Frontiers | Science News

Science News post list

1,099 news posts in Featured news

Featured news

26 Feb 2024

How did a tiny bee get to French Polynesia? Eight new species help solve a scientific mystery

Scientists discovered eight new species of masked bee in Fiji, Micronesia, and Polynesia: relatives of Tuamotu’s masked bee from Tuamotu. For 59 years, this bee had been considered by experts to be a mysterious anomaly since its closest relatives, as far as was known at the time, lived 3,000 km further west. With the new species, discovered by sampling from the tree canopy, the mystery is solved: ancestors of Tuamotu’s masked bee reached Polynesia by island-hopping across Fiji and the southwestern Pacific. Many more new species are expected to be discovered in the canopy of islands along this route soon.

Featured news

14 Feb 2024

Tiny crustaceans discovered preying on live jellyfish during harsh Arctic night

Scientists used DNA metabarcoding to show for the first time that jellyfish are an important food for amphipods during the Arctic polar night in waters off Svalbard, at a time of year when other food resources are scarce. Amphipods were not only observed to feast on ‘jelly-falls’ of dead jellyfish, but also to prey on live jellyfish. These results corroborate an ongoing ‘paradigm shift’ which recognizes that jellyfish aren’t a trophic dead-end but an important food for many marine organisms.

Featured news

31 Jan 2024

Virtual reality treatment for palliative care shown to help patients ‘flourish’ during relaxation therapy

Patients in palliative care often receive psychological therapy to help cope with stress. Researchers have now shown that the short-term effectiveness of a novel intervention, Flourishing-Life-of-Wish Virtual Reality Relaxation Therapy, in improving the physical and emotional well-being of patients is double that of standard-of-care coaching in diaphragmatic breathing.