In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers studied minority influence in fire ants—highly social insects—and discovered a surprising genetic underpinning to the phenomenon. The research offers insights into how social interactions shape individuals and groups.

Early online research in journals of the American Meteorological Society features topics including the relationship between hot, dry air and gun violence in New York City; the importance of NOAA research flights to improve hurricane track forecatss; lightning-initiated wildfires; and studies on how personal experience of extreme weather interacts with political preferences to shape views on climate change.

Fostering shared understanding between romantic partners may be a powerful way for people to navigate uncertainty and build a more meaningful life, a study by McGill researchers suggests.

The history of the Boston Bruins’ failed move to New Hampshire in the early 1980s demonstrates that residents and politicians can fundamentally alter deals related to team locations and venues, according to a report by Aaron Bonsu, doctoral candidate in kinesiology at Penn State.

A new, nationally representative study published in JAMA found that death certificates for at least 41 percent of AI/AN decedents failed to identify them as AI/AN, in most cases misreporting their race as “White.” As a result of these death certificate errors, official vital statistics greatly underestimate AI/AN mortality, overestimate AI/AN life expectancy, and understate the mortality disparities between AI/AN and other Americans.  

Experts from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago affirm the need to screen new fathers for mental distress, recognizing the mounting research that underscores the importance of fathers in child development. Their invited commentary, published in JAMA Pediatrics, accompanies a systematic review, which found that paternal depression, anxiety and stress in the perinatal period are associated with poorer child development in social, emotional, cognitive and language domains.