Day August 11, 2024

Since the industrial revolution, microbes have successfully colonized one novel type of habitat after another: for example, marine oil spills, plastic floating in the oceans, industrial brownfields, and even the interior of the International Space Station. However, it turns out…

An insect bites off another insect’s leg. Is this predatory behavior, aggression, defense, competition or something else? In the case of carpenter ants, it’s for the good of the amputee and to the benefit of the colony. A July 2024…

Less than 10 minutes of consuming TikTok content can have an immediate impact on young women’s body image satisfaction and internalization of the thin ideal. Credit: cottonbro studio, Pexels, CC0 (creativecommons.org) Women who spend a lot of time on TikTok—especially…

Britain is braced for further violence and rioting, with 6,000 police mobilized to deal with about 100 anti-immigration protests planned across the country. The week-long protests have been sparked by misinformation spread in the wake of a knife attack that…

Crafting and sewing supplies are displayed on a table during a “Mending 101” workshop hosted in the Georgetown neighborhood in Washington, DC on August 3, 2024. Activities focusing on low-consumption have gained popularity on and offline amid financial hardship and…

People go to therapy for many reasons. A challenging life event, trauma, volatile emotions, relationship problems, poor mental health: all can prompt someone to seek it out. Whatever the reason, it can be difficult to decide when and if therapy…

A worrying new study by the American Cancer Society has revealed that generation X and millennials are at more risk of developing many types of cancer than their predecessors. This is in line with a growing body of evidence which…

Credit: Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels The Paris 2024 Olympics have inspired you to take up running again this year. Your shoes are all laced up, your headphones plugged in, and you’re off. 15 kilometers later, with no cramps or stitches…

A Michigan State University researcher holds a vial of Arabidopsis seeds floating in water. Each seed can be as small as a grain of sand. Credit: Kara Headley/MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory Researchers at Michigan State University have discovered two proteins…

If you’re a fishing enthusiast, you may have already noticed abnormalities or parasites in the wild fish you catch. In fact, the fish we commonly find in our lakes, such as bass or trout, harbor several species of parasites. Although…

About 22% of the potatoes grown in the U.S. are made into chips. And Americans eat more chips—an average of 4 pounds per person per year—than any other country, reports the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service. The most healthful way to…

Screenshot of a dance and movement therapy session with students. Credit: Nalini Prakash, Ph.D. Bullying is the most common manifestation of violence in schools. With globalization and immigration increasing classroom diversity in schools across the United States, ethnic bullying—bullying that…

Darryn Frost holding a replica Narwhal tusk. This photo was taken as part of the ERC research project. Credit: Alejandro Acin How we view real-life “heroes” is changing according to new research, with more of a focus on acting heroically…

Every now and then, a scholar’s niche expertise lines up with a cultural or political moment and finds an audience hungry for the details. Nicole Holliday is having one of those moments. Holliday is an acting associate professor of linguistics…

Self-portrait with straw hat, Elisabeth Vigée le Brun, 1782. In the 18th century, a pale complexion was associated with aristocracy. Credit: Wikimedia If you’re lucky enough to have escaped to sunny shores of late, chances are your colleagues will have…

Credit: Pixabay from Pexels The 2024 Paris Olympics mark the first gender-equitable Olympic Games in history, with equal numbers of men and women athletes. Audiences today are being exposed to the phenomenal accomplishments of women athletes more than ever before.…

Social networks have revolutionized the way we communicate, stay informed and share moments of our daily lives. We use platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok to keep in touch with our friends and family, share our experiences, keep informed,…

Every summer, millions of people jet off on vacations around the world. The United Nations World Tourism Organization estimates that international arrivals, the measure of global travel, will be 2% higher than the pre-pandemic total was in 2019. However, as…

A study out recently has prompted much media attention about the role of plastics in developing autism. In particular, the study focused on exposure to a component of hard plastics—bisphenol A, or BPA—in the womb and the risk of boys…

Parasites take an enormous toll on human and veterinary health. But researchers may have found a way for patients with brain disorders and a common brain parasite to become frenemies. A new study published in Nature Microbiology has pioneered the…

MetaPathPredict is a novel algorithm that uses machine learning to predict metabolic pathways from limited information. Credit: Jason McDermott/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory How bacteria eat food, and what kinds of products they can make from that food, is dictated by…

Intestinal mitochondria in C. elegans are stained red. At left, a wild-type nematode exhibits a normal abundance of mitochondria. In the nematode at right, with its pathogen-associated circuit activated, the mitochondria are depleted. A new UC Berkeley study links activation…

Hemp plants presented to workshop participants upon arrival with questions and electronic codes to provide answers for (A) height and (B) flowering. Credit: Zachary Brym. Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) research and commercial production has recently experienced a global revival motivated…

Benefits of biocide use in select applications. Biocides promote sustainability by preventing water, food, and contaminant diseases, product loss, and biofouling during manufacturing. Credit: Sustainable Microbiology (2024). DOI: 10.1093/sumbio/qvae015 A recent review in the journal Sustainable Microbiology discusses how the…

Credit: Julia M Cameron from Pexels New study reveals diverse perceptions of the “ideal” computer science student among young people. Researchers at the University of Reading, with colleagues at King’s College London, have uncovered a more nuanced view of what…

Researchers developed a fluorescence detection system (right) that can provide highly sensitive detection of deadly microorganisms in drinking water, without using any lenses. They are now converting the technology into a lensless dip-in handheld system (left) that could be useful…

The image shows a comparison of the AI model of TAAR1 (turquoise) and a structure of the receptor determined by experiment (purple). Credit: Alejandro Diaz Artificial intelligence (AI) can help identify molecules that could serve as new drugs for mental…

DNA, which has a double-helix structure, can have many genetic mutations and variations. Credit: NIH Since the genetic code was first deciphered in the 1960s, our genes have seemed like an open book. By reading and decoding our chromosomes as…

Credit: Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas Recent research at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB) of the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), at the Paris Cité University, and at the University of Graz, published today…

Schematic illustration of the DeepPBS framework. Credit: Nature Methods (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41592-024-02372-w A new artificial intelligence model developed by USC researchers and published in Nature Methods can predict how different proteins may bind to DNA with accuracy across different types…

Have you ever liked or shared a social media post about nature? It could have been a photo of a rare orchid or an unusual bird. Or you might share a stunning photo of an “undiscovered” natural place. It feels…

Credit: Tim Mossholder from Pexels Gifted learners often exhibit exceptional versatility and creativity in using resources to explore and develop their ideas, often in unconventional ways. Michelle recalls the day one of her gifted students, 12-year-old Mika, came to her…

Group A treatments. Credit: PNAS Nexus (2024). DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae189 One popular strategy to motivate people to get vaccinated is the nudge—a message designed to take advantage of human tendencies to conform to social norms, seek to protect loved ones or…

It may be possible to turn anxiety into a superpower in some scenarios, recent research by entrepreneurs indicates. A Washington State University-led study found that if entrepreneurs preparing to make a funding pitch connected their pitch anxiety to their passion…

Credit: Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels Girls are more likely to worry about climate change and engage more in teaching on the topic than boys, according to research led by UCL. Researchers also found that children from lower socioeconomic groups are…

The association between meeting venue and relationship success differed by relationship type. Credit: Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking (2024). DOI: 10.1089 A new study in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking showed that for marital relationships, meeting in online…

Sometimes you just can’t win, and that goes double for people navigating the increasingly polarized political landscape in the United States. Having nuanced opinions of politics in the U.S. turns out to be a very lonely, and unpopular, road, according…

Researchers from Radboud University, University of Galway, University of Melbourne, and University of Wisconsin-Madison have published a new Journal of Marketing article that examines common events during the lifecycle of a variety of technology products from adoption to disposal and…

Members of the curatorial staff at Dom Museum Wien and researchers from the University of Vienna, Faculty of Psychology examine artworks from the exhibition “Show Me Your Wound” (Zeig mir deine Wunde; J. Schwanberg and K. Speidel, curators; Dom Museum…

At concerts, in stadiums, in nightclubs, or during group dances on the beach, what helps people move to the same rhythm the most is bouncing, a simple movement that acts as a facilitator of synchronization among people. This is the…