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Featured news

28 Sep 2021

Deep dive into global Twitter posts reveals possible drop in negativity towards Covid-19 pandemic

By Colm Gorey, Frontiers science writer Image: Sattalat Phukkum/Shutterstock.com An in-depth analysis of more than 120m Twitter posts across the globe has shown that users’ perception of the Covid-19 pandemic became less negative as it has progressed. In a paper published to Frontiers, its authors found a significant decrease in negativity in countries which rolled out extensive vaccination programs, such as the US, the UK, and Canada. The devastation and distress brought by the Covid-19 pandemic to millions of lives goes without question, but trying to gauge an entire planet’s changing perception of the disease over time can seem an almost impossible task. Yet with some estimates showing that almost 4.5bn people now use some form of social media online, researchers are tapping into this vast resource in an attempt to create a clearer picture of how the perception of this life-changing event has shifted since early 2020. Now, publishing their findings in Frontiers in Psychology, scientists from Vanderbilt University in the US and the Federal Technological University of Paraná in Brazil have tapped into one enormous dataset of Twitter posts (tweets) to show that the number of negative posts about Covid-19 is dropping, especially in countries which rolled out […]

Featured news

27 Sep 2021

Broadening the scope of research on one of Frontiers in Microbiology‘s largest sections

Image: Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock.com Two years have passed since the first Covid-19 case was reported. The impact of the pandemic has been devastating with death toll numbers painting a dismal picture of post recovery on health and on the tourism industry. Scientific revelations from the past years have shown that research on infectious disease transmissions, epidemiology, prevention and treatment is paramount – and so is going beyond the human host. The scope of one of Frontiers in Microbiology‘s largest sections – Infectious Diseases, has been refocused into Infectious Agents and Disease with the aim to: Encourage broader pathogen research advancing the understanding of infectious agents causing disease beyond the human host The re-focus of this highly respected section within the journal aims to welcome a broader audience and submissions that include infectious agents causing dysbiotic conditions, “classical”, emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases in humans as well as in animals and humans in the case of zoonotic infectious diseases. The new scope has been shaped in close consultations with Specialty Chief Editor, Dr Axel Cloeckaert (INRAE, Université de Tours) and the Field Chief Editor, Prof Martin Klotz (Washington State University). “Biological variation as the entire world is now aware with COVID-19 variants, applies […]

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23 Sep 2021

Bat guts become less healthy through diet of ‘fast food’ from banana plantations

By Tania Fitzgeorge-Balfour, science writer Pallas’s long-tongued bat (Glossophaga soricina) feeding on banana flowers. Image credit: Julian Schneider New research reveals there is a stark difference between the gut bacteria of nectar-feeding bats foraging in conventional monoculture banana plantations and those bats who forage in their natural forest habitat or organic plantations. This is the first study to show an association between habitat alteration, sustainable agriculture and the gut microbiota of wildlife. Nectar-feeding bats foraging in intensively managed banana plantations in Costa Rica have a less diverse set of gut microbes in comparison to bats feeding in their natural forest habitat or organic plantations, reveals new research published today in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. This the first study to show an association between habitat alteration, sustainable agriculture and the gut microbiota of wildlife. “Organic and conventional monoculture banana plantations both provide a very reliable food source for some nectar-feeding bat species. However, bats foraging in the intensively managed plantations had a reduced diversity of gut microbes, which could be a sign of gut dysbiosis, an unhealthy imbalance of its microbial symbionts,” explains Priscilla Alpízar, first author of this study, a doctoral student at the Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and […]

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21 Sep 2021

Human whistled languages may offer model for how to study dolphin communication

By Peter Rejcek, science writer Image credit: Ricardo Canino / Shutterstock More than 80 cultures still use whistled language to communicate over long distances by simplifying words, syllable by syllable, into whistled melodies. Researchers trying to decode how bottlenose dolphins, highly social mammals with the second largest brain relative to their body size after humans, communicate are leveraging insights from studies looking at how human whistled speech is structured and organized. This model may provide new algorithms for helping understand how dolphins’ whistles encode information. Whistling while you work isn’t just a distraction for some people. More than 80 cultures employ a whistled form of their native language to communicate over long distances. A multidisciplinary team of scientists believe that some of these whistled languages can serve as a model for elucidating how information may be encoded in dolphin whistle communication. They made their case in a new paper published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology. Whistled human speech mostly evolved in places where people live in rugged terrain, such as mountains or dense forest, because the sounds carry much farther than ordinary speech or even shouting. While these whistled languages vary by region and culture, the basic principle is […]

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17 Sep 2021

Why is Covid-19 more severe in some patients? Using AI, we found a likely answer

By Dr Emmanuelle Logette, EPFL Blue Brain Project Dr Emmanuelle Logette of the EPFL Blue Brain Project Why does Covid-19 present itself more severe in some patients but not in others? The question has puzzled researchers and clinicians since the start of the pandemic, but recent research from the EPFL Blue Brain Project may have found a major clue to solving the mystery thanks to machine learning. Now, one of those leading the breakthrough research, Dr Emmanuelle Logette, reveals as part of the Frontier Scientists series how even at a very young age she knew she wanted to be a researcher in the fascinating world of genetics. Dr Emmanuelle Logette studied molecular biology and biochemistry at the University of Burgundy in France and, in 2002, received her PhD, for her work on the transcriptional regulation of caspase-2, a not very well known member of the caspase family of enzymes involved in apoptosis. In 2006 she joined the laboratory of Dr Jürg Tschopp at the University of Lausanne as a postdoctoral fellow focusing on the signaling pathways involved in DNA repair and apoptosis during tumorigenesis, again trying to better understand the role of caspase-2. Having mainly worked on the oncogenesis field, […]

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16 Sep 2021

Scientists pretend to be Neanderthals to explore how they caught birds in caves for food

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer Image credit: Gorodenkoff / Shutterstock.com From fossil evidence and through scientific role-play, researchers reconstruct that Neanderthals probably used fire and tools to dazzle, corral, and catch choughs, communally roosting birds, inside caves at night. The choughs would not only have contributed welcome calories and micronutrients to the Neanderthals’ diet, but may also have yielded elements for their personal decoration. Neanderthals, our closest relatives, became extinct between 40,000 to 35,000 years ago. Since the discovery of the first Neanderthal fossil 165 years ago, scientists have learned more about Neanderthals – including their culture, sociality, ecology, diet, control of fire, production and use of tools, physiology, and even their genomic code – than about any other non-human hominin. Here, Spanish researchers use a highly original approach – scientific “role play” – to reconstruct a likely novel element of Neanderthal behavior: cooperating with group members while using fire and tools to catch choughs, birds from the crow family, from their night roosts inside caves. Their findings are published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. Neanderthals are known to have eaten plants, fungi, shellfish, roasted pinecones, and flesh from stranded dolphins. At the same time, they were important […]

Featured news

14 Sep 2021

Prof Iain Stewart: “It’s important that challenges to the ‘business as usual’ are not constrained behind a paywall”

By Prof Iain Stewart, Royal Scientific Society, Amman, Jordan/Colm Gorey, Frontiers science writer Prof Iain Stewart speaking at a conference. Image: Prof Iain Stewart Prof Iain Stewart of the Royal Scientific Society in Amman, Jordan has appeared on our television screens to educate us on the fantastic field of geoscience. Now, collaborating with Frontiers, he has highlighted what role universities have in building a more sustainable world. The profound threat to the long-term wellbeing of society as a whole, both present and future generations, is arguably the most acute threat humanity has ever faced. But what is the culpability of universities in allowing this systemic unsustainability to emerge? And how can this existential threat be dealt with if academic institutions are not firmly in the vanguard? This fundamental question is the focus of a research topic (RT) published by Frontiers launched earlier this year, overseen by topic editors including Prof Iain Stewart, titled ‘Re-Purposing Universities for Sustainable Human Progress’. Regular watchers of BBC science documentaries will be familiar with his work, particularly in the field of geoscience, that spanned 15 years. In 2016, Stewart decided to step away from the small screen to become director of the University of Plymouth’s […]

Featured news

10 Sep 2021

Regular exercise may lower risk of developing anxiety by almost 60%

By Colm Gorey, Frontiers science writer Image: BGStock72/Shutterstock.com The findings of a study published with Frontiers suggests that those who engage in regular exercise may lower their risk of developing anxiety by almost 60%. Using data on almost 400,000 people spanning more than two decades, the authors from Lund University in Sweden were also able to identify a noticeable difference in exercise performance level and the risk of developing anxiety between males and females. A quick online search for ways to improve our mental health will often come up with a myriad of different results. However, one of the most common suggestions put forward as a step to achieving wellness – and preventing future issues – is doing some physical exercise, whether it be a walk or playing a team sport. Anxiety disorders – which typically develop early in a person’s life – are estimated to affect approximately 10% of the world’s population and has been found to be twice as common in women compared to men. And while exercise is put forward as a promising strategy for the treatment of anxiety, little is known about the impact of exercise dose, intensity or physical fitness level on the risk of […]

Featured news

21 Aug 2021

How well did the EU respond to the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic? Experts now give their verdict

By K.E.D. Coan, science writer Alexandros Michailidis / Shutterstock.com During the first wave of the pandemic, the European Union’s COVID-19 response highlighted ongoing limitations of the agencies put in place to prepare for such health crises, shows a recent study. According to a panel of health experts, national interests conflicted with coordinated Europe-wide health regulations. To prepare for the future, the panel recommends better funding and empowerment of these institutions. A new study in Frontiers in Public Health presents a review of expert opinions on the achievements and shortcomings of the European Union’s (EU) COVID-19 response. The aim: to draw lessons for future pandemics. In 2004, the EU created the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), precisely with the goal of coordinating cross-border disease surveillance and guidelines. However, the interviewed public health experts largely agreed that, although there were some successes, individual countries’ interests often superseded EU-wide responses. “The EU’s Joint Procurement Mechanism was recognized as a great achievement and a valid instrument for crisis management,” says lead author Marie Gontariuk, of Maastricht University in the Netherlands. “But experts also agreed that further improvement was possible specifically regarding the timeliness and efficacy.” “During the current pandemic specifically, the […]

Featured news

20 Aug 2021

World Mosquito Day: How the pest’s diet could lead to discovery of new antimalarial drug

By Suzanna Burgelman/ PhD student and fellow Trizah Koyi Milugo, ICIPE PhD student and fellow Trizah Koyi Milugo. Image: Trizah Koyi Milugo A preventable disease, malaria still threatens millions of people around the world. World Mosquito Day raises awareness about malaria and its transmission via mosquitos. Researchers such as PhD student Trizah Koyi Milugo focus their research on malaria control and prevention and, in her case, is researching the development of a novel tool for controlling malaria transmission. In 2019, 229m clinical cases of malaria occurred and 409,000 people died of the disease, most of them children in Africa. The disease is found in more than 100 countries worldwide, but roughly 70% of the world’s malaria burden is concentrated in Africa and India. Humans get infected with the malaria virus through mosquito bites. Other than malaria, mosquitos carry an array of dangerous diseases, such as dengue, zika, and west Nile virus. Mosquitos are the world’s deadliest creature. World Mosquito Day raises awareness about the dangers of mosquitos and the devastating consequences of malaria. Trizah Koyi Milugo, a PhD student at the International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), is currently researching the development of a novel tool for controlling […]