An association between oral microbiota and cognitive performance in schizophrenia has been reported by researchers at Science Tokyo. By analyzing saliva samples and cognitive test scores from patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls, the study shows that lower oral microbial diversity is associated with poorer cognitive function, with specific predicted microbial metabolic pathways potentially linked to this relationship. These association patterns offer testable hypotheses for future longitudinal and experimental studies.

A joint study by the EHU-University of the Basque Country and the BC3 research centre reveals that EVs are concentrated in households with high incomes, higher levels of education and located in urban areas, which highlights a social divide in accessing them. The study concludes that current government grant schemes do not address this inequality, and proposes linking grants to income levels.

A new article introduces “risk sciences” as an emerging interdisciplinary field focused on understanding and managing uncertainty across natural, social, economic, and technological domains. The study proposes a three-dimensional framework—identification and assessment, mechanism and strategy, and behavior and decision—to organize diverse risk research. By integrating insights across disciplines, the framework aims to strengthen societal resilience in an increasingly complex and uncertain world.

Education systems need to focus more on independent critical thinking and rational, evidence-based learning and problem-solving to find answers to many of the unprecedented environmental, social and economic challenges facing humanity, experts say.    

 

Scientists from around the world, including Flinders University microbiologist Dr Jake Robinson, have called for a radical refocus of school curricula from early years to high school to include more critical thinking and learning skills to empower students to ‘think outside the box’.