Robotics and AI
22 Dec 2023
Researchers have developed the Dragon Firefighter, a flying firehose that can aid human firefighters to put out the most dangerous fires. Because the design is Open Science, researchers around the world can use these plans to build their own Dragon Firefighters. The authors expect that real-world applications will be possible within a decade.
Microbiome
20 Dec 2023
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.
Social science
15 Dec 2023
Researchers surveyed the views of 1,172 parents across the US about the relative educational value of free play, guided play, and games. The results showed that parents tend to rate free play as most educational, but work needs to be done in educating US parents about the difference between free and guided play.
Environment
13 Dec 2023
Scientists say vast quantities of methane may be trapped beneath the permafrost, and it could escape if it thaws
Climate action
08 Dec 2023
Data spanning 40 years shows changes in the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean near the island of Bermuda, including warming by 1°C
Health
07 Dec 2023
New study shows that working night shifts favors development of sleep disorders, particularly in young adults with a lower education
Life sciences
05 Dec 2023
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.
Environment
04 Dec 2023
Scientists have found a way of capturing DNA from snow tracks — a promising non-invasive method of monitoring elusive animals like polar bears.
Life sciences
01 Dec 2023
Researchers from Spain and Turkey have shown that Vibrio bacteria are playing a role in the outbreaks of mortality of a sessile marine organism, the dark stinging sponge (Sarcotragus foetidus).
Engineering
30 Nov 2023
Researchers tested the suitability of a mix of rice husks and cellulose – materials commonly sent to landfills or garbage incineration plants – and found it had good thermal and mechanical properties, making it suitable to be used in a range of applications.
Life sciences
28 Nov 2023
Newts of the genus Taricha produce tetrodotoxin, a powerful neurotoxin. Now, new research has found that females have consistently higher levels of toxins than males.
Life sciences
17 Nov 2023
by Angharad Brewer Gillham, Frontiers science writer Image/Seth Phillips Termites are a crucial source of nutrients for chimpanzees, who fish for them with tools, but they’re not always accessible. Now, researchers copying chimpanzee tools and techniques have shown that chimpanzees living in western Tanzania can only reliably fish for termites in the early wet season, when other foods are abundant. These chimpanzees fish for termites because they can, not because they need to. The results raise the possibility that chimpanzees could even be predicting termite availability before they go fishing. The discovery that chimpanzees use tools to fish for termites revolutionized our understanding of their abilities — but we still don’t have crucial context to help us understand termite fishing and chimpanzee minds. Are chimpanzees fishing for a seasonal treat or trying their luck? Researchers based at the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) and University College London (UCL) investigated the relationship between termite availability and chimpanzee fishing. They found that termites are most available early in the wet season. Although other foods are abundant at that time, chimpanzees choose to termite fish then. “I believe these results set up an interesting hypothesis about wild chimpanzee foraging cognition,” said […]
Climate action
16 Nov 2023
by Deborah Pirchner, Frontiers science writer Image: Shutterstock.com Women working in agricultural sectors in low- and middle-income countries are disproportionally at risk from climate change induced hazards, such as droughts, floods, or shortened crop-growing seasons. Now, researchers have developed a map showing localities where climate change risk for women in agri-food systems is especially high. Ranking 87 countries, they found that women in central, east, and southern Africa, as well as west and south Asia are at particular risk. Threats posed by the climate crisis disproportionally affect certain communities and social groups that are more exposed. People living in low- and middle-income (LMIC) countries are at heightened risk. Within these countries, women typically face higher climate risk than men. To show where women working in agri-food systems – systems that encompass production, but also post-harvest handling and distribution – are most threated by climate change, an international team of researchers has developed a hotspot map that identifies and ranks localities by threat level. “We show that significant climate hazards, high exposure faced by women in agri-food systems, and high vulnerability faced by women due to systemic gender inequalities converge particularly in central, east, and southern Africa, as well as in […]
Earth science
14 Nov 2023
by Liad Hollender, Frontiers science writer Image: Shutterstock.com The UN Climate Panel’s latest best estimate is that global warming will end once we reach net zero CO2 emissions – but a study in Frontiers in Science warns significant warming could still occur. Researchers including those from Imperial College London and University of Exeter assess factors controlling global temperatures post ‘net zero’ and offer a pioneering framework for better estimating climate change risks. These risks must inform climate mitigation and adaptation policies to protect future generations. From scorching heatwaves to torrential downpours and devastating storms, the disastrous effects of global warming are sweeping across the world. Being the predicted outcome of burning fossil fuels, our best and only plan to limit warming is to reduce CO2 emissions from human activities to ‘net zero’ – where the amount of CO2 we emit into the atmosphere is equal to the amount we remove from it. To keep within the 1.5°C limit of the 2015 Paris Agreement, this needs to happen as soon as possible. Though the scientific community’s current best estimate from models is that global warming will stop at net zero, an article published in Frontiers in Science raises a red flag. […]
Life sciences
13 Nov 2023
By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer Researchers from Australia studied the influence of pollution on the sex ratio of clutches of sea green turtles. This species is at risk of extinction from a current lack of male hatchlings. They concluded that exposure to the heavy metals cadmium and antimony, accumulated by the mother and transferred to her eggs, may cause embryos to be feminized. Pollution may thus compound the female-biasing influence of rising global temperatures on green sea turtles. Green sea turtles, Chelonia mydas, are listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. They are at risk of extinction due to poaching, collisions with boats, habitat destruction, and accidental capture in fishing gear. But another threat, linked to climate change, is more insidious: sea turtles have temperature-dependent sex determination, which means that more and more embryos develop into females as temperatures keep rising. Already, in the northern part of the Great Barrier Reef off Australia, hundreds of females are born for every male. Now, researchers have shown that the resulting risk of extinction due to a lack of male green sea turtles may be compounded by pollution. Dr Arthur Barraza, a researcher at the Australian Rivers Institute […]
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