News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
When you think of the word “ephemeral”, many people will immediately conjure up the image of a soap bubble: delicate, gorgeous, and gone in a blink (or maybe a few). Now a team of physicists led by Aymeric Roux of the University of Lille in France has defied this cliché, creating a bubble that maintained … Read more
A team of researchers hunting for the wreck of a lost WWII destroyer ship in the Philippine Sea returned to land with another, perhaps even more exciting discovery: video evidence of the deepest-swimming squid ever recorded. Cruising just above the floor of the Philippine Trench at a staggering 20,300 feet (6,200 meters) below the … Read more
From the fragrance of brewing coffee to the smell of rain soaking the soil, distinguishing scents is one of the reasons that having a sense of smell is wonderful. But how smells such as coffee can be understood by our brain, no matter the season, location, or time is a complex question to answer. There’s … Read more
In recent years, broccoli has gained a reputation as an excellent vegetable due to its high levels of a particularly beneficial compound called sulforaphane. With some early-stage studies showing how this compound plays a role in blood sugar control and potentially even has anti-cancer benefits, it’s no wonder that broccoli pills are on the rise. … Read more
Multiple sclerosis – an autoimmune disease that affects the brain and spinal cord – may emerge after infection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). An estimated 90 to 95 percent of people catch EBV, also called human herpesvirus 4, by the time they reach adulthood, according to the clinical resource UpToDate. In children, the virus typically causes an asymptomatic or … Read more
Scientists onboard an icebreaker in Antarctica were blown away when they spied a trove of 60 million icefish nests dotting the floor of the Weddell Sea. The bonanza of nurseries – each guarded by a ghostly looking parent – represents the largest known breeding colony of fish. Autun Purser of the Alfred Wegener Institute was on the … Read more
Goldfish may have short memories but, according to an Israeli university study, they might be able to drive. Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev found that a goldfish’s innate navigational abilities allowed it to steer a robotic vehicle towards a terrestrial target if given a food reward. To conduct their unusual experiment, the … Read more
A rare script from a language in Liberia has provided some new insights into how written languages evolve. “The Vai script of Liberia was created from scratch in about 1834 by eight completely illiterate men who wrote in ink made from crushed berries,” says linguistic anthropologist Piers Kelly, now at the University of New England, Australia. … Read more
With the enhanced virulence of the Omicron variant, some experts are urging us all to upgrade cloth and surgical masks to the much more protective N95s, but supply remains a concern. The limited supply is why this advice has so far been held back, but a new study may make this more feasible – suggesting … Read more
The air around us carries detectable traces of animals living in our midst, scientists have found, and the discovery stands to revolutionize the way researchers monitor and track populations of vulnerable or endangered species. In two new studies conducted by separate teams of scientists, researchers discovered that environmental DNA (eDNA) shed by living creatures … Read more