Connecting Science and Society

Cerebral palsy is the most common childhood motor disorder and leads to lifelong difficulties with walking. Alongside colleagues at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, as well as national and international collaborations, research led by Professor Jessica Rose at Stanford University reveals how early brain injury disrupts muscle growth and neuromuscular control in motor function.

Professor Deanna Sellnow from Clemson University argues that crisis and risk communication research must evolve beyond simply describing and deconstructing problems to actively empowering people protect themselves and their communities. In an era of increasing globalisation, she proposes that researchers adopt learner- and learning-centered approaches to ensure communication does not simply inform people about dangers, but also teaches them how to respond effectively (e.g., to reduce risks, mitigate harms, improve safety, save lives) and why.

As automation and controlled environments reshape modern farming, the need for technicians who understand both plant science and engineering is rapidly increasing. At Virginia Western Community College (VWCC) located in Roanoke, VA, Dr David Berry is leading a programme supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) with the aim to merge agriculture with mechatronics, preparing students for the realities of emerging industries. A distinctive example of this approach is an automated hydroponics system designed by two industry-sponsored students, demonstrating how practical experience, interdisciplinary training and strong employer partnerships can create the skilled workforce required for the future of sustainable food production.

New research has identified proteins from gut bacteria, called Sel1-like proteins, that have the potential to help the body get rid of excess oxalate, an organic substance linked to kidney stones, kidney disease, and other health problems. Sel1-like proteins help the cell in assembling large molecular complexes important for cell function. Dr Hatim Hassan from the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States, is part of a team of scientists researching whether these proteins and their derived peptides could reduce blood and urinary oxalate levels to prevent and/ or treat hyperoxalemia (high blood oxalate), hyperoxaluria (high urine oxalate) and related disorders (including kidney stones).

Across Europe, refugees and asylum seekers often find themselves in precarious situations, facing limited access to housing, employment, education, and legal protection. While government responses have frequently proved inadequate, grass-roots movements have emerged to fill the gaps. These citizen-led initiatives represent more than simple charity; they embody new forms of political engagement where refugees and volunteers work together across differences to create useful change.
This issue is particularly pressing in the Republic of Cyprus (RoC), where the island’s own history of division and displacement shapes contemporary responses to newcomers. Since 2015, the RoC has experienced a dramatic increase in refugee arrivals, making it the EU member state with the highest number of asylum applications per capita in 2021. Yet despite – or perhaps because of – this pressure, women in the Cypriot city of Paphos have created remarkable spaces of collaboration and mutual support.

Brain and mental disorders are conditions that disrupt how the brain works, affecting how people think, feel, or behave. The current insufficient approach to diagnosing these conditions has contributed to their massive global impact. By 2050, an estimated 4.9 billion people will suffer from neurodegenerative disorders and mental illnesses.
At Advanced Biosimulation Technologies LLC (USA), scientists and engineers led by Dr Roustem Miftahof and Dr Fred Makaroff have developed a groundbreaking platform designed to screen and detect early cognitive changes before symptoms appear.

Turbulence remains one of the most enigmatic and poorly understood phenomena in physics, despite being ubiquitous in nature and everyday life—from the experience of flying through turbulent air, to driving at high speed, to observing water swirling in a river. The challenge of understanding turbulence has captivated some of history’s greatest minds.
Albert Einstein (physicist): “A turbulent flow is a problem whose solution has always defied the greatest minds.”
Richard Feynman (physicist): “Turbulence is the most important unsolved problem of classical physics.”
What are the governing equations of turbulence? Dr Alex Fedoseyev is unravelling turbulence mysteries using the Alexeev Hydrodynamic Equations (AHE). The model he developed has enabled major advances in the prediction of turbulent flows and laid the foundation for practical turbulence management.

In early modern Europe, ancient Greek was far more than a scholarly pursuit. Intellectuals from many regions discovered that demonstrating resemblance of their native languages to Greek could elevate their cultural status, support claims of superiority over rival languages, and even advance religious and political causes. Sometimes called ‘Hellenising’, this phenomenon saw scholars from Italy to France, Germany, and the Netherlands, deliberately revealing —and often inventing— Greek features in their mother tongues.
Understanding how this worked requires examining specific cases where scholars used Greek to reshape their languages and advance their own agendas.

Dr Norio Mitsuhashi, former Professor of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Tokyo Women’s Medical University, leads revolutionary clinical research into optimising stereotactic body radiation therapy for lung cancer. Dr Mitsuhashi and his colleagues examine whether routinely available patient and tumour characteristics can predict respiratory tumour motion, a critical source of uncertainty in high precision radiotherapy. Their findings suggest that respiratory motion cannot be reliably inferred, and must instead be measured directly in every patient.

The mining industry plays a vital role in driving Mongolia’s economic growth and creating employment opportunities. However, in the Gobi Desert —one of the driest regions in Mongolia— water access, and community engagement remain critical challenges for the mining industry. In this region, water is a shared and scarce resource, relied upon by herders, towns, mining companies, wildlife, and fragile ecosystems alike.

A study by Dr Bolormaa Purevjav and her colleagues explored how a holistic approach which combines economic, social, and environmental principles called Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) can improve water sustainability in mining regions.