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Top headlines
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As I write this sentence, my family’s beloved canine companion is napping at my feet. She’s our first dog, and though I’ve always been an animal lover, I didn’t quite get the bond between people and their pets until I experienced it for myself.
As researchers at the University of Denver’s Institute for Human-Animal Connection, Kevin Morris and Jaci Gandenberger have spent their careers exploring the science behind this bond. Though scientists have known for decades that dogs help humans regulate stress, Morris and Gandenberger’s latest study reveals that this process is even more biologically complex than previously understood.
With chronic stress on the rise in the U.S., finding healthy ways to manage stress is more important than ever. Morris and Gandenberger make the case that owning a dog “might just be one of the most accessible and effective tools for staying healthy in a stressful world.”
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Studies show that dogs help humans cope with stress.
marcoventuriniautieri/E+ via Getty Immages
Kevin Morris, University of Denver; Jaci Gandenberger, University of Denver
A new study finds that dogs’ mitigation of human stress is more biologically complex than scientists previously understood.
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Ethics + Religion
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Asher Kaufman, University of Notre Dame
Today, most of the Druze community is split between three countries: Lebanon, Syria and Israel.
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Art Jipson, University of Dayton
The foundational belief of many of the QAnon followers is that Donald Trump is the heroic figure fighting the elite pedophile ring.
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Health + Medicine
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Sona Dimidjian, University of Colorado Boulder; Anahi Collado, University of Colorado Boulder
Peer support is one way to help new mothers access the care they need.
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Politics + Society
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Beverly Moran, Vanderbilt University
The measure enables broad tax cuts that disproportionately favor wealthy households while forcing its costs on the most economically vulnerable Americans.
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Daniel H. Magilow, University of Tennessee
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is among the politicians who have recently compared the immigration agency ICE to the Gestapo. Such analogies risk oversimplifying history.
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Science + Technology
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Anna Erickson, Georgia Institute of Technology
A nuclear engineer explains how the International Atomic Energy Agency monitors peaceful nuclear programs, and why it’s worrisome that Iran stopped cooperating with the IAEA.
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James F. Holden, UMass Amherst
Microbes hidden deep in ocean volcanoes could resemble life on other planets or moons.
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Timiebi Aganaba, Arizona State University; Adam Fish, UNSW Sydney; Deondre Smiles, University of Victoria; Tony Milligan, King's College London
As more countries look to space, experts argue that it’s worth asking why we want to go at all, and who should lead the charge.
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Julie Phillippi, University of Pittsburgh
Studying why heart cells are less likely to become cancerous can provide clues to improving heart regeneration and treatments for heart disease.
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Arts + Culture
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Stephen Acabado, University of California, Los Angeles
Crew aboard Spanish trading ships departing from Manila may have introduced techniques for distilling coconut sap – helping to shape what would become Mexico’s national spirit.
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