New research in Psychological Science reveals that lifelong singles have lower scores on life satisfaction measures and different personality traits compared to partnered people, findings that point to the need for both helpful networks and ways to create such networks that are better catered to single people.

“When there are differences, they might be especially important in elderly people who face more health issues and financial issues,” said Julia Stern, one of the lead authors and a senior researcher at the University of Bremen in Germany, in an interview with APS. “They need more help, and the help is usually the partner.”

Stern and colleagues compared single people and partnered individuals on life satisfaction ratings and the Big Five personality traits (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism). The study used a survey of more than 77,000 Europeans over the age of 50 and was the first of its kind to look across cultures and at people who had been single their entire lives. The findings revealed that, in addition to lower life satisfaction scores, lifelong singles are less extraverted, less conscientious, and less open to experience, compared to partnered people.

Previous studies used different definitions of being single, sometimes considering only current status and other times drawing the line at having never married or, alternatively, at never living with a partner. But people who have been in a serious relationship in the past — even if it has ended — might have different personality traits than those who have never been that committed. To investigate this, Stern and colleagues grouped respondents by the different definitions: currently partnered, never living with a partner, never married, or never being in any long-term relationship. People who had never been in a serious long-term relationship scored lower on extraversion, openness, and life satisfaction than those who were currently single but had lived with a partner or been married in the past. All singles scored lower on these measures than people in current relationships.

Although this study cannot definitively decipher if personality differences are due to selection — people with certain personality types may be more likely to start relationships — or socialization — long-term relationships could change personalities — the evidence points to the former. Stern said that changes to personality from being in a relationship are small and temporary. For instance, although an extraverted person beginning a new relationship may be keen to stay in with their partner, eventually their extraversion comes back.

“It’s more likely you have these selection effects: For example, people who are more extraverted are more likely to enter a relationship,” Stern said. But she warned that the results are average effects and not necessarily descriptive of everyone; of course, there are single extraverts and introverts in committed relationships.

For singles, living in a society where marriage is the expectation may affect their life satisfaction. Because the large sample included people from 27 European countries, the researchers were able to ask whether there were any cultural differences. In countries with higher marriage rates (such as southern European countries), singlehood resulted in even lower life satisfaction scores, but the effects were small. The religiosity of the country did not seem to matter, however.

When comparing across gender and age, single women scored higher on life satisfaction than single men, and older people tended to be happier with their singlehood status than middle-aged singles. Stern speculated that, with the era of their peers getting married and starting families behind them, older singles may accept their circumstances and be happier.

Singles may grow happier with age, but their lower scores compared to partnered people are still worrying. Previous research has shown life satisfaction and particular personality traits (including extraversion and conscientiousness) can predict health and mortality, emphasizing the need to find ways to promote the well-being of older singles.

“There are differences between people who stay single their entire lives and people who get partnered, and for me this means that we have to take extra care of these people,” Stern said. She suggested developing new kinds of programs to prevent loneliness that take these personality traits into consideration and help older singles meet like-minded people. “If they have people who care for them or look out for them regularly, this might help.”

Rapid detection of dangers and threats is important for personal safety. Since our ancestors first appeared, snakes have posed a deadly danger to primates, including humans. Even monkeys and human infants who have never encountered a snake react to pictures of them, demonstrating our innate fear of these creatures.

Kawai’s first experiment demonstrated that monkeys exhibited an immediate response to images of snakes but not to images of salamanders, implying a specific fear of snakes. On the basis of this observation, he wondered what would happen if he edited the images of the salamanders to have snakeskin without changing anything else. Would monkeys respond to the skin, or would they recognize the harmless salamander in snake clothing?

To answer this question, Kawai presented monkeys that had never seen a real snake with nine images on a board and trained them to find the one that was different to receive a reward. When presented with a single snake amidst a group of salamanders, monkeys exhibited a faster response time to locate the snake compared to identifying a salamander among snakes. This observation suggests that the monkeys had a strong response to the potentially dangerous reptile.

However, when Kawai showed the edited images of salamanders with snakeskin to monkeys, they reacted to the altered images of the harmless creature equally fast, or even faster, than to the snake.

“Previously we demonstrated that humans and primates can recognize snakes quickly; however, the critical visual feature was unknown,” Kawai said. “The monkeys did not react faster to salamanders, a species that shares a similar elongated body and tail with snakes, until the images were changed to cover them with snakeskin.” This suggests that the monkeys were most threatened by the scales.

“This may be because during evolution our primate ancestors evolved a visual system to identify scales, which are characteristic of snakes,” he continued. “These insights into primate evolution will likely improve our understanding of vision and brain evolution in animals, including ourselves.”

“This is an important age to investigate because although their digital culture has begun to take shape earlier, this is when they start to have their own mobile phones and when the biggest change occurs. Gifting a smartphone has become a rite of passage into a new phase. In a way, it represents the leap to adolescence, as they are given the key to use social media and, with it, the entry into a parallel world. This is of particular concern to families and a technophobic point of view has also spread. So we wanted to explore what the situation really is,” explained the researcher Eneko Tejada.

356 students from six public vocational training schools participated in the study. Two out of three say they have a mobile phone and a third say they already had one before the start of the school year. According to Tejada, “we can’t say that smartphone ownership and use is widespread among 11- to 12-year-olds today, but we know it will be in the near future.”

In terms of usage, the study has shown that they use smartphones mainly to talk to family and friends: “Owning a smartphone means starting to use social media directly. Parents gift their children a mobile phone to communicate with them, to know where they are, etc. But they need to realise that offering a mobile phone makes it easier for them to make the leap to social media, as they will not be using their phones exclusively to talk to family. Data has shown that they also use them to interact with their friends. So parents need to take this into account when deciding when to give their children a smartphone,” Tejada explained.

Social media are not their main centre of interest

However, he stresses that 11- to -12-year-olds are not particularly attracted to social media, the function of which is not exclusively communication. They use these platforms as well, but not as much. They use them mainly to watch videos, mostly on YouTube, but they rarely access Instagram and Tik Tok. “Social media are not yet one of their main centres of interest and, unlike older students, they do not give away too much about themselves. They cannot be said to interact on these media, as very few of them generate content. Most of them just watch other people’s content and they like short videos that can be watched quickly,” said Tejada.

In terms of use, the study revealed gender differences. Girls watch videos more than anything else on their mobile devices, while boys play video games.

The UPV/EHU researchers point out that, although they have detected few risk factors, caution needs to be exercised: “Strategic plans must be developed to promote safe, responsible use of the Internet, social media and video games. And families need to be given guidelines to help them decide when to offer their children a smartphone.”

The moment a child gets his/her first mobile phone as a gift is a source of worry for many parents. Concern about the risks associated with smartphone use has led to more and more initiatives trying to delay that moment. According to research, in the first year of compulsory secondary education all students already own a mobile phone by the age of 13 to 14. Aware of this, the UPV/EHU Weablearner research team, devoted to the analysis of education and technology, wanted to study the digital ecosystem of children one year earlier, in the last year of primary school. In other words, the digital devices they use at the age of 11 to12 and what they use them for.

“This is an important age to investigate because although their digital culture has begun to take shape earlier, this is when they start to have their own mobile phones and when the biggest change occurs. Gifting a smartphone has become a rite of passage into a new phase. In a way, it represents the leap to adolescence, as they are given the key to use social media and, with it, the entry into a parallel world. This is of particular concern to families and a technophobic point of view has also spread. So we wanted to explore what the situation really is,” explained the researcher Eneko Tejada.

356 students from six public vocational training schools participated in the study. Two out of three say they have a mobile phone and a third say they already had one before the start of the school year. According to Tejada, “we can’t say that smartphone ownership and use is widespread among 11- to 12-year-olds today, but we know it will be in the near future.”

In terms of usage, the study has shown that they use smartphones mainly to talk to family and friends: “Owning a smartphone means starting to use social media directly. Parents gift their children a mobile phone to communicate with them, to know where they are, etc. But they need to realise that offering a mobile phone makes it easier for them to make the leap to social media, as they will not be using their phones exclusively to talk to family. Data has shown that they also use them to interact with their friends. So parents need to take this into account when deciding when to give their children a smartphone,” Tejada explained.

Social media are not their main centre of interest

However, he stresses that 11- to -12-year-olds are not particularly attracted to social media, the function of which is not exclusively communication. They use these platforms as well, but not as much. They use them mainly to watch videos, mostly on YouTube, but they rarely access Instagram and Tik Tok. “Social media are not yet one of their main centres of interest and, unlike older students, they do not give away too much about themselves. They cannot be said to interact on these media, as very few of them generate content. Most of them just watch other people’s content and they like short videos that can be watched quickly,” said Tejada.

In terms of use, the study revealed gender differences. Girls watch videos more than anything else on their mobile devices, while boys play video games.

The UPV/EHU researchers point out that, although they have detected few risk factors, caution needs to be exercised: “Strategic plans must be developed to promote safe, responsible use of the Internet, social media and video games. And families need to be given guidelines to help them decide when to offer their children a smartphone.”

Stretchable Technology: Revolutionizing Next-Generation Electronics through Freeform Deformation

Flexible and deformable electronics have advanced beyond bendable, foldable, rollable, and slidable designs to fully stretchable systems that allow freeform deformation. Stretchable technology is gaining traction in diverse fields, such as displays, sensors, semiconductors, electronic skin, biomimetic robots, and smart clothing.

Stretchable technology largely relies on two approaches: creating elastic materials similar to rubber and designing stretchable structures that integrate seamlessly with existing semiconductor, display, electrode, and sensor technologies. In structural stretchable technology, the serpentine interconnect — a wavy, elastic connection — plays a crucial role in providing elasticity to non-stretchable electronic components. Advancing this technology requires a thorough understanding of the structural characteristics and deformation processes during all stages of stretching.

Visualizing Deformation of Serpentine Structures in Real Time

Until now, analyzing deformation in serpentine structures was only possible after physical damage, such as breaks, had occurred. This meant researchers had to rely on theoretical simulations or limited observational data from previous stretching cycles, hindering real-time insights into structural behavior.

The POSTECH team tackled this challenge by leveraging changes in structural color — color shifts that occur at the nanoscale during deformation. Using Chiral Liquid Crystal Elastomer (CLCE), a mechanochromic material that changes color when stretched, they developed a system that enables precise, real-time visualization of deformation in serpentine structures. Furthermore, the team validated the results through theoretical finite element analysis, confirming the technology’s potential for optimized design applications.

Technological and Industrial Significance

This innovative approach eliminates the need for complex nanofabrication processes and provides a clear, real-time understanding of how serpentine structures deform. By offering actionable design guidelines for optimizing these structures in diverse stretching environments, this technology is poised to fast-track the commercialization of stretchable devices.

Professor Su Seok Choi remarked, “This research opens the door to precise evaluation and design of the connection structures central to stretchable technology.” He added that the findings are expected to broaden applications and accelerate commercialization in fields such as displays, semiconductors, sensors, electronic skin, smart clothing, and soft robotics.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Samsung Future Technology Development Program and the Stretchable Display Development and Demonstration Initiative under the Korea Planning & Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology.

This could enable medics to identify sooner any decline in lung function.

The scan method has enabled the team, led by researchers at Newcastle University, UK, to see how air moves in and out of the lungs as people take a breath in patients with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and patients who have received a lung transplant.

Publishing two complementary papers in Radiology and JHLT Open, the team explain how they use a special gas, called perfluoropropane, that can be seen on an MRI scanner. The gas can be safely breathed in and out by patients, and then scans taken to look at where in the lungs the gas has reached.

The project lead, Professor Pete Thelwallis Professor of Magnetic Resonance Physics and Director of the Centre for In Vivo Imaging at Newcastle University. He said; “Our scans show where there is patchy ventilation in patients with lung disease, and show us which parts of the lung improve with treatment. For example, when we scan a patient as they use their asthma medication, we can see how much of their lungs and which parts of their lung are better able to move air in and out with each breath.”

Using the new scanning method, the team are able to reveal the parts of the lung that air doesn’t reach properly during breathing. By measuring how much of the lung is well-ventilated and how much is poorly ventilated, experts can make an assessment of the effects of a patient’s respiratory disease, and they can locate and visualise the lung regions with ventilation defects.

Demonstrating that the scans work in patients with asthma or COPD, the team comprising experts from across Universities and NHS Trusts in Newcastle and Sheffield publish the first paper in Radiology.

The new scanning technique allows the team to quantify the degree of improvement in ventilation when patients have a treatment, in this case a widely used inhaler, the bronchodilator, salbutamol. This shows that the imaging methods could be valuable in clinical trials of new treatments of lung disease.

Use in lung transplants

A further study, published in JHLT Open, examined patients who had previously received a lung transplant for very severe lung disease at the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. It demonstrates how the team further developed the imaging method to provide lung function measurements which could be used to better support lung transplant recipients in the future. The sensitivity of the measurement means medics can spot early changes in lung function allowing them to identify lung problems earlier and so provide better care for patients.

In research studies, the team scanned transplant recipients’ lungs over multiple breaths in and out, collecting MRI pictures that show how the air containing the gas reached different areas of the lung. The team scanned those who either had normal lung function or who were experiencing chronic rejection after lung transplant, which is a common issue in lung transplant recipients as their immune system attacks the donor lungs. In those with chronic rejection, the scans showed poorer movement of air to the edges of the lungs, most likely due to damage in the very small breathing tubes (airways) in the lung, a feature typical of chronic rejection also known as chronic lung allograft dysfunction.

Professor Andrew Fisher, Professor of Respiratory Transplant Medicine at Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Newcastle University, UK, co-author of the study said; “We hope this new type of scan might allow us to see changes in the transplant lungs earlier and before signs of damage are present in the usual blowing tests. This would allow any treatment to be started earlier and help protect the transplanted lungs from further damage.”

The team say there is potential for this scan method to be used in the clinical management of lung transplant recipients and other lung diseases in the future, bringing a sensitive measurement that may spot early changes in lung function that enable better management of these conditions.

This work on lung imaging has been funded by the Medical Research Council and by The Rosetrees Trust.

PolyP and magnesium are involved in many biological processes. Thus, the findings could lead to new methods for tuning cellular responses, which could have impactful applications in translational medicine.

The ensuing study, published in Nature Communications on October 26, 2024, reveals a delicate “Goldilocks” zone — a specific magnesium concentration range — where DNA wraps around polyP-magnesium ion condensates. Similar to a thin eggshell covering a liquid-like interior, this seemingly simple structure may help cells organize and protect their genetic material.

This work began as a collaboration between co-senior authors Associate Professor Lisa Racki, PhD, and Professor Ashok Deniz, PhD, both in the Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at Scripps Research. Racki had been studying these structures in bacterial cells, while Deniz’s next-door lab was exploring the physical chemistry of biomolecular condensates for the past decade. Collaboration, they realized, was the only way to unlock these ancient interactions.

“We knew that DNA was in close proximity to the magnesium-rich polyP condensates in cells, but we were totally surprised by the beautiful spheres of DNA that lit up under the microscope,” says Racki.

“Being molecular detectives, seeing these structures raised exciting questions for us about the physics and mathematics of the DNA shells and whether they influenced the polyP condensates,” adds Deniz.

Their microscopy images revealed that DNA wraps itself around a condensate, creating a thin eggshell-like barrier. This shell could affect molecule transportation and also slow down fusion: the process where two condensates merge into one. Without DNA shells, polyP-magnesium ion condensates readily fused — like how oil drops and vinegar fuse in a salad dressing bottle when shook.

However, careful examination showed that fusion overall slowed to varying extents, depending on DNA length. Longer DNA, the researchers suspected, caused greater entanglement on condensate surfaces — similar to how long hair tangles more than short hair.

DNA is more than 1,000 times thinner in diameter than condensates, making molecular details hard to visualize. Fortunately, infrastructure to capture such imaging has been developed by two other faculty members at Scripps Research: Assistant Professor Danielle Grotjahn, PhD, and Scripps Fellow Donghyun Raphael Park, PhD.

Teaming with Park, with help from Grotjahn, the researchers used cryo-electron tomography to closely examine the condensate surfaces. Using electrons instead of light, this technique captures three-dimensional, high-resolution images of samples that were rapidly frozen to preserve their structures. The new images revealed that DNA forms filaments protruding from condensate surfaces, resembling tangled hairs.

Another crucial discovery: DNA shell formation only occurred within a specific magnesium concentration range — too much or too little, and the shell wouldn’t materialize. This “Goldilocks” effect highlights how cells can regulate condensate structure, size and function simply by tuning control parameters.

“Although we think of cellular interfaces as boundaries, they also create a new landscape by providing a surface for molecules to organize,” notes Racki. “DNA may not actually be a tangled mess at the surface and is instead organized by these condensates.”

In this context, Deniz and Racki are particularly interested in understanding DNA supercoiling — how DNA twists like a spring to fit inside cells.

“Cells have to manage their DNA curls,” explains Racki. “Interestingly, the mathematics of DNA supercoiling results in ‘action-at-a-distance’ effects — like how twisting a rope can create coils far from where you’re holding it.”

The researchers suspect that DNA interactions with polyP condensates in cells might propagate local changes in DNA supercoiling over long distances, resulting in broader changes in gene expression and cell function. Investigating this effect is one of the team’s next goals.

“We’re excited by the prospects of leveraging these discoveries to develop new tools for cellular control — potentially simpler, more cost-effective approaches to manage biomatter for biomedicine,” says Deniz.

In addition to Deniz, Racki, Grotjahn and Park, authors of the study, “Reentrant DNA shells tune polyphosphate condensate size,” include co-first authors Ravi Chawla and Jenna K. A. Tom, and Tumara Boyd, Nicholas H. Tu and Tanxi Bai of Scripps Research.

This work was supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIGMS Grant R35 GM130375, Grant DP2-GM-739-140918 and S10OD032467), Scripps Research start-up funds, a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the American Heart Association (Award #903967) and the Pew Scholars Program.