Rats are snatching bats out of the air and eating them

Bats beware. The ability to fly won’t save you from hungry, determined rats. In a first, brown rats were filmed hunting bats by catching them midair. The finding, published in the…

AI Reveals Lions Don’t Just Roar, They Have a Second Call

Summary: A new study reveals African lions produce two types of roars, overturning long-held assumptions and opening the door to more precise wildlife monitoring. Using machine learning, researchers automatically distinguished…

What Triggers Tantrums? Sensory Overload May Be To Blame

Summary: New research reveals a distinct brain activity signature in children who become overwhelmed by sensory input such as noise, touch, or bright lights. Using functional MRI, scientists found that…

Brain Circuit That Forces Behavior Into “Repeat Mode” Identified

Summary: A new study has identified a specific brain circuit that can push behavior into a compulsive “repeat mode,” forcing mice to continue digging and sniffing even when rewards are…

Viewpoint: The Washington Post’s ignorant article suggesting corn country deaths are driven by the herbicide glyphosate

Several weeks ago, the Washington Post ran an article titled “The mysterious rise of cancer among adults in the Corn Belt.” It leads with Mackenzie Dryden, Winterset, Iowa, who was diagnosed with…

Dr. Russell Bonduriansky – Functional Ecologists

In this week’s blog post, Dr. Russell Bonduriansky, professor at University of New South Wales, discusses the story behind the cover for 2016’s Volume 30, Issue 10 of Functional Ecology.…

Here’s how Rudolph’s light-up nose might be possible

This time of year, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” is a nearly inescapable earworm. Rudolph, the old song goes, is bullied for having a nose so bright it glows (like a…

Lions have a second roar that no one noticed until now

The thunderous roar of the MGM lion that has opened Hollywood films for nearly a century has conditioned us to hear the big cat’s call as a blunt declaration: a…

Thrill Fatigue: How Dopamine Devalues Repeated Rewards

Summary: New research shows that the same dopamine receptor mechanism responsible for drug addiction also governs the natural decline in motivation when we repeat rewarding behaviors. By studying male fruit…

AI Interviews Outperform Standard Mental Health Rating Scales

Summary: A new study demonstrates that an AI assistant can conduct psychiatric assessment interviews with greater diagnostic accuracy than widely used mental health rating scales. In a sample of 303…