Face with Tears of Joy review: New book is an illuminating but flawed look at the impact of emojis
Standardising the look of the irrepressible emoji must have been tricky Caner Elci/Alamy Face with Tears…
Meet the Guys Betting Big on AI Gambling Agents
Some up-and-comers are pushing to make agents that can actually place wagers instead of just supplying tips, but the field is off to a rough start. Tom Fleetham formerly worked as the head of business development for a blockchain platform called Zilliqa that experimented with an AI gambling agent called Ava, focused on picking horse…
What health care providers actually want from AI
Solutions that fix real problems Hospitals and health systems are looking at AI-enabled solutions that target their most urgent pain points: staffing shortages, clinician burnout, rising costs, and patient bottlenecks. These operational realities keep leadership up at night, and AI solutions must directly address them. For instance, hospitals and health systems are eager for AI…
Natural language-based database analytics with Amazon Nova
In this post, we explore how natural language database analytics can revolutionize the way organizations interact with their structured data through the power of large language model (LLM) agents. Natural language interfaces to databases have long been a goal in data management. Agents enhance database analytics by breaking down complex queries into explicit, verifiable reasoning…
Adults with learning disabilities die 20 years early, says report
Getty Images People with learning disabilities and autism in England are dying almost 20 years younger than the rest of the population, a long-awaited report has said. The annual mortality review commissioned by NHS England was originally meant to be published last year but faced repeated delays. It found 39% of deaths of people with…
Mysterious bone disease ravaged Brazil’s giant dinosaurs
A set of bones belonging to sauropods, as long-necked dinosaurs are called, found in the municipality of Ibirá in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, reveals that the region was conducive to a bone disease that was fatal to these animals. Supported by FAPESP, the researchers found signs of osteomyelitis, a bone disease that can…
Stronger weed, higher risk? Potent THC linked to psychosis and addiction
A systematic review analyzed associations of high-concentration delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) cannabis products with mental health outcomes. The review found that high-concentration THC products are associated with unfavorable mental health outcomes, particularly for psychosis or schizophrenia and cannabis use disorder (CUD). However, there are limitations to currently available evidence and the researchers call for studies with improved…
Powerful new painkiller ADRIANA shows promise in ending opioid dependence
Opioids like morphine are widely used in medical practice due to their powerful pain-relieving effects. However, they carry the risk of serious adverse effects such as respiratory depression and drug dependence. For this reason, Japan has strict regulations in place to ensure that these medications are prescribed only by authorized physicians. In the United States,…
The midlife crisis is over, but something worse took its place
A new survey-based study suggests that the “unhappiness hump” — a widely documented rise in worry, stress, and depression with age that peaks in midlife and then declines — may have disappeared, perhaps due to declining mental health among younger people. David Blanchflower of Dartmouth College, U.S., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access…
Scientists reveal how breathwork unlocks psychedelic bliss in the brain
Breathwork while listening to music may induce a blissful state in practitioners, accompanied by changes in blood flow to emotion-processing brain regions, according to a study published August 27, 2025, in the open-access journal PLOS One by Amy Amla Kartar from the Colasanti Lab in the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at Brighton and Sussex Medical…
Study finds cannabis improves sleep where other drugs fail
Insomnia patients taking cannabis-based medical products reported better quality sleep after up to 18 months of treatment, according to a study published August 27 in the open-access journal PLOS Mental Health by Arushika Aggarwal from Imperial College London, U.K., and colleagues. About one out of every three people has some trouble getting a good night’s…
