The health of about half of the world’s Indigenous peoples – 28 populations in 23 countries from the Arctic through to Oceania – have been mapped out in a recent study out of Australia. This global health map includes Indigenous peoples from Africa, Pakistan, India, Nepal, China, Thailand, Myanmar, the Americas, Scandinavia, Circumpolar Russia, Greenland, […]
This is why you feel groggy after sleeping in a new place
When sleeping in an unfamiliar environment, half of your brain doesn’t really sleep. Instead, that hemisphere stays awake to “guard” against potential threats. In a new study, researchers from Brown University monitored the brain activity of 35 people in a sleep lab over the course of two nights. The first night sleeping in the new […]
Tweet louder, I can’t hear you: Highway noise disrupts information transfer between bird species
Communication between birds is disrupted near major roadways, where the noise levels are unnaturally high. According to new research from University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, this avian communication breakdown may help explain the pattern of reduced biodiversity near highways. Authors of the new study were curious about how building homes in […]
Dinosaur population doomed millions of years before the asteroid
The dinosaurs were on their way out before the asteroid hit, researchers say. It seems the big lizards’ numbers were gradually declining for at least 40 million years before the final extinction event. This decrease in dinosaur population likely favoured the rise of mammals, which began flourishing in ecological niches previously occupied by dinosaurs. Using […]
Warmer labs for mice make for more accurate cancer research results
New research shows that keeping laboratory mice warmer could mean more realistic results in cancer research studies. Lab temperatures are often 4-10 degrees colder that the toasty 30 degrees Celsius preferred by mice. Authors of a new study out of Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, suggest the mice use more energy to […]
Mingling lab and pet store mice helps mimic human-like immune system
Letting lab mice mix with their pet-store cousins may help future research by better mimicking adult human immune systems, according to the results of a new study. Normally, adult lab mice live in abnormally clean environments, which means their immune systems rarely get exposed to different types of bacteria and viruses. Mice in a pet […]
A missing piece in the North American monkey puzzle
Fossilized monkey teeth, found during the expansion of the Panama Canal, suggest that monkeys arrived in Central and North America much earlier than previously thought. Researchers believed that monkeys did not reach Central America until a strip of land between North and South America, called the Isthmus of Panama, formed 3.5 million years ago. But […]
Ancestors of modern birds saved by seeds 
The secret of survival for bird-like dinosaurs was simple: eating seeds. The reason behind the survival of the ancestors of modern birds has puzzled researchers for years, and a recent Canadian study of fossil dinosaur teeth may have provided the answer. According to a new hypothesis from dinosaur specialists at the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur […]
Palliative care viewed as a stigma, despite improving quality of life
Canadians with cancer and their caregivers, associate “palliative care” with impending death, and consequently are not taking advantage of the benefits early palliative care can bring to a patients’ quality of life, according to the authors of a new study. Originally, in the 1960s, palliative care referred to end-of-life care, mainly for cancer patients. The […]
New research on the Zika virus
Further evidence is linking the Zika virus to fetal brain damage and now to serious neurological disease in adults. In the first paper researchers performed brain scans on 23 babies born to mothers thought to be infected with Zika. The scans revealed a majority of the babies had severe brain malformation and scar-like lesions […]
Restoring movement to a quadriplegic patient
Researchers have successfully restored some movement to the fingers, hand, and wrist of a quadriplegic patient by using recorded signals from his motor cortex, allowing him to perform daily living activities such as pouring from a bottle and stirring the contents. Systems that work by translating neural activity into signals for robotic devices, such as […]
Solving quantum physics problems with computer games
Computer gamers can teach quantum physicists a thing or two! At least according to the results of a study using an online game platform called Quantum Moves, which presents problems in quantum physics as games. So far the games have been played 500,000 times by about 10,000 different players. The research confirmed that using the […]
Successfully creating insulin-producing beta cells in the lab
Researchers have created insulin-producing cells in a petri dish for the first time, moving closer to finding a potential cure for diabetes. The researchers discovered a switch that makes it “possible to produce a functional human beta cell that’s responding almost as well as the natural thing,” according to Ronald Evans, senior author and a […]
This is pretty crabby
Thousands of red crabs swarming in low-oxygen waters off the coast of Panama have been captured on video during a recent diving expedition. The crabs were identified by DNA as Pleuroncodes planipes, or Tuna Crabs, which have never been seen in waters so far south. The lead author, Jesús Pineda, said “when we dove down […]
STIs promote monogamy, but only in certain instances
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) may have helped foster monogamy in some human societies, according to a new study. Researchers found that when a society is large the prevalence of STIs becomes endemic, reducing fertility rates and favouring the emergence of monogamists in society. However in smaller groups, with a maximum of 30 people, STI outbreaks […]
People with disease-causing mutations who remain mysteriously healthy
Researchers have identified 13 people who appear to be healthy, despite carrying genetic mutations associated with severe childhood disease. Researchers identified these individuals after performing genomic analysis on more than half a million people. The team believes their study provides a first step toward pinpointing genetic variants that may protect against childhood diseases currently thought to […]