News 2019

Meerkat clans perform a 'war dance' to frighten opponents and protect their territory, according to a new UCL and University of Cambridge study. The study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B , is the first empirical study to reveal intergroup aggression. The researchers, who monitored hundreds of these intergroup encounters over 11 years, show that meetings between meerkat clans often turn aggressive and sometimes escalate to fighting and lethal violence.

After nearly a decade, the Migrating out of Poverty Research Programme (MOOP) is drawing to a close, having conducted research in more than ten countries in an effort to uncover how and why migration plays such a significant role in poverty reduction in some contexts, but not in others. Funded by the UK's Department for International Development, MOOP has built up a robust body of evidence on the relationship between migration and poverty, with research feeding directly into regional policy in the global South, and cited in international reports on development.

Scientists have for the first time shown that it is possible to detect the propagation of seismic waves on the seafloor using submarine telecommunications cables. According to their observations, this existing infrastructure could be used to detect earthquakes, as well as swell and underwater noise. The results are published on December 18, 2019, by researchers from the CNRS, OCA, IRD and Université Côte d'Azur working together in the Géoazur laboratory, in collaboration with the company Fébus Optics and the Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille (CNRS/Aix-Marseille Université) 1.

'Whoopi' the manta ray - a regular visitor to Western Australia's Ningaloo Reef - has helped University of Queensland and Murdoch University scientists study rays' impressive ability to heal. Whoopi, who has swum with thousands of tourists WA's over the years, was hit by a boat in 2015, suffering propeller cuts measuring up to 20 centimetres to the edge of her wing.

Teenage girls who experience clinical levels of anxiety could be at greater risk of eating disorders, according to associations identified in a study completed by researchers at the University of Bristol with UCL. Published today [18 December] in European Eating Disorders Review , the new research looked at anxiety disorder pathology and engagement with severe levels of fasting (not eating for an entire day) in 2,406 teenage girls of Bristol's Children of the 90s study.

Judging by the news stories they select to read, the nearly 40,000 readers of Stanford Report are interested in medical advances and all things Stanford. A story about a potential diagnostic tool and treatment for Parkinson's disease was first among the 10 most popular news stories for 2019. Here are the stories that garnered the most interest among Stanford Report readers: Scientists find potential diagnostic tool, treatment for Parkinson's disease , Sept.

Specialized dye, delivered along with a vaccine, could enable "on-patient" storage of vaccination history. Every year, a lack of vaccination leads to about 1.5 million preventable deaths, primarily in developing nations. One factor that makes vaccination campaigns in those nations more difficult is that there is little infrastructure for storing medical records, so there's often no easy way to determine who needs a particular vaccine.

An immune molecule sometimes produced during infection can influence the social behavior of mice. For many years, some parents have noticed that their autistic children's behavioral symptoms diminished when they had a fever. This phenomenon has been documented in at least two large-scale studies over the past 15 years, but it was unclear why fever would have such an effect.

A molecule that's known for its smelly and poisonous nature on Earth may be a sure-fire sign of extraterrestrial life. Phosphine is among the stinkiest, most toxic gases on Earth, found in some of the foulest of places, including penguin dung heaps, the depths of swamps and bogs, and even in the bowels of some badgers and fish.

Channels McGill University News and Events How can predators coexist with their prey over long periods without the predators completely depleting the resource that keeps them alive? Experiments performed over a period of 10 years by researchers from McGill University and the Universities of Oldenburg and Potsdam have now confirmed that regular oscillations in predator-prey populations can persist over very long periods "Because predators eat thei

How did those planets form? Could they exist in our universe? Could Star Wars really happen? Stanford Earth experts on planetary formation, processes and habitability discuss the science behind the fictional saga. Space discoveries are in the news on a nearly weekly basis - but they may not leave an impression as impactful as the legend of Star Wars.

Potential pricing policies to support integration of renewable energy sources into electricity grids could leave the most vulnerable households facing greater financial burdens, new research has found. According to the study, charging more for energy usage during 'on-peak' times could disproportionately impact the health and finances of already vulnerable households.

The leading cause of maternal deaths in the UK is still cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks, heart failure and heart rhythm problems, and there has been no reduction in maternal cardiovascular mortality rates for more than 15 years. These are the main findings of a new report, Saving Lives, Improving Mothers' Care , from the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU), part of the Nuffield Department of Population Health (NDPH) at the University of Oxford.

If a lie would be bad for their image, people are more likely to ignore financial incentives People are more honest when talking about topics involving high-status knowledge. A new study in the field of behavioral economics shows that this is true even if they have a financial incentive to lie. Questions of trust become more important in business as it becomes more and more difficult to assess statements on increasingly difficult technologies.

Biplanes, the fixed-wing aircrafts with two wings, one above the other, exist today mostly in aviation museums, World War I movies and black-and-white photos. But thanks to an innovation by UCLA engineers, that two-wing design could soon be used to make wind turbines that harvest energy more efficiently.

Female MPs are roughly 20% more vocal in parliamentary debates where the cabinet minister is female than when the responsible minister is male, finds a new study by UCL. The research, published in the British Journal of Political Science , is the first to consider whether female leadership affects the processes or outcomes of political debate.

From mobile phone photo to static calculations Cracks in the ankles of Michelangelo's David statue, damaged columns in the cistern of the Hagia Tekla Basilica: Are these ancient structures in danger of collapsing? Researchers at Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed a new process that makes it possible to assess the mechanical condition of structures based on photographs.

Just 14% of people in the world population have access to palliative care services that allow people to die with dignity and alleviate their suffering, according to new research led by the University of Glasgow. And more than half of the world's population - mainly in low and middle-income countries - have very poor or non-existent access to palliative care.

For many years, for all we knew, our solar system was alone in the universe. Then better telescopes began to reveal a treasure trove of planets circling distant stars. In 2014, NASA's Kepler Space Telescope handed scientists a smorgasbord of more than 700 brand-new distant planets to study-many of them unlike what we had previously seen.

Researchers from UNIGE and Uméå show that to resist stronger species, rare animal and plant species group together in ghettos to help each other, maintaining biodiversity. How can you survive when your species has few representatives' An international team of researchers, led by the Universities of Umeå (Sweden) and Geneva (UNIGE, Switzerland), demonstrates that animal and plant communities are organized into ethnic neighbourhoods, where species in low abundance come together to strengthen their persistence against more competitive species.