Scientists from an International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) working group have called for new research to enhance habitat protection for juvenile fish species. Experts from the ICES' Working Group on the Value of Coastal Habitats for Exploited Species (WGVHES), led by Dr Benjamin Ciotti from the University of Plymouth (UK), undertook a comprehensive review to evaluate the approaches being used to assess juvenile habitat quality. Their resulting study highlights a major gap in the evidence needed to evaluate habitat quality which is in turn leading to a mismatch between policy needs and available science, with management decisions often relying on incomplete or indirect indicators.

Child neglect—or the failure to provide care during early years—is the most prevalent yet understudied form of child maltreatment, often leaving no visible scars but causing long-term harm. Now, researchers from Japan have used advanced neuroimaging to examine the brain’s white matter in neglected children. They identified structural abnormalities in brain regions linked to emotion, behavior, and cognition, offering objective markers for early intervention and highlighting the profound impact of neglect on development.

In Japan, emergency personnel are required to continue resuscitation efforts for cardiac arrest patients, even when there is no electrical activity. This is known as asystole. That policy has created an opportunity for scientists to assess how to treat the most difficult cases in resuscitation science. By analyzing outcomes from a large-scale national dataset, this study raises tough questions about the impact of pre-hospital life support procedures on outcomes in patients with asystole.

A new paper on the science-policy interface by climate experts Svante Bodin and Örjan Gustafsson at the Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, calls for urgent reform to the relationship between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).