A new study suggests that trial-and-error learning benefits memory in both young and old people, but only when errors are meaningfully related to the right answer. The study tracked 65 younger (average age 22) and 65 older (average age 72) people who tried to memorize lists of words. Making wrong guesses when given a clue […]
Category: Paper of Interest
Screening software could help find new drugs
A new method of screening molecules for their ability to bind to enzymes and other proteins could help discover potential new drugs. A newly built model looks at covalent bonding, a much stronger type of chemical attraction but one that is harder to model. Computer models that predict which molecules will interact with enzymes have existed […]
Arctic sea-ice decline has made severe Eurasian winters twice as likely
The decline in Arctic sea ice over the past few decades has doubled the chance of severe winters in Europe and Asia, a new study shows. Researchers performed computer simulations to show that sea-ice decline in the Arctic Barents and Kara seas since 2004 is linked to blocking situations of the jetstream which in turn […]
Dissolved oxygen is key for underwater forensics
A new study indicates that dissolved oxygen has a big impact on how bodies decay underwater, a finding that could help in forensic investigations. Researchers deployed three pig carcasses outside the Victoria Experimental Network Under the Sea (VENUS), a cabled underwater laboratory with underwater cameras and sensors to record oxygen levels, temperature, pressure, salinity, density […]
Early mountain-dwellers offer insight on adaptation
Evidence of the highest and oldest human settlements in the Peruvian andes offers insight on how quickly humans can adapt to extreme environments. Researchers found tools, animal bones and plant remains that suggest a human habitation in three locations: the Pucuncho workshop site (4355 metres above sea level), the Cunchaicha workshop (4445 metres above sea […]
How to reduce damage from unregulated fisheries
Canadians are used to the idea that governments regulate fisheries, but around the world more than 100 million people – 90 per cent of the worlds’ fishers – operate in small-scale fisheries with no records or controls. In a Policy Forum article, the authors recommend methods to reduce the damage that illegal, unregulated and unreported […]
Largest ‘ostrich-like’ dinosaur may have been an omnivore
New fossils of a rare dinosaur found in Mongolia shed light on its dietary habits, and may indicate an omnivorous diet. Deinocheirus mirificus was previously known only from two large forelimbs found in the 1960s, and was thought to be the largest of the ornithomimids, a group of dinosaurs that superficially resemble modern ostriches. The […]
Genome of a 45,000-year-old modern human
Researchers have found that the genome of a 45,000-year-old human from Siberia is quite similar to the genome of modern Native Americans and East Asians and carries similar amount of Neanderthal ancestry. The remains of the Siberian male are believed by the authors to represent the oldest directly radiocarbon-dated modern human outside Africa and the […]
Pushing the limits of chemistry with iridium
A chemical containing the element iridium has set a new record for the highest recorded formal oxidation state in the periodic table of the elements. Formal oxidation state describes the number of electrons an atom loses or gains when it joins with other atoms in chemical compounds; the higher the oxidation state, the greater the […]
Controlling Ebola outbreak in West Africa most effective way to decrease international
Controlling the Ebola virus outbreak at the source in West Africa is the most effective way to decrease international risk of transmission, a new study of global airline travel patterns shows. The authors used a model that predicts that three people infected with Ebola are predicted to fly from West Africa (Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra […]
Got milk? No? Check your vitamin D
Children who drink rice, almond, soy or goat’s milk have lower levels of vitamin D in their blood than those who drink cow’s milk, according to a new study. Canadian regulations stipulate that every 100 millilitres of cow’s milk must be fortified with 40 International Units of vitamin D, non-cow’s milk is not subject to […]
Religious reminders could quell hostility
A new study suggests that reminding someone of their religious beliefs could help quell hostile urges. Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Hindu participants were exposed to either threatening experiences (such as thinking about their own death or failing at an academic assignment) or not. They were then given a chance to judge and assign punishments for […]
Gamers can be quick learners
A new study suggests that while people who play video games don’t necessarily have better sensorimotor skills than non-gamers, they are significantly faster at learning sensorimotor tasks. A group of 18 gamers and 18 non-gamers were asked to complete a task that involved keeping a cursor in the centre of a moving target. When the […]
How carnivores impact the African landscape
A new study shows the presence – or absence – of carnivores can have a big impact on how many and what kind of trees grow in a landscape. Working in central Kenya, researchers looked at different tree species – with or without protective thorns – in areas where herbivores get eaten by their predators, […]
Ebola in DRC different than that in West Africa
The current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is caused by a different virus strain than the one circulating in West Africa, a new study shows. Researchers conclude that the two Ebola outbreaks are not linked to one another. At least 49 people have died from Ebola in Congo between July 26 […]
Exercise associated with fewer depressive symptoms
Regular exercise is associated with a reduction in the odds of depressive symptoms by up to 19 per cent, according to estimates in a new study. Researchers used data from the 1958 British Birth Cohort, which tracked about 11,000 people in the UK who were all born in the same week in 1958 through their lives. […]