Diabetes is a highly prevalent chronic condition and a major contributor to the global burden of disease, posing substantial challenges to health systems. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains its leading complication, and people with diabetes face a two- to four-fold higher risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality than the general population. Control of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), blood pressure, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), collectively referred to as ABC risk factors, is a cornerstone of cardiovascular prevention in diabetes.

Research published in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas, based on nearly 30 million births, reveals that drought is associated with a greater likelihood of preterm birth and, when prolonged, impaired fetal growth. Concurrent drought and extreme heat further increase the risk of preterm birth, particularly among the most socioeconomically vulnerable populations. The study, scientifically coordinated by IR Sant Pau, will continue by examining the potential effects of drought on childhood growth through age five.

ζ-Carotene, a key intermediate in lycopene biosynthesis, is widely found in plants and photosynthetic microorganisms, but its isomer-specific properties remain poorly understood due to isolation and purification challenges. Researchers have now developed a purification strategy to obtain high-purity geometric isomers and systematically characterized, for the first time, their isomer-specific spectral properties, photoisomerization behavior, UV-shielding capacity, antioxidant activity, and skin-related biological activities—highlighting ζ-carotene's promise as a natural ingredient for skin health and photoprotection.

Although experimental evidence supports links between exercise and certain mental health indicators, epidemiological research has focused primarily on the dose–response effect of a single type of exercise, overlooking potential differences across exercise types in their associations with overall and specific mental health outcomes.To examine the associations between different types of exercise and multiple mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts and nonsuicidal self-injury, and to explore their dose–response relationships in terms of exercise frequency and duration.

A peer-reviewed narrative review published in Brain Medicine draws anthropology, archival history, and comparative genomics into a single frame in order to reassess what industrialization actually did to human sleep. Field data from three hunter-gatherer societies place nightly sleep at roughly 6.4 to 7.1 hours, similar to or shorter than industrialized averages, which shifts the argument away from duration and toward timing, regularity, and circadian alignment. The synthesis reconsiders the segmented sleep hypothesis, follows conserved regulators such as DEC2 and hypocretin across lineages, and reviews evidence that urban noise, light, heat, and housing distribute sleep health unequally. Split sleep remains untested.

Scientific evidence alone does not automatically change human behavior. While the scientific community has reached broad consensus that infectious pathogens, such as viruses can spread through airborne transmission, one critical challenge remains: How can scientific evidence be transformed into public understanding and meaningful action for effective prevention and control of airborne diseases?

Published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, a Nature Portfolio journal, an international study led by researchers of Aerosol Science Research Center, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan provides one of the first large-scale evidence-based evaluations of how different science communication formats influence scientific understanding and preventive health behaviors. Using the original educational resource "The Quest of the Virosols", developed by the Aerosol Science Research Center at National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU), the study compared plain text, explainer comics, and animation among 3,217 participants from Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, including healthcare professionals, educators, and university students.

The findings demonstrate that while all three communication formats improved scientific knowledge, animation was the most effective in promoting understanding, strengthening empathy and risk perception, and motivating preventive health behaviors. The study further shows that effective science communication extends beyond information delivery—it transforms scientific knowledge into understanding, understanding into empathy, and empathy into action.

Beyond COVID-19, these findings highlight science communication as an essential component of pandemic preparedness, public health communication, disease prevention, environmental health, sustainability, and evidence-informed policymaking. By fostering human capacities aligned with the Inner Development Goals (IDGs), effective science communication can also accelerate progress toward multiple United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), strengthening more resilient, informed, and sustainable societies.

Science communication is not merely about transferring knowledge. It is about transforming knowledge into understanding, understanding into empathy, and empathy into action.