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Scientists discover new avian immunological pathway
Biomedical scientists have discovered a new immune pathway in chickens that viruses may be targeting. The discovery, which has implications also for diseases affecting other birds, sheds greater light on birds’ immune responses to zoonotic viruses — specifically, how those may differ from responses seen in humans. The discovery, which has implications also for diseases…
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Know your ally: Cooperative male dolphins can tell who’s on their team
When it comes to friendships and rivalries, male dolphins know who the good team players are. New findings reveal that male dolphins form a social concept of team membership based on cooperative investment in the team. The Bristol researchers, with colleagues from the University of Zurich and University of Massachusetts, used 30 years of observational…
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Rats are capable of transmitting hantavirus
Researchers have confirmed Germany’s first-ever case of animal-to-human transmission involving a specific species of virus known as the ‘Seoul virus’. Researchers were able to confirm the presence of the virus in a young female patient and her pet rat. Following multiple outbreaks earlier in the 21st century, hantavirus disease syndromes have gained increasing levels of…
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Study exposes global ripple effects of regional water scarcity
Water scarcity is often understood as a problem for regions experiencing drought, but a new study finds that not only can localized water shortages impact the global economy, but changes in global demand send positive and negative ripple effects to water basins across the globe. «We are looking at water scarcity as a globally connected…
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How soil fungi respond to wildfire
When wildfires swept through the North Bay in 2017, a graduate student saw a unique opportunity to study how fire affected his research subject: soil fungi. So, Smith and his mother spent his winter break collecting soil samples from burned areas near trees in Santa Rosa’s Trione-Annadel State Park and Hood Mountain Regional Park and…
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The protective armor of superbug C.difficile revealed
The close-knit, flexible outer layer — like chain mail — which protects superbug C.difficile has been unveiled. This assembly prevents molecules getting in and provides a new target for future treatments, according to the scientists who have uncovered it. Publishing in Nature Communications, the team of scientists from Newcastle, Sheffield and Glasgow Universities together with…
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More than one cognition: A call for change in the field of comparative psychology
Researchers argue that cognitive studies in comparative psychology often wrongly take an anthropocentric approach, resulting in an over-valuation of human-like abilities and the assumption that cognitive skills cluster in animals as they do in humans. The authors advocate for philosophical and procedural changes to the discipline that would lead to a better understanding of animal…
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Feeling connected to nature linked to lower risk of snake and spider phobias
A study of over a thousand people in Hungary has found for the first time that people who feel more connected to nature are less likely to be affected by snake and spider fears or phobias. In the study, researchers from universities in Hungary, Czech Republic and Portugal used clinically established questionnaires to assess participants’…
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Researchers recommend more transparency for gene-edited crops
To gain trust, researchers recommend a wide-ranging coalition that would provide more transparency on the presence and use of gene editing in food supplies. At issue is a May 2020 U.S. Dept. of Agriculture rule called SECURE (sustainable, ecological, consistent, uniform, responsible, efficient) that governs genetically engineered organisms. The rule is expected to exempt most…
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How a single gene alteration may have separated modern humans from predecessors
Researchers discovered a single gene alteration that may help explain cognitive differences between modern humans and our predecessor, and used that information to develop Neanderthal-like brain organoids in the lab. Evolutionary studies rely heavily on two tools — genetics and fossil analysis — to explore how a species changes over time. But neither approach can…