Australia’s new ban on social media for under-16s should be judge on much more than whether adolescents stay offline, researchers say.

Experts from Flinders University say success of the policy should be measured by its impact on young people’s mental health, school performance, digital literacy, and how they spend their time outside of social media.

In a wide-ranging interview published in Brain Medicine, Dr. Mary L. Phillips, Pittsburgh Foundation-Emmerling Endowed Chair and Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, describes a career built on one stubborn conviction: that the emotional storms of bipolar disorder leave traceable fingerprints in neural circuitry, and that those fingerprints can be read before the storm arrives. Elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2024 and recipient of the Society of Biological Psychiatry Gold Medal Award that same year, Dr. Phillips discusses the mentors who shaped her, her translational agenda for developing circuit-level biomarkers to identify at-risk youth, and the frustration that propelled her from clinical observation toward precision psychiatry. She also reveals that her greatest fear is boredom, her greatest extravagance is a 2003 red Ford Thunderbird, and her philosophy fits seven words: goals and routes, never confuse the two.

Bull sharks form social relationships with specific “friends”, new research reveals.