Fórum Society

An ESRI report working with Tusla Education Support Service has found that young people are significantly more likely to miss school when their parents use harsh discipline or when there's a lack of routine around bedtimes and breakfast. The research, which tracked children from age 9 to 13, shows that maternal characteristics play a much stronger role than paternal factors in predicting school absence. Beyond parenting style, the study reveals that major life events like bereavement, illness and addiction drive absence, as do negative attitudes toward school itself - which interestingly has become a stronger predictor of absence than it was a decade ago. The report also found higher absence rates in disadvantaged communities, among children with disabilities, and in families experiencing financial strain or living in rented accommodation.

Researchers at the University of Vermont have discovered a clever strategy to fight mesothelioma - a rare, aggressive cancer linked to asbestos exposure that kills about 30,000 people worldwide each year. Instead of trying to reduce the damaging molecules that cancer cells produce, they're doing the opposite: blocking an enzyme called PRX3 that protects tumor cells from these toxic molecules. In a phase one clinical trial, an experimental drug using thiostrepton - a naturally occurring antibiotic - blocked this protective enzyme and controlled disease progression in 67% of patients, with some tumors actually shrinking. Because cancer cells already produce far more of these damaging molecules than normal cells and rely more heavily on PRX3 to survive, this approach appears to target tumors while leaving healthy tissue relatively unharmed.

Scientists at Hokkaido University have discovered something really exciting - black and green rice varieties contain special fats that white rice simply doesn't have. Using advanced techniques like mass spectrometry, the researchers identified 196 different lipid molecules in japonica rice, with pigmented varieties showing notably higher levels of beneficial compounds called FAHMFAs and LNAPEs. These fats have been linked to anti-inflammatory activity and better metabolic health, which is pretty remarkable when you think about how often rice is overlooked nutritionally. What really caught my attention is that black and green rice also produced slower blood sugar rises than white rice, suggesting they could help manage type 2 diabetes risk and support heart health.

So here's the thing - NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has spotted something remarkable on Pluto: evidence that liquid nitrogen may be flowing on the dwarf planet's surface near Sputnik Planitia, that enormous heart-shaped glacier. What makes this so exciting is that it's the first indication liquids have actually moved on Pluto in relatively recent times, not just way back in the ancient past. The research team compared images from Pluto with NASA's Landsat 9 observations of Earth's glaciers, and the patterns looked strikingly similar - those dark markings that appear when water interacts with ice. Computer models suggest that nitrogen ice deep beneath the surface can melt and rise through channels toward the top, traveling like liquid in underground tubes, which would explain how these features formed in the last million years or so.

So here's something I find really fascinating - we've always known that helping others makes us feel happier, and that includes caring for animals too. But a new study about compassion reveals something quite striking: one type of compassion matters more than we might expect. And it turns out that how we care about and treat ourselves has a much bigger impact on our mental health than we realized. Which brings me to this insight - self-compassion isn't selfish at all, it's actually foundational to our wellbeing.

So here's what's fascinating - we're looking at something genuinely rare happening in the Atlantic right now, with zero hurricanes recorded so far this year. In the last 175 years of records, this has only occurred twice before, back in 1907 and 1914. Now, El Niño tends to get all the attention when we talk about hurricane suppression, but it turns out there's another force at play here that's contributing to fewer storms and pushing the season peak later than usual. And here's the thing - we're even seeing intensified drought conditions across the Caribbean islands partly because of this lack of tropical storms.

So here's what's fascinating: an 18-year-old student from Philadelphia has actually cracked something that's stumped musicologists for centuries - what makes Mozart's music so distinctively brilliant. Linus Chen-Plotkin analysed 600 movements from Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert using statistical software and Markov chains, and discovered that Mozart's melodies have a shorter "memory" - meaning they're more surprising and unpredictable moment-to-moment. His work shows that Mozart sets up patterns of expectation in his music and then confounds them, which is exactly what gives those pieces their dizzying richness and magic. What I find really encouraging is that Chen-Plotkin isn't arguing maths replaces musicology - he's simply showing how data can reveal the patterns underlying human creativity, and his work is just getting started.

The Smithsonian's National Zoo just welcomed Linh Mai, their first elephant calf born in nearly 25 years - a real breakthrough for Asian elephant conservation since fewer than 50,000 remain in the wild. When Linh Mai's mother initially rejected her, the care team stepped in with round-the-clock bottle feeding and help from her "auntie" Swarna, who eventually accepted the calf as her own. Now here's the thing - even as a tiny calf, Linh Mai is learning something pretty remarkable: how to participate voluntarily in her own medical care through positive reinforcement training. Zoos have been using this approach since the mid-1990s, teaching elephants at a young age to present their feet for nail trimming, open their mouths for dental checks, and eventually stand still for X-rays and blood draws without risky anesthesia. It's a beautiful example of how understanding and respect for these intelligent animals actually improves their welfare and the care they receive.

So here's what I find really inspiring - Lokendra Singh, a software engineer from Hyderabad, decided to do something different when faced with India's road rage problem. Instead of getting frustrated like everyone else, he started standing at traffic signals on his days off, teaching drivers about helmets, seatbelts, lane discipline and basic safety. What began after witnessing a fatal accident has grown into something called Empowering Road Scholars, which has already reached over 10,000 people with practical driving lessons. And here's the thing - his simple goal is spot on: fewer accidents, safer roads, and more people getting home to their families safely.

So here's the thing - researchers have spent a decade and a half piecing together one of prehistory's biggest mysteries: just how warm did a T. rex actually run? Now they've got an answer, and it's fascinating because it turns out these creatures maintained a pretty high body temperature, which actually explains a lot about why they dominated the food chain so completely. And here's what's really striking - this metabolic intensity gave them the energy and hunting prowess to be apex predators unlike anything else in their ecosystem. Which brings me to the bigger picture: understanding the T. rex's internal workings helps us see dinosaurs not as cold, sluggish reptiles, but as active, powerful animals perfectly adapted to rule their world.

So here's something fascinating - the Sun occasionally throws these spectacular tantrums called coronal mass ejections, where massive fountains of matter erupt from its surface. But when astronomers look at similar stars out there, they rarely see these kinds of outbursts happening. Now, new research is revealing why - and it comes down to magnetic fields. Those intense magnetic fields that surround many stars actually disrupt and prevent the conditions needed for these dramatic eruptions to occur. This discovery helps us understand not just our own Sun better, but also what makes stellar activity so different across the universe.

A major UCLA study has identified at least 65 species of animals that produce what researchers call "play vocalizations" - essentially, laughter. Beyond the well-known examples like apes and rats, the list includes some surprising creatures: domestic cows and dogs, foxes, seals, mongooses, and even three bird species all express joy through their own forms of giggles. The research shows that laughter isn't uniquely human at all - it's actually an evolutionary signal that's millions of years old, shared across species separated by tens of millions of years of evolution. When animals laugh, they're communicating the same thing we do: "this is fun, and you're safe with me."