Health
17 Dec 2024
Scientists investigated the noses of people with asthma and allergic rhinitis and found that the fungi in their noses are different to healthy people, suggesting future targets for treatments.
Life sciences
16 Dec 2024
In a new article published in Frontiers in Bioinformatics, biologists Dr Jack M Craig, Dr Blair Hedges, and Dr Sudhir Kumar, all at Temple University, have built an evolutionary tree that encompasses 455 primates, every species for which genetic data are available. The tree, the most complete of its kind, shows the evolutionary timescale of the whole order of primates, including monkeys, apes, lemurs, lorises, and galagos. In the following guest editorial, Dr Craig describes the steps of obtaining an almost complete timetree for primates and explains the value of such data.
Climate action
12 Dec 2024
Part of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from railways lie in the energy used to produce and maintain the necessary infrastructure. Researchers from Finland here showed the feasibility of using more eco-friendly railway sleepers from two types of recycled plastic, liquid packaging board and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene. Carbon emissions saved each year by phasing out concrete sleepers and replacing them with such recycled plastic could amount to the equivalent of heating for 1,200 Finnish households.
Health
09 Dec 2024
A large-scale study in Sweden suggests that drinking sweetened drinks significantly increases your risk of serious cardiovascular disease, but limited consumption of treats doesn’t.
Environment
06 Dec 2024
Scientists used CT scans to learn more about the anatomy of hailstones, information which could advance hail formation forecasting
Environment
05 Dec 2024
To continue producing enough food for the world, we need to adapt our crops by changing their genetic code or by domesticating their more resilient ancestors
Social science
05 Dec 2024
At Frontiers, we bring some of the world’s best research to a global audience. But with tens of thousands of articles published each year, it’s impossible to cover all of them. Here are just five amazing papers you may have missed.
Health
04 Dec 2024
Researchers from Switzerland have shown that patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) suffer poor sleep due to sleep fragmentation and wakefulness. Patients with the more severe form metabolic dysfunction–associated steatohepatitis (MASH) or with cirrhosis, but not healthy volunteers, experienced similar sleep disturbances. Whether poor sleep causes MASLD or vice versa isn’t yet clear. A single sleep hygiene education session proved insufficient to sustainably improve sleep quality and quantity.
Environment
03 Dec 2024
Crucial advances in technology could allow us to harness the power of the sun to split water into hydrogen and oxygen and siphon off renewable fuel
Life sciences
29 Nov 2024
Killer whales, including a male dubbed Moctezuma, have been spotted hunting whale sharks in coordinated attacks. Researchers think they may have gained special knowledge allowing them to hunt this way.
Neuroscience
26 Nov 2024
Scientists show that low-status male cichlid fish have higher levels of oxidative stress in their brain, which is linked to poorer mental and neurological health in humans.
Life sciences
25 Nov 2024
Geneticists have studied the distribution of Y-chromosome haplogroups on the Faroe Islands, known to have been colonized by Vikings around the year 900 CE, and compared these to distributions of haplogroups in today’s Scandinavia. They showed with novel analysis methods that the haplotype distribution in the Faroe Islands most closely resembled that in Norway and Denmark, and to a lesser extent that in Sweden, but differed from that in Iceland. They concluded that a band of Viking men from all over Scandinavia colonized the Faroe Islands, which differed in their geographical origin and genetic make-up from those who settled Iceland.
Space sciences and astronomy
20 Nov 2024
Researchers found that astronauts’ processing speed, working memory, and attention slowed down, but a few months in space did not result in lasting cognitive impairment
Environment
18 Nov 2024
Ticks have always travelled on migrating birds — but the rising temperatures of the climate crisis mean they may now survive at their destination, and so could the pathogens they carry.
Health
15 Nov 2024
Researchers from the US looked for associations between the use of dating apps, sexual behavior, and a history of HIV/STIs among college students in North Texas. They showed that there was an association between risky sexual behavior and the use of dating apps. They propose that the two may be mutually reinforcing.
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