It wasn’t a total train wreck. That’s the best way to summarize the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission’s May 22 report addressing rising rates of chronic childhood diseases in…
Category: Life
LLMs Mimics Human Cognitive Dissonance
Summary: A new study reveals that GPT-4o, a leading large language model, displays behavior resembling cognitive dissonance—a core human psychological trait. When asked to write essays either supporting or opposing…
Bedbugs may have been one of the first urban pests
The earliest cities may have had plenty of parasitic, six-legged tenants. Common bedbugs (Cimex lectularius) experienced a dramatic jump in population size around the time humans congregated in the first…
The first cicada concert was 47 million years ago
The oldest known fossil of a singing cicada reveals that these insects were making music during the Eocene epoch — long before humans existed. The fossil represents a new cicada…
Boredom Is Good for You: Why Embracing It Calms the Brain
Summary: Boredom, often seen as a negative state to avoid, may actually serve an important role in emotional regulation and brain health. When we’re bored, the brain shifts away from…
Chronic Stress Quietly Raises Your Stroke Risk
Summary: Chronic stress is increasingly recognized as a contributor to stroke risk by intensifying conditions like high blood pressure, inflammation, and unhealthy lifestyle habits. While stress isn’t as easily measured…
Stress Hampers Emotional Regulation in Anxiety, Depression & BPD
Summary: New research reveals that acute stress can impair key brain functions involved in emotion regulation, particularly in individuals with distress-related disorders like depression, anxiety, and borderline personality disorder. The…
Married Minds: Oral Microbiota May Mediate Shared Anxiety
Summary: A new study suggests that oral microbiota transmission between newlywed couples may influence the onset of depression and anxiety symptoms. Researchers observed that healthy spouses of partners with insomnia,…
Boosting Ketamine’s Antidepressant Effects to Last Two Months
Summary: Ketamine is a fast-acting antidepressant that can relieve symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD) within hours, even in treatment-resistant cases. However, its effects typically last only a week, and…
