SciPod

As the practice of psychotherapy increasingly embraces the spiritual dimensions of the human experience, therapists are investigating new ways to weave faith and meaning into healing. Dr Suzanne Coyle, a licensed pastoral counsellor and family therapist, explores the role of spirituality in psychotherapy and how this intersection can support the journey of healing. Her work provides practitioners...

Africa is often described as a continent of extremes. Vast deserts give way to lush rainforests; humid coastlines sit beside high, cool plateaus; ancient savannas stretch for thousands of kilometers. Life in Africa has always existed at the edge of change, shaped by heat and drought, abundance and scarcity. Survival here has never been guaranteed, it has had to be earned, generation by generation,...

Researchers Maryam Doroudian and Jürgen Gailer from the University of Calgary explore what happens when red blood cells rupture and release a zinc-containing enzyme called carbonic anhydrase 1 into the bloodstream, revealing that it remains unexpectedly free and may influence vascular health. Their work also connects to broader research showing how liquid chromatography is transforming our ability...

If you walk through the bustling streets of Tehran, you might first notice the traffic, the densely packed apartments, or young people weaving through the city on motorbikes. But if you look a little closer, you may notice banners stretching across overpasses, tiny flags lining the perimeters of parks, or posters taped to walls, and you might just begin to sense something else humming quietly in t...

In an era defined by constant pressure, chronic stress, and escalating performance demands, the question of how humans sustain physical and mental effectiveness has never been more urgent. From soldiers operating under sleep deprivation and extreme physical strain to civilians navigating relentless workloads and psychological stress, fatigue has become the defining challenge of modern life. Howeve...

We often take our bodies for granted, treating them as vehicles to get us through the day or as objects to manage and control. But author and Jungian Analyst Barbara Holifield's book Being with the Body in Depth Psychology challenges this view, arguing that the body is the foundation of our sense of self and the lens through which we encounter the world. Depth psychology has seldom treated the bod...

In the world of opioid addiction treatment, the hardest moment often arrives precisely when hope begins to emerge. It is the moment someone chooses to stop using opioids. That decision, courageous and life-changing, almost immediately collides with one of the most punishing physiologic syndromes known in medicine: opioid withdrawal. Withdrawal brings waves of nausea, sweats, shaking, cramps, insom...

In today’s world, the internet is more than a tool. It can be a place where friendships are built, identities are explored, and young people find connection. For teenagers, digital spaces are a huge component of their lives. However, the way we talk about online safety often feels like it belongs to another era, one rooted in adult fears rather than young people’s lived experiences. A project led...

Research from Assistant Professor Ligeia Quackelbeen at Tilburg University examines how international criminal courts categorize cultural practices such as forced marriage, revealing issues with current legal approaches. Using a landmark case as a primary example, the analysis demonstrates how judges rely on rigid checklist-based reasoning that fails to adequately consider cultural contexts. The r...

Step into a natural history museum, sometimes called a ‘dead zoo’, and you will find yourself surrounded by silence. Behind glass cases and inside drawers lie animals long gone: the Tasmanian tiger, the quagga, birds that no longer take flight, creatures whose skins and bones now carry only the weight of memory. These preserved remains are meant to represent care - careful handling, careful storag...

Science diplomacy, meaning the use of scientific collaboration to strengthen international relations and address shared global challenges, has long been hailed as a force for good. Yet, as Dr. Rasha Bayoumi of the University of Birmingham Dubai and her colleagues argue in their Editorial for a special issue in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, this optimism often masks uncomfortable realitie...

Professor Michael Saward from the University of Warwick examines how Tate Liverpool's Democracies exhibition used curatorial methods to explore democracy in ways that fundamentally differ from traditional academic approaches. By analyzing several artworks displayed between 2020 and 2023, and how the exhibition was presented by the gallery, Saward reveals how art galleries can generate knowledge, c...

Across the world, scientists are still trying to answer one of medicine’s most difficult questions: how can we safely and effectively treat brain cancers such as glioma? Despite decades of effort, outcomes for people diagnosed with high-grade glioma remain bleak. Current treatments, including surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, can slow the disease, but rarely stop it. The GlioLighT consortiu...

For centuries, malaria has been one of the deadliest diseases on the planet. Nearly half of the world remains at risk of malaria with more than half a million deaths each year, most of them in children. While some progress has been made in controlling malaria and developing a vaccine, this has stalled recently, with a growing number of deaths since 2019. At the heart of the challenge is the lack o...

Modern environmental science faces a curious paradox. We have more data than ever, but less certainty. For scientists, policymakers, and the public alike, the sheer volume of studies, each with its own assumptions, experimental conditions, and interpretations, can be overwhelming. Which studies are trustworthy? Which deserve more weight when making decisions about environmental safety? This questi...

West Africa’s climate is constantly being shaped by interactions between the ground and the lower atmosphere, where instabilities can give rise to unpredictable turbulence. Guided by extensive weather observations, a team led by Dr. Ossénatou Mamadou at the University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin, has gained important insights into when and how these instabilities occur, and how well they can be predic...

In the United States, families that cross racial lines often attract admiration and curiosity. Such families are increasingly common, and they are seen by many as living proof that love conquers prejudice, and that the country is moving beyond its painful racial past. When a white mother cradles her brown-skinned baby, or a Black father teaches his lighter-skinned daughter to ride a bike, the imag...

For more than half a century, lithium has been one of the most reliable treatments for bipolar disorder. It has given countless people the ability to stabilize their moods and reclaim lives otherwise disrupted by cycles of mania and depression. But lithium comes with inherent risk: its therapeutic range is narrow, which means that the difference between a helpful dose and a harmful one is surprisi...

Penelope J. Corfield’s groundbreaking book, entitled Time-Space: We Are All in It Together, presents a multidimensional framework for understanding how humans exist within the cosmic continuum of time and space. Corfield agrees with the modern scientific consensus post-Einstein, where time is understood not as a separate dimension but as being integrally yoked with space. Together, time and space...

Research from Professor Dr Susanne Maria Maurer, former chair of social pedagogy at the Philipps-Universität Marburg, reveals how social work institutions and practices serve as repositories of knowledge about historical struggles over class, gender, and race. She conceptualizes social work as both a "memory of conflicts" and an "open archive" that holds different answers to social problems from a...

Soil is one of the most important resources on the planet. It grows our food, regulates water, supports ecosystems, and stores vast amounts of carbon. But it’s also incredibly complex, and surprisingly poorly understood. In Australia, Prof. Alex McBratney of the University of Sydney and his colleagues are changing that. By working with the Soil Security Assessment Framework, they’ve developed new...

Soil sits at the heart of nearly every major challenge humanity faces, from food, water and energy security to climate change, biodiversity loss, human health, and the delivery of vital ecosystem services. But, soil itself is increasingly under threat. As these pressures intensify, soil security has become a global priority in its own right. Yet despite its critical role, there are still gaps in h...

When we think about science, we often imagine a universal language of knowledge in the form of a shared code of numbers, graphs, and precise words that transcend borders. But what happens when the language of science is not the language of the scientist? This is the challenge explored in a recent study by a group of publication professionals from the pharmaceutical and medical communications indus...

In the 20th century, antibiotics transformed medicine. Infections that once killed millions could be cured with a pill or injection. Surgeries became safer, cancer treatments more effective, and advanced medical interventions, such as organ transplants, became possible, all because doctors could rely on these drugs to control infections. Unfortunately, today, that foundation is crumbling. Bacteria...

Across North America, the phrase “fuel management” is used almost as often as “climate change” when people talk about wildfires. The idea is simple: forests burn because they are full of fuel, including trees, shrubs, branches, and dried leaves. If you remove some of that material, you make it harder for a wildfire to spread. Provincial governments, towns, and even ski resorts such as Whistler in...