Research questions legitimacy of promoting harmful products

Sexually transmitted infections in Otago's gold rush era were less common than popular culture books portray, University of Otago—Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka research has found. The first-of-its-kind study, published in the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, explored hospital records and newspaper articles from 1864 to 1869 in Otago to reveal the prevalence of syphilis and gonorrhea infections and societal attitudes about those with them.

As winter comes to a close, many people look forward to warmer temperatures and spring blooms, but for land managers working to preserve or restore oak-dominated forests, it is prescribed burn season. Fire brings more light into forests, which is crucial for young oak tree growth, but many land managers are concerned about how non-native plants affect fire intensity and young tree survival rates.

Accelerator programs are supposed to give entrepreneurs the mentorship, training and skills boost that will help launch them toward success. But in countries where the gender playing field still steeply tilts toward male advantage, women-led businesses that participated in accelerators showed no financial improvement, or even did worse, compared to ventures that applied but weren't accepted.

Scientists at Florida International University have identified a promising way to safely ship fish long distances without losing vital vitamin D, using a method already widely applied to preserve other foods—gamma irradiation.