1,033 news posts in Featured news

Featured news

29 Mar 2023

The Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies forms open access publishing agreement with Frontiers 

The Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress (Nasjonalt Kunnskapssenter om vold of Traumatisk stress – NKVTS) supports their authors in publishing open access. As part of this support, the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress will cover Article Processing Charges (APCs) for eligible articles centrally for their eligible authors. As part of the Sikt Open Access Publishing Framework Agreement, NKVTS will benefit from a 10% partnership discount. Eligible authors are corresponding authors affiliated with the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress. Information for authors: To submit your article under this institutional agreement, please select ‘NKVTS – Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress’ as institutional payer in the invoice section when submitting your article as the corresponding author. Frontiers will then verify your eligibility with NKVTS and if confirmed the discounted invoice will be sent directly to NKVTS for payment. For information on whether your article is eligible under this agreement, or if you require any further details, please contact Hege Eriksen at h.e.oswald@nkvts.no. For information on Frontiers’ institutional agreements please visit our institutional memberships page or contact institutions@frontiersin.org to discuss the possibilities for your organisation.

Featured news

27 Mar 2023

Shh! Intensive care incubators resonate sounds and risk damage to premature babies’ hearing, scientists say

by Angharad Brewer Gillham, Frontiers science writer Image/Shutterstock.com Although the effects of a noisy environment in the neonatal intensive care unit have been studied before, the effect of the incubators premature babies spend their first weeks or even months in has not. A team of scientists investigated, and found that while the incubators dampen some sounds, they amplify others, potentially damaging babies’ hearing. For vulnerable premature babies, an incubator in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is a lifesaver, but the consequences can last a lifetime. Many studies have shown that the NICU is a noisy environment and that babies who spend time there have higher rates of hearing impairment, which can lead to delays in language acquisition. Scientists from Vienna, Hamburg, Munich, and Osnabruck set out to investigate the role of the incubator, an underestimated element in the soundscape that surrounds babies during their time in the NICU. “The motivation of our multidisciplinary research team concerns the question: why many more premature babies suffer hearing impairments,” said Dr Christoph Reuter from the University of Vienna, corresponding author of the study published in Frontiers in Pediatrics. “We believe that what we have measured in our studies could be a leading […]

Featured news

24 Mar 2023

Frontiers’ Volunteers: February’s friendly competitions for good

Frontons wasted no time when it came to jumping back into volunteer activities at the start of the new year, even challenging colleagues to join them in doing good with some friendly competition. This month, we talk to journal launch specialist and Sustainability Network launch team member Hannah Kulmatycki and portfolio manager and production team member Vikki Davies about the challenges to start off 2023. Photo credit: Frontiers February Fashion Detox Frontiers’ Sustainability Network is an employee-run, volunteer-based initiative aimed at encouraging sustainable practices at both the individual and corporate level. Led by Frontons from across various departments, the network brings awareness to key issues that everyone faces and advocates for choices in line with Frontiers’ larger mission for enabling healthy lives on a healthy planet. The Sustainability Network organizes regular activities throughout the year, such as a guest speaker series, environmentally conscious events, and a monthly newsletter with helpful resources. The decision to hold a challenge at the beginning of the year took into consideration the factors many people face at this time of year. Photo credit: Marie Bubloz “We had just hosted our first speaker series event of 2023 on doughnut economics and the circular economy featuring Zohar […]

Featured news

23 Mar 2023

Oslo Metropolitan University forms open access publishing agreement with Frontiers 

Image: Skjalg Bøhmer Vold/OsloMet We are delighted to announce that Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet) supports their authors in publishing open access. As part of this support, eligible authors from Oslo Metropolitan University will benefit from a 10% partnership discount under the terms of the Sikt Open Access Publishing Framework Agreement. Information for authors: To submit your article under this institutional agreement, please select ‘Oslo Metropolitan University’ as institutional payer in the invoice section when submitting your article. Authors affiliated with OsloMet should use their OsloMet email address and be the corresponding author for their manuscript. Frontiers will then verify your eligibility with OsloMet and if confirmed, the discounted invoice will be sent to you via Oslo Metropolitan University library. If you are a faculty member seeking additional funding, you must apply at https://ansatt.oslomet.no/publiseringsfond and meet all criteria stated therein. For information on whether your article is eligible under this agreement, or if you require any further details, please contact ub.forskningsstøtte@oslomet.no. For information on Frontiers’ institutional agreements please visit our institutional memberships page or contact institutions@frontiersin.org to discuss the possibilities for your organisation.

Featured news

22 Mar 2023

Unusual Toxoplasma parasite strain killed sea otters and could threaten other marine life

by Angharad Brewer Gillham, Frontiers science writer Image by Mr Laird Henkel, California Department of Fish and Wildlife Four sea otters that stranded in California were found to have died of an unusually severe form of toxoplasmosis, a disease caused by the microscopic parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Scientists warn that this new strain, never previously reported in aquatic animals, could potentially pose a health threat to other marine wildlife and humans. Scientists in California are raising the alarm about a newly reported form of toxoplasmosis that kills sea otters and could also infect other animals and people. Although toxoplasmosis is common in sea otters and can sometimes be fatal, this unusual strain appears to be capable of rapidly killing healthy adult otters. This rare strain of Toxoplasma hasn’t been detected on the California coast before, and may be a recent arrival, but scientists are concerned that if it contaminates the marine food chain it could potentially pose a public health risk. “I have studied Toxoplasma infections in sea otters for 25 years — I have never seen such severe lesions or high parasite numbers,” said Dr Melissa Miller of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, corresponding author of the study […]

Featured news

20 Mar 2023

Kristiania University College forms open access publishing agreement with Frontiers 

  Kristiania University College supports their authors in publishing open access. As part of this support, Kristiania University College has joined the Sikt Open Access Publishing Framework Agreement, allowing their eligible authors to benefit from a 10% discount for all eligible articles. Eligible authors are corresponding authors affiliated with Kristiania University College. Information for authors: To submit your article under this institutional agreement, please select ‘Kristiania University College’ as institutional payer in the invoice section when submitting your article. The publishing agreement between Kristiania University College and Frontiers gives the author a 10% discount on the publication fee (APC / Article Processing Charges). By accepting this agreement, you confirm the following three points: You are the corresponding author of the publication. You are affiliated with Kristiania University College You have secured funding for the remaining amount of the publication fee through your department or other sources of funding. For information on whether your article is eligible under this agreement, or if you require any further details, please contact biblioteket@kristiania.no or visit https://www.kristiania.no/om-kristiania/biblioteket/for-fagstab/open-access-avtaler/ For information on Frontiers’ institutional agreements please visit our institutional memberships page or contact institutions@frontiersin.org to discuss the possibilities for your organisation.

Featured news

20 Mar 2023

Climate crisis calls world’s top scientists to Montreux

~ Experts gather in Montreux to chart a course toward sustainable future ~ World-renowned scientists and thought leaders will gather next month at the Frontiers Forum Live in Montreux, Switzerland, to address critical issues including the climate crisis, improving global health and well-being, and preserving biodiversity. In the first in-person Frontiers Forum event since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, Frontiers has announced an exceptional line up of speakers, renowned researchers, and influencers. Photo credit: Frontiers The Frontiers Forum will take place at the Fairmount Palace in Montreux, Switzerland, from April 27 to April 29. It is expected to attract around 500 distinguished experts in person and around an additional 10,000 guests virtually. The sessions will offer unique insights and opportunities for collaboration among some of the world’s brightest minds, which will then be made available to members of the public via YouTube, providing an invaluable opportunity to learn and engage with cutting-edge research and ideas. “We are bringing the Frontiers community together once again, in person and virtually, to discuss and explore new approaches to the world’s most pressing challenges,” said Dr Kamila Markram, CEO and co-founder of Frontiers. “By connecting global communities across science, policy, and […]

Featured news

16 Mar 2023

Common meat-free proteins may trigger soybean and peanut allergies in some people

by Angharad Brewer Gillham, Frontiers science writer Image/Shutterstock.com Meat-free proteins based on legumes are increasingly common. But so are allergies to soy and peanuts, which are also legumes. To find out if it’s safe for patients with these allergies to eat legume-based alternative proteins, scientists investigated how frequent cross-reactions are among people with different legume allergies. They found that although people often produce antibodies against multiple legumes, they rarely have a clinically relevant reaction. Soybean and peanut allergy patients are usually not allergic to other legumes. Many people keen to reduce their meat consumption are turning to substitutes made of legumes packed with protein, vitamins, and fiber. But allergies to legumes like soy or peanuts are both common and dangerous. Are patients allergic to particular legumes at risk from meat-free proteins made of legumes even if they contain different legumes? Dr Mark Smits and a team of scientists at University Medical Center Utrecht set out to investigate. “Both protein consumption and the world’s population are increasing which leads to an urgent demand for sustainable protein sources,” said Dr Thuy-My Le, senior author of the study published in Frontiers in Allergy. “An increase in the consumption of legumes may increase the […]

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15 Mar 2023

Rapid surge in highly contagious killer fungus poses new threat to amphibians across Africa

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer Researchers studied the prevalence of the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) in a total of 16,900 historical and recent museum specimens, wild-living individuals, and literature records of amphibians from Africa. Bd causes chytridiomycosis, a contagious and lethal disease of amphibians that has driven hundreds of species worldwide to extinction. Only amphibian species in Africa had so far escaped chytridiomycosis epizootics, but the present study shows that this reprieve is now likely over. Mass fungus infections that drive populations worldwide to near-collapse don’t just occur in science fiction. Chytridiomycosis, the worst vertebrate disease in recorded history, has already wiped out hundreds of species of amphibians around the world. Due to a large part to this fungal disease, 41% of amphibians are currently threatened with extinction. Only species living in Africa seemed to have been relatively spared from the scourge of chytridiomycosis – at least so far. Now, a study in Frontiers in Conservation Science has shown that this reprieve was likely temporary: the results show that the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), the pathogen that causes chytridiomycosis, is by now firmly established throughout Africa. It may so far have been overlooked there, but it is likely that […]

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14 Mar 2023

Machine learning helps researchers separate compostable from conventional plastic waste with ‘very high’ accuracy

By Deborah Pirchner, Frontiers science writer Image: Shutterstock.com Compostable plastics are on the rise. Despite their merits, these products, including wrappers and packaging, can contaminate conventional plastic waste in the recycling process. Now, scientists used highly sensitive imaging techniques and developed machine learning methods that can identify compostable plastics among conventional types. Disposable plastics are everywhere: Food containers, coffee cups, plastic bags. Some of these plastics, called compostable plastics, can be engineered to biodegrade under controlled conditions. However, they often look identical to conventional plastics, get recycled incorrectly and, as a result, contaminate plastic waste streams and reduce recycling efficiency. Similarly, recyclable plastics are often mistaken for compostable ones, resulting in polluted compost. Researchers at University College London (UCL) have published a paper in Frontiers in Sustainability in which they used machine learning to automatically sort different types of compostable and biodegradable plastics and differentiate them from conventional plastics. “The accuracy is very high and allows the technique to be feasibly used in industrial recycling and composting facilities in the future,” said Prof Mark Miodownik, corresponding author of the study. Up to perfect accuracy The researchers worked with different types of plastics measuring between 50mm by 50mm and 5mm by 5mm. […]

Featured news

13 Mar 2023

Why understanding human evolution on Earth will be absolutely essential for any future deep-space colonies to survive and thrive

By Lee G Irons, Norfolk Institute, and Morgan A Irons, Cornell University Photo of Lee and Morgan, Credit: Lee Irons and Morgan Irons Is human migration into space inevitable? Is it based on facts, or is it based upon a belief in human exceptionalism? These are some of the questions explored by Lee and Morgan Irons in a recent article published in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, asking whether humans’ evolutionary connection to Earth requires us to inhabit space the same way we do here. Lee is a physicist, engineer, and the executive director of Norfolk Institute. Morgan is an astro-ecologist and PhD candidate at Cornell University, a Carl Sagan Institute Fellow, a US National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, and a Norfolk Institute Fellow. In this latest guest editorial, they explain why – and why not – space settlement might be possible. How can such a feat be accomplished? Is it just a matter of leveraging the resources of a billionaire and the capital power of the economically developed Earth to ship the materials to Mars to build a city with a dome, followed by pressurizing the dome with an Earth-like atmosphere, and spreading biosolids (ie, sterilized human […]

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07 Mar 2023

Wings, not webs: Certain bugs are the winners of urbanization, impacting cities’ insect diversity

By Deborah Pirchner, Frontiers science writer Image: Dr Marion Chatelain. Occurrence and abundance of the ‘cucumber green spider’ decreased along the rural-urban gradient. Urban spread goes hand in hand with wildlife habitat loss and fragmentation. This impacts all animals, down to the smallest. Scientists found that the level of urbanization impacts arthropod abundance, richness, and diversity, factors which likely alter the foraging behavior of bigger animals. Cities are bursting with life, both human and animal. The smallest of them, insects, spiders, and ants are easily overseen, but their presence – or absence – in cities has wide-reaching effects. Scientists in Austria have published a study in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, which found a correlation between the presence of arthropods – invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton; among them are bees, insects, and spiders – and level of urbanization. “We show that richness and diversity of arthropods on trees and bushes decreases along the rural-urban gradient,” said first author Dr Marion Chatelain, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. “More specifically, we show that urbanization disfavors wingless groups, particularly so on trees. Indeed, web spiders and springtails are less likely to be found in the city, where, on the […]

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06 Mar 2023

Bees follow linear landmarks to find their way home, just like the first pilots

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer Scientists have shown that honeybees retain a memory of the dominant linear landscape elements in their home area like channels, roads, and boundaries. When transported to an unfamiliar area, they seek out local elements of this kind, compare their layout to the memory, and fly along them to seek their way home. This navigation strategy is similar to the one followed by the first human pilots. In the earliest days of human flight, before the invention of the first radio beacons and ground-based electronic systems, and modern GPS, pilots commonly navigated by following roads and railways – striking linear landscape elements at ground level that guide towards a destination of interest. Enter the honeybee. A century of research has shown that honeybees are navigators par excellence. They can navigate by their sense of smell, the sun, the sky’s pattern of polarized light, vertical landmarks that stand out from the panorama, and possibly the Earth’s magnetic field. They are also clever learners, able to recognize associations between disparate memories in order to generalize rules. Now, scientists have shown that honeybees tend to search for their way home by orienting themselves in relation to the dominant […]

Featured news

03 Mar 2023

Scientists find that people use emojis to hide, as well as show, their feelings

by Angharad Brewer Gillham, Frontiers science writer Image: Shutterstock.com Scientists asked 1,289 people who use emojis to respond to internet chat messages and report their feelings and emoji use. They found that more emojis were used between closer friends, that using positive emojis to express positive feelings correlated with personal wellbeing, and that positive emojis could be used to mask the expression of negative feelings. Have you ever received an unwanted gift and still said ‘thank you’? This choice to hide a negative emotion is a display rule — one of many which define socially appropriate responses to emotions. Although display rules can promote interpersonal harmony, they can also have negative consequences for the person choosing to change how they express emotions. As more social interaction goes online, scientists are investigating how emojis are used to reflect our emotions in different contexts. Are there display rules that apply to emojis, and how do those affect people’s wellbeing? “As online socializing becomes more prevalent, people have become accustomed to embellishing their expressions and scrutinizing the appropriateness of their communication,” said Moyu Liu of the University of Tokyo, who investigated this question in a study published in Frontiers in Psychology. “However, I […]

Featured news

02 Mar 2023

Sleep too much or too little and you might get sick more, scientists find

by Angharad Brewer Gillham, Frontiers science writer Image/Shutterstock.com Patients visiting their GP who reported sleeping less than six hours or more than nine were more likely to present with an infection. Patients who reported sleeping too little, or having insomnia or a chronic sleep disorder, were even more likely to need antibiotics. Scientists say that good sleep could lower our risk of infection and need for antibiotics. A good night’s sleep can solve all sorts of problems – but scientists have now discovered new evidence that sleeping well may make you less vulnerable to infection. Scientists at the University of Bergen recruited medical students working in doctors’ surgeries to hand out short questionnaires to patients, asking about sleep quality and recent infections. They found that patients who reported sleeping too little or too much were more likely also to report a recent infection, and patients who experienced chronic sleep problems were more likely to report needing antibiotics. “Most previous observational studies have looked at the association between sleep and infection in a sample of the general population,” said Dr Ingeborg Forthun, corresponding author of the study published in Frontiers in Psychiatry. “We wanted to assess this association among patients in […]