Category Archives: Research

Research Preview: Science Magazine – Nov. 15, 2024

Science issue cover

Science Magazine – November 14, 2024: The new issue features ‘AI learns the language of life’…..

The counterattack

An immune cell treatment that fights cancer is now taking aim at autoimmune disease

How to build a human: Piecing together the body’s cellular puzzle

Piecing together the body’s cellular puzzle

An island in a sea of palms

Oil palm plantations, pictured here in Thailand, have displaced native rainforests across Southeast Asia.PHOTO: OLEH_SLOBODENIUK ISTOCK

Oil palm plantations replace diverse tropical forests with monocultures, but restoration can bring biodiversity and ecosystem services back to these highly modified landscapes. 

Research Preview: Nature Magazine – Nov. 14, 2024

Volume 635 Issue 8038

Nature Magazine – November 13, 2024: The latest issue features ‘Head Start’ – Well preserved fossil skull offers insight into archaic bird brains…

Don’t blame search engines for sending users to unreliable sites

Analysis of billions of pages of results from searches using the Bing algorithm suggests that reliable sites appear in search results 19 to 45 times more often than do sites with low-quality content.

China’s thriving forests are stockpiling vast amounts of carbon

Satellite observations validate national reports on forest coverage and carbon storage.

No hearing aids needed: bats’ ears stay keen well into old age

Elderly big brown bats showed little sign of age-related degradation in the inner ear.

Research Preview: Science Magazine-Nov. 8, 2024

Science Magazine – November 7, 2024: The new issue features ‘Shake It Off’ – Light-touch mechanoreceptors mediate ‘wet dog shake’ behavior…

Bacteria divide to conquer antibiotics

High-level resistance to methicillin requires a distinct form of cell division

Research Preview: Nature Magazine – Nov. 7, 2024

Volume 635 Issue 8037

Nature Magazine – November 6, 2024: The latest issue features ‘Outside Influence’ – Exploring the contribution extrachromosomal DNA makes to cancer….

Naked mole rats vanquish genetic ghosts — and achieve long life

Comparison of the hairless animals’ genomes with those of several other mammals shows low activity of certain sequences.

The midlife crisis is not universal

Study of thousands of people in rural communities shows that many do not experience a slump in well-being during their forties and fifties.

The seas are on the rise — and that surge is accelerating

Sea-surface data show that the average sea-level rise in 2023 was more than double that in 1993.

Hidden wonders: laser data reveal a dense network of ancient Maya settlements

Survey pinpoints pyramids, rural settlements and a large city in an unstudied stretch of Mexico.

Research Preview: Nature Magazine-October 31, 2024

Volume 634 Issue 8036

Nature Magazine – October 30, 2024: The latest issue features ‘Spatial Awareness’ – Cancer cell atlases explore the landscape of tumour evolution…

Atomic smash-ups hold promise of record-breaking elements

Laboratory collisions that create the superheavy element livermorium could help scientists to discover new elements.

This plankton balloons in size to soar upwards through the water

A single-celled alga takes water into a bladder, allowing it to migrate to the sea’s sunlit surface zone.

Giant Turkish quake shifted the ground hundreds of kilometres away

The deadly earthquake led to unexpectedly large deformations some 700 kilometres from the epicentre.

Preview: MIT Technology Review – November 2024

MIT Technology Review

MIT Technology Review (October 23, 2024): The Food issue November/December 2024 – Is technology helping—or harming—our food supply? Featuring: The ominous rise of superweeds, the quest to grow food on Mars, and the surprising ways your refrigerator may be making your food less nutritious. Plus robots that do experiments, jumping spiders, digital forestry, and The AI Hype Index.

The quest to figure out farming on Mars

white line drawing of an agricultural scene with orchard, barn, crops and farm animals drawn over a photo of the Martian landscape

If we’re going to live on Mars we’ll need a way to grow food in its arid dirt. Researchers think they know a way.

These companies are creating food out of thin air

Exploded view of a burger bun with lettuce, tomato, onion and a cloud floating in a blue sky

A new crop of biotech startups are working on an alternative to alternative protein.

Research Preview: Science Magazine-October 18, 2024

Science issue cover

Science Magazine – October 17, 2024: The new issue features ‘The Stakes for Science’ – What the next president could mean for research…

Most meteorites traced to three space crackups

Young asteroid families seed more than 70% of extraterrestrial rocks found on the planet

Why does COVID-19 vaccine protection quickly wane?

New insights on cells behind long-lived antibody production could spur better vaccines

Are implantable, living pharmacies within reach?

Cell-based drug factories could produce therapies on demand inside patients

Research Preview: Nature Magazine-October 17, 2024

Volume 634 Issue 8034

Nature Magazine – October 17, 2024: The latest issue features ‘Rock Family Tree’ – The ancestry and origin of the most common meteorites..

Kids in the classroom flow like water vapour

Young children in the playground behave like molecules in a gas, but kids undergo a phase change in a more structured setting.

Evidence of dead people posed on dead horses found in ancient tomb

A royal burial site linked to the fearsome Scythian equestrian culture contains evidence of ‘spectral riders’ described in Classical account.

Sewage lurks in coastal waters — often unnoticed by widely used test

Global survey finds human faecal contamination in at least one sample from all 18 cities tested.

Two comb jellies fuse their bodies and then act as one

The easy synchronization suggests that an individual jelly does not distinguish its tissue

Research Preview: Science Magazine – Oct. 11, 2024

Current Issue Cover

Science Magazine – October 10, 2024: The new issue features ‘Graphene at 20’ – New forms, and a brighter future, for the storied material…

El Niño fingered as likely culprit in record 2023 temperatures

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Research suggests swings in Pacific Ocean can account for planet’s sudden and perplexing temperature jump

Research Preview: Nature Magazine – Oct. 10, 2024

Volume 634 Issue 8033

Nature Magazine – October 9, 2024: The latest issue features ‘Cold Comfort’ – Permafrost helps protect rivers from errosian and migration..

Hundreds of methane super-sources pinpointed in satellite data

Algorithm homes in on wetlands and industrial sites linked to high emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas.

Baby sea turtles ‘swim’ up from buried nests to the open air

Turtle hatchlings, which can begin life up to a metre deep in sand, point their heads towards the surface and make their way out onto the beach.

How a potent immune therapy loses its punch against a blood cancer

Therapeutic T cells used to treat acute myeloid leukaemia secrete proteins that impair the cells’ own ability to attack cancer.

A ‘Swiss army knife’ microscope that doesn’t break the bank

The parts of a 3D-printed device can be changed out, allowing for versatility as well as ultrahigh resolution.