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TikTok now offers breathing exercises, ocean sounds, and positive affirmations — all built into the app. These new mental wellness features are aimed at teens, but experts warn they may be less about self-care and more about keeping users glued to their screens.

The tools are part of TikTok’s new “Time and Well-being” section, where users can complete missions like limiting screen time or staying off TikTok at night to earn digital badges. TikTok says the features were designed with input from teens and mental health experts, and early testing shows nearly 40% of users engaged with the new tools.

“The algorithm is so powerful,” says Canadian TikTok creator and mental health advocate Zachery Dereniowski. “If you can do something positive while you’re on the app, that could be helpful — especially for younger users.”

TikTok says it has built in privacy protections and worked with global youth advisors.

Meanwhile, Dereniowski reminds teens to find balance offline. His own non-negotiables include exercising daily, getting seven hours of sleep, and unplugging to cook, talk with family or go outside. “No one feels good after doomscrolling,” he says. “Try different things. Find what helps you recharge.”

Tiktok Introduces New Wellness Features To Promote Healthy Habits

Science Alert

In a breakthrough that challenges decades of thinking on mental illness, scientists have identified a single gene — GRIN2A — that may directly cause psychiatric disorders when mutated.

Researchers from Leipzig University, leading the world’s largest study of GRIN2A patients, found that mutations in this gene are associated with conditions like schizophrenia, anxiety, and mood disorders — often appearing in childhood or early adolescence, far earlier than typical onset. What’s more, these symptoms can occur in the absence of other neurological issues like epilepsy or intellectual disability, which GRIN2A mutations have previously been known to cause.

“Our current findings indicate that GRIN2A is the first known gene that, on its own, can cause a mental illness,” said co-lead author Johannes Lemke.

Of the 121 people studied, 25 had a diagnosed mental illness, and nearly all carried a non-functional or “null” version of the gene. The research suggests that some psychiatric disorders — long assumed to result from hundreds of interacting genes — may, in rare cases, be tied to a single genetic culprit.

Intriguingly, four individuals who were treated with L-serine, an amino acid that supports the gene’s receptor function in the brain, showed measurable improvements in their psychiatric symptoms — including the disappearance of hallucinations and remission of paranoia.

While more research is needed, the study offers new hope for personalized treatments and earlier diagnoses based on genetic screening. It was published in Molecular Psychiatry.

Scientists Say They've Uncovered The First Gene Directly Linked to Mental Illness

A newly spotted jaguar has been documented in southern Arizona — the fifth in 15 years — reigniting hope for the endangered species' recovery in the United States.

Captured by a remote camera in November 2025 near a watering hole, the big cat was identified by its unique rosette spot pattern, much like a human fingerprint. The discovery was announced by the University of Arizona’s Wild Cat Research and Conservation Center, which monitors rare jaguar appearances north of the U.S.-Mexico border.

“We're very excited,” said Susan Malusa, who leads the center’s jaguar and ocelot project. “It signifies this edge population of jaguars continues to come here because they're finding what they need.”

Jaguars once roamed parts of the American Southwest, but their U.S. population has been virtually extinct for over a century. The few seen in Arizona are typically males dispersing from Mexico. The team hopes to gather scat for genetic testing to determine this individual’s sex and dietary habits.

As apex predators, jaguars are considered indicator species — their presence reflects the overall health of the ecosystem. Malusa warned, however, that climate change and border barriers could disrupt migratory paths and access to water, putting the species at risk.

Federal officials revised protected jaguar habitat in 2024, reducing it to about 1,000 square miles in Arizona. Despite this, recent detections like this one — and another caught on trail camera in 2024 — show the elusive cats may still be returning. In a rare sighting last year, the famous jaguar “El Jefe” was confirmed to have crossed back into the U.S.

“This species is recovering,” Malusa said. “We still have a chance to get it right and keep these corridors open.”

Jaguars are the only big cats native to the Americas and the third-largest cats in the world, behind lions and tigers.

New Jaguar Spotted In Southern Arizona, Marking Fifth Sighting In 15 Years

Talker News

A new AI-driven listening system is poised to become a major tool in the battle against wildlife poaching in central Africa, using sound to track gunshots and alert rangers in real time.

The system, developed by researchers from Cornell University’s K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics and the Elephant Listening Project, uses a network of autonomous recording units (ARUs) — low-power microphones spread across rainforests in Gabon, Cameroon, and the Republic of Congo — to detect the sound of illegal gunfire from poachers.

"The proposed system utilizes a web of ARUs deployed across the forest, each performing real-time detection, with a central hub that handles more complex processing," said Naveen Dhar, who leads the project.

Tackling the Noise of the Jungle

Rainforests are among the noisiest environments on the planet. Cracking branches, falling trees, and dripping water constantly compete with the sounds of birds, bugs, and animals — and have proven a nightmare for traditional gunshot detection systems. These systems often produce too many false alarms, wasting valuable time and resources.

To fix that, Dhar and his team created a lightweight neural network capable of running directly on the microphones’ microprocessors. It scans incoming audio for “gunshot-like” signals and filters them in real time. If the system suspects a gunshot, it triggers a verification process.

Nearby microphones check for the same sound, and if multiple devices confirm it, a central hub pinpoints the location. The system then sends GPS coordinates to rangers on the ground, allowing for rapid response to poaching threats.

Real-Time, Low-Cost, and Scalable

The technology has been designed to be energy-efficient and adaptable to low-power hardware in remote regions — an essential feature for large-scale deployment in vast forests. Dhar says the goal is to create an open-source, affordable system that can work anywhere in the world.

"Down the road, the device can be used as a tool for rangers and conservation managers, providing accurate and verifiable alerts for on-the-ground intervention along with low-latency data on the spatiotemporal trends of poachers," Dhar explained.

Future updates to the system could allow it to recognize specific types of guns, as well as other human threats like chainsaws or vehicle engines, expanding its utility in broader conservation efforts.

From Lab to Field

The project is still under development, but early results are promising. Dhar is expected to present his findings at a joint meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the Acoustical Society of Japan in Honolulu, Hawaii.

If successful in field tests, the system could offer conservation teams one of the most effective tools yet for combating poaching in real time, providing not just reactive capabilities but valuable data on when and where poaching is happening.

By turning the forest’s soundscape into a live information network, the team hopes to shift the balance — helping rangers get to the scene faster, and giving endangered species like elephants a fighting chance.

Microphones in Rainforests are Stopping Illegal Poaching With Real-Time AI Audio Tracking

A windswept expanse of rock high in Bolivia’s Andes has just been confirmed as the largest dinosaur tracksite ever recorded — a staggering prehistoric snapshot capturing the final days of the dinosaurs.

In Torotoro National Park, researchers have catalogued nearly 18,000 individual tracks at the Carreras Pampa tracksite, left by small- and medium-sized theropods — two-legged, mostly carnivorous dinosaurs — some 70 million years ago, shortly before the asteroid that ended their reign.

“This is one of the premier dinosaur tracksites in the world,” wrote a joint US-Bolivian team led by paleontologist Raúl Esperante of the Geoscience Research Institute, whose findings were published in PLOS ONE.

The site breaks multiple records:

16,600 three-toed prints across more than 1,300 trackways

1,378 swim tracks, where dinosaurs paddled through shallow waters

289 isolated prints, claw scrapes, tail drags, and other rare impressions

All of them were made by theropods, the group that includes T. rex, Velociraptor, and today’s birds.

A Perfect Fossil Storm

The location was once the muddy shoreline of a freshwater lake. Its unique mix of soft, carbonate-rich mud and fine silicates created ideal conditions for preserving footprints: wet enough for animals to leave deep impressions, but firm enough for those marks to hold their shape until buried by later sediment.

That rare combination, scientists say, allowed not just footfalls but tail drags, claw marks, and swim scrapes to remain frozen in time for tens of millions of years.

Even more remarkable, the site was never disturbed by later overlying tracks — preserving individual behaviors in crisp detail.

“The tail traces suggest that dinosaurs exhibited some form of locomotive behavior in response to sinking into soft substrate,” the researchers noted. In some cases, their tails dragged as they stumbled through the mud. In others, scratch marks show them paddling through shallow water, barely touching the lakebed below.

Tracks vary in size from tiny 10 cm prints to footprints over 30 cm long, most belonging to human-sized theropods that likely stood around 1.5 to 2 meters tall. The footprints are generally aligned in two main directions, indicating dinosaurs were moving back and forth along the shoreline — likely feeding, patrolling, or searching for water.

In total, the team identified 11 distinct track types, some even showing sharp turns or sudden changes in gait — details rarely preserved at other sites.

A Window Into a Lost World

While fossilized bones offer clues about dinosaur anatomy, tracksites like Carreras Pampa give scientists something much more intimate: behavior.

It’s not just what these dinosaurs looked like — it’s how they moved, how they swam, how they slipped in the mud or dragged their tails when the going got tough. That kind of insight is rare and helps reconstruct what these animals were actually doing in their environments.

The research team says Carreras Pampa now qualifies as a Lagerstätte — a scientific term for fossil sites of exceptional preservation and richness.

They call it both an ichnologic concentration (for the sheer number of tracks) and an ichnologic conservation Lagerstätte (for how well those tracks reveal the behavior of extinct animals).

With its record-setting number of theropod prints, swim tracks, and preservation variety, Carreras Pampa doesn’t just add to the fossil record — it redefines what’s possible to discover about the daily lives of dinosaurs.

And in doing so, it brings one ancient lakebed — and the creatures who once roamed its muddy edges — vividly back to life.

Scientists Uncover 18,000 Tracks at the World's Largest Dinosaur Tracksite

Dolphins get chatty when they’re learning something new.

That’s the takeaway from a new study by Italian researchers who found that bottlenose dolphins in captivity increase their vocalizations during enrichment activities like training, play, and feeding. The findings, published in PLOS ONE, could lead to better practices for improving dolphin welfare in marine parks and aquariums.

“Our findings show that dolphins tend to ‘speak’ much more during structured moments like training, feeding, or play,” said lead author Dr. Francesco Di Nardo of Marche Polytechnic University. “It reveals how closely their vocal activity reflects their social and emotional engagement.”

The team monitored seven dolphins — two males and five females — at Oltremare Marine Park in Riccione, Italy, over a 24-hour period. Using acoustic analysis, they tracked the dolphins’ vocal patterns and matched them against their activity schedule.

The result: dolphins "talked" significantly more during organized activities than they did during downtime. This included a rise in the number, variety, and duration of whistles and pulses, the two main types of dolphin sounds.

“These vocalizations vary with social context, environmental conditions, external stimuli, and communication,” said Di Nardo. “They reflect dolphins’ cognitive and behavioral complexity.”

In other words, when dolphins are active and engaged — whether they're learning something new, coordinating with each other, or interacting with humans — they become more vocal. Researchers believe this increase in communication suggests higher motivation, stronger social coordination, and emotional involvement.

The study adds to a growing body of evidence that dolphins are not just intelligent but deeply social creatures. And while enrichment is already a part of managing captive dolphins, understanding how their vocal behavior responds to different activities could help zoos and aquariums design better welfare programs.

“Captive dolphins require enrichment activities, such as training sessions and play interactions,” Di Nardo said. “But best practices could be improved with a more detailed understanding of what activities motivate and engage them.”

The research team also released their full database of recorded dolphin sounds, hoping it will serve as a tool for future studies.

“Working with these highly social animals is truly inspiring,” Di Nardo said. “They remind us how much we can learn about the marine environment and the relationships among its inhabitants.”

He acknowledged that the study had limits, including its small sample size and short duration. But he believes future research that compares different types of enrichment across various environments could offer even deeper insights.

For now, the study offers a clear message: dolphins are at their most vocal when they’re engaged — and keeping them active and stimulated might be key to keeping them happy.

Dolphins "Talk" More During Play and Training, Study Finds

A family dog might be doing more than offering emotional comfort — it could be reshaping a teenager’s biology in ways that support better mental health.

According to a new study from Japan, owning a dog during adolescence is linked to healthier social behavior and reduced emotional problems, and the effect may come down to a surprising factor: microbes.

Researchers from Azabu University found that dogs can influence the microbiome — the community of bacteria, fungi, and viruses that live in and on the human body — in teens, particularly the makeup of bacteria in the mouth. These subtle microbial shifts may, in turn, influence social behavior and mental well-being.

“Raising dogs has beneficial effects, especially for adolescents, and these effects may be mediated through symbiosis with microorganisms,” said lead author Professor Takefumi Kikusui, whose findings were published in the journal iScience.

From Dog Companions to Bacterial Co-Pilots

Kikusui and his team have previously shown that people who grow up with dogs tend to report higher levels of social support and companionship. Other research has linked dog ownership to increased microbial diversity in the gut — a sign of a healthier microbiome.

But this new study took a closer look at adolescents. The team studied 13-year-olds and found that owning a dog at that age predicted better mental and behavioral health scores — including significantly lower levels of social problems — compared to those without dogs at home.

They also examined the teens’ oral microbiome, sequencing the bacteria found in the mouth. While overall diversity remained similar between dog owners and non-owners, there were noticeable shifts in specific bacterial groups in those who lived with dogs.

Can Microbes Influence Behavior?

To test whether those microbial differences actually mattered, researchers transferred oral microbiota from the teens into lab mice.

The results were striking: Mice given microbiota from dog-owning teens showed more social behavior. They spent more time sniffing cage mates and approached trapped companions more often — behaviors considered signs of prosociality and empathy in animal studies.

“The most interesting finding from this study is that bacteria promoting pro-sociality, or empathy, were discovered in the microbiomes of adolescent children who keep dogs,” said Kikusui.

The researchers believe this may reflect a gut-brain connection, in which microbes influence neurological and emotional pathways. The implication is that dogs could be nudging that system in a positive direction by shaping the bacterial environment in young people.

A Relationship Built Over Millennia

While the science of microbiomes is still evolving, Kikusui says the study suggests a deeper benefit to growing up with dogs — one that may go beyond companionship.

“The benefits of dog ownership include providing a sense of security through interaction,” he said, “but I believe it also holds value in its potential to alter the symbiotic microbial community.”

He added that these effects are likely the product of tens of thousands of years of human-canine coexistence, during which dogs and humans may have shaped each other's biology in unseen ways.

For families with teens, it may be yet another reason to welcome a furry friend into the home — not just for love and laughter, but for invisible health benefits too.

Family Dogs May Boost Teen Mental Health by Changing Their Microbiome, Study Finds

ESPN

New York Jets cornerback Kris Boyd stunned teammates on Wednesday when he walked into the team facility for the first time since being shot in the abdomen three weeks ago.

Boyd, who had been recovering quietly after a life-threatening incident outside a Manhattan restaurant, joined the special teams meeting and even closed it out — a gesture that caught everyone off guard.

“It was awesome to see him,” said tight end Jeremy Ruckert. “It’s not something that we at all thought or knew was going to happen today, so it was a good surprise to see him with such high hopes and positive energy.”

The 27-year-old, known for his special teams contributions and time with the Minnesota Vikings before joining the Jets, spent much of the day reconnecting with teammates and coaches. His former Vikings teammate Harrison Phillips, now a defensive tackle with the Jets, said it was clear how much Boyd’s presence meant.

“I’m pretty sure every single person that walked by gave him a dap up, a high five, or a semi-hug,” Phillips said.

Boyd’s appearance comes just a week after he shared on social media that he had returned to the hospital due to lingering health issues. Before that, he had remained mostly out of the public eye, posting on Nov. 19 that he was “starting to breathe on my own” following multiple medical procedures.

The shooting happened in the early hours of Nov. 16. Boyd was leaving a midtown Manhattan restaurant around 2 a.m. with teammates Jamien Sherwood, Irvin Charles, and another friend when an argument reportedly broke out with another group — sparked by comments about their clothing. A gun was fired during the exchange, and Boyd was hit in the abdomen. The bullet traveled to his lung and lodged in his pulmonary artery, police said.

He was rushed to Bellevue Hospital and listed in critical but stable condition for the first three days. Police say they’ve identified a possible shooter but haven’t made any arrests yet. The investigation remains ongoing.

Despite being out for the season with a shoulder injury from training camp, Boyd has remained close with several players on the roster. Seeing him walk into the building, upright and smiling, was emotional for many.

“I’ve had friends that didn’t survive gunshot wounds,” said edge rusher Jermaine Johnson. “So to be able to see him walking around with a smile on his face… it’s always a blessing.”

Johnson said he didn’t recognize Boyd at first. “I saw this guy kind of limping around. But then he came closer and I was like, ‘Ahh.’ I just gave him a hug and said, ‘I’m glad to see you.’”

The Jets, sitting at 3-9 and enduring their 10th straight losing season, are long out of playoff contention. But Boyd’s unexpected return brought something else to the locker room: perspective.

“He’s just thankful, really,” said safety Isaiah Oliver. “He’s real grateful to be able to still be here, honestly.”

While his season is officially over, Boyd’s return served as a rare bright spot for a struggling team. One that, at least for a moment, wasn’t about stats, standings, or storylines — just the relief of seeing a teammate survive something far more serious than football.

Kris Boyd Surprises New York Jets Teammates with Inspiring Visit After Shooting Recovery

GoodGoodGood

A rural school district in Batesville, Arkansas, faced a dilemma familiar to many across the U.S.: budget shortfalls, low teacher pay, and a revolving door of educators either leaving or taking on second jobs to make ends meet.

Then they tried something different. They installed solar panels — and it changed everything.

What began as a $250,000 annual budget deficit has now become a $1.8 million surplus, enough to give every teacher in the district a raise of up to $15,000, according to CBS News.

Today, more than 9,000 schools across the country run on solar power, reaching over 6 million students. But Batesville appears to be the first to take those savings and put them directly into teacher paychecks.

In a district where the average teacher salary hovered around $45,000, the impact has been enormous. Educators who once juggled second jobs or left town for better-paying positions are now staying — and new teachers are applying in greater numbers.

“We were willing to take some risks because the option was we weren’t getting anywhere. Our budget was going nowhere,” said Superintendent Michael Hester in a Harvard education podcast. “Out of desperation comes innovation.”

The turnaround began with an energy audit. Hester was stunned to learn that switching to clean energy could save the district at least $2.4 million over two decades.

That projection kicked off a transformation. The district converted an empty field into a solar farm and installed 1,500 solar panels on the front of the high school. The project was led by Entegrity, a sustainability and energy services company.

“Batesville has reduced the checks they write to utilities and increased the checks they write to teachers,” said Rick Vance, a regional director at Entegrity.

The results were immediate. Resignations dropped. Resumes poured in. The district’s finances stabilized. And the story didn’t stop in Batesville.

“There’s at least 20 school districts just in our area that have emulated our model,” Hester told CBS News. “We have the numbers to prove and to show from performance that we’re walking the walk. That’s a slam-dunk for districts around us.”

In a town of just 10,000 people, where attracting and keeping educators has always been a challenge, the solar panels have done more than just power the buildings. They’ve powered a movement — one where teachers are valued, budgets are balanced, and a small town in Arkansas is showing the rest of the country what’s possible.

A Small Arkansas School District Used Solar Power to Solve a Budget Crisis, and Gave Every Teacher a Raise

ABC News

Chile has passed new legislation that bans the use of mobile phones and smart devices during elementary and middle school classes, making it the latest country to limit screen time for students in a bid to reduce distractions and support mental health.

The law, approved overwhelmingly by lawmakers in the lower house of Congress on Tuesday, will take effect at the start of the 2026 school year. It prohibits smartphone use during class hours, with exceptions only for emergencies or educational purposes outlined in the law. President Gabriel Boric is expected to sign the bill in the coming weeks.

“We are advancing a cultural change for children and adolescents who today, more than ever, need to see each other’s faces again, socialize during recess, and regain concentration to further boost learning,” Education Minister Nicolás Cataldo wrote on social media following the vote.

The move comes after years of advocacy from teachers and parents, who argue that smartphones are interfering with learning and social development. Concerns have grown globally over the impact of screen time on mental health, particularly among young people.

Chile joins a growing list of countries that have imposed various restrictions on phones in schools, including France, Brazil, Hungary, the Netherlands, and China.

In Santiago, one school piloted a program earlier this year that blocked cellphone signals entirely — and reported success in reducing distractions.

The most recent data from the OECD, which tracks student performance worldwide, found that more than half of Chilean students said digital devices had disrupted their learning.

Supporters of the law see it as a necessary step toward restoring focus in classrooms and encouraging more in-person interaction among students. Critics have raised questions about enforcement and how exceptions will be defined, but the broad consensus among lawmakers signals strong support for the change.

Once signed into law, Chilean schools will have just over a year to prepare for the transition.

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