News & Comment

Venoms are naturally available biological resources with a huge potential to explore numerous pharmacologically valuable compounds to diagnose and treat human diseases. Therefore, researching venoms is not only beneficial to develop better diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for envenomation, but also to explore the clinical potential of a plethora of molecules. This special Collection includes a range of articles that report a variety of research on the development of diagnostic methods for venom detection and toxicity of venoms in various cellular systems. We believe that this Collection extends the knowledge and offers potential avenues to initiate new lines of research in this field.

Oral health is increasingly recognized for its interconnectedness to systemic health, with emerging evidence highlighting their bidirectional relationship. Oral diseases, affecting approximately 3.5 billion people globally, disproportionately burden low- and middle-income countries due to inadequate healthcare access. Recognizing oral health as a component of overall well-being emphasizes the need for integrative approaches linking dentistry and medicine. This Collection presents clinical and experimental studies addressing oral-systemic health connections. Clinical trials evaluated temporomandibular disorders, juvenile idiopathic arthritis impacts on TMJ deformities, oral rehabilitation post-esophagectomy, and botulinum toxin interventions for masseter hypertrophy. An animal study demonstrated combined skeletal regeneration potential of dietary hesperidin and recombinant BMP2. Additionally, a genome-wide association study of salivary microbiota linked genetic variants to cardiometabolic diseases, underscoring how host genetics influence oral microbial diversity and systemic health outcomes. In conclusion, collaborative dental-medical strategies are essential for improved patient outcomes and systemic health management.

Achieving "sustainable management of water and sanitation for all" is a fundamental part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Rising rates of urbanization and industrialization necessitate continual technological advancements to address existing and emerging water pollution issues related to centralized populations and industrial wastes. The articles in the Collection “Water and Wastewater Treatment Technologies” showcase salient aspects of advances in measurement and monitoring, as well as recommendations for sustainable use and management of water resources. The Collection associated with this editorial also presents studies that highlight the importance of decentralization and digitalization of environmental water technologies.

Understanding droplet and bubble dynamics in various configurations is essential for many technical applications. This collection showcases the latest research in this field, covering both fundamental and applied perspectives. Studies have employed advanced experimental and numerical methods. Topics include droplet wetting and spreading on functional surfaces, coalescence dynamics of droplets, drag reduction in microchannels, and ultrasound backscatter of bubbles.

Cancer is among the most common causes of mortality worldwide. Screening for cancer involves surveillance of populations towards identification of cancer that was unknown to the patient. Therapeutic treatments for cancer generally are more effective when applied earlier on in the condition’s development, as such, screening for cancer has the potential to improve the standard for patient care and improving mortality and morbidity associated with the disease. Cancer screening has increasingly become dependent on advanced technologies to assist in the identification and characterization of tumours. This article Collection showcases current research towards the development of new methods for cancer screening, including the development of new advanced technologies in this domain such as novel methods incorporating liquid biopsies, tailed primer isothermal amplification assays, and infrared spectroscopy. As is common in modern research, approaches make use of computational techniques as a critical component in cancer screening, and research is highlighted on the use of artificial intelligence, which is now a common technological innovation contributing to the overall cancer screening process in research studies. Future directions for cancer screening are discussed.

Burnout, characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment, has become increasingly prevalent in modern society, particularly among healthcare professionals. The chronic stress experienced in these demanding roles significantly contributes to the development of burnout. This editorial reviews recent research findings on burnout and stress, focusing on findings from Scientific Reports' Collection on the topic. We explore the role of both systemic factors and individual vulnerabilities in contributing to burnout across various contexts, from healthcare settings to academia. Recent studies highlight the role of protective psychological factors such as optimism, humor, and resilience in mitigating burnout, while also emphasizing how hope and self-efficacy can mediate the relationship between stress and professional burnout. Moral injury and systemic inefficiencies faced by healthcare professionals were exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Analysis of cognitive-behavioral stress-management competencies reveals that proactive approaches, particularly planning and prevention, are more effective than reactive methods in managing stress. The evidence suggests that effective interventions must address both systemic issues (such as excessive workloads and resource constraints) and individual factors (through resilience-building and stress-management training). A holistic approach combining institutional support with individual empowerment strategies is essential for mitigating burnout and stress and enhancing collective well-being in professional settings.

The oxygen inventory of the global ocean is declining. This phenomenon, known as ocean deoxygenation, has emerged as a fundamental pathway for climate change to alter marine ecosystems. An important concern is how this global oxygen decline will manifest in coastal and oceanic systems that are already subject to low oxygen, or hypoxic conditions. There is also a clear need to understand how the intensification and/or expansion of hypoxia will affect ocean food webs and biogeochemical cycles. Building a predictive understanding of ocean hypoxia is a multi-scaled and multi-disciplinary research endeavor. Recent advances in ocean observation, experimental biology, and ecosystem modeling are being applied to ocean hypoxia research to reshape our understanding of the future ocean.

The gut–brain axis, a bidirectional communication pathway, permits the central nervous system (CNS) to exert influence over gastrointestinal function in response to stress, while the gut microbiota regulates the CNS via immune, neuroendocrine, and vagal pathways. Current research highlights the importance of the gut microbiota in stress-related disorders and the need for further research into the mechanisms of gut–brain communication, with potential therapeutic implications for a wide range of health conditions. This is a challenge taken on in this Scientific Reports Collection on the Gut-Brain Axis. The gut–brain axis has significant implications for neurodegenerative, psychiatric, and metabolic disorders. Recent studies have underscored the role of the gut microbiome in conditions such as Parkinson’s disease (PD), with evidence indicating that gut dysfunction and pathological features can precede motor symptoms by decades. The use of in vivo animal models has demonstrated that preformed α-synuclein fibrils (PFFs) can travel from the gut to the brain in a dosage-dependent manner, thereby supporting the “gut-first” theory in the context of PD, a theory that is explored in this Collection using in vitro approaches. There is also evidence that the gut–brain axis plays a role in obesity and machine learning algorithms may assist in differentiating between obese and overweight individuals based on their microbiota data. There is also growing interest in the role of the gut at the interface between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), sleep disturbances, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The studies described in this Collection support and expand on the observations from previous preclinical and clinical investigations, while also providing essential novel insights that can drive discovery into previously unexplored avenues of brain-gut-microbiome interactions in health and disease.

Throughout history, poets, scholars, and scientists have acknowledged the profound link between sleep and psychological well-being. The wisdom of “sleep on it”, ingrained in both Western and Eastern traditions, highlights the crucial role sleep plays in restoring and enhancing cognitive functions. In today’s fast-paced, highly-interconnected, technology-driven world, where cognitive demands are ever-growing, quality sleep has become both more vital and more elusive. This collection delves into the evolving role of sleep in maintaining psychological well-being amidst contemporary challenges. It brings together a diverse array of behavioral and brain imaging studies from researchers across the globe, focusing on three key areas: the beneficial effects of sleep on learning and education, the detrimental consequences of sleep disruption on mental health, and the rising prevalence of sleep disruption in vulnerable populations. These studies offer compelling insights, revealing, for instance, how sleep consolidates conceptual networks of knowledge, how sleep disruption can signal suicidal tendencies a month before suicide attempts, and how heatwaves negatively affect infant sleep. This body of work not only underscores the cognitive benefits of sleep but also illuminates how contemporary challenges—such as climate change, poverty, and shift work—undermine sleep health. It calls for targeted interventions to improve sleep health and psychological well-being in response to these contemporary challenges, urging scholars and policymakers to prioritize sleep health as a foundational element in building a healthier, more resilient society.

Since the introduction of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) almost four decades ago, non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques have emerged as promising tools to study brain-behaviour relationships in healthy and impaired states with unprecedented precision. Various NIBS techniques, including TMS, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), and emerging methods such as transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) and transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) are employed in both research and clinical settings. TMS has gained regulatory approval for treating conditions like major depressive disorder and migraine, while tDCS is showing efficacy in enhancing cognitive functions in various populations. This collection of articles examines key studies, including the modulation of cognitive-motor functions, optimization of light stimulation for Alzheimer’s therapy, and effects on risk-taking behaviour in violent offenders. Notably, the findings suggest that NIBS can effectively influence executive functions and decision-making processes. They highlight the integration of NIBS with neuroimaging techniques, the importance of personalized targeting, and the potential for combined therapeutic approaches. Future directions include addressing methodological challenges and leveraging artificial intelligence to refine treatment protocols. Collectively, these advancements position NIBS as a transformative tool in both neuroscience research and clinical practice, offering new avenues for understanding and treating complex neuropsychiatric conditions.

Ensuring the sustainability and security of groundwater resources requires identification of region-specific challenges and solutions to accommodate water needs in diverse sectors, including ecosystems. They are related to extensive variations in natural conditions (e.g. geology, geomorphology and hydrology), human interventions, and political, cultural and socio-economic realities that need to be considered in working towards sustainable development. To achieve this goal, it is important to understand social transformations and societal drivers, as well as management and governance challenges which hinder effective groundwater management and access. Unlocking the future opportunities of groundwater require to integrate the existing knowledge and emerging tools and techniques to explore the unknown resources, and device governance strategies to improve livelihoods and health, build more resilient water futures, and move towards long-term sustainable and equitable groundwater use.

The urbanisation process, which consists of the transformation of semi-natural and natural habitats to heavily modified habitats dominated by buildings and infrastructure such as roads, continues in response to an increasing human population and an increasing proportion of people inhabiting urban areas. The urbanisation process generally has negative impacts upon biodiversity, and as urban areas are expected to expand in the future, we need to acquire a better understanding of the ecological effects of urbanisation. In this Collection focusing on urban biodiversity, articles improve our understanding of the distribution of biodiversity between and within urban areas, whilst also seeking to understand the consequences of urbanisation for trophic cascades and genetic divergence. Other articles advance our understanding of the impacts of stressors in the form of noise and light pollution, whilst also examining how best to conserve urban biodiversity via features such as green roofs. The articles in this Collection therefore advance our understanding of the impact of urbanisation on biodiversity, yet also highlight those avenues that warrant further attention in terms of using sophisticated technological approaches to examine the most pressing topical issues in biodiversity conservation in urban areas globally.

The deep sea, defined as ocean depths below 200 m, encompasses vast and largely unexplored habitats, such as abyssal plains, hydrothermal vents, cold seeps, and ocean trenches. This environment supports a remarkable diversity of life forms adapted to extreme conditions, including high pressure, low temperatures, and complete darkness. The Deep Sea Biodiversity and Conservation Collection highlights the importance of these ecosystems and the unique adaptations of the organisms inhabiting these extreme environments, ranging from invertebrates like corals and sponges to diverse microbial communities. The Collection includes studies on coral distribution and ecosystem services, trophic dynamics at cold-water coral reefs, and microbial diversity using metabarcoding and metagenomics. Notable findings include insights into hydrothermal vent communities, the role of chemosynthesis in sustaining deep-sea life, and the adaptation of deep-sea invertebrates to varying depths. These studies underscore the critical need for conservation strategies for these fragile and understudied oceanic ecosystems to ensure their sustainability.

Chirality at the nanoscale has emerged as a key area of interest in materials science and engineering, with significant implications for various fields such as spintronics, photonics, optoelectronics, quantum computing, and biomedicine. With their unique properties such as enantioselective interactions with light and spin-polarized electron transport, chiral nanomaterials are opening a new window of opportunities for the design of advanced functional devices. This editorial provides an overview of the current state of research in chirality in nanomaterials. We also showcase several papers from this collection that exemplify the breadth of current work, offering insights into the future directions of this rapidly evolving field.

This editorial introduces the “Holocene palaeoclimate” special collection, which examines the intricate relationship between human activities and climate systems throughout the Holocene. The collection highlights the significance of palaeoclimatic reconstructions, providing insights into past climate variability and extremes. By integrating multidisciplinary research from diverse regions, including the Siberian Arctic, Singapore, the Iberian Peninsula, Bavaria, and Madagascar, the collection elucidates the global and regional climate dynamics that shaped historical and contemporary environments. These studies underscore the value of understanding past climates to better predict future climate behaviour and develop strategies to mitigate the impacts of ongoing global warming. The findings offer a long-term perspective on climate trends, contributing to more informed and resilient approaches to addressing contemporary climate challenges.

Phages are gaining attention for their ability to target drug-resistant bacteria, disrupt biofilms, and reach intracellular pathogens, offering promising alternatives to traditional antibiotics. The Collection discusses advances in phage therapy, including their application in vaccine development, cancer immunotherapy, and gene delivery systems. Key research gaps are identified, such as challenges related to phage stability, immune response, and regulatory hurdles. Despite the progress, phage therapy faces obstacles in maintaining phage viability, evading immune detection, and navigating complex regulatory frameworks. The articles collectively address these challenges and propose potential solutions to enhance the effectiveness and acceptance of phage-based treatments. By overcoming these barriers, bacteriophage research has the potential to revolutionize medical therapies, providing innovative approaches to some of the most pressing healthcare challenges today.

Time perception is inherently subjective and malleable. We experience a wide range of time scales, from less than a second to decades. In addition, our perception of time can be affected by our attentional and emotional states. Previous psychological and neuroimaging studies have used several paradigms and methods to probe factors that influence time perception. Considering these factors facilitates approaches to improve time management and to enhance sensory experiences. This Collection of time perception studies includes reports that focus on stimulus property, physiological state, cross-modal interaction, attention, learning, age, and environment. These findings help to illuminate the complex mechanisms of time perception.

Alongside rapid population ageing, we are experiencing increasing numbers of people with cognitive impairment and dementia. There is great scientific effort being committed to understanding cognitive and brain functioning, with the aim of helping to promote healthy ageing and independence, and improve quality of life. This Cognitive Ageing Collection brings together cutting-edge research using a variety of methods and from diverse disciplinary perspectives, with example topics including cognitive strategies, genetic risk factors, and emotion regulation. Articles in the Collection highlight advances in our understanding of cognitive and brain health, and outline important directions for future research.

Mitochondria, the powerhouse and the vital signaling hub of the cell, participate in a variety of biological processes, such as apoptosis, redox responses, cell senescence, autophagy, and iron homeostasis. Mitochondria form a mostly tubular network, made up of an outer and a cristeae-forming inner membrane. The network undergoes dynamic fusion and fission that change its morphological structure according to the functional needs. Approximately 1500 mitochondrial proteins encoded by nuclear genome plus over 10 proteins encoded by mitochondrial DNA are folded and assembled in the mitochondria under a high-fidelity control system. These proteins are involved in oxidative phosphorylation, metabolism, network and cristae dynamics, mitophagy, import machinery, ion channels, and mitochondrial DNA maintenance. This Collection gathers original research that advances our understanding of the monitoring techniques and pathophysiological significance of mitochondrial dynamics in health and disease.