Mandy Oaklander | September 02, 2026

What makes us who we are? Is it nature, nurture, or some mysterious combination? This question has consumed researchers for decades.

Now, a study published today in the journal Nature offers some new clues. When researchers studied data from more than a million people, they found that certain genetic variants were linked to common personality traits, my colleague Veronique Greenwood wrote in a new piece.

Your genes hardly determine everything about your personality. Plenty of extraverted people have shy kids, for example. But the study found that roughly 13% of personality can be predicted by genetics, "reinforcing psychologists’ impression that personality is a combination of genetics and environment," Veronique wrote.

TODAY’S TOPICS

Cyclospora continues to surge
How to vent better
Got a question for us?
Age 91 and trailblazing

QUICK CHAT

Cyclospora isn’t over

The number of Cyclospora infections continues to rise in the U.S. At least 18,445 people have been sickened by the parasite since May, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expanded the outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce to include three more states: Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas. Twenty states have now been affected. But as food-safety expert Gerardo Lopez recently told me, lettuce probably isn’t the only culprit behind the ongoing spate of illnesses.

Lopez is a researcher at the University of Arizona who has been studying Cyclospora for more than a decade. We discussed the ongoing outbreaks, and why it’s been so challenging to pinpoint which foods are sickening people. —Dominique Mosbergen, Health Correspondent

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

wulingyun—Getty Images

How unusual is the scale of these Cyclospora infections?

We've never had a Cyclospora outbreak of this magnitude. There's been 18,000-plus cases that the CDC has confirmed, but there are also almost 13,000 cases that need to be laboratory confirmed. Are those cases going to be linked to the iceberg lettuce outbreak, or is it a separate outbreak?

The FDA has reported that there are six other Cyclospora outbreaks that it is looking into. This tells us that there are other commodities out there that [the FDA] just hasn’t been able to nail down that are causing cyclosporiasis.

Why has it been so hard to figure out the sources of these infections?

There are two main reasons, I think. One, if there isn’t enough manpower, it becomes harder to do the traceback investigations, and there have been all these reductions of the workforce [at the FDA]. Two, it’s already difficult to do a traceback investigation even if you do have the manpower. If you think about restaurants and all the ingredients that they’re using—basil, cilantro, lettuce—it’s hard to nail down where the contamination actually comes from, and so a lot of these outbreaks go unidentified.

Oh boy. Well, I guess we can't eat anything!

I know. It's been tough. I’ve finally started eating a little bit more lettuce, but I’m buying whole lettuce heads and washing them really well. I just don't have time to give up two weeks to getting sick. I don't want to go through that, so I've been extra careful.

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TIME TO TALK

How to vent without exhausting your friends

Photo-Illustration by TIME (Source Image: Giulio Fornasar—Getty Images)

Sometimes you need to call a friend and say the petty, uncharitable thing out loud. A good vent can help you feel understood—and perhaps even figure out what to do next. But if you’re still going 45 minutes later while your friend contributes the occasional “ugh,” it may be time to consider whether blowing off steam is actually backfiring.

Notice where the conversation is going

Healthy venting has a beginning, middle, and end. It also leaves room for the other person to participate. Watch for signs that your vent has become a monologue: You dismiss every question or suggestion, circle back after your friend tries to change the subject, or turn one complaint into a greatest-hits collection of every related grievance. Another clue? You finish the conversation feeling angrier than when it started.

Say what you need—and set a limit

Before launching in, try: “Can I complain for 10 minutes? I don’t need advice—I just need you to hear how irritating this was.” That tells your friend what role you’d like them to play and gives the conversation a natural off-ramp. When the time is up, take a breath and check in. You can always ask whether they have the energy to keep going—and, ideally, find out what’s happening in their life, too. —Angela Haupt, Health & Wellness Editor

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