Life sciences
29 Feb 2024
Seeing the wood for the trees: how archaeologists use hazelnuts to reconstruct ancient woodlands
Archaeologists analyze the carbon isotope values of hazelnuts from ancient sites to see what the local woods were like.
1,180 news posts in Mind and body
Life sciences
26 Feb 2024
How did a tiny bee get to French Polynesia? Eight new species help solve a scientific mystery
Scientists discovered eight new species of masked bee in Fiji, Micronesia, and Polynesia: relatives of Tuamotu’s masked bee from Tuamotu. For 59 years, this bee had been considered by experts to be a mysterious anomaly since its closest relatives, as far as was known at the time, lived 3,000 km further west. With the new species, discovered by sampling from the tree canopy, the mystery is solved: ancestors of Tuamotu’s masked bee reached Polynesia by island-hopping across Fiji and the southwestern Pacific. Many more new species are expected to be discovered in the canopy of islands along this route soon.
Life sciences
20 Feb 2024
Scientists track world’s largest turtles to previously unknown foraging locations
Using movement behavior models, scientists tracked leatherback sea turtles to new foraging locations off the US east coast
Health
16 Feb 2024
Cake and cookies may increase Alzheimer’s risk: Here are five Frontiers articles you won’t want to miss
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.
Life sciences
14 Feb 2024
Tiny crustaceans discovered preying on live jellyfish during harsh Arctic night
Scientists used DNA metabarcoding to show for the first time that jellyfish are an important food for amphipods during the Arctic polar night in waters off Svalbard, at a time of year when other food resources are scarce. Amphipods were not only observed to feast on ‘jelly-falls’ of dead jellyfish, but also to prey on live jellyfish. These results corroborate an ongoing ‘paradigm shift’ which recognizes that jellyfish aren’t a trophic dead-end but an important food for many marine organisms.
Health
05 Feb 2024
Mild Covid-19 infections make insomnia more likely, especially in people with anxiety or depression
A survey of people who had been diagnosed with Covid-19 but never hospitalized found that 76% developed insomnia — and anxious or depressed people were more vulnerable.
Health
31 Jan 2024
Virtual reality treatment for palliative care shown to help patients ‘flourish’ during relaxation therapy
Patients in palliative care often receive psychological therapy to help cope with stress. Researchers have now shown that the short-term effectiveness of a novel intervention, Flourishing-Life-of-Wish Virtual Reality Relaxation Therapy, in improving the physical and emotional well-being of patients is double that of standard-of-care coaching in diaphragmatic breathing.
Psychology
26 Jan 2024
Writing by hand may increase brain connectivity more than typing on a keyboard
New research has shown that writing by hand leads to higher brain connectivity than typing on a keyboard, highlighting the need to expose students to more handwriting activities
Health
24 Jan 2024
Q&A with Linda H Kim, emerging investigator in Dystonia
The journal Dystonia is part of Frontiers’ publishing partnerships community since April 2021. We hear from Linda H Kim, a postdoctoral fellow who received the Mahlon DeLong Young Investigator award in support of early career investigators pursuing ambitious and creative research in dystonia.
Life sciences
23 Jan 2024
Ants help reveal why sourcing different plants for eco fuels is crucial for biodiversity
A study of ant communities shows that using diverse plant sources for bioenergy is crucial to protect ecosystems while making more eco-friendly fuel
Health
15 Jan 2024
Living in poverty with chronic inflammation significantly increases heart disease and cancer mortality risk, study finds
People living in poverty in the US are known to suffer increased mortality, as are people with chronic inflammation. Now, researchers have shown in an epidemiological study that these effects are not simply additive but synergistic: people living in poverty with chronic inflammation ran a 127% increased heart disease mortality risk and a 196% increased cancer mortality risk when measured over 15 years.
Psychology
11 Jan 2024
Watching others visibly dislike vegetables might make onlookers dislike them, too
New research shows that observing facial expressions of others eating raw broccoli can influence our own liking of the vegetable
Health
08 Jan 2024
Does being left-handed predict heart health? Here are five Frontiers articles you won’t want to miss
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
22 Dec 2023
International Journal of Public Health: Smoking is still a risk for generation Z
A Slovakian study into generational attitudes to smoking has shown that generation Z is still attracted to cigarettes, even though data indicates the habit is waning in popularity among that age group.
Microbiome
20 Dec 2023
Slimming significantly alters your microbiome and brain activity
Researchers from China monitored 25 obese patients losing weight during and after intermittent energy restriction (IER) for changes in their gut bacteria and in brain regions for appetite and addiction. They showed that changes in both these compartments of the brain-gut-microbiome axis are tightly coupled in time.