SciGlow | All Science News In One Place
SciGlow is a newsletter of science stories from the major research labs. Headlines link to in-depth articles and editorials. SciGlow keeps scientists and others up-to-date on current research.
In the eternal search for understanding what makes us human, scientists found that our brains are more sensitive to pitch, the harmonic sounds we hear when listening to music, than our evolutionary relative the macaque monkey. The study, funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, highlights the promise of Sound Health, a joint … Read more
Using tens of thousands of genes mapped from across the genomes of a group of Antarctic fishes called notothenioids, a team of researchers is now challenging this paradigm, revealing that the massive amount of genetic change required for life in the Antarctic occurred long before the Antarctic cooled. These genetic changes not only have major … Read more
New international research by the Universities of Birmingham and Surrey in the UK, and Monash University in Australia, showed that, over a three-week period, it was possible to shift the circadian rhythm of ‘night owls’ using non-pharmacological and practical interventions. The study, published in Sleep Medicine today (INSERT DATE), showed participants were able to bring forward their … Read more
The beverages we drink represent a substantial source of our daily calories and nutrients, yet standardized methods for tracking beverage consumption have been limited. In the latest and most comprehensive assessment of worldwide beverage consumption, researchers report substantial differences in the beverages consumed by different demographic groups in 185 countries. “These preliminary data derived from … Read more
EPFL researchers are investigating Beethoven’s composition style and they are using statistical techniques to quantify and explore the patterns that characterize musical structures in the Western classical tradition. They confirm what is expected against the backdrop of music theory for the classical music era, but go beyond a music theoretical approach by statistically characterizing the … Read more
Just about everybody loves peanut butter. We put it on sandwiches and in candy, we use it to trick our dogs into taking their heartworm pills, and, when we have to, we bait mouse traps with it. But, as scientists learned when trapping rodents in the mountains of the Philippines, peanut butter isn’t for everyone. … Read more
Researchers at Linköping University have examined how stress levels in dogs are influenced by lifestyle factors and by the people that the dogs live with. Previous work has shown that individuals of the same species can mirror each others’ emotional states. There is, for example, a correlation between long-term stress in children and in their … Read more
A long-held view that koalas get all their hydration from eating leaves has been overturned by new research published today from Dr Valentina Mella and colleagues at the University of Sydney. The study in PLOS ONE offers hope in the fight to conserve this threatened species, with researchers finding that koalas will regularly use artificial … Read more
Introducing predatory lizards to a set of small Caribbean islands causes resident lizard populations to change their behaviour, which alters the way lizards co-exist and leads to population extinctions. The study, reported in Nature, suggests that this effect could apply to predator-introduction scenarios on islands and lakes worldwide. Humans have accelerated the rate at which predators … Read more
Off the coast of San Diego, 500 meters under the sea, pencil-sized sea monsters grin pitch-black smiles because their mouths are filled with transparent teeth. An investigation into this unique adaptation of deep-sea dragonfish (Aristostomias scintillans) revealed that their teeth evolved to reduce light scatter, allowing the fish’s wide-open mouth to effectively disappear right before … Read more