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1,204 news posts in Mind and body

Psychology

11 Jun 2021

Editor’s Choice Award for Evolutionary Psychology – January to March 2021

Professor Peter K. Jonason, the Specialty Chief Editor of the Evolutionary Psychology specialty section (Frontiers in Psychology), is delighted to announce the winners of the Editor’s Choice Award for January to March of 2021. The two articles selected have received notable attention within the community and offer important insights from the field of evolutionary psychology to better understand behavioral responses within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Life sciences

07 Jun 2021

Dr Tal Gordon: ‘During one of my dives, an animal I collected ejected its digestive system at me’

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer / Tal Gordon, George S Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Israel Tal Gordon during one of her research dives. Image credit: Tal Zaquin Dr Tal Gordon is a zoologist and molecular biologist interested in the molecular basis of regeneration. She grew up in Eilat (Israel) close to the Red Sea and spent much of her childhood by the sea. Her recent PhD thesis at Tel-Aviv University focused on the development and regeneration in ascidians (sea squirts, a non-monophyletic subdivision of tunicates), in particular Polycarpa mytiligera. She discovered that this species has unique regeneration abilities, which makes it an excellent new model system to study regeneration and stem cells. One key result, recently published in Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, is that P. mytiligera can regenerate any missing body part, including its entire nervous system, by reactivation of evolutionarily conserved developmental programs. Gordon is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr Omri Wurtzel at Tel-Aviv University, focusing on the molecular basis of regeneration. In her present research, she uses comparative genomics to unravel regulatory pathways that facilitate ascidian regeneration. As part of our Frontier Scientist series, she told us about […]

Health

21 May 2021

‘We need more research which examines racism and racialization on health and wellbeing of black women’

By Colm Gorey, Frontiers science writer/Dr Jenny Douglas, The Open University Dr Jenny Douglas, The Open University. Image: Jenny Douglas To mark the launch of the new research topic entitled ‘Dismantling racial inequalities in higher education’, Dr Jenny Douglas of The Open University reveals how events in her childhood opened her eyes to racial inequality and the need for more research into black women’s health and wellbeing. Despite various efforts to tackle racial inequality in higher education across the globe, numerous research efforts have shone a spotlight on the obvious disparity between grades received by people of color versus white students. Now, in an effort to catalogue this inequality, Frontiers has launched a new Research Topic called ‘Dismantling racial inequalities in higher education’ led by topic editors Prof Marcia Wilson and Dr Jenny Douglas of The Open University, based in the UK. It is based on a series of group seminars held by the university for black and minority ethnic (BME) researchers. In relation to racial inequalities in higher education, a plethora of reports have identified the BME awarding gap and the experience of BME students in higher education; the lack of BME academics, particularly BME professors in higher education. […]

Life sciences

20 May 2021

How dancing honey bees could help us save pollinators

By Suzanna Burgelman/Dr Margaret Couvillon, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Dr Margaret Couvillon. Image: Margaret Couvillon Pollinators are under threat worldwide. Researchers such as Dr Margaret Couvillon study bees to find solutions that will benefit the survival of pollinators. Specifically, Couvillon studies the honey bee waggle dance, to discover where and how bees find food. Her research can help design bee conservation and management strategies. Bees, insects, birds, butterflies, bats. These species have one crucial thing in common: they are pollinators, and our survival depends on them. Around the world, they contribute to the conservation of biodiversity, and importantly, to food security. World Bee Day raises awareness about pollinators and the many threats they face. As an open access publisher, Frontiers has several research topics focused on pollinator research. Check out this post on our news site for a curated list. The theme for World Bee Day 2021 is ‘Bee engaged’ – build back better for bees. Today (20 May) is all about highlighting the need for worldwide cooperation to restore and support pollinators and the crucial role they play in biodiversity conservation. Dr Margaret Couvillon, assistant professor of pollinator biology and ecology at Virginia Tech, specializes in honey […]

Social science

20 May 2021

‘Data is life!’: Meet a researcher shining a spotlight on racial inequality in academia

Image: Hyejin Kang/Shutterstock.com To mark the launch of the new research topic entitled Dismantling racial inequalities in higher education, Prof Marcia Wilson of The Open University discusses how she fell in love with data and its ability to show racial injustice in higher education. Recent research has shown that, despite claims to the contrary, academia is not a meritocracy for black and minority ethnic (BME) students. Despite various efforts to tackle racial inequality in higher education across the globe, academics have shone a bright spotlight on the obvious disparity between grades received by people of color and white students. Now, in an effort to catalogue this inequality, Frontiers has launched a new Research Topic called ‘Dismantling racial inequalities in higher education’ led by topic editors Prof Marcia Wilson and Dr Jenny Douglas of The Open University in the UK. It is based on a series of group seminars held by the university for black and minority ethnic (BME) researchers at the university over the course of May. In relation to racial inequalities in higher education, a plethora of reports have identified the BME awarding gap and the experience of BME students in higher education; the lack of BME academics, particularly […]

Life sciences

05 May 2021

An animal able to regenerate all of its organs even when it is dissected into three parts

By Tel Aviv University photography & media unit Polycarpa mytiligera. Credit: Tel Aviv University An extraordinary discovery in the Gulf of Eilat: Researchers from Tel Aviv University have discovered a species of ascidian, a marine animal commonly found in the Gulf of Eilat, capable of regenerating all of its organs—even if it is dissected into three fragments. The study was led by Prof Noa Shenkar, Prof Dorothee Huchon-Pupko, and Tal Gordon of Tel Aviv University’s School of Zoology at the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History. The findings of this surprising discovery were published in the leading journal Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology. “It is an astounding discovery, as this is an animal that belongs to the phylum Chordata—animals with a dorsal cord—which also includes us humans,” explains Prof Noa Shenkar. “The ability to regenerate organs is common in the animal kingdom, and even among chordates you can find animals that regenerate organs, like the gecko who is able to grow a new tail. But not entire body systems. Here we found a chordate that can regenerate all of its organs even if it is separated into three pieces, with each […]

Life sciences

05 May 2021

Majority of bird species in Americas could survive climate change, shows study

By Robert Hanley / Durham University communications team The Arenal Volcano seen from the Monteverde Cloud Forest. Monteverde-Arenal is one of 21 Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA) in Costa Rica. Credit: Sorin Vacaru Photography / Shutterstock.com Researchers show that the current network of Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) across the Americas should remain able to house the majority of bird species of conservation concern even after climate change. While individual bird species may shift their distribution range, 73% of species of conservation concern are likely to persist in at least half of the IBAs in which they occur, and 90% of species in at least a quarter of their current IBAs. This implies that future conservation efforts in the Caribbean and Central and South America can focus on expanding the current IBA network. A new study, led by Durham University and published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, investigates the impacts of potential climate change scenarios on the network of Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) across the Caribbean, and Central and South America. The research was carried out in collaboration with Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, BirdLife International and the National Audubon Society. IBAs are […]