Psychology assistant Research Professor and senior instructor in the College of Arts and Sciences Christina Karns explores the brain-altering power of gratitude in the Being Patient publication. Psychology researchers recognize that taking time to be thankful has benefits for well-being. Not only does gratitude go along with more optimism, less anxiety and depression, and greater goal attainment, but it’s also associated with fewer symptoms of illness and other physical benefits, Karns said.

Your microbiome isn't yours alone. Research published in Nature shows that a person’s microbiome is shaped not only by their social contacts but also by the social contacts’ connections. The work is one of several studies2 that raise the possibility that health conditions can be shaped by the transmission of the microbiome between individuals, not just by diet and other environmental factors that affect gut flora. Social interactions are “definitely a piece of the puzzle that I think has been missing until recently,” says postdoctorate microbiologist Catherine Robinson at the University of Oregon, who was not involved in the work.

The online publication Sheen Magazine features Elliot Berkman, a psychology professor and divisional dean of the Division of Natural Sciences at the College of Arts and Sciences. Berkman said the constant checking of phones is caused by reward learning and the fear of missing out (FOMO). Berkman explains that, “Habits are a product of reinforcement learning, one of our brain’s most ancient and reliable systems,” and therefore people tend to develop habits of completing behaviors that have rewarded them in the past.

Ecologists at the University of Oregon have been awarded a $2 million federal grant that allows the UO team—led by Lauren Hallett, an environmental studies professor in the College of Arts and Sciences—to expand their research into improving soil health and climate resilience in hazelnut groves by planting native wildflowers with added crushed basalt under the trees. The funding is from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Innovation Grants Program, through the Inflation Reduction Act.

In an opinion article in the Minnesota Reformer, J. Patrick Coolican cites work by University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences economics PhD students Emily Arnesen and Kyutaro Matsuzawa, writing that "scariest of all, legalized online sports betting seems to increase the risk of domestic violence."

A new economic group is tallying the costs of climate change in Oregon. Keaton Miller, an associate professor at the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences, is a part of the group and spoke with KATU, based in Portland. "It's some of these other things that are less visible but still impactful. And I think a really great example of that is the cost of smoke. You know, some of it is direct. Some of it is buying, you know, air purifiers, which a lot of my friends have done. A lot of classrooms at the university that I work at now have, you know, air purifiers in them," Miller said.

When Voyager 2 flew past the ice giant 38 years ago, it revealed a magnetosphere warped by solar winds, a finding uncovered through recent analysis of archival data. “It’s an exciting work,” said Carol Paty, a planetologist at the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences who is not affiliated with the recent paper, in a phone call to Gizmodo. “It’s always wonderful when you can go back to data that’s decades old with fresh eyes and fresh perspective.”

In the 2024 election, President-elect Donald Trump made inroads with multiple demographics that traditionally vote for Democrats, including young and Latino voters. But, LGBT voters were not one of them, exit polls suggest. College of Arts and Sciences political science professor Alison Gash told McClatchy News company that, "This shift away from Trump could have been fueled by the GOP’s “very clear anti-trans agenda” and “worries of rollbacks on marriage equality post Roe v. Wade."

Researchers have found that forensic "DNA mixture analysis" is less accurate for certain groups of people with lower genetic diversity, which could falsely link them to crime scenes. "Our work shows that we need to be cautious in interpreting results from forensic analysis of certain mixtures of DNA," study lead author Rori Rohlfs, a data scientist at the College of Arts and Sciences, told Live Science in an email. "We certainly need to weigh the strength of evidence by its reliability. It is possible that a wrongful conviction could have been made based on a misinterpreted DNA mixture analysis."

Hannah Cutting-Jones writes in The Conversation about the social factors that led to beef becoming a part of the wider US identity. In part, the dominance of beef in American cuisine can be traced to settler colonialism, a form of colonization in which settlers claim—and then transform—lands inhabited by Indigenous people. Cutting-Jones is an assistant professor at the School of Global Studies and Languages and the director of the Food Studies Program at the College of Arts and Sciences.

Woan Foong, an economist at the University of Oregon who specializes in international trade, told Newsweek Trump's proposed tariffs could result in companies relocating more of their manufacturing to the U.S. but that this would likely result in higher prices for American consumers.

Learning a new skill, such as playing an instrument, gardening or picking up a new language, takes a lot of time and practice, whether that means scale training, learning about native plants or using flashcards to memorize new words. Upworthy explored how a new study by researchers at the Institute of Neuroscience at the University of Oregon shows that you can speed up the processes by adding a third element to practice and feedback: passive exposure.

"These races could determine who controls the House of Representatives in the next Congress,” said Chandler James, assistant professor of political science at the University of Oregon. “The Pacific Northwest is kind of where the center of a lot of action is.” More than 150 media outlets—including ABC News, US News and World Report, Yahoo!, The (Toronto) Star and SFGate—covered a Media Forum held by the University Communications News and Content team on Oct. 4.

Leilani Sabzalian and Michelle M. Jacob, Indigenous faculty who lead the Sapsik’ʷałá Education Program at the University of Oregon, a collaboration between the University and the nine federally recognized Native nations in the state, are working to clear a path for the abundance of possible Indigenous educators. The two faculty members write an essay published in American Indian magazine.

Romance Languages Professor and Italian fascism expert Diana Garvin speaks with USA Today about far-right wing politics of pronatalism during fascist Italy, and how today's pronatalism from Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance echoes the flapper panic of the 1920s.