5,402 articles from APRIL 2020

Shining a spotlight on the history of gender imbalance in Hollywood

A new analysis reveals long-term trends in female representation in the US movie industry, including a sharp decline associated with the 'Studio System' era that dominated Hollywood from 1922 to 1950. Luís A. Nunes Amaral of Northwestern University, Ill., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on April 1, 2020.

Six million-year-old bird skeleton points to arid past of Tibetan plateau

Researchers from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have found a new species of sandgrouse in six to nine million-year-old rocks in Gansu Province in western China. The newly discovered species points to dry, arid habitats near the edge of the Tibetan Plateau as it rose to its current extreme altitude.

Skull scans reveal evolutionary secrets of fossil brains

Three-million-year old brain imprints in fossil skulls of the species Australopithecus afarensis (famous for 'Lucy' and 'Selam' from Ethiopia) shed new light on the evolution of brain growth and organization. In Science Advances, a new study reveals that while Lucy's species had an ape-like brain structure, the brain took longer to reach adult size. Australopithecus afarensis infants may have had...

Smartphone videos produce highly realistic 3D face reconstructions

Normally, it takes pricey equipment and expertise to create an accurate 3D reconstruction of someone's face. Now, Carnegie Mellon University researchers have pulled off the feat using video recorded on an ordinary smartphone. Shooting a continuous video of the front and sides of the face generates a dense cloud of data. A two-step process developed by CMU's Robotics Institute uses that data, with...

Stable perovskite LEDs one step closer

Researchers at Linköping University, working with colleagues in Great Britain, China and the Czech Republic, have developed a perovskite light-emitting diode (LED) with both high efficiency and long operational stability. The result has been published in Nature Communications.

Study finds fish have diverse, distinct gut microbiomes

The rich biodiversity of coral reefs even extends to microbial communities within fish, according to new research. The study in Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences reports that several important grazing fish on Caribbean coral reefs each harbor a distinct microbial community within their guts, revealing a new perspective on reef ecology.

Study: Therapy by phone is effective for depression in people with Parkinson's

Depression is common in people with Parkinson's disease and contributes to faster physical and mental decline, but it is often overlooked and undertreated. The good news is that participating in cognitive-behavioral therapy by telephone may be effective in reducing depression symptoms for people with Parkinson's, according to a study published in the April 1, 2020, online issue of Neurology®,...

The candy-cola soda geyser experiment, at different altitudes

Dropping Mentos® candies into a bottle of soda causes a foamy jet to erupt. Although science fair exhibitors can tell you that this geyser results from rapid degassing of the beverage induced by the candies, the precise means by which bubbles form hasn't been well characterized. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Journal of Chemical Education used experiments in the lab and at various altitudes...

The discovery of new compounds for acting on the circadian clock

The research team comprised of Designated Associate Professor Tsuyoshi Hirota and Postdoctoral Fellows Simon Miller and Yoshiki Aikawa, of the Nagoya University Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules, has succeeded in the discovery of novel compounds to lengthen the period of the circadian clock, and has shed light on their mechanisms of action.

Tiny fly from Los Angeles has a taste for crushed invasive snails

As part of their project BioSCAN the scientists at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (USA) have already discovered plenty of minute insects that are new to science, but they are still only guessing what the lifestyles of these species are. In their latest discovery, published in the open-access Biodiversity Data Journal, however, they found out that one particular species of tiny...

Tracking tau

In the fight against neurodegenerative diseases such as frontotemporal dementia, Alzheimer's and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, the tau protein is a major culprit. Found abundantly in our brain cells, tau is normally a team player -- it maintains structure and stability within neurons, and it helps with transport of nutrients from one part of the cell to another.

Uncertain climate future could disrupt energy systems

An international team of scientists has published a new study proposing an optimization methodology for designing climate-resilient energy systems and to help ensure that communities will be able to meet future energy needs given weather and climate variability. Their findings were recently published in Nature Energy.

Understanding brain tumors in children

The causes of 40% of all cases of certain medulloblastomas -- dangerous brain tumors affecting children -- are hereditary. These are the findings of a recent genetic analysis carried out by scientists from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and numerous colleagues around the world. A genetic defect that occurs in 15% of these children plays a key role by destabilizing the production...

Urban dogs are more fearful than their cousins from the country

Inadequate socialisation, inactivity and an urban living environment are associated with social fearfulness in dogs. Among the most fearful breeds in the research by the University of Helsinki were the Shetland Sheepdog and the Spanish Water Dog, while Wheaten Terriers were one of the most fearless breeds.