Proper development of the fetal penis requires not just testosterone from the testes, but a second hormone produced by other tissues, including the placenta, according to a new study publishing February 14 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology from Paul Fowler of the University of Aberdeen
Researchers at Utrecht University have demonstrated how the pathogenic Salmonella bacteria takes advantage of one of the body's defence mechanisms in order to invade cells.
Flexible tool use is closely associated to higher mental processes such as the ability to plan actions. Now a group of cognitive biologists and comparative psychologists from the University of Vienna, the University of St Andrews and the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna that included Isabelle Laumer and Josep Call, has studied tool related decision-making in a non-human primate species – the orangutan.
Training community health workers to perform verbal autopsy interviews captured more accurate data about the number and causes of deaths in rural Uganda than current health facility surveillance methods, researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill and in-country partners found. PLOS ONE published the results.
A first-of-its-kind study on Twitter use during 5 of the costliest U.S. natural disasters offers potentially life-saving insights. The research, in PLOS ONE, finds that Twitter users with small networks (100-200 followers) increase activity more than those with larger networks in these situations. It also finds that each disaster type (hurricanes, tornadoes, floods) has a unique pattern of social media use.
An exceptional sauropod dinosaur specimen from the middle Cretaceous of Tanzania represents a unique species and provides new insights into sauropod evolution, according to a study published February 13, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Eric Gorscak of Midwestern University, Illinois, and Patrick O’Connor of Ohio University, USA.
White-tailed deer feeding habits shape the acoustic properties of their forest habitat, potentially affecting the vocal communication of understory-dwelling songbirds and other species, according to a study published February 13, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Timothy J. Boycott from Vassar College, USA, and colleagues.
In a randomized, controlled pilot trial published February 13, 2019 in PLOS ONE, UC San Diego School of Medicine researchers found that participants pre-treated with noninvasive vagus nerve stimulation experienced less pain after heat stimulus than mock-treated participants.
Marine scientists from the University of Queensland, WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) and other groups have developed a methodology to assess fish stocks that combines new data with archeological and historical records – some dating back to the 8th Century AD.
Differences in cognitive development between hearing and deaf children start in infancy, according to new research by The Ohio State University College of Medicine published today in the journal PLOS ONE.
Tungiasis, a tropical disease associated with poverty, is caused by the penetration of female sand fleas into a person’s skin, usually in their toes or feet. This week in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, researchers report five cases of severe tungiasis to illustrate how the disease may develop into a life-threatening condition.
Male butterflies have genes which give them a sexual preference for a partner with a similar appearance to themselves, according to new research. In a study publishing February 7th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology
A novel, synthetic DNA vaccine developed at The Wistar Institute induces protective immunity against Mayaro virus (MAYV), a mosquito-borne infection endemic to South America, that has the potential to become a global emerging viral threat.
The grandchildren of adolescent mothers have lower school readiness scores than their peers, according to a study published February 6, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Elizabeth Wall-Wieler of Stanford University, USA, and colleagues at the University of Manitoba.
A new oviraptorosaur species from the Late Cretaceous was discovered in Mongolia, according to a study published in February 6, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Yuong-Nam Lee from Seoul National University, South Korea, and colleagues.
Hyperlinks slow down reading speed only when the linked word is unfamiliar, an effect that is independent of link color, according to new research published in the open-access journal PLOS One by Gemma Fitzsimmons, Mark Weal, and Dennis Drieghe of the University of Southampton in the UK. The effect is likely due to the reader’s perception that the unfamiliar word may carry special importance in the sentence when formatted as a hyperlink.
Millennials’ recognition of songs from the 1960s through the 1990s is relatively stable over this 40-year period, a team of researchers has found. By contrast, their recognition of musical hits from 2000 to 2015, while higher overall than the previous era, diminishes rapidly over time.
While studying the genes in poplar trees that control callus formation, scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have uncovered genetic networks at the root of tumor formation in several human cancers.
The incidence of thyroid cancer was associated with malpractice payouts in a recent study by Penn State Cancer Institute researchers. Because thyroid cancer is not usually fatal, the findings suggest that physicians sometimes offer unnecessary testing to avoid being sued.
A field trip to Namibia to study volcanic rocks led to an unexpected discovery by West Virginia University geologists Graham Andrews and Sarah Brown.
A Duke Health pilot project suggests that in the near future, a blood test could show whether arteries carrying blood to the heart are narrow or blocked, a risk factor for heart disease.
Ancient cremated human remains, despite being deformed, still retain sexually diagnostic physical features, according to a study released January 30, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Claudio Cavazzuti of Durham University, UK and colleagues. The authors provide a statistical approach for identifying traits that distinguish male and female remains within a population.
In a pair of new papers, University of Wisconsin–Madison Professor of Genetics Chris Todd Hittinger, his graduate student EmilyClare Baker and others show how modern lager yeast adopted the cold-loving and sugar-hungry traits essential to their success.
Researchers from the George Washington University , the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and industry leaders published in PLOS Biology, describing a standardized communication method for researchers performing high-throughput sequencing called BioCompute.
Rutgers Study Finds Need for Early Childhood Obesity Prevention Interventions Beyond Preschool Education Settings
Immune cells called CD4+ T cells could be important mediators of protection against the Zika virus, according to a study published January 24 in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens by Sujan Shresta of the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, and colleagues. The findings support vaccine strategies that induce a protective CD4+ T cell response to the Zika virus.
Humpback whales overwintering in feeding areas may sing complex, progressive songs which closely resemble those associated with breeding grounds, according to a study published January 23, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Edda E. Magnúsdóttir and Rangyn Lim from the University of Iceland.
Heart disease is the greatest killer in the world today, and it is widely accepted that our genes interact with traditional lifestyle risk factors, such as smoking, obesity and/or a sedentary life to promote an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. However, a new study in sheep, publishing January 22 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology, by a team from Cambridge University, finds that offspring whose mothers had a complicated pregnancy may be at greater risk of heart disease in later life, suggesting that our cards may be marked even before we are born.
Many organisms including insects, amphibians and yeasts use sex pheromones for attracting individuals of the opposite sex, but what happens to sex pheromones as new species emerge? New research publishing January 22 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology from Taisuke Seike and Hironori Niki at the National Institute of Genetics, Japan and Chikashi Shimoda at Osaka City University, Japan studies sex pheromones in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, revealing an “asymmetric” pheromone recognition system in which one pheromone operates extremely stringently whereas the other pheromone is free to undergo a certain degree of diversification, perhaps leading to a first step towards speciation.
A newly discovered regulatory mechanism helps the body control the rate of fat metabolism, according to a new study publishing on January 17 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Ligong Chen of Tsinghua University in Beijing and colleagues. The finding may lead to new drugs to help burn stored fat and reduce weight.
Researchers at Rush University Medical Center and the MIND Institute at UC Davis have found that mavoglurant, an experimental drug known as an mGluR5 negative modulator, can positively modify a key characteristic behavior in individuals with fragile X syndrome (FXS).
Researchers at MIND Institute at UC Davis and Rush University Medical Center have found that mavoglurant, an experimental drug known as an mGluR5 negative modulator, can positively modify a key characteristic behavior in individuals with fragile X syndrome (FXS).
New AI developed at the University of Surrey could identify and help reduce one of the top causes of hospitalisation for people living with dementia: urinary tract infections (UTI).
More than three-quarters of marine mammal and sea turtle populations have significantly increased after listing of the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA), according to a study published January 16 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Abel Valdivia of the Center for Biological Diversity in California, and colleagues. The findings suggest that conservation measures such as tailored species management and fishery regulations, in addition to other national and international measures, appear to have been largely successful in promoting species recovery, leading to the delisting of some species and to increases in most populations.
A large majority of the world’s 3.4 billion smartphone users are putting their necks at risk every time they send a text, according to new research involving the University of South Australia.
A University at Buffalo psychologist has published a neuroimaging study that could help develop tests for early identification of dyslexia.
A practical resource-based public health approach for the rapid initiation of antiretroviral therapy in HIV-infected individuals living in low- and middle-income countries could save thousands of lives, according to an Essay published January 15 in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Mark Tenforde of the University of Washington School of Medicine, and colleagues.
With winter temperatures in Maricopa County rarely dipping below freezing--60 degrees and raining, like today, is one of its more wintry days--Arizona is a perfect home for virus-carrying mosquitoes to overwinter, allowing the virus to survive.
Science faculty finds that student buy-in to a new curriculum, and therefore satisfaction, increases with each successive undergraduate cohort — and learning gains did not suffer.
City lifestyle has been criticised for being an important reason for children being disconnected from nature. This has led to an unhealthy lifestyle in regards to active play and eating habits. Even worse, many young children do not feel well psychologically - they are often stressed and depressed. 16 per cent of pre-schoolers in Hong Kong and up to 22% in China show signs of mental health problems (Kwok SY, Gu M, Cheung AP, 2017; Zhu J, et al. 2017).
The replication of a bacterial virus is not necessary to cause lethal disease in a mouse model of a food-borne pathogen called Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC), according to a study published January 10 in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens by Sowmya Balasubramanian, John Leong and Marcia Osburne of Tufts University School of Medicine, and colleagues. The surprising findings could lead to the development of novel strategies for the treatment of EHEC and life-threatening kidney-related complications in children.
The ancient people of Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) built their famous ahu monuments near coastal freshwater sources, according to a team of researchers including faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York.
Microbiome community linked to lower influenza susceptibility
Having two or more non-communicable diseases (multimorbidity) costs the country more than the sum of those individual diseases would cost, according to a new study published this week in PLOS Medicine by Tony Blakely from the University of Otago, New Zealand, and colleagues.
Gaps in the logic of how we restock flu vaccines may be costing hundreds of lives, or more. A new model to tweak the gaps could save hundreds to hundreds of thousands of people and millions to multiple millions in medical costs.
Fossils from ‘Valley of Whales’ suggest B. isis predated smaller whales and fish
Two scientists use the economic theory of contests to illustrate how the competitive grant-application system has made the pursuit of research funding inefficient and unsustainable. They say alternatives, such as a partial lottery to award grants, could relieve pressure on professors and free up time for research.
An international consortium of researchers identify genetic underpinnings associated with PCOS to understand and better diagnose it
Human error, not human biology, largely accounts for the apparent decline of mortality among the very old, according to a new report publishing on December 20 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Saul Newman of Australia National University in Canberra.
Understanding that altered metabolism in cancer has received renewed research interest, according to Abe Stroock, the William C. Hooey Director and Gordon L. Dibble Professor in the Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. His latest research examines cancer metabolism at multiple scales, and lays theoretical groundwork for future studies.
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