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New approach predicts threats to rainforests
Borneo is an island that has lost a staggering 30 percent of its forest since the 1970s and is among the most biodiverse and threatened on the planet. The study findings, published in Landscape Ecology, will be useful to all forest conservationists, and could help tropical forests around the world, including Borneo.

IVF babies do not have lower cognitive skills than naturally conceived children
New research shows that between the ages of three and 11, children conceived artificially can be linked with better scores for reading and verbal tests than children conceived naturally.  Researchers analysed data of hundreds of UK children who had been born through IVF or ICSI (when the man has a low sperm count), testing the same groups of children every few years up to the age of 11.

New insights into the ancestors of all complex life
A team of scientists led by the University of Bristol has provided new insights into the origins of the Archaea, the group of simple cellular organisms that are the ancestors of all complex life. The Archaea are one of the Earth's most genetically and ecologically diverse groups of micro-organisms. They thrive in a bewildering variety of habitats, from the familiar - soils and oceans - to the inhospitable and bizarre, such as the boiling acid pools of Yellowstone National Park.

Targeted conservation could protect more of Earth’s biodiversity
A new study finds that major gains in global biodiversity can be achieved if an additional 5% of land is set aside to protect key species. Scientists from Yale University and the University of Grenoble said such an effort could triple the protected range of those species and safeguard their functional diversity.

Gene science closes in on endometriosis
In the world's largest study into the genetic causes of endometriosis, University of Queensland researchers have helped identify five new gene regions linked to the disease. The genome-wide study analysed data from more than 200,000 women to help uncover genetic causes of the disease – a discovery that will help pave the way for future treatments.

New research proves the ‘migrant work ethic’ exists, in the short term
The received wisdom that migrant workers have a stronger ‘work ethic' than UK-born workers is proven for the first time, in a new study of Central and East European migrants, from the University of Bath's School of Management. The research shows that migrant workers are over three times less likely to be absent from work than native UK workers, a measure which economists equate with work ethic.

Babies’ slow brain waves could predict problems
The brain waves of healthy newborns – which appear more abnormal than those of severe stroke victims – could be used to accurately predict which babies will have neurodevelopmental disorders. University of Queensland researchers are investigating whether an electroencephalogram (EEG) could identify apparently healthy infants who will later be found to have neurodevelopmental deficits.

Volunteers help ANU find star that exploded 970 million years ago, predating the dinosaurs
The supernova is about 970 million light years away, meaning that it exploded before the dinosaurs were even on the Earth. Online volunteers have helped ANU astronomers find a star that exploded 970 million years ago, predating the dinosaurs' time on Earth.   ANU has invited everyone with an interest in astronomy to join the University's search for exploding stars called supernovae, which scientists can use to measure the Universe and acceleration of its growth.

Zika spread secrets tracked through new gene sequencing study
Image 1) Zibra Natal - Ingra Morales (University of Sao Paulo) and Josh Quick (University of Birmingham - UK) use Oxford Nanopore MinION device. Image 2) Science on the road bus - Jaqueline Goes de Jesus (Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz - Salvador) and Nuno Faria (University of Oxford - UK) use the Oxford Nanopore MinION device in front of minibus equiped with built-in laboratory in Joao Pessoa, Brazil.

Your mobile phone can reveal whether you have been exposed to radiation
In accidents or terror attacks which are suspected to involve radioactive substances, it can be difficult to determine whether people nearby have been exposed to radiation. But by analysing mobile phones and other objects which come in close contact with the body, it is possible to retrieve important information on radiation exposure.

From context to cortex: Discovering social neurons
The existence of new “social” neurons has just been demonstrated by scientists from the Institut de neurosciences des systèmes (Aix-Marseille University / INSERM), the Laboratoire de psychologie sociale et cognitive (Université Clermont Auvergne / CNRS), and the Institut de neurosciences de la Timone (Aix-Marseille University / CNRS).

Water is surprisingly ordered on the nanoscale
Researchers from EPFL have shown that the surface of minuscule water drops with a 100 nm size is surprisingly ordered. At room temperature, the surface water molecules of these droplets have much stronger interactions than a normal water surface. The structural difference corresponds to a difference in temperature of -50 °C, which may shed new light on a variety of atmospheric, biological and even geological processes.

Himalayan powerhouses: how Sherpas have evolved superhuman energy efficiency
Sherpas have evolved to become superhuman mountain climbers, extremely efficient at producing the energy to power their bodies even when oxygen is scarce, suggests a new study led by University of Cambridge and UCL researchers, published today in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) .

New way to test self-driving cars could cut 99.9 percent of validation costs
ANN ARBOR?Mobility researchers at the University of Michigan have devised a new way to test autonomous vehicles that bypasses the billions of miles they would need to log for consumers to consider them road-ready. The process, which was developed using data from more than 25 million miles of real-world driving, can cut the time required to evaluate robotic vehicles' handling of potentially dangerous situations by 300 to 100,000 times.

How X-rays Helped to Solve Mystery of Floating Rocks
It's true'some rocks can float on water for years at a time. And now scientists know how they do it, and what causes them to eventually sink. X-ray studies at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have helped scientists to solve this mystery by scanning inside samples of lightweight, glassy, and porous volcanic rocks known as pumice stones.

Solar cells more efficient thanks to new material standing on edge
Researchers from Lund University in Sweden and from Fudan University in China have successfully designed a new structural organization using the promising solar cell material perovskite. The study shows that solar cells increase in efficiency thanks to the material's ability to self-organise by standing on edge.

A New T-cell Population for Cancer Immunotherapy
Scientists at the University of Basel in Switzerland have, for the first time, described a new T'cell population that can recognize and kill tumor cells.

A new tool for discovering nanoporous materials
EPFL scientists have developed a mathematical ‘face-recognition' method for identifying and discovering nanoporous materials based on their pore size. Image: Topological differences of top-performing materials for methane storage. Topological data analysis reveals the similarity between structures; each node represents a family of similar materials, while a network between two nodes indicates that they share at least one material.

Paper: DNA may have only modest impact on sexual assault arrests
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Most arrests in sexual assault cases occur before crime laboratory results are available, a new study found, suggesting that DNA testing may influence arrests in just a small number of cases. The paper is among the first studies to examine the impact of DNA on sexual assault arrest rates, although the researchers said the findings should be interpreted cautiously because of the small sample size of cases used in key analyses.

Cowbird moms choosy when selecting foster parents for their young
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Brown-headed cowbirds are unconventional mothers. Rather than building nests and nurturing their chicks, they lay their eggs in the nests of other species, leaving their young ones to compete for resources with the foster parents' own hatchlings. Despite their reputation as uncaring, absentee moms, cowbird mothers are capable of making sophisticated choices among potential nests in order to give their offspring a better chance of thriving, a new study shows.