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1,071 news posts
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 […]
Featured news
28 Feb 2023
From anti-antibiotics to extinction therapy: how evolutionary thinking can transform medicine
by Liad Hollender, Frontiers science writer Image: Shutterstock Antibiotic resistance, cancer, and obesity are on the rise despite intense drug development efforts. To curb this trend, scientists release a research plan for evolutionary medicine, guiding the way for innovative biomedical therapies and more effective public health measures. The word ‘evolution’ may bring to mind dusty dinosaur bones, but it impacts our health every day. For example, even though antibiotics were invented only a century ago, the evolution of antibiotic resistance is already a major concern. The rise in modern health problems such as obesity can also be traced back to evolutionary principles. An article published in Frontiers in Science demonstrates how applying an evolutionary perspective to medicine can inspire new ways of preventing and treating disease. “Evolutionary medicine holds promise to transform our understanding of why we get sick and strengthen our ability to protect human health,” said Dr Barbara Natterson-Horowitz of Harvard University and the University of California, Los Angeles. “We came together with experts across many fields to create an overarching research agenda for this field.” “Our aim is to drive new biomedical innovations and effective public health measures, for everything from infectious disease and pandemics to cancer, […]
Health
28 Feb 2023
‘We cannot change the human body, but we can change the environment’
by Liad Hollender, Frontiers science writer Dr Barbara Natterson-Horowitz (a cardiologist) and Prof Daniel Blumstein (a behavioral ecologist) were faculty members at the Los Angeles campus of the University of California for decades before they met. Since their serendipitous encounter in the mid-2000s at a lecture on evolution, the two have become prolific scientific collaborators. They are leading researchers in the emerging field of evolutionary medicine, which applies insights from ecology and evolution to drive biomedical innovation and public health reform. Their most recent article, published in Frontiers in Science, brings together diverse experts to chart a research agenda of staggering scope. Their aim is to tackle major health challenges by applying an evolutionary perspective to everything from antibiotic resistance and drug-resistant cancers to obesity, diabetes, and other ‘modern’ diseases. We met with them to learn more about this disruptive field. Evolution and medicine seem like very distinct disciplines. How are they related? Barbara: There is a famous saying – ‘Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution’ by Theodosius Dobzhansky. But what is medicine if not the biology of the human body and mind? Viewing health through the lens of evolutionary biology helps explain why we […]
Featured news
28 Feb 2023
Scientists unveil plan to create biocomputers powered by human brain cells
by Liad Hollender, Frontiers science writer Credit: Thomas Hartung, Johns Hopkins University Despite AI’s impressive track record, its computational power pales in comparison with that of the human brain. Scientists today unveil a revolutionary path to drive computing forward: organoid intelligence (OI), where lab-grown brain organoids serve as biological hardware. “This new field of biocomputing promises unprecedented advances in computing speed, processing power, data efficiency, and storage capabilities – all with lower energy needs,” say the authors in an article published in Frontiers in Science. Artificial intelligence (AI) has long been inspired by the human brain. This approach proved highly successful: AI boasts impressive achievements – from diagnosing medical conditions to composing poetry. Still, the original model continues to outperform machines in many ways. This is why, for example, we can ‘prove our humanity’ with trivial image tests online. What if instead of trying to make AI more brain-like, we went straight to the source? Scientists across multiple disciplines are working to create revolutionary biocomputers where three-dimensional cultures of brain cells, called brain organoids, serve as biological hardware. They describe their roadmap for realizing this vision in the journal Frontiers in Science. “We call this new interdisciplinary field ‘organoid intelligence’ […]
Robotics and AI
28 Feb 2023
‘My dream is for AI and brain organoids to explore each other’s capabilities’
by Liad Hollender, Frontiers science writer Image: Prof Thomas Hartung Over just a few decades, computers shrunk from massive installations to slick devices that fit in our pockets. But this dizzying trend might end soon, because we simply can’t produce small enough components. To keep driving computing forward, scientists are looking for alternative approaches. An article published in Frontiers in Science presents a revolutionary strategy, called organoid intelligence. This emerging scientific field aims to create biocomputers where lab-grown brain organoids (three-dimensional brain-cell cultures) serve as biological hardware. According to the authors, this technology could also drive progress in biomedicine, providing unprecedented insight into the human brain. To learn more about this exciting new field, we interviewed the senior author of the article, Prof Thomas Hartung. He is the director of the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing in Europe (CAAT-Europe), and a professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health. How do you define organoid intelligence? Reproducing cognitive functions – such as learning and sensory processing – in a lab-grown human-brain model. How did this idea emerge? I’m a pharmacologist and toxicologist, so I’m interested in developing medicines and identifying substances that are dangerous to our health, specifically […]
Engineering
28 Feb 2023
12 exotic bacteria found to passively collect rare earth elements from wastewater
By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer Scientists have shown that the biomass of 12 previously unstudied strains of cyanobacteria from around the globe is efficient at the biosorption of the rare earth elements lanthanum, cerium, neodymium, and terbium from aqueous solutions. This allows these rare elements, for which demand is steadily growing, to be collected from wastewater from mining, metallurgy, and the recycling of e-waste, and reused. Rare earth elements (REEs) are a group of 17 chemically similar metals, which got their name because they typically occur at low concentrations (between 0.5 and 67 parts per million) within the Earth’s crust. Because they are indispensable in modern technology such as light emitting diodes, mobile phones, electromotors, wind turbines, hard disks, cameras, magnets, and low-energy lightbulbs, the demand for them has increased steadily over the past few decades, and is predicted to rise further by 2030. As a result of their rarity and the demand they are expensive: for example, a kilo of neodymium oxide currently costs approximately €200, while the same amount of terbium oxide costs approximately €3,800. Today, China has a near-monopoly on the mining of REEs, although the discovery of promising new finds (more than one million metric […]
Featured news
27 Feb 2023
How do you talk to a whole country about Covid-19? Use a GIF.
by Dr Siouxsie Wiles, University of Auckland Image by Stephen Langdon, courtesy of Siouxsie Wiles. Siouxsie Wiles is a microbiologist and award-winning science communicator based at the University of Auckland in Aotearoa New Zealand. Her academic research focuses on how the infectiousness of bacteria changes over time and developing new antibiotics. During the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, she worked with cartoonist Toby Morris to create simple graphic messages that could get public health information out to the general public quickly and effectively, reassuring and informing people throughout Aotearoa New Zealand and around the world. In this guest editorial for Frontiers, Dr Wiles explains how she came to create the famous ‘flatten the curve’ GIF. If you used or lurked on Twitter in March 2020, chances are you saw, or even shared, an animated GIF illustrating how our actions could help ‘flatten’ the Covid-19 ‘curve’. The teal and orange GIF toggled between two scenarios. In the ‘whatever’ approach, a person downplays the seriousness of Covid-19, which soon leads to healthcare capacity being overwhelmed. In the alternative ‘don’t panic, but be careful’ approach, a person is shown promoting such things as staying home when sick, which helps ‘flatten the curve’ […]
Open science and peer review
23 Feb 2023
Tips on how to write a great abstract
By Sobha Tumbapo and Tamsin Williams, assistant editors for Review Operations Image: Shutterstock.com When it comes to writing a good abstract, knowing where to start can be daunting but a well-crafted abstract is important to your research being seen. Luckily, there are some steps you can follow and some tips to bear in mind that can help you. It is a critical component of scientific writing, as it gives readers a glimpse into your study. Think of it as a unique selling point that convinces readers to invest time in reading your paper. During peer review, the abstract is what reviewers and editors use to decide if they want to work on your manuscript. Making sure it’s an accurate and strong representation of your study is an effective way to avoid delays. Then, once your study is published, search engines will screen your manuscript based on its abstract. This is your chance to help your article stand out among millions of others. From left: Tamsin Williams and Sobha Tumbapo, assistant editors for Review Operations at Frontiers Abstract structure A strong abstract will effectively communicate the research background, experimental findings, and key discussion points. And while the formatting guidelines may differ […]
Featured news
17 Feb 2023
Humans don’t hibernate, but we still need more winter sleep
by Angharad Brewer Gillham, Frontiers science writer Image/Shutterstock.com Society and technology impose sleep and wake schedules on people, especially in urban environments with lots of light pollution. Although seasonality in animal sleep is well known, for the past 25 years we’ve assumed humans are different. But a study of patients being monitored for sleep-related difficulties shows underestimated variation in sleep architecture over the course of a year. Whether we’re night owls or morning larks, our body clocks are set by the sun. Theoretically, changing day length and light exposure over the course of the year could affect the duration and quality of our sleep. But figuring out how this applies in practice is difficult. Although studies where people assess their own sleep have suggested an increase in sleep duration during winter, objective measures are needed to determine how exactly the seasons affect sleep. Scientists studying sleep difficulties have now published data in Frontiers in Neuroscience that shows that, even in an urban population experiencing disrupted sleep, humans experience longer REM sleep in winter than summer and less deep sleep in autumn. “Possibly one of the most precious achievements in human evolution is an almost invisibility of seasonality on the behavioral […]
Environment
16 Feb 2023
From microplastic waste to large, ancient squirrels: Five Frontiers articles you won’t want to miss
By Deborah Pirchner, Frontiers science writer Image: Shutterstock.com 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. UK seafloor sediments rich in microplastics For years, plastics have made up a large portion of the debris polluting the marine environment. Much of this plastic consists of particles under 5mm in any dimension. Writing in Frontiers in Marine Science, an international team of researchers from the UK and Norway examined the occurrence and abundance of microplastics in UK seafloor sediments between 2013 and 2021. The scientists used a fast-screening approach for the detection and quantification of microplastics in sediment samples. They detected microplastics in every sample collected from 15 sites around the UK, which supports the argument that seafloor sediments are suitable matrices for the long-term monitoring of microlitter. The adoption of seafloor sediments as a common indicator for microlitter for the north-east-Atlantic region would allow for future assessments at a regional level as well as regional action plans rather than isolated national remediation measures, the researchers pointed out. The […]
Frontiers news
16 Feb 2023
Aerospace Research Communications publishes first article with Frontiers
Aerospace Research Communications (ARC), the official journal of Zhejiang University Press (ZUP), has published its first article with its new gold open access publishing partner Frontiers. Image credit: Frontiers ARC focuses on original research and review articles related to all fields of aerospace research, in both theory and practice. The scope of the journal is comprehensive, covering research achievements in flight vehicles, propulsion systems and experimental methods, including fluid mechanics, flight mechanics, solid mechanics, vehicle conceptual design, avionics, control, material engineering and mechanical manufacturing. The journal’s first article in partnership with Frontiers explores recent progress in the application of machine learning technology in the field — currently a hot topic in aerospace science and technology. ARC’s editor in chief Yao Zheng said: “The publication of ARC’s first article marks the beginning of the journal’s role as an important academic platform for international aerospace researchers’ communication and collaboration. It is also a landmark event for ZUP’s international publishing strategy as they co-operate on a publishing partnership with Frontiers for the first time. We look forward to continuing to work with Frontiers to develop ARC to become a leading journal in the field of aerospace research and the interdisciplinary aerospace field.” One […]
Featured news
15 Feb 2023
Brain changes in fighter pilots may cast light on astronauts during space travel
By Conn Hastings, science writer Understanding the effects of space travel will help us to plan long-haul space flights, but getting access to astronauts is not easy. A new study investigates whether F16 fighter pilots demonstrate brain connectivity changes that could be expected in astronauts, based on similar exposure to changes in g-forces. The study found that the pilots showed key changes in brain connectivity and they may function as suitable test subjects to learn more about space travel. One cannot explore the profound mysteries of space without being changed by it. This is the message underlying a new study in Frontiers in Physiology. The study examined the brains of F16 fighter pilots, which have a lot in common with those of astronauts in terms of adapting to altered gravity levels and rapidly processing conflicting sensory information. MRI scans revealed that pilots with more flight experience showed specific brain connectivity patterns in areas related to processing sensorimotor information. They also showed differences in brain connectivity compared with non-pilots. The study will help us to understand the effects of space flight on the brain and may aid in providing better training programs for pilots or astronauts. Spaceships: a rollercoaster for the […]
Featured news
14 Feb 2023
Cocaine addiction makes the brain age faster, suggests study
By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer A new study finds evidence from the DNA methylome that the biological age – different from the chronological age – of cells in Brodmann Area 9 of the prefrontal cortex might be greater in people with cocaine use disorder. This suggests that cocaine abuse makes these cells age faster according to the ‘epigenetic clock’. The authors also find differences in methylation in 20 genes, mainly involved in regulation of the activity of neurons and their connectivity. This post-mortem study is one of the first to directly look at the methylome of brain cells in human subjects with cocaine use disorder, rather than in rodents. Scientists tend to view substance addiction as primarily a disease of the brain. When we enjoy sex, food, music, or hobbies, regions of our brain within the reward pathway are flooded with pleasure-inducing dopamine. Drugs like cocaine copy this effect, except up to ten times more strongly. Healthy brains aren’t at the mercy of such dopamine rushes, however: there, the prefrontal cortex weighs options and can decide to forgo pleasurable activities when it’s not the time or place. In contrast, such ‘inhibitory control’ is impaired in the addicted brain, making […]
Environment
13 Feb 2023
European big cat population threatened with extinction as genetics show the population is near collapse
by Angharad Brewer Gillham, Frontiers science writer Image/Shutterstock.com Eurasian lynxes dispersed across the Swiss border with France in the late 1970s, but the population remains small and fragile. Scientists took genetic samples from lynxes in France and determined that the population’s genetic health is so dangerously tenuous it could be extinct in a generation. Scientists warn that if action isn’t taken soon, the Eurasian lynx will vanish from France. This elusive wild cat, which was reintroduced to Switzerland in the 1970s, moved across the French border by the end of the decade. But a genetic study published in Frontiers in Conservation Science showed that the lynx population in France is in desperate need of help to survive. “Given the rapid loss of genetic diversity, we estimate that this population will go extinct in less than 30 years,” said Nathan Huvier of the Centre Athenas, corresponding author. “This population urgently needs new genetic material to become sustainable.” The missing lynx This population of lynxes, hidden deep within the Jura Mountains, is not well known. Observations by scientists estimate its size at a maximum of 150 adults and suggest that it is poorly connected to larger, healthier populations in Germany and Switzerland, […]