BackgroundQuality sleep is vital for women’s health during reproductive years, affecting both physical and mental well-being. In Ethiopia, socio-economic and cultural factors worsen sleep issues, but data on this demographic are scarce. This systematic review and meta-analysis assesses the prevalence of poor sleep quality among Ethiopian women and identifies contributing factors, aiming to inform interventions and policies to improve sleep health in low-resource settings.MethodThis systematic review followed PRISMA guidelines and searched PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science for observational studies. We included studies utilizing the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), as it is the most widely validated tool for assessing subjective sleep quality across diverse populations. Reviewers independently screened articles using Rayyan and assessed study quality with the Joanna Briggs Institute tools. Data were analyzed using Stata version 17. To account for potential clinical and methodological variability across studies, a random-effects model was employed to pool results, with heterogeneity assessed using statistics and the Cochrane’s Q test. Publication bias and sensitivity analyses were also performed.ResultNine studies involving 4,376 women of reproductive age (15–49 years) in Ethiopia were included. The pooled prevalence of poor sleep quality was 49.17% (95% CI: 35.29, 63.08). Significant predictors of poor sleep quality included intimate partner violence (OR: 3.24), depression (OR: 3.37), unplanned pregnancy (OR: 2.71), multigravidity (OR: 2.61), and substance use (OR: 2.24).ConclusionA systematic review indicates that nearly half of Ethiopian women of reproductive age experience poor sleep quality. Key factors include unplanned pregnancies, substance use history, intimate partner violence, previous depression, stress, being in the third trimester, and comorbidities; these need urgent attention and the implementation of screening and preventive measures. Future research should focus on effective interventions to improve sleep quality in these populations.Systematic Review Registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, identifier CRD42023455867.
Group-based psychosocial interventions reduce internalized stigma in psychiatric disorders: ISMI-focused systematic review
BackgroundInternalized stigma negatively impacts recovery outcomes, quality of life, and self-concept among individuals with psychiatric diagnoses. Group-based psychosocial interventions have been proposed as effective stigma-reduction strategies, but their impact across diverse populations remains under-evaluated.ObjectiveThis systematic review synthesizes global evidence on the effectiveness of group-based interventions in reducing internalized stigma in adult psychiatric populations, with a focus on studies using the Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness (ISMI) scale.MethodsFollowing PRISMA 2020 guidelines, we searched PubMed, PsycINFO and Web of Science, and additionally screened full-text platforms (SpringerLink, ScienceDirect, SAGE Journals, and Wiley Online Library), for studies published between 2003 and 2025. Inclusion criteria required adult psychiatric populations, group-based interventions, and internalized stigma as a primary outcome. Study selection, risk of bias assessment, and data extraction were performed independently by two reviewers (US and GOC).ResultsTen studies [n= 1,088], across five countries, met inclusion criteria, including randomized controlled trials and pre-post designs. Most studies reported significant reductions in ISMI scores post-intervention, particularly in the domains of stereotype endorsement and social withdrawal. Culturally adapted interventions in China, Poland, and Spain demonstrated feasibility and impact, though subscale reliability varied regionally.ConclusionGroup-based psychosocial interventions may help reduce internalized stigma in psychiatric populations within an ISMI-based evidence base. The ISMI scale is, to this day, among the most frequently used instrument, though cultural adaptation of subscales such as stigma resistance remains a concern.
Detecting bipolarity using the Lebanese Arabic hypomania checklist (HCL-32): validation of shortened HCL versions
IntroductionDue to the under diagnosis of bipolar disorder, screening instruments such as the hypomania checklist 32 items (HCL-32) is used to differentiate between Bipolar Disorder (BD) and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). However due to its lengthy format, efforts were done to validate a shorter alternative without compromising its ability to differentiate between BD and MDD. We aimed to shorten the HCL-32 and assess the screening performance of the three Lebanese Arabic abbreviated HCL versions (HCL-20, -16, and -8) relative to the full HCL-32 in a sample of clinically diagnosed patients with BD and MDD in Lebanon.MethodsIn a sample of 760 patients (BD-I=29, BD-II=142, MDD=589) clinically diagnosed with BD and MDD, the screening performance of the three Lebanese Arabic abbreviated HCL versions (HCL-20, -16, and -8) as well as the full HCL-32, was assessed, looking at the reliability, sensitivity, and specificity.ResultsAll the shortened HCL versions showed strong reliability (a=0.78-0.90.) They also demonstrated good screening ability (AUC=0.8520- 0.8835) in differentiating BD from MDD. For the sensitivities across the shortened versions, they were consistently higher in BD-II vs MDD compared to BD-I vs MDD across all scales showing that the shortened versions have the ability to detect BD-II cases much more effectively.DiscussionThis study is the first to validate the shortened HCL versions in an Arabic speaking population. The HCL- 16 appears to be the most optimal shortened scale for distinguishing between BD versus MDD. However, these findings should be interpreted in light of the study’s limitations including the use of retrospective data collection and item interdependence of the HCL-32.
An AI framework for multi-disease detection via retinal imaging
Nature Medicine, Published online: 20 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41591-026-04424-4
Using large-scale retinal images from community and tertiary hospitals, we developed Reti-Pioneer, a quality-aware, multi-task framework for multi-disease detection. Diverse external validation confirmed its generalizability. Furthermore, a prospective silent trial and clinical pilot study demonstrated its time efficiency, real-world feasibility, and potential for integration into clinical workflows.
The Download: fully artificial chicken eggs and why Musk lost
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.
Colossal Biosciences is growing chickens in a 3D-printed artificial eggshell
The baby chicks were shifting and starting to pip—or trying to hatch. But not from an egg. Instead, these chickens were growing inside transparent 3D-printed plastic cups at the Dallas headquarters of Colossal Biosciences.
The biotech company yesterday claimed it has developed a “fully artificial egg” as part of its effort to resurrect extinct avian species, including birds like the dodo and the giant moa.
Some scientists think Colossal is overstating the breakthrough. But the technology may represent an early step toward artificial wombs.
Read the full story on the science and controversy behind the artificial eggshell.
—Antonio Regalado
Inside the Musk v. Altman Trial
Elon Musk has lost his landmark lawsuit against OpenAI, which centered on allegations that its cofounders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman misled him about the company’s nonprofit mission. But what really happened in the courtroom, and what does it mean for the AI race?
AI reporter and attorney Michelle Kim, who covered the trial for MIT Technology Review, joined our editor in chief Mat Honan to unpack it all in an exclusive Roundtables discussion yesterday.
Subscribers can watch the full recording now.
MIT Technology Review Narrated: this scientist rewarmed and studied pieces of his friend’s cryopreserved brain
L. Stephen Coles’s brain sits in a vat at a storage facility in Arizona. It has been held there at a temperature of around −146 degrees °C for over a decade, largely undisturbed. Before he died in 2014, Coles had the brain frozen with an ambitious goal in mind: reanimation.
His friend, cryobiologist Greg Fahy, believes it could be revived one day. But other experts are less optimistic.
Still, Fahy’s research could lead to new ways to study the brain. And using cryopreservation for organ transplantation is becoming a viable reality.
—Jessica Hamzelou
This is our latest story to be turned into an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it’s released.
Can AI learn to understand the world?
The limitations of LLMs are pushing AI researchers towards new systems that understand the physical environment: world models. The likes of Google DeepMind, Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs, and Meta’s former Chief AI Scientist, AI Yann LeCun, have brought this technology to the forefront of AI.
To explore where this technology is heading next, MIT Technology Review is hosting an exclusive Roundtables discussion on Thursday, May 21, with editor in chief Mat Honan, senior AI editor Will Douglas Heaven, and AI reporter Grace Huckins. Register here to join the session at 19:30 GMT / 2:30 PM ET / 11:30 AM PT.
World models are also one of MIT Technology Review’s 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now, our list of what’s really worth your attention in the busy, buzzy world of AI.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Google is changing its search box for the first time in 25 years
Its AI-powered overhaul centers on an “intelligent search box”. (Wired $)
+ “Information agents” will gather information on a user’s behalf. (TechCrunch)
+ Google, Gemini, and Gmail may one day be a single search box. (The Verge)
+ AI means the end of search as we know it. (MIT Technology Review)
2 Samsung workers plan to strike tomorrow over AI profit sharing
They say that their employer isn’t sharing the rewards of the AI boom. (WSJ $)
+ And want 15% of the company’s annual operating profit. (CNBC)
+ South Korea may invoke emergency powers to stop the strike. (Reuters $)
3 The White House is set to release a new executive order on AI safety
It’s slated to launch this week. (Axios)
+ The order seeks early government access to advanced models. (NYT $)
4 The FBI plans to buy nationwide access to license plate readers
It wants “data in near real time” from cameras across the US. (Ars Technica)
+ The tech could let it track drivers nationwide. (Newsweek)
5 Google will launch a new line of smart glasses this fall
They’re the company’s first attempt since the Google Glass flop. (BBC)
+ Google Gemini will power the interactions with the user. (Guardian)
+ Meanwhile, Anduril and Meta are making smart glasses for warfare. (MIT Technology Review)
6 A new bill in Congress proposes a new annual fee for EVs
It could cost drivers an extra $130 a year. (NYT $)
+ The fee will cover highway maintenance costs. (WSJ $)
7 OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy has joined rival lab Anthropic
Karpathy was also previously Tesla’s director of AI. (Fortune)
+ He coined the term “vibe coding.” (MIT Technology Review)
8 The fears over Anthropic’s Mythos AI model look overstated
Cybersecurity experts say the hacking threat is exaggerated. (Reuters $)
9 Silicon Valley keeps misreading China’s role in tech
Viewing Chinese firms as enemies could do more to hurt than help the US. (Rest of World)
10 A book about AI’s effects on truth contains false quotes created by AI
It’s among a spate of controversies involving AI-generated quotes. (NYT $)
+ Yesterday, a lawyer apologised for including them in a court filing. (Reuters $)
+ A senior journalist was recently suspended for using them. (Guardian)
Quote of the day
“It may be that the judges have now awarded a prize to an instance of AI plagiarism—we don’t yet know, and perhaps we never will know.”
—Sigrid Rausing, publisher of literary magazine Granta, casts doubts on the authenticity of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize winners, Wired reports.
One More Thing
SELMAN DESIGN
Who gets to decide who receives experimental medical treatments?
Max was only a toddler when his parents noticed there was “something different” about the way he moved. He was slower than other kids his age, and he struggled to jump. He couldn’t run. A genetic test confirmed their fears: Max had Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Desperate to slow its progression, Max’s parents enrolled him in an experimental gene therapy trial. The FDA had approved the medicine on weak evidence—a move that has become increasingly common.
We urgently need to question how these decisions are made. Who should have access to experimental therapies? And who should get to decide?
Read the full story on the intense debate over experimental treatments.
—Jessica Hamzelou
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun, and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line.)
+ Trace the history of the world’s most famous plumber in this biography of Mario.
+ Watch the Earth’s spin in action as a full Milk Moon slowly disappears behind a volcano.
+ This handy tool for movie buffs lets you filter upcoming releases by territory and save them to a local watchlist.
+ A missing cat was reunited with its owner after five years and 270 km apart—all thanks to an old Facebook post.
STAT+: NIH behind in filling top roles, with 15 of 27 institutes led by acting directors
Across the Department of Health and Human Services, top leadership positions are being filled with acting directors. There is no permanent director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or at the Food and Drug Administration. President Trump’s nominee for surgeon general is yet to be confirmed, and HHS’ top spokesperson resigned last week.
The National Institutes of Health may appear to have more stable leadership, with Director Jay Bhattacharya and his deputies holding their positions. But just below the surface, a leadership vacuum has persisted for months, with 15 of the 27 institutes being led by acting directors. The dearth of permanent leadership at the institutes, which oversee research in a specific topic area, means that the institutes are unable to plan long-term projects, or offer reassurances to a research community that is seeing unprecedented changes in federal funding priorities.
“Strong, permanent leadership across NIH is essential to keeping lifesaving medical research moving forward. Institute directors ensure taxpayer dollars are going to the most important science and the most promising research for American families,” said Erika Sward, executive director of United for Cures, a network of patient advocacy groups. “Having experienced directors in these roles provides the stability needed to ensure progress and avoid delays in developing new treatments and cures that millions of patients and families are counting on.”
Binge Eating, Depression and Anxiety Outcomes After Sleeve Gastrectomy Versus Gastric Bypass: A Cohort Study
Conditions: Obesity
Interventions: Procedure: Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy; Procedure: Gastric Bypass
Sponsors: Cairo University
Recruiting
Interventions: Procedure: Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy; Procedure: Gastric Bypass
Sponsors: Cairo University
Recruiting
Adjunctive Group Psychotherapy for Moderate-to-Severe Atopic Dermatitis: A Pilot Feasibility Study Comparing Two Interventions
Conditions: Atopic Dermatitis
Interventions: Behavioral: Stress Management and Resilience Group Therapy (SRCST); Behavioral: Atopic Dermatitis-specific Cognitive Behavioural and Schema Mode Group Therapy (ADCBST); Drug: standard dermatological care
Sponsors: Semmelweis University
Completed
Interventions: Behavioral: Stress Management and Resilience Group Therapy (SRCST); Behavioral: Atopic Dermatitis-specific Cognitive Behavioural and Schema Mode Group Therapy (ADCBST); Drug: standard dermatological care
Sponsors: Semmelweis University
Completed
Colossal Biosciences is growing chickens in a 3D-printed artificial eggshell
The baby chicks were shifting and starting to pip—or trying to hatch. But not from an egg.
Instead, these chickens were growing inside transparent 3D-printed plastic cups at the Dallas headquarters of Colossal Biosciences.
The biotech company today claimed it has developed a “fully artificial egg” as part of its effort to resurrect extinct avian species, including birds like the dodo and the giant moa.
But “artificial eggshell” would probably be a better description for the invention. It’s an oval-shaped printed lattice, coated inside with a special silicone-based membrane that lets in oxygen, just as a real eggshell does.
To generate birds, Colossal took recently laid chicken eggs and carefully poured their contents into the artificial shells, where they continued growing. A window on top lets researchers peek inside.
“To see them all moving around in their artificial eggs was absolutely mind blowing,” says Andrew Pask, the company’s chief biology officer. “You really feel you can grow life outside of the womb.”
Colossal was founded in 2021 with plans to use gene editing and reproductive technology to restore extinct species, including the woolly mammoth. It’s since raised more than $800 million toward what it now terms the “scalable and controllable” creation of animals.
According to Pask, the egg technology could help conserve at-risk bird species. It could also play a role in a project to re-create the extinct giant moa, a flightless 12-foot-tall bird that once lived in New Zealand and laid four-liter eggs, larger than those of any living bird.
But Colossal may be able build one that’s big enough. The company provided a photograph of a prototype 3D-printed egg so large that staff have started to call it the “salad spinner.”
The moa went extinct after canoes carrying the ancestors of the Maori arrived on New Zealand’s South Island about 750 years ago. Archeological sites showcase the birds’ bones alongside stone cutting tools—clear evidence that they were hunted.
To be clear—Colossal isn’t close to re-creating the moa. Before that could happen, scientists would need to study DNA data from old moa bones and insert thousands of genetic changes into the genome of an existing bird, something that’s still technically difficult to do—with or without an artificial egg.
COLOSSAL BIOSCIENCES
Some scientists also think Colossal is taking too much credit for its artificial eggshell, which it announced in a thundering YouTube video intoning that the company has solved the “impossible question of which came first, the chicken or the egg.”
The video is pure Hollywood—it’s meant to be funny and exciting. But Colossal has a habit of antagonizing scientists by making false and exaggerated claims. Last year, for instance, the company said it had re-created the extinct dire wolf—a claim widely rejected by experts.
This time, Colossal’s fluffed-up assertion of having created the “first-ever shell-less incubation system” is what’s raising hackles among the small flock of scientists who’ve been working on the technology for years.
“Clearly an overstatement,” says Katsuya Obara, at the University of Tsukuba in Japan, who in 2024 hatched chickens from beneath transparent plastic film. “The technology here is essentially a modification of existing methods.”
In fact, Obara notes, growing birds in artificial containers goes all the way back to 1998, when another Japanese group managed to do it with quail.
What may be an advance by Colossal is the special membrane, which lets the embryo access more oxygen. Previous systems required scientists to supplement the gas—something that may not have been good for the chicks, as often some of them would fail to hatch.
The work on the artificial eggshell was carried out in Dallas by Colossal’s exogenous development team, or Exo Dev. That group is also trying to develop artificial wombs for mammals, starting with marsupials.
“We’re looking at every single facet of what’s happening during a mammalian pregnancy to unpack exactly how we then go about recapitulating that,” says Pask.
For that team, an artificial eggshell is a relatively quick and easy technical win. That’s because chickens are already an example of ex utero development. After an egg is laid, a small embryo sitting on top of the yolk starts growing, drawing nutrients from the yolk, the white, and even the shell, which provides calcium. (Colossal says it has to add ground-up calcium to the artificial eggs.)
COLOSSAL BIOSCIENCES
In order to create a moa, Colossal will have to genetically alter another type of bird, changing potentially thousands of DNA letters. But so far, chickens are the only bird species that can be genetically engineered. And that’s via a tricky process of editing stem cells that produce egg and sperm. Scientists have to add or delete DNA letters from these cells and then inject them back into an egg. The resulting bird will carry the genetic changes in its gonads—and then be able to pass them on.
Pask says Colossal’s idea is that it could modify avian stem cells enough to produce moa-like sperm or eggs. But then you might have the odd situation of a chicken laying an egg with a moa embryo inside it. “You would have chickens making moa egg and moa sperm. But it’s still a chicken egg,” he says.
Helen Sang, a professor emeritus at the Roslin Institute in the United Kingdom, says she’s not sure a moa embryo could survive on the yolk of a chicken egg, given evolutionary differences. “There are significant challenges to overcome to grow an embryo of a different species in artificial eggs,” says Sang.
Just one of those is the huge size discrepancy. The amount of yolk in a chicken egg would hardly be enough to support the much larger moa chick. Yet Pask says that is exactly where the artificial egg will come in handy.
He says it may be possible to use a fine needle to slowly “put 50 yolks together to make that yolk mass much larger.”
“The chicken egg isn’t going to be big enough to support the growth of the moa through to term, to when it would normally hatch, but that’s when you could then take that egg, put it into the artificial egg environment, and then scale it up in size,” he says.
So far, Pask says, the artificial egg is working well for chickens—almost too well. “We hatched 26 chickens and then [our CEO] asked us to put the brakes on. We have too many chickens running around.”
Machine learning-based predictive factor analysis of depression among Chinese adolescents
IntroductionAdolescent depression has emerged as a critical global public health concern, with rising prevalence in China posing severe threats to psychological development and social adaptation. Traditional statistical methods face limitations in capturing complex non-linear relationships and interactions among influencing factors, while machine learning algorithms offer advantages in predictive modeling of mental health disorders.ObjectiveThis study aimed to: (1) compare the performance of seven ML algorithms in classifying low and high depression risk groups among Chinese adolescents; (2) identify key predictive factors from demographic, personality, and PGI-related variables; (3) explore non-linear relationships and interactive effects between critical factors; and (4) explore preliminary threshold values for key factors as potential references for risk identification.MethodsA total of 559 Chinese adolescents completed assessments of demographic characteristics, Big Five personality traits, personal growth initiative, and depression symptoms. Model performance was compared using Friedman tests and Nemenyi post-hoc tests appropriate for correlated cross-validation data. Seven ML algorithms were trained and optimized using 5-fold cross-validation. Feature importance was analyzed via traditional metrics and SHAP values, and SHAP interaction effects were tested using permutation tests. Threshold analysis was conducted using the Youden’s J statistic.ResultsLightGBM outperformed other models with an AUC of 0.834, achieving balanced accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. Neuroticism emerged as the most robust predictor across all models, followed by proactive change, agreeableness, extraversion, and growth resilience. Demographic factors showed minimal predictive power. SHAP permutation tests confirmed significant interactions between neuroticism and proactive change and between proactive change and agreeableness, whereas no significant interaction was found between neuroticism and agreeableness. Preliminary thresholds were identified for key factors within this sample.ConclusionML algorithms, particularly lightGBM, effectively identify adolescent depression risk, with personality traits and PGI serving as core predictive factors. The findings highlight the value of integrating multi-dimensional variables in depression prediction and provide preliminary references for early intervention. Given the cross-sectional design and lack of external validation, conclusions regarding generalizable cutoffs and causal inference should be made with caution. Targeted strategies focusing on reducing neuroticism and enhancing proactive growth behaviors may mitigate depression vulnerability in Chinese adolescents.