Science
press releases.

Science30 Nov 2023

Identifying Australia's most elusive birds

University of Queensland scientists have analysed more than 3.8 million volunteer hours of birdwatching data to identify Australia’s most elusive species. Louis Backstrom from UQ’s School of the Environment led the research and said the Coxen’s fig-parrot was the bird that was most elusive to Australian birdwatchers, based on the data found in the eBird and Birdata databases. “Coxen’s fig-parrots are small, dumpy, green parrots with very short tails, and historically they were scattered in rainforests between Bundaberg in Queensland and the Hastings River in New South Wales,” Mr ...

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Science30 Nov 2023

Internet is fuelling new wave of misogyny, says linguistics expert

Society has gone backwards in its treatment of women with the internet fuelling new forms of misogyny, according to the author of a new book. Linguist and researcher Deborah Cameron says that prejudice, discrimination and abuse should not be regarded as yesterday’s problems. Rather than fading away in the twenty-first century, they have evolved in ways that reflect today’s conditions, her research suggests. Her book Language, Sexism and Misogyny analyses the way sexism and misogyny are expressed today in advertising and media, drawing on evidence from academic research to provide a comprehensive ...

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Science30 Nov 2023

Parsing the puzzle of nucleon spin

NEWPORT NEWS, VA – Alexandre Deur has spent his career studying the mystifying spin structure of the nucleon — which is also one of the primary missions of the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, where Deur has been a staff scientist for nearly 20 years. A particle’s spin is one of its basic characteristics, like its mass or electric charge, and physicists have long tried to nail down the dynamics at work behind the spin of particles made of quarks, like the proton, or what they call the “spin ...

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Science29 Nov 2023

With some forms of TBI, non-deployed vets have higher risk of epilepsy than deployed

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2023 MINNEAPOLIS – A study of post-9/11 veterans shows that those with moderate or severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) who have never been deployed have a higher risk of epilepsy than those who have been deployed. The study is published in the November 29, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. “We anticipated that deployment would be linked to a higher risk of epilepsy among post-9/11 veterans with TBI given the potential higher risk for a blast or combat ...

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Science29 Nov 2023

Study reveals the real tax rate paid by multinational corporations in 47 countries

Despite a similar statutory tax rate for multinational corporations (MNCs) across many countries, the effective tax rate that MNCs actually pay differs greatly — as low as 1% of gross income in Luxembourg and as high as 67% in Norway. That’s one conclusion of a study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Javier Garcia-Bernardo of Utrecht University, the Netherlands, Petr Janský of Charles University, Czechia, and Thomas Tørsløv of Danmarks Nationalbank, Denmark. The study comes on the ...

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Science29 Nov 2023

Unknown animals were leaving bird-like footprints in Late Triassic Southern Africa

Ancient animals were walking around on bird-like feet over 210 million years ago, according to a study published November 29, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Miengah Abrahams and Emese M. Bordy of the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Numerous fossil sites in southern Africa preserve distinctive three-toed footprints that have been named Trisauropodiscus. For many years, researchers have debated what animals might have left these tracks, as well as precisely how many different species (technically called ichnospecies) of Trisauropodiscus there are. In this study, the researchers reassessed the ...

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Science29 Nov 2023

Exercise may reduce postpartum depression, with moderate intensity exercises three to four times a week being especially effective, per meta-analysis

Exercise may reduce postpartum depression, with moderate intensity exercises three to four times a week being especially effective, per meta-analysis ### Article URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0287650 Article Title: Effectiveness of aerobic exercise in the prevention and treatment of postpartum depression: Meta-analysis and network meta-analysis Author Countries: China Funding: This work was financially supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in China (Grant no. CUG150607). The funders did not play a role ...

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Science29 Nov 2023

Breaking down barriers: What happens when the vaginal microbiome attacks

Bacterial vaginosis is a common condition in which the natural microbiome of the vagina falls out of balance, sometimes leading to complications in sexual and reproductive health. But exactly how these bacterial populations disrupt vaginal health has remained unclear. Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have now found that in bacterial vaginosis, certain bacterial species dismantle protective molecules on the surface of the cells lining the vagina, dysregulating key processes that mediate cell turnover, death and response to surrounding bacteria. The findings, published November 29, 2023 in Science Translational Medicine, may help explain why bacterial ...

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Science29 Nov 2023

Being prepared for storm surges on the Baltic Sea coast

The record storm surge in October 2023 caused severe damage to the German Baltic coast. Effective adaptation scenarios to rising sea levels are therefore becoming increasingly urgent. In two recent studies, researchers at Kiel University have modelled both the flooding extent along the Baltic Sea coastal areas and, for the first time, two possible upgrades for current dike lines in high resolution. They modelled various storm surge and sea level rise scenarios. Their results show that, based on the current dike line, neither an increase ...

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Science29 Nov 2023

New research sheds light on Bantu-speaking populations' expansion in Africa

About 350 million people across Africa speak one or more of the 500 Bantu languages. New genetic analysis of modern and ancient individuals suggests that these populations probably originated in western Africa and then moved south and east in several waves. The study has been published in the scientific journal Nature. The expansion of people speaking Bantu languages is considered one of the most dramatic demographic events in Late Holocene Africa, which began 6,000 to 4,000 years ago in western Africa. This new study generated and analysed a comprehensive dataset, including genomic data of modern-day populations from 1,763 participants ...

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Science29 Nov 2023

Popularity matters more than compatibility on dating apps

A new study has found that algorithms used by online dating platforms have popularity bias - meaning that they recommend more popular, attractive users over less popular, less attractive users. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Washington published their findings in Manufacturing & Service Operations Management. They evaluated data from over 240,000 users of a major online dating platform in Asia over three months. They found that a user's chance of being recommended by the platform's algorithm ...

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Science29 Nov 2023

Contraception: hormonal and copper coil only show minor differences

In the “ThemenCheck Medizin” procedure offered by the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG), interested members of the public can submit proposals for the assessment of medical procedures and technologies. On behalf of IQWiG, an interdisciplinary team of researchers led by Share to Care GmbH in Cologne investigated the advantages and disadvantages of two types of contraceptive coils (also known as intrauterine devices, IUDs) for preventing unwanted pregnancies, the copper IUD and the hormonal IUD. Their conclusion: both types of IUDs are very safe and, compared to condoms or the pill, cost-effective contraceptive ...

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Science29 Nov 2023

Fighting fruit flies help researchers understand why we stay angry

It’s one of those days. On the drive home from work, the car in the next lane cuts you off. You slam on the brakes, lay on the horn, and yell choice words at the offending driver. When you walk into your house half an hour later, you’re still angry, and snap at your partner when they ask about your day. Fruit flies may not have to worry about the lingering effects of road rage, but they also experience states of persistent aggression. In the case of female fruit flies, this behavior is a survival mechanism, causing the flies to headbutt, shove, and fence other female fruit flies to guard prime egg-laying territory on a ...

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Science29 Nov 2023

Bees are still being harmed despite tightened pesticide regulations

A new study has confirmed that pesticides, commonly used in farmland, significantly harm bumblebees – one of the most important wild pollinators. In a huge study spanning 106 sites across eight European countries, researchers have shown that despite tightened pesticide regulations, far more needs to be done. While the agricultural uses of insecticides have been in the spotlight for their negative effects on bees, it has remained unknown how the effects scale beyond single substances in focal ...

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Science29 Nov 2023

Revisiting gene dosage

Have you ever wondered why we carry two copies of each chromosome in all of our cells? During reproduction, we receive one from each of our parents. This means that we also receive two copies, or alleles, of each gene – one allele per chromosome or parent. Both alleles are able to produce messenger RNA, which is the recipe needed to make proteins and keep cells running. Scientists hypothesize that having two alleles for each gene is the cell’s in-built redundancy system. If there is ever a mutation or drop in messenger RNA production from the allele carried on one of the chromosomes, the allele on the second chromosome will serve as a backup and ...

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Science29 Nov 2023

Disruptive ideas rely on old fashioned meetings

A marvel of modernity is the ability to collaborate with others regardless of location. Researchers can work with a colleague, maybe the only person who has a specialized skill, even if they are halfway across the globe. They can pull together a powerhouse team with a dozen of the brightest minds in the field. Yet, according to research from the lab of Lingfei Wu, assistant professor in Pitt’s School of Computing and Information, these collaborative teams are producing fewer truly disruptive ideas or radical innovations than ...

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Science29 Nov 2023

BU/VA researcher awarded funding to prevent intimate partner violence

(Boston)—Casey Taft, PhD, professor of psychiatry at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, has been approved for a five-year, $2.8 million funding award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) for his research study “A Randomized Controlled Trial to Evaluate a Trauma-Informed Partner Violence Intervention Program.” Taft, who also is a staff psychologist at the National Center for PTSD in the VA Boston Healthcare System, is conducting a randomized controlled trial of the Strength at Home program to prevent and end intimate partner violence (IPV) in Rhode Island. Strength at Home ...

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Science29 Nov 2023

The act of saying "no" under the linguistic magnifying glass

FRANKFURT. Prof. Bernhard Brüne, Vice President Research, Early Career Researchers and Transfer at Goethe University Frankfurt, congratulated the researchers involved in the successful application: "Anyone who establishes a major project like a Collaborative Research Center must have both creative and viable research ideas as well as a strong network. To discover new things about language and thinking, the new CRC 1629 not only makes use of Goethe University’s structures, and the combination of philology with philosophy and didactics. It also cooperates with partner universities in Göttingen and Tübingen. Aside that, I am of course delighted that ...

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Science29 Nov 2023

Improving our understanding of the effects of PFOS on fish

Two papers recently published in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry have made important advancements toward understanding the effects of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) on aquatic life, especially fish. Zebrafish had been identified in a previous study of limited scope as being among one of the most sensitive aquatic species to PFOS, and the results of that limited-scope study have influenced PFOS water quality criteria derived by some regulatory agencies, including the Australian Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Kurt Gust and ...

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Science29 Nov 2023

Common headaches tied to neck inflammation

CHICAGO – Researchers have identified objective evidence of how the neck muscles are involved in primary headaches, according to a study being presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). The findings could lead to better treatments. The distinct underlying causes of primary headaches are still not fully understood. The most common primary headaches are tension-type headaches and migraines. “Our imaging approach provides first objective evidence for the very frequent involvement of the neck muscles in primary headaches, such as neck pain ...

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Science29 Nov 2023

One in seven male gym goers consider impact on fertility

Young male gym users are largely unaware of the risks of their lifestyle on their fertility, a new study shows. New results from a survey of 152 gym enthusiasts, published in Reproductive BioMedicine Online found that men were largely unaware of the risks to their fertility from aspects of gym lifestyle including protein supplements, which can contain high levels of estrogen, used by 79% of male respondents. When questioned about their concern about fertility, more than half (52%) of male participants said that they had thought about their ...

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Science29 Nov 2023

Yale study gives grandmother gecko a place of honor — and a new name

New Haven, Conn. — Yale paleontologists have identified a new fossil lizard, found in the western United States, which they say was an ancestor of modern geckos. And they gave it a name that honors the lead researcher’s grandmother and great aunt. The discovery of the new species, which they named Helioscopus dickersonae, suggests that gecko ancestors appeared in North America much earlier than previously known. “This discovery emerged from a larger investigation of two fossil lizard skulls from Dinosaur National Monument in Utah,” said Dalton ...

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Science29 Nov 2023

No evidence found that cannabis reduces long term opioid use

A 20-year Australian study has found no evidence to suggest cannabis reduces illicit opioid use, and it may not be an effective long-term method of reducing harm for those with an opioid use disorder or problematic use of opioids. Published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, the University of Sydney led study is one of the longest of its kind. Between 2001 to 2022, the study involved a group of 615 people with heroin dependence, many of whom also used cannabis. Additional analysis also found no consistent evidence between cannabis and other opioid use, ...

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Science29 Nov 2023

Remote work, reduced pay: are we willing to make a trade?

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to reshape the workforce, with almost half of Australian workers willing to sacrifice part of their annual salary to work from home. New research by the University of South Australia has found that 45% of workers would be willing to accept a pay cut in exchange for remote work flexibility. A survey of more than 1100 Australian workers in 2020-21 found that the average worker, who can carry out their role effectively at home, is willing to give up $3000 to $6000 in annual wages (4 to 8% of their salary). One fifth of participants would be willing to sacrifice $12 to $24,000 annually (16 to 33% of salaries). However, ...

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Science29 Nov 2023

Chloride ions kill the stability of blue perovskite light emitting diodes

Blue light-emitting diodes represent a fundamental element in the contemporary lighting and display technology landscape. Like prevailing technology such as III-V, organics and quantum dot LEDs, developing efficient and stable blue perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) is a formidable challenge. Over the past few years, the research community has experienced a remarkable upsurge in the external quantum yields of blue PeLEDs, bringing them closer to the level of more mature technologies. Nevertheless, these blue PeLEDs continue to ...

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