News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
Hunters are killing gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains in numbers not seen since the animals were driven to near extinction in the continental United States in the 20th century. The killing of more than 750 wolves in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming in recent months—including nearly 20% of the wolves that roam Yellowstone National … Read more
The friendliness of your dog could have serious implications for its social standing with other canines, new research suggests. In a questionnaire designed to measure the personality traits of companion dogs and compare them against their social ranking with other canines in multi-dog families, researchers found that dogs who scored highly for agreeableness and affection … Read more
For a couple of hundred years, Cahokia was the place to be in what is now the US state of Illinois. The bustling, vibrant city was at one time home to some 15,000 people, but by the end of the 14th century it was deserted – and researchers still aren’t sure why. A study … Read more
For the first time, a pack of orcas – also known as killer whales – have been observed hunting and killing blue whales, the largest animal on the planet. According to a report published in Marine Mammal Science, the scientific community has long debated if orcas can hunt the massive blue whales. But this question … Read more
Our eyes are continuously bombarded by an enormous amount of visual information – millions of shapes, colors, and ever-changing motion all around us. For the brain, this is no easy feat. On the one hand, the visual world alters continuously because of changes in light, viewpoint, and other factors. On the other, our visual … Read more
Two tiny fossils, each smaller than an aspirin pill, contain fossilized nerve tissue from 508 million years ago. The bug-like Cambrian creatures could help scientists piece together the evolutionary history of modern-day spiders and scorpions. Still, it’s not clear exactly where these fossils – both specimens of the species Mollisonia symmetrica – fit on the arthropod … Read more
Efforts to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control while still returning to some sort of normal life are delicately balanced – and new research suggests more attention needs to be paid to the long-term effects of the virus for those patients who required placement in intensive care units (ICUs). An analysis of 246 patients … Read more
A widely-used cancer drug that works on the immune system could push HIV out of hiding, potentially leaving the virus open to being attacked and eliminated, according to promising results from a small new study. HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) almost needs no introduction: the virus is notorious for its ability to evade the immune … Read more
The world could lose half of its best coffee-growing land under a moderate climate change scenario. Brazil, which is the currently world’s largest coffee producer, will see its most suitable coffee-growing land decline by 79 percent. That’s one key finding of a new study by scientists in Switzerland, who assessed the potential impacts of … Read more
Human taste buds are easily manipulated. With just a few simple words, researchers have found the same chocolate chip cookie can go from tasting scrumptiously sweet and moist to unpleasantly bitter and stale. It all depends on what the label tells us. When 58 adults from Ohio State University were given three cookies to … Read more