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Featured Researchers: This Week in Science

OK, it’s been a while since we did this feature, but it’s back now – and it’s here to stay. This is where we take a look back at the past week, discussing the most interesting studies and the researchers behind them. Bees have false memories too   Article Featured Researcher: Lars Chittka Affiliation: Chittka Lab, Queen Mary […]

Mihai Andrei
March 3, 2015 @ 12:47 pm

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OK, it’s been a while since we did this feature, but it’s back now – and it’s here to stay. This is where we take a look back at the past week, discussing the most interesting studies and the researchers behind them.

Bees have false memories too

 

Article
Featured Researcher: Lars Chittka
Affiliation: Chittka Lab, Queen Mary University of London
Research Interests: His work is focused around the intersection between sensory physiology and learning psychology on the one hand, and evolutionary ecology on the other. Why do animals have the sensory systems they do? How do they use them in their natural foraging environment? These are the questions he wants to answer.

Rats Remember Who’s Nice to Them—and Return the Favor

 

Article
Featured Researcher: Michael Taborsky
Affiliation: Bern University
Research Interests: His major research focus is the adaptive function of behaviour, with emphasis on cooperation and conflict, sociality and sexual reproduction

Ancient and Modern cities grow by the same universal patterns

 

Article
Featured Researcher: Scott Ortman
Affiliation: University of Colorado Boulder
Research Interests: Professor Ortman’s research includes an emphasis on archaeology and language and the compilation and analysis of regional archaeological datasets. He is currently focusing on the role of culture in economic development in the Northern Rio Grande.

Ocean oscillation patterns explain global warming ‘hiatus’

scientists

Byron Steinman (left) and Michael Mann (right).

 

Article
Featured Researchers: Byron SteinmanMichael Mann.
Affiliation: University of Minnesota Duluth; Penn State University
Research Interests: Byron Steinman’s research interests are isotope geochemistry of lake water and sediment for application to paleoclimatology, as well as numerical modeling of lakes and ancient pollution and land use in lake / catchment systems. Michael E. Mann has shown that downscaling of climate model projections can inform malaria risk at finer scales than the original model resolutions. He is a professor of meteorology and also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center (ESSC).

Science shows why coffee spills but beer doesn’t

Article
Featured Researcher: Alban Sauret
Affiliation: SVI laboratory
Research Interests: His current research addresses various problems related to fluid mechanics, granular materials, suspensions and soft matter. It generally involves a combination of experiments, analytical modelling and numerical simulations.

Marijuana is much safer than tobacco and alcohol, study concludes

fresearcher2

Article
Featured Researcher: Dirk W. Lachenmeier
Affiliation: CVUA Karlsruhe, TU Dresden
Research Interests: Multi-facetted interdisciplinary research interests span from analytical food science and toxicology to epidemiology and risk assessment. Social science interests include regulatory and policy research. Major work in the field of quantitative comparative risk assessment of foods, cosmetics, medicinal products, drugs and alcoholic beverages.

Ocean Acidification Threatens to Destroy Shellfish Populations

Article
Featured Researcher: Julia Ekstrom
Affiliation: University of California, Davis
Research Interests: Her research focused on how to make climate science more useful for decision-makers in adaptation of managing air and water quality in California. She is a social scientist with expertise in studying the transitions governments and societies are taking to create a more sustainable world.

Carnivorous plant lacks junk DNA

Article
Featured Researcher: Victor Albert
Affiliation: University of Buffalo
Research Interests: Victor Albert’s research employs genomic, developmental, and genetic approaches to understanding problems in plant evolutionary biology.

Decisions are reached in the brain by the same method used to crack the Nazi Enigma code

Article
Featured Researcher: Michael Shadlen
Affiliation: Columbia University
Research Interests: According to his website, his main research interest is “Decisions as a Window on Cognition – The Neural Building Blocks of Thought”

22,000 year old skull fragment may represent extinct lineage of modern humans

Article
Featured Researcher: Christian Tryon
Affiliation: Harvard University
Research Interests: He is a Paleolithic archaeologist interested in the behavioral evolution of Homo sapiens and the role archaeology can play in understanding the evolutionary success of our species. His primary research area is eastern Africa

 

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Beetles Conquered Earth by Evolving a Tiny Chemical Factory

There are around 66,000 species of rove beetles and one researcher proposes it's because of one special gland.

These researchers counted the trees in China using lasers

The answer is 142 billion. Plus or minus a few, of course.

New Diagnostic Breakthrough Identifies Bacteria With Almost 100% Precision in Hours, Not Days

A new method identifies deadly pathogens with nearly perfect accuracy in just three hours.

This Tamagotchi Vape Dies If You Don’t Keep Puffing

Yes. You read that correctly. The Stupid Hackathon is an event like no other.

Wild Chimps Build Flexible Tools with Impressive Engineering Skills

Chimpanzees select and engineer tools with surprising mechanical precision to extract termites.

Archaeologists in Egypt discovered a 3,600-Year-Old pharaoh. But we have no idea who he is

An ancient royal tomb deep beneath the Egyptian desert reveals more questions than answers.

Researchers create a new type of "time crystal" inside a diamond

“It’s an entirely new phase of matter.”

Strong Arguments Matter More Than Grammar in English Essays as a Second Language

Grammar takes a backseat to argumentation, a new study from Japan suggests.

A New Study Reveals AI Is Hiding Its True Intent and It's Getting Better At It

The more you try to get AI to talk about what it's doing, the sneakier it gets.

Cat Owners Wanted for Science: Help Crack the Genetic Code of Felines

Cats are beloved family members in tens of millions of households, but we know surprisingly little about their genes.