Featured news
29 May 2024
Cutmarks on a 4,000-year-old skull could be indications that the ancient Egyptians tried to operate on excessive tissue growth or learn more about cancerous disorders after a patient’s death
Featured news
15 Dec 2023
As part of Frontiers’ passion to make science available to all, we highlight just a small selection of the most fascinating research published with us each month to help inspire current and future researchers to achieve their research dreams. 2023 was no different, and saw many game-changing discoveries contribute to the world’s breadth of knowledge.
Featured news
24 Aug 2023
by Angharad Brewer Gillham, Frontiers science writer Image/Shutterstock.com Scientists have developed a device that works with a smartphone or tablet to capture medical images which can identify infected wounds. By capturing the heat produced by a wound and the fluorescence of bacteria, it helps clinicians tell the difference between inflammation and a potentially dangerous infection. This could allow for quicker intervention, catching infections before they become serious threats to health. It’s notoriously difficult for doctors to identify a wound that is becoming infected. Clinical signs and symptoms are imprecise and methods of identifying bacteria can be time-consuming and inaccessible, so a diagnosis can be subjective and dependent on clinician experience. But infection can stall healing or spread into the body if it isn’t treated quickly, putting a patient’s health in grave danger. An international team of scientists and clinicians thinks they have the solution: a device run from a smartphone or tablet app which allows advanced imaging of a wound to identify infection. “Wound care is one of today’s most expensive and overlooked threats to patientsand our overall healthcare system,” said Robert Fraser of Western University and Swift Medical Inc, corresponding author of the study published in Frontiers in Medicine. […]
Environment
04 May 2023
By Deborah Pirchner, Frontiers science writer Image: CAL FIRE_Official/Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) 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. Ill-fitting gear increases female firefighters’ risk on the job Over the past years, the number of female firefighters has been rising steadily. As of 2020, women make up 9% of firefighters in the US. Despite this, the gear they are wearing is still made for male bodies. Using 3D body scans of 189 female firefighters, US-based researchers have studied this gear to improve comfort, mobility, and safety for female firefighters. They published their results in Frontiers in Materials. The scientists found that female firefighters are wearing personal protective clothing (PPC) with significant fit issues. This reduces comfort, restricts mobility and increases safety risks on the job, they wrote. Between 15% and 21% of female firefighters were found to intentionally leave off a part of their PPC, mostly pants and coats, at least ‘sometimes,’ if not ‘nearly always’. The researchers also identified where the highest potential for design […]
Featured news
01 Feb 2023
by Angharad Brewer Gillham, Frontiers science writer Image/Shutterstock.com Scientists determined that compounds which play key roles in both collagen synthesis and circadian management can be used to make wounds on cell samples heal more quickly and effectively, offering promise for treatments to prevent problem scarring in the future. Healing often leaves a scar. But the role of the scar itself in healing is often underestimated: a scar that doesn’t heal cleanly can be painful or upsetting or affect the range of movement of the affected body part. It may even require further surgical treatment. Now, scientists based at the University of California Los Angeles have found that compounds which target the circadian clock and affect the synthesis of collagen — a protein which is important for skin repair — could improve scar healing. “Our aim was to find compounds that were able to increase the rate at which dermal wounds heal while mitigating the formation of hypertrophic scars,” said Dr Akishige Hokugo, corresponding author of a study published to Frontiers in Medicine. “Scars can result in emotional distress following normal wound healing by serving as permanent reminders of the initial incident. Accounting for additional revision procedures, extended hospital stays, and […]
Featured news
24 Jan 2023
By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer The ‘Golden boy’ digitally unwrapped, stepwise. Image credit: SN Saleem Scientists used CT scans to ‘digitally unwrap’ the approximately 2,300-year-old undisturbed mummy of a teenage boy of high socioeconomic status. The body was equipped with 49 amulets of 21 different types, many of which were made of gold, which had been carefully placed on or inside the body. These included a two-finger amulet next to the uncircumcised penis, a golden heart scarab placed inside the thoracic cavity, and a golden tongue inside the mouth. He was clad in sandals and garlanded with ferns, with ritual significance. This mummy is a showcase of Egyptian beliefs about death and the afterlife during the Ptolemaic period. The ancient Egyptians believed that when we died, our spiritual body sought out an afterlife similar to this world. But entry into this afterlife wasn’t guaranteed: it first required a perilous journey through the underworld, followed by an individual last judgment. For this reason, relatives and embalmers did everything they could to ensure that their loved one might reach a happy destination. Here, scientists from Egypt used computerized tomography (CT) to ‘digitally unwrap’ the intact, never-opened mummy of a 2,300-year-old teenage […]
Featured news
06 Dec 2022
By Frontiers’ science writers Image: Shutterstock.com As part of Frontiers’ passion to make science available to all, we highlight just a small selection of the most fascinating research published with us each month to help inspire current and future researchers to achieve their research dreams. 2022 was no different, and saw many game-changing discoveries contribute to the world’s breadth of knowledge on topics ranging from the climate crisis to robotics, and exercise to the lives of our ancestors. So to round of the year, here are 10 Frontiers articles from this year that got the world’s top media talking. 1. This illusion, new to science, is strong enough to trick our reflexes Have a look at the image below. Do you perceive that the central black hole is expanding, as if you’re moving into a dark environment, or falling into a hole? If so, you’re not alone: a study published to Frontiers in Human Neuroscience showed that this ‘expanding hole’ illusion, which is new to science, is perceived by approximately 86% of people. The researchers don’t yet know why a minority seem unsusceptible to the ‘expanding hole’ illusion. Nor do they know whether other vertebrate species, or even nonvertebrate animals […]
Featured news
26 Oct 2022
by Angharad Brewer Gillham, Frontiers science writer Image: Riderfoot/Shutterstock.com Scientists used a ‘virtual autopsy’ to examine the mummy of a child found in an aristocratic family crypt, revealing him most probably as Reichard Wilhelm (1625-1626). Despite his wealthy background, the child experienced extreme nutritional deficiency and a tragically early death from pneumonia. A team of scientists based in Germany have examined a 17th century child mummy, using cutting-edge science alongside historical records to shed new light on Renaissance childhood. The child was found in an aristocratic Austrian family crypt, where the conditions allowed for natural mummification, preserving soft tissue that contained critical information about his life and death. Curiously, this was the only unidentified body in the crypt, buried in an unmarked wooden coffin instead of the elaborate metal coffins reserved for the other members of the family buried there. The team, led by Dr Andreas Nerlich of the Academic Clinic Munich-Bogenhausen, carried out a virtual autopsy and radiocarbon testing, and examined family records and key material clues from the burial, to try to understand who the child was and what his short life looked like. “This is only one case,” said Nerlich, lead author of the paper published today […]
Featured news
16 Aug 2022
By Peter Rejceck, science writer Image credit: SeventyFour / Shutterstock.com Social isolation can have devastating health effects, especially for elderly people. A number of studies have shown that art is not only good for the soul, but can also improve both physical and mental well-being. Researchers in Canada investigated whether these art-based benefits could be delivered digitally through virtual museum tours. They found that indeed older adults who attended weekly guided tours online felt less frail – offering a public health model to promote healthy aging. Scientists have long known that social isolation is associated with a number of health problems, including increased risks for stroke and heart disease, as well as mental decline and even premature death. The risks are especially acute for older adults, who are more likely to be socially isolated and lonely. The coronavirus pandemic only exacerbated the problem due to the need for social distancing, particularly to protect the health of the world’s elderly population. But the same digital technologies that helped workers connect remotely could help older adults become more physically, mentally and socially healthy when combined with interactive art-based activities. That’s the conclusion from a new study published in the journal Frontiers in […]
Featured news
28 Dec 2021
By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer For the first time since the 11th century BCE, scientists have unwrapped – virtually, using CT scans – the mummy of pharaoh Amenhotep I (r. 1525 to 1504 BCE), the only royal mummy to remain unopened in modern times. They show that the pharaoh was around 35 years old, 169cm tall, circumcized, and in good physical health when he died, apparently from natural causes All the royal mummies found in the 19th and 20th centuries have long since been opened for study. With one exception: egyptologists have never been bold enough to open the mummy of pharaoh Amenhotep I. Not because of any mythical curse, but because it is perfectly wrapped, decorated with beautiful flower garlands, and with face and neck covered by an exquisite lifelike mask inset with colorful stones. But now for the first time, scientists from Egypt have used three-dimensional CT (computed tomography) scanning to ‘digitally unwrap’ this royal mummy and study its contents. They report their findings in Frontiers in Medicine. This was the first time in three millennia that Amenhotep’s mummy has been ‘opened’. The previous time was in the 11th century BCE, more than four centuries after his […]
Featured news
01 Dec 2021
By Conn Hastings, science writer Image: Corona Borealis Studio/Shutterstock.com A new study shows the long-term implications of severe Covid-19 infection, with such patients demonstrating significantly increased chances of death in the 12 months following the illness. The majority of deaths occurred for a wide variety of reasons, suggesting that severe infection damages overall health. The stark findings highlight the need to reduce the numbers of severe infections through vaccination. Can long Covid kill? Striking findings presented in a new study published to Frontiers in Medicine show that patients who survive severe Covid-19 have more than twice the risk of dying over the following year, compared with those who experience mild or moderate disease or remain uninfected. Unusually, the increased risk of dying was greater for patients who are under 65, and only 20% of the severe Covid-19 patients who died did so because of typical Covid complications, such as clotting disorders or respiratory failure. The study suggests that severe Covid-19 may significantly damage long-term health and highlights the importance of preventing severe disease through vaccination. ► Read original article► Download original article (pdf) Reality of long Covid Covid-19 can cause severe symptoms and death for vulnerable people, particularly older patients and […]
Featured news
12 Aug 2021
By Prof Maureen Hanson, Cornell University Image: Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels.com Chronic fatigue syndrome is a long-term illness with a wide range of symptoms, no known treatment, and undetermined origins. However, with as many as 65m people across the world living with the illness, researchers continue to search for answers. Now, Prof Maureen Hanson of Cornell University discusses how she and graduate student Adam O’Neal searched through the research archives to see whether a genus of RNA viruses called enteroviruses are the most likely culprits and whether the findings have implications in future ‘long Covid’ research. Like SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, viruses, enteroviruses (EVs) are RNA viruses that can lead to cause serious illness and death. One type of EV causes poliomyelitis, which is now largely conquered through near-universal vaccination. But no vaccine exists against many other types of EVs, which are free to circulate widely. Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates between 10m-15m enteroviral infections occur each year in the US. EVs have long been suspected as causal agents in outbreaks of an illness that is now usually named ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome). Outbreaks have been documented since the turn of the previous century and may have […]
Featured news
22 Mar 2021
Having a single personal doctor may promote overtesting for prostate cancer: Frontiers in Medicine
Health
17 Feb 2021
How did Egyptian pharaoh Seqenenre-Taa-II die? Frontiers in Medicine
Featured news
05 Jun 2020
Lockdown succeeded in reducing transmission, but existing cases and lack of herd immunity means the risk of a second wave is high: Frontiers in Medicine