A glimpse at the origins of life through a deceptive mirror

Scientists may have solved a 150-year-old puzzle about why life favors one mirror-image molecule over another

Weizmann Institute of Science

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Imagine looking at yourself in the mirror, only to find that your reflection is governed by different laws than you are: Identical movements produce different outcomes, and what seems like a perfect copy behaves in an entirely different way. It may sound absurd, but researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have discovered that this is precisely how chiral molecules behave. These molecules can exist in two forms that are mirror images of one another, like left and right hands.

In a new study published in Science Advances, the researchers found that an electron experiences a magnetic field of different strength when traveling through each mirror-image form. This asymmetric behavior not only challenges conventional assumptions but also lends support to a theory about how life began on Earth.

Although chiral molecules can exist in two forms, scientists realized more than 150 years ago that living organisms “choose” only one: a left-handed form for proteins and a right-handed form for sugars, DNA and RNA. This preference is puzzling, since according to established laws of chemistry and physics, mirror-image molecules should have identical energy. The question of how this asymmetry arose has occupied scientists for decades, and resolving it could shed light on how the first biological molecules were created – in other words, the very origin of life.

A first step toward solving the puzzle came in 1999, when Prof. Ron Naaman and his colleagues at the Weizmann Institute passed an electric current – a stream of electrons – through chiral molecules and discovered that each mirror-image form behaves differently. Electrons act like tiny magnets, with north and south poles, and possess a property called spin, which determines their magnetic orientation. As these tiny magnets move through a chiral molecule, they follow a spiral path, which causes them to experience a magnetic force that can either accelerate or hinder their motion. The researchers found that the two mirror-image forms exert opposite effects: One mainly speeds up electrons whose north pole aligns with their direction of motion, while the other speeds up electrons whose north pole points in the opposite direction.

“This still didn’t explain why nature ‘prefers’ one form,” says Naaman. “The next clue came from accumulating evidence that the two mirror-image forms not only favor electrons with opposite spins but also transmit them with different efficiencies. Many assumed this was due to contamination of samples, but the differences were too large, and the samples too pure, for that explanation to hold.”

In the new study, led by Naaman and Prof. Yossi Paltiel of the Hebrew University, the researchers examined chiral versions of gold and silver, as well as biological chiral molecules, passing electric current through each of their mirror-image forms. The experiments revealed substantial differences in the strength of the magnetic field experienced by electrons in the two forms – differences that reached about 30 percent in chiral gold.

Using mathematical analysis and computer simulations, the researchers managed to explain how this can happen. When a magnetic field is not aligned with an electron’s direction of motion, the electron experiences only part of its strength. Crucially, in each mirror-image form the magnetic field is oriented differently, so the electron effectively “feels” a different fraction of it.

“Our breakthrough was realizing that the difference between these two seemingly identical forms only emerges in motion,” explains Paltiel. “At rest, there is no difference. But once electrons start moving in a particular direction and encounter magnetic forces of varying intensity, a significant gap opens up between the forms, altering their chemical and physical behavior.”

The implications extend far beyond chemistry and physics, offering important clues about the origin of life. About three years ago, Prof. Dimitar Sasselov’s group at Harvard University proposed that life began on naturally magnetized surfaces at the bottoms of ancient lakes, which were rich in magnetite, the most magnetic mineral found in nature.

When a chiral molecule approaches a magnetic surface, its electrons begin to move, and electrons with the same magnetic orientation accumulate at one end of the surface. If this orientation is opposite to that of the surface, the molecule is attracted; if it matches, the molecule is repelled. Thus, if the surface presents a fixed magnetic pole while each mirror-image form presents a different one, only one form will be attracted to this surface, accumulating and crystallizing into a stable structure. According to the Harvard theory, this is what happened with a primordial molecule called RAO, from which RNA eventually evolved.

“This theory explains how one mirror-image form could come to dominate, if the magnetic surface consistently favors it,” says Naaman. “The problem is that magnetic surfaces are not uniform – they contain regions with both north and south orientations, so it seemed that both forms could accumulate.”

This is where the new findings come in. Because one mirror-image form transmits electrons of a given spin more efficiently to its edge, it can align more effectively with a surface that contains both magnetic orientations. The researchers also observed that when a biological chiral molecule comes into contact with a metallic surface, the magnetic differences between its mirror forms are amplified – potentially enough to ensure that only one form accumulates.

In the case of the primordial RAO molecule, the right-handed form appears to have been favored. This physical advantage made it the default for all RNA molecules in nature. And proteins are synthesized from RNA in a process that preserves the handedness relationship, so if all RNA molecules are right-handed, all proteins will end up being left-handed.

Thus, the new findings not only help resolve a 150-year-old mystery, but also lend support to the idea that life on Earth may have originated on magnetic mineral surfaces at the bottoms of ancient lakes.

Today, this primordial selection process can be replicated in the lab for the benefit of humankind. “In biological reactions, the specific mirror-image form is crucial,” says Naaman. “Using the wrong form in industrial processes can be ineffective at best and harmful at worst, both to human health and to the environment. Based on our findings, magnetic surfaces could be used to ensure, with unprecedented precision, that only the desired chiral form crystallizes during production. This could lead to the development of safer and more effective drugs, fertilizers and pesticides.”

Also participating in the study were Daniel Goldberg, Nir Yuran and Dr. Shira Yochelis from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Jia Hao Soh, Christopher Seibel and Prof. Anna I. Krylov from the University of Southern California; Prof. Jurgen Gauss from Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany; Prof. Shmuel Zilberg from Ariel University, Israel; Prof. S. Furkan Ozturk from the California Institute of Technology; and Prof. Jonas Fransson from Uppsala University, Sweden.

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Journal

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.aec9325 

 

Wildfire dark brown carbon has strong global warming effects, study finds

Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

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Schematic illustration of atmospheric processes and radiative effects of dark brown carbon in wildfire plumes.

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Credit: Xu et al., 2026

A new international study published in Nature Geoscience reveals that dark brown carbon from wildfires exerts a powerful warming effect on the global climate—potentially matching or even exceeding that of black carbon in the visible spectrum.

Conventional understanding has held that brown carbon—a type of organic aerosol from biomass burning—mainly absorbs sunlight in the near-ultraviolet range, giving it only a limited climate impact. However, growing observations show that some wildfire-derived brown carbon appears dark brown or nearly black, absorbing light well into the visible spectrum. This “dark brown carbon” has been largely missing from global climate assessments.

Led by researchers from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen University, and Texas A&M University, the team combined aircraft, ground-based, and satellite data to analyze wildfire plumes across North America, South America, Siberia, Africa, and Australia. Their study found that at a wavelength of 500 nm (near the peak of solar radiation energy), the mass absorption efficiency of organic carbon in wildfire plumes ranges from 0.5 to 1.5 m²/g—far exceeding the typical value of less than 0.1 m²/g for weakly absorbing brown carbon. In the visible spectrum, dark brown carbon can match or surpass the light absorption of black carbon, challenging the long-held view that brown carbon absorbs much less light.

By incorporating observation-constrained optical parameters into a global climate model, the team quantified dark brown carbon’s radiative effect for the first time. The results show that wildfire-derived brown carbon has a global direct radiative effect of +0.097 W/m², with an uncertainty range of +0.050 to +0.276 W/m². Notably, the upper bound of this estimate (0.276 W/m²) exceeds the radiative contribution of black carbon (0.163 W/m²).

The study also reveals that dark brown carbon’s influence extends markedly into mid- and high-latitude regions and even the Arctic. In these snow- and ice-covered areas, deposition of dark brown carbon may reduce surface albedo and trigger a positive snow-ice albedo feedback, amplifying regional and global warming.

“This study demonstrates that dark brown carbon is a key but long-underestimated climate warming factor,” said first author Dr. Lulu Xu, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics. “Against the backdrop of mutual reinforcement between global warming and increasingly frequent wildfires, future climate assessments must fully account for the warming contribution of dark brown carbon.”

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Journal

Nature Geoscience

DOI

10.1038/s41561-026-01972-9 

Article Title

Strong global radiative effects from wildfire dark brown carbon

 

New culture shapes people: How studying and working in Poland changes newcomers' cultural practices, values and identity

SWPS University

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Going abroad to study is not just a change of address, it is also the beginning of a long personal transformation. Researchers from SWPS University, Lund University, and the Polish Academy of Sciences analysed how international students, and later graduates of management courses in Poland, acculturate in a globalised world.

The new study focused on acculturation. It is a complex process of changes in cultural practices, attitudes, values, and identities characteristic of the new cultural context. In the literature, individuals who endorse the culture of the host society while maintaining their heritage culture are referred to as bicultural.

In today's dynamically changing world, however, this bidimentional approach may no longer be sufficient, and recent research suggests that our sense of identity is much more complex. Therefore, researchers apply a multidimensional approach, assuming an orientation toward more cultures than just the heritage culture and the culture of the host country. This approach allows to better understand the migration experiences of certain groups, including international students.

The process of finding yourself in a new culture

In the qualitative longitudinal study described in the paper "I go to a different place, I become a different person». Acculturation strategies of the international graduates of English-language management programs in Poland: A qualitative longitudinal study”, published in the International Journal of Intercultural Relations, researchers followed the lives of eleven young people from Africa, Asia, and Europe for two years.

The first stage of the study took place while the participants were studying in English-language management programs in Poland, the second - when they began their professional careers. In both stages, the researchers conducted individual, in-depth, semi-structured interviews with the participants, who also created cultural identity maps, which they then compared.

Four acculturation strategies

The main conclusion from the analyses is that acculturation is a dynamic and long-term process, emphasises Agnieszka Golińska, PhD, a psychologist and management specialist at the Institute of Social Sciences at SWPS University, the first author of the paper.

The participants' narratives revealed that they employed four acculturation strategies:

• separation (strong attachment to the culture of their country of origin),
• individualism (emphasising one's individuality instead of identifying oneself through the lens of cultural origin),
• bicultural integration (combining two cultures: the country of origin and the new place of residence),
• multicultural integration (combining elements of multiple cultures simultaneously).

In the second wave of interviews, after two years of living in Poland, the participants most frequently employed the latter strategy.

One participant, Baris, stated as a bicultural person: I have Warsaw and Istanbul. Istanbul is the place where I come from, where I don't feel happy anymore (…). Warsaw is the place where I actually found my own self, I started a new life here. (…)

Emre, on the other hand, identified as a multicultural person: Ok, so I am a multicultural person and I have been living in three different countries. I was born in Denmark, I moved to Turkey and I now I'm living in Poland, and from each country I get some skills or characteristic things.

During the interviews, participants frequently reflected on their global mobility and early international exposure as key factors that enabled them to adopt elements of other cultures alongside their heritage culture(s). During interviews, they spoke about changes in their behaviours and cultural practices, values, and often also cultural identities.

A first step into adulthood

For many young people, moving to Poland to study was a test of independence. Dealing with life in a new country without the support of family or friends was linked to the process of entering adulthood. I'm in Poland, I have to deal with things on my own. I have to run my own errands, do the shopping, make food, says Tara, one of the study participants.

University and professional experiences gained in Poland also influence young people's value systems. They spoke about how their exposure to more participatory academic and organizational cultures led them to a greater appreciation for discussion, creativity, and independent expression of opinions. In addition, for some of the interviewed women, studying and working in Poland enabled them to challenge traditional gender roles; they were more likely to prioritise professional development and independence.

What about language?

While communicating in English at university or in the workplace is natural, a lack of fluency in Polish was a major factor that hindered building deeper relationships with Poles. Language makes you try to make friends that speak the same language as you because it's much easier. For example, when you go to university (…) it's easier for you to make friends with those that you can be more easily connected to with language, Olga points out.

Cultural identity changes

Research findings suggest that cultural identity is not a fixed attribute but a dynamic process – one that can shift significantly through intercultural contact. And moving to another country to study and deciding to stay, especially for young adults, can have a significant impact on cultural identity.

International students often approach cultural identity as something open and flexible. Instead of fully adopting or rejecting a new culture, they selectively integrate elements from multiple cultural contexts, and build a sense of self enriching them with each new international experience, emphasises Agnieszka Golińska.

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Journal

International Journal of Intercultural Relations

DOI

10.1016/j.ijintrel.2026.102398 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

“I go to a different place, I become a different person.” Acculturation strategies of the international graduates of English-language management programs in Poland: A qualitative longitudinal study

 

Why antibiotics fail against a common dental implant disease

Rutgers University

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Dental implants have given tens of millions of people something dentures never could: a full set of fixed and fully functioning teeth. Unfortunately, 10% to 20% of implant patients eventually experience an aggressive jawbone infection called peri-implantitis. 

Antibiotics usually fail to stop the infection for reasons that researchers have never understood – until now.

A new study in PNAS Nexus by researchers with the Rutgers School of Dental Medicine found that bacteria corrode implants, causing them to shed microscopic titanium particles into the surrounding tissue. Those particles hijack the immune cells sent to clear the infection and lock them into a state of inflammation that destroys the jawbone they are supposed to protect.

Working with human tissue samples, cultured human immune cells and a genetically engineered mouse model, the team pinpointed a specific calcium channel in the body’s bacteria-eating macrophages that the titanium particles activate. Switching that channel off in mice prevented the disease. The result is the first credible drug target for a condition that affects up to one in five implant recipients and costs the global health system more than a billion dollars a year.

“For the first time, we show why all the antibiotic treatments that work around teeth do not work around implants,” said Georgios Kotsakis, the study’s senior author and the assistant dean for clinical research at the dental school. “Now that we know the cause, we can start developing therapeutics.”

Peri-implantitis has long been a puzzle because it initially looks like its counterpart in natural teeth, which is called periodontitis and begins with the same oral bacteria. In patients with natural teeth, antibiotics and routine cleaning resolve the infection. In patients with implants, the same drugs against the same bacteria succeed less than half the time, while the bone underneath continues to disappear.

Most research over the past 20 years has focused on the bacteria. Members of Kotsakis’ lab took a different approach and began looking at the implants. Bacteria living on the implant surface produce acidic biofilms that slowly corrode the titanium, releasing billions of particles smaller than a red blood cell. The same shedding can occur during routine cleaning, especially with instruments that dentists typically use on natural teeth.

Inside the gum, those particles get coated with a bacterial toxin called lipopolysaccharide. To the immune system, they suddenly look like enormous, indigestible bacteria. Macrophages, a type of white blood cell that surrounds and kills microorganisms, engulf them but cannot digest metal. The cells become trapped in a hyperinflammatory state, pumping out signaling molecules including interleukin-1 beta, an inflammatory protein also implicated in rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer’s disease. 

That inflammation eats away at bone. Worse, the immune cells lose their ability to deal with the original infection. In the lab, macrophages exposed to titanium particles took up less than half as many bacteria as unexposed cells. 

“These particles are little magnets that attract the bacterial toxin, and they hijack the immune system, preventing it from clearing bacteria,” said Kotsakis. “You have a perfect storm that defies antibiotics.”

Team members traced the cascade to a calcium channel (a specialized, pore-forming protein structure within cell membranes) called TRPC1. In mice engineered without it, the immune cells handled the same titanium-plus-bacteria challenge normally: abscesses were dramatically smaller, inflammatory cytokines dropped, and bacterial clearance was restored. 

Funded by the National Institutes of Health, members of Kotsakis’ group are testing drug candidates that target the same pathway in human cells.

For people who already have implants, the most useful finding may be a quieter one. The strongest known protective factor is regular professional cleaning, but the kind of cleaning matters. Until roughly a decade ago, many dentists scraped implants with the metal scalers used on teeth, a method the Rutgers lab and others have shown can itself corrode the implant and accelerate the disease. Nonabrasive techniques are now standard. 

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Journal

PNAS Nexus

DOI

10.1093/pnasnexus/pgag081 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Implant-derived titanium particles impair macrophage bacterial clearance via TRPC1 and lysosomal dysfunction

Article Publication Date

29-Mar-2026

 

Study investigates World Cup football fever 2026

Smartwatch research: Bielefeld University compares fans of different national teams

Bielefeld University

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In time for the World Cup, they are calling on football fans to provide their vital data via smartwatch (from left): Professor Dr Timo Adam, Professor Dr Christian Deutscher, Professor Dr Roland Langrock, Professor Dr Christiane Fuchs, and Sophie Kammerer, press spokesperson for Bielefeld's Wissenswerkstadt.

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Credit: Universität Bielefeld/Alejandro Arditi

Researchers at Bielefeld University are investigating how fans of different national teams physically respond to match events during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. A previous study of the 2025 DFB Cup final demonstrated for the first time a direct link between match action and vital functions such as heart rate and stress levels in supporters. The project is conducted in cooperation with Bielefeld’s Wissenswerkstadt [Knowledge Hub].

Key facts at a glance:

• For the 2026 World Cup, the Bielefeld research team is seeking football fans of various national teams who wear a Garmin smartwatch.
• The study examines whether and how match events and nationality influence fans’ physiological responses.
• Heart rate, stress, movement and sleep are recorded automatically via smartwatch.

The researchers aim to understand how football supporters around the world physically experience victories and defeats of their teams. To this end, they are inviting fans to share data from their smartwatches. Those wishing to participate register online, providing their country of residence, gender and nationality, naming their preferred team, and assessing how intensely they identify as a supporter. Once a sufficient number of fans of a particular national team has registered, the researchers will send personalised invitations to connect their smartwatch. During the World Cup, participants will also be asked which matches they followed live – and whether they watched on television, via live ticker, or at a public viewing event.

Participation requires a smartwatch manufactured by Garmin, one of the market leaders. Via a data-protection-compliant interface, the researchers access anonymised data from fans who have voluntarily registered for the study. ‘The long battery life enables us to obtain uninterrupted data series over several days,”’ says Professor Dr Christiane Fuchs, co-project leader and head of the Data Science Group at the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics at Bielefeld University.

‘We are interested in whether fans of different national teams react with differing intensity to the same match event – for example, whether a goal is measurably different for German fans than for Turkish or Brazilian supporters,’ says Professor Dr Christian Deutscher, co-project leader at the Faculty of Psychology and Sports Science. ‘The World Cup provides an ideal research setting because it places fans from all over the world in comparable emotional situations at the same time.’

As with the previous study, the Wissenswerkstadt Bielefeld is supporting the World Cup football fever project. ‘Smartwatches have become part of everyday life – so why not make use of what people already wear on their wrists?’ says Jens Franzke, Press Officer of the Wissenswerkstadt. ‘These are precisely the kinds of projects we seek to support: accessible, close to everyday life, and offering genuine scientific added value.’

Arminia study as foundation

The new investigation builds on findings from the research team’s study of the 2025 DFB Cup final. Over a period of twelve weeks, the researchers collected vital data from 229 supporters of DSC Arminia Bielefeld using smartwatches. Fans attending the stadium reached an average heart rate of 94 beats per minute, whereas television viewers averaged 79. After goals, heart rates recorded in the stadium were up to 36 per cent higher. Stress levels began to rise as early as 14 hours before kick-off. The findings have been published in Scientific Reports by Springer Nature.

The football fever research series is based in the QUAMU Focus Area at Bielefeld University, which addresses the quantification of uncertainty and approaches to managing uncertainty. In addition to Fuchs and Deutscher, the current research team includes Professor Dr Roland Langrock, Professor Dr Timo Adam, Dr Tamara Schamberger, Maya Vienken, Julian Wäsche and Dr David Winkelmann.

How to participate

• Registration for the study is available at: uni-bi.de/worldcupfever
• Participation is limited to users of a Garmin smartwatch.
• Once a sufficient number of supporters of a particular team has registered, selected participants will receive all necessary information by email on how to connect their smartwatch.
• To enable data transfer, participants must grant one-time permission via the Garmin Connect app. Thereafter, the watch automatically transmits performance, health and activity data, such as heart rate, stress, movement and sleep.

Comment from Professor Dr Christiane Fuchs

‘With our study design, we make visible how closely collective emotions, sporting identification and physiological responses are interconnected. Such interactions can only be measured to a limited extent under laboratory conditions – in everyday settings, the findings are considerably more realistic.’

Further information

• Study website: uni-bi.de/worldcupfever
• Article on the previous study: https://aktuell.uni-bielefeld.de/2026/02/06/stadionfieber-messbar-warum-live-fussball-den-puls-antreibt

 

Researchers at Bielefeld University are using smartwatch data gathered during the World Cup to investigate how football affects the heart.

Credit

Universität Bielefeld/Alejandro Arditi

 

Pioneering health worker training program to improve vaccine communication leads to spinout social enterprise

University of Bristol

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Health workers at an Empathetic Refutational Interview training workshop.

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Credit: Adèle Williams https://superfunkypenguin.co.uk/

Generating more informed, empathetic conversations with patients and parents that also address misinformation about vaccines has strong potential to improve uptake and reverse the gradual reduction in childhood vaccination coverage nationally over the past decade.

The spinout social enterprise builds on years of University of Bristol-led research by a multidisciplinary expert team determined to answer the question: what drives vaccine hesitancy and how can it be effectively overcome?

Dr Dawn Holford, Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Bristol, led an international study which showed for the first time how using an approach called the Empathetic Refutational Interview (ERI) to address misinformation among vaccine-hesitant patients can significantly improve attitudes towards vaccination – and potentially boost vaccine uptake.

It found that more than two-thirds (around 69%) of vaccine-hesitant study participants who received empathetic engagement from a healthcare professional preferred this compared with a group who were just told the facts.

These encouraging results motivated Dr Holford and fellow researcher and chartered health psychologist Dr Emma Anderson to pilot a training programme to teach health workers with vaccination roles the ERI technique to equip them to have better conversations about vaccines, addressing patients’ misconceptions.

Dr Holford said: “Lower uptake, especially for routine childhood vaccinations such as the MMR vaccine, is a serious public health issue nationally and internationally. Recent outbreaks of measles demonstrate this and show how more work is needed to help address people’s reservations and combat increasingly prevalent misinformation.

“It’s great to be putting exciting learnings from our research into public health practice. We know health workers are keen to have better conversations with patients which will improve vaccine confidence and their response to the training so far is really encouraging.”

The pilot programme, supported by UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and NHS England (NHSE) London trained more than 100 health workers in London with vaccination roles, such as nurses and midwives, in 2024.

Researchers measured the trainee’s confidence and skills in using the ERI before and after the training. The findings, which have just been published in the journal Public Health, showed the health workers went from being somewhat confident to highly confident.

ERI is a framework with four key steps: eliciting concerns, affirming the individual, correcting misconceptions, and informing with facts, all underpinned by an understanding of the psychological drivers, known as ‘attitude roots’, behind people’s vaccine concerns. The training was most effective at helping improve empathy and building rapport, with the proportion of health workers demonstrating these skills up to tripling after training. Levels of knowledge in the ERI were also significantly strengthened – more than doubling from 37% before the training to 76% on average after. In follow-up surveys, most respondents reported having used what they learned from the workshop in practice.

Dr Leonora Weil, who led this programme as Director at the NHSE London Legacy and Health Equity Partnership, said: “There was strong demand for the training across London, drawing in a wide range of health professionals, and it was clear how much they valued being able to respond to different vaccination concerns in a more tailored way, so people feel listened to.”

Dr Holford added: “The results are really promising. Some health workers also tried to pass on skills they learned to other colleagues, but said they had limited capacity to teach others which highlighted the need for a more sustainable solution to keep the training going.”

Following the research findings, a successful pilot and ongoing demand for training, the University of Bristol launched a spinout non-profit social enterprise called JITSUVAX Training last summer, offering ERI training sessions nationwide to local authorities and NHS Trusts.

Led by Dr Anderson and Dr Ginny Gould from the research project team, JITSUVAX Training has so far delivered more than 30 in-person workshops, upskilling more than 400 health workers.

Dr Anderson, who is now Executive Director and training lead for JITSUVAX Training, said: “Vaccines save lives, but only if people accept them. Health workers have the most important role in influencing people’s vaccine decisions, yet are often ill-equipped for tricky conversations when there is so much misinformation around.

“It is a privilege to be able to continue the work from the JITSUVAX project, ensuring quality training in the Empathetic Refutational Interview is available to support health workers to have better vaccine conversations. We have considerable demand for our training from across the UK and beyond, and trainees consistently give very strong, positive feedback as well as reports of real-world clinical impact.”

In January the UK Parliament House of Lords Childhood Vaccinations Committee launched an inquiry to understand the evidence on uptake of routine childhood vaccination in England, why there has been a gradual decline in coverage over the last decade, and what needs to happen to reverse the decline and reduce disparities in coverage.

Professor Stephan Lewandowsky, Chair in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Bristol, and non-executive director of JITSUVAX Training, who co-authored both ERI-related research papers, said: “The aftermath of COVID-19 and huge proliferation of misinformation, especially online, has significantly impacted people’s attitudes towards vaccinations, undermining trust and confidence. It’s great that evidence-based approaches are now being deployed to help tackle this, which will hopefully in turn help ensure people make well-informed decisions about vaccines for themselves and their families.”

The University of Bristol School of Psychological Science has recently been designated a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Research Centre for Empowering Health Care Professionals with Behavioural Insights. This research will support the collaboration, working with the WHO to support healthcare professionals in dealing with major global health challenges, including vaccine hesitancy.

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Journal

Public Health

DOI

10.1016/j.puhe.2026.106295 

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Implementing psychology-based empathetic refutational interview training to support vaccine confident conversations for health workers

Article Publication Date

27-May-2026