In findings recently published in Parasites and Vectors, Virginia Tech’s Warren Booth cites evidence that bed bug infestations can affect anyone regardless of income, housing type, or location. The findings indicate bedbug management strategies should evolve to a more coordinated, community-level approach. Booth shares insights about this work and the unpopular pest.

University of Vermont researchers use serious-game research methodology to uncover how flood-warning communication design can improve fast decision-making and reduce risk during flood events.

Companies increasingly market environmentally friendly products, but it remains unclear whether highlighting multiple sustainability benefits improves consumer evaluations. A new study examined responses to sustainability claims across three studies in Japan. Consumers with stronger green consumption values evaluated products more favorably when both composition and packaging were highlighted, whereas those with weaker values preferred a single focus. The findings suggest that sustainability communication may be more effective when tailored to consumers’ environmental values. 

Every commute, delivery, and business trip burns fuel—and much of the carbon released into the atmosphere is a byproduct of exactly that movement. Reporting in The Innovation, researchers turn large-scale mobility data into a near-real-time carbon meter. Daily intercity mobility networks, built from mobile-phone signaling data covering 318 million users in China, tracked national CO2 emissions in lockstep (r = 0.89) through the COVID-19 lockdown upheaval of early 2020. Combined with population and location data, machine-learning models predicted city-level emissions across 366 cities with R2 up to 1.00, and generalized to Italy, the US, and Mexico with R2 of 0.91–0.99 across two independent emission inventories. Mobility networks also reveal functional city clusters—regions defined by real movement rather than administrative borders—offering new units for coordinated climate governance.

A new study reveals a hidden cost of using artificial intelligence at work: employees who rely on tools like ChatGPT are trusted less by their supervisors, consequently harming their performance evaluations and promotion prospects. Across six studies, researchers found that managers consistently penalized AI users, even when AI use was not explicitly prohibited. Organizations that actively encouraged AI use substantially reduced this trust penalty, highlighting the critical role of workplace policies in shaping the future of human-AI collaboration.