In today’s world, children are surrounded by stressors that can jeopardize their mental health. National statistics show a troubling increase in mental health disorders and a growing incidence of suicide among younger populations over the past decade. Many parents and caretakers hesitate to discuss critical topics like death and suicide, fearing that such conversations may do more harm than good. But what does the science say about having talks about suicide with young kids?

In this episode, we tackle this important issue and highlight a research project focused on suicide prevention among children under 10 with experiences that put them at risk of mental health problems. Child psychologists Dr. Adam Bryant Miller of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Dr. Caroline Oppenheimer of RTI International discuss their study adapting a suicide risk assessment for young children and examining its impact on children and parents. They provide insights from their research and offer actionable guidance for families seeking to support their children’s mental health and prevent suicide.

Read the article in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

#childadversity #youthmentalhealth #suiciderisk #suicideprevention #youthsuicide #stopyouthsuicide #988helpline #sciencetranslation #sciencecommunication

This episode addresses a sensitive yet important topic and may not be suitable for all listeners. Anyone struggling with thoughts of suicide should dial 988 for immediate support.

It’s easy to think of climate change as a simple story: rising temperatures and sea levels driven by human activity. But the reality is far more complex. Changes in the natural world are often uneven, unpredictable, and difficult to forecast.

As oceanographer Nick Record explains in this episode, climate change unfolds in “fits and spurts” rather than in a smooth, linear trend. That complexity is part of what makes it so challenging to fully understand.

In this episode, we make sense of that complexity through a case study in the Gulf of Maine. Nick, alongside his longtime friend and industry collaborator, lobsterman and marine biologist Curt Brown, shows how signals of a shifting climate appear in unexpected ways: in the feeding grounds of endangered right whales, in sudden changes in water salinity, in the loss of cold-water kelp forests, and in the lobster traps that Curt and other harvesters pull from the depths of the ocean.

Together, their perspectives highlight how science and on-the-water experience work hand in hand to better understand a changing ocean.

Links:

Make Science Make Sense Podcast

Paper Discussed: Early Warning of a Cold Wave in the Gulf of Maine

Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences

NERACOOS Mariners Dashboard

Air pollution isn’t just about what you breathe in today. It’s about how our bodies process toxins and the invisible changes that lead to diseases over time.

In this episode, we talk to molecular and cell biologist Dr. Shaun McCullough to unpack how repeated exposure to pollutants can change how our cells respond, and why those effects aren’t the same for everyone. His laboratory group is developing methods to test the effects of chemical pollutants on airway cells by observing cellular activity and reactions in the laboratory. In this episode, he discusses evidence from a study using new approach methodologies (a.k.a. “NAMs”) to test different amounts of exposure to pollutants on human cells in a controlled laboratory setting, but using real human tissue samples.

From gene expression to personalized risk, this conversation breaks down how modern toxicology is evolving and what it could mean for public health, policy, and your everyday environment.

The views we share are our own and don’t represent our employers or affiliated organizations.

Key Words:

#airpollution #lungdisease #toxicology #NAMs #geneexpression #invitro #pollution #environmentalhealth #respiratorydisease #airwaydisease #environment #molecularbiology #researchapplications

Key Topics:

How repeated exposure to pollutants affects cells differently than one-time exposure

Why individuals respond differently to the same environmental exposures

What NAMs are and how they’re changing toxicology research

Differences between acute vs. chronic exposure

How this research can inform public health and regulation

Links:

Make Science Make Sense Podcast: https://www.makesciencemakesensepod.com

EPA Air Quality Index: https://www.airnow.gov

NIH Initiative on Complementary Animal Research: https://commonfund.nih.gov/animalresearch

Link to the paper discussed in this podcast: https://doi.org/10.1093/toxsci/kfab128