ScienceDaily: Society - May 06, 2025
Top society research news
The secret to happiness lies within you, or society -- or both
What is the secret to happiness? Does happiness come from within, or is it shaped by external influences such as our jobs, health, relationships and material circumstances? A new study shows that happiness can come from either within or from external influences, from both, or neither -- and which is true differs across people.
Gorilla study reveals complex pros and cons of friendship
Friendship comes with complex pros and cons -- possibly explaining why some individuals are less sociable, according to a new study of gorillas.
Children as young as five can navigate a 'tiny town'
Neuroscientists are developing methods to map the brain systems that allow us to recognize and get around our world.
Physically punishing children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has exclusively negative outcomes -- including poor health, lower academic performance, and impaired social-emotional development -- yielding similar results to studies in wealthier nations, finds a new analysis.
Artificial oxygen supply in coastal waters: A hope with risks
Could the artificial introduction of oxygen revitalise dying coastal waters? While oxygenation approaches have already been proven successful in lakes, their potential side effects must be carefully analysed before they can be used in the sea. This is the conclusion of researchers from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and Radboud University in the Netherlands. In an article in the scientific journal EOS, they warn: Technical measures can mitigate damage temporarily and locally, but they are associated with considerable uncertainties and risks. Above all, they do not offer a permanent solution because the oxygen content will return to its previous level once the measures end, unless the underlying causes of the problem, nutrient inputs and global warming, are not tackled.
Space junk falling to Earth needs to be tracked: Meteoroid sounds can help
Space junk and meteoroids are falling to Earth every year, posing a growing risk as they re-enter the atmosphere at high speeds. Researchers are using infrasound sensors to track these objects, including bolides, which are meteoroids breaking apart in the sky. New research shows that infrasound signals can help track these objects, but the trajectory needs to be considered, especially for objects entering at shallow angles. This study highlights the importance of improving monitoring techniques for planetary defense and space junk management.
Our ability to recognize objects depends on prior experience
New findings suggest neurons have much more functional dexterity than scientists previously realized.
A next-generation technology developed in 2023, conversational swarm intelligence (CSI), combines the principles of ASI with the power of large language models.
Study shows how millions of bird sightings unlock precision conservation
A groundbreaking study reveals that North American bird populations are declining most severely in areas where they should be thriving. Researchers analyzed 36 million bird observations shared by birdwatchers to the Cornell Lab's eBird program alongside multiple environmental variables derived from high-resolution satellite imagery for 495 bird species across North America from 2007 to 2021.
Urgent action must be taken to reduce the ever-rising number of people killed by extreme temperatures in India, say the authors of a new 19-year study which found that 20,000 people died from heatstroke in the last two decades. Cold exposure claimed another 15,000 lives.
New research reveals how physiology-inspired networks could improve political decision-making
A new study has unveiled a groundbreaking framework for rethinking political decision-making -- drawing inspiration from how the human body maintains stability and health.
STEM students: Work hard, but don't compare yourself to others
A new study shows how damaging it can be for college students in introductory STEM classes to compare how hard they work to the extent of effort put in by their peers.
Good karma for me, bad karma for you
Many people around the world believe in karma -- that idea that divine justice will punish people who do bad deeds and reward those who good. But that belief plays out differently for oneself versus others, according to new research.
Essay challenge: ChatGPT vs students
Researchers have been putting ChatGPT essays to the test against real students. A new study reveals that the AI generated essays don't yet live up to the efforts of real students. While the AI essays were found to be impressively coherent and grammatically sound, they fell short in one crucial area -- they lacked a personal touch. It is hoped that the findings could help educators spot cheating in schools, colleges and universities worldwide by recognizing machine-generated essays.
Nursing 2025: No relief in sight as burnout, stress and short staffing persist
A national survey of 2,600 nurses and nursing students reveals a profession under severe strain, with widespread stress, burnout, and staffing shortages threatening both nurse well-being and patient care. Despite increased attention since the pandemic, little progress has been made, with 65% of nurses reporting high stress, 40% unsure they'd choose the profession again, and students already anxious about workload. Still, many students remain hopeful, and the profession is urgently calling for better staffing, leadership, flexibility and recognition.
Trees, parks, wetlands and green roofs can no longer be seen as a 'nice-to-have' aesthetic enhancement but a vital component for creating climate-resilient, healthier and more equitable cities, according to an international paper.
Children's reading and writing develop better when they are trained in handwriting
Researchers explored how manual and keyboard practice influenced children's abilities in their reading and writing learning process. 5-year-olds were taught an artificial alphabet using different techniques, and the conclusion was that children who are trained with pencil and paper assimilate new letters and words better.
Childhood trauma significantly increases the likelihood of engaging in harmful alcohol consumption, smoking and illicit drug use, by the age of 18.
Nearly one-quarter of e-Scooter injuries involved substance impaired riders
About 25% of 7350 patients hospitalized for scooter-related injuries between 2016 and 2021 were using substances such as alcohol, opioids, marijuana and cocaine when injured. The findings underscore the urgent need to strengthen safety regulations, enforce helmet use, and reduce substance use among scooter riders.
Missed school is an overlooked consequence of tropical cyclones, warming planet
New research finds that tropical cyclones reduce years of schooling for children in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in areas unaccustomed to frequent storms. Girls are disproportionately affected.
Synchrotron in a closet: Bringing powerful 3D X-ray microscopy to smaller labs
For the first time, researchers can study the microstructures inside metals, ceramics and rocks with X-rays in a standard laboratory without needing to travel to a particle accelerator, according to engineers.
Study suggests dance and lullabies aren't universal human behaviors
Social singing and dance are often assumed to be hard-wired into the human condition; studies have supported the conclusion that these are common across cultures. But new research from an anthropologist challenges the idea that dance and lullabies are universal among humans. The study draws on 43 years of research with an Indigenous population in Paraguay.
Greasing the wheels of the energy transition to address climate change and fossil fuels phase out
The global energy system may be faced with an inescapable trade-off between urgently addressing climate change versus avoiding an energy shortfall, according to a new energy scenario tool.
Dangerous synthetic opioids and animal sedatives found in wastewater
Scientists have developed a highly sensitive method to detect illegal opioids and a veterinary sedative in Australia's wastewater system, providing a vital early warning tool to public health authorities.
Using humor in communication helps scientists connect, build trust
Scientists aren't comedians, but it turns out a joke or two can go a long way. That's according to a new study that found when researchers use humor in their communication -- particularly online -- audiences are more likely to find them trustworthy and credible.
Climate change increases the risk of simultaneous wildfires
Climate change is increasing the risk of wildfires in many regions of the world. This is due partly to specific weather conditions -- known as fire weather -- that facilitate the spread of wildfires. Researchers have found that fire weather seasons are increasingly overlapping between eastern Australia and western North America. The research team examined the causes of this shift and its implications for cross-border cooperation between fire services in Canada, the US, and Australia.
Advancing AI for diverse applications in manufacturing, business and education
Large language models (LLMs) are at the forefront of artificial intelligence (AI) and have been widely used for conversational interactions. However, assessing the personality of a given LLM remains a significant challenge. A research team has now developed an AI-driven assessment system, the Language Model Linguistic Personality Assessment (LMLPA), with capabilities to quantitatively measure the personality traits of LLMs through linguistic analysis.
Data collection changes key to understanding maternal mortality trends in the US, new study shows
A new study offers fresh insight into trends in maternal mortality in the United States. For the first time, the study disentangles genuine changes in health outcomes from shifts caused by how deaths are recorded. Nevertheless, the study confirms the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on maternal death rates for women of all racial and ethnic groups.
Personality traits shape our prosocial behavior
Why do some people do more for the community than others? A new study now shows that personality traits such as extraversion and agreeableness correlate with volunteering and charitable giving.
ScienceDaily’s May 6 roundup feels like a field guide to systems thinking in action: each study spotlights a different leverage point in the human-earth feedback loop, yet together they sketch one integrated map of planetary wellbeing.
First, the cautionary tale: researchers warn that sustainability is turning into an empty buzzword in agricultural genomics, urging clearer metrics so innovation translates into measurable social good . On the public-health front, modeling shows that aggressive greenhouse-gas cuts could spare up to 250 000 European lives a year by 2050 through cleaner air , reinforcing the World Health Organization’s estimate that air pollution still claims roughly 7 million lives annually .
Hope arrives through practical biology: okra and fenugreek mucilage trap up to 90 percent of microplastics in water , while a Chinese team boosts biogas yields by co-fermenting alfalfa with fruit waste and specialized microbes . At the human scale, an AI gut-microbiome signature can now flag complex regional pain syndrome with striking accuracy , and a Washington-U study finds that although many volunteers say they want to know their future Alzheimer’s risk, far fewer follow through when the option becomes real—highlighting the gap between stated intentions and lived behavior .
Societal ripple effects surface elsewhere: girls who eat a consistently healthy diet tend to reach menarche later, independent of BMI or height , reminding us how early-life nutrition shapes lifelong equity. Meanwhile, updated sea-level “report cards” translate 55 years of coastal data into actionable dashboards for 36 U.S. communities, giving local leaders time-stamped intel for adaptation budgets . Even archaeology joins the conversation: evidence from ancient Andes cultures shows that psychoactive rituals once reinforced social cohesion , a historical echo of how collective narratives can mobilize present-day change.
Threaded together, these findings amplify a simple directive: precise language, preventive policy, and nature-aligned tech are mutually reinforcing gears in the machinery of a thriving future. Acting on any one without the others leaves value untapped; harmonizing all three turns scattered insights into an infinity of scalable solutions.