Researchers have identified four more members of Sir John Franklin's 1845 expedition, one of whom was the subject of great debate lasting for more than a century.

Anthropologists from the Faculty of Arts at the University of Waterloo led the work that analyzed DNA samples extracted from skeletal remains and found matches with DNA donated by living descendants. These new discoveries bring the total number of identified sailors of the Franklin expedition to six.

A new study of online communities suggests that their interaction dynamics can amplify small, local imbalances in opinions, rapidly turning initially mixed-opinion communities into highly-polarized ones—even without the algorithms and homogeneity-seeking behaviors typically blamed for sculpting echo chambers. Petter Törnberg of the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, presents these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on May 6, 2026.

A new analysis of inter-family marriages, in the mafia-type organized crime group ’Ndrangheta, suggests that matrimonial ties between non-powerful families may play a previously under-appreciated role in maintaining the resilience of the entire ’Ndrangheta network. Maurizio Catino and colleagues at the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy, present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on May 6, 2026.

The field unites principles in biology, engineering and earth sciences to develop scalable solutions to urgent environmental, social and economic challenges.

A new study challenges one of the most widely accepted ideas in psychology and linguistics: that the meaning of words is fundamentally organized around expressing emotion. Instead, a team of scientists at the University of Vermont have looked at the use of billions of words and discovered that language is structured by something deeper—and more consequential: the need for safety and survival.

A first-of-its-kind study of U.S. adults suggests that all of those strangers you’re friends with on social media are not helping you to feel less lonely.