Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

Frequent use of social media can affect young people’s brains

Published 1 February 2023
– By Editorial Staff
3 minute read

In a new study, researchers have scanned the brains of teenagers as they use social media. Specifically they looked at the areas of the brain that respond to social rewards and punishments. It found that those who used Instagram several times a day, for example, became more sensitive to social feedback.

– ‘We don’t know if that’s good or bad,’ says researcher Eva Telzer. However, if it becomes compulsive and addictive and takes away their ability to engage in their social world, it could potentially become maladaptive.

How the growing digital world, and perhaps social media in particular, affects young people is a topic of much debate. In particular, how screen-time and the harsh environment of, for example, TikTok and Instagram will affect children and young people in the longer term is a constant concern for many people.

A study published last year, for example, saw how health videos on TikTok contributed to young people’s skewed view of health and inaccurate images of food and nutrition.

Now a new study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, has investigated whether frequent viewing of social media is associated with changes in brain development in young people. The researchers used a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to look at brain development in children over a three-year period.

The study involved 169 children aged 12 to 13 from North Carolina in the US. The children were from diverse backgrounds and included both girls and boys. Participants were asked to report how often they looked at the social media apps Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat where it could range from once a day to upwards of 20 times a day.

– ‘We know that adolescence is one of the most important periods for brain development – it goes through more changes second only to what we see in early infancy,’ says study author Eva Telzer, an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience. It’s a really dramatic period of brain development, especially in those brain regions that respond to social rewards.

The children then underwent annual fMRI scans where they were asked to look at and respond to different images regarding social feedback in the form of social reward, punishment or neutral images.

– ‘We can take pictures of their brains and see which brain regions are activated when they see these social rewards and which brain regions change over these three years,’ says Telzer.

The researchers found that children who looked at social media up to 15 times a day showed differences in how their brains developed over the next three years, when it came to social feedback. In some brain regions, sensitivity to social rewards and punishments increased. Even those who watched less social media showed increased sensitivity at the beginning of the study, but it decreased over time.

Social rewards can be felt, for example, when you receive praise or when you receive money. However, this is also true when you receive “likes” or positive comments on social media. Social punishments are instead when you receive negative feedback from people and can be compared on social media to, for example, a negative comment.

– Social media platforms deliver a constant and unpredictable stream of social feedback in the form of likes, comments, notifications and messages. These social inputs are frequent, inconsistent and sometimes rewarding, making them particularly powerful reinforcers that can condition users to check social media repeatedly, says co-author and psychologist Kara Fox.

The researchers now believe that frequent use of social media by young people may lead to increased sensitivity to social feedback in adulthood as well, both for social rewards and punishments.

– We don’t know if that’s good or bad – if the brain adapts in a way that allows teenagers to navigate and respond to the world they live in, that could be very good, Telzer says. If, on the other hand, it becomes compulsive and addictive and takes away from their ability to engage in their social world, it could potentially become maladaptive.

At the same time, the researchers note that more research is needed in this area, but add that they recommend that parents try to get their children involved in activities that do not include screens.

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Study: Divorce harms young children’s development

Published 2 October 2025
– By Editorial Staff
According to a Chinese study, children of divorced parents risk falling behind in a range of different developmental areas.
2 minute read

Children whose parents divorce risk falling behind in their development – particularly in social skills, reading ability and physical health. The results come from a major study that followed 62,000 preschool children and compared children from divorced and intact families.

The research, published in the journal BMJ Paediatrics Open, is one of the largest studies conducted on younger children and shows that divorce can slow young children’s development in several areas.

Divorces don’t just affect adults but also have a significant impact on children. However, previous research has often been based on small groups of voluntary participants and produced conflicting results. Additionally, studies have primarily focused on older children, which has left knowledge about how the youngest children are affected inadequate.

The new study fills this knowledge gap by examining children between 3 and 5 years old – a critical age period where development progresses particularly rapidly and where important foundations are laid for the child’s future social, emotional and cognitive abilities.

The researchers used the so-called Human Capability Index, which measures children’s development across nine areas: reading, speech, writing, learning, persistence, language comprehension, cultural knowledge, social and emotional abilities, and physical health.

Worse at almost everything

Of the more than 62,000 children in the study, 2,409 (just under 4 percent) had parents who had divorced. When researchers compared these children with children from intact families, the differences became clear: children whose parents had divorced scored lower on almost all developmental areas.

The largest differences were in social and emotional skills, physical health and reading ability, while medium-sized differences were seen for verbal communication, persistence, language comprehension and cultural knowledge. The least impact was noticed in the areas of writing and general learning ability.

Overall, the study showed that children from divorced families had a greater risk of falling behind in their development compared to peers whose parents still lived together.

The researchers emphasize that the results highlight the need for more research on how society can support this vulnerable group. Parents, relatives and friends, healthcare services and society as a whole need to find better ways to help children through divorce processes so that their development is not negatively affected.

AI-created viruses can kill bacteria

The future of AI

Published 28 September 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Bacteriophages attach to bacteria, inject their DNA and multiply until the bacteria burst. AI can now design new variants from scratch.
2 minute read

Researchers in California have used artificial intelligence to design viruses that can reproduce and kill bacteria.

The breakthrough opens up new medical treatments – but also risks becoming a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands.

Researchers at Stanford University and the Arc Institute have for the first time succeeded in creating complete genomes using artificial intelligence. Their AI-designed viruses can actually reproduce and kill bacteria.

— That was pretty striking, just actually seeing, like, this AI-generated sphere, says Brian Hie, who leads the laboratory at the Arc Institute where the work was carried out.

The team used an AI called Evo, trained on genomes from around 2 million bacteriophages (viruses that attack bacteria). They chose to work with phiX174, a simple virus with just 11 genes and 5,000 DNA letters.

16 of 302 worked

The researchers let the AI design 302 different genome variants, which were then chemically manufactured as DNA strands. When they mixed these with E. coli bacteria, they achieved a breakthrough: 16 of the designs worked and created viruses that could reproduce.

— They saw viruses with new genes, with truncated genes, and even different gene orders and arrangements, says Jef Boeke, biologist at NYU Langone Health who was given advance access to the study.

Since viruses are not considered living organisms, this is not yet truly AI-designed life – but it is an important first step toward that technology.

Major medical potential

The technology has great potential in medicine. “Most gene therapy uses viruses to shuttle genes into patients’ bodies, and AI might develop more effective ones”, explains Samuel King, the student who led the project.

Doctors have previously tried so-called phage therapy to combat serious bacterial infections, something that AI-designed viruses could improve.

“Grave concerns”

But the technology’s development also raises strong concerns. The researchers have deliberately avoided training their AI on viruses that infect humans, but others could misuse the method.

— One area where I urge extreme caution is any viral enhancement research, especially when it’s random so you don’t know what you are getting. If someone did this with smallpox or anthrax, I would have grave concerns, warns J. Craig Venter, a pioneer in synthetic biology.

Venter believes that the technology is fundamentally based on the same trial-and-error principle that he himself used two decades ago, just much faster.

Future challenges

Creating larger organisms is significantly more difficult. E. coli has a thousand times more DNA than phiX174. “The complexity would rocket from staggering to way way more than the number of subatomic particles in the universe”. explains Boeke.

Jason Kelly, CEO of biotech company Ginkgo Bioworks, believes that automated laboratories where AI continuously improves its genome designs will be needed for future breakthroughs.

— This would be a nation-scale scientific milestone, as cells are the building blocks of all life. The US should make sure we get to it first, says Kelly.

Sweden first to use psychedelics to treat anorexia

Published 22 September 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Psilocybin has been used successfully on patients with depression and PTSD. The hope is that it will also help patients with anorexia.
2 minute read

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden are now starting the world’s first study testing psychedelic drugs on young patients with anorexia nervosa. The pilot study includes 40 patients between 16 and 35 years old and begins this autumn.

Anorexia nervosa is one of the psychiatric diagnoses with the highest mortality rate. Each year, approximately 8,300 young people are diagnosed with eating disorders in Sweden, where anorexia nervosa is most common among girls aged 11–17 years. The disease is characterized by restricted food intake, intense fear of weight gain, and distorted body perception.

— Anorexia has a hereditary component and also occurs more frequently in people who have autism or obsessive-compulsive disorder. There are two clear age peaks for onset. The first is at 14 years of age and the next comes around 18 years, says Pouya Movahed Rad, associate professor at Lund University and senior physician at Psychiatry Skåne.

The study is primarily a safety study where researchers will evaluate risks and side effects of psilocybin compared to conventional treatment. Participants, who are recruited from throughout Region Skåne (the southernmost region of Sweden), must have had at least one relapse in their illness and will receive psilocybin on two occasions during carefully monitored sessions.

— Anorexia is a serious disease and there is no existing pharmacological treatment for the condition. It is therefore important to try new methods that can target the disease’s core symptoms, without solely focusing on weight, says Olea Schau Rybäck, doctoral student at Lund University and resident physician in psychiatry at Skåne.

“The brain is fantastic”

Psilocybin is a psychedelic substance found in certain mushrooms. Previous research on depression and PTSD has shown that the substance can break rigid thought and behavioral patterns. The hypothesis is that psilocybin can affect brain synaptic plasticity also in anorexia patients.

— The brain is fantastic and unpredictable. Psilocybin can open up a therapeutic window to create new functional patterns. If the treatment is successful, I see no obstacle to psychedelic drugs becoming an established treatment for anorexia nervosa in the future, says Pouya Movahed Rad.

Results from the study, which is funded by Norrsken Mind (a Swedish venture capital firm), are expected to be ready by the end of 2027. If researchers find promising results, a larger study focusing on treatment effects is planned.

New mini-moon discovered orbiting Uranus

Published 21 August 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Uranus captured in 2023 by the James Webb Space Telescope. Illustration of some of Uranus' moons as well as the new one.
1 minute read

NASA has discovered a new mini-moon orbiting the planet Uranus. The moon is only 10 kilometers wide.

The new moon was discovered in February using the James Webb Space Telescope. Researchers believe the moon previously went unnoticed due to its small size and faint brightness – so much so that even the Voyager 2 spacecraft missed it when it passed by Uranus 40 years ago.

This becomes the 29th moon discovered around Uranus, and it’s not the first time a smaller moon has been found. About half of the planet’s moons are small, which is unusual for a planet.

No other planet has as many small inner moons as Uranus, and their complex inter-relationships with the rings hint at a chaotic history that blurs the boundary between a ring system and a system of moons, says Matthew Tiscareno from the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, who is part of NASA’s research team and continues:

Moreover, the new moon is smaller and much fainter than the smallest of the previously known inner moons, making it likely that even more complexity remains to be discovered.

May receive name from Shakespeare

The moon has not yet been given a name, but all other moons are named after characters from Shakespeare and Alexander Pope, such as Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon.

Before it can receive an official name, the discovery must be approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which is the leading authority for assigning official names and designations to astronomical objects.

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