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Science5 Dec 2024

Tyrannosaur teeth discovered in Bexhill-on-Sea with help of retired quarryman

EMBARGOED: NOT FOR RELEASE UNTIL 00.01 UK TIME ON THURSDAY 5 DECEMBER 2024 Tyrannosaur teeth discovered in Bexhill-on-Sea with help of retired quarryman Spinosaur and Velociraptor-like predators also roamed East Sussex 135 million years ago Research led by the University of Southampton has revealed that several groups of meat-eating dinosaur stalked the Bexhill-on-Sea region of coastal East Sussex 135 million years ago. The study, published today [5 December 2024] in Papers in Palaeontology, has discovered a whole community of predators belonging to different ...

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Science5 Dec 2024

Researchers develop polarization photodetector mimicking desert ant

Polarization photodetectors (pol-PDs) have widespread applications in geological remote sensing, machine vision, and biological medicine. However, commercial pol-PDs usually require bulky and complicated optical components and are difficult to miniaturize and integrate. Chinese researchers have recently made important progress in this area by developing an on-chip integrated polarization photodetector. This study, published in Science Advances on Dec. 4, was conducted by Prof. Li Mingzhu’s group from the Technical ...

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Science5 Dec 2024

Effects of bamboo invasion on forest structures and diameter–height allometries

Bamboo invasion has been widely observed across Asia (e.g., China, Japan, and India), North America, South America (e.g., Brazil and Peru) and Africa. Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis), a large-running bamboo species native to subtropical China, is known for its invasive nature and ability to encroach upon adjacent communities, particularly derived forests. While some plot-based studies exist, our understanding of how forest structural dynamics and diameter–height allometric relationships respond to bamboo invasion has remained limited. In a study published in the KeAi journal Forest Ecosystems, researchers from China ...

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Science5 Dec 2024

Lessons from Earth's hottest epoch in the last 65 million years: How global warming could shrink the tropics' rain belt

Earth's tropical rain belt, responsible for monsoons that sustain billions of people and vibrant ecosystems, has long been a reliable feature of the planet's climate. But new research reveals this vital system wasn't always so dependable. A study published in Geophysical Research Letters shows that during the early Eocene—the hottest period in the last 65 million years—the rain belt's seasonal shifts weakened dramatically. These ancient changes could offer critical warnings about the impact of modern global warming. A Greenhouse Climate 50 Million Years ...

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Science5 Dec 2024

Researchers use data from citizen scientists to uncover the mysteries of a blue low-latitude aurora

Colorful auroras appeared around Japan's Honshu and Hokkaido islands on May 11, 2024, sparked by an intense magnetic storm. Usually, auroras observed at low latitudes appear red due to the emission of oxygen atoms. But on this day, a salmon pink aurora was observed throughout the night, while an unusually tall, blue-dominant aurora appeared shortly before midnight. Smartphone videos and amateur photos captured the event, enabling scientists to combine public data with their own research and study the phenomenon. In a ...

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Science5 Dec 2024

Concerns over potential harms of tests advertised directly to consumers

Better information and regulation are essential to protect consumers from potential harms of tests advertised directly to consumers, argue experts in The BMJ today. Emma Gram at the University of Copenhagen and colleagues warn that consumers are at risk of buying products that do more harm than good and say the public needs high quality information and effective communication to protect consumers from unbalanced and misleading marketing. Advances in diagnostic technology and digital health have increased the variety and volume of direct-to-consumer (DTC) tests, ...

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Science5 Dec 2024

Spotted lanternflies in the US are living longer—and cities may be helping them spread

Spotted lanternflies—invasive insects that first landed in the United States a decade ago—are emerging earlier and staying active later each year, according to an analysis of citizen-science data by researchers at New York University. This longer life cycle and shift in activity may be driven in part by cities and their warmer climates. The spotted lanternfly, native to parts of Asia, was first found in the US in 2014 in eastern Pennsylvania. Since then, the population has spread across the Northeast and into the Midwest and Southeast, sparking concerns about its impact on local plants and agriculture. The ...

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Science4 Dec 2024

Slingshot spiders listen to fire off ballistic webs when they hear mosquitoes within range

Armed with a net and trident, fisherman gladiators were a staple of Rome’s gladiatorial games. Their best chance of survival was to quickly entangle a heavily armed opponent with their weighted net. Remarkably, some spiders use much the same strategy. Slingshot, or ray spiders (Theridiosoma gemmosum) pull the centre of their flat web back, to form a cone with the spider at the tip, keeping the net in place by holding on to a taut anchor thread. They release this thread to let the web fly, catapulting it forward when an ...

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Science4 Dec 2024

SwRI-led study explores risks of chemical exposure from household products

SAN ANTONIO — December 4, 2024 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) collaborated with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to characterize the chemical makeup of 81 common household items. Researchers also evaluated the potential risk to users. Exposure to chemicals can cause negative health effects, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Building on previous research to identify chemicals in consumer goods, SwRI and EPA also analyzed how samples of rubber, plastic, clothing, upholstery and fabric responded to environmental factors, such as a hot car or being worn. The study, published in the Environmental Science & Technology ...

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Science4 Dec 2024

ETSU secures $900k defense grant

The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded the ETSU Research Corporation over $900,000 as part of the Defense Industrial Base Consortium, an investment that will help create new opportunities to foster regional innovation in sustainable industrial manufacturing in the Appalachian region. “Our goal is to enhance the prosperity of our region by connecting local innovation with opportunities in global emerging markets,” said Eric Jorgenson, vice president of evelopment for the ETSU Research Corporation. “This project is another key part of the foundation of a robust biomanufacturing ecosystem in ...

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Science4 Dec 2024

Natural ‘biopesticide’ against malaria mosquitoes successful in early field tests

An experimental bacteria-derived biopesticide is highly effective in killing malaria-carrying mosquitoes, including those that have developed resistance to chemical pesticides, according to initial field tests led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The biopesticide is a powder made from the dead cells of a common soil-dwelling bacterial species. The researchers showed that the biopesticide efficiently kills both ordinary and chemical-pesticide-resistant mosquitoes when included in standard baits. ...

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Science4 Dec 2024

How plant enzymes can adapt to higher temperatures

Images EAST LANSING, Mich. – As global temperatures rise, it’s imperative that plants can adapt to new and changing conditions. As global temperatures rise, it’s imperative that plants can adapt to new and changing conditions. Michigan State University researchers from the Walker lab are looking at ways to give plants an assist. More specifically, their research aims to help plants adapt to changing temperatures by introducing engineered enzymes that will increase plants’ heat tolerance. “I would say that the main goal of our research is to prepare plants for elevated temperatures because, with climate change, ...

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Science4 Dec 2024

The Gerontological Society of America congratulates new 2024 Awardees

The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) — the country’s largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to the field of aging — is proud to acknowledge the work of 34 outstanding individuals through its prestigious awards program. GSA salutes outstanding research, recognizes distinguished leadership in teaching and service, and fosters new ideas through a host of awards. Nominated by their peers, the recipients’ achievements serve as milestones in the history and development of gerontology. The awardees were honored at various ...

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Science4 Dec 2024

With a quarter-century of data on gun usage, new study examines when and why people start carrying guns and if they persist in doing so

A new long-term study that has documented the lives of a diverse sample of children over the past three decades shows that the majority of gun carriers began to carry in adulthood, not adolescence. These two groups — which the authors call “adult-onset carriers” if they began carrying after 21 years of age and “adolescent-onset carriers” if their carrying started prior to 21 years of age — have very different patterns in exposure to violence prior to carrying, persistence in carrying, and in actual gun usage. In “Dual Pathways of ...

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Science4 Dec 2024

How did humans and dogs become friends? Connections in the Americas began 12,000 years ago

"Dog is man's best friend" may be an ancient cliché, but when that friendship began is a longstanding question among scientists. A new study led by a University of Arizona researcher is one step closer to an answer on how Indigenous people in the Americas interacted with early dogs and wolves. The study, published today in the journal Science Advances and based on archaeological remains from Alaska, shows that people and the ancestors of today's dogs began forming close relationships as early as 12,000 years ago – ...

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Science4 Dec 2024

A third of people from Chicago carry concealed handguns in public before they reach middle age, major 25-year study finds

Around a third (32%) of people who grew up in Chicago have carried a concealed firearm on the city streets at least once by the time they turn 40 years old, according to a major study of gun usage taking in a quarter of a century of data. Urban sociologists behind the research argue that such carry rates are likely to be similar across many other major US cities. The research suggests that almost half of men (48%) have carried a concealed gun by the age of 40, compared to just 16% of women.* The study, published in Science Advances, is one of the few to track gun usage in the same US population ...

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Science4 Dec 2024

Why some individuals believe fake news and conspiracies

People who are credulous are less capable of recognizing fake news, and along with mistrustful adults, are more susceptible to conspiracy thinking and vaccine hesitancy, according to a study published December 4, 2024, in the open-access journal PLOS Global Public Health by Michal Tanzer and colleagues from University College London, U.K. Epistemic trust is the readiness to regard knowledge communicated by others as significant, self-relevant, and generalizable to other contexts. Disruption to the capacity for epistemic trust may undermine healthy functioning that requires rapid, efficient checking and updating of social knowledge ...

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Science4 Dec 2024

Misokinesia, intolerance of others' fidgeting and repetitive body movements, can cause people to experience intense reactions, negative emotions and relationship strain, per qualitative study

Misokinesia, intolerance of others' fidgeting and repetitive body movements, can cause people to experience intense reactions, negative emotions and relationship strain, per qualitative study ### Article URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0313169 Article Title: I struggle with your fidgeting: A qualitative study of the personal and social impacts of misokinesia Author Countries: Canada, U.S. Funding: We received funding from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) for our study. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. END ...

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Science4 Dec 2024

Emoji use may depend on emotional intelligence and attachment style

Higher emotional intelligence is linked to more emoji use with friends, while avoidant attachment is associated with less emoji use with friends and dating or romantic partners, according to a study published December 4, 2024, in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Dr. Simon Dubé, Research Fellow at The Kinsey Institute, Indiana University, U.S., and colleagues. This pattern of results varies across genders and relationship types, with women using emojis with friends and family more frequently than men. Emojis are characters depicting emotions, objects, animals, and more. They can be sent ...

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Science4 Dec 2024

Study reveals mammoth as key food source for ancient Americans

Scientists have uncovered the first direct evidence that ancient Americans relied primarily on mammoth and other large animals for food. Their research sheds new light on both the rapid expansion of humans throughout the Americas and the extinction of large ice age mammals. The study, featured on the Dec. 4 cover of the journal Science Advances, used stable isotope analysis to model the diet of the mother of an infant discovered at a 13,000-year-old Clovis burial site in Montana. Before this study, prehistoric diet was inferred by ...

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Science4 Dec 2024

Male African elephants develop distinct personality traits as they age

Male African elephants have distinct personality traits, but also adapt their behavior to suit the social context, according to a study publishing December 4, 2024, in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Caitlin O’Connell-Rodwell at Stanford University and Harvard University Center for the Environment, Jodie L. Berezin of Utopia Scientific, U.S., and colleagues. Many animals show consistent individual differences in behavior, sometimes described as ‘personality’ or ‘temperament’. Elephants are highly intelligent and have rich social lives, and previous research has shown that captive ...

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Science4 Dec 2024

Richard Baraniuk honored with 2025 IEEE Signal Processing Medal

Richard G. Baraniuk, the C. Sidney Burrus Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University, has been awarded the 2025 IEEE Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal. This honor recognizes Baraniuk’s exceptional achievements in signal processing, particularly his pioneering work in multiscale and sparse signal processing. Notably, Baraniuk’s professorship is named after his mentor, Charles Sidney Burrus, a former dean of engineering at Rice, who also won the Kilby Medal in 2009. Baraniuk’s innovative contributions have advanced the theoretical and practical frontiers of signal processing and machine learning. His work has focused on low-dimensional models, ...

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Science4 Dec 2024

Lifesaver for wild bees: The importance of quarries

A research team at the University of Göttingen, Germany’s Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) in Rhede, and the Thünen Institute in Braunschweig has investigated the importance of limestone quarries for wild bee conservation. Diverse landscapes with good connectivity between quarries and calcareous grasslands proved to be particularly valuable. Calcareous grasslands – meaning grasslands on chalk or limestone soils – are exceptionally rich in plant and animal species, making them valuable ecosystems. Quarries ...

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Science4 Dec 2024

MD Anderson Research Highlights: ASH 2024 Special Edition

SAN DIEGO ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights showcases the latest breakthroughs in cancer care, research and prevention. These advances are made possible through seamless collaboration between MD Anderson’s world-leading clinicians and scientists, bringing discoveries from the lab to the clinic and back. This special edition features upcoming oral presentations by MD Anderson researchers at the 66th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition, providing ...

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Science4 Dec 2024

The bisexual population in Stockholm has doubled in a decade

Over the past decade, the proportion of residents in Stockholm County who identify as bisexual has nearly doubled. The younger generations are driving the trend and many of them have previously identified as heterosexual. This is according to a study published in JAMA Network Open by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in collaboration with the Centre for Epidemiology and Community Medicine within Region Stockholm in Sweden. The researchers analysed data from the Stockholm Public Health Cohort, covering more than 98,000 individuals from 2002 to 2021. The proportion of people ...

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