Connecting Science and Society

When wandering through Italian cities today, visitors will encounter Latin inscriptions on all manner of buildings and monuments. While many date back to ancient Rome, the Middle Ages, or the Renaissance, others were created during Benito Mussolini’s Fascist regime (1922–1943). These Latin texts weren’t merely decorative — they were deliberately crafted political tools that helped forge connections between Fascist Italy and ancient Rome, embedding the regime’s ideology into the very fabric of Italian society.

Ongoing research by Professor Han Lamers (University of Oslo) and Professor Bettina Reitz-Joosse (University of Groningen) reveals how Fascist Italy weaponized ancient Rome’s language to legitimise its power and connect Mussolini’s regime to Italy’s imperial past. Their projects involve collaboration with an international team of mostly junior researchers based in Norway, the Netherlands, Austria, and Italy.

In today’s competitive airline industry, providing personalised services to passengers is becoming increasingly important for customer satisfaction and business success. Gopal Ranganathan from Quad Optima Analytics has developed an innovative artificial intelligence system to help airline executives implement and govern personalisation programmes. This cutting-edge technology aims to increase profits by tailoring services to individual customers while maintaining sound revenue management principles.

Amid growing pressures from climate change and population growth, water availability in the Colorado River Basin is declining while demand continues to rise. At the Water Dialogue Lab at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), Prof Mehdi Nemati and his colleagues, Dr Daniel Crespo, Prof Ariel Dinar, and Ms Paloma Avila from UCR’s School of Public Policy, along with Mr Zachary Frankel and Mr Nicholas Halberg from the Utah Rivers Council, have developed integrated models to assess changes in water availability, use, and associated economic values across the Basin. Their research evaluates the effects of climate change and policy interventions on both physical water supply and economic outcomes. Their findings highlight the need for adaptive planning, improved economic resilience, and policy reforms to ensure long-term sustainability in the region.

For many people, a trip to the dentist can be nerve-wracking and mildly unpleasant, but for those exposed to sexual abuse it can be a deeply distressing experience that triggers overwhelming fear, anxiety, and physical symptoms. Despite oral health being essential for our overall wellbeing, many struggle to seek the dental care they need, leading to long-term health and quality of life consequences. Dr Eva Wolf from Malmö University, in Sweden, has led a team of researchers to help further understand the connections between a history of sexual abuse and fear of dental care, as well as how dentists can use a trauma-informed, patient-centred approach to better support these people.

Shirley C. Strum has spent over 50 years studying wild baboons in Kenya. During that time, she has pioneered new ideas about baboons, about society, about nature, about science and about evolution. As she recounts in her new book Echoes of Our Origins: baboons, humans and nature, she was the first to suggest that baboon society is not based on male aggression and dominance, but that both males and females have effective non-aggressive alternatives. These “social strategies of competition and defence” rely on social relationships that create a “social contract” based on social sophistication, social intelligence, and collaboration, even without the benefits of human characteristics like symbols, language and culture.

The Indigenous Wellness Research Collaborative is a transformative alliance dedicated to advancing health systems and service delivery for Indigenous communities across Saskatchewan. Founded a decade ago and co-led by Dr Mamata Pandey, a research scientist at the Saskatchewan Health Authority, and Dr JoLee Sasakamoose (M’Chigeeng First Nation), Canadian Institute of Health Research Chair in Indigenous Wellness and Health Equity at the University of Regina, their team’s work is rooted in a commitment to Indigenous leadership and community-defined wellness goals. Guided by the Cultural Responsiveness Framework, the Collaborative prioritises creating ethical spaces that serve as a middle ground for respect, reciprocity, and authentic partnerships. The team employs a strengths-based approach to health research, centering Indigenous methodologies that respect the interconnectedness of spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical well-being.

Medical students often experience a decline in empathy as they progress through their training, an issue with real consequences for patient care. A new study from the University of Wisconsin explores an unexpected remedy: Zoom-based improvisational theatre. In the first randomized controlled trial of its kind, researchers found that short online improv sessions helped students improve perspective-taking, reduce emotional distress, and deeply reflect on patient relationships and power dynamics. As telemedicine becomes increasingly common, this approach to teaching empathy could offer a timely, effective, and engaging tool to help future doctors more meaningfully connect with their patients.

Myocardial infarction, commonly termed as a heart attack, is a major cause of death and poor health worldwide. Regenerating heart tissue is an exciting and promising concept that can have significant benefits in myocardial infarctions and related diseases, but this has not yet been achieved in real-life clinical treatments. In a collaboration between Goethe University Frankfurt and Goethe University Hospital, Professor Jaya Krishnan and colleagues address this by controlling pathologic genes involved in the development of heart failure that develops after heart attacks. The researchers demonstrate a new way of treating heart disease by aiding in the division and regrowth of heart cells after a heart attack.

Both Raman fibre lasers (lasers based on stimulating molecules to emit photons at a given frequency shift from the pump laser) and Rare Earth fibre lasers (which use rare earth elements to emit light) work as fibre-based laser sources. Scientists have become interested in Raman fibre lasers because Rare Earth lasers have power limitations, due to the excess heat generated by the lasing process. Dr Yaakov Glick and his colleagues in the Applied Physics Division, at Soreq Nuclear Research Centre in Yavne, Israel, collaborating internationally with other groups, have worked to increase the power of Raman fibre lasers, while simultaneously enhancing their brightness.

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) provides the means to image surfaces with nanometre resolution, allowing scientists to look at the individual building blocks and forces that make up the world around us. Professor Nancy Burnham of Worcester Polytechnic Institute and her colleagues Lei Lyu and Lily Poulikakos at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) have worked on how we can reduce artefacts in these images and ensure they are accurately interpreted. By considering and applying these techniques, high-quality AFM research can be produced.