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433 news posts in Life sciences

Life sciences

20 Sep 2024

Oceanic life found to be thriving thanks to Saharan dust blown from thousands of kilometers away

Scientists from the US measured the relative amounts of ‘bioreactive’ iron in four sediment cores from the bottom of the Atlantic. They showed for the first time that the further dust is blown from the Sahara, the more iron in it becomes bioreactive through chemical processes in the atmosphere. These results have important implications for our understanding of the growth-promoting effect of iron on oceanic phytoplankton, terrestrial ecosystems, and carbon cycling, including under global change.

Life sciences

17 Sep 2024

How does a tiny shrimp find its way home in a vast ocean? Study finds it’s down to their cave’s special smell

Researchers from France have shown for the first time that mysid shrimp can distinguish between seawater from their cave of origin and that from nearby caves. This recognition behavior, based on local differences in water-borne odor mixes or ‘chemical seascapes’, is likely what enables the shrimp’s homing behavior when they return each dawn from their foraging trips in open water.

Life sciences

02 Aug 2024

'Screaming Woman' mummy may have died in agony 3,500 years ago

Researchers from Egypt used state-of-the-art techniques to ‘virtually dissect’ a female mummy from the New Kingdom, named the ‘Screaming Woman’ for her remarkable expression. They showed that she had been embalmed with costly imported frankincense and juniper. There was no obvious cause of death, but the mummy’s wide open mouth may be due to cadaveric spasm, which is typically associated with dying in considerable pain and under strong emotions.

Life sciences

05 Jul 2024

Desert-loving fungi and lichens pose deadly threat to 5,000-year-old rock art

Researchers sampled microflora from the rocks bearing unique, millennia-old petroglyphs in the Negev desert. The diversity and abundance of species found on these rocks was low, suggesting that few can survive the harsh conditions. Most identified species from the petroglyphs were specialized microcolonial fungi and lichens, known to damage rock art through mechanical and chemical means. The authors cautioned that these natural deterioration processes can’t be stopped, making it necessary to monitor and document this important cultural heritage.

Life sciences

19 Jun 2024

Ultrasound beam triggers ‘nanodroplets' to deliver drugs at exactly the right spot

Conventional drug delivery is inefficient and imprecise. Through a series of preclinical experiments, researchers from the University of Utah have optimized a novel, targeted method of delivery through nanodroplet carriers, which are triggered to release their drug at exactly the desired spot by a focused beam of ultrasound. Their results showed that nanodroplets with a core of perfluorooctylbromide are stable, efficient in delivery, and well tolerated. Clinical experiments are likely to follow.

Life sciences

11 Jun 2024

How older people explore new spaces could suggest cognitive decline and dementia

Aging people commonly show a decline in navigation ability, and this has generally been attributed to worsening spatial memory. But now, researchers from the US have shown for the first time that this decline is partly driven by changes in typical exploration behavior by middle age. In a maze learning task, middle-aged people were less efficient explorers than young people. This discovery could have applications in the clinical diagnosis and therapy of cognitive decline and dementia.