Curated News: PLOS

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Frozen flora holds clues to the ancient Alps ecosystem and to the Iceman’s final journey

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Global warming may increase undernutrition through the effects of heat exposure on people, according to a new study published this week in PLOS Medicine by Yuming Guo of Monash University, Australia, and colleagues.

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Tricking fungi into thinking they're starving could be the key to slowing down our evolutionary arms race with fungal pathogens, as hungry fungi don't want to have sex.

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As if you didn’t already have enough to worry about to keep you up at night, a new study indicates that poor sleep can negatively affect your gut microbiome, which can, in turn, lead to additional health issues.

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The study, published today in PLOS ONE, found that more than 27 per cent of teens exceed recommended sugar intake and 21 per cent exceed recommended caffeine from soda and energy drinks. Males consumed more sodas and energy drinks than females, and youth in Grade 8 consumed more than those in Grade 10.

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Amazonia is home to the greatest number of species on earth, many now threatened, but a new study published October 22 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Jason Weir from the University of Toronto and Trevor Price from the University of Chicago hammers home Amazonia’s importance, showing that it is not only a place with many species, but one where it has taken an exceptionally long time for new species to form.

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Threats to coral reefs are everywhere—rising water temperatures, ocean acidification, coral bleaching, fishing and other human activities. But new research from the University of Delaware shows that 3-D printed coral can provide a structural starter kit for reef organisms and can become part of the landscape as fish and coral build their homes around the artificial coral.

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A small Bolivian society of indigenous forager-farmers, known for astonishingly healthy cardiovascular systems, is seeing a split in beliefs about what makes a good life. Some are holding more to the traditional — more family ties, hunting and knowledge of forest medicine — but others are starting to favor material wealth, a Baylor University study finds.

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Climate change affects ecosystems not only through warming, but also by delivering more extreme weather events

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When you hold constant national origin, religion is the most powerful source of discrimination against refugees to the United States – mattering more than gender, age, fluency in English or professional skill. Also: Though anti-Muslim bias prevails across the board in the U.S., it differs across subgroups.

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For nearly two decades, Brent Seales has doggedly labored to do the impossible — reveal the elusive texts within the carbonized Herculaneum scrolls. Now, he believes new scans are the best chance yet at revealing the mysterious contents.

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Young adults with depression whose diet is usually unhealthy showed significantly fewer symptoms of depression after eating a healthy diet for three weeks, according to a study published October 9, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Heather Francis from Macquarie University, Australia, and colleagues.

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Fossils discovered in Thailand represent a new genus and species of predatory dinosaur, according to a study released October 9, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Duangsuda Chokchaloemwong of Nakhon Ratchasima Rajabhat University, Thailand and colleagues.

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When researchers or policymakers ask health related questions–which they do a lot–they often rely on self-reported rather than tested health data. Researchers looked into how reliable this type of data is for research and found that self-reported data could be highly biased.

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Researchers found that aggressive breast cancers store glycogen in very large amounts, offering an explanation of how cells can change their function to evade treatment, grow and spread. Targeting an enzyme involved in this process could potentially treat or prevent metastases.

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Findings showcasing a connection between bacteria in the microbiome and colon cancer, which may be used to screen younger populations at risk, were published in the journal Gastroenterology by researchers from the George Washington University.

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Treatment with two common FDA-approved gout medications have been found to cause rapid death to the parasites that cause elephantiasis.

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This technology may be part of the ‘toolkit’ that allowed humans to spread across the globe

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New research at the School of Dental Medicine at Case Western Reserve University looks to change the strategy in identifying seniors’ perception of oral health issues. The idea is to find a correlation between seniors who value dental care and those who seek it out, despite the cost, transportation to appointments and other common barriers.

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Systematic variation in rhetoric and style suggest underlying communication strategies

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Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at University of California San Diego researchers describe new use of leukemia drug, nilotinib, to treat subtype of medulloblastoma, a deadly pediatric brain cancer.

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Profiles of Native American DNA in modern populations show patterns of migration across the U.S.

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Malaysia’s plans to create a Pan-Borneo Highway will severely degrade one of the world’s most environmentally imperilled regions, says a research team from Australia and Malaysia.

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Can a computer be used to explain why an environmental toxin might lead to neurodegenerative disease? According to Penn State College of Medicine researchers, a computer generated-simulation allowed them to see how a toxin produced by algal blooms in saltwater might cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

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An international team of scientists, led by researchers at McMaster University, has solved a centuries-old mystery of ‘Fraser’s Clawed Frog’, an unusual and elusive species found in West Africa.

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George Washington University researchers published a comprehensive list of the types and ratios of microbes that inhabit the healthy human gut in PLOS ONE, supporting growing research in the field.

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Adaptations could have allowed these kangaroos to eat tougher foods than any living Australian herbivores

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On July 10, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced they were aiming to reduce the number of Americans developing end-stage renal disease by 25% by 2030. But, the results of a focus group study done by Johns Hopkins researchers of more than 30 veteran primary care physicians across the United States

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One of the first studies of its kind focusing on South African children's language ability and mental health outcomes, has found clear evidence for a link between low language ability and depression in young people.

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Hearing casual chatter of birds after predator call reassures squirrels to come off high alert

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Women who choose to shave or wax their pubic hair might not be raising their risk of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) after all, according to a new study that found no connection between “extreme” grooming and chlamydia or gonorrhea.

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New study identifies genetic variants that may alter platelet function in cardiovascular disease

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Mathematical modeling suggests that the diversity of interactions between species in an ecological community plays a greater role in maintaining community functioning than previously thought.

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Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a way to fluorescently tag cells infected with chikungunya virus. The technique opens up new avenues to study how the virus persists in the body and potentially could lead to a treatment.

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They may all be in the same classroom together, but each child in preschool may have a very different experience, a new study suggests.

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Crows can voluntarily control the release and onset of their calls, suggesting that songbird vocalizations are under cognitive control, according to a study published August 27 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Katharina Brecht of the University of Tübingen, and colleagues.

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Researchers have uncovered a crucial link between dietary zinc intake and protection against Streptococcus pneumoniae, the primary bacterial cause of pneumonia.

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Led by Ron Pinhasi from the University of Vienna, Austria and Mario Novak from the Institute for Anthropological Research in Zagreb, Croatia the study combines bioarchaeological isotopic and ancient DNA methods to analyze the dietary patterns, sex, and genetic affinities of three Migration Period (5th century CE) individuals who were recovered from a pit in the city of Osijek in eastern Croatia. They are associated with the presence of various nomadic people such as the Huns and/or Germanic tribes like the Gepids and Ostrogoths in this part of Europe. The results of the study are published in the recent issue of "PLOS ONE".

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Higher levels of blood high-density lipoprotein (HDL) — or good cholesterol — may improve fatigue in multiple sclerosis patients, according to a new University at Buffalo-led study.

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Early-life exposure to the mineral manganese disrupts the way different areas of the brain involved in cognitive ability and motor control connect in teenagers, Mount Sinai researchers report in a study published in PLOS ONE in August.

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Most people with a medical condition called long QT syndrome have a mutation in a gene that causes bouts of fast, chaotic heartbeats. They also experience fainting spells and seizures. The clinical approach has largely assumed that when the heart beats erratically, the brain eventually does not get enough oxygen — which in turn causes the seizures.

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A Kenyan study explored the effects of water quality, sanitation, handwashing and nutritional interventions on rates of intestinal worm infections. Water treatment alone was found sufficient to reduce roundworm infections by 18 percent. Other parasitic infections examined did not have significant reductions from any of the interventions.

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A group of Australian scientists has created the world’s first computer model that can accurately predict the movements of baby coral trout across the Great Barrier Reef.

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A new study published in the peer-review journal PLoS ONE shows that citizen science volunteers using a relatively low-cost tool can help increase the size and accuracy of a red tide monitoring network to better protect public health from the impacts of toxic algae in the Gulf of Mexico.

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A huge roadbuilding scheme in Papua New Guinea could imperil some of the largest, biologically richest and culturally most diverse forests on the planet, says an international research team led by James Cook University in Australia.

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Higher mean temperatures as associated with climate change can have a severe impact on plants and animals by disrupting their mutually beneficial relationship: The pasque flower (Pulsatilla vulgaris), for example

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The development of new hunting projectiles by European hunter-gatherers during the Mesolithic may have been linked to territoriality in a rapidly-changing climate.