A Dartmouth team reports a new phone-based tool that measures tissue health using LED light and a topical cream that activates the natural molecules that indicate cellular oxygen levels. The tool could provide a simple and affordable at-home method for monitoring vascular diseases, infections, and other common conditons without expensive camera systems, sensors, or inpatient care. 

Young children who attend nursery get sick more often than those who don’t, but they will go on to have fewer illnesses during early school years, finds a new review of evidence by a group of parent-scientists involving University College London (UCL) researchers.

For decades, members of the Rural Health Research Center have been studying how childhood experiences impact long-term outcomes. Much of this research has examined the negative effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) such as divorce, abuse and household dysfunction on factors like health, employment, mental health and relationships. Positive childhood experiences (PCE) also play an important role in lifelong health and well-being, and Center researchers have long looked at how the presence or absence of PCEs shape individuals as they grow into adults.

Young people around the world are increasingly suffering from anxiety disorders. A team from the Mental Health Research and Treatment Center (FBZ) at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, has investigated how this development correlates to changes in societal expectations and values in education. The researchers were able to show that religious belief plays a key role in protecting the mental health of children and adolescents. Countries where religiosity has lost significance exhibit a relatively high increase in the incidence of anxiety disorders, as the researchers report in the journal Developmental Science from February 11, 2026.

Infectious diseases are a major cause of death worldwide, and diagnosing bacterial infections remains a challenge in medicine. And doing so reliably is more important than ever, given the increasing frequency of antibiotic resistance. Now, research published in ACS Central Science could help healthcare professionals non-invasively diagnose bacterial infections, using breath-based tests. Initial experiments demonstrated the approach in animals with pneumonia and infections in the bloodstream, muscles and bones. 

A new X-ray imaging technique could transform how hospitals analyse tissue samples, potentially speeding up diagnoses and improving outcomes for patients, shows a new study led by UCL researchers.