Why do we love who we love? Why do some relationships endure while others fall apart? In The Intimate Animal: The Science of Sex, Fidelity, and Why We Live and Die for Love, Kinsey Institute Executive Director Dr. Justin R. Garcia presents a bold new scientific framework for understanding the roots of human intimacy that all our lives depend on.

New research from Binghamton University, State University of New York demonstrates the power of collaboration between academic institutions and the local community to address food insecurity.

Promoting sustainable development in both urban and rural areas has become a globally shared concern. Urban–rural interactions can contribute to wealth creation, poverty alleviation, employment growth, and improved social equity. It has been widely recognized as a key strategy for addressing sustainability challenges, although it may also bring some negative impacts, such as labor outmigration and imbalanced capital allocation. However, the impacts of urban–rural interactions on rural development and how these impacts contribute to sustainable rural transformation require further in-depth investigation.

Self-harm among adolescents has become a serious public issue. Among various risk factors, parenting styles have been shown to have a significant impact. However, few studies have explored how exactly different parenting styles influence self-harm behavior. In a new study, researchers identified different parenting styles perceived by adolescent’s and clarified their link to self-harm behavior. The findings suggest that positive parenting can act as a protective shield against self-harm behavior, guiding practical intervention strategies.

Aviation’s climate impact extends beyond carbon dioxide emissions. A new study from Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and Imperial College, UK, reveals that contrails can represent a significant portion of aviation’s overall climate cost. The study also shows that climate impact can be reduced by optimising flight routes.

In a new article in Nature Communications, The social costs of aviation CO₂ and contrail cirrus, the researchers demonstrate that both CO₂ emissions and contrail formation contribute materially to aviation’s climate impact – and that the associated societal costs differ substantially depending on weather patterns and routing decisions. They find that, at the global level, contrails account for about 15 percent of aviation’s climate impact when measured in economic terms.

One of the most common human gestures, the pointing finger, appears frequently in Old Master paintings as a guiding cue. However, its influence on viewers' gaze has never been systematically investigated. Researchers in experimental art history at the University of Vienna used eye-tracking methods to analyse whether and how viewers' eyes follow pointing gestures in works by renowned artists such as Raphael, Giorgione, Caravaggio, and Rembrandt. The experiment shows that pointing gestures shape visual attention, but not in the expected linear way. Although the fingers are barely noticed, they spark curiosity about the faces of pointing figures and reshape narrative connections. They also draw the gaze toward the area indicated by the gesture, but the exact choice of target remains flexible. The study was published in Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts.