Previous accounts of the scientific relationship between communist China and the Soviet Union have depicted it as one of subordination, with the Russians exporting knowledge to the Chinese or scavenging from their bodies of knowledge. A new article in Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society, however, posits that the relationship between Chinese and Soviet scientists was instead one of mutual exchange. In “Brief Encounter: Acupuncture, Pavlov, and Scientific Exchange Between China and the Soviet Union, 1949-1961,” authors Liang Wan, Simon Huxtable, and Sarah Marks explore the role of acupuncture in uniting the Pavlovian science of the Soviets and Traditional Chinese Medicine, forming an arena for Sino-Soviet collaboration.

Artificial intelligence (AI) offers new opportunities for the modernization and global development of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), while raising challenges in data quality, ethical governance, scientific evaluation and international standardization.

The Hangzhou Declaration on the Global Development of Artificial Intelligence in Traditional Chinese Medicine, published in the Journal of Integrative Medicine (Volume 24, Issue 5), outlines nine guiding principles for the responsible integration of AI and TCM. These include preserving the theoretical foundations of TCM while encouraging innovation, prioritizing clinical needs and patient safety, strengthening ethical governance and data standards, advancing scientific evaluation, and promoting interdisciplinary collaboration and international cooperation.

The declaration provides a framework for the safe, inclusive, and sustainable development of AI-enabled TCM, with the broader goal of contributing to global health.

Admission to a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) can affect not only a child's mental health but also the psychological well-being of their parents. Researchers at University of Tsukuba, in collaboration with colleagues in Japan, the United Kingdom, China, and Australia, conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of eight randomized controlled trials involving 470 parents and caregivers during the year following their children's discharge from the PICU. The findings suggest that psychosocial interventions may modestly reduce symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, although no statistically significant effect was observed for anxiety symptoms.