Babies born to mothers potentially exposed to low levels of arsenic in public drinking water—even at levels below the federal safety standard—were more likely to be born preterm, with lower birthweight, or be smaller than expected, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health’s Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program.

A new study initiated and co-coordinated at the Zhejiang University, University of Copenhagen, and Kunming Institute of Zoology at Chinese Academy of Sciences published in the top journal Cell, resolves ant genomics to an unprecedented level of explanatory resolution.

How individual neurons respond to brain rhythms is crucial to uncovering how the brain supports real-time navigation. New research shows that hippocampal neurons can process information from multiple brain rhythms simultaneously, revealing how the brain organizes thoughts, memory and behavior. This discovery offers a new understanding of how the brain organizes thoughts for navigation, memories and behaviors and may have important significance for neurological conditions implicated to spatial memory and learning like epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia.

One in five parents say they have never allowed their teen to be away from them during a vacation or trip.

Dr Beatriz Cosendey is an associate researcher at the Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development and a postdoctoral fellow in the Eastern Amazon Program for Biodiversity Research at the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. She holds degrees in marine biology from Fluminense Federal University and ecology and evolution from Rio de Janeiro State University. Her postdoctoral work at the Federal University of Pará focused on the intersection of ecology and traditional knowledge.

In the newest installment of Frontier Scientists, she tells us about her recently published Frontiers in Amphibian and Reptile Science article. In it, she and co-authors investigated the role of the anaconda as a mythical creature in Brazil’s Lower Amazon region, locals’ perception of the snake, and how better coops for chickens could play a vital role in the peaceful co-existence of people and snakes.