagnosis

Using a new definition that includes body shape as well as BMI, obesity rates in 300,000 US adults rose by 60%, revealing hidden health risks missed by BMI alone.

🔗 doi.org/10.1001/jama...

#Obesityh #SciComm 🧪

🥗 Ending free school meals hurts students

Surveying 941 US school food authorities, researchers found ending universal free meals led to lower participation, more stigma, and rising meal debt.

🔗 www.jneb.org/article/S149...

#PublicHealth #SciComm 🧪

Plantwatch: An extraordinary orchid that lives and flowers underground Botanist trying to conserve highly vulnerable rhizanthella that survives by feeding on nutrients from a fungus

🌸 The orchid that blooms underground

Australia’s rare Rhizanthella orchid lives, feeds, and flowers entirely underground, relying on a fungus and bush roots to survive, now near extinction.

🔗 www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

#Botany #SciComm 🧪

Earth history and trait innovation drive the global radiation of modern toads | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences The distributions of species radiations reflect environmental changes driven by both Earth history (geological processes) and the evolution of biological traits (critical to survival and adaptation), ...

🐸 How toads took over the world

Genetic data from 124 species show modern toads began in South America 61 million years ago, spreading globally thanks to new defences like toxic glands.

🔗 doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

#Evolution #SciComm 🧪

Mathematical modeling of dopamine rhythms and timing of dopamine reuptake inhibitors Author summary Dopamine levels can fluctuate throughout the day, and these changes are in part regulated by the circadian clock. Many drugs prescribed for neurological or psychiatric conditions influe...

💊 Timing matters for dopamine drugs

A new model shows that dopamine drugs like bupropion work differently depending on the time of day, suggesting dosing should align with body rhythms.

🔗 doi.org/10.1371/jour...

#Neuroscience #SciComm 🧪

Group singing reduces symptoms of postnatal depression for up to six months | King's College London New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London and the social enterprise Breathe Arts Health Research has shown that a specially designed gro...

🎶 Singing helps ease postnatal depression

A UK trial with 199 mothers found that 10 weeks of group singing reduced postnatal depression symptoms for up to 8 months and was low-cost and well liked.

🔗 www.kcl.ac.uk/news/group-s...

#MaternalHealth #SciComm 🧪

Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback for Substance Use Disorder This randomized clinical trial evaluates the effects of second-generation heart rate variability biofeedback on negative affect, positive affect, craving, and alcohol and other drug use in adults with...

💓 Biofeedback helps reduce addiction cravings

A trial of 115 adults found that heart rate variability biofeedback cut cravings, negative mood, and substance use by over 60%, supporting recovery efforts.

🔗 doi.org/10.1001/jama...

#Addiction #Recovery #SciComm 🧪

Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback for Substance Use Disorder This randomized clinical trial evaluates the effects of second-generation heart rate variability biofeedback on negative affect, positive affect, craving, and alcohol and other drug use in adults with...

💓 Biofeedback helps reduce addiction cravings

A trial of 115 adults found that heart rate variability biofeedback cut cravings, negative mood, and substance use by over 60%, supporting recovery efforts.

🔗 doi.org/10.1001/jama...

#Addiction #Recovery #SciComm 🧪

Youth crime rates in sharp decline A comprehensive analysis confirms the decline in youth crime in many industrialized countries due to changes in young people's living conditions.

👮‍♂️ Why youth crime is falling

Studies across 30+ countries show youth crime has dropped over recent decades, likely due to less unsupervised socialising and lower alcohol use.

🔗 www.mpg.de/25556841/you...

#YouthJustice #SciComm 🧪

Canadian adolescents’ perceptions of how climate change is impacting their mental health: A qualitative analysis of open-ended survey responses There is increasing recognition that climate change affects mental health, with young people identified as a high-risk population. Yet, research on this topic has mostly focused on quantitative studie...

🌎 Climate change weighs on teens’ minds

In a survey of 800 Canadian adolescents, over a third said climate change affects their mental health, citing fear for the future and distress for nature.

🔗 doi.org/10.1371/jour...

#MentalHealth #SciComm 🧪

Effectiveness of Recombinant Herpes Zoster Vaccine in the U.S. Medicare Population, 2018 to 2019, by Immunocompetence and Prior Receipt of Live Zoster Vaccine | Annals of Internal Medicine Background: Recombinant zoster vaccine (RZV) was preferentially recommended over live zoster vaccine (ZVL) starting in 2018. Objective: To assess RZV effectiveness using target trial emulation, accoun...

💉 Shingles vaccine proves highly effective

A US Medicare study found the recombinant shingles vaccine cut infection risk by over 50% in older adults, including those with weak immunity. Two doses worked best.

🔗 doi.org/10.7326/ANNA...

#Vaccines #SciComm 🧪

Global Tipping Points | understanding risks & their potential impact Harmful tipping points in the natural world threaten humanity by disrupting life support systems and societal stability.

🐠 Coral reefs hit climate tipping point

Scientists say global coral die-offs mark Earth’s first climate 'tipping point', warning that recovery may be impossible without cooling the planet.

🔗 global-tipping-points.org

#ClimateCrisis #SciComm 🧪

AI, Health, and Health Care Today and Tomorrow This Special Communication discusses how health and health care artificial intelligence (AI) should be developed, evaluated, regulated, disseminated, and monitored.

🤖 Building trust in AI for health care

A new @jama.com report calls for better testing, monitoring, and shared oversight of medical AI tools to ensure they truly improve health for everyone.

🔗 doi.org/10.1001/jama...

#AI #SciComm 🧪

Lab-grown human embryo model produces blood cells Breakthrough raises new possibilities for regenerative medicine, which uses patient’s own cells to repair damaged tissues

🩸 Lab-grown embryo model makes human blood cells

Cambridge scientists created embryo-like structures that formed early human blood and heart cells, a step toward patient-matched regenerative therapies.

🔗 www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

#StemCells #SciComm 🧪

Total solar eclipse triggers dawn behavior in birds: Insights from acoustic recordings and community science On 8 April 2024, a total solar eclipse disrupted light-dark cycles for North American birds during the lead-up to spring reproduction. Compiling more than 10,000 community observations and artificial ...

🌒 Eclipse confuses birds into dawn songs

During the 2024 total solar eclipse, over half of bird species briefly sang as if it were morning, revealing how light shifts shape behaviour.

🔗 doi.org/10.1126/scie...

#Birds #SciComm 🧪

Prenatal exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances predicts multimodal brain structural and functional outcomes in children aged 5 years: a birth cohort study Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are ubiquitous persistent organic pollutants associated with adverse health outcomes in humans. A…

🧠 Pollution and child brain development

A Finnish study found that prenatal exposure to PFAS chemicals was linked to subtle brain changes in 5-year-olds, including regions for movement and vision.

🔗 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#PFAS #SciComm 🧪

Core field changes from eleven years of Swarm satellite observations The Swarm satellite trio has provided global vector magnetic field measurements, with high precision and absolute accuracy, for the past eleven years.…

🌍 Earth’s magnetic field is shifting

Data from 11 years of satellites show the weak South Atlantic field is expanding, while Canada’s strong field is shrinking and Siberia’s is growing.

🔗 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#EarthScience #SciComm 🧪

Happy days are nature days: visiting nature has positive spill-over effects for the entire day among people with and without common mental health disorders Recreational time in nature is linked to greater positive and fewer negative emotions than time in built settings, but it is unclear whether benefits: a) are short-lived or ‘spill-over’ across the ...

🌿 Nature lifts mood all day

Surveying over 2,000 adults, researchers found that visiting parks or watersides boosts happiness for everyone, including those with depression or anxiety.

🔗 doi.org/10.1080/1743...

#MentalHealth #SciComm 🧪

AI companionship or digital entrapment? investigating the impact of anthropomorphic AI-based chatbots Anthropomorphic AI-based chatbots are reshaping human-machine interactions, enabling users to form emotional bonds with AI agents. While these systems…

🤖 Are chatbots dangerous companions?

An analysis of 48,000 chatbot conversations found many users felt dependency, confusion, and emotional strain, raising concerns about AI-induced digital entrapment.

🔗 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#SciComm #AI #MentalHealth 🧪

Burden of 375 diseases and injuries, risk-attributable burden of 88 risk factors, and healthy life expectancy in 204 countries and territories, including 660 subnational locations, 1990–2023: a system... Our findings underscore the complex and dynamic nature of global health challenges. Since 2010, there have been large decreases in burden due to CMNN diseases and many environmental and behavioural ri...

🌍 Global health progress and new risks

A major global study from @thelancet.com shows infectious diseases keep falling, but chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and anxiety are rising worldwide.

🔗 www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

#GlobalHealth #SciComm 🧪

Pathogen distribution and antimicrobial resistance among neonatal bloodstream infections in Southeast Asia: results from NeoSEAP, a multicentre retrospective study Neonatal sepsis in tertiary hospitals in Southeast Asia is predominantly caused by gram-negative bacteria, with high rates of non-susceptibility to commonly prescribed antibiotics.

🧫 Alarming rise of superbugs in newborns

A study across Southeast Asia found most newborn sepsis cases were caused by drug-resistant bacteria, with Klebsiella and Acinetobacter showing especially high resistance.

🔗 www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

#SciComm #Health #AMR 🧪