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Walgreens owner sells Boots for $8.9 billion
The sale marks Sycamore Partners' first major divestiture since buying the Deerfield-based retail pharmacy chain and breaking it up into standalone businesses.
Italy looks North: Science anchors Rome’s Arctic strategy
Italy is leveraging its long-standing scientific presence in the polar regions to shape its future Arctic policies. The National Polar Conference, attended by over 200 participants, aims to define shared priorities and perspectives for Italian research in the Arctic, Antarctica, and the Himalayas. This scientific tradition underpins Italy’s credibility and strategic approach to the Arctic, [...]
AI behaves more like a brain than a database – cognitive science’s role in its origin story helps explain why
Modern AI owes its existence to both cognitive and computer science. What you envision as its origin story can influence how you understand what large language models can do.
SAS helps illuminate the health impact of solar power in rural Uganda
/PRNewswire/ -- Global data and AI leader SAS helped Let There Be Light International better understand how solar electrification affects health care and daily...
Cantwell unveils AI safety framework as Congress stalls ahead of election
As AI races ahead, Sen. Maria Cantwell is pushing federal safety standards as industry leaders call for overnight and experts warn Congress is out of time.
JRC science for digital wellbeing
The JRC investigates the implications of digital technologies on people’s health and wellbeing, providing evidence to support EU digital policies. In an era of rapid digital transformation, understanding how technology shapes our well-being is critical.
AI behaves more like a brain than a database – cognitive science’s role in its origin story helps explain why
Modern AI owes its existence to both cognitive and computer science. What you envision as its origin story can influence how you understand what large language models can do.
Braver Angels joins Rochester Rotary Clubs to facilitate political discussions
Rochester’s Rotary Clubs are collaborating with the organization, Braver Angels, for three workshops surrounding civil political discussion and understanding disagreements.
C21 launches D2C Entertainment Summit with Audience First focus as entertainment business transforms
C21Media has launched the D2C Entertainment Summit, which will run as a track within Content London, Content Americas and Content Europe and as a standalone one-day event in London during June 2027.
C21 launches D2C Entertainment Summit with Audience First focus as entertainment business transforms
C21Media has launched the D2C Entertainment Summit, which will run as a track within Content London, Content Americas and Content Europe and as a standalone one-day event in London during June 2027.
Webb finds a surprising atmosphere on a scorching lava world
The James Webb Space Telescope has found strong evidence that the rocky lava world HD 3167 b has an atmosphere, despite circling its star every 24 hours under extreme heat. The surprising discovery could help scientists understand how rocky planets retain atmospheres and what the young, molten Earth may once have looked like.
I-194 won’t stop the political ads
Montanans are being bombarded with television and other political ads in this year’s congressional races. Voters should understand an important limitation of ballot initiative I-194: it would not stop much
Dan Campbell’s Defense Is Now the Case Against Him
Dan Campbell built the standard in Detroit, and four games into 2026 it is turning on him. #Lions
Where Iowa governor candidates stand on cancer, water, property taxes
Republican Zach Lahn and Democrat Rob Sand are running in Iowa's open governor's race. Here's where they stand on key issues.
Meta partners with companies to set standards for doing business with AI bots
CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin reports on the latest news.
Singapore Pledges Ocean Science Cooperation at OceanX Summit 2026
At the OceanX Summit 2026 aboard the OceanXplorer, Singapore's DPM Gan Kim Yong pledged knowledge, capabilities and connections to global ocean protection, highlighting marine climate science, coastal protection standards, the Into the Deep expedition and the BBNJ Agreement.
I need advice on being a better Tampa Bay sports fan
New quarterback, same problems as Bucs lose to Packers to fall to 0-4 | Oct. 5 Trying to be betterDear Tampa Bay fans, I need advice from people who understand the joy and occasional emotional damage of Tampa Bay sports.
Chelsea backroom shake-up as transfer chief set to leave
Laurence Stewart will depart after four years with the club, with his duties already dished out
Abundantia Entertainment To Turn AI Arm AiOn Into Standalone Studio
cription (150 character max) India's Abundantia Entertainment is moving to turn its AI creative arm Abundantia AiOn into a standalone production studio.
Planning Beyond 2030: What SAP Business Suite 7 and SAP NetWeaver Customers Using Third-Party Databases or Java Need to Know
Understand the coming changes and what they mean in practice.
Lewis Hall Helps England To A Third Consecutive Clean Sheet
The Newcastle youngster solidified his international standing with a disciplined display, providing technical flair and defensive steel to help Thomas Tuchel’s side maintain their formidable defensive momentum.
Wrexham's Kop: The project matching the club's rise
Wrexham's new Kop stand a signal of their ambition to keep climbing from the Championship to the Premier League.
Comics accuse SiriusXM of booting middle-class comedians
The last time radio had this much effect on standup comedy, Johnny Carson was hosting late night.
Election prediction moves NC left + Will AI drive voters to the polls?
Plus, where do Cooper and Whatley stand on AI?
Matthew Lillard says Hollywood doesn’t ‘understand’ him: ‘I still fight for jobs now.’
The “Scream” star talks about living with Paul Rudd early in his career.
Matthew Lillard says Hollywood doesn’t ‘understand’ him: ‘I still fight for jobs now.’
At 56, Matthew Lillard says he’s no longer as competitive as he once was about jobs, but he laments, “Nobody ever equates me with greatness.”
Sitcom king Chuck Lorre says Roseanne Barr ‘fundamentally hated’ her show’s writers: ‘It was malice’
Lorre, who created hits like “Two and a Half Men” and “The Big Bang Theory,” got his start writing for the tempestuous stand-up on “Roseanne.”
Chuck Lorre says Roseanne Barr ‘fundamentally hated’ her show’s writers: ‘It was malice’
Chuck Lorre, who got his start writing on ‘Roseanne’ in the ’80s, says Roseanne Barr ‘fundamentally hated’ her sitcom’s writers, because as a stand-up, ‘she made herself a superstar based on her words.’
Business groups to lawmakers: NJ is losing out to other states
The marathon hearing ended with questions about whether the Legislature would act on recommendations or allow longstanding problems to continue.
🎙️ Messi's latest comments on Argentina duty
Lionel Messi bid farewell to the Argentina national team amid a huge celebration at El Monumental. After the match, the superstar sent a message to all the fans who gave him a standing ovation for his...
Islamic Development Bank and Global Fund Strengthen Partnership to Advance Sustainable Health Financing
GENEVA/JEDDAH – The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund) signed on 6 October a new Partnership Agreement to strengthen collaboration and accelerate investments in health across low- and middle-income countries. The agreement, which marks a new chapter in a long-standing relationship, establishes a framework for aligning investments and coordinating financing, mobilizing additional resources, and supporting country-led efforts to build…
Thom Tillis takes jabs at Trump’s cabinet
Retiring Republican Senator Thom Tillis says he stands by his book’s blunt criticism of Trump’s cabinet. ‘They didn’t pass their annual reviews,’ he says to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. He also urges the president to repay $10 million for taxpayer-funded ads.
Money, Power, Politics
Host Stephanie Ruhle brings her business acumen, hard-hitting interview style and original reporting to mornings, helping you understand what's happening today and why it matters. Make sense of it all, together.
Elementary Science Curricula Are in Short Supply. Will a Free Resource Help?
Elementary schools face a limited array of science materials, and many don't align with state standards.
Fall's first Pixel update just landed, and it's another end-of-the-road milestone
Discover what's getting fixed in the October 2026 Pixel update, and which phones are about to get left behind.
Stand Up for Science to Rally Scientists & University Leaders in Support of Academic Freedom Tomorrow
Virtual rally features speakers from SUNY & SUFS; calls on university leadership to defend academic freedom.
Stand Up for Science to Rally Scientists & University Leaders in Support of Academic Freedom Tomorrow
Virtual rally features speakers from SUNY & SUFS; calls on university leadership to defend academic freedom.
UVA fall sports pulse check: Where every Virginia team stands in October
After a fifth-place Directors' Cup finish, a midseason pulse check on how every Virginia fall team is holding up.
'Powering the oyster farm' topic of October science talk
The presentation on how marine energy and environmental monitoring technologies are being used to better understand conditions at coastal oyster farms is Oct. 22 at the Coastal Studies Institute in Wanchese.
Meta joins with group of companies to tame ‘chaos’ of doing business with AI bots
Meta and OpenAI Chairman Bret Taylor’s startup Sierra are building a set of tech standards to make it easier to do business with AI bots.
Evaluating Bucks’ Biggest Standouts From Preseason Opener vs. Timberwolves
How did the Milwaukee Bucks look in their first preseason game?
Is the Steelers’ Business Model Broken?
For decades, the Pittsburgh Steelers were considered to be the gold standard of the National Football League, both on the […]
Study: How GLP-1 meds used to treat sleep apnea may affect oral health
“We need to understand how these medications affect the mouth so we can identify potential problems early and make sure patients receive comprehensive care.”
Week 5 fantasy tight end rankings: Top TE streamers, starts
A huge under-the-radar fantasy standout this season has been Juwan Johnson, who is the TE3 through the first four weeks. Is he a top-5 pick in Week 5?
Bullfrogs have a brain superpower
Understanding their backup brain fuel could help treat human neurological diseases.
Where Ballard and the other secretary of state candidates stand on election reform
When Greg Ballard stepped before reporters for another news conference at the Statehouse last week, he announced his newest proposal for what has become a key issue in his campaign:
From Building Homes to Building Hope: Larry and Heidi Canraelli Commit $50 Million to Intermountain Health Nevada Children’s Hospital
LAS VEGAS — Intermountain Healthcare Foundation today announced a remarkable $50 million commitment from Larry and Heidi Canarelli to help bring Nevada's first comprehensive, stand-alone children's hospital closer to reality. This gift advances Intermountain Health's Nevada Campaign for Kids, expanding access to specialized pediatric care clos...
5 things to do this week in Greenville
See our curated list of upcoming and ongoing arts, culture and entertainment events in the Greenville area. Send us your events at greenville@postandcourier.com.
Liverpool vs Man City referee confirmed ahead of Anfield showdown
Chris Kavanagh, from Greater Manchester, is one of England’s elite match officials
URI astrophysics student earns coveted Association for Computing Machinery’s SIGHPC fellowship
KINGSTON, R.I. – Oct. 6, 2026 – Ever since she was young, Genevieve Payne has always had a deep interest in nature and understanding hidden systems and patterns within it, hoping to one day study some of the universe’s most extreme and least-understood phenomena. This interest developed into a focus on gravitational wave and high-energy […]
Week 5 fantasy quarterback rankings: Top QB streamers, starts
San Francisco's Brock Purdy is having an outstanding fantasy season, leading the NFL in TD passes. Where does he rank this week at Seattle?
The Maternal Health Crisis of Firearms
Better protections for pregnant people require understanding and treating firearm policy, intimate partner violence prevention, reproductive care, and economic security as maternal health interventions.
Brazil: Lessons from a Disaster
By Antonio Martins (Outras Palavras) Defeats become deeper and more prolonged when we misunderstand what caused them, avoid correcting course, and embrace “solutions” that only compound our mistakes. Lula’s government and the Brazilian left suffered a disaster in Sunday’s election. Contrary to every poll, the president finished the first round 2.2 million votes behind Flávio Bolsonaro—and, more significantly, 3.4 million votes below his total four years ago, when the machinery of the state was working against him and in favor of his opponent. His vote share declined in 98 percent of Brazil’s municipalities. The PL, the main party of the far right, elected 121 deputies and 28 senators, becoming the largest caucus in both houses of Congress. The parties aligned with the Centrão—Brazil’s bloc of transactional center-right parties—were somewhat diminished, but will still hold roughly 250 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 35 in the Senate. That will make it easier to assemble the majorities needed to amend the Constitution or impeach Supreme Federal Court justices. If elected, Flávio Bolsonaro could appoint four members of the Court, substantially altering its internal balance of power. What produced these results? How can the far right be prevented from consolidating them into a prolonged political hegemony? And what is the essential change of direction the left now needs? Explaining the Disaster Across the commercial media and the exuberant chaos of digital platforms, interpretations are multiplying. Some focus on specific episodes: Lula’s absence from the Globo debate, his very close relationship with Alexandre de Moraes, or his emphasis on issues supposedly remote from most people’s everyday concerns, such as rare earth minerals. Among the more systemic interpretations, three seem especially questionable. One argues that the principal defeat was not the left’s, since its congressional representation declined only slightly. The decisive movement captured at the ballot box, according to this view, was a shift within the right itself—from the more moderate and transactional forces of the Centrão toward the more ideological and radicalized forces of the PL and Novo. A second interpretation holds that the nature of electoral and political processes has changed. The material interests and aspirations of society, it argues, no longer play the central role they once did; they have given way to forms of subjective self-identification that the left has yet to understand. And a third concludes that, because of these two developments, we should expect a political winter: a prolonged period in which the far right and the broader right dominate Brazilian political life. There are important elements in all three interpretations. The problem lies in what they deny or leave out: Lula’s third government was a small-bore government. It offered the majorities that elected it neither a clearly better life nor reasons to believe again in politics and its power to transform society. These failures flowed from two fatal accommodations, which I will examine below. As a result, the government suffered a slow but steady erosion of support. And, as has happened in so many Western countries, it gave the far right the opportunity to present itself as anti-system and to benefit from popular frustration and distress. The interpretation that emphasizes the migration of votes from the center-right and traditional right toward the far right has been advanced, among others, by the courageous journalist Leonardo Sakamoto. In his UOL column on Monday, October 5, he highlights the miserable behavior of the traditional conservative parties. Over the past four years, they repeatedly joined forces with the “neo”-fascists, helping to “normalize” them—a criticism that could equally be directed at almost the entire corporate media. Believing they could use the far right as a stepping stone, they instead ended up partly devoured by it. This was especially true in the Senate, where the PL’s gain of 13 senators and Novo’s gain of two came at the expense of the PSD, which lost nine; the MDB, which lost two; the PSDB, which lost two; and the PP, which lost one. Sakamoto’s observation is accurate and necessary, but it leaves uncomfortable questions unanswered. Why did the erosion of the Centrão benefit the far right rather than, for example, producing growth for the left—as has happened so many times before, both in Brazil and elsewhere? The answer is not difficult. Throughout its four years in office, Lula’s third government was almost invariably associated with the Centrão. Here lies its first accommodation: accepting the limits imposed by conservative institutions; avoiding, as much as possible, any attempt to strain those limits through popular pressure; and believing only in the modest changes that could be squeezed through openings in Congress. The failure of the campaign to end the six-day workweek is emblematic. Lula could have electrified the presidential race by pairing it with a popular campaign for passage of the measure. Instead, he chose to place his hopes in the hands of Senate president Rodrigo Alcolumbre. He generated no mass mobilization, did not force his opponents onto an uncomfortable defensive, and won no victory. In September 2025, the government squandered the greatest of its many opportunities to shake up conservative power in Congress. Popular opposition to the so-called Shielding Amendment—which, if approved, would have restricted criminal proceedings against members of Congress—brought crowds into the streets, mobilized primarily by artists and social movements. This opened the possibility for a broader political education: a campaign that could begin exposing the limits and dysfunctions of Brazil’s political system while putting Bolsonaro’s movement on the defensive for its predictable support of political privilege. The amendment was defeated. But the executive branch then backed away from the fight. It remained associated with an institutional world widely seen as corrupt, elitist, and indifferent to ordinary people’s struggles. In doing so, it forfeited its credibility as a vehicle for the protest vote. On Sunday, it reaped the bitter fruits. Are We Doomed? Taking a different approach from Sakamoto, the philosopher Moysés Pinto Neto and other writers have drawn attention, in their first analyses of October 4, to the fragmentation of the public sphere produced by Big Tech platforms. Through their algorithms, these platforms present each person with a different view of social reality. As a consequence, it becomes much harder to identify common material problems and demands—for example, the fight for labor rights or for a properly funded public health system. Voters no longer embrace such demands, these authors argue, because they no longer see themselves as part of a collective. Instead, they tend to value the identities assigned to them by neoliberal subjectivity—the role of the entrepreneur, for example. On this interpretation, the left’s possible error lies in clinging to outdated illusions. Moysés’s warning is highly relevant and resonates with arguments such as Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor’s “Apocalyptic Fascism and the Billionaires’ Bet.” Unlike a century ago, the far right no longer promises a radiant future. It concentrates instead on resentment—especially that of young men. “They belong to a generation that fears it may never own a home, but compensates with the pleasure it gets from constantly provoking progressives online. Convinced their future has been stolen, they share memes romanticizing historical authoritarian regimes,” the authors write. But Moysés seems to confuse this danger with inevitability. He fails to see that the left’s answer cannot be adaptation. On the contrary, it must strengthen the possibility of politics as collective action. Nor does he recognize that precisely such a reversal is already becoming possible in some of the most promising mobilizations of the twenty-first century: the election, at the end of 2025, of the young Muslim Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York, on a platform centered on the intensely material fight for an affordable city; the Left Party’s victory in Berlin two weeks ago, built around the demand to expropriate private real-estate corporations; and the very recent wave of demonstrations in Spain—including an occupation of Madrid’s Puerta del Sol—in which tens of thousands of young people mobilized by the Tenants’ Union have demanded limits on rents. By putting itself in the straitjacket of the “fiscal framework” in the first months of 2022, Lula’s third government adopted the second fatal accommodation of its term. Faced with conservative institutions and a country devastated by four years of Bolsonaro, increased public investment was the government’s remaining weapon for offering a more dignified life to the majority and forging an anti-conservative pact with them. The same state that disburses 1 trillion reais a year to enrich a small class of rentiers could instead spend money to extend the Family Health Strategy to every Brazilian, at a cost of 30 billion reais; provide full-day public schooling and childcare to all adolescents and children—and, especially, relief to their mothers; achieve universal sanitation while cleaning up polluted urban rivers; multiply metro systems; begin transforming the urban peripheries; and undertake many other urgently needed projects. In April 2023, an article in Outras Palavras warned that the fiscal framework could “shrink the Lula government and preserve the forces that condemn the country to inequality and regression.” A year later, another article showed that restraints on public spending were strangling policies vital to ordinary people and undermining the president’s popularity. In November 2024 came a reality check, in the form of the government’s humiliating defeat in the municipal elections. Even then, the fiscal lock was neither removed nor loosened. On the contrary: throughout the government’s four years, fiscal restraint remained central to its political narrative. The administration proudly proclaimed that it had “put the state’s accounts in order,” without grasping either how misleading that phrase was—given the payment of 1 trillion reais in interest—or how badly the message was hurting it politically. Lula finally woke up in September 2026. The increase in Bolsa Família benefits, after four years of being frozen; the announcement that anti-obesity drugs would be offered through Brazil’s public health system; and the ban on online betting showed that the state has the power to act decisively on behalf of the majority when those in government are willing to confront obstacles. The huge marches that closed the campaign in Fortaleza, Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo on the eve of October 4 showed how such initiatives can mobilize activists and the broader public. But it was too late—and too little to change the outcome of the first round. History has not ended The possibility of a turnaround in the three weeks leading up to November 25 cannot be ruled out. It will not be simple or easy. Lula must not only make up a deficit of 2.2 million votes; he must also offset the movement of voters who backed other right-wing candidates in the first round, most of whom are likely to move toward Flávio Bolsonaro. Pulling that off will require a broad, grassroots effort to win over voters, potentially reinforced by new initiatives from Lula. The coming hours and days will be decisive. If Bolsonaro’s movement also wins the presidency, the result will create a high-risk situation for Brazilian sovereignty and democracy. The enormous challenges posed by such an outcome would require the left to reexamine, in depth and with a genuine willingness to engage in self-criticism, its political projects—or its lack of them—and its practices. But would that mean we are condemned to the long winter of far-right hegemony that some analyses are beginning to forecast? It is far too early to say, suggests a recent text by Álvaro García Linera, the thinker who served as vice president of Bolivia under Evo Morales. His central hypothesis is that this political current will prove short-lived. At a moment when the entire world is once again talking about sovereignty and protecting national economies, the far right offers a stale, recolonizing neoliberalism. Its submission to the United States is as blatant and pathetic as Flávio and Eduardo Bolsonaro’s overtures to Donald Trump. Its project amounts to something like every man for himself: greater inequality, capitalism without limits, devastation, and supremacism. Will it work? In the United States, just two years into his second term, Trump himself is reaching record levels of unpopularity and may be on the verge of losing Republican control of both the House and Senate in November. Every new beginning is difficult. Whatever the outcome of the second round, the defeats of October 4 show how profoundly the Brazilian left will have to rethink and rebuild. But just as it would be foolish to underestimate the seriousness of its mistakes, it would be equally foolish to conclude that rebuilding a political project is no longer possible. History has not ended. The times are moving faster than ever. Originally published in Portuguese by Outras Palavras. English translation by Eric Blanc; I’ve added the subtitles. More We can’t stop the far right at home or abroad without a revitalized labor movement, which is yet another reason why you should become a sustaining supporter of the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) — one of US labor’s pivotal bright spots. Relatedly, Jacobin published a short piece of mine reflecting on a decade of Bernie Sanders inspiring a whole new generation of young worker organizers.
😭 Farewell Leo: the emotional video bidding Messi goodbye
Today, Leo Messi will bid his grand farewell to the Argentina national team at the Monumental stadium against Benin.With the occasion bringing Argentina to a standstill, the AFA has shared a video tha...
Scientists finally understand why Antarctica froze long before the Arctic - Futura-Sciences
The research shows that the creation of an escarpment, plateau, and mountain region in East Antarctica produced the high terrain needed for snow and ice to build up. The process began when Antarctica and Africa started pulling apart during the Jurassic Period, between 201 and 143 million years ago. Powerful...
YouTube and Google.org Commit $2.5 Million to Expand Class CrunchLabs' Free Science Curriculum
YouTube and Google.org deepen support for free, standards-aligned science education with a $2.5M grant to Class CrunchLabs
Scientists develop new X-ray technique to watch quantum materials respond to laser pulses
Argonne scientists have developed a new X-ray imaging technique that reveals how silicon carbide responds to ultrafast laser pulses. The work provides new insight into creating quantum defects exactly where scientists want them — a longstanding goal for scalable quantum technologies.
Chelsea handed unexpected midfielder boost ahead of squad announcement
Chelsea midfielder’s imminent suspension will impact his minutes during next month’s international break
FT and Standard Chartered Book of the Year Award 2026
Contenders include titles on weight-loss drugs, AI weaponry and forecasting
FT and Standard Chartered Book of the Year Award 2026
Contenders include titles on weight-loss drugs, AI weaponry and forecasting
“When democracy is secure, business is too”, says Deputy Secretary General at the European Democracy Summit 2026 in Brussels
“Our standards are stronger when they are built with those who apply them”: the event focuses on the role of business in defending Europe’s democratic foundations
Kamala Harris has a 2028 opening
The former Democratic standard bearer retains considerable respect in the party, but there’s an undercurrent of anxiety about her return to the political conversation.
Wildfire smoke affects animals in unique ways. Scientists are trying to understand it
The new field of "smoke ecology" examines how wildfire smoke perturbs wild places and animals — and what might be done to prevent its worst mayhem.
Exclusive: Chelsea wonderkid attracting transfer interest as January decision made
Olutayo Subuloye is rising through the Blues’ youth ranks, and was recently named Under-21s captain
Deshaun Watson's Rollercoaster Performances for the Cleveland Browns
I'm going to focus on EPA for this piece. EPA stands for Expected Points Added, which measures the value of individual plays based on how much they increase or decrease a team's likelihood of scoring.Here is a fantastic video explaining what EPA is and why it is a measure that looks at years on NFL history rather than one person's subjective opinion on a certain play.Deshaun Watson's Current...
Arkansas campaign ad sparks conservative backlash for portraying lazy welfare recipient as white
A new video from Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was standard issue Republican messaging for promoting her state’s stricter rules for people on Medicaid
Big-Bank Strength, Local Business Insight
A government subcontractor had a chance to win its own contract — one that could increase revenue up to fivefold. A standard credit line based only on current revenue would […]
Introducing: The Seiko Panda Watch That Stole The Show In 2024 Is Finally Here
One of the standout creations from Seiko's 2024 power design project—an irresistibly charming chronograph designed to look like an actual panda—has officially entered production.
Matt Campbell Admits Penn State Hasn't Met Its Standard
The Nittany Lions have been far from it.
New Franklin County Jail mental health program remains full with waitlist
The jail-based restoration program serves inmates who have been found unfit to stand trial.
CAPS group counseling can help bolster student well-being and mental health
Emory’s counseling services offer a range of options to address the needs of students, including group counseling sessions that can help participants better understand themselves and others, cope with grief over the loss of a loved one, and more.
US Supreme Court orders another look at how WA political maps are drawn
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday took action that could set the stage for another redrawing of Washington’s political maps.
Teen Corner: Minnesota’s new K-12 health standards
For the first time, Minnesota has statewide K-12 health education standards, covering everything from mental health and nutrition to sexual health and substance use. In another Teen Corner, pediatrician Dr. Maddie Gagnon from Gillette Children’s and founder of Pulse Parenting joins us to break down what’s changing and what it could mean for kids and parents.
Crowds line up for teamLab’s debut at the Smart
Black, inky lines writhe slowly like jellyfish beneath a golden sea in teamLab’s “Sea of Darkness, Memory Shining From the Depths,” a standout new piece now on view at the
Why I Don’t Think Ride Or Die Should Have Been Cancelled (And What Company Should Save It...)
(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) So…I recently came across a Reddit thread, talking about films on streaming, wondering why there are no reliable sources out there for streaming ratings data. Sigh. Honestly, as annoyed as I am that so many still don’t realize that we have streaming ratings, I somewhat get it. Until now, there was such a long delay between when a show or film came to streaming and when we got its viewership data; I understand why people were confused. (But, as you know, this just changed.) Also, even back in the day, how many people knew how well films did on television? Luckily, as a reader, you’re in the know. Okay, on to this week’s issue. I want to take a look at Prime Video cancelling Ride or Die and whether I agree with that decision. Overall, we didn’t have any breakout hits (no TV shows landed over 20 million hours according to Nielsen) but we have a lot of steady performers on the streaming charts. Plus, we’ll look at where $50 million in missing box office dollars went. (Spoiler: straight-to-streaming.) All that, plus new episodes of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, Supergirl heads to streaming, a new YA show does well on Netflix, the viewership for the Daily Wire’s $50 million fantasy show, what TV show hit-maker can’t make streaming hits, CD sales, all the flops, bombs and misses, and a whole lot more. Let’s dive right in! (Reminder: The streaming ratings report focuses on the U.S. market and compiles data from Nielsen’s weekly top ten viewership ranks, Luminate’s Top Ten Data, JustWatch and Reelgood interest data, Samba TV household viewership, company datecdotes, Netflix hours viewed data, Google Trends, and IMDb to determine the most popular content. While most data points are current, Nielsen’s data covers the weeks of September 7th to September 13th, 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe Television - Ride or Die Is a Hit…But It Got Cancelled? What The Data “Says” I hate the phrase “here’s what the data says”, even though sometimes I find myself using it. If data just told us everything, we data folks would be out of a job! Data is often messy, complicated and nuanced. When it comes to strategy, many of the best decisions can’t actually use “data”, since it’s vastly too complicated to model. Anyways, I’ve been singing the praises of Prime Video’s Ride Or Die this summer, a show that did very well for them. And yet…it got cancelled. Now, usually when a show gets cancelled, a bunch of websites say “a hit show got cancelled”... Here’s the thing, though: in this case, they’re right! The data “says” that this show was a hit. Specifically, out of 522 first seasons to make a week on the Nielsen charts since 2020, it’s the 75th biggest. On Amazon, Ride or Die is eighth out of 41 first seasons: That’s top 15th percentile all time, almost exactly, which is my definition of a “hit”! I mean, outside of Reacher, Amazon needed a hit this summer! (Admittedly, Off Campus did well for Amazon in the spring, but Ride or Die performed even better.) So what happened? Why did Amazon cancel one of their rare 2026 bright spots? Well, Deadline reported a reason—which I’ll get to—but I’d break it down into three relevant questions: What is a given streamer’s reasoning? Is that reasoning sound? Could the stated reason not be the real reason? According to Deadline, Amazon felt the show “over-indexed” in middle-aged women. (This was based on leaks from within Amazon.) The logic is this: Amazon already reaches this demographic because of unlimited two-day shipping bundled with Prime, so they don’t really need more shows like this. Now, it’s my job to ask if that’s a good reason, and I’ll be honest, in this case, I don’t think it is. Sure, this show may “over-index” in middle-aged women—I’ll just assume that’s the case here—but I think folks often oversell how important over-indexing actually is. When a show is a “hit”, it isn’t a bit bigger than its rivals; it’s usually multiples bigger. For example, Elle only made the charts for two weeks at 8.3 million hours each. So Ride or Die was 80% bigger in its first two weeks, and likely had a much stronger hold, with its terrific 13 million hours in week three. Ride or Die was nearly three times bigger than Sterling Point through three weeks too. And that means that _Elle, Sterling Point a_nd other Amazon YA shows need to not just over-index a little with younger women (assuming that’s who Amazon prefers over middle-aged women), but massively over-index. Otherwise, more people in that demo (and a bunch more besides) likely watched Ride or Die. (I’ll try to explore this concept more in a future article.) And don’t get me started on how Ride or Die did compared to a certain (very, very popular, possibly the world’s most popular) YouTuber’s reality show…which didn’t make the charts after its first week and likely cost much, much more than Ride or Die. All to say, Amazon-MGM Studios/Prime Video can tell reporters that this show didn’t reach the right audience, but that excuse feels weak to me. So this leads to the third question: could other reasons have come into play? Yes! Renewal or cancellation decisions rarely (I’m tempted to say “never”) boil down to one variable. At its simplest, it’s two things: budget versus viewership. But often factors like critical acclaim, ownership and, yes, personal opinion come into play. In this case, Amazon has a new executive running things, and this show isn’t owned by Amazon-MGM Studios (unlike Elle). And yes, it may not have indexed with the right target viewers, too. Likely all of those factors came into play.1 My guess is ownership ended up mattering most. Amazon doesn’t own Ride or Die. It’s actually produced by another major studio. Fortunately/allegedly, this show is being shopped around. I can think of one brand new CEO who should consider it for one of his two major streamers…especially if he wants to rebuild goodwill in Hollywood. His name is on this list of exec producers of Ride or Die… If David Ellison needs some goodwill—and he does—rescue this female-led show tomorrow and grab some good headlines for a day. The data justifies it. Quick Notes on TV We’re just getting started with this issue, but the rest is for paid subscribers of the Entertainment Strategy Guy, so if you’d like to find out… How The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives latest season did on Hulu, post-controversy... Whether Supergirl soared on HBO Max... Why the box office is losing money due to the streamers... The viewership for the Daily Wire’s $50 million fantasy show... Updates on The Gentlemen, Lanterns, Outer Banks, King of the Hill and more... What former hit-maker has three streaming flops in a row... Whether The Mandalorian and Grogu popped in week two... All the flops, bombs and misses... And a whole lot more... ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support. If you want an idea of just how much content you’d get in a full issue, check out this older issue. Coming Soon! Oh man, we’re almost caught up! We just have two more issues, then the streaming Ratings Report will be coming out just two weeks after a TV show premieres! Next issue, I’ll be looking at the first two weeks of the NFL Thursday night games on streaming, a huge new spinoff, Reacher’s Neagly on Prime Video, and the latest edition of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story on Netflix, the return of Slow Horses on Apple and MobLand (quietly one of their biggest shows) on Paramount+, and Dancing with the Stars on both ABC and Disney+. Plus I’ll take a look at animation for adults in 2026. The week after, a ton of movies are coming to streaming: Toy Story 5 on Disney+, Backrooms on HBO Max, Jackass: Best and Last on Paramount+ and The Breadwinner on Netflix, plus a Unabomber film on Netflix and a romcom on Prime Video. Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey have a show on Apple, along with a game show inspired by Willy Wonka that everyone seems to hate. Long term, some crazy (but hopefully crazy like a fox) IP news. FX ordered a new Sons of Anarchy show from Charlie Hunnam, but it’s not about the biker gang. No, it features the show’s cast playing themselves in a new “meta-thriller”. Huh. And a lot of the cast is coming back. Next, Ryan Gosling is producing a Flintstones movie about a “grown-up Bamm-Bamm Rubble”. Also, huh. This one is in “early development” so we’ll see what happens. Both projects are based on IP, but also seem to have crazy takes on the IP, which I like.
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How a controversial camera system is monitoring mental health patients
The Lampard Inquiry started back in September 2024 and I remember going to the first hearing in Chelmsford. Subscribe The bereaved families made placards of their loved ones, they stood outside in silence and then laid flowers to mark the moment. Now, two years on, in a process meant to last another two years, there’s been a development. Last week, we were told the chair, Baroness Lampard, pictured below, could be looking at making interim recommendations. Throughout the process, she has remarked that although this inquiry is looking at almost 2,000 people who were under the care of Essex mental health services from 2000-2023 when they died, the findings could have national implications for other trusts. ‘Records 24 hours a day in patient’s bedroom’ So why has this happened? One system that the inquiry is going to take a closer look at is a controversial monitoring system called Oxevision. It monitors some vital signs of patients remotely by using a camera placed in a room. It’s used by 40% of NHS mental health trusts. But campaigners, particularly the group Stop Oxevision, have asked for this technology to be removed from mental health wards as soon as possible. I spoke to a member, Hat Porter, today and they described to me what they thought this technology did and explained their concerns: “It records 24 hours a day and it’s located in a patient’s bedroom, which is obviously somewhere you’d usually expect to be a private place. “Our concerns are that the use of the technology has been has been kind of implemented as a substitute for proper in-person support, that it’s kind of over relied on and that there’s a lot of misunderstandings and that the presence of a camera, which has often been used without people’s consent, sometimes without even their knowledge, that that has a really big impact on privacy, dignity and human rights.” ‘Not sufficient’ I put it to them that the company behind Oxevision would dispute their claims about consent and in videos I’ve seen online from NHS trusts, they make it clear that the technology is complementary to trained staff and not a replacement. [ ](https://channel4news.substack.com/p/the-nottingham-inquiry-what-lessons) [ How the Nottingham inquiry shines a spotlight on other key mental health care failings ](https://channel4news.substack.com/p/the-nottingham-inquiry-what-lessons) Victoria Macdonald · Feb 12 [ Read full story ](https://channel4news.substack.com/p/the-nottingham-inquiry-what-lessons) A team of lawyers has been working on the inquiry and with bereaved family members who have concerns about this technology. I spoke to solicitor Priya Singh, from Hodge Jones & Allen, who made the point that questions usually asked by nurses would be missing from using devices like this. “It’s not sufficient to say, oh, the patient is moving around. Somebody must go in and say, are you okay? Are you distressed? Do you want help? Is there anything I can do? Share Channel 4 News “How are you spending your time? So I think a lot of our families cannot see the function of it when ultimately the patient should only really be observed when they’ve been prescribed to be observed, they can be observed more, but that more should really be happening face to face.” The Chair will hear evidence over the next two weeks and then a decision made after that, which could have national impact if she does decide this technology should be investigated or even removed. The Department of Health and Social Care said: “The Government is committed to ensuring that lessons are learned from the Lampard Inquiry to improve patient safety. “We are confident that the Inquiry will play an important role in identifying wider learnings for the health system following the tragic events in Essex and will contribute to improvements in patient safety.” We approached LIO Health, which runs Oxevision, for comment. Subscribe Share Channel 4 News Leave a comment
Layla Zaidane: The politicians who can fix America’s polarization problem will win
Political predictions are notoriously unreliable, but here is one I am willing to stand behind: the elected officials who figure out how to govern across difference will dominate the next decade of American politics. With dysfunction and paralysis having become the status quo in Washington, elected officials who work together
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2026 Outstanding Women in Business
The 18th annual Outstanding Women in Business awards recognize a dozen well-accomplished professionals from across the region and in many industries who go above and beyond. The committee selected the winners from more than 80 nominations, all of whom were worthy. The criteria evaluated each nominee’s professional achievements, community impact, ability to break the glass ceiling and mentorship of other professionals, particularly women. In addition to profiling these women in the following pages, the Worcester Business Journal will celebrate this year’s Outstanding Women in Business at a special luncheon on Oct. 28 at the College of the Holy Cross. To join the celebration of these exceptional women, visit WBJournal.com and register. – Mark Conti, editor This Year’s Judges Worcester Business Journal considered 54 Central Massachusetts professionals for the 2026 Outstanding Women in Business awards, based on 83 nominations. These nominees were independently evaluated by two volunteer judges, who scored each on their professional achievements, community contribution and mentorship of young professionals. Samantha P. McDonald is a partner at Bowditch. She is an experienced, client-focused real estate lawyer, concentrating on business and real estate property law. She has been recognized as a WBJ Power 100 in the Class of 2026 and a “Top Women of Law” in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. Dr. Kavita Babu is chief medical officer and vice president of medical affairs at Heywood Healthcare, where she provides strategic and clinical leadership to advance high-quality, patient-centered care across the organization. She is also a member of the WBJ Outstanding Women in Business Class of 2025.
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Integral Ad Science to Provide Brand Safety and Suitability Measurement in ChatGPT Ads
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Florida commissioner’s social media on science standards aims for attention
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Yale School of Medicine On the Science of Childhood Anxiety, Say, Anxiety Disorders Are the Most Common Mental Health Challenges In Youth
Credit: Matt Bradbury October 5, 2026 - By Isabella Backman - Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health challenges in youth. Left untreated, they can disrupt the lives of both children and their families. The good news is that with intervention, most children will overcome these conditions. Across Yale School of Medicine, scientists are working to understand anxiety at every level, from common anxious behaviors to molecular biomarkers in the brain. They are using their findings to develop and disseminate new evidence-based treatments for childhood anxiety. Today, the go-to treatment for childhood anxiety disorders is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). This is a form of psychotherapy that teaches children skills for confronting anxious thoughts and helps them practice managing situations that cause anxiety. While it is the gold-standard treatment backed by considerable scientific evidence, up to 50% of children will not see sufficient benefit from CBT alone. Wendy Silverman, PhD, Alfred A. Messer Professor in the Child Study Center, co-directs the Anxiety and Mood Disorders Program alongside Eli Lebowitz, PhD, associate professor in the Child Study Center. One of their main interests is learning how to improve outcomes beyond CBT. “We’re developing cutting-edge, research-based knowledge that can reduce the suffering that anxiety causes children and their families,” says Silverman. Changing parent behavior YSM experts are investigating how to improve CBT outcomes for children by involving the parents. Silverman’s research has uncovered two main components of parent intervention that improve childhood anxiety: not enabling children to completely avoid the things that make them anxious and taking steps to enhance their autonomy. Parents may unintentionally reinforce their child’s anxiety by allowing them to avoid what makes them anxious. They also may unintentionally limit the children’s sense of autonomy by being overly intrusive. “One of the things that we take pride in is that we’ve focused on trying to understand what parents need to do, and to test our ideas and see if changing the parents’ behaviors is enhancing the effects of CBT,” Silverman says. “Our findings thus far suggest that they do." As much as CBT can be helpful, it can also be challenging to get one’s child to do the necessary steps for CBT to work. This is one important reason why Lebowitz created a novel intervention program for parents named Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE). Existing intervention programs often teach parents to act as therapists for their child, such as training them on how to practice breathing exercises. “It makes sense, but this doesn’t work very well in practice,” says Lebowitz. “And part of the reason, I think, is that it’s not easy to get your kid to do things, especially if they’re not excited about doing it.” SPACE is unique because it focuses entirely on parent involvement and changing parental behavior—children are not involved in the sessions. For example, parents learn how to use supportive messages that convey confidence that their child can tolerate and manage distress. “It might sound like a parent saying to a child, ‘I get that this is really hard for you, but I know that you can handle it,’” Lebowitz says. The program also works with parents to identify the ways in which they are accommodating anxious behaviors. “We’ll pick one thing that parents are doing that is an accommodation and help them make a detailed plan for how they’re going to change that,” Lebowitz explains. Treating Anxiety in Children and Adolescents Much of the existing research on SPACE has focused on parents of children under age 14. Ongoing studies are now exploring its use with parents of older teens. “Both anxiety and accommodation can interfere with normative developmental shifts during the teen years, including increased autonomy and individuation from parents,” says Rebecca Etkin, PhD, associate research scientist in the Child Study Center. “In this sense, SPACE may be particularly well-suited for anxious teens and their parents. We want to see whether it is effective during this distinct developmental window.” Unfortunately, many families in need of CBT face barriers, including limited availability of services and geographic constraints. One way to improve access is digital interventions. Silverman and her team are developing an evidence-based digitized intervention program for parents that they can access directly from their computer or smart phone. “The work we’re doing will be one of the very few parent interventions that is digitized and importantly tested for effectiveness,” she says. Creating interventions for anxiety-related challenges Silverman and Lebowitz recently received a generous gift to develop and test other interventions that help parents reduce other child anxiety-related behavioral and emotional difficulties, such as restrictive eating and unexplained somatic symptoms. One of these projects in particular focuses on understanding the risks of social media and its potential benefits, including offering a sense of connection. “A lot of research has focused on the idea that social media is harmful and the less of it the better,” says Lebowitz. “But we actually see is that this is not quite right—there are negatives, but there are also positives. So, we’re trying to get a little bit more nuanced of a picture.” The team is working with teens with social anxiety and their parents over an extended period to better understand their social media habits and how their anxiety levels affect engagement with different platforms. The teens will answer questions sent to an app on their phones about mood and social media usage in an effort to capture emotional responses as they unfold. “We hope to develop interventions that can help make the best of social media while protecting against the more problematic effects,” Lebowitz says. The brain’s role in anxiety Researchers are also testing therapies to address anxiety at the neurological and molecular levels. In collaboration with Dylan Gee, PhD, professor of psychology in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Hilary Blumberg, MD, John and Hope Furth Professor of Psychiatric Neuroscience at Yale School of Medicine, Lebowitz and Silverman are using brain imaging to identify changes in a child’s brain before and after parents enroll in SPACE. In one study, children viewed anxiety-inducing images while undergoing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); the researchers conducted scans with and without the children’s parents nearby. Before SPACE, children’s brains were better able to activate the regulatory circuitry needed to turn off an anxious response when their parents were nearby. But after SPACE, children could activate this circuitry even without the parent around. “As parents work on gradually reducing some of their accommodations, you can see a child get better at regulating their own fear system in the brain,” Lebowitz says. “It’s remarkable.” Research into the molecular underpinnings of anxiety can also inform new childhood anxiety treatments. In a recent study, Lebowitz, Silverman, and Flora Vaccarino, MD, Harris Professor in the Child Study Center, discovered that a protein known as fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) could be protective from the toxic effects of stress. FGF2 levels in children and their parents were linked to the children’s risk of developing anxiety and depression, the study showed. The findings could help explain why some children who are exposed to early life trauma such as poverty or abuse are more prone to developing mental health disorders. And FGF2 could be a target for treatment. “This is very novel because it starts to give a clue to what is the molecular chain that connects those lived experiences to the actual psychological outcomes,” Lebowitz says. New ways to study and treat childhood anxiety Michael Crowley, PhD, associate professor in the Child Study Center, collaborates with Silverman and Lebowitz to study the role that attention plays in development and maintenance of childhood anxiety. There is a large body of research that shows that anxious children, like anxious adults, are prone to focus on threatening stimuli such as angry faces compared with neutral faces. This has led to innovative interventions that involve attention retraining. The idea is that if experts train children to look away from threatening stimuli, it may reduce their anxiety—especially children with social anxiety who are most prone to attend to threats. The researchers have just completed a clinical trial for attention retraining with 10- to 14-year-olds with social anxiety disorders and are currently analyzing the findings. Besides this innovative attention retraining research, as Crowly notes, “I like to design tasks that are engaging to kids,” Crowley says. “My goal is to assess something without the kids knowing what we are assessing.” With this goal in mind, Crowley has created a virtual game, named Boom, to study threat processing in children with anxiety disorders. The game is similar to that of hot potato—the child and three digital players take turns virtually passing a ball to each other’s gloves. At some point, the ball turns into a bomb, and as the bomb lands in each player’s glove, the outline of the glove turns yellow. The goal is to avoid having the bomb go off in your glove. What isn’t obvious is that the game is designed to measure different types of threatening stimuli, both ambiguous and direct. In the game, the direct threat occurs as the bomb is traveling towards your glove. The ambiguous threat is the yellow outlined glove as it is unknown where the bomb will travel next. While children play the game, Crowley’s team measures their brain activity using electroencephalography (EEG). The researchers have discovered that in kids with anxiety, the brain reacts more strongly to ambiguous threats than it does in their peers, but less strongly to direct threats. They believe that the initial abnormally large brain response to not knowing where the bomb is going impairs the brain's ability to properly respond when the threat is actually traveling the child’s way. “The brains of children with anxiety are unable to differentiate between threats you need to do something about and those that are not your problem.” Michael Crowley, PhD, develops innovative games for studying anxiety in children and adolescents.Credit: Matt Bradbury Based on these insights, Crowley hopes to study whether interventions like attention training could restore appropriate threat processing. Crowley’s team is also working on a test called the Balloon Risk Avoidance Task, which evaluates risk-taking and avoidance behaviors. It features a digital balloon that is full of air and about to burst. Kids have six seconds to let air out of the balloon. The more air they let out, the less risk they face that the balloon will pop. But at the same time, the balloon becomes less valuable as it deflates. “The more air you keep in the balloon, the more points you get,” Crowley explains. So far, the researchers have found that when the balloons pop unexpectedly, teens with social anxiety show distinct brain responses. Studying these responses can help psychologists understand the underlying pathways driving the various manifestations of anxiety. The genetics of anxiety When Thomas Fernandez, MD, associate professor in the Child Study Center and of psychiatry, was still in training, there was a lot of excitement about understanding the genetics associated with autism spectrum disorder. Since then, scientists have identified around 250 genes associated with autism. The genetic contribution to anxiety disorders, on the other hand, has historically received less attention. Anxiety is less heritable than autism, but the genetic contribution for anxiety disorders that emerge in childhood may be higher than for anxiety disorders overall. While scientists estimate the heritability of anxiety disorders in general to be around 30% to 50%, some studies suggest higher heritability for certain childhood-onset anxiety presentations. “I saw firsthand how researchers in the field went about finding vulnerability genes for autism,” Fernandez says. “So, we’re using a very similar playbook for childhood anxiety.” “I saw firsthand how researchers in the field went about finding vulnerability genes for autism. So, we’re using a very similar playbook for childhood anxiety.” Thomas Fernandez, MD Associate Professor In the Child Study Center and in Psychiatry Now, Fernandez and Emily Olfson, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the Child Study Center, are studying children and their parents to identify genetic changes that are present in the child but not the parents, known as “de novo mutations.” “All of us have some de novo mutations—maybe about 50 to 100 sprinkled throughout the genome,” Olfson says. “But when they occur within the coding regions of genes, they can be really disruptive.” Previous research shows that people with autism have higher rates of damaging de novo mutations than the general population. In 2022, Olfson, Lebowitz, Silverman, and Fernandez published a study on 68 children and their families that found that children with anxiety had similarly high levels of these mutations. Studying de novo mutations can help point the researchers to where they should be looking for genes associated with anxiety. “The end game is using the genes to steer us toward the right part of biology that we can then target to come up with better treatments,” Fernandez says. Building on those findings, the team is now studying more families to better understand how these de novo mutations, along with other genetic and environmental factors, shape pediatric anxiety disorders. They recently received a National Institutes of Health grant to enroll 750 new families over the next five years. Olfson is the principal investigator, with co-investigators Lebowitz, Fernandez, Silverman, and Shuangge Steven Ma, PhD, department chair and professor of biostatistics at Yale School of Public Health. Neurodevelopment, Risk Genes, and Mental Health Conditions - The Olfson Lab Joel Gelernter, MD, Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry, is interested in how different anxiety disorders differ genomically. “We are studying social phobia, panic disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder, working to understand why people differ in their risk to these specific anxiety disorders and evaluating various risk factors,” he says. Gelernter was recently involved in one of the largest studies to date of the genomics underlying anxiety disorder. The study included around 122,000 people with anxiety disorders and around 730,000 without. It found that some genetic differences associated with anxiety were linked to signaling that helps reduce overactivity in the nervous system. Many anxiety medications available today work by targeting this process. “It’s nice when the biology that you get out of a large genome-wide study ratifies things that we already know because that can help increase confidence in further findings from the study,” Gelernter says. Uncovering the neurobiology of psychiatric disorders John Krystal, MD, Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Professor of Translational Research and chair of the Department of Psychiatry, is interested in the neurobiology of psychiatric disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), of which anxiety is a major symptom. In the late 1980s, Krystal’s team discovered that the drug yohimbine activated symptoms in patients with PTSD. “This was the first time we could link a specific biological mechanism to the symptoms of PTSD,” Krystal says. At the time, he adds, this finding was highly controversial. “A lot of people felt that PTSD was a purely psychological syndrome that didn’t have an underlying biology.” Since then, Krystal has dived deep into understanding the neurobiology of PTSD to learn how to better treat it. His team is evaluating the use of ketamine and psychedelics. These would be among the first treatments to be developed specifically for PTSD. They may also be applicable for other disorders including anxiety disorders, Krystal adds. An important gap in PTSD treatment is the absence of biological tests that inform how to best help patients manage their PTSD symptoms. A doctor doesn’t diagnose cancer based on how they feel. Rather, they use tests of the biology of the cancer to determine the best course of treatment. “And we can’t do that in any psychiatric disorder other than Alzheimer’s disease,” Krystal says. “But now we are building a foundation for this approach to the treatment of anxiety disorders for the first time.” Source: Yale School of Medicine
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