Frontiers | Science news

Health

Published on 14 Oct 2026

Unsuspected discovery of abnormal antibodies could explain pediatric cancer

Aberrant antibodies that attack DNA repair machinery in childhood could help predict later cancer risk

A doctor examines a patient with a cannula in place

Health

Published on 09 Oct 2026

Your favorite music could help reduce the pain of small medical procedures

Scientists find that playing patients’ favorite music during a cannulation minimizes pain

Prof Joan Sanders, University of Washington. Image supplied by Prof Sanders.

Health

Published on 21 Sep 2026

Meet a scientist who’s dedicated decades to solving one of prosthetics’ biggest problems

Prof Joan Sanders of the University of Washington has spent her career working on better prosthetics for lower limb amputees, trying to solve problems that complicate everyday life for people who have lost a limb. She is the first author of a new article in Frontiers in Rehabilitation Sciences, which reports the development of a quick, efficient method for making prosthesis sockets with built-in sensors that monitor the socket’s changing fit in real time — like a shoe that becomes more or less comfortable the more it’s worn. In the future, this could help prosthetists track a patient’s changing needs and adapt the socket to fit better. In this Frontier Scientists Q&A, Sanders tells us about her decades of problem-solving research, and her work building the foundations for a new generation of adjustable, comfortable prosthetics that don’t need constant management by their users.

Health

Published on 17 Sep 2026

Frontiers in Science: New way to assess pace of aging could accelerate anti-aging breakthroughs

12 candidate indicators, based on studies in mice, could make developing anti-aging interventions faster—while offering new insights into age-related diseases.

Researchers in Portugal examined if handwriting features differ between older people who show signs of cognitive decline and those who don’t. Credit: Ana Rita Silva.

Neuroscience

Published on 20 May 2026

Handwriting speed among possible signs of cognitive decline in older people

Accessible digital tool recording writing speed and number of strokes in complex handwriting tasks could aid diagnosis of cognitive decline, study shows

Image credit: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Mond-vergleich.svg

Neuroscience

Published on 20 Oct 2025

Do animals fall for optical illusions? What fish and birds can teach us about perception

Dr Maria Santacà describes how not only how fish and birds perceive their worlds, but also how ecological pressures shape the evolution of perception.

Neuroscience

Published on 07 Oct 2025

Instructions help you remember something better than emotions or a good night’s sleep

Scientists find that words you’ve been told to recall are better remembered than words with negative emotional connotations — but surprisingly, sleeping doesn’t help.

Neuroscience

Published on 03 Sep 2025

Happy music could help you recover from motion sickness

Listening to joyful music helped study participants with motion sickness recover better than other participants — while sad music helped less than doing nothing.

A shaded coral. Photograph by Karen Neely

Environment

Published on 02 Oct 2026

Underwater umbrellas for coral reefs could help protect against heat damage, study finds

Temporary shades placed over especially vulnerable Caribbean corals mitigate and even partly reverse bleaching driven by marine heatwaves

Lionesses and cubs from one of the collared prides at Etosha National Park; the collared lioness is visible on the left. "That particular pride had a total of 10 cubs from three litters, which often made for great entertainment during my focal observations of the pride's collared female," said Barker. Image supplied by Dr Nancy Barker.

Environment

Published on 09 Sep 2026

GPS collars reveal secrets of the power struggle between lions and hyenas in the wild

Mapping real-time interactions of lions and hyenas unveils a hidden side of their rivalry

Prof Blumstein in the field, photographed by Emily Renkey

Environment

Published on 04 Sep 2026

‘Marmots have money troubles too’: Prof Dan Blumstein on the origin of ‘OnlyMarms’ and what made it a roaring success

The story of Prof Dan Blumstein’s decision to share videos of the marmots in the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory’s field study on an OnlyFans account called OnlyMarms has captured the world over the last few weeks. 64 years of research into marmots can provide incredible insights into their evolution and socioecology, but the study is as expensive to run as it is valuable — and funding challenges have forced Blumstein, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UCLA and Field Chief Editor of Frontiers in Conservation Science, to innovate in new and surprising ways. In this instalment of Frontier Scientists, Blumstein explains to us why this long-running study of yellow-bellied marmots is so important for science, how funding losses are putting it at risk, and how he’s fighting back.

A blackbird on Castle Hill, Budapest. Photograph by Balazs Szanto under Creative Commons licence CC-BY-SA 2.0

Environment

Published on 02 Sep 2026

Scientists discover the key ingredients that make birdsong pretty

Research in Germany shows that birdsongs which are varied, higher-pitched, and not too loud are considered most pleasant — with blackbird songs taking the top prize

An argument between father and teenaged son

Psychology

Published on 18 Jun 2026

Teenagers whose parents are more distracted by phones are more insecure

Teenagers who report competing with caregivers’ phones for attention are more likely to have insecure attachment styles, which could damage wellbeing

Psychology

Published on 16 Jun 2026

Cuddling cats might make us feel worse when under stress

Researchers find more interaction with pets during stressful moments may not help stress-reduction but – in some cases – intensify negative feelings

A young woman uses her smartphone while waiting for a train.

Psychology

Published on 29 May 2026

‘We cannot ban our way out of a youth mental health crisis’: social media bans for teenagers lack evidence and pose risks, scientists say

Bans on teenagers’ social media use are gathering pace worldwide. Their proponents claim that social media bans will improve young people’s mental health, but what evidence supports these claims? In their new Frontiers in Developmental Psychology article, Dr Monika Neff Lind and her co-authors argue that there is no solid scientific evidence behind these bans, and reason to believe they could backfire. In this guest editorial, Neff Lind explains why she and her colleagues doubt that social media bans will work, and how bans should be evaluated to determine whether they have any positive effects.

Children playing tug of war at the park.

Psychology

Published on 27 Mar 2026

‘Sometimes an adult should shut up and go away’: scientists reveal the qualities that kids need in play

For better play, give children space to choose and accessible games, scientists say

3-D illustration of an imagined space base on a lunar landscape

Space sciences and astronomy

Published on 14 Sep 2026

No cities on the Moon — there isn’t enough water, scientists say

The discovery of water at the poles of the Moon has inspired speculation about whether we can build there – cities, industrial neighborhoods, places where people work and live. But is there enough water, and can we use it efficiently enough? In their new article in Frontiers in Space Technologies, Dr Martin Elvis and Dr Jonathan McDowell do the math. Even at the most generous estimates of the available water and recycling efficiency, a city of one million people would only last 100 years before all the water runs out. In this guest editorial, Elvis breaks down what we can and can’t do with the technology available.

Space sciences and astronomy

Published on 06 May 2026

Space junk falls to Earth faster when sunspots peak, and this can help prevent collisions with satellites

Scientists have shown for the first time that solar activity can predict the rate at which space junk and satellites descend from orbit

Legged robot performing analogue tests in Marslabor at the University of Basel. Credit: Dr Tomaso Bontognali.

Space sciences and astronomy

Published on 31 Mar 2026

Legged robot could accelerate resource prospecting on the Moon and the search for life on Mars

What if future planetary robots did not have to wait for instructions from Earth before examining every rock?

Concept design for a rectangular space telescope, modeled after the Diffractive Interfero Coronagraph Exoplanet Resolver (DICER), a notional infrared space observatory, and the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: Leaf Swordy/Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Space sciences and astronomy

Published on 01 Sep 2025

Circle versus rectangle: finding ‘Earth 2.0’ may be easier using a new telescope shape

Guest editorial by Prof Heidi Newberg, an astrophysicist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and author of a new Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences article

Frontiers | Science news

Science news

Your favorite music could help reduce the pain of small medical procedures

Even high-altitude forests in Switzerland are now weakened by frequent droughts, making natural hazards more dangerous

Underwater umbrellas for coral reefs could help protect against heat damage, study finds

Working around men may make women feel worse about mistakes, study finds

Latest posts

Unsuspected discovery of abnormal antibodies could explain pediatric cancer

Scientists discover ‘D-rex’, a giant fungus from Chinese forests whose unique lineage dates back 65 million years

Frontiers and SANLiC announce national open access publishing agreement for South Africa

Your favorite music could help reduce the pain of small medical procedures

Working around men may make women feel worse about mistakes, study finds

The world’s oyster reefs could add $12 trillion to planetary health each year – if they were better managed

Categories

Health

Unsuspected discovery of abnormal antibodies could explain pediatric cancer

Your favorite music could help reduce the pain of small medical procedures

Meet a scientist who’s dedicated decades to solving one of prosthetics’ biggest problems

Frontiers in Science: New way to assess pace of aging could accelerate anti-aging breakthroughs

Neuroscience

Handwriting speed among possible signs of cognitive decline in older people

Do animals fall for optical illusions? What fish and birds can teach us about perception

Instructions help you remember something better than emotions or a good night’s sleep

Happy music could help you recover from motion sickness

Environment

Underwater umbrellas for coral reefs could help protect against heat damage, study finds

GPS collars reveal secrets of the power struggle between lions and hyenas in the wild

‘Marmots have money troubles too’: Prof Dan Blumstein on the origin of ‘OnlyMarms’ and what made it a roaring success

Scientists discover the key ingredients that make birdsong pretty

Psychology

Teenagers whose parents are more distracted by phones are more insecure

Cuddling cats might make us feel worse when under stress

‘We cannot ban our way out of a youth mental health crisis’: social media bans for teenagers lack evidence and pose risks, scientists say

‘Sometimes an adult should shut up and go away’: scientists reveal the qualities that kids need in play

Space sciences and astronomy

No cities on the Moon — there isn’t enough water, scientists say

Space junk falls to Earth faster when sunspots peak, and this can help prevent collisions with satellites

Legged robot could accelerate resource prospecting on the Moon and the search for life on Mars

Circle versus rectangle: finding ‘Earth 2.0’ may be easier using a new telescope shape

Frontiers | Science news

Your favorite music could help reduce the pain of small medical procedures

Even high-altitude forests in Switzerland are now weakened by frequent droughts, making natural hazards more dangerous

Underwater umbrellas for coral reefs could help protect against heat damage, study finds

Working around men may make women feel worse about mistakes, study finds

Latest posts

Unsuspected discovery of abnormal antibodies could explain pediatric cancer

Scientists discover ‘D-rex’, a giant fungus from Chinese forests whose unique lineage dates back 65 million years

Frontiers and SANLiC announce national open access publishing agreement for South Africa

Your favorite music could help reduce the pain of small medical procedures

Working around men may make women feel worse about mistakes, study finds

The world’s oyster reefs could add $12 trillion to planetary health each year – if they were better managed

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Health

Unsuspected discovery of abnormal antibodies could explain pediatric cancer

Your favorite music could help reduce the pain of small medical procedures

Meet a scientist who’s dedicated decades to solving one of prosthetics’ biggest problems

Frontiers in Science: New way to assess pace of aging could accelerate anti-aging breakthroughs

Neuroscience

Handwriting speed among possible signs of cognitive decline in older people

Do animals fall for optical illusions? What fish and birds can teach us about perception

Instructions help you remember something better than emotions or a good night’s sleep

Happy music could help you recover from motion sickness

Environment

Underwater umbrellas for coral reefs could help protect against heat damage, study finds

GPS collars reveal secrets of the power struggle between lions and hyenas in the wild

‘Marmots have money troubles too’: Prof Dan Blumstein on the origin of ‘OnlyMarms’ and what made it a roaring success

Scientists discover the key ingredients that make birdsong pretty

Psychology

Teenagers whose parents are more distracted by phones are more insecure

Cuddling cats might make us feel worse when under stress

‘We cannot ban our way out of a youth mental health crisis’: social media bans for teenagers lack evidence and pose risks, scientists say

‘Sometimes an adult should shut up and go away’: scientists reveal the qualities that kids need in play

Space sciences and astronomy

No cities on the Moon — there isn’t enough water, scientists say

Space junk falls to Earth faster when sunspots peak, and this can help prevent collisions with satellites

Legged robot could accelerate resource prospecting on the Moon and the search for life on Mars

Circle versus rectangle: finding ‘Earth 2.0’ may be easier using a new telescope shape