To date, many investigations in the field have established intuitive links that are less direct than that: Air pollution exposure while young is consistently associated with lung problems during childhood — and childhood lung problems are consistently associated with lung issues as an adult.

The current study, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Clinical Care Medicine, is one of only a few to show the direct connection between childhood air pollution exposure and adult lung health, a connection not fully explained by air pollution impacts on lung health during childhood. It opens the possibility of yet-to-be-understood factors explaining the path from early air pollution exposure to respiratory maladies many years later.

The team drew upon the USC Children’s Health Study, a large-scale, decades-long study following cohorts of Southern Californians starting at school-age and, for many participants, continuing into adulthood. Importantly, the link between childhood air pollution exposure and adult bronchitis symptoms persisted even when the researchers adjusted for asthma or bronchitis symptoms early in life — a finding that came as a surprise.

“We would expect that these observable impacts on childhood respiratory health would explain the relationship between childhood air pollution exposure and adult respiratory health,” said corresponding author Erika Garcia, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of population and public health sciences at the Keck School of Medicine. “Our results suggest that childhood air pollution exposure has more subtle effects on our respiratory system that still impact us in adulthood.”

Safeguarding lung health, now and later

The focus on exposure during youth is motivated in part by the fact that children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of air pollution. Their respiratory and immune systems are still developing and compared to adults, they breathe in more air relative to their body mass.

Ultimately the concern is twofold, for the health of young people today and for their future health when they grow up. Notably, among study participants with recent bronchitis symptoms as adults, average childhood exposure to a pollutant called nitrogen dioxide fell far below annual Environmental Protection Agency standards — just a bit over half the limit that was set in 1971 and remains in place today.

“This study highlights the importance of lowering air pollution, and especially exposure during the critical period of childhood,” Garcia said. “Because there’s only so much that we can do as individuals to control our exposure, the need to protect children from the adverse effects of air pollution is better addressed at the policy level.”

The study population comprised 1,308 Children’s Health Study participants with an average age of 32 at their adult assessment. The researchers asked about recent bouts of bronchitis symptoms — having either bronchitis, chronic cough, or congestion or phlegm production not associated with a cold. One-quarter of participants had experienced bronchitis symptoms within the previous 12 months.

Presence of bronchitis symptoms was associated with exposure between birth and age 17 to two types of pollutants. One type groups together tiny particles in the air such as dust, pollen, ash from wildfires, industrial emissions and products from vehicle exhaust. The other, nitrogen dioxide, is a byproduct of combustion in automobiles, planes, boats and power plants that is known to hurt lung function.

Long-running health research proves vital to igniting discovery

For as comprehensive an analysis as possible, average pollutant exposure over childhood was based on month-by-month estimates. The researchers matched up family home address at each time point with contemporaneous local air quality measurements taken by the EPA and through the Children’s Health Study.

“We’re fortunate to have this fantastic and nuanced longitudinal study,” Garcia said. “We can learn a lot about how earlier experiences impact adult health. That’s thanks to a long-term team effort from the participants themselves, their families, the schools they attended and all the research staff and investigators who conducted interviews and generated and analyzed data over the years.”

The current study included additional analyses to rule out factors such as prenatal exposure to nitrogen dioxide, current air pollution exposure as adults and the effects of socioeconomic status in childhood or adulthood as drivers of bronchitis symptoms in adults.

Pollution exposure in youth may hurt lung health for some more than others

Garcia and her colleagues also found that the effect of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter exposure during childhood on bronchitis symptoms among adults was stronger for those who had been diagnosed with asthma as kids.

“There may be a subpopulation that is more sensitive to the effects of air pollution,” Garcia said. “We may want to be especially careful to protect them from exposure, so we can improve their outcomes later in life. Reducing air pollution would have benefits not only for current asthma in children but also for their respiratory health as they grow into adulthood.”

She and her colleagues are following up to examine how the level of air pollution exposure at different ages during youth influences breathing issues as an adult. Other future research directions building on the current study’s results could include looking into other markers of childhood and adult respiratory health, such as how well asthma was controlled, or exploring a potential genetic component.

About this study

The study’s co-authors are Zoe Birnhak, Scott West, Steve Howland, Rob McConnell, Shohreh. Farzan, Theresa Bastain, Rima Habre and Carrie Breton, all of the Keck School of Medicine; and Frederick Lurmann and Nathan Pavlovic of the environmental consulting firm Sonoma Technology.

This research received support from the National Institutes of Health (UH3OD023287, P30ES007048).

According to a study at the University of Helsinki, some dog owners experience feelings similar to the post-natal baby blues — a short-term drop in mood and melancholy — when their dog is a puppy. Caring for a puppy gives rise to a variety of worries, fears and frustration, and it can be difficult to bond with the dog.

“The study found that these so-called ‘puppy blues’ manifest in three ways: anxiety, frustration and weariness. These often occur concurrently, but in some cases one or two of the three may be particularly prominent,” says Psychologist and Doctoral Researcher Aada Ståhl.

An anxious puppy owner’s thoughts are coloured by concerns about the puppy’s wellbeing and development, as well as about their own inadequacy in looking after their dog. Owners might blame themselves when things do not go as planned.

A frustrated puppy owner can experience dissatisfaction and stress as a result of the strain and unexpected challenges of caring for a puppy. They might find it difficult to build an emotional bond with the puppy, wish they had never got the puppy and consider relinquishing the dog.

For the exhausted puppy owner, puppyhood is a time of mental and physical strain. They might have trouble sleeping, and find the constant attention and time the puppy needs tiring and anxiety-inducing.

“Just under half of owners report having had significant negative experiences during their dog’s puppyhood phase, with only about a tenth reporting the most severe levels of strain. This is in line with the prevalence of postnatal depression. However, the negative feelings fade relatively quickly,” says Professor Hannes Lohi.

One interesting finding was that the longer the amount of time that had passed since puppyhood, the more positively people remembered it. In other words, the negative emotional content of memories of puppyhood ‘fades’ over time.

A phenomenon familiar to dog owners is now measurable for further research

The study first collected the experiences of over 100 dog owners who had experienced emotional strain after bringing a puppy home. Based on this data, a survey was developed to measure the ‘puppy blues’. The new survey collected responses from more than 2,000 dog owners, with measures taken to ensure the validity and reliability of the survey.

“Capturing the phenomenon in a measurable form is important if we are to better understand its characteristics, prevalence and duration. This will also allow us to improve understanding of the factors that may predispose owners to or protect them from the ‘puppy blues’, which will help us to develop prevention and support measures,” says Ståhl.

The study represents a new opening in the study of the relationship between humans and pets. Although the term ‘puppy blues’ is commonly used among dog owners, no comprehensive research had been done on the subject before. Exploring this phenomenon will raise awareness, which can help people to prepare for negative feelings and to better recognise and understand their own experiences.

The study is part of a wider project by Professor Hannes Lohi’s research group, which is investigating the relationship between owner and animal and its importance for wellbeing.

The Texas law prohibiting abortions after a fetal heartbeat could be detected — as early as five or six weeks — went into effect September 1, 2021. At the time, the law — Senate Bill 8, or S.B. 8 — was the most stringent state abortion law in the country. It did not allow exemptions for congenital anomalies.

The researchers’ analysis of monthly death certificate data in Texas and the rest of the United States found that between 2021 and 2022, infant deaths in Texas rose from 1,985 to 2,240, a year-over-year increase of 255 deaths. This corresponds to a 12.9 percent increase in infant deaths in Texas versus a 1.8 percent increase in infant deaths in the rest of the U.S. during the same period. The study defines infants as under 12 months old.

The study was published online June 24 in JAMA Pediatrics.

The findings come as more U.S. states enact stricter abortion laws following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision, the landmark ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and returned abortion policymaking to the states.

To approximate the causal impact of S.B. 8, the authors narrowed their analysis to examine changes in the expected number of infant deaths in Texas from March to December 2022 — the time period that captures the first set of pregnancies under S.B. 8. The researchers estimate there were 216 excess infant deaths in Texas that would most likely not have occurred from March to December 2022 had the state’s abortion law not been in place. This is equivalent to a 12.7 percent increase above the expected 1,697 infant deaths for this time period. There were 1,913 observed deaths in Texas from March to December 2022.

An analysis of neonatal deaths — deaths in the first 28 days — found similar patterns, with an estimated 145 excess deaths in the post-policy period. These results were not observed in other states.

The new study is thought to be the first to examine how the Texas abortion ban may have impacted infant deaths in the state and is among the first to present evidence evaluating recent abortion bans and pre-viability restrictions. Prior research has shown that states with more abortion restrictions see more infant deaths than those without. The authors note that these earlier studies evaluate fundamentally different and less severe abortion restrictions and primarily examine correlation.

“Our study is particularly relevant given the June 2022 Dobbs Supreme Court decision that returned abortion lawmaking to states and subsequent rollbacks of reproductive rights in many states,” says Alison Gemmill, PhD, assistant professor in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health and one of the study’s lead authors. “These findings suggest that restrictive abortion policies may have important unintended consequences in terms of infant health and the associated trauma to families and medical costs.”

For their month-by-month causal analysis, the researchers drew from infant death certificates in Texas and 28 comparison states from 2018 through 2022. They excluded the District of Columbia and several states that had fewer than 10 infant deaths in any month from 2018 to 2022, as the exact counts are not provided in currently publicly available data. The researchers selected March 2022 as the first cohort exposed to the Texas abortion policy because these infants, if born full term, would have been approximately 10 to 14 weeks gestation when the Texas law went into effect in September 2021. Before S.B. 8’s enactment, people would have been able to seek termination in the event a fetal issue was detected during screening prior to 20 weeks gestation.

In an analysis of cause of death using all 2021 and 2022 death certificate data, the researchers found that Texas had atypical increases in infant deaths due to congenital anomalies, the leading cause of infant death. Infant deaths attributable to congenital anomalies increased 22.9 percent in Texas between 2021 and 2022 versus a decrease of 3.1 percent in the rest of the U.S. during the same period. Another divergent cause of death pattern in Texas was infant deaths from accidents, which increased by 21 percent in Texas versus a one percent increase in the rest of the U.S.

“Our results suggest that restrictive abortion policies that limit pregnant people’s ability to terminate pregnancies, particularly those with fetal abnormalities diagnosed later in pregnancy, may lead to increases in infant mortality,” says Suzanne Bell, PhD, MPH, assistant professor in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health and one of the study’s lead authors. “These findings make clear the potentially devastating consequences abortion bans can have on pregnant people and families who are unable to overcome barriers to this essential reproductive health service.”

The authors note that the data did not include maternal and clinical characteristics of infant deaths, thus limiting the authors’ ability to explore potential mechanisms behind these findings.

The researchers are currently studying the impact across socioeconomic groups that abortion bans have on live births and infant mortality in Texas and other states that banned abortion following Dobbs.

This study was supported by the Hopkins Population Center from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P2CHD042854).

“Tell me if you dance and I will tell you who you are!” A study led by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (MPIEA) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, has shown that both amateur and professional dancers are less neurotic than people who do not dance. They are also more agreeable, more open, and more extraverted. The results of the study have recently been published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.

In cooperation with Matthias Blattmann, CEO of Gutmann Dance School in Freiburg im Breisgau and Tanzloft GmbH, and Luisa Sancho-Escanero, dance director at the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern, the MPIEA’s researchers analyzed data from 5,435 people from Sweden and 574 people from Germany, with regards to their Big Five Personality Traits “Openness,””Conscientiousness,””Extraversion,””Agreeableness,” and “Neuroticism.”

“What is unique about this work is that we have brought together very large samples from two different countries. Such data are generally scarce, and previous studies have often been based on rather small samples,” explains senior author Fredrik Ullén, Director at the MPIEA.

In Sweden, the research team was able to rely on an existing database that included data about peoples’ creative engagement and dance achievements. To collect dancer data in Germany, the researchers developed an online survey that was widely shared by dance institutions.

Previous research has found that musicians are more agreeable and more open to others than non-musicians. In the current study, this was also confirmed for dancers. But the researchers also found an interesting difference between the two groups: In comparison to musicians, dancers are not more neurotic, but — on the contrary — less neurotic than people who do not dance.

“In general, both dancers and singers show a high degree of extraversion in their personality — which may be due to the fact that their means of expression when dancing and singing is their body — and this is a very socially exposed situation, more than if you express through an instrument, for example. However, more in-depth investigations are needed to explore this further,” says lead author Julia F. Christensen of the MPIEA.

There was also some evidence of personality differences between dancers of different styles. Swing dancers, for example, seemed to be even less neurotic than Latin and Standard dancers. However, this needs to be confirmed with larger samples of dancers. In the future, the researchers hope to extend their research into dancers’ personalities to many other cultures and dance styles.

A new study in the journal Science Advances, conducted by a team of international researchers, has uncovered a biological explanation for long-term memories. It centers on the discovery of the role of a molecule, KIBRA, that serves as a “glue” to other molecules, thereby solidifying memory formation.

“Previous efforts to understand how molecules store long-term memory focused on the individual actions of single molecules,” explains André Fenton, a professor of neural science at New York University and one of the study’s principal investigators. “Our study shows how they work together to ensure perpetual memory storage.”

“A firmer understanding of how we keep our memories will help guide efforts to illuminate and address memory-related afflictions in the future,” adds Todd Sacktor, a professor at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University and one of the study’s principal investigators.

It’s been long-established that neurons store information in memory as the pattern of strong synapses and weak synapses, which determines the connectivity and function of neural networks. However, the molecules in synapses are unstable, continually moving around in the neurons, and wearing out and being replaced in hours to days, thereby raising the question: How, then, can memories be stable for years to decades?

In a study using laboratory mice, the scientists focused on the role of KIBRA, or kidney and brain expressed protein, the human genetic variants of which are associated with both good and poor memory. They focused on KIBRA’s interactions with other molecules crucial to memory formation — in this case, protein kinase Mzeta (PKMzeta). This enzyme is the most crucial molecule for strengthening normal mammalian synapses that is known, but it degrades after a few days.

Their experiments reveal that KIBRA is the “missing link” in long-term memories, serving as a “persistent synaptic tag,” or glue, that sticks to strong synapses and to PKMzeta while also avoiding weak synapses.

“During memory formation the synapses involved in the formation are activated — and KIBRA is selectively positioned in these synapses,” explains Sacktor, a professor of physiology, pharmacology, anesthesiology, and neurology at SUNY Downstate. “PKMzeta then attaches to the KIBRA-synaptic-tag and keeps those synapses strong. This allows the synapses to stick to newly made KIBRA, attracting more newly made PKMzeta.”

More specifically, their experiments in the Science Advances paper show that breaking the KIBRA-PKMzeta bond erases old memory. Previous work had shown that randomly increasing PKMzeta in the brain enhances weak or faded memories, which was mysterious because it should have done the opposite by acting at random locations, but the persistent synaptic tagging by KIBRA explains why the additional PKMzeta was memory enhancing, by only acting at the KIBRA tagged sites.

“The persistent synaptic tagging mechanism for the first time explains these results that are clinically relevant to neurological and psychiatric disorders of memory,” observes Fenton, who is also on the faculty at NYU Langone Medical Center’s Neuroscience Institute.

The paper’s authors note that the research affirms a concept introduced in 1984 by Francis Crick. Sacktor and Fenton point out that his proposed hypothesis to explain the brain’s role in memory storage despite constant cellular and molecular changes is a Theseus’s Ship mechanism — borrowed from a philosophical argument stemming from Greek mythology in which new planks replace old ones to maintain Theseus’s Ship for years.

“The persistent synaptic tagging mechanism we found is analogous to how new planks replace old planks to maintain Theseus’s Ship for generations, and allows memories to last for years even as the proteins maintaining the memory are replaced,” says Sacktor. “FrancisCrick intuited this Theseus’s Ship mechanism, even predicting the role for a protein kinase. But it took 40 years to discover that the components are KIBRA and PKMzeta and to work out the mechanism of their interaction.”

The study also included researchers from Canada’s McGill University, Germany’s University Hospital of Münster, and University of Texas Medical School at Houston.

This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R37 MH057068, R01 MH115304, R01 NS105472, R01 MH132204, R01 NS108190), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery (203523), and the Garry and Sarah S. Sklar Fund.

Comparison between singles today and singles ten years ago

Throughout the world, marriage rates have been declining over past decades, while divorce rates and the proportions of single-person households have been on the rise. “It is notable that, particularly in Western industrialized countries, singlehood is no longer unconventional and now considered more socially acceptable than in the past,” stated Dr. Tita Gonzalez Avilés from the JGU Institute of Psychology. She analyzed data from the representative longitudinal Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics (pairfam), which has been surveying the nature of romantic relationship and family dynamics in Germany since 2008. The most recent study is based on the information provided by 2,936 participants in different birth cohorts. The gathered material related to two separate time periods, namely 2008 to 2011 and 2018 to 2021. This allowed the researchers to differentiate between the satisfaction of earlier-born and later-born singles during adolescence (14-20 years), emerging adulthood (24-30 years), and established adulthood (34-40 years).

“Although we know that singlehood is gaining ground, we have not yet determined whether individuals are now more satisfied with this way of life,” added Gonzalez Avilés, explaining the purpose of the study. Their findings, which have recently appeared in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, indicate that adolescent singles born in 2001 to 2003 were more often single and more satisfied with singlehood than the birth cohort born ten years. Furthermore, there were no cohort-related differences among emerging adults aged 24 to 30 years and established adults aged 34 to 40.

Multiple factors explain the higher satisfaction among adolescents

Although the difference in satisfaction between today and ten years ago is not very large, even among adolescents, it stands out from the historical developments among adults. Gonzalez Avilés and her co-authors postulate that this may be due to the fact that living as a single has become increasingly normative over time, especially among the younger generation. Furthermore, their attitudes towards romantic conventions have changed and they are more open to diverse relationship types. “We assume that adolescents nowadays may postpone entering into a stable relationship because they value their personal autonomy and individual fulfillment over a romantic partnership. However, these explanations are — for the time being — speculative and require further investigation,” concluded Gonzalez Avilés.

Several drugs combined into one daily pill for seniors who have trouble remembering to take their medications.

Drugs printed at your local pharmacy at personalized dosages that best suit your health needs.

These are just a few potential advantages of 3D drug printing, a new system for manufacturing drugs and treatments on-site at pharmacies, health care facilities and other remote locations.

In 2015, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first 3D-printed drug, Spritam (levetiracetam), for epilepsy. Several other manufacturers and drug companies are developing their own ones.

But the widespread adoption of 3D drug printing will require stringent quality control measures to ensure that people get the right medication and dosage. Even a tiny mismeasurement of a drug’s ingredient during the printing process could endanger a patient’s health.

In a new research paper, NIST research scientist Thomas P. Forbes assesses various approaches to ensuring that 3D drug printers work as designed. The journal article applies a “quality by design” analysis to evaluate the best procedures and protocols to ensure that 3D printers produce drugs at the correct dosages and with the correct mix of chemicals.

Though various methods exist for remotely printing drugs, Forbes focused on one of the most common: inkjet printers and similar systems that can print personalized medication on demand.

Like inkjet printers in homes, though larger, the printer has nozzles that deposit the drug’s liquified materials, or inks, into tiny wells on a tray or directly into capsules. Through freeze-drying and other processes, the liquid can be turned into a tablet or powder poured into a capsule. It can also be evaporated onto a thin film that dissolves in the mouth.

Forbes’ paper does not make any recommendations. Instead, his research identifies and tests several possible methods and techniques for maintaining quality control in 3D drug printing.

Jeanie Tryggestad, M.D., an associate professor of pediatrics in the OU College of Medicine, led the study, which is published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. It marks one of the first times microRNA abundance has been explored to predict the progression of Type 2 diabetes in youth. The specific microRNAs in the study are involved in insulin resistance and other actions that can stress beta cells or cause their death. The research is significant because it points to a process that is necessary to understand in order to ultimately design a strategy for prevention.

“Type 2 diabetes in youth is so aggressive, and the decline of beta cell function in youth is much more than we see in adults,” Tryggestad said. “We believe that predicting what will cause beta cell dysfunction, and eventually preventing that dysfunction, is one of the keys for preventing or treating Type 2 diabetes.”

Tryggestad’s study showed that the microRNAs, at baseline, were nearly as effective as A1C measurement (average level of blood sugar) when predicting who would fail to respond to treatment for Type 2 diabetes. Treatment failure was defined as having an A1C of greater than 8% for six months or a circumstance that caused the study participant to go back on insulin without the ability to come back off. Circulating microRNAs also predicted a 20% decrease in beta cell function during the first six months of the study.

Currently, microRNAs can be measured only in a research setting, not in a clinic, but that may change in the future, Tryggestad said. The study’s implications are important not only for the predictive potential of microRNAs, but because they represent a mechanism, or part of the process by which Type 2 diabetes develops and worsens.

“Glucose and A1C are relevant to me as a clinician, but as a clinician-researcher, it’s important to have this additional piece of information about microRNAs because it points us toward a mechanism. It’s the mechanism that we need to understand to design a prevention. It adds a layer of understanding that we haven’t had before,” she said.

Addressing the dramatic increase in Type 2 diabetes in children is only becoming more critical. Each year in the United States, cases of Type 2 diabetes in youth increase by 5.3%. At that rate, the prevalence is expected to increase by a staggering 700% by the year 2060. Tryggestad said that today, more youth ages 15 to 19 are living with Type 2 diabetes than Type 1 diabetes — the first time that has ever happened.

The samples analyzed in this research came from participants in the landmark TODAY study (Treatment Options for Type 2 Diabetes in Adolescents and Youth). The OU College of Medicine played a major role in the multi-center clinical trial, which began recruiting participants in 2003 and ended in 2020. The trial featured 699 study participants, and Oklahoma enrolled more patients than any other participating site.

The trial was the first and largest of its kind to compare treatments for Type 2 diabetes in youth, but it has continued to yield information since the original study ended. The OU College of Medicine was awarded an additional grant to analyze microRNA samples taken during the first 10 years of the study.

New research, published today in Environment International proves for the first time that a wide range of PFAS (perfluoroalkyl substances) — chemicals which do not break down in nature — can permeate the skin barrier and reach the body’s bloodstream.

PFAS are used widely in industries and consumer products from school uniforms to personal care products because of their water and stain repellent properties. While some substances have been banned by government regulation, others are still widely used and their toxic effects have not yet been fully investigated.

PFAS are already known to enter the body through other routes, for example being breathed in or ingested via food or drinking water, and they are known to cause adverse health effects such as a lowered immune response to vaccination, impaired liver function and decreased birth weight.

It has commonly been thought that PFAS are unable to breach the skin barrier, although recent studies have shown links between the use of personal care products and PFAS concentrations in human blood and breast milk. The new study is the most comprehensive assessment yet undertaken of the absorption of PFAS into human skin and confirms that most of them can enter the body via this route.

Lead author of the study, Dr Oddný Ragnarsdóttir carried out the research while studying for her PhD at the University of Birmingham. She explained: “The ability of these chemicals to be absorbed through skin has previously been dismissed because the molecules are ionised. The electrical charge that gives them the ability to repel water and stains was thought to also make them incapable of crossing the skin membrane.

“Our research shows that this theory does not always hold true and that, in fact, uptake through the skin could be a significant source of exposure to these harmful chemicals.”

The researchers investigated 17 different PFAS. The compounds selected were among those most widely used, and most widely studied for their toxic effects and other ways through which humans might be exposed to them. Most significantly, they correspond to chemicals regulated by the EU’s Drinking Water Directive.

In their experiments the team used 3D human skin equivalent models — multilayered laboratory grown tissues that mimic the properties of normal human skin, meaning the study could be carried out without using any animals. They applied samples of each chemical to measure what proportions were absorbed, unabsorbed, or retained within the models.

Of the 17 PFAS tested, the team found 15 substances showed substantial dermal absorption — at least 5% of the exposure dose. At the exposure doses examined, absorption into the bloodstream of the most regulated PFAS (perfluoro octanoic acid (PFOA)) was 13.5% with a further 38% of the applied dose retained within the skin for potential longer-term uptake into the circulation.

The amount absorbed seemed to correlate with the length of the carbon chain within the molecule. Substances with longer carbon chains showed lower levels of absorption, while compounds with shorter chains that were introduced to replace longer carbon chain PFAS like PFOA, were more easily absorbed. Absorption of perfluoro pentanoic acid for example was four times that of PFOA at 59%.

Study co-author, Dr Mohamed Abdallah, said “our study provides first insight into significance of the dermal route as pathway of exposure to a wide range of forever chemicals. Given the large number of existing PFAS, it is important that future studies aim to assess the risk of broad ranges of these toxic chemicals, rather than focusing on one chemical at a time.”

Study co-author, Professor Stuart Harrad, of the University of Birmingham’s School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, added: “This study helps us to understand how important exposure to these chemicals via the skin might be and also which chemical structures might be most easily absorbed. This is important because we see a shift in industry towards chemicals with shorter chain lengths because these are believed to be less toxic — however the trade-off might be that we absorb more of them, so we need to know more about the risks involved.”

In a world-first study published last weekend in the journal Cognition, a team of international researchers has reported some surprising findings relating to facial recognition.

The first discovery is that one’s ability to recognise faces has nothing to do with how extraverted, sociable, or gregarious a person is. What is clear, however, is that good facial recall is linked to the number of close, high-quality relationships that people have.

Researchers from the University of South Australia (UniSA), University of Western Australia (UWA) and Curtin University, along with US colleagues from Wellesley College and Harvard Medical School, undertook four separate studies involving more than 3000 people to tease out the relationship between facial recognition, social networks and personality traits.

In tests where participants memorised new faces or identified celebrity faces, their scores correlated with the number of close relationships they enjoyed.

“People who identified more faces typically had larger supportive social networks, which bodes well for their overall health and happiness,” says lead researcher UniSA psychologist Dr Laura Engfors.

“In concrete terms, the rise from the lowest (two) to the highest (28) number of faces that were successfully recognised on one test coincided with six additional close relationships, increasing from nine to 15. That’s an increase of two thirds and it is one extra strong social bond per four famous people recognised.”

The research did not find any link between facial recognition and a more social personality.

“Our findings rule out the idea that being sociable means you’ll probably be great at recognising faces. It also helps to dispel the common misconception that not recognising someone means you are less sociable.

“The ability to recognise faces more easily also means people may develop relationships faster.

“Imagine you’ve had an engaging conversation with someone you have only just met. A few weeks later you run into them again. If you recognise them quickly and easily, it opens the door to develop the rapport you established in your first meeting, helping the relationship to progress.

“On the flip side, if you don’t recognise them, you’ve missed the chance to build on that initial interaction,” Dr Engfors says.

Curtin University researcher and co-author Dr Linda Jeffery says being recognised by someone is a boost to a person’s self-esteem.

“It can make us feel important and valued, leading us to relate to that person more warmly, whereas we feel snubbed if someone we have met before does not recognise us.”

Wellesley College psychologist and co-author Associate Professor Jeremy Wilmer hopes the findings will be used to build stronger communities that facilitate human connection.

“Understanding that not everyone finds it easy to recognise people can help us to support those around us in social interactions,” Prof Wilmer says.

“Something as simple as name tags at a community barbecue or school event can make the difference between a connection built and a connection lost. Similarly, if you catch a flicker of uncertainty on someone’s face when you say hello, a subtle reminder to help them place you will be appreciated.”

People can test their own celebrity face recognition at the researchers’ citizen science website TestMyBrain.org.