News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
Until recently, geochronologist Li Xian-Hua’s research focused on molten rocks on Earth. But when a Chinese spacecraft delivered the country’s first rocks from the Moon in December 2020, Li pivoted to study them. “I’m a new person working on extra-terrestrial rocks,” says Li, who is based at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics (IGG) at … Read more
In 2020, German researchers began to collaborate with Ukrainian colleagues to survey bat parasites, mostly bloodsuckers such as ticks and fleas. They wanted to know what kinds of bacteria the bats in Ukraine harbored—a first step in identifying any potential threats to human health. Researchers at the Institute of Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine in … Read more
Green areas give you more than just a place to stretch your legs – they can also affect your chances of suffering a stroke, according to a new study that linked having green spaces close by with a 16 percent reduction in stroke risk. For the purposes of the research, the nearby green spaces … Read more
Some strains of yeast in the human gut can produce toxins that could contribute to irritable bowel disease (IBD), according to new research. These “high-damaging” Candida albicans yeast strains aren’t usually a problem when they are kept in balance, but in the guts of those with IBD, the fungi appear to proliferate, triggering inflammation. The … Read more
President Joe Biden last week got his wish for a new agency to fund high-risk, cutting-edge biomedical research when Congress created the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) and gave it a $1 billion startup investment. That’s a fraction of the $6.5 billion Biden had proposed, but advocates say it’s plenty to launch ARPA-H. … Read more
The pandemic led to a surge in COVID-19 research, but it severely disrupted other fields—shuttering labs, restricting travel, and leaving scientists with young children struggling to work without adequate child care. A flurry of studies indicates the productivity of women scientists slowed during the pandemic to a greater extent than their male colleagues. Now, a … Read more
For more than half a century, the kinds of antisocial personality traits we think of as psychopathic – such as a lack of remorse, aggression, and disregard for the wellbeing of others – have been associated with mental illness. The line between broken and useful traits can be hazy in biology, leaving open the … Read more
After COVID appeared, a huge number of virologists, biochemists, cell biologists and immunologists shifted their work to the coronavirus, and because of that, the world got what it was desperately hoping for: a vaccine, in record time. Everything worked out better than we could have dreamed—several parallel vaccines, all with high efficacy. We are seeing … Read more
Dogs might not be able to recognize themselves in a mirror, but that doesn’t mean our pets don’t have some level of self-awareness. Recent research has shown dogs can recognize the unique smell of their own odor, sort of like looking in an ‘olfactory mirror’, and in 2021, a study found they might also have … Read more
By Layal Liverpool Xavi Ramiro. CRG/CNAG CONTRIBUTING to cancer research is now as simple as playing a game on your smartphone. Each cell in your body contains about 2 metres of DNA, folded up and tightly packed. The precise structure matters, because in cancer, unwanted changes in the arrangement of DNA can interfere with the … Read more