SciPod

Amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, we face challenges that require innovative and strategic responding. Dr Aldo Bonasera at Texas A&M University in the USA and Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare in Italy, and Dr Hua Zheng at the School of Physics and Information Technology, Shaanxi Normal University in China, have taken a mathematical approach to compare the cu...

Music has the power to influence how we interpret the world around us. Dr. Alessandro Ansani from the Department of Psychology at Sapienza University of Rome believes this interpretation is multidimensional and involves several interconnected cognitive factors and mechanisms. He has recently demonstrated the significant impact that background music can have on our interpretation of a simple movie...

Cyberpunk brings to mind neon lights, artificial intelligence and mega corporations. It is a subgenre of science fiction set in a dystopian, futuristic, and oppressive setting, with advanced technology often featured alongside societal decay. Professor Elana Gomel [ee-lah-nah go-mell] in the Department of English and American Studies at Tel-Aviv University in Israel specialises in narrative theory...

To study the climate of the ancient past, researchers look for its fingerprints in deep marine and lake sediments. Within these geological records are large and active microbial communities that may hold other clues about past environmental conditions and transitions. Tor Einar Møller [Tore Ee-naar Moe-lerr], a doctoral candidate at the University of Bergen, Norway, examined the link between conte...

Permafrost is key to maintaining the stability of steep mountain slopes. Yet as the climate warms, this frozen ground is becoming increasingly prone to thawing. In some cases, these events can trigger cascades of loose rock, with potentially devastating consequences for surrounding communities. Using a combination of computer modelling, and daring field experiments, Dr Florence Magnin at the Labor...

Young people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often display unusual patterns of speech. Dr Heike Lehnert-LeHouillier and her colleagues from New Mexico State University in the USA, have undertaken one of the first studies to assess linguistic alignment, also known as entrainment, in the conversations of children and adolescents diagnosed with ASD. Their research concluded that when compared wit...

Dr. Robert Trestman , at the Carilion Clinic and Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, has co-developed START NOW, a successful group psychotherapy intervention specifically targeting mental health issues in prisoners. It combines elements of cognitive behavioral therapy to form skills-based learning. Furthermore, START NOW is easily accessible, cost-effective, and designed for use in setting...

Identifying species with accuracy is important for numerous reasons; for instance, accurately knowing which organisms are present in an ecosystem is essential for informing conservation strategies to protect it. Therefore, if there is any question about an organism’s identity, it is important to document that uncertainty. However, levels of uncertainty are unknown for many research groups that car...

The marine environment houses complex types of ecosystems that provide vital services and habitat to aquatic life. Areas of the seafloor where rocky outcrops are present, such as reefs and gravel beds, are some of the rarest marine habitats. Also known as ‘hard substrate habitats’ these ecosystems are under increasing pressure from fishing, eutrophication, climate change, and coastal management. T...

As the impacts of climate change  become increasingly obvious worldwide, focused efforts to mitigate its  worst effects are becoming more urgent. Through his research, Dr Xander Wang at the University of Prince Edward Island aims to innovate the computer  models used to predict these future changes on smaller, regional  scales. His team’s work is making important strides toward...

Water-treatment processes are essential for water reuse in municipal, agricultural and industrial applications. Wastewater treatment ensures our safety and prevents sickness and death from parasites and contaminants every year. However, certain chemical contaminants, such as pharmaceuticals and pesticides, are difficult to remove from water, and can accumulate in the food web, eventually entering...

The story of research into juvenile hormone, a fundamental chemical that regulates insect life history, follows the same thread as many other tales of scientific discovery. A series of serendipitous findings and observations led researchers to identify this unique hormone and isolate it from a moth. Additional studies focused on its potential as an insecticide, given that it has diverse effects on...

When it becomes too cold or a predator draws near, animals can flee to nicer locales. Plants, on the other hand, do not have this luxury. Instead, they have evolved chemical defences to deter pests and respond to changes in their environment. Dr Ella Katz of the University of California, Davis, is interested in the wide variety of chemical defences found in plants. In a recent study, she and her c...

Chemical space, a term referring to the catalogue of all known molecules, has been constantly expanding for over 200 years. Our understanding of this space is based on the work of countless researchers over the years. Dr Guillermo [Gee-yehr-moe] Restrepo and his team at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Germany, have been analysing trends in the history of chemistry, to gai...

International organisations have recently been trying to educate farmers in developing nations about optimal practices for growing and storing crops. While many farmers stick to these newly acquired practices, others eventually adapt them or slightly deviate from them. Researchers at Purdue University, Michigan State University, Iowa State University, and the Agricultural Research Institute of Moz...

Telemedicine is increasing in utility and demand, not least due to the pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic on the provision of healthcare. With this in mind, Dr Intan Sabrina (at Hospital Tuanku Ampuan Najihah, Hospital Jempol and Tung Shin Hospital, all in Malaysia) and Dr Irma Ruslina Defi (at Hasan Sadikin General Hospital in Indonesia) have collaborated to publish an important review on current...

Blazars are some of the brightest and most vibrant objects known to astronomers: emitting high-velocity jets of matter, and producing gamma rays which outshine almost all other sources in the known universe. To study these phenomena, astronomers must use the latest techniques to observe blazars simultaneously at different wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, while also capturing the elusive n...

There are up to one billion people with low literacy globally, many of whom live in rural areas and only speak their region’s local language. In Africa alone, there are an estimated 2000 local languages. Researchers are exploring new ways to make knowledge accessible to isolated communities that only speak local languages. One approach involves the use of animated educational videos, which can be...

In order to meet the demands of a growing human population, farmers across the globe are attempting to improve the yields and nutritional content of their crops. However, this is an especially difficult challenge, in an age where climate change is negatively impacting our agricultural systems. To address these pressing issues, Dr Lynn Brandenberger and Dr Joshua Massey of Oklahoma State University...

Integrated pest management describes effective and environmentally sensitive approaches to controlling agricultural pests, which are based on combinations of different practices. Educational information on integrated pest management is much more accessible in the developed world than in developing countries. This is due to a combination of language and technology barriers around information sharin...

As fundamental components of our electronic and optical devices, semiconductors are essential to our modern way of life. Dr Yasuo Koide of the National Institute for Material Science in Japan has an extensive history of researching and developing these unique materials. Alongside his colleagues, Dr Koide continues to break through the boundaries of our existing knowledge to create new and exciting...

For thousands of years, the notion of a one-way flow of cause-and-effect has underpinned virtually every scientific theory. Yet Dr Martin Tamm at the University of Stockholm argues that this notion of ‘causality’ may be holding back our understanding of how the Universe really works. Through his research, he suggests an alternative approach, based around a mathematical construct named ‘probability...

Synapse elimination is a tightly regulated process, and an aberrant number of synapses both during the early stages of development or later in aging, has been observed in several neurological conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia or autism. Effective methodological approaches for investigating how supernumerary synapses and apoptotic material are removed from the brain are vital...

Enshrouding the Martian surface with thick clouds of dust, the Red Planet’s unique global dust storms have long mystified astronomers and planetary scientists. James Shirley , at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has shown through his research that the occurrence of these global storms is strongly linked to the changes in Mars’ motion about the gravitational centre of the solar system. Already boa...

Although the number of women enrolling in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) courses has increased over the past few years, women still remain widely underrepresented in STEM fields. To address this serious issue, the HBCU-HDI Women in STEM Conference, an event organised by Dr Sonya Smith and her colleagues at Howard University, brings female scientists and graduate students from the...