Curated News: Staff Picks

• share
• favorite_border

Because of their proximity to the ocean, Californians get to enjoy locally-sourced oysters, mussels, abalone and clams.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study has mapped out the natural history of drywood termites—the second largest family of termites.

• share
• favorite_border

People who deny the existence of structural racism are more likely to exhibit anti-Black prejudice and less likely to show racial empathy or openness to diversity, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

• share
• favorite_border

A brand-new endangered California Condor chick hatched on May 14, and viewers can watch live as the little one grows up to become a majestic denizen of the skies.

• share
• favorite_border

In a newly published study, co-author H. Andrew Schwartz, PhD, of the Department of Computer Science at Stony Brook University, and colleagues determined that the language people used in Facebook posts can identify those at risk for hazardous drinking habits and alcohol use disorders.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study from Tufts University and other collaborators takes a data-driven look at influenza viruses circulating among different groups of birds and characterizes which types of birds are involved in spreading the virus. This paper publishes at a time when a highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza has been spreading across North America.

• share
• favorite_border

For most sea turtles, the journey to find the ocean from their nests is pretty straightforward. However, leatherback hatchlings more often crawl around in circles trying to find the ocean. Circling delays their entry into the ocean, wastes energy, and places them at greater danger from natural predators. Under different moon phases: bright light during full moon and only starlight under new moon, researchers have a better understanding of why this circling behavior happens and why it is most commonly observed in leatherbacks.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study has found contaminants that were banned decades ago are still imperiling critically endangered California condors.

• share
• favorite_border

Basketball commentators also often voice support for physical violence and frame symbolic violence as harmless.

• share
• favorite_border

For the first time, researchers find that parrots climb by using their head as a third “limb.”

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

A team of biomedical engineering researchers and industry collaborators have developed a way to tap into a patient’s brain signals through a neural chip implanted in the arm, effectively reading the patient’s mind and opening the door for less invasive alternatives to brain surgeries.

• share
• favorite_border

A new survey from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) reveals women are more likely than men to wake up feeling tired and are more likely to have sleepiness affect their daily lives.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Showing signs of stress could make us more likeable and prompt others to act more positively towards us, according to a new study by scientists at Nottingham Trent University and the University of Portsmouth.

• share
• favorite_border

Earth’s oceans are home to some of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet, but warming temperatures are causing many marine animals, including coral, to die out.

• share
• favorite_border

Did the world’s largest prehistoric shark need an orthodontist, or did it just have a bad lunch?

• share
• favorite_border

A team of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers led by physics professor Charles Gammie is part of a large international collaboration that unveiled the first image of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

• share
• favorite_border

At simultaneous press conferences around the world, including at a National Science Foundation-sponsored press conference at the US National Press Club in Washington, D.C., astronomers have unveiled the first image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy. This result provides overwhelming evidence that the object is indeed a black hole and yields valuable clues about the workings of such giants, which are thought to reside at the center of most galaxies. The image was produced by a global research team called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration, using observations from a worldwide network of radio telescopes.

• share
• favorite_border

From embryo to turtle cracker: a team led by palaeobiologist Julia Türtscher from the University of Vienna studied the multiple changes in tooth shape in the tiger shark. The study, recently published in the Journal of Anatomy, is also central in drawing conclusions about extinct species from the myriad of preserved shark teeth in the field of palaeontology.

• share
• favorite_border

After running simulations on the world's most powerful supercomputer, an international team of researchers has developed a theory for the nuclear structure and origin of carbon-12, the stuff of life. The theory favors the production of carbon-12 in the cosmos.

• share
• favorite_border

Humans are undoubtedly altering the natural environment. But how wild animals respond to these changes is complex and unclear. In a new study published today, scientists have discovered significant differences in how the brain works in two distinct personality types: those who act fearless and those who seem afraid of new things.

• share
• favorite_border

People around the world experienced an increase in loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic, which, although small, could have implications for people’s long-term mental and physical health, longevity, and well-being, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study finds evidence of surprisingly rapid upward movement of earth’s crust on the island of Taiwan. Over roughly half a million years, the Coastal Range of east Taiwan was rising at a rate of 9 to 14 millimeters per year, the research shows.

• share
• favorite_border

Astronomers using Hubble have found a companion star previously hidden in the glare of its partner’s supernova.

• share
• favorite_border

New evaluation of prior studies finds increasing quality and areas for further improvement.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study has revealed the most intense heatwaves ever across the world – and remarkably some of these went almost unnoticed decades ago.

• share
• favorite_border

A robot ‘chef’ has been trained to taste food at different stages of the chewing process to assess whether it’s sufficiently seasoned.

• share
• favorite_border

Featured studies include clinical advances with a new combination therapy targeting angiogenesis in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer and a promising immunotherapy combination for kidney cancer, plus laboratory studies that focus on targeting ferroptosis in specific lung cancers, developing chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies for blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasms, and characterizing racial and ethnic disparities in breast cancer early detection.

• share
• favorite_border

A URI-led expedition to the Puerto Rico Trench took what researchers believe to be the deepest water core samples ever taken in the Atlantic. They’re also the deepest water cores taken anywhere in the oceans since 1962.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study published in BMC Public Health shows that hybrid learning utilizing alternating school days for children offers a significant reduction in community disease spread. Total closure in favor of remote learning, however, offers little additional advantage over that hybrid option.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists pinpoint the molecular epicenter of deep-sleep regulation. The findings, based on research in mice, identify a gene that makes a protein that regulates delta waves—electrical signals between neurons that occur during the deepest phases of relaxation and are a hallmark of restorative sleep.

• share
• favorite_border

An international team of researchers have developed a method to assess sustainable levels of human-caused wildlife mortality, which when applied to a trawl fishery shows that dolphin capture is not sustainable.

• share
• favorite_border

As the impacts of climate change are felt around the world, no area is experiencing more drastic changes than the northern polar region.

• share
• favorite_border

Being overweight in childhood increases the risk of developing type 1 diabetes in later life, according to the findings of a new study that analysed genetic data on over 400,000 individuals. The study, co-led by researchers from the Universities of Bristol and Oxford and published today in Nature Communications, also provides evidence that being overweight over many years from childhood influences the risk of other diseases including asthma, eczema and hypothyroidism.

• share
• favorite_border

There’s a brand-new series of seven field guides to help people learn about the birds found in their region of the United States and Canada.

• share
• favorite_border

As the earth’s climate continues to warm, researchers predict wild animals will be forced to relocate their habitats – likely to regions with large human populations – dramatically increasing the risk of a viral jump to humans that could lead to the next pandemic.

• share
• favorite_border

Study investigates habitat conditions encountered by first farmers and monument-builders.

• share
• favorite_border

Flying reptiles could change the colour of their feathers, research finds.

• share
• favorite_border

An international study led by Michigan State University scholars has provided a "dismal picture" of mathematics textbooks across the globe—and it has serious implications for the next generation of learners.

• share
• favorite_border

Cardiovascular disease risk factors, like high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and smoking, are believed to play key roles in the likelihood of developing cognitive decline, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease. A new study suggests that people who accumulate these risk factors over time, at a faster pace, have an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease dementia or vascular dementia, compared to people whose risk factors remain stable throughout life. The research is published in the April 20, 2022, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

• share
• favorite_border

Europa is a prime candidate for life in our solar system, and its deep saltwater ocean has captivated scientists for decades. But it’s enclosed by an icy shell that could be miles to tens of miles thick, making sampling it a daunting prospect. Now, increasing evidence reveals the ice shell may be less of a barrier and more of a dynamic system – and site of potential habitability in its own right.

• share
• favorite_border

NIBIB-funded researchers are developing an autonomous robot that can perform bowel surgery with minimal assistance from a surgeon. In preclinical models, the robot outperformed expert surgeons when compared head-to-head.

• share
• favorite_border

When U.S. couples have their first child, mothers’ earnings still drop substantially relative to fathers’, and new Cornell University research demonstrates the stubborn, decades-old pattern isn’t changing despite broad increases in other aspects of gender equality.