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Amazing diversity of today ’s ants tied to rise of flowering plants
As spring’s first buds emerge in the Northern Hemisphere, there’s fresh evidence of the evolutionary importance of angiosperms, better known as flowering plants. Their rise some 150 million years ago, a study concludes, powered the amazing diversification and spread of ants, helping more recent ant species survive, while changing conditions drove earlier forms to extinction. The research, reported today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , combines extensive ant fossil and DNA data to validate a nearly 2-decade-old idea that flowering plants had been central to the insects’ success ...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - March 11, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research

Congress is using more science, but the two parties rarely cite the same studies
Researchers often criticize U.S. lawmakers for ignoring scientific evidence when it comes to writing legislation aimed at challenges such as climate change, gun violence, and access to health care. But members of Congress and their staffers are consuming plenty of research, judging by the number of citations to technical papers found in committee documents over the past few decades, a study finds. At the same time, however, the researchers found that Democrats and Republicans rarely reference the same papers —a form of polarization they say may limit opportunities to improve policies and solve problems. ...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - March 11, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research

Unborn planets, living fossils, and more stories you might have missed this week
Could a pregnancy test save you from a deadly snakebite? Why do some dog breeds struggle to stay svelte? And did a giant dinosaur dive for its dinner? Check out the answers below in some of our favorite selections from Science ’s daily newsletter, Science Adviser . Venom ‘pregnancy test’ could save lives and limbs Bad news: You’ve just been bitten by a snake. Was it a deadly viper or a harmless python? If the former, you need antivenom, but good luck telling from the mere glimpse of a tail you got as the serpent slithered into the underbrush. Even if you’re pre...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - March 8, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research

Can babies infected with HIV be cured? New study offers cautious optimism
More than a decade ago, a Mississippi baby who tested positive for HIV at birth almost immediately started to receive antiretroviral treatment (ART). When a pediatrician saw the girl shortly before her second birthday, she was off the drugs but oddly had no virus detected on standard tests. The so called “Mississippi baby” became an international news story about a potential strategy to cure HIV infections. Pediatrician Deborah Persaud of the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center led the team that reported the Mississippi baby case. At a meeting yesterday, she described similar success with four more children. No one...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - March 7, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research

This tiny swimming robot can think for itself
MINNEAPOLIS— Tiny robots that swim through our blood to deliver drugs or hunt down pathogens have been a staple of science fiction for decades. Although still distant, that vision is a step closer to reality now that electrical engineers have unveiled swimming microrobots smaller than grains of sand with enough computing power to perform a simple task on their own—rather than being constantly guided by external signals. “It’s awesome,” says Daniel Goldman, a physicist at the Georgia Institute of Technology who specializes in larger robots that mimic animals. He was not involved in the work, which was ...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - March 7, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research

News at a glance: Methane-hunting satellite, Elsevier ’s earnings, and protecting Kinsey
ENVIRONMENT White House wants to weigh ecosystem benefits President Joe Biden’s administration published guidance last week for U.S. federal agencies to weigh benefits to human health and welfare provided by natural resources when considering whether to undertake or approve actions that could harm them. These “ecosystem benefits” include clean water and air and intangible perks such as spiritual connections to nature. Until now, federal rules have required agencies to analyze costs and benefits when building roads or issuing permits for logging or mining, for example, but did not explicitly men...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - March 7, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research

‘Failure at every level’: How science sleuths exposed massive ethics violations at a famed French institute
With six studies published in the 2010s, French microbiologist Didier Raoult added to his already vast publication record. He and his colleagues conducted a wide range of investigations into infectious diseases and their treatments. They took stool samples from patients on long-term antibiotic treatment, looking for alterations in their gut microbiome. They swabbed the throats of pilgrims leaving France for Mecca, searching for evidence of a bacterium that causes brain abscesses. And they studied samples of heart valves and blood clots from patients with heart inflammation to refine tests for the bacteria that cause the co...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - March 7, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research

Watch a snakelike creature feed ‘milk’ to its young
Mammals aren’t the only animals that nurse their young. Cockroaches, spiders, and some fish and birds feed their offspring a milklike liquid. Now, researchers have discovered the first amphibian that does so. Scientists studying the feeding behavior of caecilians—a group of limbless, egg-laying creatures—observed their offspring making a peculiar and rarely heard sound. They were clicking and chittering through their nasal cavities multiple times a day, seemingly begging for milk from their mothers (as seen in the video above). They even nibbled on her on occasion. Researchers r...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - March 7, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research

Check out some of the most unusual exhibits from a digital ‘cabinet of curiosities’
An ambitious multi-institutional initiative colloquially known as the “ scan-all-vertebrates ” project is ready for its close-up. Today in Bioscience , researchers announced the initiative has completed its effort to create a free, online repository of natural history specimens from museum and university collections across the United States. Directed by biologists at the Florida Museum of Natural History and funded by a $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the openVertebrate collection—oVert for short—is one of the largest of its kind, encompassing more than half th...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - March 6, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research

These gars are the ultimate ‘living fossils’
In 1859 Charles Darwin coined the term “living fossil” to describe lineages that have looked the same for tens of millions of years, such as the coelacanth, sturgeon, and horseshoe crab. The term captured the popular imagination, but scientists have struggled to understand whether such species just resemble their long-ago ancestors or have truly evolved little over the eons. Now, in a study published today in Evolution , researchers confirm that in some–but not all—living fossils, evolution is at a virtual standstill . The most striking examples are prehistoric-looking fish calle...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - March 4, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research

After protests, U.S. agency drops plan to limit pesticide use report
After protests from hundreds of scientists , the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is dropping plans to scale back reporting to a widely used database that tracks the use of approximately 400 agricultural chemicals in the United States. Researchers are welcoming the agency’s decision, announced this week, to reverse moves to reduce the number of chemicals tracked by the database and to release updates less frequently. “It probably wasn’t easy to reverse a decision like this, but they did it to their credit,” says Nathan Donley, a senior scientist at the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity. He hope...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - March 1, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research

A valid U.S. visa didn ’t stop these Chinese graduate students from being deported
More than a dozen Chinese graduate students holding valid U.S. visas are the latest pawns amid the rising political tensions between the two countries. In the past 3 months, students in Ph.D. science programs at Yale University, Johns Hopkins University, and other major U.S. research universities have been denied re-entry after visiting family in China—and immediately sent back home. Why they were blocked is unclear. But their institutions are scrambling to find ways for these students, some of whom are banned from returning to the United States for 5 years, to complete their research and earn their degrees. ...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - March 1, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research

Lunar phobia, turning blue cheese red, and more stories you might have missed this week
What makes blue cheese blue? Does catching a whiff of a potential mate doom male mice to early death? And how did the Golgi apparatus evolve its weird, ribbony shape? Check out the answers below in some of our favorite selections from Science ’s daily newsletter, Science Adviser . What’s new? Blue cheeses that aren’t blue Naturally blue food is hard to find—except on a cheese platter. Roquefort, Gorgonzola, and blue Stilton are prized for their pungent tastes and characteristic blue veins. It turns out that the fungi that give these cheeses their flavors are also...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - March 1, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research

News at a glance: Moon landing, scientific bounty hunters, and postdocs facing hunger
PLANETARY SCIENCE Early end for private Moon lander The first private spacecraft to land on the Moon was shut down this week because of dwindling power, ahead of schedule. On 22 February, Intuitive Machines’s Odysseus lander, built with $118 million from NASA, became the first U.S. spacecraft (pictured during descent) since 1972 to touch down there, near the lunar south pole. Measuring 4.3 meters tall, Odysseus tipped on its side, which reduced the light reaching its solar panels and blocked several antennas. Although the tilt limited operation of its scientific instruments, all of its payloads wer...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - February 29, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research

‘A tough experience.’ Why would a scientist serve as an expert witness?
Late last year, the sound of scientific argument echoed through a New York City courtroom packed with legal and financial experts. Studies from top epidemiology journals flashed onto large screens, as lawyers debated their statistical power and whether their conclusions rested on “cherry-picked” data. Billions of dollars were at stake. The scientists themselves were absent, and attorneys argued on their behalf. But the crucial issue was whether some of the scientists would be allowed to appear at a future trial, where they would tell jurors that children had developed autism or attention-deficit/hyperactivi...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - February 29, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research