1,097 news posts in Featured news

Featured news

16 Jan 2023

Our toilets can yield excellent alternatives for widespread polluting fertilizers

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer Scientists show that the yield of cabbages grown on soils supplied with two modern nitrified urine fertilizers recycled from human urine is approximately equal to the yield when soils are fertilized with commercial vinasse. The exclusive use of compost recycled from human feces gave a slightly lower yield, but such compost is expected to give extra carbon to soils when combined with nitrified urine fertilizers. Importantly, pharmaceuticals in feces ended up in the edible plant parts only in negligible amounts, implying that fertilizers recycled from human excreta are not only productive but also safe. To tackle the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and pollution, humanity will need to move to a circular economy, where all resources are recycled. Why not recycle our own body waste too as fertilizer, provided there is no risk that harmful microbes or traces from pharmaceuticals end up in the consumed crops? Most nutrients needed for plant growth occur in human urine and feces. Urine is especially rich in nitrogen and potassium, and also contains trace amounts of metals such as boron, zinc, and iron. Feces could in theory supply other nutrients such as phosphorus, calcium, and magnesium or valuable organic […]

Featured news

12 Jan 2023

Simple blood test shows promise for screening common and dangerous pregnancy complications

By Angharad Brewer Gillham, Frontiers science writer Image/Shutterstock.com Scientists find that short-chain fatty acids in blood can be used as biomarkers in testing for dangerous pregnancy complications such as pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes and intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy. Scientists at Ningbo University, China have identified biomarkers that could provide an early warning system for three common and dangerous pregnancy complications: pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, and a liver condition called intrahepatic cholestasis. All three conditions are dangerous; early diagnosis and treatment is key to preventing poor outcomes and lifelong consequences. Their causes are not fully understood, and nor is their connection to the gut microbiome, which is affected by pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions. A team led by Dr Siqian Chen at the Affiliated Hospital of Medical School decided to investigate whether specific changes in the microbiome — detected using levels of short-chain fatty acids, metabolites which are produced following the fermentation of microbiota — could be used as biomarkers for pregnancy complications. “We analyzed and correlated the distribution of short-chain fatty acids during normal pregnancy and during three specific types of complicated pregnancy, gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia, and intrahepatic cholestasis,” said Dr Rongrong Xuan, senior author of the study, published today in Frontiers in […]

Featured news

10 Jan 2023

Technische Universität Clausthal forms publishing agreement with Frontiers

Technische Universität Clausthal (TU Clausthal) formed an institutional membership agreement for open access publishing with Frontiers. This institutional agreement means that TU Clausthal supported researchers may publish in any Frontiers journal at no cost to them and with a simplified process. The university library TU Clausthal its researchers in making their research more widely available. This agreement will further encourage TU Clausthal researchers to publish open access, increasing the volume of research openly available. While this reduces costs for the researcher, it also benefits the wider research community and the public at large. For more information on Frontiers’ institutional agreements please visit our institutional memberships page or contact institutions@frontiersin.org to discuss the possibilities for your own organization. Information for researchers If you are a TU Clausthal researcher, please select Technische Universität Clausthal in the payment information section (“Frontiers institutional members”) when submitting your article. Frontiers will verify your eligibility with the library and, if confirmed, the APC will be paid by TU Clausthal upon acceptance. For information on whether your article is eligible under this agreement, or if you require any further details, please visit TU Clausthal open access page or contact florian.strauss@tu-clausthal.de.

Featured news

09 Jan 2023

Science platform Frontiers at the World Science Forum in Cape Town

Inaugurated in 2003, the World Science Forum series fosters and maintains a dialogue between the scientific community, society, policymakers, and industry. Arriving from over 100 countries, around a thousand leading scientists, decision-makers from the world of politics, industry, representatives of civil society, and the media express their views on the new challenges facing science in the 21st century. In December, the World Science Forum 2022 was hosted in Cape Town under the theme “Science for Social Justice”. Taking place in Africa for the first time, the gathering deliberated on the social and economic relevance, influence, and responsibilities of science and covered the topics like climate change, science for human dignity, the Sustainable Development Goals, science for Africa, and science diplomacy. The list of notable speakers included, among others, the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation in South Africa Dr Blade Nzimande, co-chair of the Global Young Academy Prof Roula Inglesi-Lotz, president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Prof Tamás Freund, president of the African Academy of Sciences Prof Felix Dakora, president of the International Science Council Sir Peter Gluckman, assistant director-general for Natural Sciences at UNESCO Dr Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, and president of Jordan’s Royal Scientific Society Princess Sumaya […]

Featured news

09 Jan 2023

Eating almonds daily boosts exercise recovery molecule by 69% among ‘weekend warriors’

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer A new randomized controlled trial showed that participants who daily ate 57g almonds over four weeks had a 69% higher level of the beneficial oxylipin molecule 12,13-dihydroxy-9Z-octadecenoic acid in their blood after a 90 minute session of eccentric exercise than control volunteers. In contrast, they had a 40% lower level of the mildly toxic 9,10-Dihydroxy-12-octadecenoic acid in their blood after exercise than control participants. The authors conclude that daily consumption of almonds changes the metabolism to recover faster after strenuous exercise. For those who exercise regularly, eating almonds each day might be the ideal new year’s resolution. A randomized controlled trial in Frontiers in Nutrition showed that female and male participants who ate 57g almonds daily for one month had more of the beneficial fat 12,13-dihydroxy-9Z-octadecenoic acid (12,13-DiHOME) in their blood immediately after a session of intense exercise than control participants. This molecule, a so-called oxylipin (oxidized fat) is synthetized from linoleic acid by brown fat tissue, and has a beneficial effect on metabolic health and energy regulation. Corresponding author Dr David C Nieman, a professor and director of the Appalachian State University Human Performance Laboratory at the North Carolina Research Campus, said: “Here […]

Featured news

21 Dec 2022

Frontiers in Signal Processing Editor Awards 2022

We are pleased to announce the first edition of Frontiers in Signal Processing Editors Awards. With these awards we wish to highlight the members of our editorial board who have gone above and beyond in the past year in support of the journal. During the first full year of publication for Frontiers in Signal Processing in 2022 over 70 new articles were accepted and published, and our content received over 120,000 views and downloads this year alone. We could not have achieved this without the dedication and collaboration of our chief, associate, and review editors. We especially want to thank those editors who have made an outstanding contribution to the journal in safeguarding the quality of the articles published through a high-quality and fair reviewing process, and/or collaborating closely with the journal to develop new collections to help bring the most impactful content to the signal processing community. Leadership award – Prof. Frederic Dufaux, Universite Paris Sarclay CNRS. Specialty Chief Editor for Image Processing Awarded for Prof. Dufaux’s proactive leadership of his section, supporting the journal team and topic editors on the development and improvement of new timely collections, resulting in Image Processing receiving the most submissions in 2022. Outstanding associate editor award – Prof Hagit Messer, Tel Aviv University. […]

Featured news

20 Dec 2022

Lonely heart-failure patients face worse outcomes than sociable peers

by Tania Fitzgeorge-balfour, science writer Social frailty, which includes the loss of social roles, social networks, and social activities, is widely identified as a risk to healthy aging. A new study is the first to show a close association between the loss of perceived social role amongst friends and family and poor clinical outcomes for older heart failure patients. These findings suggest that social engagement and activities should form part of the aftercare program for these patients. Older heart failure patients who feel that they have lost their social role amongst friends and family are more likely to suffer poor clinical outcomes. This is the finding of a new study in Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine that has examined the specific aspects of social interaction that can lead to a poor prognosis for these patients. “We are the first to show a close association between the loss of perceived social role and long-term poor clinical outcomes in older heart failure patients,” said Dr Satoshi Katano, first author of this research, based at Sapporo Medical University Hospital, Sapporo, Japan. “Our study highlights the real need to develop a management program that includes a social approach to the care of these patients.” Read […]

Featured news

16 Dec 2022

2022 in review: a message from our CEO

As CEO of Frontiers, and on behalf of my colleagues, it is my pleasure to share with you some of the insights gained and lessons learned from the events of 2022.  Thanks to science, the threat of COVID-19 to our day-to-day lives has waned.  The record-breaking development of effective vaccines and treatments for COVID-19 was accomplished by openly sharing scientific research articles through initiatives such as the CORD-19 Open Research dataset. Open science has proven what we can achieve if collaboration can flourish. It has shown that free, immediate, and unrestricted access to all publicly funded research for innovators, doctors, scientists, journalists, you, me, and people everywhere is absolutely critical if we are to find solutions to today’s most pressing global challenges at speed. Earlier this year, new policy guidance from the United States White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) stated that the results of taxpayer-supported research should be made immediately available to the American public, without restriction. It is a moment that encapsulates the lessons of COVID-19 and represents the progress we are now making. It is also one of celebration for everyone who has been fighting for open access to publicly funded research results for more […]

Featured news

16 Dec 2022

Screening a puppy’s DNA methylome may help predict how energetic or fearful they will be

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer Scientists found that differences in the epigenome, in particular the DNA methylome, are predictably associated with differences in the temperament of dogs, especially their energy and fearfulness. The DNA methylome predicted these traits better than Single-Locus Polymorphisms or age. In future, breeders could screen the epigenome of puppies to find the best candidates for companion or service dogs. Anyone who’s ever had a dog knows how different one can be from another. For example, they can be reserved or friendly, playful or calm, fearful or bold, and prone to bark or fetch or not. Research has shown that some of these differences are genetically determined. But even within dog breeds, where line breeding and artificial selection have led to the loss of much of the original genetic variation, the behavior of individuals can differ widely. Now, researchers show that part of the differences in temperament – in particular their ‘energy’ level and fear-related behaviors – depend on acquired differences in the epigenome. The epigenome, an individual’s unique set of chemical tags on DNA and its associated histone complexes (nucleosomes), can dial the expression of local genes up or down. Because the epigenome is known […]

Featured news

15 Dec 2022

Five articles you need to check out on the future of neurology research

By Colm Gorey, Frontiers Science Communications Manager Image: Shutterstock.com In an ever-changing field of research such as neurology, it can be difficult to keep up with the latest breakthroughs. Now at Frontiers, we highlight just three of the latest research articles to shed more light on how the mind works. The human brain is an organ that has fascinated our species for centuries, with vast amounts of research so far yielding a wealth of discoveries. However, so much of how the brain works remains a mystery waiting to be solved. In 2022, Frontiers published one of the biggest neurological research breakthroughs of the year with the discovery that life may indeed flash before our eyes as we die. However, this was just one paper of thousands published by Frontiers this year that helped set the groundwork for new neurological discoveries, ranging from multiple sclerosis to deep brain stimulation. Five such articles are essential reading to anyone looking to learn more about neurology were published as part of the research topic ‘Horizons in Neurology’. The Neuroimmunology of Multiple Sclerosis: Fictions and Facts There have been tremendous advances in the neuroimmunology of multiple sclerosis (MS) over the past five decades, which have […]

Featured news

13 Dec 2022

The (un)fair allocation of scarce vaccines and how maths can provide a solution

By Prof Carlos Alós-Ferrer Prof Carlos Alós-Ferrer. Image: Nomis Foundation The Covid-19 global vaccine roll-out is considered one of the greatest achievements in modern medical history, saving hundreds of thousands of lives. However, it was marred by decisions that saw those most in need of a vaccine in some countries wait too long, while those perceived to be least at risk getting them first. Now, Prof Carlos Alós-Ferrer of the University of Zurich writes about how he and his colleagues’ latest research in Frontiers in Public Health shows that one maths procedure can ensure a fair distribution of scarce vaccines across the globe. Remember when Covid-19 vaccines first became available? After many months of lockdowns and increasing casualty rates, people across the planet were allowed to exhale a collective sigh of relief. However, as is always the case when new vaccines are developed, there were not enough doses for all who wanted them. Rationing had to be imposed. Unfortunately, the rationing procedures violated elementary ethical principles, which might have led to some elderly and at-risk patients being neglected while younger, healthier citizens were already vaccinated. How did it go wrong? Vaccine acquisition and allocation across the world was as centralized […]

Featured news

13 Dec 2022

Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine forms publishing agreement with Frontiers

Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine Library has formed an institutional membership agreement for open access publishing with Frontiers. To qualify for funding to cover some or all of the publishing costs, affiliated corresponding authors are required to contact the Medical Library to obtain a PO number to be preapproved prior to submitting their manuscript to any Frontiers journal. Articles may also benefit from a 2.5% membership discount. The Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine library supports its researchers in making their research more widely available. This agreement will further encourage Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine researchers to publish open access, increasing the volume of research openly available. While this reduces costs for the researcher, it also benefits the wider research community and the public at large. For more information on Frontiers’ institutional agreements please visit our institutional memberships page or contact institutions@frontiersin.org to discuss the possibilities for your own organization. Information for researchers If you are a Western Michigan University Stryker School of Medicine researcher, please contact the Medical Library to obtain a PO number to be preapproved to cover some or all of the publishing costs prior to submission. Once […]

Featured news

09 Dec 2022

Evolution of bat wings and calls through ‘foraging syndromes’ allows diversity to flourish

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer Egyptian slit-faced bats, Nycteris thebaica In a new study, scientists show that the wing shape and the echolocation frequency of bats are tightly linked across species. This pattern could only be identified because of the large dataset in the present study, which allowed the authors to look beyond the effect of bat family on these traits. The results mean that wing shape and echolocation frequency have jointly evolved in response to foraging ecology, yielding an optimal combination of traits or ‘foraging syndrome’ in each habitat. Bats are an evolutionary success story. With approximately 1,400 species living today, they thrive in every environment except the polar regions. They come in a remarkable range of sizes, from the golden-crowned flying fox with a mass of 1.2 kg and a wingspan of 171 cm, to Kitti’s hog-nosed ‘bumblebee’ bat with a mass of 2 g and a wingspan of 33 cm. The frequencies that bats emit during echolocation are also highly variable, ranging from 11 kHz to 212 kHz. But what has driven the evolution of this extraordinary diversity? “Here we show with that among bat species, there is a close correspondence between wing shape and the […]

Featured news

08 Dec 2022

Flocking to fire: wildfires don’t deter Americans from moving to at-risk regions

by Angharad Brewer Gillham, Frontiers science writer Image/Shutterstock.com Scientists investigated whether environmental hazards put people off moving to regions at risk and found that heatwaves and hurricanes deter newcomers, but wildfires don’t. The climate crisis has caused humans to move both within their countries of origin and across borders. Although climate migration is often treated as a phenomenon of the ‘global south’, a team of scientists led by Mahalia Clark at the University of Vermont (UVM) turned the spotlight on the US. The US has experienced numerous destructive weather events recently, which have killed and injured many people and done billions of dollars of damage. But the team found that despite the death toll, more people are moving to areas in the United States that are at serious risk of wildfires. “Our original motivation was the increasing number of headlines each year about record breaking heat waves, hurricanes, and wildfires,” said Clark, a researcher at UVM’s Gund Institute for Environment. “I had been studying natural amenities — features of the climate and environment that are attractive to movers — but I began to wonder if the threat of these hazards might have a deterring effect on migration.” Read original article […]

Featured news

07 Dec 2022

Could new cancer drugs come from potatoes and tomatoes?

by Angharad Brewer Gillham, Frontiers science writer Image/Shutterstock.com Polish scientists revealed the potential for new cancer drugs to be formulated from bioactive compounds found in plants from the genus Solanum, like potatoes and aubergines. Everyone knows someone who has had cancer. In 2020, around 19m new cases — and around 10m deaths — were registered worldwide. Treatments are improving all the time but can damage healthy cells or have severe side-effects which are hard on patients; in the search for new, more targeted cancer drugs, traditional medicine offers many possible candidates. A team of Polish scientists led by Magdalena Winkiel at Adam Mickiewicz University, publishing today in Frontiers in Pharmacology, reviewed the bioactive compounds called glycolalkaloids that are found in many vegetables that are household names, like potatoes and tomatoes, to demonstrate their potential to treat cancer. “Scientists around the world are still searching for the drugs which will be lethal to cancer cells but at the same time safe for healthy cells,” said Winkiel. “It is not easy despite the advances in medicine and powerful development of modern treatment techniques. That is why it might be worth going back to medicinal plants that were used years ago with success […]