Summary: A new study analyzing genetic data from over 300,000 people revealed that women with a high genetic risk for depression also face a higher likelihood of developing heart disease,…
Category: Life
Climate stress may undermine male spiders’ romantic gift giving
Courtship dazzle in spiders can lose some zing in uncertain climates. Males in places with hard-to-predict rain and temperatures devolve into suitors who woo mostly with cheap, useless gifts. Researchers…
Leaded Gas Exposure Linked to Mental Illness
Summary: A new study estimates that childhood lead exposure, peaking between 1960 and 1990 due to leaded gasoline, caused 151 million excess cases of mental illness by 2015. Researchers linked…
New videos reveal the hidden lives of Andean bears
Camera collar footage is unveiling the secret lives of Andean bears (Tremarctos ornatus), South America’s only surviving ursid. A wild Andean bear in Peru was caught eating soil or clay, courting…
How We Filter Out Background Sounds When Speaking
Summary: Researchers have traced how the brain filters out background noise during speech using signals between the motor and auditory cortices. These milliseconds-long electrical signals, called auditory corollary discharge, originate…
Empathy Loss in Dementia Linked to Brain Activity Changes
Summary: Frontotemporal dementia, affecting about 3% of dementia patients in Sweden, is characterized by a loss of empathy that challenges patients and their families. Using functional MRI, researchers found that…
A herbivore-induced defense- plant protein in honeydew enhances natural enemy fitness – Functional Ecologists
In this post, Pablo Urbaneja-Bernat, tenure track at Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (Spain), presents his work ‘Not just candy: A herbivore-induced defense- plant protein in honeydew enhances natural…
Ethiopian wolves are the first large carnivores found to slurp nectar
Some wolves have a taste for dessert. In the highlands of Ethiopia, carnivorous Ethiopian wolves (Canis simensis) dine almost exclusively on rodents. But the predators also have a sweet tooth,…
Two different human species almost certainly encountered each other on the banks of a Kenyan lake 1.5 million years ago
Muddy footprints left on a Kenyan lakeside suggest two of our early human ancestors were nearby neighbors some 1.5 million years ago. The footprints were left in the mud by…
How Alcohol Increases Pain Tolerance, and Aggression
Summary: Alcohol not only raises pain tolerance but also amplifies aggression, according to a new study. Researchers found that participants who drank alcohol had higher pain thresholds and were more…
