A new study by an international research team provides the first systematic, cross-cultural comparison of how children help their peers. While previous research has mainly focused on how children help adults, often within the family, peer interactions play an equally important, yet far less studied, role in children's social lives across many cultures. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Sapienza University of Rome, Leipzig University, the University of Portsmouth, the University of Plymouth and Duke University studied 336 children aged four to nine from six different cultural groups: Germans, Wichí (Argentina), ≠Akhoe Hai||om (Namibia), Samburu and Kikuyu (Kenya) and Quechua (Bolivia).

A study based on publication data traces how researchers moved within Ukraine and across borders between 2009 and 2022, with conflict-affected regions losing scholars while others became increasingly important destinations. These shifts were already underway after Russia illegally annexed Crimea and fighting began in the Donbas in 2014, underscoring that scholarly mobility during conflict cannot simply be understood as a matter of free choice.

Nearly 40% of people with lung cancer experience depression, and many also face anxiety, hopelessness and questions about mortality after diagnosis. Researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) and the Center for Psychedelic Drug Research and Education (CPDRE) in the College of Social Work (CSW) are leading a clinical trial to test whether psilocybin-assisted therapy can help reduce depression and emotional distress among patients with lung cancer.

The former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro contributed to deforestation with statements opposing forest conservation. This is shown by an international study led by the University of Bonn. According to this, the destruction of the Amazon rainforest accelerated considerably when Bolsonaro and his ministers posted anti-forest-conservation messages on Twitter. Brazil’s environmental authorities were greatly weakened during Bolsonaro’s term of office. Irrespective of this, the analysis shows that even the perception of a low risk of punishment was a relevant driver of deforestation. The researchers estimate that up to 1,700 square kilometers of forest – almost double the area of Berlin – were destroyed due to the power of words. The results have been published in The Journal of Politics.