Participants in a study who self-reported a stronger desire to have children showed a weaker preference for younger faces compared to those with a weaker desire to have children, according to a study published December 3, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Jingheng Li and colleagues from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, U.K. The preference was unrelated to the potential partners’ perceived wealth or parental prowess.

A rose by any other name? Not necessarily—how words sound aesthetically correlates with their memorability, study finds

It’s no surprise that dogs benefit people’s mental health. In a paper publishing in the Cell Press journal iScience on December 3, researchers point to a reason as to why: dogs prompt changes in the collection of microbes that live in and on our bodies, resulting in an increase in mental health.