EurekAlert! Staff Picks

Just in time for the start of spooky season, this release from the University of St. Andrews describes new insights into the evolutionary origins of bats. An international research team--consisting of 137 researchers from 64 countries!--collected an extensive dataset of bats' genomic information (the largest set of bat genomes to date). They then combined the arrayed genomic information with those of 44 fossil bats in order to re-construct bats' evolutionary history. The major findings of this study were that bats likely originated in Europe about 65 million years ago, and that echolocation likely arose in the early stages of bat evolution. This research is significant not only because they replace existing hypotheses about the origins of bats, but also because the extensive genome the study created could also add to research about aging, immunity, and disease resistance in humans. Overall, I thought this marked a great example of a release that describes a research process that is just as interesting as the findings.

This release from Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie describes informative findings in a field I'm not very familiar with: plant sciences. As described in the release, a key mechanism that keeps plants cool in hot weather is the opening of stomata, or tiny pores on the surface of leaves. When stomata open, they release water which evaporates and cools the plants, a process similar to sweating. In the study featured in this release, researchers discovered a mechanism that keeps stomata open when plants are exposed to heat. They found that a protein called UBP24 is stabilized in high temperatures. In reaction, other proteins which keep stomata open stabilize as well, and the process that keeps the plant cool continues. The researchers argue that this new insight into how plants keep cool could help to develop heat-resilient crops, an important prospect given the progress of climate change.

While awareness of the harmful effects of climate change is high when it comes to phenomena like extreme weather events, a warming climate can also have more subtle ripple effects that aren't always covered as much. That's why I was glad to see this release from the University of California - Davis about how climate change can impact worker productivity. As the release describes, heat stress affects workers' ability to do their jobs, particularly for those who work outdoors or indoors without access to air conditioning. A team of researchers studied the impacts of heat stress on workers by combining "wet bulb globe temperature" projections, which estimate physical risks of heat in conjunction with related factors like humidity and wind speed, and regional estimates of work intensity and exposure to the outdoors. Through this research, they found that highly populated areas with high heat and humidity--notably India, Nigeria, China, and Pakistan--were most strongly affected. Overall, they estimated that the productivity losses resulting from carbon dioxide emissions amounted to $41 per each ton of carbon. I appreciate how this research illuminates the knock-on effects of climate change on workers and the global economy, which are vital factors to consider when planning for a future (and adapting to a present) impacted by a changing climate.

I was interested in this release from Osaka Metropolitan University that reports on the findings from a study comparing traditional jet fuel and jet fuel that has been blended with coconut oils. Biofuels made from coconut oils have been identified as potentially useful because they have some key chemical similarities with jet fuel. The research team at OMU created two biofuels made with coconut oil extracts, acetone, and alcohol, and tested different blends of these biofuels with traditional jet fuel.

One of the notable findings was that fuel consumption increased as the proportion of biofuel in the blend increased. However, thermal efficiency remained consistent no matter the ratio. Another key finding from the experiments was that using the biofuel blend led to decreases in hydrocarbon emissions.

Like many people, I'm concerned about the extent to which air travel contributes to carbon emissions, and this study marks a promising step in research for future mitigations of these emissions.

As a writer and reader of fiction, this release from Cambridge University Press immediately caught my attention. The study described in the release found that people struggle to tell the difference between human-written and AI-written stories, and that they gravitated toward AI-written stories. The study consisted of three experiments. In the first, a group of adult readers were presented with fictional short stories and stories generated by ChatGPT. They were told whether the story was human-written or AI-generated, but some were deliberately given incorrect information. They were then ask to rate the stories based on their quality and how engaging they were to read. The participants in the other two experiments were not told whether the stories were human-written or AI-generated, and were asked after reading the stories to determine whether the stories came from humans or AI.

Overall, the researchers found that AI-generated stories were ranked higher than human-written stories, and received the best rankings when the readers thought the AI stories were written by humans. The participants did not fare well in identifying whether the stories were written by humans or generated by AI. However, participants who described themselves as AI-literate were more successful in identifying AI-generated stories.

According to the researchers, this study highlights that the general public is not aware of the stylistic hallmarks of AI writing, and they encourage improving AI literacy. They also note that other studies have found that people prefer AI-generated writing in a variety of genres, and senior author Dr. Deena Weisberger argues that this may be because AI writing is typically clear and direct, while human-written fiction is generally more complex and leaves more room for interpretation.

Personally, the results described here were unsettling, but not especially surprising. I've learned to identify common traits of AI writing like negative parallelism ("not this, but this") and three-part lists, but I don't think there's been widespread training to recognize patterns like this. Even if there was greater public awareness of AI writing style, though, there's no still foolproof way to identify AI-generated writing, and there have been many cases of human-written writing being falsely identified as AI. I can also understand why many people gravitate toward writing that has clear takeaways rather than complex interpretive possibilities--simply put, AI-generated text may just be easier to read in many cases. Overall, the findings described in this release made me reflect on how perceptions of AI writing do not always match what it actually is. For me, the most hopeful takeaway is that people clearly value human-written literature, even if they struggle to accurately identify it.

This release from Emory University was fascinating and fun. A team of researchers studying capuchin monkeys aimed to learn more about these primates' cognitive abilities in the wild. To do so, they developed an AI system called CapuchinAI. This system was installed on a computer that was placed in a field site in Costa Rica. The system recognizes capuchin faces, so once a capuchin approaches it, it displays a blue screen. If a capuchin then touches the screen, it dispenses a food reward. The researchers found that many capuchins interacted with the system: Some caught on immediately and used it repeatedly to dispense food, others hung back and observed other capuchins before interacting with it themselves, and others kissed the screen rather than touching it with their hands. The AI system, and the touchscreen/food dispenser that carries it, stood up to numerous challenges: It did not break when capuchins handled it aggressively, and did not dispense food to other species (including the coati, a curious raccoon-like animal that's been known to open containers and break into homes). The researchers were able to obtain new data about capuchins' cognitive abilities in the wild using this tool, and they are now interested in using it to observe the cognitive abilities of other wild primates.

A group of researchers intended to study the Buruli ulcer, a tropical disease caused by an environmental pathogen, in South America. However, the COVID-19 pandemic prevented them from travelling. After this setback, the researchers discovered a study that indicated the pathogen could be present in the southeastern United States. The researchers decided to pursue this possibility, and discovered that the pathogen, Mycobacterium ulcerans, can in fact be found in the southeastern U.S., and that the conditions for it to exist were present in other areas of the country as well. This research ultimately demonstrated that the pathogen has a broader environmental range than was previously recognized, and raises further questions. People who come into contact with the pathogen in some locations, most notably in parts of West and Central Africa, are known to develop Buruli ulcer, yet there is no evidence of locally acquired cases of the disease in the U.S. The researchers are now trying to determine why the pathogen causes disease in some areas but not others, which they hope will lead to broader knowledge in how environment affects disease risk. The findings in this release are inherently fascinating, but I also appreciate how the release's framing exemplifies that unexpected events can lead research in surprising new directions.

This release from PLOS described fascinating findings on a topic I never would've even considered: whether primates can experience the "uncanny valley" effect. To test this, researchers generated realistic animations of macaques, and determined that they were sufficiently realistic when they observed that a group of macaques paid the same attention to these animations as they did to videos of actual macaques. Next, they created different versions of the animations with different levels of realism, and compared the macaques attention to these animations. The researchers found that the macaques paid the least attention to the animations that were realistic, but not totally lifelike, as opposed to the most and least realistic models. It's long been established that humans tend to dislike representations of people that seem just a touch off, and this study provided the first evidence that other species experience the same phenomenon.

This release from Universiteit van Amsterdam provides a research-based framework for a phenomenon that I (and I presume many others) have observed anecdotally in the past several years: many people view truth as subjective and personal, rather than based in empirical facts. A psychological research team developed a scale to measure a belief set they call "Youniversalism," which measures the extent to which an individual evaluates truth based primarily on their own personal experience and feelings. Two types of beliefs were tested on this scale: that truth is experiential (e.g. relying on "gut feelings" and instinct to evaluate truthfulness) and that truth is subjective. They tested this scale on over 1,500 people, and determined that those who score high on both belief sets are less likely to trust data and expertise, which may explain the wide belief in factually disproven theories relating to areas like science and government. The researchers also found that people who describe themselves as "spiritual" score higher on the Youniversalism scale, and lower on their trust in science. The researchers argue that this scale can help public communicators to determine populations that may be resistant to claims from "official" sources, and can help them to better tailor communications to these groups. The term "Youniversalism" and the easy-to-understand, measurable scale seem to me to be effective ways to comprehend and evaluate the social phenomenon of diminishing consensus around truth, and the study's results show that it may prove a helpful tool for science and policy communicators.

I was interested in this release from Tufts University, which describes new research on a hot-button topic. Researchers conducted a study based on years of data from national surveys on health and nutrition, and focused on the effects of ultra-processed foods on people's well-being. To do so, they created two classification systems: one on the degree of processing a food had undergone, and the nutritional value of a food. They then applied these classification systems to the individuals represented in the study, and gave each an overall score on the quality of their diet. Then, they compared this data to risks of various health conditions and death. Overall, they found that individuals experienced progressively worse health markers for each 10% increase in ultra-processed foods in their diets. Significantly, this was true even when nutrition quality of the ultra-processed foods was accounted for. This suggests that negative health effects of ultra-processed foods are linked to how they are made, and not just their nutritional content. Since ultra-processed foods are such a large part of many people's diets, studies like this are crucial to understanding their health effects, and pointing toward new directions to examine why ultra-processed foods seem to have detrimental effects on health.

Both the findings and the methods described in this release, from Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, were interesting to me. Researchers aimed to understand humans' role in the food web in Sri Lankan tropical rainforests, focusing on a time period between about 20,000 and 30,000 years ago. They examined tooth enamel from humans and animals through a process called zinc isotope analysis. Through examining the isotope data, they were able to determine that humans were omnivorous for this entire span of time, but gradually increased their plant consumption. The time period they studied was long before the first confirmed evidence of agriculture, so it is notable that humans increased their plant consumption even before they grew domesticated crops. Overall, it's fascinating to see how something as specific as zinc isotopes in tooth enamel can reveal so much about how humans lived thousands of years ago.

The unique subject of this release from Cornell University caught my eye, and I found it to be a fascinating read. A research team of food scientists added grape pomace, or the byproducts of wine production including grape skins and stems, to chicken feed. They then compared its effects on factors including weight gain and gut health to the effects of feeds with antibiotics, which are banned in many countries. The researchers found that the a small amount of grape pomace caused large improvements in body weight in the chickens. The release notes that including grape pomace in chicken feed may address multiple problems at once: It provides a more sustainable use for a common waste product in the wine industry, and it reduces the potential for antibiotic resistance. It's interesting to see how such an unexpected and specifically targeted measure could have positive effects on multiple industries that I never thought of as related.

I appreciate how this release from Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo shines a light on the issue of conservation through a study of jaguar populations in the South American Atlantic Forest. A research team studied the availability of jaguar prey in the forest, which occupies about 15% of Brazil, and found that levels of jaguar prey are perilously low, threatening jaguar populations. They found that prey availability was low even in protected areas, as jaguar prey are also commonly hunted by humans, and illegal hunting persists as an issue in some protected areas. There was one bright spot in the study: Iguaçu National Park maintains high populations of both predators and prey. This is in part due to the  Iguaçu Jaguar Project, a project which involves working with local communities to prioritize jaguar conservation. I had never considered how declining levels of prey due to human presence can be a major issue in conservation, and I am glad that this study both highlights the urgency of the issue and spotlights a success story that could point a path forward.

I was interested in the findings reported in this release from the University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management. Researchers from the Rotman School and Stanford University conducted a series of studies in which they asked participants how open they were to viewpoints they disagreed with. They used two different ways of framing the viewpoints: Supportive (e.g. "I support taxing the rich") and oppositional (e.g. "I'm against the rich paying a low tax rate"). From these studies, the researchers found that participants said they were less open to viewpoints they disagreed with when they were presented with supportive language. According to the researchers, the reasoning behind this is that when we hear someone expressing support for a viewpoint we disagree with, we're more likely to see them as being out of step with our own values as when they express viewpoints they oppose. I was surprised by these findings, and I appreciate how the release lays out the likely causes behind this quirk of human communication. I'll certainly remember these findings the next time I find myself in a discussion about a contentious topic.

I thought this release from Florida International University was interesting. Researchers tracked the hunting performance of great hammerhead sharks across a range of temperatures and found that, unlike most ocean animals, they're still very effective hunters when temperatures are warmer or colder. While optimal temperature for hammerhead sharks is around 84.7 degrees Fahrenheit, observation of their hunting habits in the winter and the summer showed that they still displayed relatively high hunting performance. They still sought out comfort, though, as the hammerheads were found most frequently in areas nearing their optimal ocean temperature.

The findings of this study have several different implications. One is that hammerhead sharks may be more resilient to climate change than other ocean animals. However, their continued preference for ocean temperatures of around 84.7 degrees Fahrenheit may push them toward areas with high levels of fishing as temperatures shift, marking a potential source of danger for this critically endangered species. Overall, it's fascinating to learn about the unique skills of such an iconic species, and valuable to understand how climate change may impact the great hammerhead shark.

I was interested in the findings of this release from the University of Texas at Austin. An international group of researchers made models of several different approaches to reaching the Paris Agreement's target to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius. Among their findings was that the distribution of global health gains depend on how mitigation is shared around the world. For example, an approach where carbon emissions are cut according solely to price, lower-to-middle-income countries would have to take up a large portion of mitigation efforts, but would also see notable air quality benefits. The researchers deemed the most promising overall strategy "Equity + Air Quality": higher-income countries take on a large proportion of mitigation efforts, while lower-to-middle-income countries invest the mitigation costs they have saved into air pollution control efforts. Climate change is an issue that only grows in urgency over time, and I am always glad to see substantive research that can provide the groundwork for future mitigation efforts.

I was interested in the findings of this release from the University of Texas at Austin. An international group of researchers made models of several different approaches to reaching the Paris Agreement's target to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius. Among their findings was that the distribution of global health gains depend on how mitigation is shared around the world. For example, an approach where carbon emissions are cut according solely to price, lower-to-middle-income countries would have to take up a large portion of mitigation efforts, but would also see notable air quality benefits. The researchers deemed the most promising overall strategy "Equity + Air Quality": higher-income countries take on a large proportion of mitigation efforts, while lower-to-middle-income countries invest the mitigation costs they have saved into air pollution control efforts. Climate change is an issue that only grows in urgency over time, and I am always glad to see substantive research that can provide the groundwork for future mitigation efforts.

There were fascinating findings in this release from Saarland University. Linguist Christian Bentz and archaeologist Ewa Dutkiewicz analyzed a series of artifacts from the Paleolithic era--between 34,00 and 45,000 years ago--that were made out of mammoth tusks and included signs of dots, notches, and crosses etched in repetitive patterns. Using computational science, the researchers analyzed thousands of these signs across 260 objects, and while they did not set out to uncover what the signs specifically meant, they did discover that the signs were used to record thoughts and communicate information. According to the researchers, the signs do not correspond to spoken language like today's writing, but they have much in common with proto-cuneiform script found on tablets from ancient Mesopotamia, which date about 40,000 years after the Paleolithic artifacts. It's remarkable to learn how humans in an era that seems so distant from ours communicated and recorded information.

This release from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center describes a promising new medical advance that I would have otherwise been unaware of. In a study that used mice with human antibody genes, a research group from the Cancer Center developed monoclonal antibodies that have the potential to block Epstein Barr virus infection in human immune cells. Epstein Barr virus (EBV) infects about 95% of people globally, and is linked to many serious and chronic health conditions. One group that would especially benefit from a potential monoclonal antibody therapy to prevent EBV infection is people undergoing organ and bone marrow transplants. After a transplant, if the donor cells were infected with EBV, a transplant patient could be at risk of developing a post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder, or a type of lymphoma that is typically caused by EBV infection (or re-activation of latent virus). A monoclonal therapy that blocks EBV infection could prevent these disorders, and may be especially beneficial for children who have not yet been exposed to EBV. Overall, I was struck by how impactful the discovery of these monoclonal antibodies could be for future therapies, particular for immunocompromised people for whom EBV infection would pose a higher risk.

I found this release from Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo to be unique and interesting. Researchers used the skin from an Amazonian fish called the tambatinga to create a film, with the hopes that the film could then be used as a substitute for films used in food packaging that are typically made from synthetic materials. The results were promising, as the resulting film was transparent, flexible, and uniform, with low water vapor permeability and high resistance to ultraviolet rays. While the film did have some sensitivity to moisture, which means that it could currently be used only for dehydrated products, the researchers are optimistic that continued research into this biopolymer material could enable its use in commercial packaging. This is the first time I've heard about plastic materials potentially being replaced by organic materials, and both the research process and its future potential are fascinating!

This release from INRAE - National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment, and the findings were fascinating. The release describes a study in which researchers exposed a group of horses to one of three scents: human fear, human joy, and (as a control) no scent at all. The scents were collected by placing pads under people's armpits while showing them videos of either frightening or joyful situations.

When exposed to the fear-related scent, horses exhibited signs of fear themselves, and were less inclined to interact with people. According to the researchers, these findings suggest that horses adopt humans' emotional state of fear. While a similar phenomenon has been found between humans and dogs, this is the first time "emotional contagion" has been formally observed between humans and horses.

I grew up around horses and know from experience that they can be very intuitive and respond to human emotional cues, and this study's findings are a compelling piece of scientific evidence for how horses respond to human emotion. I'd be interested to learn if the same principle applies to emotions other than fear, or if animals besides horses and dogs have similar emotional responses.

I found this release from Osaka Metropolitan University informative. Researchers conducted a study analyzing the relationship between Long COVID and tobacco use. They delineated participants into five categories: non-smokers, former smokers, combustible cigarette smokers, heated tobacco product users, and dual users. Individuals in each category of current tobacco users were more likely to experience numerous Long COVID symptoms than non-smokers, with the simultaneous use of combustible and heated tobacco products potentially being especially problematic. I haven't seen as much research about Long COVID lately as I have in the years immediately following the pandemic, but research into its causes, symptoms, and contributing factors are still important and necessary.

I was interested by the unexpected findings from this release, published by the University of Leeds. Over a period of three months, researchers collected microplastic particles in a woodland area. By the study's conclusion, they found that they had detected up to 500 microplastic particles per square meter, which is nearly twice as much as a sample that had been collected in a city center. The reason that a greater volume of microplastics were found in a rural woodland than a densely populated city may be that trees capture airborne particles from the atmosphere, then deposit them in the surrounding area (particularly in windy weather). With microplastics a growing concern that we're still learning about, it's important to research where and how microplastics surface in the environment, and studies like this that ultimately challenge pre-existing assumptions are vital to determining future research directions and providing a fuller picture of microplastics in the environment.

This release, written by Zach Winn from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was a fascinating read. Researchers recently discovered the remains of an active construction site in Pompeii, which gave them a valuable opportunity to study the composition of the concrete used and the construction process. They found plenty of evidence that the Romans used a technique called "hot mixing." In this process, dry ingredients including lime and volcanic ash were mixed, then water was added and heat was produced. The heat preserved the lime in such a way that, when cracks formed in the concrete, the lime re-dissolved and filled in the cracks, so that the concrete essentially fixed its own damage.

I recently watched a documentary about contemporary life in Naples that included footage of archaeologists working in sites around Pompeii, so this topic has been on my mind lately. It was surprising to read not only about how innovative this concrete mixing technique was, but how much there is still to discover and unearth related to ancient societies.

The headline of this release from University of South Australia immediately caught my eye: "‘Jaws’ impact may be wearing off as shark perceptions soften." Researchers aiming to evaluate perceptions of sharks polled hundreds of people, mainly from the U.S., the U.K., and Australia, about the three words they associate most with sharks. Though two of the top three words, "teeth," "ocean," and "predator," have negative connotations, 66% of the words chosen were neutral descriptors. The researchers also found a substantial amount of positive descriptors, like "majestic" and "fascinating." The researchers noted that surveys like this are a quick and efficient way to measure public perception of wildlife, compared to more costly and time-consuming methods. I'd definitely be interested to learn about what words people associate most with other species!

I thought this release from the Columbia Climate School was interesting, and shared an important finding: A 20-year study, led by researchers from Columbia University and New York University, of thousands of adults in Bangladesh found that lowering arsenic levels in drinking water was associated with up to a 50% lower risk of death from numerous causes. This applies even for those who had been drinking water with high arsenic levels for years before switching to a safer water source. Arsenic is a very common contaminant in drinking water worldwide, and because it has no taste or odor, many people can drink water with high levels of arsenic without their knowledge. These findings provide strong evidence of the benefit of reducing arsenic levels and locating sources of safer water, and in keeping with the importance of this research to public health, the research team is currently working with the Bangladeshi government to make data about arsenic levels in wells more accessible.

I was interested in the findings described in this release from the University of Virginia Health System. In a study of mice, University of Virginia School of Medicine Researchers identified a new target for treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Harold Sontheimer, chair of UVA's department of neuroscience, and other researchers at UVA have found that protective "nets" surround neurons in the brain, and that they allow neurons to form and store new memories. They also observed that mice with nets that don't function properly lose their ability to remember other mice. With this knowledge, they tried treating mice with a drug to halt the loss of these nets, which was effective: The nets were preserved, and the mice maintained their memories. The researchers hope that they can now develop a treatment for humans based on these findings.

Maybe it's the Jaws effect, but I know that many people (myself included) think of great white sharks as particularly ferocious predators. I was a little surprised, then, by this Frontiers release that describes a situation where great whites are the prey: Researchers observed a group of orcas in the Gulf of California targeting young great whites by flipping them upside down, a move that immobilizes them, and then feasting on their livers. Typically, adult great white sharks react quickly to hunting orcas, but the researchers believe that juvenile great white sharks might not yet have the knowledge to avoid them, potentially leaving them vulnerable to orca attacks. This group of orcas' repeated targeting of great white sharks is a newly observed behavior, and the researchers think that warming ocean waters may have increased great whites' presence in the Gulf of California. They intend to conduct further research to determine if orcas regularly hunt great white sharks, or if they only hunt juveniles when they're readily available. 

This was a well-written release about an eye-catching finding, with great images of the orcas' shark hunt, and I particularly enjoyed a quote it included from lead author Erick Higuera Rivas: “This behavior is a testament to orcas’ advanced intelligence, strategic thinking, and sophisticated social learning, as the hunting techniques are passed down through generations within their pods.” Clearly, orcas gained the nickname "killer whales" for good reason!

Last week, Madalyn highlighted a study about bat boxes. Continuing with the theme, and right in time for Halloween, I enjoyed reading this release from the Royal Ontario Museum about an exciting new finding: six new bat species! Researchers from the Royal Ontario Museum, the Field Museum in Chicago, and Lawrence University in Wisconsin evaluated many tube-nosed bats in the Philippines, and were able to identify the six new species through genetic testing and examining the bats' physical characteristics. I was also impressed by the quality of the release itself, with a collection of eye-catching pictures, informative quotes from the researchers, and clear information about how to access the original research article.

This release from Doshisha University has an eye-catching subject that I thought was appropriate for the Halloween season. Researchers aimed to find out whether fear of supernatural punishment might deter people from acts of environmental exploitation more effectively than contemporary methods of state enforcement. To do so, the researchers developed a mathematical model with three elements: People's belief in supernatural punishment, the degree to which they exploit natural resources, and how available these resources actually are to them. After conducting an analysis with this model, the researchers found that belief in supernatural punishment is effective under two conditions: The fear of supernatural punishment has to be strong enough to outweigh the benefits of exploiting resources, and the punishment can't be so extreme that people are unwilling to believe in it. If both of these conditions are met, communities may adopt the belief, which then can act as an enforcement system that doesn't require outside intervention. The researchers note that these findings can be applicable for environmental protection in communities that have strong cultural traditions involving a belief in the supernatural. Overall, I thought that the subject of this study was unique, and the findings are interesting--it's a potential example of how working toward sustainability can go hand-in-hand with longstanding cultural traditions and beliefs. 

This study about mapping anxiety in the brain from the University of Portsmouth was interesting to me. PhD student Benjamin Stocker coded a video game-like activity in which 40 young adults were asked to dodge threatening objects onscreen using a joystick. While they did this, researchers measured their brain activity. They found that, when the participants faced "no-win" situations in the game--meaning situations where they had to choose between two problematic options--the right side of the brain's frontal area lit up, and other regions of the brain lit up based on how stressful the choice was. Stocker and his supervisors are hopeful that the ability to visualize brain activity during no-win situations will help to diagnose anxiety in the future. It's always exciting to see how researchers are finding innovative new ways to approach diagnosis and treatment for mental health disorders that affect so many people.

Archaeology research is always interesting to me, and the findings described in this release from University of Southampton are no exception. An international team of researchers completed a thorough geoarchaeological survey of the Karnak Temple in Egypt, a highly-touristed UNESCO World Heritage Site. By analyzing sediment cores and ceramic fragments, the researchers determined that the site of the temple was likely first occupied between c.2305 and 1980 BC, based on flood patterns and the dating of ceramic fragments. The site forms an island between channels of the Nile River on the east and west, and the researchers also noted that the location of the temple resembles an Ancient Egyptian creation myth, in which the creator god emerged from "the lake" in the form of high ground. It's fascinating to read about the scientific processes archaeologists use to learn so much detailed information about ancient cultures.

I thought this release from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine was surprising and exciting. Using COVID-19 mRNA vaccines as a model, scientists created vaccines that instruct cells to produce proteins resembling allergens. After testing the vaccines on mice, they found that none of the mice with specific allergies had allergic reactions after exposure to allergens. The scientists noted that this vaccine could potentially be adapted to treat many different allergies, including severe food allergies. Though the researchers still have more work to do, including testing the vaccine in humans and determining how long protection lasts, it's amazing to see how much potential mRNA vaccine technology has to treat allergies.

It was interesting to see this release from PLOS about the effect of plant-based diets on both health and greenhouse gas emissions. A team of researchers analyzed a large sample of data on the diets of over 23,000 people from the UK, and found that those who adhered more to the Planetary Health Diet (PHD), which includes high amounts of plant-based foods, were less likely to have type 2 diabetes, and created lower greenhouse gas emissions. In what senior author Prof. Nita Forouhi calls a "win-win," the study shows that diets with a positive impact on physical health can also have a positive impact on the environment.

I was surprised by the findings of this study from the University of British Columbia, which, based on a large survey of California voters, found that portraying social and economic problems as “civil rights” issues could decrease public support. This may be because of another finding from this study, which is that people think of civil rights primarily as the right to equal treatment based on one’s identity or religious beliefs, but do not view economic issues like poverty or access to healthcare as civil rights issues. This sociological research could help to provide guidance in how to best frame social, political, and economic issues for the public.

I thought this release from King's College London was interesting. Researchers discovered that epithelial cells use electricity that generates between them to identify which cells have the lowest energy to kill them, a process which preserves healthy epithelial cells while disposing of weaker cells and protects against disease. Researchers did not know before whether cells died randomly during this process or whether some cells were specifically targeted, so this discovery clarifies that weak and low-energy cells are specifically targeted. It's fascinating to see how much we're still discovering about how fundamental processes in the human body work.

Dinosaurs were August's spotlight topic for the new In the Spotlight portal, and I've enjoyed reading new research about dinosaurs and fossils. One highlight was this release from Taylor & Francis Group, which describes how a new genus of the elasmasour, a type of aquatic reptile from the Mesozoic Era, was discovered. The first of the group of fossils used to identify this new genus were discovered near Vancouver Island in 1988, and several additions have been made since then. While the fossils had become famous, it was only recently that researchers discovered that they belonged to a previously-unknown genus, thanks to the additional discovery of a partial skeleton. The new genus of the elasmosaur has officially been named Traskasaura sandrae, and its traits include sharp teeth and a long neck. It's fascinating to learn how much time and detailed work goes into analyzing fossils, and how much more there still is to learn about prehistoric life.

This release from PLOS was a fun surprise. Researchers found that spectral bats, also known as vampire bats, have a "surprisingly rich social life." The bats cooperate to feed younger family members, co-parent, and even greet each other with hugs and sleep in "cuddle balls." Aside from being endearing to read about, I found it really interesting that, while these bats were previously thought to be solitary, this new research shows they actually have highly complex social interactions.

This release from the American Chemical Society, about research results presented at their Fall 2025 meeting, was interesting to me on several levels. Researchers Jiahan Zou and Gang Sun developed a "jelly ice," or an ice made from gelatin that doesn't melt when it thaws. I was surprised at the number of potentially impactful qualities that jelly ice has: It is reusable, washable, food-safe, compostable, able to be molded to any shape, and is not believed to generate microplastics. The researchers believe that jelly ice will be useful for food storage, medical shipping, biotechnology, and for use in areas with limited water availability. It's always exciting and fascinating to find research about innovations that I never would've imagined, but that have the potential to be useful in many different ways.

This release from Northwestern University immediately caught my attention. Researchers studied "SuperAgers," who are people over the age of 80 whose memory performance matches those decades years younger than them, for 25 years, and they recently published their findings from this quarter-century of research. They found that the SuperAgers have common biological traits, such as resistance to plaques and tangles in the brain that are associated with Alzheimer's disease and fewer markers of aging in the brain than is typical. SuperAgers also share key behavioral traits, most notably having highly social lifestyles. The researchers hope that these findings can help to delay and prevent neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease. It's fascinating to see the many biological and behavioral factors behind cognitive aging, and exciting to learn how this research could be used to help people preserve their brain health as they age.

I thought this release, from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was interesting and informative. During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, researchers took advantage of national parks and protected areas' closure to visitors by tracking GPS collar data from 10 animal species in 14 parks. Then, they compared the data to a similar time frame in 2019. While some headlines in 2020 suggested that animals started to pop up more frequently in areas normally crowded with people, this study contradicted these claims: While behavior varied depending on location and species, many animals continued to avoid human infrastructure, even when far fewer people were around. I wouldn't have expected these findings, and it's a good reminder that animal behavior doesn't always line up with human assumptions.

I found this release from the University of Edinburgh interesting, which described a new study that tested how autistic and non-autistic people communicate. The researchers put together groups—where either everyone was autistic, no one was autistic, or there were both autistic and non-autistic people—and asked the members of the groups to each repeat the same story. The researchers scored how effectively each person told the story. They ultimately found that there was no difference in how effectively autistic people versus non-autistic people communicated, though they also found that autistic people preferred interacting with acting with other autistic people, and vice versa. The researchers noted that they hope this study reduces stigma around autism and increases awareness of autistic communication styles as different, rather than deficient.

I thought this study from the University of Exeter, which found a possible shared behavior between chimpanzees and people, was interesting. After setting up cameras in a national park in Guinea-Bissau, researchers captured footage of chimpanzees sharing fermented fruit, which contains alcohol. This is the first time this behavior has been caught on camera, and it raises the possibility that, like people, chimpanzees could share “feasts” including alcohol to socially bond.

I thought this release from University of California – Davis was interesting and timely. The release describes a fire modelling study focused on an old growth forest in Lake Tahoe, California. The study found that forest thinning, followed by a prescribed burn, could increase the forest’s resilience to wildfires, and that this method could also apply to other old-growth forests. With wildfires in the news so often lately, determining the best ways to protect forests from uncontrolled fire is clearly needed, and studies like can play an important role.

I found this release from McMaster University on a recent collaborative study interesting. The researchers studied whether showing a narrative film about parenting to caregivers who had migrated from Myanmar to Thailand, including many who had been displaced, would reduce physical violence toward children in this population. They found that caregivers who were shown the film showed reduced physical violence against children and increased positive parenting practices. I appreciate that this study shows the potential for positive interventions in parenting and caregiving for people facing adversity, especially since the researchers are now studying how to effectively scale up the use of media to provide parenting support.