Researchers with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, used a machine-learning approach to study not just which genes a bacterium has, but also where those genes sit next to each other. That “genetic neighborhood” helped researchers distinguish disease-causing strains of Enterococcus cecorum, a poultry pathogen, from nonpathogenic strains. The same approach could eventually be applied to bacteria affecting humans, livestock, wildlife and plants, provided enough genomic data are available.

Scientists—and dog lovers—have long known that dogs are remarkably good at interpreting our laughs, frowns, and tears. But the biology behind this ability has remained largely unexplored until now. 

In a study published in the Cell Press journal iScience on August 7, researchers peered inside the brains of dogs as they viewed images of various human expressions. The brain scans revealed that dogs process smiles in a unique brain region and, for the first time, provided evidence that dogs can distinguish between negative facial expressions, including anger, sadness, and fear.